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RFA: Hong Kong Protest Escalated, Shouting for Chief Executive to Step Down

On Sunday April 28, tens of thousands of Hong Kong citizens took to the streets to protest the Hong Kong court’s verdict on the leaders of the Chinese occupation movement and the Hong Kong government’s amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. Numbers of groups, including the Civil Human Rights Front in Hong Kong, organized the protest. According to news from the Hong Kong police, during the peak time, 20,000 participated in the protest. The protesters came from a wide background, including Hong Kong’s famous singers Anthony Wong, Yiu-ming, and Denise Ho.

The slogan of the protest was mainly to ask the government to withdraw the revised plan for the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and safeguard the rule of law and freedom of speech in Hong Kong. Since March, the Hong Kong Government has been promoting the revision of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, which has caused widespread concern. If the proposal of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance becomes law, for the first time, there will be an extradition arrangement between Hong Kong and the mainland. A large number of politicians in Hong Kong believe that the Chinese government may use this bill to extradite political prisoners from Hong Kong to the Mainland. However, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at the beginning of April that the revision of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance will be promoted. The Hong Kong government established a special committee and held its first meeting last week. The tough stance of the Hong Kong Government has left the people of Hong Kong worried. According to Radio France Internationale, in the parade held this Sunday, some people kept shouting “Carrie Lam should step down!” A spokesman for the Hong Kong Government said, in response to the demonstration, that the amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance is in line with the spirit of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Hong Kong.

This protest is the second demonstration within one month and the scale was even larger than the previous one.

Source: Radio Free Asia, April 28, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/9-04282019163051.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

The Epoch Times: 2nd Belt and Road Summit Lacked Transparency

Epoch Times reported that the 2nd “Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit” concluded on April 27 in Beijing. However, the Summit was described as lacking transparency as most of the meetings were held behind closed doors. As the media was not invited, they were not able to cover the meetings. The reporters were neither notified of the time of the opening ceremony nor were they given the chance to ask questions during the press conference at the closing ceremony. According to an article the BBC published, on April 27, Xi Jinping participated in a round table discussion with leaders from 37 countries.  After that discussion, Xi held a press conference and declared that agreements in the amount of US$64 billion had been signed during the summit. However, Xi did not mention the scale of the debt that will be owed to China, nor did he say when the next “Belt and Road” summit will be held. Taiwan’s Liberty Times reported that, during the summit, even though China was trying to give answers to the criticism about the “debt trap,” “(China) exercises influence (in foreign countries)” and the entire summit just looked like it lacked transparency. There were also fewer reporters at the summit compared to the last time. Meanwhile unlike what was done in the past, the large screen in the press center was airing Xi’s entire speech. Reporters felt like they were watching the official CCTV version. In addition, China’s largest trading partners, the U.S. and India, were absent from the summit. None of the leaders from the U.S. G7 industrial countries including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Britain, and Germany were present at the summit. Even the Sri Lankan Prime Minister and the Indonesian President, China’s close partners, did not attend the summit.

The Epoch Times article stated that Western democratic countries are worried that the “Belt and Road” project that China proposed will cause the underdeveloped countries participating in the project to fall into a debt crisis. Since there is lack of transparency in the projects and in the funding, it will lead to corruption involving the officials in the hosting countries. China also can use the “Belt and Road” project to export its dictatorship and its party culture to the outside world.

Source: The Epoch Times, April 28, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/4/28/n11219915.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Qualcomm’s Chinese Joint Venture Is Closing Its Doors

Well-known Chinese news site Sohu recently reported that HXT-Semitech, the joint venture between Qualcomm and China’s Guizhou Province, is set to close its doors by the end of April. According to information leaked from within in an internal conference, HXT had already announced the closure  along with the employee layoff compensation plan. HXT CEO Wang Kai had already quietly left the company and many HXT staff had also started looking for other opportunities. HXT did not make any official information available; nor did Qualcomm or Guizhou Province. HXT was founded in 2016 with a joint investment of US$570 million from Qualcomm (with a 45 percent stake) and Guizhou Province (with a 55 percent stake). The company later established three bases in Guizhou, Beijing, and Shanghai. HXT planned to focus on designing ARMv8 64-bit server chips. In May last year, HXT announced the successful design of its Number 1 chip for commercial release. After the news of HXT’s closure was made public, experts expressed the belief that there is no shortcut to take in the field of core chip development.

Source: Sohu, April 21, 2019
http://www.sohu.com/a/309379318_343547?sec=wd

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Internet Censorship Is a Booming Industry in China. Of Course, the Article about Censorship Was Quickly Censored

On April 19, 2019, Southern Weekend, a Chinese media headquartered in Guangzhou of Guangdong Province, published a feature article about how Internet censorship has become a booming industry in China.  The article itself was quickly censored.

The article titled, “Jinan: The Rising Internet Audit Capital,” reported that Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, is becoming the second largest operation area for Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. Ltd., an Internet company known for its content auditing business. It takes on the censorship work of other companies.  Up to 3,600 personnel have been hired to trawl the Internet and remove content that the Communist government prohibits.

In the Internet content audit industry, Jinan and Tianjin are the bases in the north; Xi’an is the base in the northwest; Chongqing and Chengdu are responsible for the southwest; and Wuhan handles the central China region.

According to a person close to the Jinan municipal government department, the expansion of the content auditing operation has received the support of the Propaganda Department and the Cyberspace Administration of the Jinan Municipal Communist Party Committee.

Source: Epoch Times, April 20, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/4/19/n11199613.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Reference News: FCC Opposes China Mobile Offering Services in the U.S.

Reference News, a well-known branch of Xinhua, recently reported that China Mobile is currently seeking to provide telephone services in the United States and some other countries. The company explained that they were not seeking opportunities in the wireless services area. However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai expressed his concern about security risks and that he was against allowing China Mobile to provide telecommunication services in the States. He revealed that the FCC will have a vote in May. It is widely expected that the five members of the FCC will support the position clearly stated by Chairman Pai. Ajit Pai also explained in an official announcement that the risks lie in the national security aspects and law enforcement aspects. China Mobile did not respond to the request for comment.

Source: Reference News, April, 18, 2019
http://www.cankaoxiaoxi.com/china/20190418/2377711.shtml

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Global Times: Attempting to “Unhook” from China Is Just U.S. Wishful Thinking

Global Times recently published an official commentary, establishing a position on the recent wave of U.S. institutes that have driven Chinese scholars away. After over 200 Chinese social science scholars were refused visas or other means of blockage, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) mounted a new round of eliminating Chinese scholars from its network. It appears the U.S. is serious about implementing an “unhook” strategy as rumored. Even an improved trade relationship may not halt the U.S. plan to slow down China’s technology developments. It seems the world leader is losing its confidence in competition. The childish thought of “let’s close the doors” looks more like neuroticism. How could Washington even believe reducing a few Chinese in attendance at technical forums or getting a few less Chinese students could stop China’s improvements? This is just largely a wishful-thinking sleeping pill that the U.S. policy makers prescribed for themselves. This self-isolation policy can only push the opportunities to other advanced countries. The U.S. de-globalization logic won’t be sustained for long. China should just ignore these strange U.S. behaviors and move on.

Source: Global Times, April 20, 2019
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2019-04/14756182.html?agt=135

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

RFI: Beijing Imposed Heavy Sentences on Its Veterans

Radio France Internationale reported that Beijing launched a severe crackdown on its veterans for initiating a rights petition. Recently local courts sentenced 18 veterans who participated in the protests in Zhenjiang (Jiangsu province) and Pingdu (Shandong province) last year to two to six years in prison for “disturbing the social order,” “intentional assault,” or “the crime of preventing officials from performing their duties.” In the year that marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, the 30th anniversary of the June 4th incident, and the 100th anniversary of the May 4th Movement, the heavy sentences show that Beijing is taking a hard stance against the veterans’ rights petition.

Chinese veterans have been asking the authorities to resolve the issue of unfair benefits after their retirement. In recent years, veterans used social media to launch joint petitions to protest their rights and the scale has been growing. In October 2016, nearly 10,000 veterans from more than 10 provinces and cities came to Beijing to petition. They gathered outside the building of the Central Military Commission. The news had a great impact throughout the country.

On June 20 last year, a group of veterans in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, protested their rights in front of the city government. After the city government sent unidentified personnel to beat them, veterans from all over China came to Zhenjiang to show their support. On June 23, the authorities dispatched nearly 10,000 armed police to disperse the protesting veterans who gathered in front of the city government and managed to intercept veterans who were on their way to Zhenjiang.

On October 4 last year, dozens of veterans from Shandong Pingdu were preparing to go to Beijing to petition. After many of them were intercepted from going to Beijing, more veterans from all over Shandong came to show their support. On the 6th, thousands of veterans went to the Pingdu Municipal Government to protest. The veterans used wooden sticks to fight back against the police who used tear gas to forcibly disperse the crowd.

In 2018, in response to the increasingly large-scale veteran protests, the Chinese authorities formed the Department of Veteran Affairs to “transfer and resettle military cadres and retired soldiers, to provide education and training for retired military personnel, and to resolve the dissatisfaction among the military personnel.”

Source: Radio France Internationale, April 19, 2019
http://cn.rfi.fr/20190419-%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E7%A7%8B%E5%90%8E%E7%AE%97%E8%B4%A6%E9%87%8D%E5%88%A4%E8%80%81%E5%85%B5/

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

The Epoch Times: Taiwan Follows the U.S. and says “No” to Mainland Technology Companies

Because it is concerned about security risks, Taiwan is following the U.S. and has launched an effort to limit government procurement of mainland technology products. Such services range from servers and cloud computing to other services and devices. It is expected that Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi will be affected.

A number of media reported in January that Taiwan is drafting a blacklist that prohibits all government agencies, organizations, and government-controlled companies from using electronic products from companies such as telecommunication equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, and surveillance camera maker Hikvision.

On Friday April 19, the Taiwan Cabinet Executive Yuan announced an official guide stating that it will impose a ban on mainland telecom equipment, surveillance cameras, servers, webcams, drones, cloud computing services, software, anti-virus software, and consulting. At the same time, the scope of Taiwanese entities that must comply with the ban will also be extended to transportation companies, banks, and telecommunications. Government officials have proposed that private companies in high-tech industrial zones that the government runs should also follow this new regulation.

On Friday, the Nikkei Asian Review quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that major mainland technology companies – including Huawei, ZTE, Alibaba, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Baidu, Hikvision, Inspur (server supplier) and Dajiang (drone manufacturer) are likely to be on the list. Kaspersky Labs, the Russian anti-virus software company, is also on the list. According to the sources, technology products manufactured in the mainland and Russia are also under review in order for the Taiwan government to determine whether they should also be included in the ban.

During a press conference held on Friday night in Taipei, Kolas Yotaka, Executive House spokesman said that the blacklist will be completed in the next three months, but most of the equipment and services that Chinese and Russian companies have made could be included.

In her New Year’s speech that Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen delivered on January 1, she stated, “Before the long-term relationship between the two sides can be established, we must honestly face the national security threats and risks.  . . .  In particular, China (the CCP) is trying to use the openness and freedom of democratic institutions to intervene in Taiwan’s political and social development. This has become Taiwan’s biggest challenge at the moment.  . . . I also asked the National Security Unit to pay attention to information security issues and to ensure that the security of critical infrastructure communications has no loopholes.”

Source: The Epoch Times, April 20, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/4/20/n11200834.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend