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Briefings - 180. page

China Tightened Control over Celebrity Online Information

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that China’s Central Cyberspace Administration just issued an administrative notice on regulating entertainment celebrities’ online information. The key points of the notice were: Celebrity online information must present “positive values” and must promote “socialist core values.” The government will establish a “negative list” of the behaviors that are not allowed online. Key link collections, such as top search lists, in principle, can only present one information piece about a celebrity in the collection at a time. The celebrity’s daily life, schedule, family members and personal interests cannot be presented in critical information display spots. These spots include recommended hot news, celebrity account names, descriptions and avatars. These cannot be used for negative information distribution. “Disgraced” celebrities will be banned across the network, The government will “closely monitor” online public opinion and verify the authenticity of the celebrity accounts.

Source: NetEase, November 23, 2021
https://www.163.com/dy/article/GPGC6OPI0512DU6N.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability

China Youth Daily: Tencent Apps Found Violating End User Rights

China Youth Daily recently reported that, in a recent government compliance inspection movement on app infringement of users’ rights and interests, nine products of Tencent had not been rectified as required. Tencent had been warned publicly four times. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has required that all new apps and updates to existing apps must pass government technical inspections before they can be released. Tencent responded to the news report, stating that the company is continuing to update its apps, to protect users’ rights, to cooperate with the regulatory authorities and to conduct normal compliance inspections. Currently Chinese mobile app users have felt strongly that many apps violate the rules of handling users’ personal information. They set up configuration barriers, harass users, and mislead users, among other violations. So far 2.44 million apps have been inspected. Of those, 2,049 apps that violated regulations were notified, and 540 apps that refused to be updated were removed from the app stores. In today’s Chinese app market, new issues such as microphone eavesdropping, communication theft, and unauthorized reading and writing of albums, are frequently exposed. There have been reports on some businesses, such as banks, that have asked employees to pause the use of popular Tencent apps such as WeChat.

Source: China Youth Daily, November 27, 2021
http://news.cyol.com/gb/articles/2021-11/26/content_OMpnOhW5M.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

China’s “Whitelist” to Limit Key Industries Only to Chinese Companies

Bloomberg reported on November 16 that, in 2016, Beijing established the Information Technology Application and Innovation Working Committee (ITAIWC)  and has been using it to build a “Whitelist” so that entry into certain key industries is limited to “Chinese companies only.” China rejected the report on November 18.

Epoch Times provided some details about the ITAIWC’s actions in the past. In January, the Chinese Institute of Electronics, an institution directly under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, released the “White Paper on the Development of China’s Information Technology Applications and Innovations Industry (2021) (the White Paper).” This is the first White Paper that the CIE and 16 enterprises and organizations have created in this field.

The White Paper said the Chinese government has included Information Technology Innovation into its national strategy and stated that, regarding the “2+8” model, the “2” stands for leadership by the party and the government, and the “8” stands for the eight big industries including finance, electricity, telecom, petroleum, transportation, education, medical treatment, and space.

The “Code of Work” of the ITAIWC sets the basic requirements for companies to apply to join its organization. The requirements are that the companies must be officially approved domestic enterprises and institutions engaged in research and development, production and manufacturing in the field of information technology application and innovation; the controlling shareholder of the enterprise must be a Chinese legal person or a Chinese natural person with a Chinese national as the legal person and less than 25 percent of the capital can be foreign capital.

The ITAIWC Technical Advisory Committee was formed in Beijing in March of this year. More than fifty people attended the meeting, including Major General Liao Xiangke, Dean of the School of Computer Science, the People’s Liberation Army’s University of National Defense Science and Technology, and Major General Wu Jiangxing, the Chairman of the China Network Information Technology Military-Civilian Integration Alliance. An official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology delivered a speech at the meeting.

Source: Epoch Times, November 21, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/11/21/n13389371.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology

Kaisa Group Offered Debt Repayment Plan

The Evergrande debt problem was the first. It started a wave of Chinese real estate companies defaulting on their debts. Kaisa Group (佳兆业) ran into same problem. Its subsidiary Jinheng Wealth missed a payment of a 300 million yuan (US$47 million) financial product. Kaisa Group offered a guaranty on the product.

On November 22, Kaisa Group announced a repayment plan for its product. The plan was that its debt will be paid in installments, based on the due date. For money where the due date of the dept has not passed yet, the company will pay the investor 10 percent of the principle in the month when the payment is due. Then it will pay 10 percent every three months thereafter. There will be no interest payment before the principle is due. After that, the interest payment will follow the same 10 percent payment schedule once the principle is due.

For the principle due because the company missed the payment, it will pay interest for the extension at 4.35 percent (based on a one-year commercial load rate). The extended interest will be paid with 50 percent of what is due three months after it completes the payment for the principle and original interest, and then complete it in another three months.

Source: Sina, November 22, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/money/roll/2021-11-23/doc-iktzscyy7194408.shtml

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China’s Birth Rate Hits a Record: the Lowest in 43 Years

According to the recently released “China Statistical Yearbook 2021,” China’s birth rate in 2020 was 8.52 per 1,000 people. It thus fell below 10 per 1,000 for the first time. This is the lowest rate in the past 43 years. There were 12 million births in 2020, about one-third fewer than the 17.86 million in 2016.

According to the Yearbook, China’s natural population growth rate (birth rate minus death rate) for 2020 was 1.45 per 1,000. This is a record low since 1978. Experts predict that, at the earliest, a negative growth rate is likely to occur during the 14th Five-Year Plan period  i.e., the 2021-2025 period.

In 1987, the birth rate was as high as 23.3 per 1,000, and the natural growth rate that year was as high as 16.61 per 1,000, both of which were historical highs for the period of more than 40 years.

The Chinese Communist Party adopted a law in August 2021 to lessen its control of planned parenthood by allowing three children per couple.

As young people are not responsive to the policy change, at least 12 provinces and cities in China, including Shanghai, Hebei, Henan, Tianjin, Guizhou, Anhui, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, have issued the “Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Application Plan (2021-2025)” The purpose of the plan was to increase assisted reproductive service agencies in order to help infertile couples with artificial insemination.

Among them, Sichuan Province plans to increase the number of institutions in the next five years by 20, Shaanxi Province 10, Anhui Province by 10, Shanxi five, Tianjin two more, and Hebei Province up to five.

At the end of June last year, China had 523 assisted reproductive medical institutions. Among them, there were 56 in Guangdong and 33 in Jiangsu Province. There are 27 medical institutions approved to set up human sperm banks, including two in Beijing, Shanghai, and Henan Province, respectively.

Sources:

1.) China Business Network, November 15, 2021
https://www.yicai.com/news/101229959.html

2.) The Paper, November 21, 2021
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_15479163

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Local Government Debts Reached a New High; Half of New Debts Are to Pay Off Old Debts

China’s debts have continued to soar, with the latest official figures showing that local government debts surged in the first 10 months of the year, reaching a record high of 30 trillion yuan (US$ 4.7 trillion). A more concerning phenomenon is that nearly half of the new debts were not injected into the economy but were used to pay off old debts.

On Tuesday November 23, China’s Ministry of Finance released the latest data on local government bond issuance. From January to October this year, China issued a total of 6.49 trillion yuan (US$ 1.0 trillion) in local government bonds, up 6 percent from the same period last year and hitting a record high. Among them, 2.8 trillion yuan (US$ 0.44 trillion) was issued to refinance bonds, an increase of 75 percent compared to the same period last year. In other words, the increase in local bond issuance this year is mainly due to the issuance of refinancing bonds.

In addition, as of the end of October this year, the balance of local government debt was about 29.7 trillion yuan (US$ 4.7 trillion). From January to October this year, Guangdong surpassed all other provincial governments in bond issuance. The total amount issued was 589.4 billion yuan (US$ 92.2 billion).

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 23, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ac-11232021044123.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

The Fourth World Media Summit

The “United Front” is both a strategy and an ecosystem of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  It is a guided or CCP-controlled group charged with advancing both China’s domestic control and its international influence. The media represent an important front. Beijing’s “World Media Summit” is an annual platform to influence overseas media.

According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, the fourth World Media Summit was held in Beijing on November 22. Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and head of Central Propaganda Department, attended the plenary session and read the CCP Chair Xi Jinping’s congratulatory letter and delivered a keynote address.

Huang pointed out that Xi Jinping’s congratulatory letter fully affirmed the achievements of the summit and placed great expectations on the global media to shoulder their social responsibilities and promote the building of a “community of human destiny in a better way.”

Huang told the media “to adhere to objectivity, truthfulness, and scientific and rational judgment; to oppose rumors and bias, and to be responsible in disseminating public information.” Huang then went ahead with the party line: “The CCP and the State have made historic achievements and have made important contributions to the peaceful development of the world.”

Xinhua news agency hosted this year’s summit. Nearly 400 Chinese and foreign guests from more than 260 media and institutions in nearly 100 countries and regions attended the meeting online and in person.

Source: People’s Daily, November 23, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-11/23/nw.D110000renmrb_20211123_4-04.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Nepali Secret Document Details Chinese Intelligence Officials’ Role against MCC

Nepal, a country that borders Tibet, is giving consideration to joining the U.S. Millennium Challenge (MCC) aid program. Local media have recently exposed a classified report from Nepal’s national security authorities that revealed that  China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has a long history of intelligence espionage and would stop at nothing to thwart the program.

Khabarhub, a Nepali English language media, revealed the classified report on November 12. “Khabarhub obtained the document on the condition of confidentiality and anonymity. It covered in detail the Chinese intelligence apparatus, its modus operandi inside Nepal, and the people involved in it.” “The report also included details about intelligence officials working as diplomats, journalists, and even businessmen.”

“The document states that China is ‘playing a role’ in souring Nepal’s relations with third countries, particularly with the United States, and is currently actively propagating, lobbying and spending against the MCC.”

“The 50-page confidential intelligence document also details all of China’s intelligence priorities, objectives, networks, and individuals in Nepal. Many details of the past are also mentioned in the document.”

“Nepali security forces have concluded that the Chinese intelligence officials’ top priority is to invalidate MCC at any cost. The security authorities have also concluded that the Chinese intelligence agency is actively involved in lobbying against MCC and is disseminating disinformation.”

“Nepali security and intelligence officials warn that the rapid advance and increased Chinese intelligence volume could even play a role in changing Nepal’s political position.”

“Lately, besides gathering intelligence, the Chinese are actively influencing and spending money on Nepali politicians, journalists and even businessmen.”

The report also identifies a Chinese national, Ning Lin, a name at the top of the security authorities’ list of those involved in crafting anti-MCC rhetoric in Nepal. Lin, (also known as “Oscar Ning”), a Chinese intelligence agency (MSS) official, carries two passports and is said to have come from the Chinese province of Hubei.

Source: Khabarhub, November 12, 2021

Nepali security authorities identify a Chinese intelligence agency official involved in anti-MCC propaganda

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend