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Briefings - 232. page

RFA Chinese: U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Passed Act against the Beijing Winter Olympics

Radio Free Asia (RFA) Chinese Edition recently reported that the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee swiftly passed the American Values and Security in International Athletics Act, proposed by Michael McCaul, Republican senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The Act includes a call for boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics, a condemnation of China and the Hong Kong government’s human rights violations, and a requirement for the Secretary of State to warn the participants in the international games held in communist countries or countries with human rights violation concerns 180 days ahead of the games. The Act intends to inform the American athletes of the games host country’s human rights, privacy and security risks. A similar bill passed unanimously in the previous term of the House, but did not survive the Senate. The House is expected to pass this new Act very quickly. The Beijing Winter Olympics is coming closer. Many U.S. lawmakers proposed bills and wrote to the White House calling for a boycott. Senator Rick Scott, who proposed a similar bill in the Senate asked the White House to discuss China’s human rights records and called the International Olympics Committee for a change of location of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Source: RFA Chinese, February 25, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/cm-02252021143107.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Global Times: India Quietly Established a New Agency Aimed at China

Global Times recently reported that, according to Indian media, India just established a new government organization called the Defense Space Agency (DSA), based on the fact that China is pushing hard on space technology explorations. Two years after demonstrating India’s anti-satellite technologies, the Indian military created the DSA to start the programs officially in order to strengthen its capacity to respond to space-oriented threats. In mid-2019, the Indian Ministry of Defense approved the proposal to establish the DSA. The new agency is an organization involving the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Air Force General SP Dharkar is its leader. The DSA has been working with the related industrial companies on Space Situation Awareness (SSA) technologies, which are set to detect, recognize and trace enemy assets in space. SAA is also designed to provide early alerts on attacks from space. The DSA also focuses on obtaining the capability to integrate monitoring data from various space-based sensors with land, sea and air based combat systems. Though all these had nothing to do with China, the Indian media continues to associate military activities with China.

Source: Global Times, February 23, 2021
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/4239WWMYZyb

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

RFI Chinese: Xi Jinping Met with Moon Explorer Crew and Space Stock Fell

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping met with the crew of the Chinese moon explorer Chang’e 5, which had just completed a mission to the moon and brought back surface samples. Xi acknowledged the major achievements of the mission and the crew and praised the developments under the Chinese space exploration program. Xi also credited the centralized planning and government sponsorship model for the accomplishments made in the space program. However, right after Xi’s speech, two major Chinese space companies, AECC Aviation Power Co. (Shanghai Stock Exchange 600893) and AVIC Shenyang Aircraft Company Limited (Shanghai Stock Exchange 600760), saw their stock prices fall significantly by 8.39 percent and 7.93 percent, respectively. Both companies have market values above RMB 100 billion (around US$15.4 billion).

Source: RFI Chinese, February 22, 2021
https://bit.ly/3dPiGjH

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Medical Experts and Elected Officials Condemn Forced Organ Harvesting in China

On Wednesday, February 24, the “International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China” (ETAC) hosted a seminar on the CCP’s live organ harvesting. 117 people including legal experts and elected officials from the U.S., Canada, the UK, the EU, and Australia attended the seminar.

One of the keynote speakers was Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, a prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Chair of the China Tribunal (Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China.) Nice said that forced organ harvesting is the worst crime since World War II. On June 17, 2019, after a five-day hearing with over 50 witnesses, medical experts, and investigators, the China Tribunal released a 60-page summary and confirmed that crimes against humanity, including forced organ harvesting, have been committed in China.

Sean Lin, former lab director for the viral diseases branch at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted by the CCP for many years and they are the primary targets of organ harvesting. Dr. Lin said that, after the CCP started to suppress Falun Gong in 1999, the number of organ transplants in China saw a dramatic increase, from military hospitals to large size hospitals, across the country. The crime still continues today. When investigators contacted hospitals in China, they were told the wait time for organs is very short. Apparently, a large organ donor supply exists in China. For cultural reasons voluntary donations in China hardly exist at all. He said that “as indicated by the China Tribunal, the international community should demand the CCP take immediate actions to stop this atrocity instead of simply conducting more investigations. … Forced organ harvesting is not only a crime against humanity but it is also a form of genocide.”

International human rights lawyer David Matas proposed legal action such as the Magnitsky Act to sanction communist China. Wendy Rogers, a Professor of Clinical Ethics at Macquarie University in Australia proposed that more institutions and scientific organizations could press the CCP and ban doctors involved from attending international conferences or publishing papers. Overseas patients should also be restricted from going on medical trips to China to receive organs harvested from living Falun Gong practitioners.

A number of countries have spoken against the forced organ harvesting. The annual human rights report from the U.S. Department of State quoted the judgment from the China Tribunal and also recorded the deaths of 96 Falun Gong practitioners in China that year, caused by the suppression. On December 16, 2020, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, together with House representatives Chris Smith and Tom Suozzi, introduced a bill to stop forced organ harvesting in China. Known as the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, this bill aimed to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience. According to Marilou McPhedran, MP from Canada a measure called S-240 had been introduced to amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (trafficking in human organs). On February 22, Canadian MPs voted unanimously to pass a motion from the Conservative Party that designated communist China’s treatment of Uyghurs as genocide.

According to information from the Minghui, over 4,000 Falun Gong practitioners have lost their lives to the persecution in China. At least 84 died in 2020 alone. Due to information censorship, the real number of victims could be much higher. Furthermore, a large number of practitioners have gone missing in the 21-year-long persecution since 1999.

Source: Minghui.org, February 26, 2021
https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2021/2/26/191136.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Phoenix Satellite TV to Become a Sister Station of CCTV?

Phoenix Satellite TV, established in Hong Kong in 1996, has always used its status as a media outlet in Hong Kong to cover up its ties with Beijing. However, the latest high-level personnel change at Phoenix TV suggests that CCP party officials are officially directly in charge of Phoenix TV.

China Caixin.com reported that Sun Yusheng, the former deputy director of CCTV, will become the vice president of Phoenix Satellite TV. Prior to this, there was unconfirmed news that the former deputy director of the Shanghai International Communication Office would take over as the chairman of Phoenix Satellite TV. According to the organization announcement, Sun Yusheng will be responsible for Phoenix TV program planning, style, content, production, and coordination among its various channels. Caixin also quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Sun is expected to become the CEO of Phoenix Satellite TV in the future.

Hu Ping, the Chief Editor of Beijing Spring magazine said that Phoenix played two roles in the past. One was to be an outlet to provide propaganda to overseas audiences. It portrays itself as an unbiased media, but, when needed, it would defend and speak for the CCP. The second was that Beijing does not control it as tightly as other media, although people on the mainland can also watch it. In the past, the CCP could not directly exercise its control in Hong Kong out of the concern for the “one country, two systems” policy but now it no longer needs to do so.
Source: Radio Free Asia, February 25, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/jt-02252021141314.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

India to Introduce a Stimulus Plan to Reward Domestic Products

Although it does not seem that the tension on the border between China and India will ease up anytime soon, the trade relationship between the two countries is improving. After falling to second place for two consecutive years, in 2020, China once again become India’s largest trading partner and the U.S. became the second largest. However, the Indian government is concerned about China’s huge trade surplus with India.

On Wednesday, February 24, India approved an incentive plan to reward the use of domestic high-tech products. It is expected to spend US$1 billion to encourage domestic companies to increase the production of laptops, tablets and other products. India hopes that this move will diversify its products and reduce its dependence on China. At the same time, it will enable India to be self-sufficient in the electronic field and grow to be a top global supplier in the future.

The Indian Mobile Phone and Electronics Association and Ernst & Young released a research report in November 2020. According to the report, 80 percent of laptops and two-thirds of tablet computers sold in India are imported from China. However, in the mobile phone market, India has achieved a more successful transition. Before 2014, the market share of imported smart phones was 78 percent, but this number has now dropped to 8 percent.

The incentive plan includes the distribution of cash subsidies of up to 4 percent of the company’s revenue for four years starting in April this year.

The Indian government has started discussions with Apple and Hewlett-Packard on stimulus measures. According to media reports, Apple is interested in participating in the incentive program. Apple has not established a production line in India as of yet, but its supplier, Taiwan’s Hon Hai Group, has invested US$100 million to build a factory in southern India. Hewlett-Packard also has a branch in India.

At a press conference on Wednesday, India’s Minister of Electronics and Information, Ravi Shankar Prasad, stated that the focus of this incentive program is to “to bring the world’s top five global champions to India and produce for the world.”

Due to the impact of COVID 19, the Indian economy is in urgent need of recovery. India’s GDP shrank by 15 percent in 2020. For its size, India has the worst economy  in the world.

Source: Deutsche Welle, February 25, 2021
https://p.dw.com/p/3ptGs

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

ByteDance Agrees to $92 Million Settlement over Privacy Charges

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois published a document on February 25 stating that TikTok’s parent company, Beijing based ByteDance, has agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the application’s U.S. users over a privacy infringement lawsuit and will make a US$92 million settlement payment.

In 2020, 21 separate class-action complaints were filed against the company on behalf of young users in states including California and Illinois.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “The plaintiffs’ attorneys, who represented users as young as 8 years old, argued TikTok surreptitiously collected biometric data to sharpen the app’s targeted advertising and content recommendations” “The plaintiffs’ attorneys also alleged TikTok stores user data in China potentially exposing it to government surveillance.”

On Thursday, TikTok said, “While we disagree with the assertions, rather than go through lengthy litigation, we’d like to focus our efforts on building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community.”

In the United States, each state has its own regulations on privacy protection. According to the Biometric Privacy Law of Illinois, collecting user’s biometric data without consent may constitute a violation. Last year, Facebook also reached a $650 million settlement under the statute.

TikTok has more than 100 million users in the United States. TikTok’s Attorney estimate that the process for approving the settlement could take months.

According to Reuters, separately in Washington, the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Justice Department are looking into allegations that TikTok failed to live up to a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy.

Source: Radio Free Asia, February 26, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/rc-02262021121449.html
Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2021
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bytedance-agrees-to-92-million-privacy-settlement-with-u-s-tiktok-teens-11614287474

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Supporting Taiwan’s “Freedom Pineapple” to Stop China’s Economic Intimidation

China’s General Administration of Customs announced on February 26 that it will halt the importation of Taiwan’s pineapples starting on March 1, citing “harmful organisms” detected in the fruit.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu responded by starting a “Freedom Pineapple” campaign on Twitter to condemn Beijing’s politically-driven ban on the fruit. “China now bans our pineapples to punish farmers in the south. Remember Australia’s Freedom Wine? I urge like-minded friends around the globe to stand with Taiwan & rally behind the Freedom Pineapple.”

Last year, Australia advocated investigating the source of the COVID-19 disease and angered China. China imposed trade barriers on Australian wine, beef, barley and other products. Democratic countries took action to support Australia and called for drinking Australian wine.

Some Twitter posts used the hashtag that included: “India should show solidarity with Taiwan,” “We would love to buy them in the U.S.,” “Help Taiwan’s farmers counter China’s weaponization of trade,” “Delicious pineapple cakes from Taiwan,” “Taiwan has probably the best pineapple in the world,” and “Democracy pineapples.”

Taiwan’s president also tweeted, “After Australian wine, unfair Chinese trade practices are now targeting Taiwanese pineapple, but that won’t stop us. Whether in a smoothie, a cake, or freshly cut on a plate, our pineapples always hits the spot. Support our farmers & enjoy delicious Taiwanese fruit!”

J. Michael Cole, a researcher at the Canada based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, echoed the campaign on Twitter, “In the latest round of attempts by China to punish Taiwan, Beijing has announced it will cancel all imports of Taiwanese pineapple staring on March 1. I don’t know about you, but I am suddenly craving Taiwanese pineapple.”

Source: Central News Agency, February 27, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202102270027.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend