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Taiwan: CCP Imposed Hefty Fines Because a Company Supported the DPP in Taiwan

The Far Eastern Group is one of the biggest conglomerates in Taiwan. It has made substantial investments in mainland China. Recently, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) targeted the company and fined it 36.5 million yuan (US$5.7 million), because of its support for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan.

Xinhua News Agency reported on November 22nd that the authorities in five provinces, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Sichuan, inspected Far Eastern Group’s chemical fiber textile and cement companies in their regions and found a series of violations in environmental protection, land use, employees’ occupational health, safety production, firefighting, taxation, and product quality. Authorities imposed fines, recovered taxes, and took back unused land that was given to the company.

Zhu Fenglian, the spokesperson from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office connected the fine to Taiwan independence activists. She said the mainland will absolutely not allow people supporting Taiwan independence to make money in the mainland and “eat the food and destroy the pot” – meaning to get benefits from the mainland while damaging it. She stated, “Taiwanese businessmen and companies (operating in mainland China) should discern right from wrong, stand firm, draw a clear line (separating them from) the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, and take practical actions to safeguard the cross-strait relations.”

The Far Eastern Group has made legal contributions to politicians from both the DPP and the Kuomintang, with more money to the DPP side. The CCP has been trying to collaborate with the Kuomintang and suppress the DPP.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 23, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/gangtai/hcm1123a-11232021054632.html

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

Pandemic: COVID Has Spread to 21 Provinces in China

On November 5, Beijing reported that COVID-19 had spread to 20 provinces. It also identified four high risk areas, which are in Beijing; Shijiazhang City, Hebei Province; Alashan League, Inner Mongolia; and Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province, respectively.

On November 11, Jilin Province reported an infection case. It thus became the 21st province in this recent round to have COVID cases .

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for hiding the details about the actual spread of COVID in China.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. China News Agency, November 5, 2021
https://www.chinanews.com/gn/2021/11-05/9603192.shtml
2. Epoch Times, November 10, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/11/10/n13366469.htm

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Military: CCP Scholar: Ten Benefits for the CCP to Take Back Taiwan

Jin Canrong is a Professor and Vice Dean of the School of International Relations of Renmin University of China. He is a vocal political speaker to promote and justify the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) strategies and policies.

His speech that the there will be ten benefits for the CCP to take back Taiwan was posted on YouTube on September 23, 2021. The following are the points he made:

First, China’s national strategic position will be improved. The first island chain surrounding China will collapse.

Second, China will be able to wipe out the hundred-year national shame. Chinese people have a healthy mentality.

Third, it will completely establish the connotation of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.

Fourth, the status of our military will be improved with a great step. This would be the Chinese military taking the initiative to go out for a war.

Fifth, it will resolve the TSMC problem. The CCP can nationalize (take over) TSMC; together with Micron and the mainland’s SMIC, China’s (chip) technology will make a dramatic jump.

Sixth, It will help the CCP’s political security. Jin thinks Taiwan is the main source of “color revolutions” in mainland China and one of the biggest threats to the CCP’s political life in China.

Seventh, it will make social stability better. Jin blames the Taiwanese for 90 percent of the telecom fraud in mainland China.

Eighth, it will provide a new wave of revitalization for the economy at China’s coast. China can put more resources into economic development, and the economy at China’s eastern coast will take off.

Ninth, it will eliminate China’s diplomatic weakness. The United States uses Taiwan as a weapon against China. Many countries ask China for financial aid in exchange or in trade for supporting the “One China” policy.

Tenth, it will establish China’s international prestige and change the world landscape overnight.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source: YouTube, “Jin Canrong: Top Ten Gains from Attacking Taiwan,” Oct 2, 2021

Hot Topics | | |   Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

Military: People’s War against U.S. Spies

Amidst the U.S. CIA recruiting staff members who know Chinese, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), via its online account “Jun Zheng Ping” called for a people’s war against the U.S. spies. In Chinese, Jun Zheng Ping (“钧正平”) is the homonym of “军政评” (an abbreviation for “PLA Political Commentary”).

The post is titled, “What should we do when the CIA is on a recruiting spree for Chinese-speaking spies?” It said that, “The CIA’s requirements for recruiting agents were exposed: candidates should understand Mandarin, Shanghainese, Cantonese, or Hakka.”

Then the posting continued, “A few days ago, the CIA announced that it would set up a ‘China Mission Center’ to deal with the so-called ‘China threat.’ The CIA agent recruitment requirements included knowing Mandarin and some Chinese dialects. Hostile forces outside the country have been ‘working hard.’ (We can) never slacken on national security work. The U.S. intelligence services that recruit agents so blatantly must have more sinister and unpleasant means behind the scenes. Still, however cunning the fox is, it cannot fight a good hunter. The only way to maintain national security is to trust the people and rely on the people. (We) need ‘Chaoyang Ladies’ (volunteers to watch for any suspicious people and report them to the authorities); we also need ‘fishing copper fishermen’ (Chinese fishermen taking out U.S. military equipment from the international waters), to fight a ‘people’s war’ against spies, to make it so the spies have no move to take and nowhere to hide!”

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source: Sina, October 17, 2021
https://news.sina.com.cn/s/2021-10-17/doc-iktzqtyu1903245.shtml

Hot Topics | | |   Defense/Military US-China Relations

Leadership: CCP’s Third Decision on Historical Issues

On October 18, Xi Jinping led the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Political Bureau to review the draft resolution of “The CCP Central Committee’s Decision on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party’s 100 Years of Efforts.” It decided to submit the draft resolution to the Sixth Plenary Session of the CCP’s Nineteenth National Congress.

China News published an article, commenting on the significance of this decision. This is the third of the CCP’s decisions on “historical issues” during its entire one hundred year history. The article mentioned that the media Duowei reported on it and mentioned that the previous two decisions went through brutal in-fighting within the CCP. Duowei is tied to former CCP head Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong (Jiang’s Right-hand man). Jiang and Zeng’s group had been fighting against Xi for many years. The China News article then commented that Duowei’s reporting on this decision and the history of the CCP in-fighting indicates that the current CCP in-fighting is intense.

The first decision, taking four years (1941 to 1945) from drafting to passage, established Mao Zedong’s superior leadership within the CCP. The second one, taking a year and half (November 1979 to June 1981) from drafting to passage, established Deng Xiaoping’s superior leadership. Duowei said Xi wants to use the third one to secure his superior leadership.

The new decision draft described Xi’s achievements vs. the previous CCP leaders’ achievements as the following: “In the course of the Party’s long-term struggle, the Chinese Communists, mainly represented by Comrades Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao, have united and led the entire Party and the people of all ethnic groups to promote the revolution, construction, and reform. They realized significant achievements and accumulated valuable experience. Since the 18th Party National Congress, the Party Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, has united and led the whole Party and the people of all nationalities to accomplish new major achievements and accumulate new valuable experience …”

{Editor’s Notes: The CCP officially recognizes five leaders since it ruled the mainland China in 1949: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping. The first two, Mao and Deng, are the paramount leaders; while the third and fourth, Jiang and Hu, didn’t have the “super leader” status. Jiang and Hu served their two full terms and retired. Xi has modified the CCP’s Constitution to allow a person to serve beyond two terms. If Xi seeks his third term, a justification that he has surpassed his two predecessors in achievements will come in handy. However, this important “decision” draft didn’t give him that. It bundles all the four previous leaders together to compare to Xi. As politically it is hard to say that Xi beats Mao and Deng, the leadership comparison ends up as Xi’s achievement being the same as that of his predecessors, including Jiang and Hu. This statement may be the result of a fierce in-fight between Xi and other fictions.}

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. Chinese Government Site, October 18, 2021
http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-10/18/content_5643328.htm
2. China News, October 18, 2021
https://news.creaders.net/china/2021/10/18/2410122.html

Hot Topics | | |   Government/Politics

Government: People’s Daily Reported Fantasia Holdings Missed Its U.S. Debt Payment

Fantasia Holdings announced that it was unable to make a U.S. debt payment of $206 million on its due date of October 4. The company was owned by Zeng Baobao, the niece of Zeng Qinghong, a former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) top official and the right-hand man of former CCP head Jiang Zemin. Many media have reported that Zeng heads the Jiang faction since Jiang has been in poor health and their group has taken many actions against Xi Jinping.

People’s Daily reported on Fantasia’s missing the $206 million debt payment. It also reported that Fantasia raised 3.3 billion yuan (US$ 512 million) by selling a core business Li Li Le (邻里乐) from Color Life, a property management company that Fantasia owns, to Country Garden Services Holdings, another real estate giant in China.

The fact that People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the CCP Central Committee, reported the negative news about Fantasia, may convey a strong political message.

Also, an article analyzing Fantasia has appeared in many Chinese media. The article said that Fantasia appeared to have plenty of money when it reported its bank balance and its cash of 27.1 billion yuan (US$ 4.21 billion) on June 30, 2021. Actually, however, for real estate companies, the cash they hold may be the cash deposits from different house buyers, so banks will freeze that. Also, Fantasia may not have mentioned other debts that it has hidden from its report.

The article commented that Fantasia might have been blocked from issuing bonds and it therefore had no choice but to borrow money on the capital market. By June 30, 2021, its capital debt was 67 percent of its total debt, with the U.S. dollar debt accounting for 53 percent of the total debt. Among the 12 U.S. dollar debts that it has, only one has an interest rate lower than 8 percent; the other 11 all have rates of around 10 percent or higher, way above the average 7.5 percent interest rate on Renminbi debt.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. People’s Daily, October 11, 2021
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1011/c1004-32249384.html
2. 163.com, October 9, 2021
https://www.163.com/dy/article/GLT66O960515VS38.html

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Pandemic: COVID Has Spread to Xinjiang

COVID-19 has spread to Xinjiang. On October 3, Beijing reported two asymptomatic patients in Yili, Xinjiang. The authorities quarantined 192 people who had close contact with them. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for hiding the details about the actual spread of COVID in China. Also, it has initiated many strict measures in Xinjiang and always tries to keep such measures hidden from the world. Therefore the actual COVID infection situation there is unknown.

Airports in several Xinjiang cities, including Urumqi and Yiyi, cancelled a massive number of flights. The Yili train station stopped operating. Authorities imposed traffic control in Yili and also announced that the tourists in Yili may not leave the city.

Related postings on Chinascope:

September 22, 2021, Pandemic Report: COVID Spreading in China
September 15, 2021, Pandemic Report: COVID Spreading in China

Source:
Epoch Times, October 4, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/10/4/n13279609.htm

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Government & Leadership: After Meng Wanzhou, China Wants U.S. to Fix All Its Wrongs on Two Lists

Hua Chunying, the spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, during a press conference on September 28, that Xi Jinping, himself, gave directions on Meng Wanzhou’s case and requested the United States to resolve it properly.

Hua stated that Xi Jinping has given his personal attention to Meng’s case since she had been detained in early December 2018. The Chinese government representatives at all levels have worked to their full strength in every situation to help Meng.

Hua pointed out, in the recent China-U.S. diplomat meeting at Tianjin, that China gave the U.S. two lists. One list included the wrong talks and actions that the U.S. must stop. The other one included the key cases to which China pays attention. Both lists clearly requested that the U.S. should cancel its wrong accusation against Meng and let her return to China quickly.

“When the two state heads talked (Editor’s Note: referring to the Biden-Xi talk on September 9),  … Meng said, “President Xi Jinping clearly made an effort on Meng’s case. He stated China’s stand and requested the U.S. to resolve the situation properly.”

Hua said that she has noticed that some media commented on how the resolution of Meng Wanzhou’s case helped to pull out a thorn that was deeply embedded in Sino-U.S. relations. “Due to the fact that the U.S. side has carried out a wrong China policy in the past period, there are many other thorns, big and small, in the Sino-U.S. relations. China hopes the U.S. will pay high attention (to them) and take substantive actions, to clear all items on the two lists.”

Sources:
1. China Press, September 28, 2021
https://www.chinapress.com.my/20210928/华春莹答覆孟晚舟事件-习近平明确部署工作！/
2. China Youth Daily, September 29, 2021
http://news.cyol.com/gb/articles/2021-09/29/content_Xx507fpEJ.html

Hot Topics | | |   Government/Politics US-China Relations