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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Received CCP’s Propaganda before Trip to Xinjiang

Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile, began a high-profile visit to China’s Xinjiang China on May 24. Beijing is accused of a brutal crackdown on Uighur Muslims.

The Chinese government has isolated Bachelet’s delegation from Western media on the grounds of the epidemic. As details of the exact locations of the visit have not been released, questions have been raised as to whether such a visit is a controlled tour.

According to the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the Chinese government made its goals clear before Bachelet entered Xinjiang. At a one-on-one meeting with Michelle Bachelet on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed hope that this visit would help clarify the “misinformation” about China.

To that end, Wang gave Bachelet a copy of Xi Jinping’s book. According to China’s state media, it was an English translation of “Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discourses on Respecting and Safeguarding Human Rights,” .

Source: Radio France International, May 24, 2022
https://rfi.my/8RYY

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Birthrate Slips

China recently announced the result of the latest national population census, claiming its total population reached 1,411.78 million, an increase of 72.06 million over the 1,339.72 million in 2010. The figures translate to a low annual growth rate of 5.38 percent over the past decade.

The number of new births was 12 million in 2020. Recently published provincial-level population data gives the number of births in 2021 as merely 10.62 million, a drop of 11.5 percent. Among all the provinces, only Guangdong’s new births stayed above 1 million, with a number of provinces hitting a record low in 2021.

The decline in births may be caused by late marriages and an increasing number of highly educated women who chose to have fewer or no children. The COVID-19 epidemic is seen as one of the factors influencing young people’s attitude toward marriage and their decision to marry and have children.

11 out of the 31 provinces registered negative population growth in 2021, including Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Chongqing, Mongolia, Hunan, Hubei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hebei and Shanxi.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), May 18, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202205180088.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China to Plan Permanent Covid Camps and PCR Test Sites within 15-min Walk

Ma Xiaowei, director of China’s National Health Commission, published an article in the latest issue of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) official Qiushi magazine that permanent Covid camps should be prepared and planned in advance, and provincial capitals and cities with a 10 million population should establish PCR test sites within a 15-minute walking distance. Ma also emphasized weekly Covid testing.

Ma wrote, “Practice has proven that the existing enhanced prevention and control measures can achieve the goal of ‘dynamic zero Covid.’ The vast majority of the transmission chain can be controlled within the latent period, or in an even shorter period of time.” As the Omicron strain of Covid-19 virus is highly contagious and there are many asymptomatic infections, Ma suggested “the lockdown and quarantine be more resolute.”

Earlier, the Chinese government stated that it would require local provincial governments to build or renovate a certain number of camps to collect Covid patients.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), May 16, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202205160149.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

CCP Directive Demands Loyalty from Retired Cadres

On May 15, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issued a document that called for the strengthened “party buildup work” of retired cadres. The document requires retired cadres, especially former leaders, consciously to maintain a high degree of loyalty to  CCP chair Xi Jinping as “the core of the CCP’s Central Committee,” and not  to criticize the Central Committee’s major policies improperly. The document is seen as a move to regulate the minds of retired senior cadres to maintain the unity of the whole CCP before its 20th national congress in November this year.

According to the CCP’s Central Organization Department, this document proposes to “ensure that retired cadres continue to listen to the Party and follow the Party.” It requires that the retired cadres conduct an in-depth study of the CCP’s theories and consciously practice “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era.”

In addition, retired cadre CCP members are told to abide strictly by the CCP’s disciplinary rules, not to spread politically negative remarks, and to oppose and resist all kinds of “wrong thinking.”

Source: Radio France International, May 16, 2022
https://rfi.my/8QBZ

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Was California Church Shooting of Taiwanese a Politically Motivated Hate Crime?

“One person was dead and several others injured during a shooting that took place at a California church on Sunday,” the police said.

Sheriff’s deputies in Orange County responded to a report of a shooting at the Geneva Presbyterian Church on El Toro Road in Laguna Woods at around 2 p.m. local time. “Four victims have been critically wounded, one with minor injuries,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Department wrote on Twitter. “All victims are adults and are en-route to the hospital. One victim is deceased at the scene.”

The suspect David Wenwei Chou was arrested and charged with one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder. Chou is a second-generation waishengren – born in Taiwan to those who had evacuated from mainland China during the ROC’s retreat in 1949.

County sheriff Don Barnes suspects it to be a politically motivated hate crime regarding Taiwanese-Chinese tensions. According to his statements, there were notes in Chou’s vehicle alluding to “his hatred of the Taiwanese people,” which is believed to stem from his past residence there, possibly during his youth. The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has played a significant role in Taiwan’s democratization.

Chou was not affiliated with the Taiwanese church. He was pictured as a retired professor in a 2019 local news story on the founding of the Las Vegas chapter of the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU), also known as The China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification (CCPPNR). CCPPNR is an umbrella organization, founded in 1988, by the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to promote unification between mainland China and Taiwan on terms defined solely by the People’s Republic of China. In September 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the State Department had begun reviewing the activities of the CCPPNR in the U.S. In October 2020, the State Department designated the NACPU a foreign mission of the People’s Republic of China.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), May 17, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202205170148.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

A Number of China’s Project 985 Universities Withdraw from “International Universities” Ranking

Project 985 was a project that was announced by the Chinese government at the 100th anniversary of Peking University on May 4, 1998, to promote the development and reputation of the Chinese higher education system by founding world-class universities in the 21st century. The name derives from the date of the announcement, May 1998, or 98/5 according to the Chinese date format. The project involves both national and local governments allocating large amounts of funding to certain universities in order to build new research centers, improve facilities, hold international conferences, attract world-renowned faculty and visiting scholars, and help Chinese faculty attend conferences abroad.

As of today, 39 universities are members of Project 985. They are regarded as the tier 1 universities in China out of 3,012 higher education institutions as of 2021.

Recently, a number of project 985 universities announced that they have withdrawn from the international ranking of universities and will not provide relevant materials and proof to the relevant authorities in the future. They include Renmin University of China, Nanjing University, Hubei University, and Lanzhou University.

Source: Sohu, May 9, 2022
https://www.sohu.com/a/545313475_120935730

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

EU Passes Resolution Condemning Chinese Communist Regime’s Forced Organ Harvesting

The European Parliament passed a resolution on May 5, 2022, expressing their “serious concerns” over the ongoing, systematic and inhumane harvesting of organs from Chinese dissidents, especially Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Christians, and other Muslims.

The resolution states “The People’s Republic of China has extremely low rates of voluntary organ donations owing to traditional beliefs; . . . Whereas China declared that it had stopped using organs from executed prisoners in 2015 and had launched a national donation system, without, however, ever completely banning the practice, which still remains legal;”

“The organ transplant system in China does not comply with the WHO’s requirements for transparency and traceability in organ procurement pathways, and whereas the Chinese Government has resisted independent scrutiny of the system; whereas voluntary and informed consent is a precondition for ethical organ donation;” hence the resolution.

The resolution “calls for the EU and its Member States to raise the issue of organ harvesting in China at every Human Rights Dialogue. It insists that the EU and its Member States publicly condemn organ transplant abuses in China; it calls on the Member States to take the necessary actions in order to prevent transplant tourism to China by their citizens and to raise awareness of this issue among their citizens traveling to China.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 6, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/cl-05062022131145.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend