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Telegram to Collaborate with Tencent

In September, the instant messaging app Telegram and its partner, the TON Foundation, announced a collaboration with Chinese company Tencent (owner of the popular Chinese social media app WeChat). It will transform Telegram into a “super app ecosystem” similar to WeChat. Telegram boasts 800 million active users, including many from China who use it to circumvent the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Internet censorship. Industry experts caution that this partnership may pose risks to user privacy and financial information. A commentator stated that Telegram, previously a platform independent of the CCP’s authority, is now controlled by Tencent, indicating that the CCP is working to eliminate the information platform as a threat to its rule.

During Hong Kong’s anti-extradition protest, many protesters used the Telegram app to discuss strategy and communicate information about gatherings.

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 29, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/4-09292023113707.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Information/Technology

First International Order for China’s C919 Airplane Comes From a Chinese Company

Chinese media reported that Brunei’s Gallop Air has signed a letter of intent to purchase 30 aircraft. The purchase wil l include fifteen C919 models and fifteen ARJ-21 models from the China Commercial Aircraft Co. This marks the first C919 order and the second ARJ-21 order from an overseas airline. The deal was valued at US$2 billion.

The C919 is China’s first domestically-developed jetliner, seating 158 to 192 passengers and having a range of 4,075 to 5,555 kilometers. The ARJ-21 is a Chinese-produced regional airplane seating 78 passengers.

It turns out that this international order actually originates from a Chinese company.

Chinese media reported that the Gallop Air (骐骥航空), though operated in Brunei, is a private company based in China. The company was established in August 2021, registered with 10 million Yuan capital. Its full name is “Qi Ji Aviation Industry Development (Shaanxi) Co.” (骐骥航空产业发展（陕西）有限公司).

The first international sales of the Chinese ARJ-21 model, sold to Indonesia’s TransNusa, was also backed by China’s state-owned funds.

Source:
1. Lianhe Zaobao, September 25, 2023
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20230925-1436527
2. NetEase, September 26, 2023
https://www.163.com/dy/article/IFJLG81D0552PFYH.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

State Security Ministry Reveals Recruitment Techniques Used by Foreign Spy Organizations

Beijing continues its anti-spy propaganda campaign targeting the Chinese people. On its WeChat account, the Chinese Ministry of State Security discussed five internet-based techniques that it says are used by foreign intelligence agencies to appeal to Chinese people, attempting to recruit them as potential spies or luring them to provide secret information. People’s Daily republished the article. The five points are:

  • Online personal loans
  • Online dating
  • Online jobs (potentially part-time)
  • Online research and paper authoring
  • Online hobby groups

Source: People’s Daily, September 25, 2023
https://wap.peopleapp.com/article/7211990/7055012

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Chinese Continue Fishing in Sea of Japan Despite Beijing’s High-Profile Protest of Japan’s Nuclear Wastewater

Beijing has made a big deal of criticizing Japan for discharging treated and diluted wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. China has also announced a comprehensive ban on importing Japanese seafood.

However, Japanese media The Asahi Shimbun reported that Chinese fishing vessels continue to operate near Japanese waters and that there has been no significant drop in the total count of such boats. The report said that on September 19, 162 Chinese fishing vessels were observed operating approximately 1,000 kilometers east of Nemuro City in Hokkaido, Japan. From early August to September 19, there were 146 to 167 Chinese fishing vessels each day, fishing for saury, mackerel, and sardines in the North Pacific waters off Hokkaido, alongside Japanese fishing vessels.

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 26, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/jp-fish-09262023014559.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Version of the Story on Removal of Floating Barriers at the Scarborough Shoal

{Editor’s Note: Last week many international media reported that China’s Coast Guard deployed floating barriers in the disputed Scarborough Shoal area to block Philippine fishing boats from entering those waters. The Philippine Coast Guard responded by cutting the ropes so that its fishermen could enter the lagoon and fish.}

China’s state media has said that reports about the Philippine Coast Guard are a lie, saying that it was China that removed the floating barrier from the Scarborough Shoal, not the Philippine Coast Guard. Xinhua published a statement by Chinese Coast Guard Spokesperson Gan Yu on September 28:

On September 22nd, official vessels of the Philippine Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Bureau illegally entered the waters near China’s Scarborough Shoal without China’s government approval, engaging in provocative activities. The Chinese Coast Guard lawfully employed measures such as verbal warnings and route controls to effectively manage the situation. They temporarily deployed anti-intrusion nets in response to the Philippine vessels’ attempt to forcibly enter the lagoon. On September 23rd [the China Coast Guard] proactively removed those blockades and restored the area to a state of normal control. These operations were conducted professionally and in accordance with the law. The Philippine claim that they removed Chinese barriers [by themselves] is entirely fabricated and self-staged.

Source: Xinhua, September 28, 2023
http://www.news.cn/world/2023-09/28/c_1129890388.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Miles Yu: Xi Jinping Misjudges U.S. Politics in Making Abstract Demands of Biden

In July’s episode of the “China Insider” podcast hosted by Miles Yu, who served as principal China policy and planning adviser under former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Yu talked about how Xi Jinping misjudged U.S.-China relations this year. According to Yu, Xi’s main concern has not been specific U.S. policies but rather how U.S. political ideology might influence the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) regime. Xi wished to secure a series of commitments from U.S. leadership, but what Xi asked for was not easy for the U.S. to carry out concretely. Thus Xi’s perceived stumbling blocks in U.S.-China relations have not been addressed.

In a March 2023 phone call, Biden agreed to several abstract requests made by Xi, including commitments regarding U.S. geopolitical influence over China and Taiwan. Biden’s administration has not followed up with concrete actions, however. Yu points out that Xi operates within communist China’s authoritarian and dictatorial model, so he has been unable to understand why his demands are unrealistic from the perspective of the U.S. model of government.

Yu said that Xi made several strong demands of Biden during their phone call in March.

  • First, Xi hoped that the U.S. government would clearly state that it does not seek “regime change” in China. Biden thought for a moment and gave a commitment on that.
  • Second, Xi demanded that the Biden government assure China that it won’t organize “anti-China alliances.” Biden thought about this request and said that the U.S. has a strong alliance system worldwide, but there is no alliance system specifically targeting a particular country. So Biden agreed to this request by Xi.
  • Third, Xi Jinping asked Biden to promise not to support Taiwan independence. Biden agreed.

Following the phone call, Xi believed that he had secured some fundamental ideological commitments from the U.S. government. The Biden administration, on the other hand, felt that Xi’s demands were abstract and unrealistic (hard or impossible to implement) — this is why Biden was willing to agree to them.

After the phone call, the U.S. government didn’t take any concrete measures based on Xi’s demands — they couldn’t be implemented. China has been complaining that President Biden has not kept his promises and hasn’t taken concrete actions. Under pressure from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Biden administration sent cabinet-level members to China to visit, hoping to implement some measures from the March phone call. However, these officials (including Antony Blinken, Janet Yellen, and John Kerry) focused on specific, practical matters and did not address the larger strategic issues that were irking Xi. Indeed, in Yu’s assessment, Xi and the CCP have a misguided understanding about how the U.S. political system works — despite a series of cabinet-level visits to China, Xi’s demands couldn’t be addressed.

Source: Hudson Institute Website, July 28, 2023
https://www.hudson.org/foreign-policy/zhongguoneimu

Briefings | | |   @CS US-China Relations

CCTV: Former Deputy Director of the National Bureau of Statistics: China Has More Houses Than 1.4 Billion People Can Consume

Chinese Central Television (CCTV) reported that He Keng, Deputy Director of the Financial and Economic Committee of China’s 11th National People’s Congress and former Deputy Director of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, said “Currently, there is an oversupply in the real estate sector. The exact number of vacant houses varies significantly according to different experts, and with a population of 1.4 billion people, it’s unlikely that all of them can be occupied. It is not wise to aggressively promote real estate development in the face of so many vacant properties. Therefore, in this situation, real estate companies must transition early and do so proactively.” He Keng spoke on September 23 at the 2023 China Real Economy Development Conference.

Source: CCTV, September 24, 2023
https://news.cctv.com/2023/09/24/ARTIvq9vNjNa9MzGGtrgkPHo230924.shtml

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China Informally Asks EV Manufacturers to Use Domestic Parts

Taiwanese newspaper United Daily News quoted a report by Japanese outlet Yomiuri Shimbun saying that China has unofficially urged its electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers to utilize domestically-produced electronic components, including semiconductors. The Chinese government has additionally encouraged these EV manufacturers to set up specific targets for the incorporation of domestic parts, with potential penalties for non-compliance.

According to diplomatic sources in China, “The purpose of (Beijing’s) sending instructions verbally through former officials is to leave no evidence of exclusion of foreign investment.” Insiders said that, as Chinese automobile manufacturers swiftly shift from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric ones, they have established their own systems for production of electronic components and they have vertically integrated production of nearly all related technologies except the drivetrain.

Source: United Daily News (Taiwan), September 17, 2023
https://money.udn.com/money/story/5599/7445931

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources