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China’s Global Lawyers Forum Cancelled Speech Calling for “Independence of the Bar and the Judiciary”

China recently hosted a Global Lawyers Forum in Guangzhou, claiming that more than 400 international participants had been invited. Among them, a representative of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA), who was originally invited to give a speech at the conference, had his speech cancelled at the last minute. UIA issued a statement expressing its dissatisfaction.

In the beginning, the Chinese authorities called this event in Chinese the equivalent of the “World Lawyers Congress,” but its official English name was “Global Lawyers Forum.” China’s official mouthpiece, Xinhua News Agency reported that the participants included more than 400 international judicial professionals from 57 countries, including the International Bar Association (IBA), the International Association of Lawyers (UIA), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), and the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA).

The French-based International Association of Lawyers (UIA) issued a press release on December 17 to shed some light on an incident that Chinese media had not covered. The release stated that UIA President Jerome Roth was originally invited to give a keynote speech at the meeting, but the scheduled speech was cancelled after the content of the speech was submitted to the organizer in advance as had been requested.

UIA’s release shared part of Roth’s speech, which emphasized, “The unique role that both individual lawyers and bar associations play as privileged guardians and defenders of citizens’ rights and of the Rule of Law.” “We advocate for the independence of the bar and of the judiciary, without which there would be no Rule of Law.”

Roth’s speech also talked about the significance of the rule of law, including, “the accountability of political authorities of a nation to its citizens, the separation of powers, and laws that are publicly promulgated, equitably enforced, independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards.”

UIA did not say in the press release whether the cancellation of Roth’s speech was because it sounded too harsh on Beijing.

At the end of the statement, UIA reiterated its concern over Chinese lawyers who had disappeared, were threatened, detained, and even physically and mentally abused during their practice of the law, and who were unable to defend their own rights through proper judicial channels.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 19, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/rc-12192019103919.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Replacing Freedom of Thought, Party Control Bumps into Chinese University’s Charter

On Tuesday December 17, the Chinese Ministry of Education released a statement of its approved amendments to the school charters of Fudan University, Nanjing University, and Shaanxi Normal University. The revised charters of the three universities emphasized, “adherence to the (Chinese Communist) Party’s comprehensive leadership.” They stated that, “The School’s Party committees are the core of school leadership.” They also inserted expressions such as, “making it our mission to achieve the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” People became concerned that the CCP is further strengthening its control over universities and that academic freedom was declining again.

The amendments to the charter of Fudan University, known for its liberal arts, have attracted much attention. The BBC Chinese reporter compared the 2000 version of Fudan University’s charter with the revision that the Ministry of Education published. The new version removed expressions such as “freedom of thought,” “management of academic affairs by teachers and students,” “democratic management,” “independence,” and “the school is a community with scholarship at its core.”

The Party’s leadership stands out in the new charter. Added political expressions emphasize that the Party committee is above the school president, and that the university serves the Party. To name some specifics, it insists on “arming the minds of teachers and students with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” “cultivating and practicing the core values of socialism,” “realizing the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” and “the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

The new charter places more emphasis on “ideological and political education.” It thus makes a change from “in undergraduate education, the school builds general education as the foundation” to “in undergraduate education, the school makes ideological and political education the key and general education as the foundation.”

The new charter strengthens the party’s leadership over universities and adds “adhering to the principle of the Party in control of cadres” and “adhering to the principle of the Party in control of talent.” Multiple texts involving the election and selection of personnel were changed to “in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism.” The Ministry of Education’s announcement attracted strong attention and concerns over cyberspace in China. Relevant content regarding the amendment of the charter of Fudan University was deleted from social network sites and accounts. On Wednesday December 18, netizens posted Fudan University’s school song on social networks as a silent protest.

In recent years, China’s disciplinary authorities have descended on university campuses to examine the “political discipline” of higher education institutions, including ideological issues and the infiltration of Western values, including democracy and freedom of speech. A Financial Times article three years ago stated that China’s president Xi Jinping called on universities to strengthen the Party’s leadership and stop using imported teaching materials that contain Western values.

Source: BBC Chinese, December 18, 2019
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-50836094

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Czech Tycoon Paid for a Campaign to Promote Communist China

The Czech media website Aktualne.cz broke a story on December 11 that there is “a network of experts, journalists, and politicians,” which has been seeking to “influence the Czech society” by spreading pro-Beijing opinions. The news caught the attention of several members of the Czech Parliament, who announced on Sunday, December 15, that they intend to ask to set up a parliamentary committee to investigate the matter.

According to Aktualne.cz, this campaign was launched in April 2019 and is funded by Home Credit, an international non-banking financial institution owned by the Czech Republic’s richest man Petr Kellner. The article said that Kellner, who was close to the Czech president, secretly funded a media public relations agency called “C&B Reputation Management” to carry out activities to improve China’s image in Czech. C&B is responsible for external communications for the Sinoskop Institute for Contemporary China, a pro-Beijing think tank that was set up in June 2019. Czech media regularly interviews the head of Sinoskop, who has ties with the Czech President and Petr Kellner.

In addition, Tomas Jirsa, who owns C&B, started to operate the Czech’s major website Info.cz in January 2019. Since then, the site has published several advertisement like pro-China articles, paid by Home Credit. Several journalists who oppose this have stopped working for the website. One of them publicly stated on Czech public television that the site “publishes less and less criticism of China, and the cooperation with an important think tank that criticizes Beijing has also been suspended.”

Under the “Belt and Road” framework, China has been interested in central Europe for years. Czech President Milos Zeman has always wanted to make his country “a gateway to Europe.”

At the same time, however, Czech’s civil society is showing strong resistance to China’s attempts to influence the Czech Republic. For example, the Mayor of Prague questioned the cooperation agreement with Beijing based on the one-China principle. In addition, at the end of November, the Czech intelligence service officially regarded China’s influence as a “threat” to the Czech Republic’s national security.

Source: Radio France International, December 17, 2019
http://rfi.my/53sg.T

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Swiss Media Launched a Column for the Chinese Ambassador

Die Weltwoche, a Swiss weekly magazine based in Zürich and founded in 1933, has invited the Chinese Ambassador to Switzerland Geng Wenbing to open a “China Perspective” column to promote China’s national policy. Geng opened the column on April 4 of this year. He published his first column titled, “Autonomy and Prosperity.” The article adopted China’s propaganda tone and said that Tibet “under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, went from serfdom to openness,” without a single word mentioning Beijing’s high-pressure policy in Tibet. Roger Köppel, the owner of Die Weltwoche, wrote an introduction for Geng Wenbing and praised China’s development saying, “China is highly questioned in the West, and the Western media has given a one-sided voice to critics and dissidents. China’s official views are absent in the Western media.” As a result, the magazine launched “the world’s first platform for the representatives from the Chinese government.”

Roger Köppel, a member of the Swiss Federal Assembly, took ownership of Die Weltwoche in 2006. Since then, assisted by the Chinese embassy in Switzerland, the newspaper has seen a surge in advertising. Its stance has also become increasingly pro-Beijing.

Later, Geng successively published articles promoting China’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” defending the “Xinjiang Concentration Camps,” protesting the “U.S. Trade War,” criticizing “Hong Kong Protesters,” and chanting the “70th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Regime.” Not long ago, when China’s internal documents regarding Xinjiang were exposed, Geng, in one of his articles, said that the Beijing government was “committed to promoting and maintaining ethnic diversity and solidarity.” Two weeks later, a Chinese company Saurer ran a full-page advertisement on Die Weltwoche.

In fact, since March 28 of this year, Die Weltwoche published eight full-page advertisements, including China Construction Bank, under the name “China Week,” with each advertisement valued at over 10,000 Swiss francs (US$10, 200). Coincidentally, seven days after the Chinese advertising campaign at the end of March, Chinese Ambassador Geng Wenbing’s column officially opened. The email that the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a German-language daily newspaper, obtained showed that the commerce staff at the Chinese Embassy coordinated the advertising campaign and Die Weltwoche was aware of the arrangement.

Ralph Weber, a China expert in Switzerland, believes that the Die Weltwoche is a standard model of the Chinese Communist Party’s expansion of its influence abroad. Its not an isolated case in Europe. In October this year, a German media disclosed a joint “Dialogue” program and cooperation between Norddeutscher Rundfunk (Northern German Broadcasting), a Hamburg based German public radio and television broadcaster, and the China Global Television Network group.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 17, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/sz-degrade-12172019090424.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Russia Concerned about China Copying Russian Weapons

Voice of America quoted a statement from an official in charge of intellectual property protection at a Russian technology group. He said that China has been copying Russian weapons and equipment on a large scale, from aircraft engines to Sukhoi fighters and from carrier-based aircraft to air defense missile systems and to portable air defense missiles. The official said that even the short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon system Pantsir-S1 (NATO reporting name: SA-22 “Greyhound”) saw its copycat in China.

China has been a major buyer of Russian weapons and equipment for many years. Piracy is also a major problem in military and technical cooperation between the two countries. In the past two or three years, Russia’s major arms trading projects with China have included the Su-35 fighters and S-400 air defense missiles. However, China has purchased a very limited number of these weapons. Military analysts believe that the main purpose of China’s procurement of these weapons was imitation.

The Military-Industrial Courier, a weekly Russian newspaper, has published a long article saying that China developed the J-11B fighter on the basis of the Su-27 fighter aircraft and it also developed the J-15 on the basis of the carrier-based aircraft Su-33. The Xian H-6 bomber also comes from the Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 bomber. Furthermore, the armored fighting vehicles that started to equip the Chinese army in 2012 are also reminiscent of the two models of infantry fighting vehicles from the Soviet Union and Russia. China’s Yuan-class conventional-powered submarine also uses Russian technology.

Zvezda (Red Star), a Russian state-owned nationwide TV network that the Russian Ministry of Defense runs, has published a long story, detailing how China has been copying Soviet and Russian weapons and equipment since the 1950’s. The report said that 95 percent of current Chinese weapons and equipment have elements from Soviet or Russian weapons.

Source: Voice of America, December 15, 2019
https://www.voachinese.com/a/russia-concerns-weapons-chinese-military-pirated-20191215/5206556.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Revised Code of Conduct for Chinese Journalists

On December 15, Xinhua News Agency, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, published the newly revised Code of Professional Ethics for Chinese Journalists. Among others items, the Code proposes that journalists arm their minds with Xi Jinping’s “Ideology of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era,” and always keep in mind the mission of journalism of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Code also proposed strengthening the concept of the rule of law; abiding by the Constitution, laws, and regulations; and effectively safeguarding national political security, cultural security, and social stability; as well as adhering to the Party’s discipline in journalism.

The Code proposed the cultivation a global and international vision so as to “vividly tell China stories, stories of the Chinese Communist Party, stories of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and stories of the Chinese people,” so that “the world would understand China better.”

Source: People’s Daily, December 16, 2019
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2019-12/16/nw.D110000renmrb_20191216_4-04.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China to Ban Live Webcasts; Three Minutes Minimum Delay Required

The Chinese authorities issued a directive in August last year requiring real name registration for live webcasts. Recently, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced a series of regulations including a ban on live web broadcasts and other restrictions upon online video programs. The Notice said, “live Internet broadcasts should take the form of delayed broadcasts, with a minimum delay of three minutes. Performance organizers and online broadcast companies should formulate live broadcast management procedures and emergency contingency plans, and arrange special personnel to conduct real time review of the contents and of Internet users’ comments. Any problem should be dealt with in a timely manner and the video materials should to be kept for at least 60 days for inspection.”

Chinese authorities’ surveillance of online video programs has become increasingly harsh. It is believed that the new media has mostly exposed the major and small incidents that the authorities have attempted to cover up.

The consultation period for the aforementioned Notice will end on December 22. In August last year, six national level agencies in China, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the State Administration of Radio and Television, issued a “Notice on Strengthening the Management of Webcasting Services.” The notice requires the implementation of the real-name registration system, stringent management of online program anchors, the establishment of a blacklist for anchors, and improvement of the monitoring, review, and disposal of illegal and harmful contents. The notice also requires the online live broadcasters to cooperate with the authorities and provide the necessary documents, materials, and data.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 11, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/ql1-12112019043530.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Official Observes How Over-exploitation Led to Serious Pollution of the Yellow River

Lian Yu, deputy chief of a bureau at the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and the Environment, which oversees the Yellow River’s ecology, stated, in an recent interview with a Beijing based local newspaper, that the Yellow River has ecological problems such as excessive exploitation of water resources and the pollution of rivers and lakes. Among the problems are that the utilization ratio of water resources of the Yellow River reaches more than 80 percent and that the low-water period can last more than 85 percent of the days, far exceeding the alert levels for most rivers.

Lian Yu believes that, in addition to excessive water use, other factors that contribute to the Yellow River pollution include coal and petroleum extraction and coal chemical and metal smelting plants scattered alongside the watershed. High water consumption, heavy pollution, and a high dependence on energy resources are factors that characterize these industries. The rudimentary industrial technology, the small scale of business operations, and the poor pollution control capabilities have contributed to the deterioration.

In the past 30 years, the fish population in the Yellow River watershed has decreased by about half. Among them, indigenous and endangered fish species have decreased by about 60 percent. Lian Yu believes that reservoirs and hydropower stations in the upstream and its tributaries pose a great threat to the habitats of these species. In addition, compared with the 1980s, the wetland area in the Yellow River watershed decreased by 16 percent and other lake wetlands, swamp wetlands, and estuary wetlands decreased by 25 percent, 21 percent, and 40 percent, respectively.

Source: Central News Agency, December 11, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201912110145.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources