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Xi Jinping’s Books Placed in Nanjing Hotel Rooms

A journalist with the Taiwan based Central News Agency reported that, when traveling to Nanjing on a business trip in early November, she found two copies of English versions of Xi Jinping’s Talks about Governing the Country in her hotel room cabinet. She thought that it was an impressive practice for the hotel to place the writings of the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the hotel room, instead of the Bible, as is the practice in many hotels in the West. She later found out that the Xinhua Newspaper Media Group in Jiangsu province had actually invested in and built the hotel where she had stayed. Xinhua News Agency is the official propaganda outlet for the Chinese Communist Party.

This practice still shows China’s ambition to promote its ideology to people from other countries. As Xinhua News Agency reported, the circulation of Xi Jinping’s Talks about Governing the Country has exceeded 20 million copies and has been translated into more than 20 languages. At the end of October, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued the “Outline for Implementing the Moral Development of Citizens in the New Era.” It included the information on the regulation of Internet contents.

In terms of book publications, the general morale in the country is not high. Since last year, the film, news, and publishing industries have been placed under the management of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party of China. The number of officially allowed book titles is shrinking and there are more controls on what kind of books can be published. A senior editor said that it would take half a year to apply for even a book number for books in social sciences. If it were a development, arts appreciation, or health book, the book number would be approved in a week.

Source: Central News Agency, November 10, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/201911100052.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CCP Special Forces Used Dim Mak Technique to Kill Hong Kong Protesters

Epoch Times reported that an Internet posting stated that the special police forces in China were responsible for a number of the “floating corpses of protesters” in Hong Kong. After comparing many pictures, the author, who said he is in the special police forces, concluded that the Chinese special police forces did the killing with a special killing technique that only they know, called Dim Mak.

Dim Mak (点穴 or 点脉), is a mysterious Chinese martial arts technique. It was invented by Master Zhang Sanfeng (born in the 12th century) as part of his Wudang martial arts and healing system. Chinese medicine theory stresses the flow of “qi and blood (气血).” The Dim Mak technique is to press or hit a person’s acupoint to block the qi and blood flow either immediately or slowly, which can give that person great pain, slow or hinder his movement, or,  in the severe cases, lead to his death. This technique is also called “Touch of Death.”

Dim Mak may sound foreign and incredible to Westerners, but, thanks to martial arts novels, the concept is widely known to Chinese. Many Chinese martial arts practitioners know or believe it.

Since the “anti-extradition” movement in Hong Kong started in May, the conflict between the police and the protesters has become more and more brutal. Since June, more than one hundred protesters have been found to have mysteriously committed “suicide.” A number of “floating corpses” were found in water or in the seas, including that of Chan Yin-lam, a 15-year-old female student who had been a diving team member and was a good swimmer. One reporter observed that, when being arrested, it is not unusual for protesters to shout their name and yell that they are not suicidal. “If they aren’t heard from again, they want to make sure it’s clear who’s to blame.”

The Hong Kong police have failed to provide a satisfactory explanation in those cases. Many times, the authorities did a quick examination of the dead body and then sent it to be cremated.

Since the dead bodies did not have any sign of a clear fatal injury or convincing drowning signs, the author of the posting argued that the Chinese special forces used the “Dim Mak” technique to put the victims in a state of near death and let them die “naturally” in the water over a period of time.

The author pointed out, “The training of special forces in any country in the world is focused on controlling and killing suspects. Only China has another kind of training to put the apprehended in a near death state that can last for some time via Dim Mak.”

“The bodies that were pulled out from the waters had obvious bruises, which were likely to be the result of the special forces staff hitting or pressing the acupoints on the person’s arms, chest, abdomen, thighs, ankles, and back.”

The author claimed that “this is the most secretive murder method of the Chinese special forces” and is “killing without evidence.” “Even the professional forensic doctors cannot find, through an autopsy, what the real cause of death was and where the fatal blow was.”

Epoch Times said that it is not able to verify the accuracy of the claim.

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, November 2, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/11/2/n11628953.htm
2. Taiji World website
http://www.taijiworld.com/Dim-Mak.html
3. Atlantic, November 12, 2019
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/11/escalating-violence-hong-kong-protests/601804/

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Grapevine

India Declined to Join RCEP

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, according a number of Indian media sources, India has decided not to join The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is mainly led by China, as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from which the U.S. withdrew under President Trump. The RCEP negotiations started in 2012 and are expected to be signed next year, without India. The Indian announcement sent a shockwave across China. According to multiple sources, India’s decision was mainly based on the concerns that the negotiation neglected some of India’s core interests and the agreement requires opening up the Indian services market to 15 countries as well as lowering tariffs on Chinese products. India is especially worried about China taking advantage of India’s weak economic situation and “eating into India’s breakfast and lunch.” India’s hesitation was the reason for the delayed negotiation and the other 15 countries have been waiting. Several internal sources also said that India raised some tough last-minute new conditions.

Source: Sina, November 4, 2019
https://finance.sina.com/gb/economy/economy_global/huanqiu/2019-11-04/doc-ifzqmtky6730542.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Freedom House Report: China’s Internet Freedom Worst in the World

Radio Free Asia (RFA) Chinese Edition recently reported that Freedom House just released its 2019 annual Internet freedom Report, which shows China ranked last on the list as the worst country in violating cyber freedom. This is the fourth consecutive year for China to rank at the bottom. This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre and there are massive protests currently going on in Hong Kong. The Chinese government has further intensified its Internet control. The Freedom House ranking is mainly based on Internet connection barriers, restrictions on contents, and the protections of netizens’ rights. China scored zero on protection of netizens’ rights. The Report indicated that China utilizes cutting-edge data analytics technology to monitor people online. Many netizens have been arrested as a result of speaking up online. The Freedom House report also shows that, for the past nine consecutive years, cyber freedom has been on the decline around the globe. Even the United States suffered a decline. More and more countries are monitoring and even manipulating social media.

Source: RFA Chinese, November 5, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/rc-11052019112038.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Tencent Sports Interrupted Live Broadcast of NBA Game because of Taiwan National Flag

China Tencent Sports suddenly interrupted a live broadcast of an important NBA game on Saturday November 9. The reason was that a member of the audience was wearing clothing with the Taiwan national flag printed on it.

Tencent Sports announced on the subtitles that the interruption was because the broadcast quality of the game between Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers did not meet the broadcast standards and it had to switch from the live broadcast to cover the game that the Portland Trail Blazers was playing.

Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that, afterwards, Tencent Sports reported the Heat’s game against the Lakers through subtitles only. More than 25 million people were said to have been watching the game at the time. Many fans posted questions in the Tencent sports discussion column asking what was going on.

The post-game highlights video posted on the NBA official website showed footage of an Asian man sitting in the first row next to members of the Heat who was wearing clothing that had the national flag of Taiwan printed on it. Since the live footage was from the NBA in the U.S., Tencent did not have control of the footage.

This is the first time that Tencent stopped the live broadcast of an NBA game following the instance of Rockets general manager Morey showing the support for the protesters in Hong Kong and triggering the first boycott of the NBA in China in early October. In that incident, CCTV and Tencent Sports stopped broadcasting the NBA’s China Tournament and almost all partners of the NBA in China stopped cooperating with NBA. Up until today, Tencent still has not broadcast all of the Rockets games.

Source: VOA Chinese, November 9, 2019
https://www.voachinese.com/a/CHINAS-TENCENT-HALTS-NBA-LIVE-BROADCAST-OVER-TAIWANESE-FLAG-20191109/5159257.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Beijing May Ask HK Government to Reintroduce Article 23

Article 23 refers to Article 23 of the Basic Law, which states that the Hong Kong Government “shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.” In 2003, the Hong Kong Government made an attempt to pass Article 23. As the Hong Kong people doubted the motivation of the legislation, 500,000 people took to the streets in protest. Since then, the Hong Kong Government has not re-introduced the legislation.

On November 9th, Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council, the official agency coordinating Beijing’s ties with Hong Kong, published an article entitled, “Adhering to and improving the ‘one country, two systems,'” in a way to interpret the decision out of the recently concluded Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. The article stated that Hong Kong’s failure to complete the Article 23 legislation under the Basic Law is one of the reasons for the intensified Hong Kong independence movement in recent years. Zhang emphasized the need to establish and improve the legal system for Hong Kong to safeguard national security. Liu Zhaojia, vice president of the National Hong Kong and Macao Research Association of China, an NGO based in mainland China, commented that, from the perspective of Beijing, many of the actions in the recent anti-extradition law protests involved separatism and external forces, in violation of Article 23. If it had already been legislated, Beijing believes there would be a legal basis for handling the ongoing situation in Hong Kong.

On the pan-democracy camp, Tanya Chan, a Legislative Councilor representing Hong Kong Island and also a founding member of the Civic Party, pointed out that the anti-extradition law movement has nothing to do with Hong Kong independence. Chan criticized Zhang Xiaoming’s words, saying they were pouring oil on the flames. Pressuring the Hong Kong government to push Article 23 legislation will only tear the society further apart.

Source: Central News Agency, November 10, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201911100184.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Petition Asking for Revocation of Citizenship of Carrie Lam’s Family Members Received Significant Support

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that an individual named Deeran Kumar submitted a petition on Change.org asking the government of the United Kingdom  to revoke the citizenship of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s husband and her two sons. The petition was filed after Carrie Lam used her executive power to introduce and enforce the anti-mask law against the pro-democracy protesters. The law bypassed the legislative process under the measure called the Emergency Regulations Ordinance (ERO). The petition declared that this event effectively put Hong Kong into a state of emergency. Thus “the rule of law is dead and it has become rule by law.” The petition said the British government has a moral responsibility to take action. As of November 2, the petition had received more than 100,000 signatures. According to British law, the UK government must respond to this petition. {Editor’s Note: As of November 9, the petition had received 160,000 signatures. The web address of the live petition is: https://www.change.org/p/uk-home-office-uk-home-office-should-revoke-carrie-lam-s-family-citizenship}

Source: LTN, November 2, 2019
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/2965630

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Media: Why Did the CCP Politburo Study Blockchain

Recently, at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, Xi Jinping stressed that there should be a focus on blockchain technology. The CCP Politburo also held a group study on blockchain’s status and trends related to blockchain. Some media interviewed China experts on why the CCP is eying blockchain.

Deutsche Welle interviewed a senior IT practitioner in China who stated, “In fact, China has long been talking about digital finance. In 2014, People’s Bank (China’s Central Bank) created a group to research the feasibility of issuing digital currency. In January 2017, it officially established the Digital Currency Institute. Maybe it is to help People’s Bank launch the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP).

Blockchain relies on 5G technology to provide fast transportation speed.

VOA interviewed an economics observer, “This policy is more for the political agenda. There are three reasons for the CCP to promote blockchain.”

First, the CCP wants to participate in this “de-centralization” technology early so that it can participate in and control the standard settings and data control areas.

Second, the CCP has the financial ambition to promote a national digital currency. It has been trying to promote China’s national digital currency via the Belt and Road Initiative so as to further compete with the U.S. for financial control.

Third, blockchain can be extended to finance, to supplying China, to manufacturing, and to military areas. Having a first mover advantage or having greater power in controlling and implementing these technologies will help the CCP to reach its ambition of world domination.

Sources:
1. Deutsche Welle, October 28, 2019
https://www.dw.com/zh/专访中共中央政治局为什么学区块链/a-51022583
2. VOA, October 29, 2019
https://www.voachinese.com/a/voaweishi-20191029-voaio-is-xi-blockchain-as-new-impetus-for-economy/5143899.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Information/Technology