Skip to content

@CS - 13. page

Shanghai Police Target China’s Largest Provider of Emigration Services

The Shanghai Police have arrested Chairperson He Mei of Wailian Group (外联出国), Shanghai’s largest China-US immigration intermediary company. The arrest is part of an investigation into illegal foreign exchange transactions totaling over a billion RMB. In addition to He, four others have also been arrested.

Wailian Group has been a prominent firm in enabling emigration from China, facilitating quick approvals for various countries’ visas and residency permits.

Several people posted on the internet citing insiders, saying that the police demanded that He Mei hand over all information on clients for whom the firm has provided immigration services over the company’s several decades of operation. One tweet said that the authorities are targeting rich Chinese who have exited China but who still have a lot of property in the country. This would enable the local and national Chinese government to confiscate those valuable properties. Another social media post, seen on Chinese social media Weibo, speculated that the authorities may be aiming to collect information on emigration of lower-ranking government bureaucrats and their family members.

Source: Epoch Times, August 10, 2023.
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/8/10/n14051577.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources Government/Politics

LinkedIn, the Last Western Social Media Company in China, Pulls Out

LinkedIn, Microsoft’s social media platform for the workplace, withdrew from Chinese markets on August 9, officially closing the Chinese version of the LinkedIn application.

LinkedIn’s 2014 debut in China came on the heels of Google’s withdrawal from the country in 2010. Google withdrew following the company’s refusal to comply with the Chinese communist regime’s demands that Google censor the content available in China.

LinkedIn took the opposite approach of Google, opting for cooperation with the Chinese regime, implementing censorship mechanisms for the platform. LinkedIn users saw some postings on the platform (e.g. mentioning 1989 the Tiananmen Massacre) deleted by LinkedIn.

The communist regime’s control of the platform gradually became tighter and tighter. In March 2021, the New York Times reported that Chinese regulators had criticized LinkedIn’s executives for failing to control content when they discovered “sensitive” posts during China’s National People’s Congress. As punishment, China required LinkedIn to conduct a “self-assessment” and submit a report to China’s Central Internet Information Office.

LinkedIn’s latest Transparency Report, released in 2023, showed that the Chinese government made 43 requests to LinkedIn to remove content in 2021. LinkedIn complied with all of these requests except one. The number of removal requests was similar in 2020, following relatively lower numbers of requests in 2018 and 2019.

LinkedIn announced in October 2021 that it would remove several features from the Chinese version of its website, including the ability to make posts and interact with user-generated content. Without these social functions, LinkedIn became merely a resume-hosting website and saw its user base decline.

Source: Voice of America, August 8, 2023
https://www.voachinese.com/a/linkedin-becomes-the-last-western-social-platform-to-officially-leave-china-20230808/7216109.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics Information/Technology

Lithuania Winning Standoff Against Beijing on Taiwan Issue

Over a year ago, Lithuania faced unprecedented pressure from China for refusing to toe Beijing’s line on the Taiwan issue. It took the lead in exiting the China-led “17+1” cooperation mechanism with Central and Eastern European countries in 2021 and later allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius under the name “Taiwan.” In response, China launched a comprehensive retaliation, including applying economic sanctions, calling back its Ambassador, and downgrading diplomatic relations.

Recently, Matas Maldeikis, Lithuanian Member of Parliament, revealed in an interview with the Voice of America, that the swift and decisive victory the communist regime of China expected did not happen. Lithuania’s economy grew and its exports increased by 45 percent in just a year and a half after Beijing’s sanctions. This demonstrates that countries need not bow to pressure from Beijing.

Maldeikis mentioned Lithuania’s historical tradition of resistance to power and its people’s values as reasons for daring to confront China on the Taiwan issue. Lithuania understood the political dynamics at play and refused to compromise its principles for short-term economic gains, showing a willingness to withstand market pressure and not betray values for profit.

This resilient stance has set an example for other nations on how to navigate relations with China.

Source: Voice of America, August 7, 2023
https://www.voachinese.com/a/lithuania-china-taiwan-european-union-20230804/7212200.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend

Guangming Daily: It Is Not China But the U.S. That Does the Economic Coercion

Guangming Daily has published a response to recent criticism from the international community, saying that it is not Communist China that conducts economic coercion of Asia-Pacific countries; rather it is the U.S. that is coercive.

The article said that the U.S. aims to create a new narrative to rally allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific region, building an “anti-economic coercion” coalition against China’s rise. The U.S. seeks to create a hostile external public opinion environment for China, and the U.S.’ intensified portrayal of China’s “economic threat” is for the purpose of excluding China from the global supply chain, critical technology, and trade systems. This approach, camouflaged as exposition of China’s “economic coercion,” is, in reality, economic coercion by the U.S. against China.

The article further argues that this “economic coercion” by the U.S. will fail for the following reasons:

  1. Many Asia-Pacific countries understand the damage caused by the U.S.’ “economic coercion” and won’t support it.
  2. The U.S.’ “economic coercion” tactic is against the trend of openness and inclusion in the Asia-Pacific region, and therefore it is against the interest of the countries in this region.
  3. The U.S.’ effort of using this “economic coercion” to promote the “de-Chinaization” of the Asia-Pacific economy is nothing but a foolish and unrealistic delusion.

Source: Guangming Daily, August 3, 2023
https://news.gmw.cn/2023-08/03/content_36741488.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS US-China Relations

The “Four-Don’ts Youth” vs. the “Four-Wants Youth”

Since April 2023, the phrase “Four-Don’ts Youth” (“四不青年”) has been circulating on the Chinese Internet, referring to Chinese youths who “don’t look for a date, don’t get married, don’t buy a house, and don’t have children” (“不找对象、不结婚、不买房、不要孩子”). It is another form of “lying flat,” a negative life attitude among young people who have lost hope in life and decide not to put in effort to change their situation.

China’s communist regime is concerned about the country’s demographic situation — it needs people to produce more babies and spend more money so as to head off economic stagnation. A document reportedly from the Guangzhou Municipal Communist Youth League said that, in survey of 15,501 individuals, 1,215 respondents have chosen to follow the “Four-Don’ts” lifestyle. The authorities called for converting youths from “Four-Don’ts” to “Four-Wants” (“want to look for a date, want to get married, want to buy a house, and want to have children” (“要谈恋爱、要结婚、要买房、要孩子”).

Source: China Digital Times, July 19, 2023
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/698115.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Social Stability

Shanghai to Stop Accepting New Ride-Hailing Cars

{Editor’s Note: In China’s current economic downturn, people are struggling to find jobs. Many have chosen to work for a ride-hailing service (similar to Uber) or do food delivery (similar to Uber Eats). The flood of people entering such jobs means these industries are becoming fully saturated with labor.}

On July 21, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Management Bureau issued a notice stating that it will suspend the processing of ride-hailing transportation certificates. Starting from September 20, 2023, no new ride-hailing transportation certificates will be issued. Currently, there are about 76,000 licensed ride-hailing vehicles in Shanghai in addition to about 50,000 taxis.

The move by Shanghai’s government makes Shanghai the third city, after Sanya (Hainan Province) and Changsha (Hunan Province), to halt issuance of new ride-hailing certificates this year. Other cities have issued warnings regarding the risks of the ride-hailing industry, stating that local ride-hailing capacity has reached or nearly reached saturation. These include Jinan (Shandong Province), Suining (Sichuan Province), Wenzhou (Zhejiang Province), Dongguan (Guangdong Province), Linyi (Shandong Province), Kunming (Yunan Province), and Shenzhen (Guangdong Province).

Source: Net Ease, July 22, 2023
https://www.163.com/dy/article/IA6JQ4840547RFBR.html?f=post2020_dy_recommends

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources

Recent Opaque CCP Operations

Communist regimes have acquired a reputation for their black-box operations, where they carefully hide certain internal affairs from the outside world, including from people living under the regime. Several such mysterious operations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have recently attracted attention.

The hottest recent topic is the whereabouts of Qin Gang, former Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs. Qin disappeared about a month ago. Beijing gave an unconvincing explanation that Qin had been away for “health reasons.” Eventually, Beijing announced that Qin has been removed from his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs and that Wang Yi has been appointed as a replacement. Wang was the head of the CCP’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission, which overseas the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The CCP still has not given any details about what happened to Qin Gang.

Wu Guohua (吴国华), Deputy Commander of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, died on July 4, but the government never announced his death. A short notice about Wu’s death was posted on the Internet on July 27, but it was quickly removed and can no longer be seen. Rumor has it that Wu committed suicide. There were also rumors that several top officials of the Rocket Force, including its Commander Li Yuchao (李玉超)  and a few others, were under investigation for corruption and leaking secrets.

Wang Shaojun (王少军), former Director of the CCP’s Central Security Bureau, was officially announced dead on July 24, three months after his death. No details were given about how he died. The Central Security Bureau is responsible for providing security protection for top CCP officials (CCP Politburo member-level or above).

Source: Radio France International, July 27, 2023
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/中国/20230727-秘不发丧-从火箭军副司令吴国华神秘死亡说起

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics

China Acknowledges That It Inflated 2022 Letin Auto Revenue

{Editor’s Note: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for reporting fake (inflated) Gross Domestic Production (GDP) numbers, to make itself look better. A recent case evidenced that practice.}

Letin Auto, also known as Levdeo, is an electric vehicle manufacturer in China. Its founder Li Guoxin posted an article under the company’s official account on January 14, accusing the county party chief Wang Xiao for forcing Letin to report an extra non-existing 4.7 billion Yuan (US$660 million) in revenue so that the county could have a better GDP number.

The government conducted an investigation and announced the result: Letin reported GDP 7.095 billion Yuan of revenue in 2022, but its actual revenue was only 2.552 billion Yuan, which means that 4.543 billion Yuan of revenue was fabricated. Following the investigation, the punishment was light. Nine people were said to be involved and were each given a warning within the party. There was no criminal or administrative punishment. The county party chief was also cleared from being guilty.

Letin filed for bankruptcy in May 2023.

Source: Net Ease, July 27, 2023
https://m.163.com/dy/article/IALU4IGA05560VPM.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources