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State Media: China Spearheads Four-Country Joint Patrol of Gulf Region

An article posted in Chinese media suggested that China is leading the efforts to form a new maritime patrol in the Persian Gulf.

The article stated:

China is leading the coordination on forming a new joint patrol in the Persian Gulf. Four countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman – are in discussion to establish a mechanism to defend the safety of navigation in the region.

On contrary, the Combined Maritime Force (CMF), a 34-country patrol group that the US created in the region, is in limbo. The United Arab Emirates recently quit the group and joined the China-led group, as the UAE was disappointed with the US actions. Clearly, the Gulf countries place more value on China’s peace efforts than on those of the US.

If the four-country group works, the US CMF will collapse. The Gulf region is not a place to allow the US to keep messing things up.

Source: Net Ease, June 2, 2023
https://www.163.com/dy/article/I67NK4BQ0515D8SH.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend

State Media: “As Expected, China Did not Indulge the US, It Rejected Meeting of Defense Ministers”

A Chinese media commented that China has rejected U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s request to meet with China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu as not to “spoil” the U.S. (as one might spoil a child).

The article stated:

Why did China reject the meeting request? The U.S. should reflect on itself. In the past year, the U.S. created many frictions and caused Sino-U.S. relations to hit rock bottom. The U.S. has maliciously speculated about China’s military threat to the U.S., continued to impose malicious sanctions on China, and even embarrassed China in the diplomatic field. It wants to restore high-level communication, especially on military matters, to avoid misjudgments by either side that might lead the two countries into military conflict. This is for the U.S.’s own interest – so that it can continue its military surveillance and border provocation and not to worry about getting its military into danger.

Not removing the sanction on Li Shangfu is another reason for China to reject the meeting.

Since 2021, China has rejected or not answered more than 10 requests initiated from the U.S. Department of Defense on key leadership contact. The U.S. should look at itself for reasons – it has unshirkable responsibility for damaging the relationship between China and the United States.

Source: Net Ease, May 30, 2023
https://www.163.com/dy/article/I5VL0HNG05562BTO.html

Briefings | | |   @CS US-China Relations

China’s War Simulation: 24 Hypersonic Missiles Will Completely Annihilate the Ford Aircraft Carrier Strike Group

Both the South China Morning Post and China Finance Information reported the war simulation result published on the Journal of Testing Technology (测试技术学报). Cao Hongsong’s research team at North Central University conducted 20 rounds of digital war simulation exercises. In each round, China fired 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles and was able to sink an average of five or six U.S. ships including the USS Ford aircraft carrier, effectively destroying the entire aircraft carrier strike group.

North Central University is a second-class national confidential unit. It is jointly owned by Shanxi Province, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Defense Science and Industry Bureau. The Journal of Testing Technology is a journal jointly run by the university and the China Military Industry Association.

The simulation fired two types of hypersonic missiles: Category A with 2,000 km range and Category B with 4,000 km range. China’s attack came in three waves from six launching bases. The first wave had 8 Class A missiles, mainly to deplete U.S. SM-3 interceptors. The second wave, the main attack wave, contained 8 Class B and 2 Class A missiles and sank the U.S. aircraft carrier and cruisers. The third wave consisted of six Class A missiles to sink the remaining U.S. ships.

Source: Sohu, May 26, 2023
https://www.sohu.com/a/679199532_121432636

Briefings | | |   @CS Defense/Military

Chinese Lung Transplant Doctor Revealed Organ Harvesting Secret

Chen Jingyu (陈静瑜) and her team published a paper on China’s lung transplantation in JAMA Network Open, a publication under the Journal of the American Medical Association  (JAMA). Chen’s Lung Transplant Center in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, claimed this as the first time that Chinese lung transplant clinical data has been accepted by a top international journal. Chen is known as “the number one doctor in China’s lung transplants.”

Chen excitedly posted the news on WeChat and Weibo on May 8. She stated, “For a long time because we used organs from death row prisoners, the foreign (medical community) boycotted the organ transplantation in China because of ethical issues… In 2015, China fully implemented organ donation from people under heart and brain death. The organs of citizens with brain death have become our only source for organs. There is much gratitude for the 6,000 or so cases of organ donations each year in our country, which have allowed us to go global with lung transplants.”

Chen’s statement admitted two things: One: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long taken organs from death row inmates. Two: China is using organs from “brain-dead” people, not the “heart-brain-dead” people as the CCP ostensibly claimed.

Whether “brain-death” is considered real death is debatable in the medical community, since a “brain-dead” person can still keep breathing and has a heartbeat under medical equipment for a while. “Heart-brain-death” is fully dead.

China does not have a law on “brain-death.” Its definition of death in the Criminal Law is in line with the definition of “heart-brain-death.” Therefore, using organs from “brain-dead” people is illegal according to China’s own law.

China has been using the “Primary Brainstem Injury Impactor” device, invented by Wang Lijun, the former Vice Mayor and Public Security Chief of Chongqing. It is capable of precisely creating brainstem death without damaging other brain tissues or other organs. This invention was patented by China’s State Intellectual Property Office in 2012 under the patent number CN 202376254 U.

Source: Epoch Times, May 22, 2023
http://cn.epochtimes.com/gb/23/5/22/n14001686.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics Social Stability

Leaked Meeting Minutes Showed Kunming City Investment Companies Are Running Out of Money

An article, said to be the minutes of an internal meeting of Kunming City Investment Companies, was widely spread on the Internet. The triggering event for the meeting was that Kunming Land Investment Company struggled to pay back a 200 million Yuan (US$28) debt which was due on May 19. Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan Province and is supposed to be the richest city in Yunnan.

A few highlights of the minutes are:

To help Kunming Land Investment Company make its payment, Kunming city gave 130 million Yuan from its fiscal budget. The investment company itself raised 35 million Yuan, and Kunming Land Reserve Investment Company provided 40 million.

Collectively, city investment companies in Kunming have 20 billion Yuan in debt due in the second half of this year. Kunming city does not have the money. The Yunnan Province government might have some money, but a Deputy Governor already stated that the province will not rescue every company.

The Deputy Major of Kunming led three chairmen of three investment companies, including Kunming Industry Investment Company, Kunming Urban Investment Company, and Dian Investment Company, to Shanghai on May 20 and 21. They were to ask Shanghai Urban Investment Company to transfer some money – Shanghai was tasked to provide Yunnan Province with financial support (several hundred billion Yuan each year), but it didn’t transfer money last year.

The Kunming city government has gathered all the money it can gather from its investment companies. If there is another debt crisis, the city has no money and no means but to issue new debt.

All loans (to Kunming city investment companies) that can be extended have already been extended. Principle and interest payments on fixed asset loans have all been deferred. Kunming Transportation Investment Company, Kunming Production Investment Company, Kunming Land Investment Company, Kunming Rail Transit, and Kunming Urban Investment Company have already accomplished this extension.

Source:
1. Pingcong website
https://pincong.rocks/question/58589
2. Net Ease, May 23, 2023
https://www.163.com/dy/article/I5EBF1QL0519B61A.html

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

Massive Price Reduction on Pre-Owned Houses Is Expected

The week of May 1 (China’s Labor Day) used to be one of the hottest real estate sales weeks. However, this year, the sales volumes of both new houses and pre-owned houses have been low. For example, among the largest four cities with the highest housing prices in China, only 13,928 pre-owned housing units were sold in Beijing in April, a drop of 37 percent from the 22,192 units in March. Shanghai dropped by 27 percent and Guangzhou and Shenzhen were down by 14 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, a number of pre-owned housing units have kept coming on the market. Shanghai has around 200,000 units listed for sale. Approximately 13,000 units have been added each week for the past two months. However, only 17,000 units were sold in the entire month of April.

China had 606,000 foreclosed housing units auctioned off in 2022, an increase of 35.7 percent from 2021. Unlike the U.S. where a person can stop makjng payments on his mortgage and owe the bank nothing after declaring bankruptcy, Chinese law says that even if a person chooses to declare  bankruptcy or stop making payments on his mortgage, he is still liable for the remaining debt. Therefore, once a person is unable to make his mortgage payment, not only does he lose the down payment on his house as well as the subsequent payments, but he still has to pay the remaining debt and will be put on many spending restrictions until he clears his debt. This tough law gives people a great incentive to sell their house instead  of declaring bankruptcy if they do not want to continue their mortgage payments. China announced on April 25 that it implemented a nationwide real estate registration. Many people felt this was a step to prepare for adopting a real estate property tax, which is bad news to those who own many properties.

The “landlord tax” even came out faster than the property tax. Three provinces including Hebei, Hunan, and Yunan piloted the tax last year. The government will collect a 10 percent tax on rent if an individual rents out part of his own residence and 20 percent tax on rent from a non-residence.

All these factors will drive more people to sell their houses. A price reduction is unavoidable.

Source: VCT News, May 15, 2023
https://vct.news/news/f26f9d83-7acb-4ebc-99dc-88c82ffb3bd1

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources

The Chinese Government Refused to Help Its Citizens Who Were Kidnapped to Work as Slaves to Conduct Telemarketing Fraud

Some Chinese and Taiwanese were enticed to go to Southeast Asian countries for work and were then kidnapped there and forced to conduct telemarketing fraud against the Chinese people. Recently Little Chen, a man trapped in Myawaddy, Myanmar, called Radio Free Asia (RFA) to help. An RFA reporter spent a month attempting to contact various authorities in China to request help for him, but not a single office extended a hand.

Little Chen was from Hunan Province. He and two other fellow Hunan residents were sold by kidnappers to the East Wind Park in Myawaddy. He said that over 1,000 Chinese were working as slaves at that park. The slave master asked for US$30,000 to give him his freedom, but his family did not have the money. The slaves were closely monitored and were not allowed to contact their family members or friends for help.

Somehow Little Chen’s friend managed to contact his family in Hunan. His family reported the situation to the Hunan police, but the police took no action and instead, asked him to come back to China and warned that he would face criminal charge if he did not come back soon.

An RFA reporter tried to contract China’s Embassy at Myanmar, but none of the calls to listed public phone numbers went through. The reporter then contacted the Hunan Provincial Police Bureau, but the officer there rejected the request for help. The reporter contacted the office of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was told to contact the diplomat security bureau. The reporter contacted the diplomat security bureau, but the bureau staff said this was not their responsibility. The reporter contacted China’s Embassy in Thailand, since Thailand was just next to Myawaddy. The embassy referred the reporter to contact the Chinese Consulate General in Chiang Mai. The consulate told the reporter they knew that many Chinese were trapped in Myanmar, but said it was outside their scope. Only if those Chinese came to Thailand could they help. However, they do not suggest that they cross the Thai border since that is illegal. The reporter asked the progress of the joint effort to clean-out the telemarketing fraud by China, Myanmar, and Thailand; but the consulate staff said there is no such thing at all.

Little Chen has been losing his hope.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 5, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/myanmar-05052023125339.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics Social Stability

Public Opinion: The Six Huge Costs of the Three-Year Zero-COVID Policy

Lao Man (老蛮), an individual commentator in China, known for his writing on China’s economy, posted an article to list six prices that China paid for adopting the “zero-COVID” policy for the past three years:

  1. The fiscal deficit increased by 60 percent in those three years.
  2. The collapse of municipal investment companies (these companies are set up by local governments as a vehicle to raise money to finance government spending, usually using land which the government owns as collateral).
  3. The collapse of the government’s credibility.
  4. The collapse of the birth rate.
  5. The withdrawal (departing from China) of foreign companies.
  6. The general public’s decision not to take out loans to finance their purchases after they lost hope in the future.

Source: China News Digest, May 8, 2023
http://hx.cnd.org/2023/05/08/老蛮：清零三年的六个巨大代价/

Hot Topics | | |   @CS Economy/Resources Government/Politics