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China to Censor Karaoke Songs

China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently issued a draft of the “interim regulations on the management of karaoke music content in entertainment venues,” and opened it for public comment. The purpose was “to strengthen the management of karaoke music content entertainment venues, to promote the core values of socialism, and to safeguard national cultural security and ideological security.”

The draft mentioned the phenomenon of prohibited songs offered in entertainment venues. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism established a national karaoke music content auditing expert group to establish a list of illegal songs.

According to the draft, there are nine categories of prohibitions, namely: violating the basic principles established by the Constitution; endangering national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity; endangering national security or damaging national honor or interests; inciting ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination, hurting national feelings or infringing on national customs and habits, and destroying national unity; violating national religious policies, propagating evil religions and superstitions; propagating obscenity, gambling, violence and drug-related illegal and criminal activities; the violation of social morality or national cultural traditions; and insulting or defaming others.

The draft emphasizes that entertainment venues should use karaoke music from legal sources. The content provider of the on-demand song system should conduct self-censorship of the content of the songs and screenshots before providing karaoke music to the entertainment venues.

Source: Central News Agency, July 10, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202107100121.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CCP Anniversary Celebrations at Canadian Universities

While July 1 was Canada’s National Day, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) in Canada held events to celebrate the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Since mid-June, the messages about the “July 1 Party Centennial Campaign” have been circulating on WeChat among Canadian users. The CSSA’s at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU), as well as the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver organized the event. The event encourages students to submit artistic and literary works to express their so-called “love for the country and the Party.” Words in praise of the CCP were everywhere in the works of the winners of the awards that the organizers announced. For example, “The Chinese Communist Party has led the Chinese people to miracles that have shocked the world,” “We were born under the red flag and grew up in the spring breeze, and the shining five stars are our faith.”

A student at the University of British Columbia came from an immigrant family in Hong Kong. He told Radio Free Asia that clashes between Chinese and other students on university campuses have already occurred over Hong Kong and Xinjiang issues. The CSSA’s way of doing things is weird. Not all CSSA members are international students, and many are Canadian citizens or residents.

This is one of numerous examples of how Chinese authorities influence campus affairs in Canada.

Source: Radio Free Asia, July 8, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/lf-07082021140950.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Cooperation between China and CEE Countries

On July 8, China’s official People’s Daily newspaper reported on the cooperation and economic relationships between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

In February 2021, the head of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, hosted the China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Summit in Beijing via video link and delivered a keynote speech.

In 2020, the China-CEE trade volume exceeded US$100 billion for the first time, a growth of 8.4 percent over 2019. In the first four months of this year, China-CEE bilateral trade totaled US$40.71 billion, which was 47.9 percent higher than the same period in 2020.

On May 27, the 100 MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant project in Kauposzburg, Hungary’s largest PV power plant, was put into operation. The China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC), a subsidiary of China General Technology Group invested in and built the PV plant. After grid connection, It is expected to generate 130 million kWh of electricity annually.

The “China-CEE Energy Cooperation Report” that the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute released shows that, as of September 2020, Chinese enterprises had invested more than 4 billion euros in wind power, photovoltaic and other fields in Central and Eastern Europe. The Chinese new energy vehicle, lithium battery and parts manufacturers have set up factories in CEE countries to integrate into the European new energy vehicle industry supply chain. Key energy cooperation projects such as the Dabar hydroelectric power station in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Pancevo combined-cycle power station in Serbia are under construction.

Montenegro is the leader of those China-CEE countries in the environmental protection cooperation mechanism. The key projects that Chinese enterprises constructed in Montenegro include the Mozura wind power station and the first phase of eco-renovation of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Station.

Source: People’s Daily, July 8, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-07/08/nw.D110000renmrb_20210708_1-17.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

CCP Summit of World Political Parties

According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, on July 6, Xi Jinping, head of Chinese Communist Party (CCP), attended the summit of the Chinese Communist Party and world political party leaders through video conferencing.  Xi delivered a speech.

As part of the CCP’s 100 anniversary celebration, it was reported that more than 500 leaders of political parties and organizations from more than 160 countries, as well as more than 10,000 representatives of political parties attended the meeting. More than 100 countries’ political parties set up nearly 200 venues in their countries for their own party representatives to attend the summit remotely. The 160 countries included Russia, Spain, Vietnam, and others from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Source: Xinhua, July 7, 2021
http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2021-07/07/c_1127628998.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Vacancy Rate for China’s Commercial Office Space Nears Thirty Percent

Three major commercial office transactions have taken place in China in the past month. On June 28, Capital Land sold six Raffles City locations to Ping An Life Insurance for 9.6 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion). The week before, SOHO China sold 91 percent of its stock shares to the Blackstone Group for US$3 billion. On June 7, Hexie Health Insurance acquired SK Tower in Beijing for 9.06 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion). Three large commercial real estate transactions within 22 days totaled approximately 38 billion yuan (US$5.9 billion), a rare phenomenon in the industry. Insurance companies, asset managers and other institutions are acquiring commercial real estate in China at a moderate price.

According to statistics from the Beike Research Institute, a real estate industry think tank, the average annual growth rate of commercial office space over the past decade has exceeded 10 percent. By 2020, the total area of commercial business premises was 2.9 billion square meters (31 billion square feet). The estimate for sales of commercial real estate in 2021 approximates 2.6 trillion yuan (US$0.4 trillion).

Office buildings in China feature low rental yields, sloppy operations and high vacancy rates. In the second half of 2020, commercial office vacancy rates in first-tier cities were all above 20 percent, representing ten-year highs. The measure in Shanghai and Shenzhen even exceeded 25 percent. The national average vacancy rate for commercial office space is close to 30 percent.

Source: Central News Agency, July 2, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202107020087.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China Will Have 40 million More Retirees over the Next Five Years

The 14th Five-Year Plan that China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently released states that over the next five years, China will see an additional 40 million retirees and 35 million fewer people of working age. This poses a huge challenge for the pension system. This means an average of 8 million additional retirees per year, far more than the 4.5 million added last year.

The government made it clear earlier this year that it would gradually postpone the mandatory retirement age, sparking widespread concerns. The official Xinhua News Agency quoted experts who stated that people born during the “baby boom” in 1963 will soon become 60, leading to a rapid decrease in pension contributions and a dramatic increase in the number of recipients. China’s legal retirement age has stayed unchanged for nearly 70 years. It is 60 for men, 55 for female officials, and 50 for female workers.

China’s seventh population census shows that, last year, the proportion of people over 65 years old reached 13.5 percent of the total population.

Source: Radio Free Asia, July 2, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/3-07022021104522.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

One-Third of New Academic Degrees in Chinese Universities Are in AI

China’s Ministry of Education recently announced a list of new majors (in 2021) to be included in the catalog of undergraduate programs in higher education institutions. Among the 37 new majors (departments), engineering related programs occupy the lion’s share. About one third of the new majors are in AI and electronic engineering, including intelligent surveillance engineering, intelligent mining engineering and quantum information science.

Since the end of 2020, the president of China, Xi Jinping, has repeatedly stressed the need to strengthen national science and technology forces, to enhance the capabilities of controlling the industrial supply chain and to solve the problem of “being strangled” in key technologies.

In addition to AI, China is also trying to accelerate the development of its own semiconductor industrial talents. 2020 saw the establishment of an Integrated Circuits University in Nanjing, also known as the first “chip university” in China. In early 2021, Anhui University is also setting up an IC (integrated circuit) college. The Shenzhen University of Technology in Guangdong Province established the School of Integrated Circuits in collaboration with China’s leading semiconductor company SMIC in June of this year.

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 30, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/5-06302021102334.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

A List of Political Figures Who Sent a Congratulatory Message to the CCP

China’s official newspaper People’s Daily recently published a list of international political figures who called or wrote to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) General Secretary Xi Jinping and the CCP Central Committee to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the CCP.

Edgar Lungu, President of Zambia
David W. Panuelo, President of the Federated States of Micronesia
Blade Nzimande, General Secretary of South African Communist Party
Delfim Neves, President of National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
Dési Bouterse, President of National Democratic Party of Suriname
Qasim Suri, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan
Megawati Soekarnoputri, former Indonesian president
Igor Dodon, former Moldovan president
Asadollah Badamchian, secretary-general of Iran’s Islamic Coalition Party
Wee Ka Siong, Minister of Transport of Malaysia
Korneliya Ninova, Leader of Bulgarian Socialist Party
Ichiro Ozawa, former President of Democratic Party of Japan
Mizuho Fukushima, head of the Social Democratic Party of Japan
Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party
Dogu Perincek, chairman of Turkey’s Patriotic Party
Gyula Thurmer, leader of the Hungarian Workers’ Party
Jean Christophe Iseux von Pfetten, Chairman of the Institute for East West Strategic Studies in UK

Source: People’s Daily, June 28, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-06/28/nw.D110000renmrb_20210628_1-03.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend