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Chinese Investment in Eastern Europe’s Clean Energy

China’s state media People’s Daily reported the official launch of a 100 MW solar power plant in Kaposvár, Hungary last week. The project, built by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC), is expected to generate 130 million kilowatts of electricity per year, saving 45,000 tons of standard coal and reducing 120,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions after it is connected to the grid.

The Kaposvár plant is the largest solar power plant in Hungary in terms of installed capacity. The paper quoted the Hungarian Minister of Innovation and Technology, Laszlo Palkovics, “The ‘Belt & Road Initiative’ is highly compatible with Hungary’s policy of ‘opening up to the east.’ The Kaposvár solar power plant is a key project of cooperation between Hungary and China in the field of clean energy.”

The paper continued, “Due to the high proportion of coal in the energy structure, Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are generally facing the challenge of energy transition. … CEE countries have set their own emission reduction targets and energy transition tasks and are vigorously investing in hydrogen, nuclear, solar, wind and other clean energy. Many Chinese enterprises have actively participated in the energy transition of CEE countries. Many Chinese manufacturers of new energy vehicles, lithium battery and parts have set up factories in CEE countries. A large number of green, low-carbon, eco-friendly and popular clean energy projects have been steadily promoted. Projects such as the Mozura wind farm in Montenegro, the combined cycle power plant in Pančevo, Serbia, and the hydropower plant in Dabar, Bosnia and Herzegovina have completed or started construction, bringing huge economic and environmental benefits to the local communities.”

The report also mentioned the solar power plant in Poland. The China-Central and Eastern Europe Investment Cooperation Fund invested in it and acquired it. In February, the plant’s first batch of four projects were officially completed and connected to the grid after one year of construction. Poland’s Minister of Climate and Environment Michał Kurtyka said, “By 2040, half of Poland’s installed power generation capacity should have zero-emissions. We very much hope that Chinese companies actively participate in the development of Poland’s clean energy industry and look for mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation opportunities.”

Source: People’s Daily, June 3, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-06/03/nw.D110000renmrb_20210603_5-17.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Italian Parliament Condemned China’s Human Rights

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, passed a motion on May 26 expressing its strongest condemnation of “the various human rights violations that China has committed against its ethnic minorities and religious groups.” It called on China to grant the UN High Commissioner access to “re-education camps” in Xinjiang. The resolution from the parliament of the first European country who joined China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” certainly dealt a blow to China.

The motion shows that the pro-China trade and economic policy of the former Italian government has begun to falter. In particular, since he became prime minister in February this year, Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, has come to the forefront of the European Union’s efforts to strengthen its tough stance on China. Draghi had recently invoked its so-called Golden Power to block China’s takeover of a semiconductor firm in Italy.

The Chamber of Deputies did not adopt the use of the term “genocide”, which has been used by the Canadian and U.S. governments. In Europe, the British Parliament first proposed to adopt the finding that the Chinese government’s serious and systematic violations against the Uighurs in Xinjiang were genocide. Because the discussion of “genocide” caused a serious political division, the motion ultimately chose to avoid the word.

The motion calls on the Draghi government and EU partner countries to take a “firm stand” against China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which include illegal birth control, the repression of religious freedom, forced labor in detention camp factories, arbitrary detention and the use of digital technology for surveillance purposes.

Laura Harth, campaign director of Safeguard Defenders, a human rights non-governmental organization, told Radio Free Asia, “The bill was debated in Parliament and the media made a big deal out of it. Before it was very difficult to discuss the Uighur issue in Italy, but the epidemic from China has significantly changed the attitude of the MP’s.”

Italy, single-handedly signing the “Belt and Road Memorandum” with Beijing among EU member states, has been seen as an important bridgehead for China to conquer EU. The Italian public began to see the other side of China upon the outbreak of the epidemic, as well as from receiving the fake news spread by Chinese diplomats on Twitter, claiming that Italians were grateful for Chinese aid and were playing the Chinese national anthem. In March, Deputy Foreign Minister Marina Sereni summoned the Chinese Ambassador to protest against the sanctions that  China imposed on several European parliamentarians and to reiterate Italy’s position in defense of human rights and freedoms.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 31, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/cl-05312021160148.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Surpassed Germany to Become Britain’s Largest Trade Supplier

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that, according to the British National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter, China became Britain’s largest supplier. This broke Germany’s number one position which it had held since 1997. In the first quarter, imports from China increased by 66 percent, to 16.9 billion pounds. In the meantime, imports from Germany declined by a quarter to 12.5 billion pounds. The increase on the China side was the direct result of the high demand for the personal protection products (PPP) for the pandemic. The German decline was largely caused by the shrinking car sales, also due to the pandemic. At the moment, the top five importing countries for the UK are China, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands and Belgium. China’s exports to Britain are mainly in three categories: machinery products, electronic equipment, and various chemical products. Britain’s exports to China grew mainly in the areas of machinery and transportation equipment. In addition to cars and fossil fuels, British exports also include products in the pharmaceutical industry and material manufacturing. London is the one city alone that has ranked number five among all British exporting areas.

Source: Sina, May 27, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2021-05-27/doc-ikmxzfmm4907145.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Global Times: U.S. Dollar Hegemony Crack Is Widening

The Global Times recently published a commentary analyzing the power of the U.S. dollar. The commentator indicated that the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status is being weakened by the Euro, the Japanese Yen and the Chinese RMB. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the fourth quarter of 2020, the Euro held a 21 percent share in the global central bank currency reserve, which restored it to the same high level of six years ago. At the same time, the U.S. dollar fell to 59 percent, which was a 25-year low. This is the result of the U.S. government borrowing money from the world uncontrollably, and the U.S. Federal Reserve having no bottom line for its quantitative easing. The fact that the Biden Administration’s ambitious infrastructure investment plan kept shrinking its total size is very telling. Even many U.S. economists have said the Federal Reserve is running out of ideas after massively printing money. The U.S. inflation rate is reaching a very high level. This is triggering a global discussion of the need to put an end to the U.S. dollar’s hegemony. The Chinese RMB, with a significant share in the IMF’s SDR, cannot be underestimated, although the RMB has only a two percent share in the global currency reserve. The Euro and the Chinese RMB, via the IMF platform, should increase their weight in the global economy, along with other modern methods, like the digital currency and currency exchange agreements among central banks.

Source: Global Times, May 27, 2021
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/43Hm5dUrz6X

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

RFA: China’s New Regulations Caused Further Suppression of the Catholic Religion

Radio Free Asia (RFA) recently reported that, starting in May, China implemented its new “Measures for the Administration of Religious Staff.” The new regulations require that the staff members in all religious groups must support the Chinese Communist Party. Those Catholic clergymen who refused to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which was blessed by the Communist Party but not recognized by the Vatican, were the first to face suppression. On May 21 and 22 in Hebei Province, hundreds of policemen surrounded a monastery and detained Bishop Zhang Weizhu, seven priests and more than 10 monks. Since the Hebei Xinxiang Diocese did not want to join the Patriotic Association, it was recognized as illegal under the new regulations; hence the crackdown. All Catholic families in the diocese were searched and fined for possession of Catholic symbols. The police also confiscated those Catholic symbols, their crosses, pictures of the Pope, statues or portraits of saints, and all of the religious symbols that they had.

Source: RFA, May 23, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/7-05232021151415.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Beijing to Launch Social Media Platforms for Ideological and Political Education in Universities

According to Xinhua News Agency, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Propaganda Department, the CCP’s Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Education, and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, will be jointly promoting the launch of a number of social media platforms in universities and colleges. The “first group of universities and colleges ideological and political public accounts list” includes the social media accounts of Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Since 2013, the CCP has been strengthening the ideological education in schools and universities. As early as 2013, at the CCP’s National Propaganda Work Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping vowed to solidify the guiding position of Marxism in ideology and propaganda, especially on school campuses.

To celebrate the centennial of the founding of the CCP, the authorities launched a large-scale study campaign on the history of the Party, using the latest version of the “Brief History of the Chinese Communist Party ” as the official designated study material.

At the same time, the Ministry of Education has also blacklisted books that “do not conform to the core socialist values.” They are prohibited from being used in elementary and secondary schools and in kindergartens.

Source: Central News Agency, May 28, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202105280123.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Accuses U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories of Secret Dealings with Japanese Unit 731

On May 28, a reporter asked a question at a regular press conference at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “U.S. President Joe Biden claimed that a report may be released detailing the findings of the U.S. intelligence community on the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. intelligence agencies have also begun to comment on the traceability of the virus, saying they will continue to study all the evidence and collect and analyze new information. What is China’s comment on this?”

(Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson) Zhao Lijian replied, “Virus tracing is a serious scientific issue, but the U.S. is trying to let its so-called intelligence personnel lead to the conclusion, which only shows that the U.S. side does not care about the truth and does not want to engage in scientific research, but is only bent on playing politics and blaming other countries.”

“It is clear to the world that the U.S. side has recently once again maliciously rehashed the ‘laboratory leak’ and claimed to conduct an ‘investigation’ on this issue with impure motives and sinister intentions. I would like to remind them of two points. First, it is highly unlikely that the Chinese laboratory incident caused the virus, and this conclusion is clearly documented in the study report of the joint China-WHO mission. Second, the United States is the country with the largest and most numerous biological laboratories in the world. The news of the leak at the Fort Detrick biological camp has long been exposed in the media. According to public information, Fort Detrick is inextricably linked to the ‘Unit 731’ of the Japanese army invading China, and the head of the heinous ‘Unit 731’, Shiro Ishii, was a biological weapons advisor to Fort Detrick.”

“I would like to ask the U.S. side when it will provide details on the unexplained respiratory illness in northern Virginia in July 2019 and the massive ‘e-cigarette disease’ in Wisconsin? Is there the will and courage for WHO experts to come to the United States to investigate?”

U.S. President Biden recently ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to re-investigate the source of the coronavirus and urged China to participate in the global investigation. A bill was introduced in the U.S. Congress to require the intelligence community to release information about the investigation into the ties between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the coronavirus.

The mainland Chinese media once reported that according to the declassified information from the U.S. National Archives, after World War II, the U.S. military secretly contacted Shiro Ishii, Masaji Kitano and other personnel, and conducted investigations of Unit 731 of the Japanese army, and compiled a series of reports on Japan’s Unit 731 germ warfare investigations. The U.S. and Japan were also reported to have traded information on germ warfare research results, and the U.S. was able to use Japanese biochemical weapons research information, so as to develop the Fort Detrick Biological Laboratories, which is the only P4 biological processing laboratory in the U.S. Army.

Source: Chinese Foreign Ministry, May 28, 2021
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/wjdt_674879/fyrbt_674889/t1879392.shtml
China Times, May 28, 2021
https://www.chinatimes.com/cn/realtimenews/20210528005464-260409

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Tesla Cars Not Welcome in Government and Military Facilities in China

Starting on May 24, a “Notice on Disallowing Tesla Vehicles from the Provincial Administrative Center” was circulated online. The notice reads, “Due to a lack of parking spaces and other reasons, starting from May 31, 2021, Tesla vehicles will be disallowed from entering the provincial administrative center. Please notify the staff members in all units.” The “Security Office of the Zhejiang Provincial Administrative Center” signed the notice, which was dated May 21, 2021.

Netizens tended to believe that it was likely an authentic notice, although it has not been confirmed. Two months ago, the Chinese military had already banned Tesla cars from parking in military facilities or dormitory areas.

Wang Aizhong, a political dissident living in Guangzhou, told Radio Free Asia, “Over the years, there has been a sharply rising tide of government-guided nationalist sentiment in China. This includes the boycott of Tesla. Now some government bodies are imposing restrictions on Tesla. This is beyond Tesla’s original expectation when it came to China to set up a factory.”

Staff from at least two government agencies in Beijing and Shanghai received verbal instructions from officials in charge that they should not park Tesla cars in the office areas, Reuters reported on Friday May 21, “As of now, it is unclear whether the ban involves all government agencies or is simply a measure taken by individual officials.”

Recent news of Tesla’s intention to set up factories in Europe suggests that it plans no expansion in China. Media have reported that Tesla is now considering building factories in other parts of the world, including Russia and Germany.

Mr. Jiang, a scholar in Zhejiang, told RFA that the government hopes to obtain Tesla’s advanced technology by introducing the production line. “Learn the technology, copy the technology and then kick them out. Will a company like Tesla repeat the mistakes of its predecessor? Let’s wait and see.”

During the Shanghai Auto Show in April, a woman lodged a protest at the Tesla booth. The official media hyped up the incident and blasted Tesla as “bullying the customer.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 25, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql2-05252021064552.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations