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Taiwan Reporter Resigned from Want China Times Because of the Newspaper’s Pro-China Change

A veteran news reporter, Liao Zhaoxiang, resigned from the Want China Times, one of the largest news media in Taiwan, criticizing the media because it has changed its position, lost its stance, and become an echo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Some background about the Want China Times follows: The China Times is a daily Chinese newspaper, one of the four largest newspapers in Taiwan. In the early 2000s, it purchased China Television and Chung T’ien Television and thus became a big media group in Taiwan. In 2008, the owner of the Want Want group, a Taiwan businessman who went to mainland China and focused on the market there, bought China Times and, in 2009, created the Want China Times Group. The newspaper has become a pro-CCP newspaper. Chien-Jung Hsu of National Dong Hwa University stated, “Want China Times seems to be a representative of the Xinhua News Agency in Taiwan.”

The New Talk website published Liao’s resignation letter that he sent to the management of the Want China Times. In his letter, Liao said that the main reason he chose to leave was that the company not only does not care about the first-line reporters’ judgments; it has also severely damaged Taiwan’s freedom of the press and democracy. He has become completely heart-broken and given up.

Liao pointed out that when he interviewed people, he was frequently criticized because the media created fake news. It was hard for him to defend the company because what people said was true.

Liao further pointed out that his conscience would not allow him to continue working there anymore. “If the company is selling a ‘social drug’ using the lie that it is letting employees get rich, turning news reporting into the  splitting of Taiwan society and creating social conflicts, then as employees, can we just tell people, ‘It is not my fault because I just did what my boss told me to do’? The reality is that society will view us as an accomplice.”

“My son is a fourth-grader. He is interested in history. He knows that China is a totalitarian country, without democracy, rule of law, or freedom of the press. He asked me one day, ‘Dad, you are a reporter. Why does your company keep saying bad things about Taiwan and praise mainland China when it does not have freedom of the press and arrests news reporters and human rights attorneys at will? If someday Taiwan is taken over by the CCP, will you be put in prison? What should I do?’ I couldn’t answer him, but instead kept silent.”

“Even a fourth-grader understands this basic principle. All my managers, do you know what kind of government you are supporting and what editorial policy you are taking? Do you know what you are doing is killing the freedom of press in Taiwan?”

Liao also criticized China Times for removing all materials from its website that are related to the Tiananmen Massacre, including the news and photos that China Times’ own reporter Xu Zongmao brought back. He was actually shot and has a PLA soldier’s bullet in his head from when he was doing news reporting in Beijing at that time.

Sources:
1. New Talk website, June 21, 2019
https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2019-06-21/262746
2. Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Times

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Qiushi: Keep a Clear Mind and Fight till the End

Qiushi, the official journal of the Chinese Communist Party, published a commentary in its twelfth Issue for 2019. The subject was the trade war between China and the United States. It urged keeping a clear mind and fighting until the end. Xinhua and People’s Daily have since re-published the commentary. The following is a summary of some of the highlights:

The Sino-U.S. economic and trade relationship is not a “zero-sum game.” Rather, it is mutually beneficial.

The “fair trade” that the United States emphasized is not really fair at all. The United States purchases resources, labor, and products at a low cost from developing countries while selling its technology products at a high price.

Unilateralism is a dead end. Only through open cooperation can one gain more development opportunities and more room for development.

The United States hegemonism in the area of technology will not succeed. China’ technological advances are the result of the competition and hard work of the Chinese people and not the result of stealing or forced technology transfer.

The ultimate pressure applied to China will not work because such pressure will expose the true nature of the U.S. hegemony and further isolate the United States in the international community.

The trade protectionism of the Trump Administration will not bring the manufacturing industry back to the United States. On the contrary, it will seriously damage the global value chain, impact global resource allocation, generate widespread negative spillover effects, and reduce the efficiency of the global economy.

The trade war between China and the United States will not promote the prosperity of the U.S. economy. What goes around comes around. There will be no winner. Whoever initiates the trade war will eventually hurt themselves.

The Sino-U.S. trade war will not crush the Chinese economy.

The commentary concluded by stating that China has been firm and consistent in its position regarding the key differences between China and the United States on the trade war: zero-sum game vs. mutual benefit and win-win; opposition vs. cooperation; monopoly vs. competition; and unilateralism vs. multilateralism.

Source: Xinhua, June 16, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2019-06/16/c_1124629943.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: China’s Micro Leverage Ratio Hit New High

Xinhua reported that, by the end of the first quarter of this year, China’s Micro Leverage Ratio increased by 5.1 percent over last year, reaching 248.8 percent. The record that this set establishes a new high. The Micro Leverage Ratio is defined as the total government debt over the GDP.

This reason for the new high ratio is the slowdown of the increase in fiscal income. On the one hand, the fiscal income increase ratio went down to 2.9 percent in April, the lowest since 2016. On the other hand, government spending is increasing at a faster rate. The actual deficit ratio, defined as (general public fiscal spending minus general public fiscal income), when divided by GDP, has increased to 4.5 percent, the highest in the past ten years.

Therefore, local governments have resorted to issuing bonds to raise money thus hiking up the debt ratio.

Source: Xinhua, June 14, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/money/2019-06/14/c_1210159511.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Lianhe Zaobao: Multiple Chinese Exporters Fined for Forging Labels in Cambodia

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the U.S. authorities have caught and fined multiple Chinese exporters because they were found to have forged Country of Origin labels. These Chinese exporters shipped goods to Cambodia where they forged “Made in Vietnam” labels in the Cambodia Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone. This is in line with an earlier report that Vietnamese Customs discovered several cases of illegal labels designed to bypass the new U.S. tariffs. The U.S. Embassy confirmed this incident. The Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone is located 210 kilometers west of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. It’s an economic development zone that Cambodia and China constructed jointly. It is one of the symbolic projects of China’s One Belt One Road initiative. According to the World Bank Group, the Cambodian economy saw a 7.5 percent increase in 2018 due to the strong growth of exports to the United States.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, June 20, 2019
https://beltandroad.zaobao.com/beltandroad/news/story20190620-965996

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

China’s Movie Market Saw First Box Office Decline in Nine Years

The China Business Journal recently reported from the Shanghai International Film Festival that statistics showed that the Chinese movie market saw a box office year-over-year decline of 6.35 percent in the first five months of this year. During this period, the national total viewership also declined from 689 million people to around 589 million. This is the first time since 2011 for the Chinese movie market to suffer a decline in box office revenue. One of the reasons for this dramatic decline was that, in 2018, the entertainment industry was hit with tax related scandals. Domestic movie makers were affected when the stock they held lost 72 percent of its value in the stock market. Another major issue is that half of the movies in the Chinese market were from the United States. The current poor relationship between China and the U.S. led to a government intervention which affected U.S. movie distribution in China. Even domestic movies were limited in choosing themes and stories.

Source: China Business Journal, June 16, 2019
http://www.cb.com.cn/index/show/zj/cv/cv13451781268/p/1.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

BBC Chinese: Former Interpol Chairman Meng Hongwei Pled Guilty

BBC Chinese recently reported that, according to the Chinese authorities, former Interpol Chairman Meng Hongwei pled guilty to the charge of accepting bribes. Meng reportedly admitted in a Chinese court that he accepted a total of US$2 million in bribes. This happened between 2005 and 2017 when he was a member of the Chinese Communist Party branch at the Chinese Ministry of Public Safety, and when he was serving the positions of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Safety and the Director of the Chinese Marine Police Bureau. Meng was the first Chinese who became the Chairman of Interpol. His arrest was part of the large-scale anti-corruption movement that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been pushing. Meng’s wife, Grace Meng, received French political asylum this May and claimed her husband’s arrest was solely based on political grounds. Meng resigned from his post as the Chairman of Interpol.

Source: BBC Chinese, June 20, 2019
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-48703362

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Epoch Times: Mainland Banned “Politically Sensitive” Songs that Anti-Extradition Bill Protesters Sang in Hong Kong

The mainland banned a song a Hong Kong artist sang after he made a statement in support of the anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong. Well-known singer Lo Ta-yu, who was born in Taiwan and went to Hong Kong in order to advance his career, recently held a concert at the Taipei Arena. During the concert on June 16th, Lo sang the song “Queen’s Road East” which was co-produced with Lin Xi, Hong Kong lyricist, in 1991. Because this song reflects the Hong Kong people’s sense of uneasiness in the face of the transfer of sovereignty, Beijing considers it to be politically sensitive. During the concert, Lo said the following words three times: There are “certain things you can’t rush.” Lo told the media after the concert that he was expressing his view about the anti-extradition bill protests. He said that he felt disheartened when the Hong Kong government used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and Bean bag rounds to target the protesters. On June 19, Chinese netizens noticed that the song “Queen’s Road East” was removed from among the major music sites in the mainland including QQ, NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou Music, and Xiami Music. In addition, the mainland removed “Pearl of the Orient,” another song that Lo produced and also, “Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies” by Beyond, which thousands of protesters sang during the anti-extradition bill protest.

According to hk01.com, Hong Kong’s online media, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Les Misérables was a song widely sung during the protest but it was banned in China. After hearing protesters sing his song, Herbert Kretzmer, who wrote the lyrics of the song wrote to the Daily Mail saying how humbling that his Les Misérables hit has helped (the Hong Kong people) to fight for freedom.

Source:
1. Epoch Times, June 23, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/6/23/n11341454.htm
2. Daily Mail, June 19, 2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7160409/How-humbling-Les-Miserables-hit-helped-fight-freedom.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Large Scale Rally in Taiwan to Say No to CCP “Red Media” and to Safeguard Democracy in Taiwan

According to Radio France Internationale, on Sunday June 23, a large number of Taiwanese gathered in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taiwan for a rally in protest against the infiltration of the mainland’s “Red Media” and to safeguard democracy in Taiwan. Chen Chih-han, a Taiwan Internet celebrity and Huang Kuo-chang, a Taiwan politician and member of New Power Party organized the rally. Despite the rainy weather, tens of thousands of people, many of whom were young people, attended the rally. In addition to voicing their opinions against “CCP totalitarianism” and the infiltration of the (CCP’s) “red media,” the organizers also called for the Taiwan government to impose necessary restrictions on issuing media licenses. Speakers at the rally vowed that Taiwan will not allow mainland media to influence Taiwan. Others criticized that, as mainland companies have entered the Taiwan market, they have also affected Taiwan’s Media. People in Taiwan should be on guard against the infiltration of the “red media.” Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said earlier that the gathering expressed concern about the CCP’s infiltration into the media in Taiwan and she believed that it would also effectively raise everyone’s awareness.

Source: Radio France Internationale, June 23, 2019
http://cn.rfi.fr/20190623-%E5%8F%B0%E6%B9%BE%E6%B0%91%E4%BC%97%E5%A4%A7%E6%B8%B8%E8%A1%8C-%E6%8B%92%E7%BB%9D%E7%BA%A2%E8%89%B2%E5%AA%92%E4%BD%93%E6%B8%97%E9%80%8F/

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend