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Briefings - 159. page

Scandal-Ridden Company Is Now China’s Top Coffee Chain

According to its 2021 financial results, Luckin Coffee, a Chinese coffee chain store, has overtaken Starbucks for the first time to become the top coffee chain in China.

In 2020, Luckin Coffee made its name for accounting fraud. It “intentionally and materially” inflated its 2019 revenue and understated a net loss, while it was listed on the American stock market. The scandal resulted in the stock price crashing and several executives being fired. Trading was suspended and the company was delisted from NASDAQ in June 2020. In February 2022, Luckin paid off its $180 million penalty levied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to the recently released 2021 financial report, Luckin’s total net revenue was 7.9 billion yuan ($US 1.24 billion), a leap of 97.5 percent over 2020. By the end of 2021, Luckin, with 6,024 stores across China, beat Starbucks (5,557 stores) for the first time and became the country’s largest coffee chain brand.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 27, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202203270111.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

HKET: Report on Surge in Cyberattacks against NATO: Originating from Chinese IP Addresses

Hong Kong Economic Times (HKET), the leading financial daily in Hong Kong, recently reported that, with the war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflict has spread to the Internet. Many hacker organizations have participated. Check Point Research (CPR), the threat intelligence division of the software technology company Check Point, just released a research report showing that cyber-attacks by hackers against government organizations outside Ukraine increased by 21 percent. The attacks launched from Chinese IP addresses against NATO countries increased by 116 percent. Overall cyber-attacks against all industries in Ukraine increased by 20 percent, with an average of 1,466 attacks per Ukraine organization per week. However, the number of active networks in Ukraine has dropped by 27 percent due to the impact of the war. Overall cyber-attacks against Russia have grown by only one percent. Cyber-attacks against governments or military sectors in all regions of the world have increased significantly, up 21 percent from pre-conflict levels. It is worth noting that the attacks from Chinese IPs are 72 percent higher than before the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The attacks from Chinese IPs on NATO corporate networks are 116 percent higher. Check Point indicated that hackers aren’t just targeting government or military targets. They are also taking advantage of the public’s eagerness to launch phishing attacks. The attacks cannot be attributed directly to China, as both domestic and foreign hackers can use Chinese IP as the source of the attack.

Source: HKET, March 23, 2022
https://bit.ly/3JKnEvf

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

LTN: Alibaba, Tencent and Didi to Lay Off Many Workers

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that Chinese tech giants Tencent, Alibaba and Didi will slash jobs this year due to a slowing economy and regulatory pressure from Beijing. Some departments will lay off 20 percent of their workers. Thousands of employees will lose their jobs. Shenzhen-based Tencent plans to lay off 20 percent of its 20,000-person cloud and smart industry business group this year. As of September, last year, Tencent had about 107,000 employees. After Chinese regulators ordered the Didi app to be removed from the AppStore Beijing-based Didi will lay off 20 percent of its staff in some of its business groups, including its core ride-hailing service. Its app was banned from accepting new customers, and the app has so far not been reinstated as Didi failed to fully resolve concerns over how it handles data security. By the end of 2020, Didi had about 16,000 employees. Alibaba, headquartered in Hangzhou, is considering laying off about 20 percent of the workforce in some of its business groups related discounted shopping, grocery shopping, travel services and food delivery. These consumer-facing sectors are suffering the slowdown in China’s economy. As of September last year, Ali had about 259,000 employees. Stock shares of Chinese internet companies have tumbled over the past year. Alibaba’s share price has plunged nearly 60 percent in a year. Tencent’s has shrunk by about 40 percent, and Didi’s stock price has dropped to about $4 since it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in July last year at $14 per share.

Source: LTN, March 22, 2022
https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/3867177

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology

India Plans to Double Russian Coking Coal Imports

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that India’s Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh said India plans to double its coking coal imports from Russia. Singh said in a conference in New Delhi that, coking coal is a key raw material for steelmaking, and the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine has affected the stable supply. Data from consultancy Kpler showed that, at least 1.06 million tons of coking and thermal coal have been shipped to Indian ports since March, the most since January 2020. U.S. President Joe Biden said on March 21 that India’s response to confronting Russia was “erratic,” an exception among Washington’s allies. Unlike other members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) – the United States, Japan and Australia – India continues to purchase Russian oil, refuses to publicly condemn Russia, and abstained from voting three times on the relevant United Nations resolutions related to Ukraine. An Indian government official said that India, the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil, relies on imports for nearly 85 percent of its demand, while supplies from Russia are “negligible” at less than one percent. Another Indian government official said, “Russia offers oil and other commodities at lower discounts, and we are happy to accept that.”

Source: Sina, March 27, 2022
https://news.sina.com.cn/w/2022-03-27/doc-imcwiwss8447433.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Chinese Ambassador told Companies to Take the Opportunity to Seize the Russian Market

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a number of global multinational companies have pulled out of Russia. The Chinese Ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, recently told local Chinese companies that they should “lose no time” in seizing the “great opportunities in the crisis” and they should adjust their business operations to fill the gap in the Russian market.

Addressing a dozen executives from Chinese companies in Moscow on March 20, Zhang told them “not to wait,” but to integrate their resources and adapt to the “new situation” as soon as possible.

Amid the complicated international situation, the methods of settlement and supply chains of Chinese companies in Russia are encountering great difficulties and interruptions. This is the time when private small and medium-sized enterprises come into play, added Zhang. He said that the Chinese government is making adjustmenst and is building new platforms to solve the outstanding problems of settlement and logistics.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 20, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202203220310.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s True View between the U.S. and Russia

 On March 19, the day after Biden and Xi Jinping had their conference call on March 18 to discuss China’s position on the Russia-Ukraine War, Liu Xin, a famous news reporter for the Communist Party’s mouth-piece China Global Television Network (CGTN) posted a message on Twitter. The message read, “Can you help me fight your friend so that I can concentrate on fighting you later?” (The “friend” in her tweet is likely to refer to Russia).

The Arms Control Division of China’s Ministry of Diplomacy reposted Liu Xin’s tweet in both English and Chinese on its official Weibo account, “Strategic Security and Arms Control Online,” with three Chinese characters as the comments: “真相了!” (meaning “Truth!”)

Source:
1. Twitter, March 19, 2022


2. Weibo, March 19, 2022
https://weibo.com/5594165638/LkuxHEles

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

The State Department Placed Restrictions on CCP Officials Who Repress Minority Groups, Dissidents, and Human Rights Defenders

iThe U.S. Department of State announced on March 21 that it is taking action against officials of China (the People’s Republic of China, or PRC) for their involvement in repressive acts against members of ethnic and religious minority groups and religious and spiritual practitioners inside and outside of China’s borders, including within the United States.

The statement said, “The United States rejects efforts by the PRC officials to harass, intimidate, surveil, and abduct members of ethnic and religious minority groups, including those who seek safety abroad, and U.S. citizens, who speak out on behalf of this vulnerable population.” It “imposes visa restrictions on PRC officials who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, policies or actions aimed at repressing religious and spiritual practitioners, members of ethnic minority groups, dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, labor organizers, civil society organizers, and peaceful protestors in China and beyond.”

Source: Department of State website, March 21, 2022
https://www.state.gov/promoting-accountability-for-transnational-repression-committed-by-peoples-republic-of-china-prc-officials/

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

China Trains Personnel to Censor Online Religious Information

China’s Zhejiang Provincial government recently issued a notice that it will train auditors of Internet religious information starting on March 31. The content of the training includes “basic knowledge of religion” and “religious policies and regulations.” Several provinces and cities have made announcements for such training and examinations.

Pastor Liu Yi, who now lives in California and once worked for many years in churches in Zhejiang, said that religious auditors have existed in China since a long time ago. Liu said, “At the beginning of the Chinese Communist Party’s takeover of China, there were such personnel in Christian and Catholic churches, monitoring the sermons and Bible studies. If any so-called anti-socialist content was found, it would be reported to the authorities.”

The Measures for the Administration of Religious Information Services on the Internet, published by China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA), came into effect on March 1 this year. The document prohibits any organization or individual from establishing any religious organizations, religious colleges, religious activity sites, or developing congregations online, and it also prohibits overseas organizations or individuals from “engaging in Internet religious information services” inside China.

According to the announcement of the Tianjin Municipal government on March 7, the scope of training also includes “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” “Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law,” “Socialist Core Values ,” and “General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Discourse on Religious Work.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 22, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/sc-03222022150905.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability