Skip to content

@CS - 18. page

China’s New Cognitive War against Taiwan

Epoch Times reported that Beijing has adopted new cognitive warfare tactics against Taiwan. In the past it used to directly or indirectly buy Taiwan’s major media including newspaper, television, and radios to spread its message. Now, however, it has switched to using Internet media, such as TikTok, YouTube, and influential webcast hosts.

One tactic is to release fake news via its controlled Taiwanese media, causing other Taiwanese media who want to keep up on news reporting but do not verify the validity of news to follow up on the fake topic. China has established a “Public Opinion Control Center” inside its military and has a 2 million strong “Internet army” (people who monitor the Internet posting and post propaganda or fake news on the Internet). This can stir up issues or debates in Taiwan media that can lead to conflicts and divisions among the Taiwanese people.

Beijing also provides scripts to people who have their own (news or other topic) channels on the Internet. Those people will replace those words commonly used in the mainland but which are uncommon in Taiwan with those commonly used in Taiwan, to make it appear to have been “created in Taiwan.”

For webcasts, China’s “Public Opinion Control Center” can arrange a mass Chinese “Internet Army” (say 100,000 people) to listen to a Taiwanese webcaster and each to pay the webcaster a small amount of money to influence the webasterc. Collectively however, the webcaster receives a large amount of money and it is hard to trace the money source.

Source: Epoch Times, June 7, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/6/7/n14011845.htm

Reports | | |   @CS Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

Chinese Citizen Estimates 54 Million Jobless Chinese Aged 24 to 40

A Chinese article (written by an individual) estimated that there are 54 million unemployed youth (aged 24 to 40) in China. The article’s main points were:

  • From 2020 to 2023, the gaps between the number of new jobs (for graduates) and the number of graduating students were -2.49 million, -2.20 million, -4.49 million, and -5.82 million, respectively. Thus there should be a total over 15 million graduated students without jobs.
  • About 10 percent of Chinese companies were dissolved in 2022. This means roughly 10 percent of previously-employed workers became unemployed. There should be about 25 million jobless youths as a result.
  • Due to the COVID pandemic, about 14 million young migrant workers lost their jobs within cities.

People aged 24 to 40 account for about 22 percent of China’s population. Using the Chinese government’s population estimate of 1.4 billion, the 24-40 age group should have about 308 million people, resulting in an unemployment rate of 17.5 percent.

Source: Cyzone.cn website
https://m.cyzone.cn/article/728631

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources

South Korean Scholar: Chinese Foreign Ministry Official Tells South Korea “Who Is the Boss”

Liu Jinsong (刘劲松), China’s Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited Seoul in late May. China’s state media only reported that Liu conveyed China’s “stern” position to Korea and did not go into the details of the visit. Choo Jae-woo, a professor at Kyung Hee University in South Korea, wrote to The Korea Times that Liu enumerated “Four Not-allowed” positions to demonstrate to South Korea “who is the boss.” China’s “Four Not-Allowed” positions are:

  1. China will not cooperate with South Korea if it infringes on China’s core interests (e.g., the Taiwan issue);
  2. China will not cooperate with South Korea if it moves toward a pro-U.S. and pro-Japan foreign policy;
  3. China will not engage in high-level exchanges (e.g., Xi Jinping’s state visit to South Korea) if relations between the two countries remain tense; and
  4. South Korea will not be able to play a leading role on the North Korea issue if the situation deteriorates.

Mao Ning, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, responded to a question on Liu’s visit at a press conference: “Regarding the current difficulties and challenges in Sino-South Korean relations, responsibility [for the difficulties] does not lie on China’s side. In the recent dialogue, China has expressed its stern position on its core issues to the Korean side. The Korean side should understand the problems in depth and treat them carefully, walk in the same direction that China takes, and put in positive efforts to enhance Sino-South Korean relations.”

Sources:
1. Sina, May 31, 2023
https://news.sina.cn/2023-05-31/detail-imyvscth0982061.d.html?cre=tianyi&mod=wpage&loc=12&r=0&rfunc=78&tj=cxvideo_wpage&tr=214&wm=6090
2. Epoch Times, June 6, 2023
https://cn.epochtimes.com/gb/23/6/5/n14010574.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend

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