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Beijing Imposes Brainwashing Courses in Universities

During Hu Jintao’s era, the Chinese government mandated four compulsory political courses in universities and colleges. Recently, the Ministry of Education issued a high-profile announcement to strengthen and improve the “Current Affairs and Policies” course, as an attempt to continue the party’s ideological control.

The Ministry of Education circulated a notice in April 2018, recommending that all higher education institutions in the country strengthen and improve the “Current Affairs and Policies” course to “help college students understand the situation at home and abroad in the new era correctly, and to obtain a thorough understanding of the historical achievements and historical changes of the party and the state and of the historic opportunities and challenges they are facing.” The purpose was to “further push Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into the students’ minds, to promote the party’s major policies … and to train a new generation that will undertake the great mission of national rejuvenation.”

One student told Radio Free Asia that the course is actually “brainwashing” education in combination with current events. He cited the US-China trade war as an example. “The course tells how the United States is rude and unreasonable toward China. It also preaches that the party is very great and instills ideas about the party-state system and about xenophobia.”

The Ministry of Education stipulated that bachelor’s degree students should take no less than 8 class hours for a total of 2 credits per semester, and associate degree students no less than 8 class hours for a total of 1 credit per semester, to “ensure that the undergraduate students on campus take the course uninterrupted.”

Another student told the reporter that the “Current Affairs and Policies” course is compulsory and one cannot graduate without completing it. The credits for each political class are similar to major related classes. Many students choose to memorize the course contents.

The student also mentioned that his school once distributed questionnaires on the “Current Affairs and Policies” class, but it touched on little of the contents in the curriculum.

“A lot of stuff in the questionnaire is actually to evaluate the students’ political views. There are questions such as the following: ‘Do you agree with constitutional democracy?’ ‘Do you agree with the leadership of the Communist Party?’ ‘What do you think about religious beliefs?  One of my high school classmates who answered that he is a religious believer was called into the school for a conversation. Therefore we don’t dare to tell the truth on these questionnaires. I’m afraid that if the questionnaire is checked, the respondent will be called in for a conversation.”  Feng Chongyi, a professor at the University of Technology in Sydney, said in an interview that the “brainwashing” education exists because the Chinese ruling party must control the students’ ideological dynamics.

“After June 4, the universities intensified political classes. The democratic movement in 1989 posed great challenges to the Chinese ruling party. The government regarded students as the “worst-hit area” in terms of challenges to the Chinese Communist regime.” “(‘Brain-washing’ education) is something special in a totalitarian regime; starting at the kindergarten stage, it puts political education in the first (place). From childhood on, people have not been able to cultivate the ability to think and judge things independently and the real cognitive ability of a human being has been destroyed.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 10, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/kejiaowen/hj-01102019103938.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

A Major Japanese Business Group Attacked by Chinese Hackers

The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese national newspaper, reported that a Chinese group is suspected in the 2016 hacking of the computer system used by Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation. Keidanren, a major Japanese business organization, consists of 1,281 companies, 129 industrial associations, and 47 regional economic organizations.

“The types of computer viruses used in the Keidanren attack as well as the external computer addresses to which information was secretly transmitted were very similar to those that turned up in a separate report” released in April 2017, compiled by the British defense company BAE Systems, the major consulting firm PwC, as well as the British National Cyber Security Center.

The Chinese hacking group is identified as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 10.

According to internal documents obtained by The Asahi Shimbun, in 2014, a Keidanren employee opened an email that had been sent to him with a virus. Consequently, malicious programs existed in communication systems and servers for two years, before an official announcement was made in November 2016 about the network break-in. The hackers could have read the information exchanged between Keidanren and the Japanese government, and then sent the information to overseas computers.

Keidanren’s computer system contained communications with government officials as well as a number of policy proposals.

While Tokyo is investigating this matter, in December, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked China to take measures against “APT 10.” China denied the allegation.

Source: Sputnik News, January 13, 3019
http://sputniknews.cn/china/201901131027343093/

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Scholar Cancels New Book Due to Censorship from State-owned Publisher in Hong Kong

Uganda Sze Pui Kwan, an associate professor at the Chinese Division of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, had to terminate cooperation with the Hong Kong based Joint Publishing for her new book because she refused to edit politically sensitive contents.

Kwan, who grew up in Hong Kong, originally planned to publish her new book, Global Hong Kong Literature: Translation, Publication, Communication, and Version Control were to be in Hong Kong.

According to a January 9 article that a Chinese University of Hong Kong scholar Wong Nim-yan, who is also Kwan’s friend, wrote in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, the contents included a mention of  ‘June 4’ and described the publishing situation in China during its reform and opening up the 80s and 90s. The publisher hoped the author would edit these items out herself. June 4 refers to the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989.

The state-owned enterprise Sino United Publishing, owns Joint Publishing with the Chinese’s government’s liaison office in Hong Kong as its largest shareholder.

Kwan will likely publish the book, uncensored, with the Taiwanese company, Linking Publishing.

Source: Central News Agency, January 12, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201901120202.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Vaccine Crisis: Over 100 Children Administered with Expired Vaccines

According to Chinese media, in the past month, at a health center in Jinhu County, Jiangsu Province, 145 infants and young children were vaccinated with an expired polio vaccine. After vaccination, a number of children developed adverse reactions. The batch number of the vaccines was 201612158 and was valid only until December 11, 2018. However, until one month after the expiration date, infants were still being administered the batch of polio vaccine.

One child’s mother said that, after her child was vaccinated, the child’s “fever ran as high as 39 degrees (Celsius) for half a month, together with coughing, catching a cold, and mild vomiting.” Other parents said that children showed rashes, a high fever, and other symptoms.

On January 10, the County authorities dismissed the responsible persons, including the deputy director of the local center for disease control, and launched an investigation into five of the medical staff.

The batch in which the polio vaccine in question was involved is a bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV), commonly known as “small sugar pill,” which is a free vaccine that China provides.

Since 1978, China has gradually implemented the “National Immunization Program” to determine vaccine varieties and programs according to different provinces and regions and to administer vaccinations among the population. At present, China provides free vaccinations for first class vaccines such as polio, hepatitis B, and DTP across the country. Hepatitis A, chickenpox, and rabies vaccines are second-class paid vaccines.

However, whether free or paid vaccines, there have been repeated safety incidents in China. Only six months before this incident, in July of last year, Chinese vaccine giant Changchun Changsheng was exposed over a fraud scandal involving the rabies vaccine.

In March 2016, in Shandong, 25 kinds of vaccines for children and adults were sold to 24 provinces and cities without the use of strict cold chain storage and transportation.

In March 2010, nearly 100 children in Shanxi either died or were disabled after vaccinations, causing widespread concern.

Source: BBC Chinese Channel, January 11, 2019
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-46834106

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Residents Must “Support the Communist Party” to Be a Teacher in the Mainland

On January 10, China’s Ministry of Education, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office and the Taiwanese Affairs Office issued a joint notice to approve Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwanese to apply for primary and secondary school teaching positions in the Mainland, and allow them to work in schools in the Mainland. However, the notice listed a series of requirements: “support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,” “adhere to the direction of socialist education,” and “implement the party’s educational policy.”

Bruce Lui, a senior lecturer at the Hong Kong Baptist University, said that the measures exemplified the united front work to win over the education sector in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Some international schools in the mainland love to hire Hong Kong teachers who speak better English. Hong Kong people have worked in universities and higher education institutions in the Mainland for many years, but the authorities did not previously have the above political requirements for them. “These demands are undoubtedly asking Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan people who are teaching in primary and secondary schools in the Mainland to listen to the party and follow the party. These go against the principles of the education of each independent personality and of free thinking.”

Source: China News Service, January 10, 2019
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2019/01-10/8725384.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Two Chinese Netizens Punished for Using VPN

China uses the Great Firewall to shield (its Netizens) from foreign websites. As a result, a large population of Chinese people use circumvention technologies to connect to the rest of the world. One of them is the Virtual Private Network (VPN), which extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.

On January 4, a resident in Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, was charged with “creating and using illegal channels to connect to the  international network without authorization” and was fined 1,000 Yuan (US$ 148). A police “Administrative Penalty Decision” was spread online, showing that during the period from August to December 2018, the offender installed the Lantern Pro application on his mobile phone, connected to the broadband network at home to circumvent the Internet blockade, and logged on 487 times in the week before the punishment. Around the same time, another netizen in Chongqing received a notice form local police for the same charge.

Jyh An Lee, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said this is the not first case of punishment. Since 2017, there have been a number of such stories.

According to Article 6 of the Interim Provisions on the Administration of International Network Management of the Computer Information Network of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the “Interim Provisions”), “To carry out international networking of computer information, the output and input channels that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications provides in its public telecommunication network shall be used. No unit or individual may establish or use other channels for international networking. The public security organ may give a warning to those who violate this regulation and impose a fine of up to 15,000 yuan.

On January 22, 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice and decided to inspect the network infrastructure, network address, and broadband access network resources from the same day to March 31, 2018.

On July 1, 2017, GreenVPN, a brand name VPN service provider with a large number of users, stopped service. Later, more VPN service providers terminated their operations at the request of the regulatory authorities, including Tianhang VPN and Cloud Wall VPN. In 2017, Apple took down 674 VPN applications in the China Store app using the excuse that it was breaking Chinese law.

Lee said that the only legal channel to connect to overseas servers is through the three major telecom operators (China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom). Other forms of connection are illegal channels according to the “Interim Regulations.”

Lee added that the Chinese authorities used to technically block IP and it has now begun to enforce it legally.

According to conservative estimates, there are currently 20 to 30 million Chinese Internet users using VPN. Lee said that, for such a large population, the measures that the authorities take are selectively enforcement and depend upon the behavior’s impact on the government and the extent to which the government feels sensitive.

Source: BBC Chinese, January 10, 2019
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-46823319

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

China Tightened Regulations for Online Short Video Platforms

On January 9, 2019, China Netcasting Services Association (CNSA), a government-led industrial association, issued regulations to cover online short video platforms.

According to The Paper, a mainland news portal, the regulations require the platforms to be proactive in introducing mainstream news media and institutions such as the communist party, the government, and military organizations. The purpose is to open accounts to “improve the supply of positive and quality short video contents.” The content layout is required to focus on promoting the “core values of socialism.”

It also requires that the short video platforms establish a system of editorial responsibility for the contents. All short video and audio broadcasts on the platforms “should be reviewed before broadcasting, including the title of the program, the introductory section, bullet screens, and comments.”

According to the regulation, the platform should “establish a team of auditors with high political quality and professional competence.” The provincial or higher level radio and television administrative authorities should train the auditors and the number of auditors should match the number of short video programs uploaded and streamed. In principle, the number of auditors should be more than one-thousandth of the daily number of new short video and audio broadcasts on the platforms.

Source: Central News Agency, January 9, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201901090316.aspx

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

1.73 Million Corruption Cases of Party Members and Cadres in 2018

According to a Chinese government website, in 2018, the national disciplinary and supervision agencies received a total of 3.44 million complaints and reports, and 16.67 million different leads. The authorities have conducted 341,000 interviews, placed 638,000 cases on record, and punished 621,000 officials (including 526,000 who received party disciplinary measures). Among these officials, there were 51 at the provincial and ministerial levels, 3,500 at the bureau level, 26,000 at the county and department levels, 91,000 at the village and branch levels, and 500,000 at lower levels or who were with nongovernmental organizations.

The discipline inspection and supervision organs also were severe in investigating public servants (both officials and nonofficial) who violated party discipline last year, handling a total of 1.73 million cases.

Source: Radio France International, January 9, 2019
http://rfi.my/3XpP.T

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics