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China and Argentina sign MoU on Belt & Road Initiative

According to a joint statement issued Sunday after a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernandez, China and Argentina have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Belt & Road Initiative,.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Fernandez is paying a visit to China, during which he attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.

The MoU is on jointly promoting the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It is between the government of the People’s Republic of China and the government of the Argentine Republic. It was signed as the two countries marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties this year.

The statement said that they also studied bilateral trade cooperation and agreed to continue to expand trade, enhance financial support for China’s export settlement to Argentina and actively encourage trade diversification,.

The two sides agreed actively to advance bilateral investment and to expand how they complement each other in economic activity and seek new economic opportunities. The statement added that they agreed to boost green sustainable development, and investment and cooperation in the digital economy.

According to the statement, the meeting outlined the framework of major projects for investment in infrastructure construction in Argentina, discussed the possibility of expanding localized participation in infrastructure investment projects, and identified key areas for investment cooperation to expand Argentina’s exports.

Source: Xinhua News Agency, February 6, 2022
http://english.news.cn/20220206/931db89ad713488e8e1aeece22bff660/c.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Survey of Nearly 2,000 Female Teachers: Less than 4 Percent Are Willing to Have Three Children

A recent scholastic paper studied the responses of 1,907 female teachers regarding a questionnaire survey on the status of female teachers regarding work, life, marriage and childbirth.  According to The Paper, a Chinese news portal, two scholars at Beijing Normal University conducted the research,

The survey found that unmarried female teachers showed a lower willingness to have children, with 32.41 percent not wanting to have any children, 36.73 percent wanting only one child, 29.63 percent willing to have two children, and only 1.23 percent willing to have three children. Among the overall female teachers, including both married and unmarried, 18.77 percent do not want to have children, 38.96 percent are willing to have only one child, 38.91 percent are willing to have two children, and only 3.36 percent are willing to have three children.

The study concluded that for the average female teacher who did not want to have children, the most significant factors that would have changed her willingness to have children were having a higher income levels, a reduced workload and lower education costs for the children.

The questionnaire was distributed to female teachers in 13 provinces in China. 78.55 percent of the female teachers surveyed were married, 16.99 percent were unmarried, and 4.46 percent were divorced or widowed.

Source: The Paper, February 4, 2022
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1676229

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

“Privileged Internet Freedom” during the Beijing Winter Olympics

On February 4, a Chinese netizen posted a picture taken at the “Beijing Winter Olympics reception lobby.”

The picture was of a notice board with a blue background, with a large Wifi logo above and six smaller icons, each representing YouTube, Google Chrome, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram. The six applications are banned in China and ordinary Chinese Internet users cannot access them .

This posting was deleted two hours after it had been posted. At present, a number of netizens have also been blocked from resending the picture.

According to Beijing News, a newspaper based in Beijing, there are 82 “official reception hotels” for the Beijing Winter Olympics, located in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. These official hotels are responsible for hosting the International Olympics Committee and the International Paralympic Committee families, international sports federations, national and regional Olympic and Paralympic committees, the press and other media, and other stakeholders.

Yu Debin, the head of the Games Service Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee, told Beijing News that these officially designated hotels will “launch overseas satellite channels in accordance with the law, with a good 5G network and barrier-free network transformation.”

Source: China Digital Times, February 4, 2022

【图说天朝】依法翻墙：北京冬奥会的“特供网络”

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

UDN: Mainland China Manufacturing PMI Fell in January

United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported that, affected by the severe economic environment and the Covid epidemic, Mainland China’s economy had a sluggish start in January this year. The official and private Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) announced yesterday both fell from the previous month. The former was 50.1, approaching the break-even line, the latter was only 49.1, hitting a new low in 23 months. Analysts expressed the belief that after the Chinese New Year, the Mainland authorities need to increase fiscal and monetary policy support in a timely manner to ensure the realization of the goal of “maintaining stability” in the economy. According to data released by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, in January 2022, the manufacturing PMI was 50.1, narrowed by 0.2 percentage points, indicating that the economic expansion has slowed down. Also released on the same day by Caixin, the “Private Edition” PMI data that mainly reflects small and medium-sized enterprises in China showed that, in January 2022, the Caixin manufacturing PMI recorded 49.1, which was below the growth line of 50, and fell 1.8 percentage points from the previous month. This was the lowest since March 2020. PMI is an indicator of financial activity reflecting purchasing managers’ acquisition of goods and services. A PMI number below 50 typically reflects a decline.

Source: UDN, January 31, 2022
https://udn.com/news/story/7333/6071883

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Nikkei Chinese: 23 Percent of Japan’s Import Categories Get Half of their Volume from China

Nikkei Chinese Edition recently reported that the Cabinet Office of Japan just released its World Economic Trends Report, analyzing the trade structure between major countries and China. The numbers showed that Japan relies more on imports from China than from the United States and Germany. The Report sounded alarms. The concern was that, if Japan maintained its current country-specific structure for Japan’s sourcing strategy it would risk supply chain disruptions. The report showed the number of categories with relatively concentrated import sources in three countries: Japan, the United States and Germany. Judging from the ratio of Chinese sourced value in 2019, Japan reached 23.3 percent, the highest ratio, the United States was 18.1 percent, and Germany was 8.5 percent. Among the approximately 5,000 imported categories, looking at the number of categories in which China’s share (in terms of value) exceeds 50 percent, Japan is 1,133 categories (23.0 percent), higher than the US’ 590 categories (11.9 percent) and Germany’s 250 categories (5.0 percent). Japan relies on China for a wide range of categories, including mobile phones and notebook computers, light-emitting diode (LED) related products, game consoles and toys. Among them, 85.7 percent of the import value in the mobile phone field came from China in 2019, an increase of 69.1 percent from 10 years ago. Imports of laptops and tablets from China reached 98.8 percent in 2019.

Source: Nikkei Chinese, February 4, 2022
https://cn.nikkei.com/politicsaeconomy/investtrade/47517-2022-02-04-10-27-18.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Facing the Real World: China’s Law Professor Was Censored

Within less than two hours of posting, China’s social media WeChat removed a 6000-word post by Lao Dongyan, a law professor at “China’s MIT,” Qinghua University. The title of the posting was, “Facing the Real World.” In 2016, Lao was awarded as The Most Influential Young Scholar in China in the area of the Humanities and Social Sciences. In the posting, Lao reviewed 2021 and looked forward to 2022. She did not mention the CCP leaders.

What did she say that led to the ban?

Lao stated, “In a society full of ‘positive energy’ discourse, the sense of uneasiness spreads like a tidal wave throughout society. The pursuit of freedom is often the subject of ridicule. People are increasingly indifferent to, or they even welcome, the increasing concentration of power and the stepping up of various kinds of control in the name of security, and the tightened rule over society using the technology of big data tracking.”

She continued, “Nearly all the catastrophes of the 20th century were caused by institutional evil. The darkness of human nature compounded by an evil system has repeatedly led to unimaginable tragedies.”  “Be prepared to be interviewed if you publish a diary documenting your daily life under the epidemic. If you show solidarity with a colleague who was expelled for his classroom speech, you may even face the experience of ‘being mentally ill.’”

Lao wrote that her “original intention to promote the rule of law in China has turned out to be pure wishful thinking.” She noted that today the theoretical vision of the rule of law and the actual practice of the rule of law are increasingly running in opposite directions. “What is even more absurd about this is that many of those who have been put in chains are not only not angry about losing their freedoms but they are actually quite comfortable with it. They are like frogs being boiled in increasingly warm water.” “It can be said that many people, including myself, choose just to bear it and retreat, thereby enabling evil people to continue to do evil with impunity. In a sense, we are responsible by our passive inaction and for the deterioration of our environment since we choose to tolerate it and even beat a retreat in the face of it.”

Finally, facing the real world, Lao concluded with a quote from J.K. Rowling’s commencement address at Harvard University. “If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself being in the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change.’ In my opinion, this is the real ‘positive energy.’ May you and I have such ‘positive energy.’”

Source: China Digital Times, January 29, 2022

【404文库】劳燕东飞｜直面真实的世界

Full text of English translation, https://gaodawei.wordpress.com/2022/01/29/2022-chinese-law-profs-lament-and-encouragement/

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Some IOC Members’ Have Business Connections with China

A report shows that several members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have successful business connections with China. When talking about the IOC’s policies, they have downplayed China’s human rights issue.

John Coates has  been Vice President of the IOC (2013  to 2017 and 2020 to the present) and the President of Australian Olympic Committee: The Daily Beast conducted an investigation that showed that Mr. Coates has been the Chairman of William Inglis & Son Ltd, Australia’s largest and oldest bloodstock auctioneer. In its auction last year, a Chinese buyer bought horses worth over $13 million. In 2019, the auctioneer sold the horses worth $3.5 million to a “secret” China horse club . The company also sponsored “Inglis Sino-Australia Cup” Equestrian Competition in Shanxi Province, China, which the representative of its Chinese office said is the highest-prized competition that Inglis sponsored outside Australia.

Mr. Coates said the IOC pays attention to human right, but pressuring Beijing on the Xinjiang issue is not within the power of the IOC. He said the IOC should respect the hosting country’s sovereignty.

Dick Pound is a member of the IOC and former Vice President of the IOC. Mr. Pound is an advisor to Stikeman Elliott LLP, a Canadian law firm. The company has long history of experiences in China. Its website claims that it has provided legal services to many big Chinese enterprises, and listed several of them including, for example, China National Petroleum Corporation, CITIC Group, China Investment Corporation, along with may others.

Mr. Pound said human rights issues are political when answering Xinjiang forced labor camp and genocide question. He suggested (with hope) that an independent investigation on what is happening in Xinjiang would be helpful and maybe the Chinese are preparing to consider it.

Sebastian Coe, is a British member of the IOC. Mr. Coe is a Non-Executive Board Director of the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and receives $130,000 as annual pay. Out of FMG’s several billion dollars in revenue in 2020, ninety percent came from China. A Chinese state-run company is a major shareholder of FMG.

Mr. Coe said last year that an international political boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics had no meaning but would only cause damage.

Source: Epoch Times, February 5, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/2/5/n13557473.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Follow up by IOC and NOS on the Dutch Reporter Who Was Dragged Away in Beijing

On February 4, when a Dutch news reporter Sjoerd den Daas was doing a live broadcast on a street in Beijing, on his home TV station NOS, a Chinese authority’ staff-member in plain clothes grabbed his arm by force and dragged him around. The Chinese staff-member was wearing a red armband (indicating he was from the authorities). He dragged the reporter out of range of the camera and told him that he should not do broadcasting at that location. Then another Chinese staff member also took their lighting equipment. The TV news broadcast was interrupted and the home anchor was shocked and astonished. Sjoerd den Daas then moved to a parking lot at the corner to continue his TV broadcast. Later he told people that he was at the location where the Beijing authorities allowed news reporters to do broadcasts.

The International Olympic Games (IOC) spokesperson Mark Adams said that they had contacted the NOS about this unfortunate incident. He further called it a single incident and assured people that they could continue their work in the “closed loop,” an isolated section that Beijing had set up for the Olympic athletes, staff, and reporters.

However, NOS said that the IOC had not contacted it. The IOC had not contacted the NOS management, the news and sports chief editor, the manager of the Olympic team in Beijing, nor the news reporter himself.  The IOC had not contacted any of them.

Sjoerd den Daas said this was not the first time he received this kind of treatment in China. He tweeted that in the past few weeks, he and several colleagues from other countries, were interfered with or were stopped multiple times when they were reporting about the Olympic Games.

Source: Epoch Times, February 5, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/2/5/n13557122.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics