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China Tried to Pacify Iran’s Anger

Xi Jinping recently visited Saudi Arabia and attended the 2022 China-Arab States Summit hosted in Saudi’s capital city Riyadh. China signed a joint summit statement declaring its support for the United Arab Emirates “to reach a peaceful solution to the issue of the three islands; Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa” under international law. The UAE and the Iranese have been disputing these three islands in the Strait of Hormuz for decades, where Iran grabbed them after the British Royal Navy stopped patrolling them in 1971.

Iran expressed fury for the betrayal by China which had supported it for long time. Iran called in China’s Ambassador to express its grievance. In the meantime, many Iranian media have complained about China.

On December 10, the Arman Daily, an Iranian newspaper published an article titled, “Taiwan Independence: A Legal Right” on its front page. The article stated that Beijing would have to accept Taiwan’s independence despite attempts to suppress the country by force.

To calm down Tehran, on December 13, Beijing sent Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua (胡春華) to meet Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Xinhua News reported that Hu told Iranian officials that China “will not waver in its determination to develop their comprehensive strategic partnership” and that “China firmly supports Iran in opposing external interference and safeguarding its sovereignty, territorial integrity and national dignity.”

Source: Epoch Times, Dec 14, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/14/n13884833.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Revealed: China Has Police Stations in at Least 53 Other Countries

Safeguard Defenders, a non-profit organization focusing on human rights, published a revised version of its investigation report on China’s police stations overseas. The revised numbers show that China has established at least 102 police “service centers” in 53 countries outside of China. Beijing uses these police stations to carry out suppression activities over China’s own citizens in foreign countries. However, these operations are illegal and violate the state sovereignty of the hosting countries.

Italy has 11 of China’s police stations, the largest number among all countries. Canada has five. The U.S. has at least four, two in New York, and one in Los Angles. There is also one at an unknown location.

The governments of the Netherlands and Ireland  have demanded that China close these illegal operations in their countries.

Source:
1. Epoch Times, December 9, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/9/n13881186.htm
2. Turkish Radio and Television Agency, December 6, 2022
https://www.trt.net.tr/chinese/hua-ren-shi-jie/2022/12/06/wai-mei-cheng-zhong-guo-zai-hai-wai-she-yu-100suo-jing-cha-zhan-1915367

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Taiwan’s Media and Its Society Ranked Number One in Influence by China

Taiwan Democracy Lab recently announced its “China Index.  It ranked China’s influence on 82 countries or regions in nine categories including academia, domestic politics, the economy, foreign policy, law enforcement, media, military, society, and technology. Among the overall ranking, the top five countries are Pakistan, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Peru and South Africa (tied).

Taiwan ranked number one in two categories: media and society, and number 11 in the overall ranking. Germany ranked the top among all European countries.

Source: Epoch Times, December 9, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/9/n13881687.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Political Commentator: Insider Information on Xi’s Decisions

Yuan Hongbing, a Chinese scholar and political commentator who lives in Australia, recently shared with the Epoch Times some information he obtained from a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) insider.

On terminating the “zero-COVID” policy, the upcoming Premier Li Qiang  a Chinese politician and a senior leader of the Chinese Communist Party, serving as the second-ranking member of the 20th CCP Politburo Standing Committee, behind CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, informed Xi Jinping that the World Health Organization (WHO) is likely to announce COVID as a general epidemic, no longer a severe pandemic. If China continues the “zeroing out” and lockdown policy, it will become a joke of the international society. So Li Qiang wants China to forgo the zero-COVID policy before WHO’s announcement. Another reason is that China’s economy has gravely deteriorated and local governments are facing bankruptcy.

On the in-flight regarding Jiang’s death: Zeng Qinghong wrote the eulogy that gave high praise to Jiang. Jiang’s family asked Xi to read it and threatened that they would hold a private funeral instead of the state funeral if Xi did not agree to their terms. Xi’s supporter Li Shulei, head of the CCP Propaganda Department, suggested to Xi to meet their demand for now since Jiang is dead. In the meantime Xi could get ready to cleanse Jiang’s remaining power including both officials and businessmen. The target time to take them on is after March next year, after the National Congress meeting and Xi’s people take over the state power.

Source: Epoch Times, December 13, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/13/n13883837.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

COVID Is on a Rampage in China

China recently loosened its COVID control policy after people took to the streets to protest the extreme, inhumane lockdown measures. As a result, COVID has  spread widely throughout the country.

On December 13, the authorities reported only 7,451 infection cases for the entire nation, which the public just did not accept as a number they could trust.

A video posted by a Beijing resident showed that an entire subway station, which used to be fully packed, had only three people in it, including the recorder himself.

Many doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are infected. They are asked to continue work if they can. Work units informed their employees to stay at home and not go to hospitals as hospitals had already “run beyond their full capacity.”

Radio Free Asia quoted an Internet posting that the author called 911 but was told that there were already 4,000 people ahead of him in the queue. Its reporter called Beijing’s hotline 120. The operator told him there were already 40 people waiting for an ambulance, and suggested the caller go to the hospital himself, so he would not be putting a wrong hope on an ambulance.

Funeral homes worked at full speed to cremate bodies. A Beijing resident posted on social media that after his father passed away, he could not find a funeral home to take in his father’s body. A doctor posted on social media that there was a five to seven day wait for cremation and his hospital did not have an empty morgue any longer. Radio Free Asia reported that four elderly people died in the Emergence Room of the Beijing University Hospital. Other patients stayed and waited with the corpse in the same room.

In addition to the present danger to the elderly, this COVID is also claiming young lives. Three children, at the ages of 13, 8, and 2, respectively, died after they had a high temperature.

Source: Epoch Times, December 13, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/13/n13884197.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Social Stability

After Public Protests, China Published “Ten New Measures” to Ease COVID Control

China’s National Health Commission announced ten new COVID measures to soften its strict COVID control policies, It was done in an effort to soothe the public anger that was demonstrated in a string of protests throughout China a week ago. Some key features include:

  • People with COVID, with either mild symptoms or no symptoms, can choose to isolate either at home or at a state controlled (centralized) facility. In the past, the authorities quarantine in centralized facilities not only those who were infected, but also people who were in the same building.
  • The designation of high-risk area should be “precise.” This was in reference to the individual building, the floor, or even the apartment. It should not be broadly applied to the entire residential neighborhood, street, or other area. (as the local authorities had done in the past)
  • The authorities should not mobilize (require) all residents to take COVID tests.
  • Venues, except those with the elderly, children, or patients, will not check visitors’ COVID test results. In the past, all visitors had to provide negative COVID results before being allowed to enter the facility.
  • People travelling do not need to show negative COVID test results at the new city, either.
  • It is strictly prohibited to use any method to block a fire emergency exit, a buildings door, etc. (This was in response to the Urumqi fire that claimed dozens of people’s lives. This happened because the authorities sealed apartment doors and fire exits.)
  • If no new cases are found, “high-risk” areas should come out of lockdown in five days. In the past, several cities in China had locked down the entire city for months even with though there were only a handful of cases.

These new measures represent a major change from the communist regime’s previous “Zero-COVID” policy, which aimed to control and quarantine anyone who either had contact or was in a vicinity close to a COVID patient.

The authorities had in fact issued 20 measures in November in an attempt to ease the policy, but apparently it was not enough and the public didn’t buy it.

Source: Chinese Government Official website, December 7, 2022
http://www.gov.cn/fuwu/2022-12/07/content_5730470.htm.

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

The CCP Tries to Cool Down the Blank Sheets of Paper Protest

As protests against the authorities’ extreme COVID control policy are mushrooming throughout China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been attempting to douse the fire with what appears to be both carrots and sticks. Blank sheets of paper have become a symbol of resistance among those protesting Beijing’s COVID lockdown policies. They are showing up at protests across the nation. In a nation where a protest message could get a person jailed, opponents of the Chinese regime are innovating by using a a blank page to call for change. Thus, the blank sheet of paper has become a symbol of resistance

The CCP issued a tough message through the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC), the top CCP organ in charge of domestic security, and through the judicial system, with a meeting on November 28 to announce it would “resolutely crack down on the infiltration and sabotage activities of hostile forces, and resolutely crack down on illegal and criminal acts that disrupt the social order.”

Truckloads of armed police have been dispatched to Shanghai and Beijing. In Guangzhou, the police have clashed with protesters. Demonstrators have thrown glass bottles at the police, and the police have used tear gas to disperse the protestors.

On the other hand, the central government has also made a conciliatory gesture regarding COVID restrictions. The National Health Commission stated on November 29 that “COVID control should lock down quickly and open up quickly (afterwards)” and “wherever it can open up, it should open up.”

Some local authorities have yielded to protesters’ demands and relaxed COVID controls in certain regions. The Guangzhou government ended the lockdown in Haizhu District on Nov 16 after the public protest. Urumqi in Xinjiang released several residential neighborhoods on Nov 26 after people took to the streets and the Shanghai government announced that on Dec 1, it would end the control in 24 high-risk regions.

Whether the CCP’s “hard and soft” strategy will completely quiet down the protest remains to be seen.

Sources:
1. Chinascope, November 29, 2022
http://chinascope.org/archives/31170
1. The Paper, November 29, 2022
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_20945808
2. China Outlook, November 30, 2022
https://news.creaders.net/china/2022/11/30/2552449.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability