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A Canadian CSSA Lost Its Student Club Status for Reporting to Chinese Consulate

The Chinese Student & Scholar Association (CSSA) of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada was decertified and its club status was removed because it was monitoring college activities and sending information to the Chinese government.

On February 11, 2019, the university held a forum to support the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The CSSA, along with another four student associations, called that meeting an “anti-China lecture” and reported it to China’s Consulate in Toronto, CA.

Deutsche Welle obtained the Chinese students’ communication from WeChat, including their reporting to the Chinese Consulate and passing down the Consulate’s direction.

The WeChat records showed some students sent the forum’s video to China’s Consulate, some students went to the forum to create a disturbance, and some posted and sent a threatening request in order to find out the name of the son of the speaker at the forum.

The Chinese Consulate responded by asking Chinese students at McMaster University to report the case to their CSSA.

The student representative assembly at the university decertified the CSSA in September for a full calendar year, during which it will be denied club privileges such as being able to book a room and access to student union funding.

None of four other student associations that signed the February statement has faced disciplinary action. One of them testified in writing that it had signed the statement at the invitation of the CSSA’s then-president.

The CSSA filed an appeal. The university’s student union government rejected the appeal on November 3. It also passed a motion to oppose the CCP or the CSSA for trying to “directly or indirectly intervene in college political activities.”

Source: Epoch Times, November 5, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/11/5/n11635793.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

To Prevent the Spread of Plague, Government Set up “Firewall” Exiting Inner Mongolia and Entering Beijing

China’s Caixin.com reported on November 22 that an emergency response group of the provincial government of Inner Mongolia in northern China issued a “Work Plan for a Firewall for Exiting Inner Mongolia and entering Beijing” to prevent the spread of the plague. The plan highlights three lines of defense including an early warning of an epidemic situation, investigations by medical institutions, and an inspection of outbound passengers. According to the report, the Xilinhot Airport set up a check point at the entrance, logging the body temperature of every passenger. The Xilinhot Airport is the nearest airport to Xilingol League, where the initial two pneumonic plague patients originated. A body temperature check point was also set up at the highway to Sonid Left Banner, northwest of Xilingol League. All vehicles need to be inspected, and the information of passengers’ names, phone numbers, the point of departure and their destination must be registered. In addition, vehicles carrying livestock, wildlife, or wildlife products are required to register with the agriculture, animal husbandry, or forestry police authorities.

Earlier two patients from Xilingol League of Inner Mongolia were diagnosed in Beijing as having pneumonic plague. Soon afterwards, a patient in Bordered Yellow Banner of Xilingol League was also identified as having the plague. 28 people who were in close contact with this patient are still under medical observation.

The media reported that the recent outbreak of the plague was related to official negligence. This summer, some areas in northern China began to suffer from severe rodent problems. Although there were no new people infected with the plague in Xilingol League, there have been cases of dead animals and animals detected as having a positive plague reaction. There are unconfirmed tweets disclosing that more than 300 villages in northern provinces such as Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Liaoning, and Jilin were completely blocked. Armed police  were stationed there and villagers were not allowed to enter or exit. Communications have also been cut off.

Source: Central News Agency, November 22, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201911220160.aspx

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Xinjiang Re-Education Camps Duplicated in Tibet

The BBC reported in July that Lobsang Sangay, the Tibetan president-in-exile, said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has set up camps in Tibet to hold Tibetans, duplicating the Muslim Uyghur camps in Xinjiang. “We do have these camps but not as large as the Uyghurs, so a lot of people are sent for education through labor, imprisonment, and detention.”

On October 29, 2019, RFA reported on the Tibetan camps in greater detail. RFA interviewed Dawa Cairen, a representative of the Tibetan Executive Central Committee in Dharamsala, India. He explained that the CCP is using “vocational training schools” to brainwash young Tibetans forcibly while calling it “patriotic education.”

Dawa Cairen said that, in 2008, the Chinese government, in the name of national compulsory education, forced almost all Tibetan children to move into boarding schools. The schools isolated those children from their mother culture, that of Tibet. The schools followed militarized management, preventing students from going out and in effect turning the schools into prisons.

The CCP recently discovered a gap in its control of the Tibetan youth. In recent years, many students have graduated from those compulsory education schools. Among them, those who did not get into college went home, to monasteries, or to other places where they could learn traditional Tibetan culture, or such subjects as Tibetan sculpture or Tibetan calligraphy.

The CCP recently rushed to establish “vocational training schools” to gather those young men back under its control. These vocational schools do not have standard offerings. Some just teach whatever the teachers they find are able to teach. “They may teach nursing today, animal treatment tomorrow, and machinery maintenance the day after. There are no real courses.”

“The main things that (those vocational straining schools) teach is the (CCP’s) laws, the religions that are under the CCP’s control, patriotism education, and CCP history. Students must learn, memorize, and take tests on these subjects. The schools give rewards to those who learn these subjects well, such as vacation days to go home.”

Students are required to sing “red songs” (the songs praising the CCP) before each meal at those schools.

Dawa Cairen said that he received reliable information that the CCP had arrested a couple because they sent their child to a monastery after he graduated from the 10th grade. The CCP threatened to sentence them if they wouldn’t take their son out of the monastery, but the parents chose to be sentenced to keep their child in the monastery, because they felt that it was their child’s will to be a monk. Then the CCP arrested the child, and forced the parents to yield.

Dawa Cairen pointed out that some Tibetans have been arrested for running Tibetan-language tutoring classes during students’ summer and winter vacations. One Tibetan who advocated teaching the Tibetan language was even sentenced to five years in prison for “inciting secession.”

The report said that there is a “vocational technical training school” in Lhasa, Tibet. The authorities have asked the governments of the seven counties and one district, all under the jurisdiction of Lhasa, to send their rural youths who might have the rebel spirit to the school for brainwashing education.

The report included a satellite picture of a “vocational technical training school” in Lhasa. [Editor’s note: From the information in that picture, we can see that this school is located in Cainaxiang, 39 km southwest of Lhasa and 25 km north of the Lhasa Airport.]

Sources:
1. Radio Free Asia, October 29, 2019 https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shaoshuminzu/hx1-10292019111955.html
2. BBC, July 1, 2019
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-48804625/lobsang-sangay-tibetans-being-detained-in-camps-by-chinese

Briefings | | |   Report

Growth Rate of Chinese Students to U.S. Reached Ten-Year Low

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, according to the latest report that the American Institute of International Education (IIE) released, for the 2018-2019 academic year, China remains the largest source of U.S. foreign students. However, the growth rate of Chinese students is slowing and has reached the lowest point in a decade. It appears this is a direct result of problems such as visa issuance. China has been the largest foreign student source for the U.S. for ten years now. For the 2018-2019 year, China has 370,000 students in the States. This represents one-third of the total number of foreign students in the U.S. Geng Shuang, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented on the IIE report at a press conference. He thought that the reduction in the growth rate apparently showed that current U.S. policies impacted the image and the reputation of the United States and that they also blocked healthy exchanges between the U.S. and the outside world. He thought this, in fact, might hurt U.S. interests. Although President Trump has expressed his position of welcoming Chinese student multiple times, yet it would be better if this positive attitude displayed itself in reality. Geng said that, hopefully, next year’s number will look better.

Source: Sina, November 22, 2019
https://chinanews.sina.com/gb/2019-11-22/doc-ifzramam2666041.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Epoch Times: Australian Scholar Blocked from Conducting Research on WeChat

According to an Epoch Times report, a Chinese scholar received considerable resistance from his school when he tried to conduct a research project on WeChat.

James Jing, 39, a China-born Australian immigrant, came to Australia over ten years ago. He has been teaching at the Curtin University in Australia for 12 years. He is working on his PhD degree. For his PhD dissertation he chose the topic, “The Study of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Censorship System and Social Media Platform on WeChat.” However, he could not get any help from his professors.

Tencent, the company that developed WeChat, has sponsored several activities and projects at the Curtin University.

Jing felt that his academic life has been ended and that the main reason was the CCP’s influence. “I never thought that the CCP had extended its tentacles to the other side of the ocean.” “Curtin’s censorship and self-censorship (on behalf of the CCP) has created a blockage to certain extent. I think it will restrain the potential of its Chinese scholars.”

Jing also acknowledged that discussing this issue openly may result in consequences for him. Nevertheless, his conscience told him that he must go forward. He said, “I have come to the land of Australia and become an Australian citizen. I need to defend Australian values, just like the national anthem ‘Advance Australia Fair.’”

Curtin University denied that the school has adopted self-censorship.

Source: Epoch Times, November 11, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/11/11/n11647561.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Chinese TV Series Exported to More Than 200 Countries

Between November 11th and the 14th, the 25th Beijing TV Program Market & Exhibition, which was previously the Capital TV Program Promotion Fair, was held at the Beijing Convention Center. The Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Beijing Municipal Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television hosted it jointly. TV series now account for more than 70 percent of the Chinese TV programs traded internationally, far exceeding other types of TV programs. Chinese TV series have been exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world.

In Southeast Asia, Chinese TV series still maintain a strong competitive advantage. At the same time, Chinese TV programs have already been conveyed out of Asia and into Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and African countries and regions. As of now, more than 1,600 Chinese film and television programs have been translated into 36 languages, including English, French, Russian, Arabic, and Burmese and have been broadcasted in more than 100 countries.

Source: People’s Daily, November 15, 2019
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2019-11/15/nw.D110000renmrb_20191115_5-11.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s New Energy Vehicles Suffered Significant Sales Decline in October

Well-known Chinese news site Tencent News recently reported, based on data released from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), that China’s new energy vehicles’ domestic sales dropped by 45.6 percent year-over-year. This is the fourth consecutive monthly decline in the new energy vehicle market segment. Not long ago, that segment of the market was one of the rapidly growing sectors in the Chinese economy. According to CAAM, the automobile industry is facing challenges in the areas of weak consumer demand, higher national technical standards, and dramatically declining government subsidies. In the meantime, the total domestic passenger automobile market declined by 5.8 percent in October, year-over-year. Domestic brands suffered more than foreign brands, seeing an October decline of 9.6 percent, year-over-year. New Energy Vehicles include pure electric vehicles (EV), plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) and traditional hybrid vehicles. In October, motorcycle sales saw a 25.9 percent increase, year-over-year; however they suffered a 12 percent decrease, month-over-month.

Source: Tencent News, November 11, 2019
https://finance.qq.com/a/20191111/005700.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

People’s Daily: CMG and EBC Established Media Cooperation Relationship

People’s Daily recently reported that the China Media Group (CMG, aka China Central Broadcast and Television) and the Brazil Communication Company (EBC) just signed a deal for the exchange of contents and 5G new media technology, joint productions, cooperative broadcasts, and personnel training. Sheng Haixiong, CMG Chief Executive and Deputy Director of the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, explained that this new deal was the result of a deepened comprehensive strategic relationship between China and Brazil. Since 2009, China has been Brazil’s largest trade partner. EBC is a Brazilian public company, founded in 2007, to manage the Brazilian federal government’s broadcast network. It includes domestic and international television as well as the nation’s primary radio stations.

Source: People’s Daily, November 14, 2019
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2019-11/16/nw.D110000renmrb_20191116_9-02.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend