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People’s Daily: Child Birth Is Not Only the Family’s Business; It Is Also a National Matter

Because China faces issues related to its aging population, it has changed its one child policy to encourage the younger generation to have more children. However, recent statistics show the childbirth rate is slowing down. People’s Daily published an article calling for the government to establish plans to ease childbirth concerns; it has been saying, “Childbirth Is a National Matter.” However People’s Daily’s statement drew a fair amount of criticism over the Internet.

According to the People’s Daily article, in the 1980s, China’s one child policy resulted in 400 million fewer newborn babies, which eased the resource and environmental pressure. In 2013, the policy was changed to allow parents who are the only child in their family to have a second child. By 2015, to deal with the aging population issues China was facing, the policy was changed to allow all couples to have a second child. The statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that there were 17.23 million newborns in 2017, down 63,000 from 2016. The childbirth rate was 12.43 percent, down 0.52 percent from 2016. Many cities and provinces issued policies to increase the rate of childbirth. In urban regions, however, many young couples still chose not to have children due to the high cost of raising a child, including education, medical, and public services. However, the decrease in the childbirth rate is having a negative impact on society, including an aging population, higher labor costs, and an increase in the pressure on social security. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, the government needs to come up with a plan that will ease the concerns of the younger generation so they will be encouraged to have more children.

Following the People’s Daily‘s statement, people responded with criticism over the Internet. One posting stated, “Having a child is a basic right for a human being. The party wants to manage everything. They didn’t allow more than one child before. Now they want people to have more children. The situation is that people could afford more than one child back then, but the reality is that now, they can have a baby but are unable to afford raising the baby.” Another posting commented that there were so many tragic incidents when the Party forced women to abort their babies and never took any responsibility. “The Party never cares about the livelihood of the people.”

Sources:
1. People’s Daily, August 6, 2018
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0806/c1001-30210179.html
2. Epoch Times, August 13, 2018
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/18/8/13/n10635706.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China’s CNPC to replace French Company Total in Iran’s SP11 Project

On August 12, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA), the official news agency of Iran, quoted the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which said that China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) purchased shares of the French oil company Total in the Iranian gas project “South Pars 11.”

Mohamad Mostafavi, investment and business manager at Iran’s National Oil Company, said, “CNPC bought shares of the French company Total. Its shares currently account for 80.1 percent of the ‘South Pars 11’ project.”

He added that cooperation with large Chinese companies also carries strategic importance for NIOC. In June, Total of France announced that, if the company could not obtain a sanction waiver from the US government with the support of France and the European authority, it would withdraw from the “South Pars 11” project.

Source: Russian Sputnik News, August 12, 2018
http://sputniknews.cn/china/201808121026105342/

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Open Letter Appeals to Xi Jinping to Stop the Massive Handouts to Foreign Students

A U.S. based blog site – weiquanwang (rights protection site) – recently published an open letter to the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and requested that China stop providing blanket massive subsidies to foreign students in China. The letter stated that millions of ordinary Chinese people have to tighten their belts for their children’s education, while the government hands out disproportionate subsidies to thousands of international students in China.

As of July 31, 2018, 295 people had signed the letter, which was titled, “Citizens’ Opinion on Requesting an End to the “Universal” Fiscal Subsidies to Foreign Students.” Among them were 49 lawyers (not including one lawyer who withdrew under pressure), six journalists, and 240 doctors, professors, teachers, and other activists.

The author Liu Shuqing, a human rights Lawyer and a lecturer from Shandong Qilu University of Technology, has already mailed it to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, Chair of the National People’s Congress Li Lishu; Minister of Education Chen Baosheng, Finance Minister Liu Kun, and Director of Legal Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee Chen Chunyao.

The letter stated, “We are not a group that suffers from xenophobia.  . . . We understand our government’s moderate assistance to poorer countries. We understand the practice of granting scholarships to a small number of outstanding foreign students, but the principle body of doing this should be schools and universities.  . . . What we are opposed to is the ‘universal’ and high amount of fiscal subsidies to foreign students without considering our national conditions. What we oppose is the irrationality of policies and the lack of procedural justice in the process of policy making. What we value is the Chinese national’s equal rights to education and the taxpayer’s rights to have a say on fiscal expenditures.”

The letter pointed to the fact that China’s per capita income in 2017 ranked 69th in the world, a very low level. By China’s own poverty standard, 40 million people are still living in poverty. Without a system that provides the basic guarantees of education and medical care, incidents of poverty related dropouts have occurred from time to time. Chinese university students need to pay a high tuition. Scholarships, assistantships, and work-study programs cannot offset these payments. For an ordinary Chinese family, a university education is a heavy burden.

The letter criticized the handing out of 60,000 to 100,000 yuan annually to almost every foreign student, the number of which has grown dramatically. It is an immoral policy as the government is obligated to have its actions be approved by the tax payers before it makes such policies of foreign aid.

The letter said it understands that there may be strategic considerations related to the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. By increasing the proportion of foreign students in the country, the regime hopes that they will become the backbone of the local people and help to promote strategic implementation. However this way of using fiscal subsidies to attract foreign students is wrong.

Source: Radio France Internationale, August, 9, 2018
http://rfi.my/2zJb.T

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

Chinese Government Offers Free Re-administrations of Vaccines, but Chinese People Are Skeptical

In July, Chinese vaccine maker Changsheng Biotechnology was found to have fabricated records and arbitrarily changed the process parameters and equipment during its production of freeze-dried human rabies vaccines. Substandard diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccines that Changsheng produced were administered to 215,184 Chinese children. Another company, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, produced substandard DPT vaccines and sold 400,520 of them to the public. China’s drug regulator launched an investigation and arrested 15 people from Changsheng Biotechnology, including the chairman.

About a month after the outbreak of the scandal, the Chinese government offered to re-administer the vaccine without charge to people who had been previously vaccinated with Changsheng’s rabies vaccine. However, according to Radio Free Asia, few people have gone to get vaccinated and some no longer trust domestic vaccine manufacturers.

On August 10, a nurse at a hospital in Shenzhen that provides free re-administration of vaccines told the reporter that the hospital uses the vaccine of the Liaoning Chengda Company, a vaccine manufacturer not struck by the scandal. Individuals did go there to get vaccinated, but not many.

A gentleman, Mr. Zhang from Guangdong, had his child vaccinated with Changsheng’s vaccine. He said in an interview that he no longer has confidence in domestically made vaccines. If a company has not been exposed, that does not mean that it has no problem. He would rather choose to use imported vaccine.

“In my situation, I will not dare to get vaccinated again. It is useless. I really worry about domestic vaccinations. I will try as much as possible to get imported vaccines; otherwise there is no guarantee. Companies that have not been exposed may still have a problem. In the case of Changsheng, one employee exposed the problem, right? If he hadn’t done it, we would never have known it. As a matter of fact, they had detected the problem before, but they chose not to publicize it. We don’t have the right to information. So if domestic things are not exposed, it does not mean that they have no problem.”

Some netizens expressed ridicule: Is the vaccine used this time not fake? Will we still have to get vaccinated once again?

Source: Radio Free Asia, August 10, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/yf2-08102018100530.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China to Become the World’s Largest Natural Gas Importer by 2019

Recently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued the “Natural Gas Market Report 2018,” which predicts that, by 2019, China will become the world’s largest natural gas importer due to the lack of domestic supply. By 2023, China’s natural gas imports will reach 171 billion cubic meters, most of which will be LNG (liquefied natural gas).

According to the Chinese Ministry of Energy, China and India have become the fastest growing countries in demand for natural gas, especially LNG. Last year, China surpassed South Korea and became the second largest importer of LNG after Japan.

The Report shows that China and emerging Asian markets are promoting global natural gas consumption. Between 2017 and 2023, China will account for 37 percent of the increase in global natural gas consumption, surpassing every other country in the world. Regarding the forecast period, the Report expects the global natural gas market to exceed 4 trillion cubic meters by 2022, while China’s demand will grow at an average annual rate of 8 percent, accounting for more than one-third of the growth in global demand.

At present, the United States is the main producer of natural gas and exporter of LNG, accounting for nearly 45 percent of global production growth and nearly three-quarters of LNG export growth.

Source: Shanghai Security News, July 20, 2018
http://news.cnstock.com/paper,2018-07-20,1029054.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

The Liao River Is an Environmental Nightmare

The Liao River is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in mainland China. Coursing 1,345 kilometers (836 mi) long, it passes through Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, and Liaoning Provinces.

According to Economic Information Daily, a subsidiary of the official Xinhua News Agency, in recent years, the amount of river water has decreased year by year. In many places, there is no water at all. A major section of the Liao River flows through Chifeng City and Tongliao City in Inner Mongolia, with a total length of 829 kilometers. In Chifeng City, since 2007, most parts of the river have run out of water for most of the year. In Tongliao City, the Liaohe River has experienced 20-years of being cut off.

In addition to the climate drought, the main reason is that there are too many water conservation projects along the river. In Chifeng alone, there are 82 large, medium, and small reservoirs in the upstream portion of the Liao River.

Over the years, with the interruption of water in the middle and upstream areas of the River and with the people living nearby increasing their demand for water consumption, the demand for groundwater has increased. This has resulted in over-exploitation and a decline in the water level. In Chifeng City and Tongliao City, groundwater depletion caused areas of land subsidence as large as 3000 square kilometers, and the water level dropped by about 10 meters.

The water interruptions have caused a large reduction in the area of lakes, wetlands and grasslands. Trees along the banks of the river have declined and died, posing a threat to the ecological environment and ecological security of this area. The grassland area in Tongliao City has been decreasing year by year since 2014. In 2004, the area of lake wetlands in Chifeng City was 60,738.05 hectares. By 2010, it shrank to half that size. Of the 82 reservoirs in Chifeng City, 40 percent have dried up.

Source: Economic Information Daily, August 6, 2018
http://jjckb.xinhuanet.com/2018-08/06/c_137370677.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China Expands International Express Service Overseas

Xinhua reported that, in recent years, China’s international express service has rapidly expanded overseas. For the first six months of 2018, the International express service’s volume, including service to Hong Kong and Macau, reached 520 million pieces, which was a 43.1 percent increase from the same period in 2017. China’s JD Logistics has a delivery service that covers seven islands and 483 cities in Indonesia. YTO Express Group, ZTO Express, and Rookie Network can provide supply chain service in receiving, warehousing, and freight forwarding with the ability to deliver anywhere around the world in less than 10 days. These freight companies have also invested in building international air transportation channels and setting up warehouses in other countries, including the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Japan. The Xinhua article stated, “China is using its logistics technology and supply chain management capabilities to let the world enjoy “China’s speed.”

Source: Xinhua, August 5, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2018-08/05/c_1123225398.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Beijing to Launch Patriotic Campaign to Target Intellectuals

According to Xinhua, recently, the Central Organization and the Publicity Department jointly published a notice to launch a “patriotic campaign” targeting intellectuals. The notice stated that the campaign is to “carry out the directions of Xi Jinping to unite the intellectuals with the party and the people and build a consensus among intellectuals to share the goals and the values for which the Party and the Country are fighting.” An RFA article calls the patriotic campaign another round of brainwashing campaigns because the authorities are most concerned about the criticisms that the intellectuals are making. For example, in recent months, the mainland intellectual community has continuously discussed China’s economic strength. Since the beginning of the year, it has been widely believed that China’s comprehensive strength can surpass the U.S. In recent months, however, more and more scholars have publicly stated that China’s economic strength appears impressive but lacks real value. Some people have even questioned Xi Jinping’s policy of governing the country.

Sources:
1. Xinhua, July 31, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2018-07/31/c_1123203383.htm
2. Radio Free Asia, August 2, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/ql2-08022018101541.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics