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U.S. and China Compete for Submarine Cable System for African Countries

Russian media Sputnik reported that the U.S. and China are competing on building a submarine Internet cable system for the African countries. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his visit to Africa that the U.S. was raising money to build such a cable network to connect Africa to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe. This will be one of the first projects under the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) initiative, which was offered by the G7 to counter China’s expansion.

On the other hand, China has started its own “Peace” cable project, which starts from Pakistan, then moves to the East African, Africa continent, and then to Europe. The second phase of the project will connect South Africa and Singapore.

China has provided a lot of capital to build telecom infrastructure in Africa. These network projects have established Chinese companies’ dominance in Africa, especially Huawei and ZTE. Huawei has built or is building millions of digital processing centers and offered cloud computing services in many African countries, including Zimbabwe, Senegal, Zambia, Togo, Tanzania, Mozambique, Mali, and Madagascar.

Sputnik quoted a Russian expert who predicted that China will win the competition against the U.S.

Source: Sputnik, August 20, 2022
https://sputniknews.cn/20220820/1043236644.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

China Opens a Direct Shipping Route to Scotland

China and the United Kingdom opened a direct shipping route between the two countries. The route starts at China’s Ningbo Port, Zhejiang Province and ends at Greencok, Scotland.

Six freight ships, each can carry 1,600 containers. They , will run on this route. Since it avoids the traffic jam at the Rotterdam port, the entire shipping duration is cut down from 60 days to 33 days.

The Greenock Ocean Terminal started operating in 1969. It can handle 100,000 containers in a year.

Source: BBC, August 28, 2022
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-62704644

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

China Will Attend Russia’s Military Exercises

Despite the Western world’s sanctioning of Russia for invading Ukraine, China maintains closer ties with Russia. One of its recent actions is to plan to join Russia’s military exercise.

China’s Ministry of Defense announced on August 17 that it will send troops to join Russia’s military exercise “Vostok” (East) exercises from August 30 to September 5.

The announcement stated, “China’s participation in the exercise is aimed at deepening practical and friendly cooperation with the armies of the participating countries, improving strategic collaboration, strengthening the ability to respond to various security threats, and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation.”

Russia rotates its military exercises among its military theaters every year. It held the military drill in its west theater in September last year. Belarus, India, Pakistan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Sri Lanka participated in it.

Source:
1. China Government Ministry of Defense Website, August 17, 2022
http://www.mod.gov.cn/topnews/2022-08/17/content_4918561.htm?yikikata=7593b487-e571aa197f9a58947e98a2458a2124be
2. Net Ease, July 28, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HDBIKM3H0514R9OJ.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

Discrepancy in China-Europe Railway Express Statistics Shows Heavy Shipping from China to Russia

Epoch Times found that the shipping data of the China-Europe Railway Express revealed that China has increased its shipping on the railways, mainly to Russia, but not to other European counties.

Xinhua News reported that, by August 21, in China 10,000 trains had departed on the China-Europe Railway Express, the railway connecting China to Europe through Russia. It took China ten more days last year to reach this target. China shipped out 972,000 standard containers this year, a 5 percent increase over last year.

However, Deutsche Welle reported on July 20 that European countries (excluding Russia and Ukraine) only received 25 percent of the shipping capacity this year as compared to last year’s level, quoting the supply change report from the internally renowned accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers. The report said that there were 15,000 trains with 1.5 million standard containers on this railway last year, averaging 27,500 containers per week. However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,  out of the concern for sanctions and merchandise being confiscated, European countries have stopped shipping from Russia over this train line, though is still in operation.

The China-Europe Railway Express has two routes. The northern route goes through Russia. The southern route goes through Kazakhstan and then to Russia. European countries used the first part of the southern route and then after arriving in Kazakhstan, they transit goods through Asabaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, or to the Caspian Sea via Baku, Azerbaijan. The new router can only ship 6,000 containers per week, less than 25 percent of last year’s capacity on the China-Europe Railway Express.

Economist Davy Jun Huang explained that the discrepancy in shipping data is between the starting point and the receiving point. Beijing has an increase in shipping but Europe (excluded Russia and Ukraine) receives less than 25 percent of the shipping capacity, meaning the majority of shipping ends in Russia.

Xinhua News also reported the returning shipping is about 88 percent of the departing shipping, indicating Russia might have exported a large quantity of agricultural products to China. That ratio was 50.6 percent in 2016.

Source: Epoch Times, August 22, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/8/22/n13807912.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Military Recruiting Targets Science and Technology College Graduates

China’s Ministry of Defense announced that it will recruit more college graduates into the armed forces to boost its education quality.

At a Ministry of Defense press conference on August 25, Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, the military spokesperson, talked about China’s new military recruiting this year, “According to the recruitment order issued by the State Council and (the Chinese Communist Party’s) Central Military Commissions, the military will recruit soldiers twice this year. The second half-year recruitment started on August 15 and will end by September 30. The recruitment is targeting college students, focusing on college graduates at all levels, with priority given to science and technology students and skilled personnel who are needed to prepare for war. … The age limit for masters’ graduates and college students has been raised to under 26 years old (it used to be 24 years). To encourage high-quality youth actively and enthusiastically to apply for enlistment, the relevant departments of the military continue to implement a series of preferential policies for enlisted college students to retain their schooling or school enrollment status, receive state education subsidies, be able to switch their college major after retiring from the military (some colleges have restrictions on students switching their major), exempt from tertiary school to college entrance exam, and receive extra points in graduate study entrance exam.”

Some commentators said that Beijing did this as part of improving its military quality and part of releasing the unemployment stress for college graduates. China’s National Statistics Bureau reported the unemployment rate as 19.9 percent for youth who are between the age of 16 and 24.

Source:
1. Net Ease, August 26, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HFN1FSVN0530SFP3.html
2. People’s Daily, August 15, 2022
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0815/c1004-32502731.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Seventeen Ministries Issued Joint-Notice to Encourage Chinese to Have More Babies

China is facing a severe population drop. According to the China Business Network’s report, China had 10.62 million newborn babies in 2021, a significant decrease from the 18.83 million in 2016.

On July 25, seventeen ministerial-level agencies in China issued a joint notice to encourage Chinese people to have more babies. The agencies include the National Health Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Chinese Communist Party, the Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the People’s Bank, to name just a few.

The notices mentioned the need to improve services for pregnancy, child health, education, job finding, and a number of other issues. It also stressed a need to increase childcare services and reduce its cost.

However, Epoch Times reported that many online responses to the notice stated that the real reason that people do not want to have a baby is not the lack of childcare services but the overall high cost of raising a child from birth to college.

Sources:
1. China National Health Commission Website, August 16, 2022
http://www.nhc.gov.cn/rkjcyjtfzs/s7785/202208/9247dd64744c42df9522c4fa2cb78e42.shtml
2. Epoch Times, August 17, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/8/17/n13804712.htm
3. China Business Network, January 17, 2022
https://www.yicai.com/news/101291490.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Xi Jinping Talked about “Common Prosperity”

Xi Jinping promoted the “common prosperity” concept last summer but then the media cooled down on it for about a year. Recently, he started talking about it again.

There have been doubts about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intended to do. Its practice in the past was to confiscate the wealth from the rich and redistribute it to the people or to the “government” (the officials themselves). Chinascope has a deep analysis on this topic: Common Prosperity and Xi’s Desire to Be China’s “Greatest Leader (”http://chinascope.org/archives/28655  http://chinascope.org/archives/28655)

On August 15, People’s Daily republished Xi Jinping’s speech given on January 28, 2021.at the twenty-seventh collective study of the 19th Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Political Bureau, His speech made five points:

  1. Implement new development concepts (innovation, coordination, green, open, and sharing)
  2. Focus on common prosperity.
  3. Continue deepening reform and opening up.
  4. Have the systematic (big picture) view.
  5. View things from a political angle.

On August 16, when visiting Northeastern China, Xi Jinping talked about common prosperity. Xi said that Chinese-style modernization is not just for a few people. Rather all people will be rich.

Source:
1. People’s Daily, August 15, 2022
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0815/c1024-32502880.html
2. China’s Official Government Site, August 17, 2022
http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2022-08/17/content_5705661.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Russian Formal Military Chief of Staff Praised DJI Drones as a “Real Revolution” in Artillery War

The Russian Embassy placed a post on Weibo of the quotes from a new book by former Russian Military Chief of Staff General Yuri Baluyevsky. The Russian general praised Dajiang’s (DJI’s) drones and said that they have brought a real revolution to the usage of traditional artillery, completely solving the issues of detecting the target, directing the aim, and correcting fire. Their accuracy and efficiency are comparable to those of precision-guided missiles.

The general said DJI’s “Mavic quadcopter has become a true symbol of modern warfare.”

The posting was based on the Russian media Sputnik.

DJI immediately responded that its products are for civilian usage. Later, the Russian Embassy removed this posting.

Source: Net Ease, August 15, 2022
https://c.m.163.com/news/a/HERL2TJF05159GSR.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend