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China Publishes Tough Law on ‘Taiwan Independence Elements,’ Including Death Penalty

On May 26, 2024, China’s Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, and Ministry of Justice jointly issued a document titled “Opinions on Lawfully Punishing Stubborn ‘Taiwan Independence’ Elements for Crimes of Splitting the State and Incitement of Splitting the State.”

The document defines ‘the crime of splitting the state’ as:

(1) Initiating or establishing “Taiwan Independence” separatist organizations, planning or formulating “Taiwan Independence” separatist action programs, plans, or schemes, or directing members of “Taiwan Independence” separatist organizations or other individuals to engage in activities that split the state or undermine national unity.

(2) Formulating, amending, interpreting, or repealing relevant regulations in the Taiwan region or through “referendums”, in attempt to change the legal status of Taiwan as part of China.

(3) Attempting to create “two Chinas,” “one China, one Taiwan,” or “Taiwan independence” in the international community by promoting Taiwan’s membership in international organizations whose members are limited to sovereign states or through official exchanges or military contacts.

(4) Abusing authority power to extensively distort or falsify the fact that Taiwan is part of China in the fields of education, culture, history, or news media, or suppressing parties, groups, or individuals that support the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and national unity.

(5) Other actions attempting to separate Taiwan from China.

It defines the principal offenders or those with particularly serious crimes shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of more than ten years. Among them, those causing particularly serious harm to the state and the people, as well as those with particularly heinous circumstances, may be sentenced to death. Active participants shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of more than three years but less than ten years. Other participants shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of less than three years, detention, control, or deprivation of political rights.

Source: China Review News, June 21, 2024
https://bj.crntt.com/doc/1069/4/6/0/106946098.html?coluid=7&kindid=0&docid=106946098&mdate=0621155631

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Central Military Commission Tells PLA to Tighten Budget

Due to the sliding economy, Beijing has been asking local governments to keep tight budgets. Now it has also asked the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to do the same.

China’s Central Military Commission recently issued a document titled “Measures on Building the Military with Hard Work and in Thrifty Way, to Improve the Military’s Quality and Efficiency.” The document states that “building the military with hard work and in a thrifty way is the fine tradition of the communist party and military,” and “must not be abandoned at any time or under any circumstances.” It urged the military to “firmly establish the mindset of living with a tight budget, meticulously calculate and manage all endeavors with thrift.” According to the website of China’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the document emphasizes the need to “adopt concepts such as resource constraints, cost-effectiveness, integration of support, performance management, and systematic governance, to enhance the operational efficiency of military systems and the utilization efficiency of defense resources.”

Source: China’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs website, June 20, 2024
https://www.mva.gov.cn/sy/xx/gfxx/202406/t20240621_425230.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

2024 “Praise China” Online Commentary Conference Held in Changsha, Hunan Province

On June 14, 2024, the “Praise China” Online Commentary Innovation Conference was held in Changsha, Hunan Province. Representatives of outstanding authors from the “Praise China” Online Commentary Contest, along with experts, scholars, and media representatives, gathered to discuss and promote innovative methods for the production and dissemination of online commentary that “amplifies China’s positive voice.” The conference was organized by the Cyberspace Administration of China (中央网络安全和信息化委员会办公室) and a few other government agencies.

The 2023 “Praise China” Online Commentary Contest received a total of 88,467 submissions including text, video, and comic commentaries. The content “covered a wide range of topics, including news and current affairs, rural development, economy, livelihood, internet civilization, education, culture, and sports.”

Source: China Daily, June 14, 2024
https://cn.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202406/14/WS666c0265a3107cd55d266f0a.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Huawei Hires TSMC Talents to Build Out Chinese Semiconductor Capabilities

Financial journalist Emmy Hu recently revealed on her Facebook account “Emmy’s Drama Watch Time” (“Emmy追劇時間”) that Huawei is poaching talents from Taiwan’s chipmaker TSMC so that Huawei can expand beyond the telecommunications business into chip manufacturing. Huawei establishes new legal entities for such poaching operations, making it hard for outsiders to connect the dots back to Huawei.

As early as 2022, a TSMC employee informed Emmy Hu that Huawei had been conducting a lot of interviews with TSMC staff. Huawei poached a star TSMC plant manager using a legal entity “Sheng Wei Xu (昇维旭)” which claimed to be manufacturing memory chips. The interview questions posed were all about integrated logic circuits (logic ICs), however, and all the interviewees were Huawei personnel. “Peng Xin Wei (鹏芯微)” is another company established by Huawei. This company moved even faster in purchasing equipment than “Sheng Wei Xu.” Emmy Hu was told that Huawei aimed to poach 300 mid-to-senior level employees at once because Beijing realized that poaching a single person, like Liang Mong Song (currently the CEO of SMIC), would result in slower progress (in terms of setting up manufacturing capabilities) than poaching a larger number of people. According to Emmy, Huawei’s goal is to bring in an entire factory management team to ramp up operations quickly.

Emmy Hu mentioned that two years ago SMIC (a Chinese chipmaker) attempted to produce 7nm chips supporting Huawei’s new Mate60 smartphone, but SMIC could not handle the task by itself. Huawei masterminded the effort, putting to work its resources recruited from Taiwan. Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuits, an independent Chinese company, now follows Huawei’s direction; it used to produce memory chips but now has switched to producing logic ICs. There are now a total of seven such logic IC chip companies working with Huawei; they are refer to the “Seven Little Dragons.”

Source: Facebook, account “Emmy追劇時間,” June 5, 2024
https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=1005948894485371&id=100052108087251&_rdr

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

Jiang Zemin’s Son Jiang Mianheng Demoted at ShanghaiTech University

On June 5, ShanghaiTech University’s website posted a message stating that Jiang Mianheng, son of the former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin, has been demoted. He stepped down from the position of President of the university and has now been appointed to the position of Dean of the university’s Administrative Committee. Feng Donglai, an Academic from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has taken over as the new President.

{Editor’s Note: Jiang Mianheng is 73 years old. This demotion would be less controversial if he had simply retired from the position of President. Giving him a lower position at the same university after his stepping down from being president is fairly humiliating, however.}

Mianheng’s father Jiang Zemin held the top position as leader of the CCP for over a decade (until 2002). He died in November 2022. He was called the “Grand Master of Corruption in the CCP.” Jiang Zhicheng, Jiang Mianheng’s son who was born in 1986, manages the Jiang family’s assets of over 1 trillion yuan (US$140 billion) and is viewed as one of the world’s top hidden tycoon. There have been widespread rumors that Xi Jinping wants to single out the Jiang family as the biggest culprit spreading corruption in China.

Source: Epoch Times, June 5, 2024
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/24/6/5/n14264595.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

“Southern Water” Has Become the Main Water Supply Source Supplying Beijing

China has a South–North Water Transfer Project to channel fresh water from the Yangtze River in southern China to the more arid and industrialized north, with Beijing as one of the destinations for water transfer. Xinhua reported that by June 12, the project has transferred 10 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing since December 2014 when the first phase of the project started operation.

According to Xinhua, the “southern water” piped in from the Yangtze has met the water quality requirement and directly benefited over 16 million people. It has become the main water supply source for Beijing. However, despite the “southern water” supplying Beijing, the megacity continues to face a severe water shortage.

Source: Xinhua, June 12, 2024
http://www.news.cn/politics/20240612/8bbcbe099a2c44b991261c19d9d1b2fa/c.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

People’s Daily: “Technological Weapons” to Prevent Cheating in the College Entrance Exam

China holds national college entrance exams once a year. Over 13 million people took the exam in 2024.  People’s Daily published an article introducing the idea of using “technological weapons” to prevent cheating on the exam.

  • Beijing has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform to monitor the exam rooms to identify student cheating and mass incidents (incidents involving many people, e.g. protests).
  • Shanxi Province created a system to ensure that mobile devices cannot “be brought in, used, or send signals out.”
  • Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province set up an AI check gate to prevent students from bringing any electronic equipment into the exam.
  • Henan Province “cleaned out” those local markets that sell cheating equipment. It also set up electromagnetic systems to inspect vehicles, houses, and people for radio transmission equipment and to check radio signals in the relevant frequency bands.

Source: People’s Daily, June 7, 2024
http://edu.people.com.cn/BIG5/n1/2024/0607/c1006-40252243.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

People’s Daily: Help Graduates Create New Career Concept

As college graduates in China are having a hard time landing jobs, People’s Daily published an article suggesting that graduates “reset their career perceptions.”

The article acknowledged that college graduates are facing “employment difficulties.” However, certain small cities and rural areas and certain industries have “recruitment difficulties” and “labor shortages” — according to People’s Daily, the “job paradox” is due to graduates’ (possibly unrealistic) preferences for jobs with internet platform enterprises, technology companies, modern service industries, or government jobs. Among the 2024 job-seeking graduates, 62 percent want to work in state-owned enterprises or government agencies, the article reported.

The article’s proposed solution to the difficulties facing graduates is to “mobilize the government, universities, and companies to change students’ job perspective.” The government should increase its promotional efforts and actively guide college graduates to adopt new career perspectives; universities should actively develop new career concept training and labor education courses, strengthen school-enterprise connections, take companys’ order to train students with specific, targeted skills; companies should expand career development opportunities and enhance their attractiveness; families should create a diligent and progressive atmosphere for their children’s healthy growth and future career development; and university graduates should be independent and face the reality.

{Editor’s Notes: China produces around 10 million college graduates each year, and there are just not enough white-collar jobs to employ all of them. On the other hand, manufacturers face shortage of labors. Jobs in manufacturing, however, are not only low paid (many have been filled by migrant workers, i.e. rural peasants who have migrated to cities) but also lack in job security (as many employers in the manufacturing sector face the pressure of a tough economy and the squeeze from the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) that the government wants to expand).}

Sources: People’s Daily, June 14, 2024
http://theory.people.com.cn/n1/2024/0614/c40531-40256286.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources