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CNA: Chinese Overseas Democracy Activists Hold Conference on Blueprints for Democratic China

Taiwan’s Centra News Agency report that Chinese overseas democracy activists Wei Jingsheng, Wang Dan, Wang Juntao, and others convened the “First Overseas Chinese National Consensus Conference” in Washington, D.C. to discuss blueprints for a democratic China following a future collapse of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The two-day conference on March 2 and 3, and on March 4 the group released a “Declaration of the First National Consensus Conference on China’s Democratic Movement.” The declaration enumerated a 10-point consensus on future democratic processes.

The declaration stated: “At this critical moment, people concerned about China’s democratization should seriously study the Chinese situation and the experiences and lessons of various countries in the world and propose plans and approaches for rebuilding a constitutional political system in China.” The declaration emphasized that “overthrowing the tyranny of the CCP” and “establishing a free, equal, just, and harmonious civil society” must be the first step towards democratic nation-building in China.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 5, 2024
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202403050211.aspx

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics

China Among Largest Foreign Direct Investors in Indonesia’s New Capital City

In 2019 Indonesian President Joko Widodo ratified a motion to move Indonesia’s capital city from Jakarta to the new planned city of Nusantara, which is currently under construction and is to be inaugurated in 2024. China has become one of the biggest foreign investors in this new “smart city,” focusing mainly on infrastructure and industrial projects. The Nusantara Capital Administration has held investment forums and conferences in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, to attract China’s money. Widodo said in October 2023 that in two years Beijing would bypass Singapore to become the country that contributes most to Indonesia in terms of foreign direct investment.

Research published by the University of Kentucky in 2021 showed that China had already invested in “smart cities” in Southeast Asia countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Myanmar.

Source: Voice of America, March 6, 2024
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-to-invest-in-indonesia-new-capital-20240305/7514971.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Growth in Beijing’s “Stability Maintenance” Spending Decelerates

The Second Session of China’s 14th National People’s Congress submitted a report by the Ministry of Finance regarding central and local government budgets in 2023. The report revealed that defense expenditure in 2024 will amount to 1.67 trillion yuan (US$ 230 billion), an increase of 7.2 percent from a year ago, while public security expenditure will be 2276.62 billion yuan, an increase of 1.44 percent. In 2023, public security expenditure (a.k.a. “stability maintenance” expenditure) was 2089.72 billion yuan, representing an increase of 6.4 percent from 2022. The growth rate for stability maintenance spending this year has dropped by nearly five percentage points.

A commentator attributed the decrease in the growth rate of stability maintenance funding to the reduction in central government fiscal revenue. To compensate for reduced fiscal revenue, Beijing has increasingly leaned on local governments and street offices to foot the bill for stability maintenance: “Some 20 percent to 40 percent of local fiscal revenue will be used for stability maintenance.”

To make up for insufficient stability maintenance funding, local governments and local police have been attempting to boost revenue by issuing fines. Some local governments have also implemented temporary policies to increase fees charged to enterprises and individual merchants.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 6, 2024
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/gt1-03062024014146.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics Social Stability

China Pilots “Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration” Programs

China is promoting “vehicle-road-cloud” integration. The idea is to advance commercialization of smart vehicles by integrating intelligent driving technology with roadside perception and cloud control. On January 17, 2024, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a “Notice on Carrying out Pilot Projects for ‘Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration’.” The ministry’s pilot program will run from 2024 to 2026.

“As of the end of 2023, China has set up 17 national-level test and demonstration zones, 7 vehicle networking pilot zones, and 16 pilot cities for development of connectivity between intelligent vehicles and smart cities. … There are now more than 22,000 kilometers of test and demonstration road; more than 88 million kilometers of road testing have been completed.”

One example involves autonomous driving technology company WeRide’s work in the Beijing High-Tech Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone: WeRide has conducted “in-depth cooperation with the government” to integrate “roadside perception of traffic signals and dynamic blind spots, driving path optimization, unprotected left turns, two-vehicle collaborative control, status sharing, and more.” The article states that “as of now, 12 companies including Baidu, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX, NavInfo, and Audi have conducted development and testing of ‘vehicle-road-cloud integration'” in the Beijing Demonstration Zone.

Source: Stock Times, February 3, 2024
https://www.stcn.com/article/detail/1114322.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology

People’s Daily: Measures to Address Agricultural Labor Shortage

People’s Daily republished an article from Economic Daily discussing how China might resolve its agricultural labor shortage problems. The article said that “the matter of ‘who will farm the land’ is an urgent issue” related to “national food security and rural revitalization.” With a large number of rural laborers migrating to cities, there is a prominent “structural shortage of labor” in rural areas of China. Below are some key ideas from the article.

“The rapid development of mechanization provides impetus for solving this problem. China’s agricultural industry has already realized a basic level of ‘machines replacing human labor.’ … The comprehensive mechanization rate of cultivation and harvesting of crops has reached 73.1 percent nationwide. … China’s agricultural industry is gradually shifting from small-scale household farming to large-scale and intensive development.”

One concept for the development of large-scale agriculture is a large-scale land management (i.e. land consolidation). “Various regions have started exploring [the technique of] ‘consolidating small fields (from different owners) into larger ones.'” Another concept is “large-scale service management, which involves providing fully-managed or semi-managed services to small farmers … who retain control of their land.” The article said that the latter concept “is more realistic for China’s agriculture industry.”

Source: People’s Daily, February 15, 2024
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2024/0215/c1004-40177697.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Japanese Government: China’s Distressed Debt Securitization Increased by 46%

According to Nikkei Chinese Edition, the Cabinet Office of Japan has published its semi-annual “World Economic Trends” report. The report pointed out signs of stagnation in China’s economy and warned that they may last – “not only will the economy stagnate in the short term, but there are also concerns about halted growth in the medium-to-long term.”

Based on data from private Chinese databases, the Cabinet Office of Japan annually reports on the amount of securities issuance converted from non-performing loans. In China, loans with delinquent payments over 90 days are considered non-performing. For 2023, such securities issuance amounted to 46.6 Billion Yuan (US$ 6.5 Billion), a 46 percent increase from 2022 (32 Billion Yuan). This increase was significantly higher than in 2021 and 2022; those years saw year-over-year increases of less than 10 percent.

In 2023, half of the security issuance converted from non-performing loans originated from housing loans, amounting to 23.6 Billion Yuan. This figure was 2.5 times higher than the previous year’s metric for converted housing loans.

The Cabinet Office of Japan stated “It is necessary to continue monitoring whether there will arise an excessive transfer of (bad loan) risk onto the financial markets.”

Source: Nikkei, February 29, 2024
https://zh.cn.nikkei.com/china/ceconomy/54956-2024-02-29-09-41-11.html?start=1

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Xinhua: Foreign Politicians, Scholars, and Media Talking Trash About China’s Economy

China’s Xinhua news agency has published an article countering the numerous reports and predictions by foreign media regarding China’s economic downslide. The article blames Western politicians, scholars, and media for wearing “colored glasses” (having a biased perspective), “doomsaying” China’s economy. The article states that such “doomsaying” has existed for several decades and has always been incorrect. The article does not provide concrete evidence in defense of China’s current economic situation.

Some of the sentiments expressed in the article include:

  • “Gordon Chang, a ‘China collapse theory expert,’ has become a laughing stock.”
  • “During the 2008 international financial crisis, some U.S. politicians and scholars blamed the U.S. real estate bubble and global economic imbalances on ‘the high savings rates of China and other emerging market countries.'”
  • “In 2015, Western media revived the ‘Chinese economic collapse theory'”
  • “The West has substituted China as a scapegoat, blaming it for economic crises and socioeconomic problems.”
  • The West has “a stubborn Cold War mentality and ideological bias, aiming to undermine the outside world’s confidence in China’s economy.”

Source: Xinhua, February 22, 2024
http://www.news.cn/mrdx/2024-02/22/c_1310764956.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics