According to China Economic Net, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China is continuing its efforts to clean up and rectify private tech companies. MIIT announced that 43 APPs still have problems of rectification not being thorough, using technical means to counter rectification, and the same problem not being rectified consistently in different regions.
China Economic Network reporters found that many mainstream apps such as WeChat, Aichiyi, Ctrip, have an issue of where to go are on the list. Among them, tech company Tencent alone has four apps involved – Tencent video, enterprise WeChat, Tencent map and WeChat. The problems of 43 APPS are still in “violation of illegal use of call contacts and geographical location permissions,” “harassing users with open screen pop-ups,” and other persistent APP violations. MIIT demanded that rectification of the APPs listed be completed by August 25.
Source: China Economic Net, August 18, 2021
http://www.ce.cn/cysc/tech/gd2012/202108/18/t20210818_36821191.shtml
All posts by ZYH - 8. page
Chinese Tech Giant Tencent to Pour an Additional 50 Billion Yuan into the “Get-Rich-Together Plan”
Following the launch of the “Sustainable Social Value Innovation” strategy with an investment of 50 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion) (in April), Chinese tech giant Tencent announced on August 18 that it would increase its capital by another 50 billion yuan to launch the “Common Prosperity Special Plan” (or “Get-Rich-Together Plan”). The funds will be used to provide continuous assistance in areas such as rural revitalization, increases in income for low-income groups, improvements in the primary health care system, and balanced development of education.
The 10th Conference of the Central Finance Committee, held on August 17, made it clear that common prosperity should be promoted in stages, allowing some people to get rich first. Then the riches should help the poor to get rich.
Source: Techweb, August 19, 2021
http://www.techweb.com.cn/finance/2021-08-19/2854250.shtml
Global Times Editorial: Lessons the Taiwan Authorities Need to Learn from Afghanistan
China’s state-run media, Global Times, published an editorial warning Taiwan that today’s Afghanistan may be tomorrow’s Taiwan. The article stated that, “The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan led to the rapid collapse of the Kabul regime. The U.S. used helicopters to transport diplomats to the airport to flee Kabul while Taliban soldiers poured into the presidential palace. This scene left a deep impression on the world and gave a critical hit to the credibility and reliability of the United States.”
The article said, “Some parts of Asia have felt the hit of the U.S. abandoning the Kabul regime particularly hard, with Taiwan being the first to bear the brunt. Taiwan is undoubtedly the region in Asia that is most heavily dependent on the United States for protection. The DPP authorities have exacerbated this aberrant line of dependence. After the United States abandoned Afghanistan, the situation suddenly turned upside down. The United States left the country alone and only cared about its own withdrawal. Is this some kind of harbinger of Taiwan’s future destiny?”
The article warned: “Once a war breaks out across the strait and the mainland forcefully seizes the island of Taiwan, the United States will have to have much more determination to implement military intervention in Taiwan than it did to to persist in Afghanistan and northern Syria, and not to abandon South Vietnam in 1975.”
“The DPP authorities need to stay awake with their last bit of brain power, and all kinds of the “Taiwan independence” forces that are still dreaming need to be able to wake up. They should understand from the Afghan incident that once a full-scale war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, the resistance of the Taiwan military will collapse in the span of hours. The aid of the U.S. military will not come. The DPP authorities will soon surrender, and some high-ranking officials may escape by plane. Such a situation will be a sure thing.”
Source: Global Times, August 16, 2021
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/44NXKQHceOw
Global Times Editorial: The United States Builds a “Western Wall”; China Should Try to Tear it Down
China’s state-run media published an editorial describing how to break the alliances between the U.S. and other Western countries. Below is an excerpt from the article:
“The U.S. has been instigating controversies together with its key allies over areas such as human rights. Recently, Washington has been pushing WHO to conduct political traceability investigations as a focal point to attack China. Its allies remain as Its main support. At the heart of this circle are the U.S., Europe and Australia, plus Japan, which are often referred to as the “West.” Recently, the Chinese have constantly been using the new term ‘U.S.-West.’
“The United States is trying hard to turn the conflict with China into a conflict between the West and China and the Biden administration is particularly dedicated to this goal.
“The United States strives to take the ideological conflict as a starting point and turn its conflict with China into a struggle between the West and China.
“However, this strategy of the United States has a fatal weakness. That is, it promotes the polarized opposition between China and the West. It goes against the tide of globalization and requires Western countries to sacrifice their own development opportunities and their substantial actual interests.
“This gives China an important opportunity to break the united front between the United States and the West. It is entirely possible for China to use a series of efforts to weaken the consensus on the attitudes of the United States and the West toward China substantially and to turn a large part of the Sino-Western conflicts that the United States hopes to create into contradictions between the United States and other Western countries.
“For this reason, China should first adopt different policies toward the United States and its allies and, at the same time, adopt different policies towards the “Five Eyes Alliance” countries and other Western countries. In the past, China paid more attention to maintaining Sino-US relations. In the future, we should use more resources in this area to deal with European countries and to achieve a directional change in diplomatic strategy.
“We must try to minimize the “China-West conflict” and talk more about the ‘China-U.S. conflict.’ …
“Constantly expanding the scale of Sino-Western economic cooperation is the key. In the past, the United States was the first priority for cooperation. In the future, more attention will go to upgrading the cooperation with Western countries other than the United States. We can now be fully confident that general ideological conflicts cannot stop European countries such as Germany and France from continuing to cooperate with China because the interests involved are too great for those European countries. We must continue to increase the attractiveness of the Chinese market to Western countries, and must not let it stagnate or even shrink.
“China needs to strengthen its efforts to work on the developing countries and continuously increase its bargaining chips in dealing with the West. As China’s national power continues to increase, our ability to do so will also increase. China should unite Russia and the vast number of developing countries to find appropriate opportunities and issues to crush the U.S.’s prestige. That way, most Western countries will see that the United States is not ‘omnipotent’ and ‘permanent.’
“For example, at the (U.N.) Human Rights Council, China has repeatedly defeated anti-China bills that the U.S.-West initiated. It did so by uniting the developing countries. In the future, we should try to make some proactive attacks and jointly strike the United States to give it a blow in the field of human rights.”
Source: Global Times, August 3, 2021
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/44Cxd6d47eI
Xi Jinping’s True Intention Leaked: (China) Must Bring Down the United States
On February 25, 2021, the Propaganda Department of the Qilian County (of Qinghai Province) Party Committee published a speech on its Qilian News website that County Party Committee Secretary He Bin had given. He Bin made the speech at the seminar on studying and implementing the Fifth Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee.
He Bin stated that Xi Jinping announced the political judgment: “A strong West and a weak East is now history … the rising East and the declining West” will be the future. He Bin claimed he understood this message after studying Xi Jinping’s important speech and the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee sentence by sentence.
Regarding the China-US strategic competitions, He Bin revealed that Xi Jinping made these major statements, “The biggest source of chaos in the world today is the United States” and “the United States is the biggest threat to China’s development and security.”
After the news was reported, the article disappeared and is no longer available on the Qilian News website.
Source: NTDTV, March 7, 2021
https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/mkt_ipad/2021/03/07/a103068633.html
China to Increase Military Budget by 6.8 Percent in 2021
On March 7, at the 4th Session of the 13th National People’s Congress, Wu Qian, spokesperson for the PLA and the Armed Police Force delegation said that China’s defense expenditure would be 1,379.544 billion yuan (US$212.4 billion) in 2021, an increase of 6.8 percent over the previous year.
In explaining the reason for the steep increase in the military budget, Wu said, ”A strong country must have a strong army, and a strong army can ensure national security. National defense is as important as sunlight and air. At present, the instability and uncertainty of international security have become more prominent. The Covid-19 epidemic is raging around the world. Hegemonism, power politics, and unilateralism are on the rise from time to time. Regional conflicts and local wars exist continuously. The international security system and order are under attack. The risks and challenges in homeland security that China is facing cannot be ignored. Land border disputes have not yet been completely resolved; island territorial issues and maritime delimitation disputes still exist; the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) authorities stubbornly adhere to the separatist stand of “Taiwan independence,” which is the biggest real threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. In view of the current complex situation, it can be said that the world is not peaceful, and national defense must be strong.”
Source: website of Chinese Defense Ministry, March 8, 2021
http://www.mod.gov.cn/topnews/2021-03/08/content_4880597.htm
Lou Jiwei: China Faces Serious Fiscal Challenges
Lou Jiwei, a prominent politician, and currently the director of the 13th CPPCC Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that China’s fiscal situation is facing serious danger and challenges. Lou Jiwei made a speech on December 22, 2020, on the topic at the Fifth Forum on Finance and National Governance (2020) and the 40th Anniversary Seminar of “Financial Research.” The full text was published in “Financial Research” 2021 (Issue No. 1).
Lou said, “We (China) are facing major changes unseen in a century. The major changes in the internal and external environment, whether it is changes in the domestic economic and social situation, the global economic downturn, high government debt, and global trade frictions, will make our country’s fiscal sustainability face huge uncertainties and severe challenges.”
“The contradiction between fiscal revenue and expenditures is extremely acute, and fiscal pressure is increasing. Since April 2020, the national fiscal expenditure growth rate has continued to accelerate and has greatly exceeded the growth rate of fiscal revenue. Local fiscal pressure has continued to increase. The fiscal deficits of different regions have maintained an expansion trend. In the medium and long term, due to the impact of the (covid-19) epidemic, the decline in the potential economic growth rate, and the global economic downturn, total national fiscal revenue is expected to remain at a low level over the next five years, while the pressure on fiscal expenditures will remain relatively high. Although the optimization of the fiscal expenditure structure can release part of the financial resources, the expansion of fiscal expenditures has not changed. There is little room for the government to reduce general expenditures. It can be said that financial difficulties are not only near-term and short-term issues, but also very difficult in the medium term.”
“From the perspective of debt, the problem of government debt has increasingly become an important factor affecting future fiscal stability and economic security. From 2009 to 2020, the proactive fiscal policy has been implemented for 11 years, the fiscal deficit has continued to expand, and the debt scale has expanded accordingly. The proportion of debt interest payments in the general public budget expenditures continues to rise. The growth rate far exceeds the growth rate of total expenditures. 2017, 2018 and 2019 exceeded the total expenditure growth rate of the year by 16, 10 and 4.5 percent respectively. From January to November 2020, debt interest payments increased by 16.1 percent over the same period in the previous year, which exceeded the growth rate of total expenditure by 15.4 percent. In 2019, the central government debt interest payment accounted for 13 percent of the central government’s expenditures. It is expected to have risen to about 15 percent for 2020. The problem of local debt is even more prominent, and the accrued local government debt has been increasing rapidly. Although increasing debt in the short term can alleviate the pressure of fiscal shortages, it poses greater challenges to the sustainability of local finances in the future. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the debt sustainability of most provinces and municipalities is worrisome. About a quarter of the provincial fiscal revenues will be used for debt service and interest payments. The local government debt problem not only affects the local government’s public service supply capacity, but also accumulates fiscal and financial risks.”
“Aging will also bring severe challenges to the sustainability of our country’s finances. Statistics show that in 2019, (China) had a population of 253.88 million people aged 60 and above, accounting for 18.1percent of the total population, of which 170.03 million were 65 years old and above, accounting for 12.6 percent of the total population. The aging society is accelerating.”
“At the same time, affected by the global economic downturn and global risks, the external uncertainty of fiscal reform and development has increased. … At present, affected by the impact of the epidemic and the spillovers of major countries’ macroeconomic policies, emerging market countries are facing a double blow from the economy and finance. Economic risks are transformed into fiscal risks and financial risks. The risk of falling into a debt crisis is increasing.”
Source: NETEASE, February, 24, 2021
https://www.163.com/dy/article/G3KU1S9Q0531SRGP.html
China’s Military Newspaper Reported Details of Border Clash with India, Claiming Victory
China’s top military newspaper PLA Daily published articles on February 19, which reported in detail the whole process of the military clashes between China and India last year at the West border area of the Karakoram Plateau. The report stated, “Since April 2020, the relevant foreign (India) troops have seriously violated the agreement between our two countries by building roads, bridges and other facilities in the Kalwan Valley area toward the border, deliberately provoking incidents, trying unilaterally to change the status quo of the border control, and even violently attacking China.” The report further disclosed that four Chinese military officers and soldiers died in a fierce fight in June 2020, after the negotiations failed.
The article claimed that the Chinese military came out victorious, “Under the circumstances of unbearable tolerance, the border officers and soldiers resolutely responded to the violent acts and achieved major victories, effectively defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
On February 10, 2021, China’s Defense Ministry’s spokesperson declared that, after 8 months of confrontation, both sides have started to retreat from the border simultaneously.
Sources: PLA Daily, February 19, 2021;
http://www.81.cn/yw/2021-02/19/content_9987403.htm
Sohu, February 10, 2021
https://www.sohu.com/a/450383357_120504280