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Global Millionaire Migration Report Released

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that the newly released Henley & Partners report revealed the 2022 global high-income population inflow and outflow data forecasts. The research looked at people with wealth of US$1 million or more, and is about true migration, that is, those who spend more than half of their time in a new country for the year. Data shows that with the advent of the post-epidemic era, more and more high-income families have begun to choose investment immigration. Around 88,000 millionaires are expected to emigrate by the end of 2022, and this number will continue to rise, with 2023 expected to be the largest year of millionaire immigration to date, a whopping 125,000. Forecast data in the report shows that the top ten countries with net inflows of HNWIs (high net-worth individuals) in 2022 will be the UAE, Australia, Singapore, Israel, Switzerland, the U.S., Portugal, Greece, Canada and New Zealand. Plenty of millionaires also expected to turn to Malta, Mauritius and Monaco. On the other hand, the top 10 countries and territories with the largest net outflows of HNWIs are expected to be Russia, China, India, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Brazil, UK, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

Source: NetEase, June 29, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HB1919520552RBV8.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Social Stability

Global Times: U.S. Air Force F-35A Stealth Fighters Deployed to South Korea

Global Times recently reported that the South Korean Ministry of Defense said six fifth-generation F-35A fighter jets from Elson Air Force Base in Alaska have been deployed to South Korea and are scheduled to conduct joint exercises with the South Korean Air Force. According to the report, this is the first time in five years that the U.S. Air Force F-35A stealth fighter has been deployed to the Korean peninsula . The South Korean Ministry of Defense claimed that the joint exercise was aimed at demonstrating the strong deterrence and joint defense posture of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, while improving the interoperability between the South Korean and the U.S. air forces. In December 2017, the U.S. military first publicly deployed F-35As to South Korea. In addition to the F-35A, the U.S. military also invested in the F-22 “Raptor” stealth fighter and B-1B strategic bomber at that time, and launched the “Vigilant ACE” Korea-US joint air exercise.

Source: Global Times, July 5, 2022
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/48hYWNSqhOi

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s “Foreclosed Houses” Surge; Local Government’s Finances Are in Danger

Because of the impact of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s’) zero-COVID policy, many cities in China have been locked down. This has resulted in an economic recession, corporate layoffs, falling housing prices and an Increase in foreclosed houses and properties for residents and for business owners.

Recently, Chinese netizens revealed that, according to the bank’s financial system risk control meeting, there are nearly 40 million houses nationwide for which the mortgages have not been paid. More than 10 million foreclosed homes have been or are being auctioned off.

According to a report that the China’s National Finance and Development Laboratory released on June 29, the number of foreclosures increased from 500,000 units in 2019 to more than 1.6 million units in 2021.

In China, it takes about two years from the time a house’s mortgage is not paid until the house is sold at an auction. There will be more and more houses auctioned off in the future.

Real estate itself accounts for about 8 percent of China’s annual GDP growth. Incorporating the related industries, this results in an addition of up to 20 to 30 percent of China’s GDP. About 1/3 of the local government’s fiscal revenue comes from the sale of its land. Due to the downturn in the real estate market, land sales will certainly not do well. The local government’s finances are facing a dangerous situation.

Source: Newtalk, June 28, 2022.                                                                                                                                                                     https://tw.news.yahoo.com/斷供潮來了-中國-法拍房-暴增-房市面臨崩盤危機-053638657.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Document: Government Sanctioned Forced Adoption of Illegally Born Children

In the past, when China enforced its family planning policy, parents who had children who were born illegally were often fined. A document that recently circulated on the Internet revealed a policy in which a local government office has taken those “illegal” children away  for “rearrangement.” The document, dated July 1 and bearing the seal of the Health Bureau of Quanzhou County in Guangxi province, is an official response to a petition letter filed by a resident who reported a child abduction case.

The Health Bureau of Quanzhou replied that, according to the family planning policy enforced in the 1990s, the Quanzhou county government made the decision to “select” a child for “rearrangement” if the child was born in violation of the laws or regulations and policies on family planning. It ”was made at the request of the higher authorities, including the Guilin city government and the Guangxi provincial government.”

The document stated that the petitioner’s seventh illegally born child was “carried away by the county for social “rearrangement,” and there was no “child trafficking.” No record was kept of the whereabouts of the child.

A lawyer in Beijing said that if the incident involved a joint effort between law enforcement officers and human traffickers, it could be a crime of trafficking of women and children, which carries a maximum sentence of death.

In the past, similar cases have been reported in China. In 2014, China Youth Daily  and in 2011Caixin Magazine  exposed the forced removal of illegally born babies in Dazhou of Sichuan and Shaoyang of Hunan respectively.

To control population growth, China has had a family planning policy since the 1970s, which for a long time allowed only one child to be born to an average family. However, in recent years, as the birth rate has declined, the country has relaxed the policy several times.  In 2021, It shifted toward encouraging people to have three children.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), July 5, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202207050238.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: Turkey Reiterates Its Rejection of Sanctions against Russia

Xinhua recently reported that a Turkish presidential spokesman reiterated not long ago that Turkey will not follow the West to sanction Russia, and Turkey needs to consider its own economic interests. Turkey has publicly informed Western countries about its position, but, from time to time, it is still under pressure from Western countries to sanction Russia. Turkey emphasized that the Turkish position is “very firm” that they “will not do that.” Since Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine on February 24, the United States and the European Union have imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Russia. However, as Russia is the EU’s main supplier of natural gas and crude oil, the backlash caused by the sanctions has made the EU even more embarrassed. Turkey’s disagreement with Europe revolves not only over whether to sanction Russia, but also over whether to support Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO. On March 29, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators started a new round of negotiations at the Presidential Palace in the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkish President Erdogan met with representatives of both sides before the start of the peace talks and expressed his willingness to facilitate the Russian-Ukrainian Presidential Meeting in Turkey.

Source: Xinhua, June 27, 2022
http://www.news.cn/world/2022-06/27/c_1211661204.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Lowy Poll: Australians See China as a Military Threat, with Record Low Trust

Australian news network SBS recently reported in its Chinese Edition that a 2022 Lowy Institute Poll showed growing concern over Russian and Chinese foreign policies and the possibility of a potential war on Taiwan. Few saw the Covid-19 pandemic as a threat in 2022. Three-quarters of respondents said China was “very” or “somewhat” likely to be a military threat to Australia over the next 20 years, a 30-percentage point increase from 2018. Only 12 percent of respondents said they trust China, down 40 percent from 2018. A majority of Australians (65 percent) saw China’s foreign policy as a “significant threat” over the next decade – up 29 percent from 2017. Only 11 percent said they had “great” or “somewhat” positive confidence that Xi would make the right decisions on world affairs. This figure is half of what it was in 2020 (22 percent) and 32 percent from 2018 (43 percent). For the first time in the survey results, a majority of Australians (51 percent) said they would support Australia sending troops if China invaded Taiwan and the US decided to intervene. Data also showed 88 percent of Australians were “very” or “somewhat” concerned that China could open a military base in the Pacific island nations.

Source: SBS Chinese, June 30, 2022
https://bit.ly/3R4SVgh

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Lianhe Zaobao: Pew 19-Country Poll Showed Negative View on China

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that a recent poll of 19 countries by the Pew Research Center, an American think tank, showed that an average of 68 percent of respondents hold a negative view of China. Many countries are at or near record highs. Among them, the ratios of Japan, Australia, Sweden, the United States and South Korea are all over 80 percent, 87 percent, 86 percent, 83 percent, 82 percent and 80 percent, respectively. Laura Silver, a senior fellow at the Pew, said that two things stood out about this year’s polling results. First is that the proportion of people with a negative view of China continues to be at or near an all-time high. In most of the places Pew surveyed, and in the three survey reports published in the past, few places have become more positive about China. Second is that, in many European countries, the proportion of people who have negative opinions on China is relatively low – this goes hand in hand with negative perceptions of China. Also, 79 percent of the respondents believe that China’s human rights policy is a serious problem, of which 47 percent believe that it is very serious. Around 72 percent are worried about China’s military power. At the same time, 66 percent and 59 percent are concerned about China’s economic competition and China’s involvement in their own politics, respectively.

Sources: Lianhe Zaobao, June 30, 2022
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20220630-1288105
Pew Research Center

Negative Views of China Tied to Critical Views of Its Policies on Human Rights

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Japanese Eyewitness’s Description of Live Organ Harvesting Situation

Ushio Sugawara (菅原潮) is a former member in the Yamaguchi Group, a large organized-crime syndicate in Japan. He left the group in 2015. The Epoch Times newspaper interviewed him on June 20 of this year at which time he talked about the organ harvesting he witnessed in China.

In 2007, the brother of a Sugawara’s friend needed a liver transplant. Within a month, the Beijing Armed Police General Hospital offered him a matching organ for 30 million Japanese Yen (U.S. $222,000). When the hospital was ready to do the operations, it found that the blood product of albumin they had was a fake product. His friend asked Sugawara to bring albumin from Japan to China.

Sugawara was stopped at the Beijing airport for not having permission to import albumin to China. Though a high-ranked armed police officer came to meet him, the airport police, which was not under the same command as the armed police, stopped him for several hours. Eventually some politicians got involved and released Sugawara and his albumin.

Sugawara visited his friend’s brother before the transplant. The doctor, who had previously studied in Japan, showed him the organ supplier who was in the next door and was still alive. He was a 21-year-old male and he was under anesthesia. The doctor told the friend’s brother that the organ supplier was a bad person and would die anyway. This way, they would “let him make a contribution before his death.” That doctor also said, “He is young and his organs are very healthy.”

Sugawara kept inquiring about the person and was told that he was a Falun Gong practitioner.

The hospital severed the Falun Gong practitioner’s tendons in both hands and feet the day before. The doctors told Sugawara that they did it to prevent him from escaping and also to have a better result when cutting the organ. When people are scared, their bodies curl up and that can affect the quality of their organs.

However, the surgery failed. Both the Falun Gong practitioner and Sugawara’s friend’s bother died.

Sugawara said that doctors in Japan knew about the live organ harvesting but kept sending patients to China, and Japanese media also knew about it but remained silent on it as well.

Source: Epoch Times, June 27, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/6/25/n13767360.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics