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China’s Armed Police Trained Cuba’s Black Berets

On August 3, 2021, the Russian news agency Sputnik reported that, in February 2021, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) appears to have sent a group of China’s Armed Police officers to Cuba to train the Cuban Black Berets, a special forces unit under the Cuban Ministry of the Interior. Beijing Today reported the Sputnik article. Information from the U.S. media indicates that Black Berets played a crucial role in squashing the unprecedented protests in Cuba last month.

According to Beijing Today, the Sputnik article shows group photos of Chinese Armed Police officers and Cuban Black Berets. In the pictures, the Black Berets are holding Russian SVD sniper rifles. The Chinese officers were training the Black Berets on sniper rifle shooting.

An article that Beijing Today posted stated that experts believe China’s dispatch of experienced instructors to Cuba has taught the White House a lesson. It stated that the training solidified the combat capabilities of these elite forces in the Cuban Ministry of the Interior. It is not a good thing for the United States.

This was not the first media report indicating that China provided military training to Cuba. On May 27, 2010, the CCP media China Central TV (CCTV), broadcasted on its military channel (Junshi Jishi) a program on training Cuba’s Black Berets titled, “Chinese Armed Police as ‘Foreign Teachers.’” From November 2008 to January 2009, in 55 days, four Chinese Armed Police officers taught the Cuban Black Berets mixed martial arts, hostage rescue, and handling “large scale riots” to close to a hundred Cuban students. The training was held at the training base for the special forces of the Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to the CCTV program, senior generals from the Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs awarded “Special Contribution” medals (“extremely high honors”) to the Chinese officers.

In 2016, China’s Armed Police in the Ningxia Autonomous Region (central-north China) also sent instructors to Cuba. From April 19 to May 21, 2016, they provided training across six categories to the Cuban special forces. The Chinese media reports show group photos of the Chinese officers and the Cuban Black Berets. The purpose of the trip was to “consolidate the traditional friendship between the Armed Police Force and the Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs along with its affiliated police forces, and to deepen the practical cooperation between the two parties.” China’s Armed Police instructors “demonstrated excellent military skills and good style. They also successfully completed the glorious and arduous training tasks assigned by the heads of the [Chinese Communist] Party committees at the headquarters.” Again, the Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs awarded “Special Contribution” medals to the Chinese officers.

Sources:
1. Beijing Today, August 4, 2021
http://www.beijingtoday.com.cn/military/573216

2. China News, May 28, 2010
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/news/2010/05-28/2311268.shtml

3. China Military, May 27, 2016
http://www.js7tv.cn/news/201605_46656.html; more group photos at https://kknews.cc/zh-cn/military/og2yge6.html

 

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Former CCP Official: What’s behind the Latest Round of the CCP’s Anti-U.S. Propaganda?

On August 4, 2021, People’s Daily, a media mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) published a strongly worded commentary against the United States. From July 20 to August 4, 2021, the CCP’s mouthpiece issued a total of 16 anti-U.S. commentaries, one a day. According to analysts, this is extremely rare in the 42 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. These commentaries are under the pen name “Zhong Sheng” (or central voice, the homophone in Chinese, i.e., the voice of the CCP Central Committee).

In his article on August 5, 2021, Dr. Wang Youqun, the primary speechwriter for Wei Jianqun, former CCP  Politburo standing member, explained the reasons behind China’s intensive anti-U.S. campaign. The recent anti-U.S. propaganda campaign launched by the CCP is part of the CCP’s new strategy to confront the United States and it helps to avert attention from the escalating domestic conflicts the CCP is facing.

According to Dr. Wang, the CCP’s strategy toward the United States has gone, roughly, through three stages: confronting the United States from the establishment of the CCP in 1949 to the visit of U.S. President Nixon on February 21, 1972; manipulating the United States from 1972 until the overall deterioration of Sino-US relations in 2020; confronting the United States from 2020 to the present.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 (or “CCP virus”) spread from Wuhan to the United States, it caused the worst blow since World War II to all aspects of the U.S. economy, politics, and social life. Meanwhile, in 2020, the CCP made several moves against the United States. These actions  include the CCP warship military exercise at Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean from January to February 2020; the announcement of the completion of the “Fortress Area” for strategic nuclear submarines in the South China Sea in March 2020; the announcement of the completion of deployment of China’s spacecraft in June 2020; the launching of the most intensive military exercises in more than 40 years from the Bohai Sea, to the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the South China Sea, and the mainland in July 2020.

On January 11, 2021, Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the Party School of the Central Committee. He stated, “The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century.” The general trend of the world is “rising in the east and falling in the west.” “but the times and trends are on our side” and “the side of the world today. The biggest source of chaos is in the United States.” “The United States is the biggest threat to my country’s development and security.” . . .

These statements set the official tone for the CCP’s strategic shift toward confronting the United States. During the Sino-U.S. Tianjin talks on July 25-26, 2021, the CCP fiercely bombarded the United States, indicating that the CCP’s strategy against the United States has taken shape.

Dr. Wang also believed that the CCP launched the recent anti-U.S. propaganda campaign to divert attention from domestic conflicts.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. For centuries, the CCP has suppressed its people with “high pressure” means.  Today, the following social, economic and political conflicts have reached an unprecedented level in a number of ways:

  • Conflicts among top CCP leaders and factions, Xi Jinping, Jiang Zemin, the Communist Youth League group, the CCP elders, CCP princelings, and others on the redistribution of power at the 20th National Congress of the CCP;
  • Conflicts between the current CCP leadership and those senior officials investigated and disciplined for corruption;
  • Conflicts between the CCP and business interests such as those behind Ant Group who are prohibited from listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong, those behind the Didi Chuxing Company that the CCP cracked down on within days of its IPO in Wall Street, and the investors behind the education and training companies recently restricted from public financing;
  • Conflicts between the very few powerful families of the CCP leadership that have monopolized China’s most profitable industries and the more than 600 million people with a monthly income of only 1,000 yuan ($154.24);
  • Conflicts with the Hong Kong people; and
  • Conflicts with the persecuted groups such as the Uyghurs, Christians, Falun Gong, human rights lawyers, private entrepreneurs, citizen journalists, the 1989 Tiananmen massacre survivors, pro-democracy activists, and many other groups.

Source: Epoch Times, August 4, 2021

https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/8/4/n13139401.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

RFI: Brief Pro-U.S. Experience of a National CCP Advocate

Jin Canrong, a professor at Renmin University of China, is known for his aggressive anti-American stance. He has national fame as an “anti-American pioneer” and a diehard advocate for the Chinese Communist Party.  Many people put him alongside Fudan University professor Zhang Weiwei and Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin.

For example, on July 20, heavy rains in Henan flooded the Zhengzhou subway and the entire Beijing-Guangzhou tunnel. According to local authorities, hundreds of cars were submerged with at least 300 fatalities.

On the morning of July 23, Jin Canrong posted on weibo, “In addition to natural disasters and man-made disasters, we need to be wary of another possibility; that is, an attack by weather weapons of a hostile country.” He meant that the United States may have triggered the Henan flood using weather weapons.

On the evening of the same day, Jin surprised many with a weibo posting that showed  him having dinner with a U.S. embassy diplomat.

He was “invited to have dinner with the new political officer of the U.S. Embassy, ​​Mr. Su Weiguang [the Chinese name of the diplomat], and they exchanged views on Sino-US relations and the Taiwan issue. …”

Jin Canrong also posted a photo of himself and the U.S. diplomat.

Jin Canrong’s aggressive stance on the United States is well known such that his two postings have caused an uproar in public opinion among Chinese netizens.

“What a day Jin Canrong had! He was tough as a nail when scolding the American imperialist during the day and thoroughly enjoyed a big dinner that the American imperialist paid for at night. Work hard at sunrise and rest at sunset.”

“During the day, everything is work as part of his official duties. At night it is life and a personal relationship!”

In response to public criticism against the posting on the U.S. weather weapon, Jin Canrong defended it. “I just saw the posting. I did not know who wrote it.” Jin’s weibo account is maintained by Beijing ceskywebsolutionsco., ltd., of which Raojin owns 97 percent.  Jin said that the posting on U.S. weather weapons was ghost-written by his fan at the direction of Raojin.

Fang Zhouzi, a well-known science writer, had a question:

“Has Jin Canrong rebelled? He posted a weibo suggesting that the heavy rain in Henan was an attack that the U.S. ‘weather weapon made.’ After having dinner with a U.S. political officer, he came out clean, saying that the weibo posting was written by his team partner, and he did not know anything about it. What other microblogs he posts are ghost-written by others? That team seems to be Hu Xijin’s partner’s team. Are Hu Xijin’s postings also ghost-written by someone else?”

Source: Radio France Internationale, July 27, 2021

https://rfi.my/7bdr

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Leaked Files Show: Beijing Is Sinicizing Religions to Control its People

Beijing has been actively transforming religions in order to further its political agenda.

Last February, China’s National Religious Affairs Administration released the regulations called, “Measures for the Administration of Religious Personnel.” Under the regulations, religious groups must follow the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) leadership, publicize the CCP’s directives and policies, and also educate and guide religious believers to support the CCP’s leadership and the socialist system.

Leaked documents from the Chinese Communist Party in Liaoning Province reveal more efforts have been underway to sinicize religions.

The United Front Work Department of the Kuandian County CCP Committee in Liaoning Province disclosed in an internal document dated January 3, 2020, that it would step up efforts to sinicize the Bible.  The document said that it is inevitable to sinicize Christianity and that Christian groups must proactively include core socialist values in their religious activities.

The United Front Work Department of the Dandong City CCP Committee in Liaoning Province stated in an internal document dated May 8, 2020, that, the primary task in sinicizing religions is to “guide religions to adhere to the correct political direction.”

Other CCP documents from Dandong showed that in 2020, local authorities organized a training course titled “Dandong City’s Adherence to the Sinicization of Buddhism” with the theme, “Love the country and love religion, and be a qualified monk in the new era.” These documents also disclosed that the CCP held a number of lectures and preaching competitions, which were “guided by the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party” and resolutely promoted the “sinicization of religions.”

The CCP’s internal documents show that the CCP requires that religions support the CCP leadership and control, and engage in CCP political activities. The Civil Religious Affairs Bureau of Yuanbao District, Dandong City, stated in a work report on April 14, 2021, that [people must] “promote the sinicization of religion and promote the patriotism of religious staff.” The Puji [Buddhist] Palace in Dandong recently laid a wreath in the Korean War Memorial Hall in memory of Chinese soldiers who died in support of North Korea.  Documents also disclosed that on October 25, 2020, the Kuandian County Christian Church celebrated the 70th anniversary of the CCP victory in the 1949 Korean War, as the church conducted its Sunday Christian activity.

Source: Epoch Times, June 18, 2021

https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/6/18/n13031727.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Beijing Sends its Spies as Media Reporters

A former CCP media official revealed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sends its intelligence officers as media reporters to spy on the host countries.

During a recent interview, Cheng Kai, former chief correspondent at People’s Daily in Shenzhen and editor-in-chief of Hainan Daily, stated that, based on his experience during the 1980s, over half of the reporters that the CCP media send overseas are intelligence officers.

Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily are minister-level organizations. Other national newspapers such as Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, Farmers’ Daily (Nongmin Ribao), and Workers’ Daily (Gongren Ribao) are deputy ministerial-level organizations. These media are authorized to send reporters overseas. When in the host country, they have considerable responsibilities to collect intelligence for the CCP.

Cheng recounted a memorial service for a former colleague, a People’s Daily reporter stationed in Algeria who died in a car accident. In addition to the president and editor-in-chief of People’s Daily, CCP leaders in charge of intelligence also attended the memorial service. It turned out that the former colleague was a spy and a People’s Daily reporter.

In the 1980s, People’s Daily had over 40 branches overseas. About half of its overseas reporters were officials from the CCP intelligence organization. With a reporter’s pass, it was convenient to interview people in the host countries. These so-called reporters spent most of their time collecting intelligence. One would not see them publish any news reports for as long as a year.

According to Cheng, if a reporter from People’s Daily or Xinhua contacts someone for an interview, the person should first ask himself whether the reporter is a Chinese intelligence officer.

Even reporters from Chinese regional newspapers may be state agents. For example, during his tenure as editor-in-chief of Hainan Daily, the Hainan Provincial CCP Committee directed Cheng to issue 20 Hainan Daily reporter identification cards, 10 to the Hainan Provincial Public Security Department, and 10 to its State Security Department. Cheng did not know who would hold these reporter ID cards. He was assured that he would not be held responsible for the actions of these 20 “reporters.” The CCP would make sure he would not be aware of any activities of these “reporters.’ He believed that these individuals were state agents who were spying on political dissidents.

Source: Epoch Times, June 25, 2021.

https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/6/11/n13015628.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Adopts Anti-espionage Regulation Targeting “Hostile Forces”

On April 26, 2021, China’s Ministry of State Security released a new anti-espionage regulation, which was to be effective immediately. The regulation allows the national security authority to draw up lists of companies and organizations susceptible to foreign infiltration, treating a broad range of entities, including potentially universities and private businesses, as if they are sensitive government agencies.

The regulation specifies that agencies, social groups, enterprises, public institutions, and other social organizations are primarily responsible for the unit’s anti-espionage security work.

On April 26, 2021, officials from the Ministry of State Security explained to the press, “Overseas espionage and intelligence agencies and hostile forces have intensified their infiltration into China, with more diverse methods and in broader fields, which pose a serious threat to China’s national security and interests.”

At the same time, “the core and vital areas still have issues such as which organizations bear the primary responsibilities for anti-espionage security and prevention measures that are not institutionalized.”  Officials from the Ministry of State security said that the regulation clarifies “what, who and how” to guard against foreign espionage.

According to the regulation, the Ministry of State Security will provide companies and organizations susceptible to foreign infiltration with work manuals, guides, and other publicity and education materials. The authorities will also issue written guidance, organize trainings, hold work meetings, and supervise anti-espionage work using different methods such as reminders and advice.

Under the regulation, the companies, organizations, or social groups have the responsibility of rolling out detailed measures against foreign espionage. The measures identified in the regulation include arranging their working staff to sign letters of commitment before taking up posts, reporting their activities related to national security, briefing personnel ahead of their trips overseas, and interviewing them after their return to China.

Sources:
1. People’s Daily, April 26, 2021
http://legal.people.com.cn/n1/2021/0426/c205462-32088423.html

2. Xinhua, April 26, 2021
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2021-04/26/c_1127376250.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Government/Politics

Bank of China: Economic Slowdown in the Next 30 Years Due to Demographic Transition

The Bank of China, the central bank of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), recently published a paper dated March 26, 2021. The paper warned that the aging population and declining birthrate are more severe in China than in developed countries and that China will face far more severe challenges for a long time into the future.

China’s economic growth will slow down.

First, there will be a reduction in the working population. China’s economic growth has been under the reform and opening up of production.  A demographic dividend transformed China’s economic growth. Since 2010, the Chinese economy has entered a new norm with declining potential output, directly caused by the decline in the labor force. It is estimated that from 2020 to 2050, the working population will decrease year by year at a rate of more than 0.5 percent and by 2050 it will have dropped by 15.2 percent compared to 2019. In 2010 the working population was 74.5 percent of the total population By 2019, it fell to 70.6 percent. It will be 64.6 percent by 2035 and 59.8 percent by 2050.

Second, the burden of elderly care is growing. The elderly dependency ratio, the ratio of the elderly population (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64), will reach 36 percent. It was 17.8 percent in 2019 and is expected to be 32.0 percent and 43.6 percent by 2035 and 2050, respectively. If calculated based on retirement at the age of 60 (that is, no delay in retirement), the elderly dependency ratio will rise to 49.8 percent and 67.6 percent, respectively. It means one worker will need to support 0.5 and 0.7 elderly, respectively. Further, government pension expenditures as a proportion of GDP have risen rapidly. They were at 5.3 percent in 2019, an increase of 4.5 percentage points from 1990. As the old-age dependency ratio increases in the future, this expenditure will continue to rise.

Third, China will face low growth, low-interest rates, low inflation, and high debt. China’s demographic transition means that more people are consuming and fewer people are producing, which leads to economic stagnation, weak consumer prices, and declining asset prices. It will be very similar to the current situation of low growth, low-interest rates, low inflation, and high debt in Japan, Italy, and other countries. Moreover, the situation in China may be more difficult because of the faster population transition, with a growing aging population and declining birthrate.

The central bank paper said, “The economic gap with the United States will continue.”

The paper continued, pointing out that while China is facing the acceleration of its aging population and a declining birth rate, the U.S. population is undergoing favorable changes due to immigration and other reasons.

While the population in China is declining, the United States’ population is increasing. The United Nations predicts that, by the year 2050, the United States’ population will increase by 50 million, compared to 2019, an increase of 15 percent, while China will decrease by approximately 32 million in the same period, a decrease of 2.2 percent.

Fourth, China’s working population has been decreasing while the U.S. working population has been increasing. It is estimated that in 2035 and 2050, the size of China’s working population will drop by 4.6 percent and 15.2 percent from 2019, while the United States will grow by 2.4 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively, for the same periods. In terms of the ratio between the working population and the total population, China and the United States were 70.6 percent and 65.2 percent, respectively, in 2019. China will be 5.4 percentage points higher than that of the United States; in 2035, the gap will be reduced to 3.2 percentage points; in 2050, China will be lower than the United States by 1.3 percentage points.

Fifth, China’s elderly care burden is increasing faster than that of the United States. In 2019, China’s elderly dependency ratio was 17.8 percent and the United States was 24.8 percent, and China was seven percentage points lower than the United States. In 2035, the two countries will be basically the same. In 2050, China will be seven percentage points higher than the United States.

Sixth, China’s population structure will be very different from that of the United States. By 2050, China’s population distribution will be narrower at the bottom with fewer children and a shrinking working population in the middle, but wider at the top with a larger elderly population. For the United States, the bottom and middle of its population structure will be much wider, showing more young people and more working-age people. The top will be narrower, showing a smaller elderly population.

The central bank paper asked, “If, in the past 40 years, China had been able to narrow the economic gap with the United States by relying on cheap labor and substantial demographic dividends, then what would China rely on in the next 30 years?”

Sources:

1. Bank of China, March 26, 2021
http://www.pbc.gov.cn/redianzhuanti/118742/4122386/4122692/4214189/4215394/2021032618473569432.pdf

2. China.com, April 14, 2021
https://finance.china.com/domestic/11173294/20210415/37251654.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources US-China Relations

Chinese Scholar: Buddhism Used as a Tool of Diplomacy

The primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that Liu Yuguang, a mainland China scholar on Buddhism, warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses Buddhism as a diplomacy tool in order to expand its influence over Southeast Asian governments.

Liu Yuguang, an associate professor at the School of Philosophy, Fudan University, Shanghai, made these remarks at a lecture on Buddhism that the Institute of East Asian Studies of National Chengchi University held in Taiwan.

According to Liu, the CCP is attempting to legitimize its claim that China is a “Buddhist power” by touting the fact that the total number of Buddhist believers in mainland China exceeds those in other Southeast Asian countries. Also, since Buddhism in India has declined, the CCP has been promoting China as the “new motherland of Buddhism.” It is part of the CCP’s internal propaganda that “Buddhism is the Chinese people’s religion,” which is used to stoke nationalism. However, although the CCP provides some breathing space for Buddhism, it is a quid pro quo. “I let you live, so you have to serve me.”

While domestically, the CCP views religions as a national security matter, such as subversion, secession, and religious terrorism, it has not neglected turning Buddhism into a diplomacy tool for foreign relations.

According to Liu, the CCP has realized that Confucius Institutes outside China have failed as a large-scale foreign propaganda tool because people think that “after all, they [Confucius Institutes] are merely about Chinese.” To expand the CCP’s influence effectively, it has turned to Buddhism as a propaganda tool in its attempts to influence Southeast Asian countries’ believers in Buddhism and their governments. Because Buddhism is practiced throughout Asia, the CCP believes that using Buddhism in its diplomacy will eventually help influence the Asian governments.

For example, the CCP has established religious educational institutions in mainland China such as the Nanhai Buddhist Academy on Hainan Island. The purpose is not to offer training to domestic religious communities but to attract monks from Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia and Laos. The religious educational institutions help the CCP cultivate relationships with Southeast Asian countries and ultimately use religion to influence political circles in Southeast Asian countries and to lobby and promote bilateral relations on terms favorable to China.

Source: CNA, April 1, 2021.
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202104010249.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend