Briefings – Page 237

RFI Chinese: Number of HK Residents Moving to Taiwan Sets New Record

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that the Taiwanese authorities announced that, in 2020, around 11,000 Hong Kong residents were granted permission to stay in Taiwan. With the background of the Mainland pushing the new Hong Kong National Security Law, this new number doubled the 2019 total and set a record high. In the meantime, 1,576 Hong Kong residents received Taiwan’s permanent resident status. The previous record was set in 2014, with 7,506 Hong Kong residents allowed to stay in Taiwan. At that time, the “umbrella Movement” was taking place in Hong Kong, which was a massive movement against Mainland communist rule. To support the freedom movements in Hong Kong, the Taiwanese government established a special office to handle immigration requests from Hong Kong. The Office is considering easing the restrictions on work permissions for young Hong Kong college graduates and other Hong Kong residents with special skills. However, the Taiwanese authorities are also on high alert to keep Mainland spies from penetrating Taiwan via the immigration process.

Source: RFI Chinese, February 3, 2021
https://bit.ly/3cP7xiq

Briefings | | February 8, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Global Times: The UK and Japan 2+2 Meeting Expressed Concern about China Seas

The Chinese government backed newspaper Global Times recently reported that the Foreign Ministers and Defense Ministers of Great Britain and Japan met online. They issued a joint announcement after the meeting expressing “serious concerns” about the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. The ministers also said they are against any intent to change the status quo. They reemphasized the importance of maintaining freedom both of navigation and of flying over the South China Sea, and urged all parties to exercise restraint. Britain, as an outsider, has been raising its voice on the issue of the East and South China seas. Last December, the British Navy announced that it would send the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier to the South China Sea. The Chinese Ministry of Defense spokesperson said that countries from far far away coming to the South China Sea to show military muscle is the true militarization of the South China Sea and that the Chinese military will take necessary measures to resolutely defend China’s sovereignty.

Source: Global Times, February 4, 2021
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/41n77fLOxuB

Briefings | | February 8, 2021 | Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

CFLD, Once Ranked among Top Ten Real Estate Developers, Is in Debit Crisis

After HNA filed for bankruptcy in January, China Fortune Land Development (CFLD or 华夏幸福), a publicly traded Chinese real estate developer in Beijing, said that the company was in debit crisis. The public notice that the company issued stated that it had 5.255 billion (US$810 million) in outstanding loans due while it had 800 million yuan (US$124 million) in cash available to pay these debts. A creditor committee of financial institutions formed on February 1 to coordinate with all parties to resolve the issues.

Back in 2016, CFLD achieved over 120 billion (US$18.6 billion) in revenue and was ranked the number 8 real estate developer in the country. In March 2017, as the local governments in major cities, including a number of regions outside of Beijing, issued housing purchase restriction orders to curb the overheating real estate market, the housing market in the suburbs and cities near Beijing cooled down. CFLD was hit hard in operating cash. In 2018, it tried to sell the ownership of multiple projects to recoup cash. Between July 2018 and February 2019, the Pingan Group injected 18 billion (US$2.78 billion) in cash into CFLD and became the second largest shareholder of CFLD. In 2019, CFLD’s sales revenue dropped 11 percent to 145 billion (US22.4 billion). Its sales in 2020 were estimated to be 96 billion (US$15 billion). Its industry ranking also dropped to 47th place in the nation. The CFLD Chairman of the Board attributed the cause of the debt crisis to the following reasons: it under-estimated the market decline in the suburban regions in Beijing; new market developments were below expectation; excessive expansion and poor management; and COVID 19.

Source: 163.com, February 2, 2021
https://money.163.com/21/0202/09/G1QOMJ63002580S6.html

Briefings | | February 7, 2021 | Economy/Resources

A U.S. Report on a Pro-Chinese Propaganda Spam Network

On February 4, 2021, Graphika, an independent U.S. market research firm issued a report called “Spamouflage Breakout,” detailing the activities of a sprawling pro-Chinese propaganda network that Graphika has dubbed “Spamouflage.” The network uses “fake accounts and reaches real social media users, including some recipients with heavyweight influence. It sends hundreds of videos that praise China, criticize the United States, and attack the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.”

Graphika took note that elements of the network were already active in the second half of 2018, when it primarily attacked Chinese émigré billionaire Guo Wengui (郭文贵, also known as Miles Kwok). In 2019, the main target became the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. After the global outbreak of the corona virus pandemic in 2020, the activities changed focus to praise China. The report alleged that as early as February last year, social media accounts acclaimed China’s rapid response to the fight against the epidemic. Starting in June, the cyber army began to criticize the United States for failing to control the virus.

The network used videos mostly pieced together from news clips, which were full of prejudice and contained false information. The report cited an example of a fake information video titled “Vaccines will not get America out of this mess.” Without providing any evidence, it argued that “the safety of the [U.S. developed Pfizer-BioNTech] vaccine was in doubt, but it was quickly approved.” On January 21, it followed up with another video that claimed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had been approved in haste despite serious risks.

It has been found that the network has successfully engaged real users. “Nevertheless, in the past three months Spamouflage has been amplified by, among others, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, a Pakistani politician, a senior figure at Huawei Europe, a UK commentator and former member of parliament, George Galloway, and four YouTube channels for Chinese viewers with tens of thousands of followers. This is the first time that we have observed Spamouflage content reaching external audiences in this way.”

The report highlighted a few fake social media accounts that Spamouflage has used. One of them called @jingrunhe, screen name “贺景润 He Jingrun,” uses a young woman as its profile picture. This account was created on July 7, 2009, but its first recorded tweet was only posted on January 7, 2020, soon after the United States killed Iranian General Qasem. Then the account repeatedly spread videos and posts that showed a strong alignment with the Chinese government messaging on issues including Hong Kong, Taiwan, relations with the United States, U.S. sanctions, and China’s increasingly troubled relationship with Australia – including an accusation of war crimes against Australian troops. Many Chinese diplomatic accounts interacted with this account. As early as February 2020, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Spokesman Lijian Zhao, one of the best known of China’s “wolf warriors,” retweeted her; he was to do so five times in the next three months. “According to a scan with Meltwater, China’s ambassador to Iran retweeted her 25 times and tweeted her a quote eight times; China’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic retweeted her 15 times and quoted her nine times; the Chinese Embassy in France retweeted her 18 times and quoted her tweet nine times; and the ambassador to Panama retweeted her nine times and quote-tweeted her 15 times.” In addition, He Jingrun was also retweeted by the Twitter account of Huawei Europe, with over five million followers and shared by Huawei Europe senior executive Mike Bai, with over 800,000 followers. Amplified by real people, this account was also retweeted by Chilean politician Hugo Gutierrez (126,000 followers, four retweets), Panamanian TV personality Annette Quinn (109,000 followers, two retweets) and philosopher Fernando Buen Abad (108,000 followers, 13 retweets). It was also retweeted 37 times by Pakistani politician Khurram Nawaz Gandapur (91,000 followers).”

Source: Graphika, “Spamouflage Breakout,” February 4, 2021
https://graphika.com/reports/spamouflage-breakout/
Radio Free Asia, February 5, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/us-fake-02052021025056.html

Briefings | | February 7, 2021 | Information/Technology

Xinhua and US Reported Different Content on China-US High Level Phone Call

Yang Jiechi, Member of CCP Political Bureau and Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State had a phone call on the 6th. This was the first conversation between high-ranking officials of the two countries since Biden took office. However, the reports that each country released were different.

1) In the statement from the U.S. State Department, Blinken “stressed that the United States will continue to stand up for human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong,” and “will hold China accountable for threats to the stability of the Taiwan Strait.” But none of these were mentioned in the news article that Xinhua reported. Instead, it reported that Yang reiterated that Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and other matters are China’s internal affairs and no external forces are allowed to interfere.

2) In the U.S. State Department statement, Blinken “reaffirmed that the United States will work together with its allies and partners in defense of our shared values and interests to hold the PRC accountable for its efforts to threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific region, including across the Taiwan Strait, and its undermining of the rules-based international system.” Xinhua’s report said that Yang emphasized that the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive core issue in China-US relations. He reiterated the “One China Principle” and the three Sino-US joint communiqués. The Xinhua report also said that Blinken repeated that the U.S. will continue to pursue the “One China Policy” and follow the US-China Three Communiqués.

3) In the U.S. State Department statement, Blinken pressed China to join the international community in condemning the military coup in Burma. Xinhua reported that Yang Jiechi reiterated China’s position on the current situation in Myanmar and stressed that “the international community should create a positive external environment for the proper settlement of the Myanmar issue.” China recently blocked the UN Security Council statement condemning the military coup in Myanmar.

Source:
1. Central News Agency, February 7, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202102070110.aspx
2. Department of State, February 5, 2021
https://www.state.gov/secretary-blinkens-call-with-prc-director-yang/
3. Xinhua, February 6, 2021
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2021-02/06/c_1127072350.htm

Briefings | | February 7, 2021 | US-China Relations

Experts Warn of Coming Collapse of China’s Population Growth

At a press conference on January 18, China’s National Bureau of Statistics postponed the release of 2020 birth data.

In an article on Caixin.com, Liang Jianzhang, the founder of the Trip.com Group and a professor at Peking University, quoted data from local governments and media. The number of births in Wenzhou city in 2020 was 19.01 percent lower than in 2019. Hefei city’s new births in 2020 dropped by 23 percent compared to 2019. The same measure in Taizhou City in 2020 saw a decrease of 32.6 percent. Liang suggested that the fertility rate can be fundamentally reversed only by implementing changes in family planning policies, reducing housing costs, and cutting taxes.

Yi Fuxian, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Big Country with an Empty Nest, recently tweeted that “today’s Northeast region is China’s tomorrow.”

Yi pointed out that the size of the economy in the northeast region as a percentage of the whole country shrank from 13.1 percent in 1980 to 9.1 percent in 2010 and 5.0 percent in 2020. A key contributor is the aging population.

Yi told Radio Free Asia, “(The central government) predicts that the economy will double by 2035 and that the annual growth rate will average 4.7 percent between 2021 and 2035. From the perspective of population, I think this possibility is very low. China’s economy may be able to maintain a growth rate of 4 percent or 5 percent by 2025, after which the growth rate will continuously decline.”

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the birth rate in the three northeastern provinces in 2019 was only 0.61 percent, even lower than the 0.68 percent birth rate in Japan, the world’s oldest country. The reasons for the decline in the fertility rate in Northeast China, according to Yi, include the high level of urbanization, a high proportion of the population working in the state sector, high compliance with the government’s family planning policy, a low marriage rate and a high divorce rate.

Source: Radio Free Asia, February 2, 2021
http://https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shehui/cm-02022021114604.html

Briefings | | February 3, 2021 | Economy/Resources

Ukraine Issues Sanctions against Chinese Companies

According to the Ukraine’s official website, on January 29, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky approved the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of the Ukraine (NSDC) to sanction the Chinese legal persons and individuals that invested in the Ukrainian aerospace company Motor Sich. The sanctions will take effect immediately.

Four Chinese companies — Skyrizon Aircraft Holdings Co., Ltd, Hong Kong Skyrizon Holdings Co., Ltd, Beijing Skyrizon Aviation Industry Investment Co., Ltd, Beijing Xinwei Technology Group Co., Ltd. — along with a Chinese citizen, Wang Jing, born on December 24, 1972, had restrictive measures imposed on them for a period of three years.

The sanctions on Wang also include freezing his assets and temporarily restricting the use, trade and disposal of his property. The order partially or completely suspended his assets from being transported across Ukrainian territory. Wang’s visa status is revoked, and there is a ban on his entering Ukrainian territory.

Skyrizon Aircraft is the company (legal person) that invested in Motor Sich.

At the end of last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added China’s Skyrizon Aircraft to a Military End-User (MEU) List over its ability to develop military products including aircraft engines. The list includes 58 Chinese and 45 Russian companies.

Source: Sputnik News, January 29, 2021
http://big5.sputniknews.cn/china/202101291032991427/

Briefings | | February 2, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

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