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Radio France Internationale: Official Launched Expanded Self-Media Cleanup; 200,000 Social Media Accounts Closed

Radio France Internationale reported that, on November 12, the China National Internet Information Office launched the cleanup of “self-media chaos.” At present, more than 9,800 self-media accounts have been closed. The Information Office was reported to have had meetings with Tencent, WeChat, and Sina Weibo and issued warnings that the officials will continue to shut down accounts and delete articles that contain vulgar content, Internet rumors, plagiarism, and violations of the law. Both WeChat and Sina issued an official notice that they had launched self-inspection and taken actions to delete articles or close accounts in accordance with the regulations. At present 200,000 Weibo accounts have been closed.

Source: Radio France Internationale, November 13, 2018
http://rfi.my/3KK8.T

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Beijing to Rate Individual Credit Scores and Regularly Publicize Blacklisted Individuals

On November 19, the “Beijing City Action Plan (2018-2020) for Further Optimization of the Business Environment” was released. It includes 22 major tasks and 298 action items. The Action Plan made it clear that the Beijing Municipal Social Credit Regulations will be completed by the end of 2020. By that time, the “Individual Credit Score” project covering all permanent residents will also be established. This means that Beijing will then truly launch the personal credit system. Everyone’s credit score will then impact his entire life.

According to the Action Plan, the city will promote the wide application of personal credit information in the fields of market access, public services, tourism travel, entrepreneurship and job hunting, and will provide convenience and a “green channel” for “trustworthy” individuals. In addition, it will improve the credit blacklist system and regularly publicize the bad records of companies and individuals. The purpose is to create a situation that “when a person’s credit is damaged somewhere, he will not be able to move a single step anywhere.” Those who violate the law and fail to be “trustworthy” will pay a hefty price.

Source: People’s Daily Online, November 20, 2018
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2018/1120/c1004-30410110.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Three Chinese Top Leadership Members Visited Singapore within Two Months

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Singapore on November 12. This was the first time in eleven years that the Chinese Premier came to Singapore. He had massive before and after media coverage on the issue of the continuation of China’s Reform and Opening-Up. Precisely 40 years earlier, on the same day, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore. In that same year, he later kicked off the Reform. Li’s mission also included the task of obtaining Singapore’s support to push the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) initiative. On November 7, only five days before Li, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan had just left Singapore. During his three-day visit, Wang emphasized that China was determined to “push China’s openness to a higher level.” Then, on September 19, China’s Vice Premier Han Zheng visited Singapore as well. His visit focused on Singapore’s role as the “Witness to China’s Great Reform” as well as the role or middleman between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is very unusual that three members of top China’s top leadership would visit the same country within two months.

Source: Sina, November 13, 2018
https://news.sina.com.cn/c/xl/2018-11-13/doc-ihnvukfe5140799.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

EBC: Apple Supply Chain Leaving Mainland China in a Large Wave

Major Taiwanese news media EBC recently reported that primary Apple Taiwanese suppliers, namely the “Seven Indicator Manufacturers” – Pegatron, Compal, Wistron, Flexium, Unimicron, Merry, and Catcher – are all lowering their ratio of dependency on Mainland Chinese factories. The manufacturing power is shifting to Southeast Asia. The key suppliers are currently working on overcoming a lack of skilled labor, establishing new factory locations, and coordinating with upstream material suppliers. For years these companies have been suffering from the Mainland’s labor shortage, from increasing labor costs, and from tougher environmental protection regulations. Now the US-China trade war has added significant weight to their decision making. The “Seven Indicators” cover a wide range of Apple product manufacturing components. Experts see the fact that all seven are moving out of the Mainland at the same time as a “historic move.” There have been many challenges in moving manufacturing out of China to foreign countries. The primary issue is that China has a massive talent pool full of hard-working people.

Source: EBC, November 11, 2018
https://bit.ly/2TrGZaO

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

RFI: Peking University Authority Strengthened Internal Control over Students

Radio France Internationale reported that, in response to the “Me Too” movement against sexual assault cases in Peking University and students’ support of the Shenzhen Jiashi workers who want to form a trade union, Peking University has recently taken a number of measures to strengthen control over opinions expressed on the university campus. A document written on the Peking University party committee letterhead was recently circulated on the Internet. It said that the university recently established the “Inspection Office” and the “Office of Internal Control Management.” The document was circulated to all departments, signed on September 13, and published on October 29. According to the notice, the “Inspection Office” was established under the University Discipline Inspection Committee and will be responsible for inspecting daily activities around the campus. According to Reuters, in response to students at Peking University supporting the labor rights protection movement, the school warned all students on Wednesday, November 14, not to support the recent labor rights activities, stressing that students who “challenge” the law will take full responsibility themselves. Meanwhile on its official bulletin-board site, Peking University authorities posted the following announcement which stated that, “The school believes that most students are sensible, but if people around you spread rumors or express reactionary emotions, whether they are your teachers, friends, or alumni, they must maintain a firm position.” Harassment cases against university students who showed their support for those who want to form a workers union have also been reported, but the security office of Peking University denied that the incidents involved the currently enrolled students.

Source: Radio Free Internationale, November 14, 2018
http://rfi.my/3Kdh.T

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Political Speech during Golden Horse Award Drew Opposition from the Mainland

During the 55th Golden Horse Award ceremony held on Saturday November 17 in Taipei, a political speech on Taiwan’s status and unity drew criticism and opposition from the mainland. In her acceptance speech, Fu Yue, the Taiwanese director of the documentary movie Our Youth in Taiwan told the audience that she hopes that one day her country (Taiwan) can be seen as a truly independent entity. This is her greatest wish as a Taiwanese. Later, in a speech that Tumen, an actor from the mainland, gave, he called Taiwan “China Taiwan.” Tumen won best actor in 2018 and spoke as a special guest,  Immediately following the ceremony the entire group of actors, actresses, and directors from the mainland packed up and left for home and were absent from the pre-scheduled awards dinner. The official Weibo account of the party’s youth league posted a picture of a China Map which had words imprinted on it which read, “China, nothing less! I deeply love this country.” The post has been forwarded over 3 million times including to a number of actors and actresses who attended the Golden Horse ceremony; it received over 20,000 comments. Meanwhile the Taiwan Minister of Culture wrote on her Facebook page and called Taiwan Asia’s most free, democratic, diverse, and enthusiastic country . . . and said, please remember this is Taiwan not “China Taiwan.” Currently the related information about the movie Our Youth in Taiwan has been taken down from the website on the mainland.

Source: Voice of America, November 18, 2018
https://www.voachinese.com/a/4663388.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Teachers in China Must Follow “Xi Jinping Thought”

The Chinese Ministry of Education recently issued ten guidelines on “professional behavior in the new era” for university, primary, and secondary schools and for kindergarten teachers nationwide. The Guidelines specified the standard for professional behavior and for a code of conduct for teachers. Still the top priority is to “strengthen the political direction, support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, and adhere to Xi Jinping Thought.”

The official releases included the “Ten Guidelines for the Professional Behavior of University and College Teachers in the New Era,” “Ten Guidelines for the Professional Behavior of Primary and Secondary School Teachers in the New Era,” and “Ten Guidelines for the Professional Behavior of Kindergarten Teachers in the New Age.”

The guidelines emphasize that individual teachers have relaxed their self-discipline, failed to perform their duties conscientiously, have even seriously violated the moral standard for teachers, and have damaged the overall image of the teaching staff.

Although the Ministry of Education emphasizes that the guidelines differ for the teaching staff in universities, primary and secondary schools, and kindergartens, the top items of the three guidelines are the same. “Have a firm political direction; adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party; and implement the Party’s education policy. There will be no tolerance for speeches and for behavior that impairs the authority of the Party or violates the Party’s general and specific policies.”

Source: Radio France International, November 17, 2018
http://rfi.my/3LEK.T

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China’s Cyber Authority Demands Self-Discipline from All Social Media Platforms

The Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and the Cyberspace Administration of China are two different names given to one single identity. The former is a department level body within the Chinese Communist Party system, a commission of the CCP’s Central Committee; the latter is a ministry level agency in the central government of China. Both names share the same abbreviation – CAC, which is China’s top authority regulating cyber affairs.

On November 14, the CAC met with a list of major Chinese social media — Baidu, Tencent, Sina, Toutiao, Sohu, NetEase, UC, idianzixun.com, Phoenix, and Zhihu. The CAC instructed these platforms to examine their user accounts comprehensively and to take corrective measures so that their user accounts follow an industry wide uniform standard. CAC also required each platform to perform a “cleanup” of the self-media accounts immediately and never allow the disciplined accounts to be “reborn” under another user name or achieve a “reincarnation” on another platform.

The ongoing campaign against social media started on October 20 and has “dealt with” 9,800 some accounts. The official reports said that the main issues are: A) spreading politically harmful information, maliciously tampering with the history of the Party and the nation, disparaging heroes, and damaging the image of the country; B) creating rumors, spreading false information, using sensational article titles, profiting from the spread of rumors, using false information to attract attention, and disturbing the normal social order; C) willfully spreading vulgar and pornographic information, disrupting the social order and traditions, challenging the moral bottom line, damaging the healthy growth of the young people; using a large number of self-media accounts for malicious marketing, adopting black PR (influential netizens hired to use postings to support or attack some companies), extortion, infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of normal enterprises or individuals, challenging the bottom line of the law; D) willfully plagiarizing, attracting cyber fans by “washing articles” (make minor modifications of other’s original articles), fake web traffic, and disrupting the normal order of communication.

Most of the disciplined social media accounts are on Tencent’s WeChat and Sina’s Weibo platforms. CAC also stressed that “social media is by no means a lawless place.” “In the next step, CAC will work with other branches to strengthen inspection and supervision of the social media platforms. It will strictly investigate and punish the irresponsible and problematic companies, so that illegal social media accounts have nowhere to hide.”

CAC also issued the “Security Assessment Provisions for Internet Information Service with Public Opinion Attributes or Social Mobilization Capabilities,” which will be implemented on November 30. This regulation includes all of the following cyber services or functions into the category of being “with Public Opinion Attributes or Social Mobilization Capabilities” and scope of regulation: forums, blogs, microblogs, chat rooms, communication groups, public accounts, short videos, webcasts, information sharing, and small applications.

Source: Radio France International, November 16, 2018
http://rfi.my/3L7q

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology