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National Financial Work Conference: Be Prepared to Live on Tight Budget Next Year

Radio Free Asia reported that on December 27, the National Financial Work Conference was held in Beijing. The conference called for the “mentality to live on a tight budget next year” and strictly control general expenditures and spending. In addition, it proposed that there will be a substantial increase in local government special bonds, strict control of local government’s implicit debt, prevention and resolution of financial risks; promotion of economic transformation; further release of domestic demand potential; promotion of regional coordinated development; the strengthening of safeguards; and the improvement of people’s livelihood. At the same time, the meeting proposed that a larger scale of tax reduction and fee reduction will be implemented next year.

The conference also promoted the key work in 2019, which includes a pilot project on agriculture-related funds in poverty-stricken counties, accelerating the construction of poverty alleviation funds, poverty alleviation, and rural construction. At the same time, it emphasized the requirement to strengthen the international financial cooperation led by the “One Belt, One Road” project, actively participating in and leading the formulation of rules in international finance and economics, and firmly safeguarding and enhancing China’s national interests.

In the article, RFA quoted a statement an economist made. He stated that the key reason for China’s economic deterioration is the defects in the existing system. Therefore, no matter how the government strengthens macroeconomic regulations and control, it cannot solve the fundamental problem. The existing political system has resulted in a serious imbalance in the Chinese economy. The policy that allows the state to advance and the private sector to retreat has caused an abnormal development of the economy. As a result, the general public has to bear the pain from reform, including the unemployment of hundreds of millions of workers. Many small and medium-sized enterprises began to fall in the winter of 2017 with a sharp decline in revenue and no guarantee for financing.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 28, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql2-12282018100637.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

First Flight of Wing Loong I-D Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

The Chengdu Pterodactyl I, also known as Wing Loong, is a Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group in the People’s Republic of China.

Wing Loong I-D is an upgraded variant of the Wing Loong I, built with all-composite materials, with improved aerodynamics and an engine enabling greater takeoff weight, service ceiling, and endurance. Other upgrades include both internal and external stores, as well as communications equipment. On December 23, Wing Loong I-D made its first flight at an airport in the west of China.

According to Xinhua, the Pterosaur drone series has undergone various rigorous environmental tests to achieve high-intensity normal use. The “Pterosaur” brand name has 100 percent ownership of intellectual property rights. The successful first flight of the Wing Loong I-D drone further enhanced the competitiveness of the Pterosaur series of drones.

Source: Xinhua, December 23, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2018-12/23/c_1210022500.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Smart Uniforms and Technologies in Schools

The smart school uniform that Guizhou Guanyu Technology (贵州冠宇科技) developed was first launched in July 2017. According to its official website (http://www.guanyukj.com), ten elementary and middle schools have been using the smart school uniforms from the company. The schools are located in Guizhou, Fujian, Guangxi, and other provinces in China.

According to a Chinese media report, when the smart school uniform is put on, the school’s large screen monitor will automatically identify the student, display the student’s avatar, and record the accurate time of entering and exiting the school. The parents and teachers receive detailed information about the student’s activities. As soon as the student leaves the school, there is a voice broadcast to identify the student.

The smart school uniform, in combination with human facial recognition and fingerprint recognition technologies, will automatically calculate and settle a student’s different expenditures at school. The parents will know every item of their child’s expenditures in school.

This product is said to integrate big data, digitization of the Internet of Things (IoT), satellite technology, such as RFID, NFC, Beidou (the Chinese counterpart of GPS system), GPS, RS, and clothing.

The smart school uniform also comes with an app. In the app, the teacher can approve the student’s leave request and upload school notices and the time-stamped video of the students entering and leaving the school. Parent teachers can receive such information through the mobile app. Teachers can use the app to hand out course materials through voice, text, and pictures. The chip-embedded school uniform, with facial and fingerprint recognition, has established a closed-loop AI environment for the school. The students’ every move is in the hands of teachers and parents.

Qinjia (钦家), a Shanghai based company, also developed a smart school uniform, with the main function of preventing children from getting lost or being trafficked. Another company Seeworld launched another school uniform, mainly used when a student encounters an accident. The student can tap a specific part of the uniform to send out an S.O.S. signal.

In December 2015, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission set up a “Beijing Elementary and Middle School Uniform R&D Center” at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. According to the official press release, the smart school uniforms will combine the motion sensor with the school uniform to track and analyze the student’s physical activity, analyze and compare the student’s physical functions and exercise volume, and ensure that the underage students receive proper physical exercises.

The People’s Daily also reported that a middle school in Hangzhou introduced an intelligent classroom behavior management system, which can monitor the students’ classroom behavior at a glance. The system can also analyze the students’ classroom behavior and the expressions during class and can also check attendance through facial recognition.

The smart school uniforms and similar technologies have received a lot of attention on cyberspace.

One netizen said, “Children have no human rights; they are just the possessions of their parents.”

Another put it this way, “A child is not a parent’s possession and the parents cannot completely control him. There is no longer any privacy.”

Source: Sina.com, December 24, 2018
https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/6502104867/1838e3f2300100ywix

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Quote from Huawei’s Senior VP – “Rely on Comrades on the Hidden Fronts to Take the Risks”

Overseas social networks recently circulated a speech that Huawei’s Senior Vice President, Chen Lifang, delivered in April, earlier this year, at a meeting with the company’s new employees. In one sentence, she mentioned “relying on comrades on the hidden fronts to take the risks” to obtain certain technologies on which the U.S. has imposed sanctions.

The quote was published on the Snowball’s (xueqiu) website, and other overseas websites carried it as well. The Senior Vice President cut to the chase at the meeting. “Why do we have to firmly study from the United States? How much do you understand about the real American manufacturing?” She gave examples of technologies on which China is still falling behind after 30 years of hard work. She said that in the field of composite materials, the process data accumulated by DuPont is more than 25 times what China has collected. In the field of turbofan engines, the number of materials and process tests completed in China is only 5 percent of what GE has done.

Chen expressed the belief that a long list of equipment, including smart grid advanced measuring instruments, material analysis precision testing instruments, mechanical performance testing equipment, new types of non-destructive testing equipment, environmental and safety testing instruments, and special defense testing instruments, all rely on imports. “For those technologies that are embargoed according to the Wassenaar Agreement (export controls for conventional weapons and sensitive dual-use goods and technologies), we can only rely on comrades working on the hidden fronts to take the risks to obtain them.”

She also said that as for equipment such as high-reliability and sensitive sensors, new composites, optical fibers, MEMS, biosensors, high-end (especially military-grade) electronic devices and variable frequency speed control devices, we can only rely on special means of importing goods to acquire them.

Chen did not clarify the term “hidden fronts” and the “special means of importing goods.”

Source: Radio France International, December 29, 2018
http://rfi.my/3VWd.T

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

China’s Home Vacancy Rate Is over 20 Percent

On December 21, China’s Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) released a “2017 China Urban Home Vacancy Analysis” report. The report sampled over 40,000 households in 364 districts or county-level cities in 29 provinces.

The report shows that the home vacancy rates in China’s urban areas were 18.4 percent, 19.5 percent, 20.6 percent and 21.4 percent in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 respectively. Its current vacancy rate is only behind Spain (28.3 percent) and Italy (22.7 percent). It is higher than the U.S. and most European countries.

Gan Li, SWUFE’s director of the Center for Chinese Family Finance Research, said that, in recent years, China’s home vacancy rate has received a lot of attention and is considered to be a key factor in judging the trend of the housing market. Yan Yuejin, a researcher at a housing think tank, said that a vacancy rate of over 20 percent indicates that the speculative investment in housing is high and that housing idleness is high.

Buying a house is considered an important means of property ownership. However, the report shows that families with vacant houses face higher financial risks. In 2017, 32.2 percent of households with vacant homes had housing liabilities, compared with 17.3 percent of households with no vacant homes.

Source: Central News Agency, December 22, 2018
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201812220223.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Major General Qiao Liang: Controllable Non-War Military Action Is the Best Way to Handle South China Sea Issue

How can China arrange a reasonable and favorable response to the frequent U.S. warship’s entry into and exit from the South China Sea? How to solve the South China Sea problem? At the 2019 Global Times Annual Meeting “China-U.S. Competition and the Changing World” on December 8, Qiao Liang, Major General and Professor at The National Defense University, said in an interview with a Global Times reporter that, “military operations without war” is the most feasible and best way to handle the South China Sea issue.

Regarding U.S. warship’s frequent entry into and exit from the South China Sea, Major General Qiao Liang expressed that China’s appeal in the South China Sea is the “nine-segment line” rather than the 12 nautical miles mark around the small islands in Nansha. “So, we certainly cannot talk about this issue from the perspective of an infringement of sovereignty. Protesting against a sovereignty violation is not the best way.”

In Qiao Liang’s view, China should neither enter war with the opponents nor merely protest in response to the South China Sea issue. Once a war breaks out, the consequences will be unpredictable. Therefore, the controllable non-war military action is the “arms wrestling game” between the big countries. Namely, within a controllable scope, taking “limited, low-intensity military operations that do not pass the threshold of war” is the best way.

Source: Global Times, December 8, 2018
http://world.huanqiu.com/exclusive/2018-12/13755372.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

“Christmas is a Shame for the Chinese,” a Middle School Principal Told the Students

In recent years, the Chinese government has been boycotting Christmas as a holiday. On December 24, a secondary school in Anhui Province told the students to “resist the Western holidays and start with myself.” The school principal also gave a speech entitled “Christmas is a shame for the Chinese.”

At the ceremony of the 125th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s birth, the school got one student representative to deliver a speech entitled “The Great Leader Chairman Mao.” The official Weibo account of the local Si County released important news about an event. The title was, “Resist Western Holidays and Start with Myself.”

This release mentioned that, in recent years, “foreign holidays” such as Christmas have been popular among elementary and secondary school students. Some young students “follow the trend and respect the foreign holidays. However, this runs against the school’s patriotic traditional culture education.” The release said that this year is the 125th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s birth. At this “special moment,” in order to further help students “to establish a correct viewpoint on life and values, and to improve students’ abilities to distinguish between right and wrong,” the middle school at Si County used the flag-raising ceremony to give the students an education in “resisting the Western holidays and starting with myself.”

The school principal delivered a speech titled, “Christmas is a shame for the Chinese.” He said that in 1860 “Christian followers of the British and French allied forces invaded our country and attacked and looted Beijing.” He added that in 1900, during the Siege of the International Legations, “Christians killed our people, leaving exposed bodies on the streets. Christians insulted our women.”

The principal also said that after the allied forces invaded China, “on the day before their Christmas Day, that is, December 24, they ran competitions on murder, arson, and robbery.” “These utterly conscienceless religious followers prayed to the Lord Jesus so that the Lord would bless them so they could kill people without sin.”

Source: Central News Agency, December 25, 2018
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201812250328.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Korean Media: China Has Three More Ways to Retaliate against Canada

DW News reported that Yonhap News Agency, a Korean media, made a suggestion in an article that, in addition to the arrest of two Canadian citizens, China has three more ways to take revenge on Canada for its arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

China can hit Canada in the following three areas:

  • Real Estate: Despite the drop in Vancouver’s housing prices, some Chinese investors can choose to cancel or delay their plans to purchase Canadian properties.
  • Tourists: 680,000 Chinese visited Canada in 2017 and spent on average US $2,400 per person. If China restricts Chinese visitors from going to Canada, it will have some impact.
  • Trade: China is Canada’s second largest trade partner, after the U.S. There have been reports that the negotiation on the free trade treaty between China and Canada has been postponed.

Source: DW News, December 17, 2018
http://news.dwnews.com/global/news/2018-12-17/60105785.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend