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China’s New Head of Culture and Tourism is Also Key Official in Central Propaganda Department

On November 14th, the official website of China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism reported that Sun Yeli (孙业礼) became the Party Secretary of China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Sun is expected to become the head of the Ministry as well. Sun also serves as the Deputy Minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Propaganda Department.

The CCP’s decision to give Sun this joint appointment will help ensure that China’s cultural and tourism work serves the party’s needs. The Ministry’s primary responsibility is to “implement the party’s policy on cultural work,” and its secondary responsibilities include “coordinating the development of cultural and tourism industries.”

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism was formed through the integration of the Ministry of Culture and the National Tourism Administration in 2018.  Before Sun Yeli, the two prior Ministers of Culture and Tourism – -Luo Shugang (雒树刚) and Hu Heping (胡和平) — also served as high-ranking officials in the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department.

Source: Epoch Times, November 14, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/14/n14116083.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CCP Trials State-Owned Cafeterias

Back in late 1950s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rolled out community-owned cafeterias, providing free food to the populace at a massive scale. This quickly depleted the country’s food stock and led to hunger and famine. It seems that now the CCP is bringing this infamous practice back.

A recent article in China Digital Times criticized a CCP pilot program for state-owned cafeterias, discussing the cafeteria that recently opened in the Yanshi Community of Shijiazhuang city, Hebei Province. Since the start of the cafeteria’s trial operation in early October this year, the cafeteria has served more than 20,000 customers. It targets thousands of residents in the Yanshi community and surrounding areas, aiming to ensure that customers can “eat to a full stomach with 5 yuan (US$ 0.70) and eat well with 9 yuan (US$ 1.25).” Given current market conditions, it is impossible to sustain those prices without continual subsidies from the government.

The article’s author criticized state-owned cafeterias as follows: The government is using tax revenue collected from the populace at large to subsidize food for specific groups of people (i.e. people living in certain communities) — it is not fair to those who are not served. Meanwhile, if the government builds cafeterias to serve the whole populace then it is just taking people’s money (as tax) and giving it back (as subsidy to cafeteria), adding on top the inefficiency (financial waste) resulting from bureaucratic operations.

Source: China Digital Times, November 7, 2023
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/701932.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

CCP Hires “Fans” to Stage Warm Welcome for Xi Jinping in San Francisco

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for faking things. Whenever its leader visits a country, the Chinese embassies or consulates arrange for Chinese students and other people to stage “voluntary” welcome scenes at the airport or on the street, meant to look like “grassroots” support for the VIP.

Online information shows that such a welcome was put on when Xi Jinping came to San Francisco for the APEC meeting on November 15. An online screenshot revealed that the leader of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) at the University of Southern California (USC) notified the association’s cadres:

“[I] Just received a notice from the Chinese Consulate at Los Angeles, next week from the 13th to the 17th, Xi Jinping will visit the United States. Students from USC CSSA are invited to go to San Francisco to welcome him. Since it is inappropriate to publicize the schedule, we currently only know the following:

  • Students who sign up will all ride a bus to SF.
  • For everyone’s safety, you are not allowed to arrange your own trip or engage in independent activities.
  • All travel expenses and accommodation for food and board are covered.
  • If you want to participate, please contact me before 4:00! Once you sign up, you cannot withdraw.”

On November 16th, a posting on social media platform X showed that some students complained about not getting what the CCP promised earlier (Note: the Chinese consulate usually brings people from multiple places, so this may not come from the USC CSSA):

“1. The Chinese embassy claimed there would be free meals, but only some people received them, and most ordinary students did not.
2. There was a promise of a $400 subsidy per person, but in the end the CSSA told students it will be only $100.
3. Students who expressed desire to withdraw from the participation were directly warned that it would be recorded in their files in China, making them unable to join the communist party or take civil service exams in the future.”

Source: Epoch Times, November 16, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/16/n14117681.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics US-China Relations

German Media: CCP’s Harassing Dissidents in Germany

German Media outlet Der Tagesspiegel (Daily Mirror) reported that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has extended its psychological terror tactics into Germany, targeting overseas dissidents. The report says that the CCP employs tactics such as tracking, hacking email accounts, silencing with hush money, and sending threatening emails with “bloody corpse photos.” For example, two Chinese state actors followed a Hong Kong activist when he went to have lunch with some German congresspeople, taking pictures of them openly so that they would know they were being followed. Another dissident reported that someone opened a porn account with her name on the social media platform X, leading male strangers to ring her doorbell almost every day; she also received rape threats and death threats. Another dissident received several dozen threatening calls in one day, and a scholar received threatening emails with photos of blood-stained corpses.

Source: Epoch Times, November 10, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/10/n14114056.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

China Bullies Japan into Joining Ping Pong Tournament

A recent dispute within the China-Japan Table Tennis Association highlighted that the Chinese Communist Party can bully other countries over any matter. China plans to host the 2023 Mixed Team Table Tennis World Cup in Chengdu in December. Initially, Japan’s Table Tennis Association refused to participate in it, citing reasons including the absence of world ranking points and short notice (notice came out in August). Beijing responded by recalling Chinese players (a total of 14) who are playing in the Japanese Table Tennis League back to China. In the end, the Japan Table Tennis Association gathered enough players to participate in China’s competition. Soon after, the Chinese players resumed their playing in the Japanese league.

Source: Epoch Times, November 13, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/13/n14115239.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Sichuan Hospital Job Listing Requires Nurses to Have Master’s or Doctoral Degree

West China Second Hospital recently posted a job ad seeking 34 nurses. Surprisingly, the job posting required that applicants possess a master’s or PhD degree. Typically, nursing roles in mainland China require only an undergraduate degree.

Fierce competition for jobs in China has led to “degree inflation,” with a spiraling trend of employers demanding higher and higher qualifications from job applicants. This year saw a record 4.74 million people take China’s graduate school entrance exam, up from only 2.38 million in 2018. In Beijing there are now over 160,000 individuals who hold a master’s or doctoral degree, surpassing for the first time the roughly 130,000 people in Beijing who hold only an undergraduate college degree. Similar trends are happening across China.

Some Chinese netizens reacted strongly to the Sichuan hospital’s job posting on social media, expressing outrage or lamenting over what they saw as increasingly unrealistic academic requirements for jobs.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), November 14, 2023
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202311140329.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

2023 World Association for Performing Arts Convenes in Beijing

A report in China’s state newspaper People’s Daily stated that the 2023 World Association for Performing Arts (WAPA) and the Beijing Forum for Symphonic Music launched in Beijing on November 13. Over 300 representatives from 187 international art institutions in 30 countries gathered to “discuss new developments and challenges facing symphonic activities worldwide.”

According to People’s Daily, WAPA is an international, professional, non-profit organization voluntarily formed by theaters, cultural groups, art schools, and other performing arts institutions. It is headquartered in Beijing with its secretariat at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA). WAPA aims to “build an open exchange platform to promote outstanding performing arts, strengthen technology integration, and encourage civilizational exchange and common prosperity.”

NCPA President Wang Ning, also the Chair of WAPA, said that the NCPA has long promoted cultural integration and Sino-foreign communication, and that the NCPA will continue working with global institutions to support WAPA in organizing activities and weaving “a spiritual bond of beauty and commonality in the global performing arts.”

Cormac Sims, Administrative Director of the British Royal Opera House, applauded WAPA’s initiative as “an important link between countries.” He looks forward to “making more progress together.”

WAPA regularly organizes forums on performing arts and symphonic music. The 2023 Beijing Forum for Symphonic Music has the theme “Seeking New Horizons, Sharing and Coexistence.” Discussions will focus on music education and audience expansion, contemporary symphonic music visions, and co-creation platforms. Artists and industry leaders will address symphonic music developments and promote global exchange and mutual understanding.

Source: People’s Daily, November 14, 2023
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2023-11/14/nw.D110000renmrb_20231114_2-04.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry Confirms China’s MSS Hacked Presidential Office

South Korea’s newspaper of record Dong-a Ilbo reported that China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) hacked the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs last January and leaked 4.5GB of emails. The hacking took place during former President Moon Jae-in’s presidency. South Korean authorities admitted that the attack came from China and said that the MSS also infiltrated the computer network at Korea’s Blue House presidential office.

The Dong-A Ilbo report quoted a South Korean government source saying that an investigation by Korea’s National Intelligence Service concluded that MSS was behind the attack. To pull off the hack, the MSS exploited vulnerabilities in spam-blocking equipment. This gives South Korea strong evidence that China was trying to steal confidential information regarding Korea’s government and presidential office.

Korea’s foreign ministry confirmed that emails were leaked but said they “did not contain any secrets” and were mostly personal spam. However, the Korean investigation found evidence that the MSS attempted to go further with its hacking, “trying to invade the [Korean] Wa Dae computer network to gain access to confidential documents from the South Korean Ministry of National Defense.” According to the article, the South Korean government has been aware of the hacking since January 2022. An ally notified South Korea through intelligence channels that there were signs of Chinese hackers breaching the foreign ministry, and the incoming Yoon administration immediately investigated.

Analysts suggest the vulnerability to cyber-attacks may have been a motivating factor behind President Yoon’s decision to move the Korean presidential residence from the historic Blue House to the Ministry of Defense Building.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 10, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/kr-hacker-11102023020930.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military