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Saudi Arabia Used China’s Laser Weapon to Shoot Down Drones

In March 2022, Saudi Arabia shot down 13 drones using the China-made “Silent Hunter” (寂静狩猎者) laser weapon system. This might be the laser weapon’s first showing in real war.

Currently many countries lack effective ways to deal with invasive drones. The traditional ariel defense weapon (e.g. an air-defense missile) is too expensive to use to shoot at a drone and also a drone might be too small for a large-sized air-defense radar system to find.

The advantages of China’s Silent Hunter system are:

It has a low cost. The cost of one shot is less than $1.
It is powerful. Its standard output is 30K watts and its maximum distance is 4,000 meters. It can penetrate 5 layers of a 2 millimeter thick steel plate at a distance of 800 meters and a 5 millimeter steel tank at a distance of 1,000 meters.
It has a high mobility.
It has a high degree of automation. It automatically captures and locks on the target, it can strike multiple targets at the same time, can switch to a new target and complete aiming in six seconds, and it can hit its targets at an extremely high hit rate.

Source: Phoenix, February 4, 2023
https://news.ifeng.com/c/8N8VrBhtl1w

Briefings | | February 5, 2023 | @CS Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

Chinese Officials Obstructed Western Reporters from Conducting Interviews about Covid in China

Selina Wang, a CNN reporter stationed in China, was interfered with and even blocked from interviewing Chinese people regarding COVID. Her reporting team went to Guizhou Province to do an interview. When they arrived at Rongjiang County where the Dong ethnic group people live, six local officials “welcomed” them and started following them. Four stayed in the same or nearby hotels. Every morning they were in the hotel lobby waiting for Selina’s team and then followed them. Those followers brought an official with them who would speak in the Dong dialects to the villagers before Selina interviewed them. They refused to tell Selina what they told the villagers.

Realizing they could not have a meaningful interview, Selina’s team drove to a town two hours away. When they went to a hospital and started interviewing people, a man showed up. He claimed he was from the Propaganda Department and asked what Selina was doing there. Selina and her team then drove to a village clinic 30 minutes away. That man and another woman followed them and told the people there not to say anything to Selina.

Selina’s team then went to another place and found a woman who was willing to talk to them about the Chinese New Year. After a few questions, a government staff member arrived in the middle of the interview and took the interviewee away. Selina went to a few hospitals afterwards. However. the government staff members always followed them. For that reason, no one was willing to be interviewed.

An Internet posting also revealed that the Tianshui City Maji District Communist Party Propaganda Department, Gansu Province, issued an “Urgent Notice” to all of its towns, street residential committees, and the District Health Bureau. The notice stated, “ The Provincial Propaganda Department called to inform us that on January 17, three foreign media reporters (2 men and 1 woman), without permission, conducted interview activities in hospitals, health centers, community health service stations, and villages in Lanzhou City and Dingxi City (both are in Gansu Province). They are likely to sneak into Tianshui City to continue their activities tomorrow and the next day (January 18 and 19).”

The notice asked towns, street residential committees, and District Health Bureaus to attach great importance and pay close attention (to this activity). If they found those three people’s whereabouts, they were advised report to the District Party Committee Propaganda Department contact person Dong Binbo immediately. They were told that no one from the medical units, villages, and communities is allowed to accept their interviews or answer their inquiries about the epidemic.

Source:
1. Epoch Times, January 23, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/27/n13916922.htm
2. Radio Free Asia, January 19, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/gt-01192023010127.html.

Briefings | | February 2, 2023 | @CS Social Stability

CCP’s Crimes: How Could the Authorities Match Donor’s Organs to Several People So Quickly?

An article posted on the Internet questioned (using hints) whether the communist regime is conducting organ transplants based on the recipient’s need.

It first mentioned a news item: On January 17, a 20-year-old college student fell down from a bike and was announced brain dead after being taken to the hospital. His parents recalled that their son wanted to donate his organs. Then the student’s organs including heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, and corneas, were transplanted to save seven patients.

The author raised a question: Since the college student’s death was a sudden event, how was the hospital able to match his organs with seven people so quickly (organ transplants have to be performed quickly after the death). After all, organ matching between the donor and the recipient is not a quick and high-possibility event, not to mention matching with seven recipients.

The author found a few dozen reports in the past couple of years about death-related organ donations. Most of the cases were about young people who suffered brain death (so their organs could be taken out). For example, the following were cases that occurred since the 2023 New Year: a 23-year-old girl’s organ donation saved five people, an eight-year-old girl’s organ donation saved two people, an 18-year-old college student’s organ donation saved six people.

The author then referred to a recent revelation of Gao Zhanxiang, a former Deputy Communist Party Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, who had replaced many of his organs (Chinascope also briefed on that story: “COVID Death Revealed CCP Officials Transplant Organs so They Can Live Longer”).

The author wrote, “I typed a few sentences (about my suspicions), but deleted them. Let me just write this much.”

Source: Pop Yard, January 22, 2023
https://news.popyard.space/cgi-mod/newscroll.cgi?lan=cn&r=0&sid=15&rid=731187&v=0

Hot Topics | | January 29, 2023 | @CS Government/Politics

New Factions among Xi’s Loyalists

Before its 20^th National Congress, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) internal fighting used to be among three groups. Each groip was led by a former or current CCP top leader, These were the loyalist group (led by Xi Jinping); the Shanghai clique (led by Jiang Zemin), and the Youth League clique (led by its spiritual leader Hu Jintao).

Since the CCP’s 20^th National Congress, Xi Jinping’s followers have dominated the key positions all across the political spectrum. Though they are all from Xi’s camp, they themselves have their own factions. Wu Guogang, advisor to the former CCP’s General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, observed that Xi’s people can be grouped into four factions (identified by locations where Xi had worked previously) and under another five groups.

The four factions are the Fujian (Province) faction, the Zhejiang (Province) faction, the Shanghai (Province) faction, and the Shaanxi (Province) faction. Xi had worked in the first three provinces. The last one, Shaanxi, was where Xi’s father Xi Zhongxun (习仲勋) started. Thus it was also considered a base for Xi’s loyalists.

For example, at the State Council, Li Qiang (李强) – who is anticipated to be the next Premier – is from Zhejiang; Ding Xuexiang (丁薛祥) – who is anticipated to be the next Executive Vice Premier – is from Shanghai; and He Lifeng (何立峰) – who is anticipated to be the next Vice Premier in charge of Finance – is from Fujiang，

Xi also used many officials from another five groups. These are officials are from the military and industrial sectors, officials related to Tsinghua University, officials related to the CCP’s Central Party School, officials connected to Xi’s wife Peng Liyuan, and officials from the security sector.

These factions and groups sometimes engage in political in-fighting among themselves.

Source: NTDTV, January 28, 2023
https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/28/a103636555.html

Briefings | | January 29, 2023 | @CS Government/Politics

“He Who Created the Debt Owes the Debt” – China’s Finance Minister Told Local Governments

China’s local government debts have grown to an alarming high level. Liu Kun, China’s Minister of Finance expressed that local governments are responsible for resolving the issue and the central government will not help. During an interview with the China Central Television (CCTV), Liu said that “(we will) adhere to the principle of no bailout by the central government, and it should be ‘whose child it is who holds (the debt).” (In other words, he who created the debt owes the debt.)

Liu stressed the importance of regulating the local government’s financing platform companies. It has been a common practice for local governments to establish these companies to raise money to finance their spending. These companies usually use land (taken from the government) as collateral to get loans from banks, and later pay back the loans after the local governments sell the land. Now with the collapse of the real estate industry, local governments have a hard time selling land, and thus these companies are unable to pay back the bank loans.

Cheng Xiaonong, a Chinese economist living in the U.S. pointed out that all 31 provinces and municipalities in China had fiscal deficits in 2022. Now the central government is not willing to fill the hole. The result will be that banks will lose the money their customers deposited. In addition local governments must cut spending including salary reductions and layoffs.

According to Bloomberg, in the next five years, nearly 15 trillion yuan (US$2.2 trillion) of China’s local governments’ bonds will mature.

Last December, China’s Ministry of Finance issued 750 billion yuan (US$110 billion) in special national bonds for “economic reform, responding to major emergency events, and other expense items.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 9, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/hcm1-01092023025727.html

Briefings | | January 20, 2023 | @CS Economy/Resources

Economy: How Will China’s Local Governments Manage Their Debts?

The high level of China’s local government debts has grown to a point of being alarming. Liu Kun, China’s Minister of Finance asked local governments to be responsible for their own debts and that the central government will not help, as “whose child do they hold?”

A Taiwanese media Up Media republished an article by Yan Cungou, a former Wen Wei Po editor, commenting on this policy:

Why was Liu Kun so cold-hearted? It is because the central government has depleted its money. It does not have the ability to cover local governments any more. It is just giving a warning up front.

In China, the local governments have accumulated 65 trillion yuan (US$9.6 trillion)in debt. Where can local governments find the money to pay off these debts? One possibility is to exploit private companies. This can result in the massive death of private companies. A second way is to exploit the people. However, people do not have much left after the three years of “zero-COVID” control and over-exploitation can lead to escalated conflicts between people and the authorities. The third option is to cut spending and lay off government staff members. However, the officials might be so hurt that they would stop working hard for the communist regime. In the end, the local government will run out of money and won’t even be able to pay for stability control efforts. Then there would be more social turmoil.

There might be several consequences for the central government’s “not holding local governments’ children.” First is that the central government will lose its authority over the local governments. Second is that local governments will focus on own interests and depart from the central government. Third is that the infighting among local governments (for resources) would intensify. Fourth is that people would protest and add to the pressure on the authorities.

Source: Up Media, January 17, 2023
https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?Type=2&SerialNo=163946

Hot Topics | | January 19, 2023 | @CS Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Chinese Are Protesting for Unpaid Wages

Thousands of workers at Zybio, a pharmaceutical company in Chongqing City, held a protest inside the factory and even clashed with the special police force which came to suppress them.

Zybio designs and manufactures medical diagnostic reagents and instruments. According to an interview with a Zybio employee, the company hired around seven thousand temporary workers in early December, promising to pay them 1,000 yuan (US$146) as a bonus on top of their hourly pay if they would work until January 21 and another 2,000 yuan bonus if they worked until February 15.

On January 6, the company announced it would lay off 8,000 people. Most of them were those temporary workers. The company said they lost orders. It used to produce COVID nucleic acid extraction testing kits, which were in high demand when Beijing carried out the “zero-COVID” policy. It switched to producing antigen testing kits after the government stopped that policy. However, workers suspected that Zybio had enough orders but used a lack of orders as an excuse to avoid paying a bonus to the workers.

A smaller group of people started protesting on the evening of January 6. Since the company executives hid themselves and only let the factory manager arrange the layoff, people got furious and started smashing things. Several thousand workers gathered at the company on the next day. A few more company executives were found and beaten.

Special police came to the factory. Some videos posted online showed the clashes between the workers and the police, including a video showing that a small group of policemen retreated while the workers were chasing and throwing things at them.

The protesters shouted one appeal: “We just want our salaries.”

Zybio proposed a resolution: It would pay every worker their December salary on January 7 and their January salary on January 8. In addition, it would pay 1,000 yuan to those who left as their severance pay, or to those who stayed as a bonus.

Since people got the money they demanded, they accepted the proposal. The protesters all left the company immediately.

Demanding unpaid wages has been a big issue when the Chinese New Year has approached. The government has demonstrated the habit of delaying payments to its contractors and companies. It has also had the habit of delaying payment to, or not paying in the end, its subcontractors or workers. Since migrant workers usually go home for Chinese New Year, they started a protest to demand their money before the Near Year.

This year has been even harder as some companies have struggled to survive due to the bad economy in China.

A netizen posted 40 videos about people at different places, including Beijing, Guangdong, Shandong, Hebei, and other locations, demanding the payment of their wages on either January 4 or January 5.

The authorities somehow belittled the workers who tried to defend their own rights, as their actions interrupted society’s stability. Sometimes the government uses force to drive the workers away. Some officials came up with a term “malicious wage collection” to defame those workers who were actually victims.

Recently an online posting showed a banner hanging at a company, saying, “Fiercely crack down on malicious wage collection actions; defend the company’s illegal action of not paying wages.”

It is yet to be seen how the salary demand protest will continue its development in China.

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, January 7, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/7/n13901673.htm
2. Radio Free Asia, January 5, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/kw-01052023132119.html

Briefings | | January 11, 2023 | @CS Social Stability

@CS - 21. page

Saudi Arabia Used China’s Laser Weapon to Shoot Down Drones

CCP’s Crimes: How Could the Authorities Match Donor’s Organs to Several People So Quickly?

New Factions among Xi’s Loyalists

“He Who Created the Debt Owes the Debt” – China’s Finance Minister Told Local Governments

Economy: How Will China’s Local Governments Manage Their Debts?

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