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Student Groups at University of Queensland Clash over Hong Kong

According to Reuters, at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, students held a gathering last week in support of the protesters in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong opposed the amendment of the extradition bill out of concern that the amendment will increase Beijing’s influence and will endanger the city’s rule of law.

A pro-Beijing student group also showed up at the event. Some students played nationalist songs with the volume high and shouted “China is great.” Images from social media show that some students screamed loudly and had physical conflicts.

Xu Jie, the Chinese consul-general in Brisbane, praised the pro-Beijing students for confronting the pro-Hong Kong students. He called them “anti-Chinese separatists with ulterior motives.”

Australia’s foreign affairs minister Marise Payne issued a statement after the incident. Payne said the right to free speech and to peaceful and lawful protest was protected in Australia, even on contentious and sensitive issues. “The government would be particularly concerned if any foreign diplomatic mission were to act in ways that could undermine such rights, including by encouraging disruptive or potentially violent behaviour.”

Source: Central News Agency, July 27, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201907270118.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Chinese Official Berates German Lawmaker after Hong Kong Visit

Christian Lindner, a member of the German parliament and leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP),was  recently the head of a delegation to visit Asia. In China, on the last stop of the delegation’s trip, Lindner received rude treatment from Beijing. A Chinese official berated him for 30 minutes. It is believed to relate to the German lawmaker’s brief stop in Hong Kong and his meeting with the city’s pro-democracy lawmakers.

The long scheduled Asia trip included Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and China. When Lindner finally arrived in China, he received a cold reception. A number of prearranged meetings with senior Communist Party officials were cancelled at the last minute. A Chinese official shouted at Lindner for 30 minutes on the Hong Kong issue. The German Der Spiegel magazine broke the story, and Süddeutsche Zeitung (a South German Newspaper) and Focus magazine did follow-up reports.

According to Handelsblatt, a leading German-language business newspaper, Chinese officials strongly condemned Germany about the wave of protests in Hong Kong. They claimed that the German public opinion’s support of the protests and Germany’s refugee protection given to Hong Kong dissidents provoked people’s violence in breaking into the city’s Legislative Council.

Berlin’s daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung reported that Lindner replied and refused to accept any charges. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Lindner said that, since China abandoned polite diplomacy, he also was straightforward. Chinese officials were not happy with what he said. After he finished speaking, the welcome meeting was over.

Source: Radio France International, July 25, 2019.
http://rfi.my/4JLM.T

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Beijing Prevents People from Knowing about Hong Kong Demonstrations

The Sunday when there was a two million people parade in Hong Kong opposing the extradition law has drawn widespread attention from the world’s media, but not from those in China. Although almost all major media such as the Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, and The Wall Street Journal gave significant coverage to the news, in mainland China the story is strictly prohibited. A netizen told Radio Free Asia that someone sent a parade video to his circle of friends in Beijing and another netizen immediately stopped it. In order to avoid the censorship, some netizens sent the Hong Kong parade pictures upside down.

In Yuncheng city of Shaanxi province, the local police summoned one netizen because he forwarded the parade pictures. The interviewee said, “The media in China is not allowed to report this. The person who forwarded the video was summoned (to the police station). I have a friend who was summoned for forwarding the videos. His phone was also confiscated.”

A civil rights activist in Changde city of Hunan province told RFA that the Hong Kong’s Sunday parade exceeded the 1.5 million people in 1989. The scene was touching. However, the mainland people can only see it when they use technology whose purpose is circumvention such as VPN.

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 17, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/gangtai/ql2-06172019083657.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Beijing Backs Hong Kong Chief Executive and Insists June 12 Protest Was a “Riot”

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a regular press conference on June 17. The mainland Chinese media has kept silent about the Hong Kong protests, but foreign media, Taiwan’s media, and Hong Kong’s media questioned the spokesperson at least five times. With regard to the fact that more than two million Hong Kong people took to the streets on June 16 asking chief executive Carrier Lam to step down, spokesperson Lu Kang said, “The Central Government gives full recognition to and will continue its firm support for the Chief Executive and the SAR government in carrying out their work according to law.”

Those at the June 16 parade also demanded an investigation into the responsibility of the Hong Kong police who fired guns and tear gas at the June 12 protesters and also that they retract the statement that the June 12 protest was a “riot.” The Central News Agency asked whether China still believes that the June 12 protest was violent or whether its position has changed. Lu said “the Central Government strongly condemns the violent behavior. We firmly support the police in lawfully punishing the perpetrators and safeguarding the rule of law, the social order, and the security in Hong Kong. You asked whether our position has changed. I can assure you that it hasn’t changed, not even a little bit.”

Source: Central News Agency, June 17, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201906170223.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Thai Government Sues Taiwanese Businessman for Assisting Radio Broadcast to China

Jiang Yongxin, a Taiwanese business executive working in Thailand, was accused of illegally engaging in telecommunications broadcasting. The Thai police sued him earlier this year and the second trial will start next week. Jiang denied that he was engaged in telecommunications broadcasting. The U.S. based Sound of Hope Radio said that the case was an example of how the Thai government has lost its judicial sovereignty because of China’s pressure.

In 2018, Jiang, who was working in Bangkok, rented a vacation home in Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand. He loaned the house to a Taiwanese friend from Taiwan. The Taiwanese friend, a volunteer working for the hope of the U.S. based Chinese-language radio network Sound of Hope Radio, set up a short-wave device to broadcast Chinese language programs.

In January last year, the Thai police arrested Jiang. The first trial was held in February of this year. The second trial will start next week. Jiang has denied the charge of alleged illegal telecommunication broadcasting.

Jiang said that during the police interrogation, he discovered that the Thai information that police had came from the Chinese government. His Thai lawyer also said that the Thai police were under great pressure from China. “My lawyer told me that this is only a small case. The prosecutor did not intend to sue, but because of the pressure from the Chinese embassy, they had to file the charge.”

Sound of Hope Radio is a radio station that Falun Gong practitioners in the United States set up. It uses a shortwave radio to broadcast Chinese programs to China all year round. The station issued a statement on Tuesday urging the Thai government to release Jiang Yongxin. Zeng Yong, the president of the radio station, revealed that the network has hundreds of underground launching stations in China’s neighboring countries and regions. In recent years the Chinese government has exerted increasing pressure on those countries to close those underground launch sites.

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 12, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shehui/xql-06122019152931.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Beijing Municipal Education Commission: Teachers Who Impair the Authority of the Party Will Be Punished

On Tuesday June 11, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued the “Guiding Opinions on the Punishment of Teachers Who Commit Moral Violations at Beijing Colleges and Universities.” The Opinions stipulate 11 major acts of misconduct that university and college teachers might commit, including impairing the authority of Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, endangering national security, leaking state secrets, and conducting religious activities on campus. Other violations include plagiarism, academic forgery, malpractice, demanding bribes, accepting property from students or parents, and using public power for private gain.

The punishment measures include suspension of academic activities, canceling promotions, administrative discipline, and revocation of the teacher’s qualifications.

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 11, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/2-06112019135038.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Accuses U.S. of Cyber Attacks

According to China’s Xinhua News Agency, Beijing based National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center (CNCERT) recently released the “Overview of China’s Cyber Security in 2018.” The data shows that cyber-attacks that originated in the U.S. lead the sources of attacks and the trend continues to worsen.

The CNCERT reported that in 2018 more than 14,000 U.S. based Trojan or botnet servers controlled more than 3.34 million mainframes in China. The number of attacked servers increased by 90.8 percent over the year 2017.  3,825 U.S. IP addresses implanted Trojans into 3,607 websites in China. The number of such U.S. IP addresses increased 43 percent over those in 2017. According to the statistics on the number of Chinese domestic mainframes and websites under attack, the U.S. tops the list of overseas attack sources. The report quotes experts who say that the U.S. has been accusing China of being a major threat to US cybersecurity, but the data shows that the U.S. itself is the largest source of cyber-attacks.

Source: People’s Daily, June 11, 2019
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2019-06/11/nw.D110000renmrb_20190611_2-02.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Chinese Communist Party Membership Suspended for Staying Overseas over Five Years

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party recently issued the new “Regulations on the Education and Management of Party Members of the Chinese Communist Party.” The Regulations consist of 10 chapters and 46 articles. They provide details on the basic tasks of party members, the main methods for daily management, the management of party membership and party organizations, as well as the supervision and discipline of party members.

It is worth noting that, in chapter 5, which is about the management of party membership and party organizations, the regulations stipulate that party members who have not returned to China due to long-term settlement abroad or studying abroad for more than five years are generally suspended from party membership.

In addition, in chapter 8, which is about information-based party member education and management, article 38 states that party organizations should educate and guide party members to discipline their online behavior. The party members should fight against erroneous cyber opinions and must not produce, publish, or disseminate information that violates the party’s disciplinary regulations and state laws and regulations.

Source: Central News Agency, May 22, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201905220258.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics