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Lianhe Zaobao: Seventy Percent of Southeast Asian Organizations Concerned about One Belt One Road Debts

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that Singapore’s research organization, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, just completed a survey among 1,008 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) organizations including companies, academic institutes and government branches. The released report shows that around 70 percent of the entities surveyed expressed the belief that their governments, in order to manage the risk of shouldering high debts, should take a very careful and conservative attitude when discussing the One Belt One Road initiative with China. The organizations in Malaysia, The Philippines, and Thailand are especially concerned about this risk. One third of those surveyed complained about the (lack of) transparency of the One Belt One Road plan, and 16 percent predicted the plan will eventually fail. Around half of the people surveyed recognized that China has a more superior regional influence than the U.S. Sixty percent of the sample expressed the belief that the U.S.’ global power has declined in the past year. One third actually thought the U.S. has completely lost its influence in the region.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao. January 7, 2019
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20190107-921845

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Times: German BDI Asked EU to Take a Tougher Position against China

The major Taiwanese newspaper China Times recently reported that The Federation of German Industries called on the European Union to take a stronger economic position against Mainland China to help EU companies fight against unfair competitive methods like product dumping, compulsive technology transfer, and inequality in financial backing. The BDI published its official announcement on January 10 with 54 requests for the German government and the EU to provide assistance. The announcement emphasized that, while German companies need the Chinese market, the Chinese government has refused to provide necessary market access. The BDI also called for establishing a stronger economic framework to regulate companies from non-market economies. The announcement highlighted the requests to stop subsidizing products not manufactured in the EU and to increase EU investments on EU infrastructure and innovation. The German BDI is the joint organization of 36 industrial associations. It is the most important lobbying organization representing the German Industries.

Source: China Times, January 10, 2019
https://www.chinatimes.com/cn/realtimenews/20190110005040-260408

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

A Major Japanese Business Group Attacked by Chinese Hackers

The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese national newspaper, reported that a Chinese group is suspected in the 2016 hacking of the computer system used by Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation. Keidanren, a major Japanese business organization, consists of 1,281 companies, 129 industrial associations, and 47 regional economic organizations.

“The types of computer viruses used in the Keidanren attack as well as the external computer addresses to which information was secretly transmitted were very similar to those that turned up in a separate report” released in April 2017, compiled by the British defense company BAE Systems, the major consulting firm PwC, as well as the British National Cyber Security Center.

The Chinese hacking group is identified as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 10.

According to internal documents obtained by The Asahi Shimbun, in 2014, a Keidanren employee opened an email that had been sent to him with a virus. Consequently, malicious programs existed in communication systems and servers for two years, before an official announcement was made in November 2016 about the network break-in. The hackers could have read the information exchanged between Keidanren and the Japanese government, and then sent the information to overseas computers.

Keidanren’s computer system contained communications with government officials as well as a number of policy proposals.

While Tokyo is investigating this matter, in December, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked China to take measures against “APT 10.” China denied the allegation.

Source: Sputnik News, January 13, 3019
http://sputniknews.cn/china/201901131027343093/

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

CNA: Deputy Mayor of Xuzhou City Holds 46 Different Team Leadership Roles

On October 30, 2018, Xuzhou City of Jiangsu Province published an official personnel announcement but it quickly drew heated discussion on the Internet. On January 12, the personnel announcement was taken down from the city website. Meanwhile the city published a clarification statement on its Weibo account. Central News Agency reported that a personnel announcement for the deputy Mayor of Xuzhou City of Jiangsu Province showed that he sits on 46 teams as either the director or the team leader. The teams include development and reform, land and resource management, human resources and social security, statistics, production safety, pricing, finance, taxation, and government service management as well as many others. People on the Internet questioned whether he is even able to manage all of these responsibilities. Some people believe that such a phenomenon is actually a breeding ground for bureaucracy because the duties of the different ministries and commissions that are normally set up are fully capable of running. They therefore wondered why there is a need to create so many extra teams and offices. In the official statement the city published on its Weibo account, it clarifies that some special tasks involve a number of departments and require clear leadership to improve efficiency. All those agencies are temporary and there are no separate offices and there is no funding involved. All the agencies will be closed as soon as the deadline or certain conditions are met. The Central News Agency article mentioned that it is not uncommon for a party official to have dozens of titles. An official from Changshu City of Jiangsu Province holds more than 37 official titles and another official in Shanwei City of Guangdong Province holds 43 titles. The report stated that even Xi Jinping was the team leader of dozens of teams at one point in time.

Source: Central News Agency, January 12, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201901120169.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

The Paper: 1.12 Million Cadres and Workers Paired up with Uyghur Residents to Promote Theme of “National Unity and Family”

The Paper recently reported that, since October 2016, the party committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has been promoting the “unity” theme between ethnic Han and Uyghur residents. The program pairs up cadres or workers at all levels of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Uyghur families. The Uyghurs must allow the cadres to visit and live with their family for five days every two months in order to “form large-scale, full coverage, and multi-level exchanges between the different ethnic groups to achieve ‘national unity’ and bring the progress in Xinjiang to a new level.” It was reported that by the end of December 2018, there were more than 1.12 million cadres and workers paired with up to or more than 1.69 million Uyghur families. They have made a cumulative 57 million visits to these families and held more than 13 million events including many different activities under the theme of “national unity and family.”

Source: The Paper, January 3, 2019
https://m.thepaper.cn/wifiKey_detail.jsp?contid=2807286&from=wifiKey

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

BBC Chinese: Huawei Poland Sales Manager Arrested in Poland

The BBC reported that the Polish Internal Security Agency ABW arrested a Chinese senior executive of China Telecom giant Huawei and a Polish engineer. They were accused of conducting espionage for Chinese intelligence. Polish public television station TVP reported that the Polish security department searched Huawei’s office in Poland on Friday January 11. The Polish public television station TVP mentioned in the report that the arrested Chinese executives were the sales managers of Huawei in the Polish branch, and the arrested Polish engineer Piotr D was a senior official who worked for the National Security Agency.
In addition to searching the Huawei office, the Polish National Security Agency also searched the office of another telecommunications operator, Orange, the latest employer of the arrested Polish engineer.

According to the Polish public television station, Wang Weijing graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University with a Polish major. He worked at the Chinese Consulate in Gdansk since 2006. Huaweie hired him in 2011 and he was sent to Poland to work in the public relations department of Huawei in Poland. In 2017, Wang became the sales manager of Huawei Poland, responsible for selling Huawei products to the public sector.

The Chinese official media reprinted the response of the Chinese Foreign Ministry saying that China is highly concerned that Wang Weijing was detained by the Polish Internal Security Bureau. The Chinese Embassy in Poland had already met with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland and asked Poland for an update about the case. However on January 12 Huawei fired Wang Weijing. In its statement, Huawei noted that Wang Weijing was arrested for “personal reasons” for allegedly violating Polish laws and “has adversely affected Huawei’s global reputation.” Huawei decided to terminate its employment relationship with Wang Weijing immediately.

At the same time, the Polish government said they are considering banning Huawei’s operation in the Polish market. Karol Okonski, head of network security at the Polish government, said they will make decisions in the coming weeks. He also said that any “decision on Huawei’s future in Poland” will be consistent with the EU and NATO, because Poland is a member of the EU and of NATO.

In addition, on the same day that Polish media reported the arrest of Wang Weijing, Scott Bradley, senior vice president of public affairs at Huawei Canada, announced his resignation. Earlier, the president of Huawei Canada said that the company “has no obligation to abide by Chinese laws” and (will) “never spy for the Chinese government.”

The arrest in Poland came after the arrest of Huawei’s vice chairman and chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou who was arrested in Canada on December 1, 2018. Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei’s founder, was detained by the Canadian authorities at the request of the U.S.. The U.S. extradited Meng because of a suspected violation of Washington’s trade sanctions against Iran. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the incident seriously violated human rights and lodged solemn representations to the U.S. and to Canada.

Source: BBC Chinese, January 13, 2019
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-46837367

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Scholar Cancels New Book Due to Censorship from State-owned Publisher in Hong Kong

Uganda Sze Pui Kwan, an associate professor at the Chinese Division of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, had to terminate cooperation with the Hong Kong based Joint Publishing for her new book because she refused to edit politically sensitive contents.

Kwan, who grew up in Hong Kong, originally planned to publish her new book, Global Hong Kong Literature: Translation, Publication, Communication, and Version Control were to be in Hong Kong.

According to a January 9 article that a Chinese University of Hong Kong scholar Wong Nim-yan, who is also Kwan’s friend, wrote in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, the contents included a mention of  ‘June 4’ and described the publishing situation in China during its reform and opening up the 80s and 90s. The publisher hoped the author would edit these items out herself. June 4 refers to the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989.

The state-owned enterprise Sino United Publishing, owns Joint Publishing with the Chinese’s government’s liaison office in Hong Kong as its largest shareholder.

Kwan will likely publish the book, uncensored, with the Taiwanese company, Linking Publishing.

Source: Central News Agency, January 12, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201901120202.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Vaccine Crisis: Over 100 Children Administered with Expired Vaccines

According to Chinese media, in the past month, at a health center in Jinhu County, Jiangsu Province, 145 infants and young children were vaccinated with an expired polio vaccine. After vaccination, a number of children developed adverse reactions. The batch number of the vaccines was 201612158 and was valid only until December 11, 2018. However, until one month after the expiration date, infants were still being administered the batch of polio vaccine.

One child’s mother said that, after her child was vaccinated, the child’s “fever ran as high as 39 degrees (Celsius) for half a month, together with coughing, catching a cold, and mild vomiting.” Other parents said that children showed rashes, a high fever, and other symptoms.

On January 10, the County authorities dismissed the responsible persons, including the deputy director of the local center for disease control, and launched an investigation into five of the medical staff.

The batch in which the polio vaccine in question was involved is a bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV), commonly known as “small sugar pill,” which is a free vaccine that China provides.

Since 1978, China has gradually implemented the “National Immunization Program” to determine vaccine varieties and programs according to different provinces and regions and to administer vaccinations among the population. At present, China provides free vaccinations for first class vaccines such as polio, hepatitis B, and DTP across the country. Hepatitis A, chickenpox, and rabies vaccines are second-class paid vaccines.

However, whether free or paid vaccines, there have been repeated safety incidents in China. Only six months before this incident, in July of last year, Chinese vaccine giant Changchun Changsheng was exposed over a fraud scandal involving the rabies vaccine.

In March 2016, in Shandong, 25 kinds of vaccines for children and adults were sold to 24 provinces and cities without the use of strict cold chain storage and transportation.

In March 2010, nearly 100 children in Shanxi either died or were disabled after vaccinations, causing widespread concern.

Source: BBC Chinese Channel, January 11, 2019
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-46834106

Briefings | | |   Social Stability