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Briefings - 177. page

Beijing’s Anti-American Korean War Movie Hit North American Big Screens

The Chinese war movie, “The Battle at Lake Changjin” opened in late November in a limited theatrical release in North America.

The Korean War film was released by CMC Pictures with English subtitles in more than 20 selected theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Dallas, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and a few other cities across North America.

Deutsche Welle reported that the film has raised anger in South Korea, with the public calling it “propaganda filled with historical inaccuracies.” South Korean former diplomat Ra Jong-yil called the film “nonsense” and “a whitewashing” and accused it of attempting to reshape the narrative of events during the Korean War.

The movie, a state propaganda to instigate anti-American sentiments amid the tension between two countries, was released in mainland China around National Day holiday.

Source: Xinhua, November 11, 2021
http://www.xinhuanet.com/ent/20211111/e0d97351280848ff890db6789f1594df/c.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

New Wave of Layoffs in China’s IT Industry

Chinese media have reported new waves of layoffs at major IT companies. Many employees who are over 35 years old will have difficulty finding new jobs in the industry.

Outlets, including Yicai.com and the Economic Observer, said that amid this wave of layoffs, many employees in their 30s have a greater “sense of crisis” than their younger peers. In China’s IT industry, the age of 35 is a threshold. When employees above that age are laid off, it is very difficult for them for find a new job in big companies.

Reports have told stories of a number of 35-year-old senior employees. Having not yet been told to leave, they are ready to jump ship or start their own businesses. However, not everyone has had enough time to plan for their future. One Baidu employee, who just bought a property in Beijing in August this year, received a notice on December 1, without prior warning, that he had to wrap up and leave by noon on December 3. Another Tencent employee mentioned that he has been intensively interviewed by the human resources department since October and asked to choose between leaving voluntarily and being transferred out.

The year 2021 saw the entire Chinese IT sector caught in waves of layoffs, including giants such as Tencent, ByteDance, Didi Chuxing, and JD.com.

Source: Central News Agency, December 12, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202112120132.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Global Times Chief Criticized the U.S. in Its Annual Meetings

Global Times recently reported, in the coverage of its own Annual Meetings, that its Editor in Chief Hu Xijin said the attitude of the United States towards China this year is very bad. Hu complained about the timing of Biden’s Democracy Summit and also about the Biden Administration’s continuation of most of Trump’s anti-China policies. Hu also said that Biden has spurred more radical anti-China attitudes in more Western countries. A number of challenges seem to be increasing. With regard to the Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan issues, the world has also seen that confrontations are intensifying. Hu complained that he and the Global Times have become a target for repeated attacks from the United States, from Taiwan and from the Hong Kong separatists. He also said, on the Internet and in the media, that an international public opinion war is actively going on. Hu thanked the attending guests at the Global Times Annual Meetings under the risk of Covid-19, and he was determined to win the fight against the “political meeting” of the U.S. Democracy Summit.

Source: Global Times, December 11, 2021
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/45wMYnErpeQ

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Lianhe Zaobao: China will Give Up Some WTO Preferential Treatment to Developing Countries

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that Li Chenggang, China’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that China will remain a developing country in the WTO, but will give up some of its preferential treatment for developing countries. This is a major change for China’s trading partners. Li said that, due to some persistent poverty issues, China still considers itself a developing country, but China will seek to divest itself in some areas such as agriculture and financial services. He also said that, as a major fishing country, China may waive all WTO exemptions. WTO members, including the United States, Australia, and Japan, criticized China in a WTO trade assessment in October, pointing out that China provides subsidies to state-owned enterprises. That violates the conditions under which China joined the WTO in 2001. However, Li argued that, in terms of lowering tariff rates and opening up the service industry, it has surpassed some WTO accession standards. He refused to disclose when and under what conditions China will completely abandon its position as a developing country. As the world’s second largest economy, China faces increasing criticism from its trading partners on the issue of China’s status as a developing country.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, December 11, 2021
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20211211-1222073

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: The U.S. Pushes 6G Alliance; Excludes China

Xinhua recently reported that, last year, the United States wooed its allies into establishing a 6G “small circle” alliance , excluding China. This year, the U.S. has been strengthening the cooperation among allies in a variety of new ways. The alliance’s key tasks mainly include the establishment of a 6G strategic roadmap, the promotion of 6G related policies and budgets, and the global promotion of 6G technologies and services. At present, dozens of global information and communication industry giants such as Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, and Nokia have joined the club, but leading Chinese 5G companies Huawei and ZTE have been excluded. Chinese scholars expressed the belief that it is understandable, since the purpose of the Alliance is to fix the leadership position of the United States in the upcoming 6G era. Ever since the founding of the Alliance, the U.S. has continuously strengthened its technical cooperation on a government level in the 6G field with Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other countries. This is the latest attempt to “overtake” in the 6G field and regain the global dominance in the communications industry, and to contain China. For example, in April, The U.S. and Japan announced a joint US$4.5 billion for 6G development. In June, South Korea announced a Korea-U.S. joint research program with US$188 million in funding. Samsung U.S. Research Center already received FCC approval of 6G bands. 6G technology is expected to have several to several hundred times better performance than 5G. It includes multiple delivery channels and includes satellite connectivity. The U.S. Alliance and its exclusion of China will inevitably lead to a division in global 6G technical standards.

Source: Xinhua, December 8, 2021
http://www.news.cn/mrdx/2021-12/10/c_1310363619.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Xinhua: China-Arab Beidou Satellite Navigation Cooperation Forum Took Place

Xinhua recently reported that the Third China-Arab Beidou Satellite Navigation Cooperation Forum was held in Beijing on December 9. China and the Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization (AICTO) agreed jointly to implement no less than five projects in key areas on an application scale in the next two years and would do so by utilizing the Chinese satellite navigation system – Beidou/GNSS. The two parties will jointly promote the deployment of one to two Beidou/GNSS centers in interested Arab countries. In recent years, Beidou has been utilized widely in Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Lebanon, Oman, Morocco and the UAE to provide a variety of services such as real-time accurate positioning, land surveying and mapping, transportation, precision agriculture, environmental monitoring, security, and railway construction. This Forum marked the beginning of a new era for Beidou’s large-scale application deployments characterized as marketization, industrialization, and internationalization.

Source: Xinhua, December 9, 2021
http://www.news.cn/mil/2021-12/09/c_1211480286.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

Wal-Mart Closed More Stores and Bridgestone Closed Factory in China

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that, not long ago, Walmart closed a fifteen-year-old store in Beijing. It is closing another store in one of Shanghai’s best locations. From 2016 to 2020, in four years, Wal-Mart closed 80 stores in China. Since the beginning of 2021, the number of closed stores has reached 27. In most instances, Wal-Mart’s explanation was that the lease term had expired. Analysts expressed the belief that the cost to operate in China, including such items as the rent and labor, continue to rise. In addition to that, online e-commerce has also had an impact in the retail industry. In recent years, the government has increased its support for domestic companies. International companies are seeing less-than-expected growth. Sina also reported that the Japanese tire giant, Bridgestone, just announced it is closing the Bridgestone (Huizhou) Tire Company in Guangdong Province. In recent years, the fact that Japanese companies have been withdrawing from China has aroused concern. A typical example is Toshiba’s closure of its Dalian factory. There have been reports that the Japanese government is planning to set aside a high budget to help Japanese companies move production lines away from China. Bridgestone saw a 15 percent decline in global sales in 2020. For a while now, the company has been planning to close the Chinese Huizhou factory at the end of 2021 .

Sources:
(1) Sina, December 11, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2021-12-11/doc-ikyakumx3408433.shtml
(2) Sina, December 7, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/2021-12-08/doc-ikyakumx2652374.shtml

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

The CCP Held a High-Profile National Religious Work Conference

From December 3rd to 4th, the National Conference on Religious Work was held in Beijing. Xi Jinping gave a key speech at the meeting. Many key officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attended the meeting, including all Politburo Standing Committee members, Politburo members, Secretaries of the CCP Central Secretariat, officials of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, State Council members, the President of the Supreme People’s Court, the President of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, top officials from the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, top CCP provincial officials in charge religious work, city party heads from key cities in each province, top officials at the CCP Central Departments, the state’s ministries, and the Central Military Commission organs.

Xi Jinping stressed the party’s leadership over religions and the need to develop a group of CCP officials who are experts on Marxist theories and capable of doing religious control work.

Source: China Government Site, December 4, 2021
http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-12/04/content_5655877.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics