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Taiwan’s Executive Yuan to Coordinate the Four Government Branches to Ban Tiktok

A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator pointed out during a hearing on December 12 that, after the Ministry of Digital Affairs banned the use of Tiktok in the public sector starting from December 5, only the Executive Yuan and its subordinate ministries are actually subject to this rule, while the other four branches of Taiwanese government can still use the app. Although Tiktok has been banned from public sector computers, it is not banned on cell phones for government use.

The Executive Yuan’s spokesperson admitted that, although the scope of the ban includes cell phones for government use, banning the app alone may not be effective enough. There should be some better methods, such as some technical processing in the networks of the public sector so that civil servants do not have access to the app. The spokesperson also pointed out that if a public servant violates the regulations, there will be a corresponding punishment.

The Secretary General of the Executive Yuan, Li Meng-yen, responded that, in addition to prohibiting civil servants in the ministries under the Executive Yuan from using these platforms, they will also coordinate with the other four branches, the Legislative Yuan, the Judicial Yuan, the Examination Yuan and the Control Yuan, to establish the ban.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore), December 12, 2022
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20221212-1342718

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Only 40 Percent of China’s Movie Theaters Are in Operation due to the Covid Lockdown

Affected by the Covid lockdown, the proportion of Chinese cinemas in operation fell to a new low. Netease Entertainment, an online media covering entertainment news, reported that only 41.7 percent of China’s cinemas are in business compared to the ratio of 59.70 percent a month ago on October 25. The total number of operating cinemas is 5178, the lowest in the past six months.

Caixin.com reported that many theaters continued being inoperable due to the Covid lockdown and the national box office revenue for the week of Nov. 21-27 was RMB 112 million (NT$482 million), down 45.63 percent from the previous week.

Only 14 cinemas remain in operation in Beijing, which used to be a big box office contributor as China’s first-tier city. Now more than 90 percent of Beijing’s theaters are closed. Cinemas in Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Ningxia and Chongqing are completely shut down; Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shanxi, Hebei and Henan all see less than 50 percent of their cinemas in operation.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), November 28, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202211280318.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China’s State TV Deletes Footage of Maskless World Cup Audience

China’s draconian COVID-19 control measures have led to nationwide street protests. The ongoing World Cup contributed to Chinese people’s anger as the state TV broadcasted the larges crowds who were in the game audience and who wore no mask. Now, Beijing is even cutting out close-ups of unmasked soccer fans in Qatar.

Agence France-Presse reported that during the live broadcast of the group stage match between Japan and Costa Rica, the sports channel of state broadcaster CCTV (China Central Television) Sports replaced close-ups of unmasked fans waving flags with images of individual players, officials or long shots of the stadium.

As tens of millions of people in major cities including Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing are still under some form of lockdown, the images of a happy and raucous maskless World Cup audience presents a stark contrast, angering Chinese netizens.

On November 22, a WeChat post questioning whether “China is on the same planet as Qatar” was swiftly removed from the cyberspace.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), November 27, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202211270231.aspx

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

CCP Political and Legal Affairs Committee: Resolutely Crack Down on Disruption of the Social Order

On November 28, two days after the outbreak of nationwide protests against the zero-COVID policy, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) held a plenary session emphasizing the need to “resolutely crack down on the infiltration and sabotage activities of hostile forces, and resolutely crack down on illegal and criminal acts that disrupt the social order.”

Chen Wenqing, the new head of the PLAC, presided over the meeting.  Wang Xiaohong, the Minister of Public Security, Zhou Qiang, the president of the Supreme People’s Court, and Zhang Jun, the president of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate also attended. As the four are the leaders of China’s judiciary authorities, the meeting was considered to be the CCP’s response to the protests.

This meeting called for strengthening the “combat spirit” and accelerating the construction of a higher level of “a safe China under the rule of law.”

This meeting stressed the need promptly to channel and resolve conflicts and disputes and to help solve the practical difficulties of the people. It also asked “resolutely to combat the infiltration and sabotage activities of hostile forces, resolutely to combat illegal and criminal acts that disrupt the social order, and effectively to maintain the general stability of society.”

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), November 29, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202211290383.aspx

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

State Media Reemphasized Adherence to the Zero-Covid Policy

When it was widely expected in China that Xi Jinping would no longer insist on the Zero-Covid policy, a commentary published in the state newspaper on November 14 mentioned the need to insist on the Zero-Covid policy nine times and even suggested that “epidemic prevention and control should be a routine procedure.”

On November 15, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) People’s Daily newspaper ran a commentary which mentioned that “unswervingly implementing the overall policy of ‘Zero Covid’” was a decision made at the November 10 Politburo meeting chaired by Xi Jinping, and that the “optimization program” recently proposed by the State Council is not a relaxation of prevention and control, let alone is it giving up the policy.

The article said, “The implementation of the Zero Covid policy is determined by of the CCP’s Central Committee under comrade Xi Jinping.  … Adhering to the zero Covid policy is the bottom line of epidemic prevention and control for a large country of 1.4 billion people.”

The article does not mention when the zero Covid policy will end, but only emphasized the need not to give up.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 15, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/wulb-11152022191929.htmli

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China to Implement Nationwide Health Code by 2025

On November 9, China’s National Health Commission (NHC), the country’s top agency in charge of health policies, announced on its official website that the NHC, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM), and the NHC’s subordinate National Administration of Disease Control and Prevention jointly issued a proposal, which envisioned that, by 2025, a dynamically managed electronic health record and a fully functional electronic health code will be set up for every Chinese national.

According to the document, as the health codes currently in use in most regions are for “intra-provincial use,” at the national level, there is a lack of sharing and recognition of health codes across regions. The official goal is that by 2025, China will build an “ioperable” monitoring platform for the whole population, with each resident equipped with a dynamically managed electronic health file and a fully functional electronic health code. By that time, the Chinese government will be able to use big data to track so-called “risk groups” and monitor the Chinese population in real time over the long run.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 10, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/code-11102022062758.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Uses Big Data to Audit and Tax the Rich

According to some individual social media accounts that focus on economic and financial news, the Chinese government has set up a “High Net Worth Individuals Administration” for people with bank deposits of 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) or more,  The state has launched a special tax audit operation targeting this group.

In the future, the authorities will adopt the means of “smart taxation” to collect information from and digitally profile each taxpayer. People who are emigrating from the country will have to “settle taxes before the cancellation of their Chinese household registration.” In other words, everyone who wants to leave the “motherland” must go to the tax authority to have it issue a tax clearance certificate.

This news has led to heated debates among netizens. Some ridiculed this as one of Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” tactics.

As a fact, the Chinese government’s audits targeting high-income and high-net-worth individuals have already quietly begun. In September this year, Hainan province’s Taxation Bureau issued a document stating that it had launched a new type of audit supervision and carried out random checks on the “double-high (high-income and high-net-worth) population.” In June this year, Hou Kai, auditor general of the National Audit Office, reported to at a National People’s Congress session that 544 high-income earners in 22 Chinese provinces and cities had evaded 4.722 billion yuan (US$ 0.66 billion) in personal taxes from 2018 to 2021.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 9, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/tax-11092022101644.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources