Geo-Strategic Trend - 105. page

On Monday June 22, the Federal Communications Commission said it rejected the request of a radio station in Mexico to continue broadcasting Mandarin Chinese language programs to southern California and ordered it to cease operations within 48 hours. The statement reads, “The application was dismissed because the parties failed to include in their application a key participant, Phoenix Radio, which produces the Mandarin programming in its studio. Phoenix Radio is partially owned by two entities with Chinese government ownership, Extra Steps Investment Limited and China Wise International Limited. The parties have 48 hours to cease broadcast operations related to this application.”

After the rejection, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued a statement applauding the FCC’s decision. “Today’s decision sends an important message to the world that the U.S. will not allow China to exploit FCC loopholes and spread its propaganda over our airwaves. More importantly, this decision is a critical step in countering the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to control what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think.”

Source: VOA, June 22, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/fcc-dismisses-application-to-deliver-chinese-programs-across-border-20200622/5473019.html

People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reported on June 19, that the CCP and the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) organized an opening session of the video seminar series on the governance of the party and the country. Song Tao, head of the CCP’s Department of External Relations, and Wu Yingjie, head of CCP Committee of Tibet, participated and gave speeches. Speakers also included Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda, head of the CPN and the former Prime Minister of Nepal, Ishwar Pokhrel, a current Secretariat member of the CPN and Nepal’s Minister of Defense. Other attendees included over 100 people from the CPN central committee, heads of the Nepal government agencies and the CPN committees of seven Nepal provinces.

Song Tao said that China and Nepal are “good neighbors, friends, and partners for generations.” Last year, CCP head Xi Jinping visited Nepal and reached an “important consensus” on strengthening exchanges of political experiences between the two parties. The joint seminar was supposed to implement the “important consensus,” to deepen mutual trust, and to promote high-quality cooperation in the areas of the “Belt and Road” project.

In return, Prachanda and Pokhrel “spoke highly of the great achievements of the CCP for leading the Chinese people in epidemic prevention and control, as well as economic and social development.”

Source: People’s Daily, June 20, 2020
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2020-06/20/nw.D110000renmrb_20200620_4-02.htm

The Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) recently issued guidelines to primary and secondary schools that require raising China’s national flag and letting it flow and playing the national anthem on three holidays: New Year’s Day, the HKSAR’s Establishment Day on July 1, and Chinese National Day on October 1.

A Hong Kong radio station reported that the education bureau also announced that it will implement “national anthem” education in the music classes from the first grade of elementary school to the third grade of junior high school.

In particular, the education bureau also pointed out that if students exhibit “abnormal behavior” while singing the national anthem, the school should handle it through counseling and if the situation is serious and involves illegal behavior that cannot be handled by the school, it may consider seeking police assistance.

Source: Central News Agency, June 18, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202006180398.aspx

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the European Union is considering further tightening up foreign investment policies. It is aiming at the Chinese government’s subsidies to Chinese companies’ international acquisitions. The EU is preparing investigations into the conduct of the Chinese investors. This new plan is supplemental to the EU’s foreign investment review mechanism passed in April. Another important driver behind this new action is to address the wary when some EU companies become the target of acquisitions in the current coronavirus environment. The European Commission has informed the member countries about this intent to establish a new legal tool, designed to ensure a fair competitive environment. The EU April Foreign Investment Review Policy already allowed member country governments to step in to foreign acquisitions on strategic assets. The new rule will focus on subsidies.

Source: Sina, June 6, 2020
https://bit.ly/3e0vLUw

According to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) mouthpiece newspaper People’s Daily, on June 9, the CCP’s International Liaison Department held a video conference with leaders of Communist Parties in Latin American. The paper reported that the meeting discussed issues such as adhering to the mission of Communists, cooperation in battling the epidemic, and opposition to using the epidemic to stigmatize the party. Attendees included communist leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Song Tao, head of the International Liaison Department promised continued assistance to those countries. In return, “The Latin Communist leaders spoke highly of the CCP’s leadership in the fight against the epidemic and thanked the CCP for its assistance through inter-party channels. They also condemned individual countries’ attempts to politicize the epidemic and stigmatize China. In addition, they affirmed their support for the ‘one China’ and ‘one country, two systems’ principles, and opposed any external forces that interfered in China’s internal affairs.”

Source: People’s Daily, June 10, 2020
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2020-06/10/nw.D110000renmrb_20200610_8-03.htm

Following his failed bid, early in January, to be the President of Taiwan, Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) was voted out of office as the mayor of Kaohsiung city in Taiwan. The vote to recall him was held on Saturday June 6. He thus became the first Taiwanese elected official ever to be removed in a recall election. The voter turnout was 42.14 percent with over 939,090 voting Yea and 25,051 voting Nay. The number of Yea votes not only exceeded the minimum votes required, which was 574,996, but also surpassed the 890,000 votes that Han gained when he was voted into the position of mayor back in November 2018. On June 6, the news topped the search results on the Internet in the mainland. Mainland media including Phoenix, Sina, Global Times, CCTV, and The Paper broadcasted the breaking news. People started to post online comments such as, “This is the fate of two-faced person.” “It turns out that this is a democratic society. Our system is different. Although we have not experienced the election of our local leaders, after this time, we now realize what democracy is! The people can vote you in and vote you out!” “I am jealous! This is the advantage of having a vote. When an official does not rule for the people, he can be directly kicked out.”

Six months after Han became the mayor of Kaohsiung in 2018, he announced his bid to run in the presidential election. Han was criticized because he failed the people who had given him a chance to pull down the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan and because he advanced the mainland’s interest in Taiwan. Just as Zhang Boyang, deputy director of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party explained, “This is not just the people of Kaohsiung expressing their voices to politicians; it is also the people of Kaohsiung once again saying no to the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping.”

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, June 6, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/6/6/n12167052.htm
2. Radio Free Asia, June 6, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/gangtai/hcm-06062020124206.html

On June 4, 2020, Hao Haidong, a former Chinese soccer star and the nation’s top goalscorer, uploaded a video in which he and his wife announced a statement from the “New Federal State of China,” a movement that Guo Wengui sponsored, and which Steve Bannon (former executive chairman of Breitbart News) backed. In the video, Hao openly denounced the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and called for the removal of the regime. He said in the video, “Football in China is a reflection of the country … It’s not the players that make it worse, it’s the bureaucrats that damage the whole business by ignoring the rules.” Hao’s wife, Ye Zhaoying, is a former world badminton champion. Immediately after Hao’s action, the couple’s Chinese social media accounts were deleted, as well as their online profiles on major portals in China.

Guo Wengui, a wealthy businessman in exile (now living in the United States) is the leader of the “New Federal State of China.” He told the audience in a live broadcast on June 6 that Hao Runze, son of Hao Haidong, who was playing in a Serbian soccer league, was fired.

The retaliatory move does not come as a surprise. Tang Jingyuan, an anchor on New Tang Dynasty TV, a New York based Chinese language network, tweeted: “Serbia is highly pro-communist. Its president kissed the five-star flag (China’ national flag) in public when he welcomed the CCP’s medical team in March this year. The dismissal of Hao Runze was only a reciprocal gift from Serbia.”

Public sources show Hao Runze, 23 years old, is a professional soccer player.  At the age of 16, he scored his first professional goal after joining the Spanish League. Hao joined the Serbian Radnicki Nis club in February this year. One day before Hao Haidong’s declaration, Hao Runze scored a goal in the Serbian SuperLiga, the Serbian professional league for soccer clubs.

Coincidental or not, People’s Daily, the CCP’s mouthpiece newspaper, published a translated article from a researcher from the University of Belgrade, praising the CCP and its close relationship with Serbia. It also mentioned a few “Belt and Road” projects in Serbia: the Mihajlo Pupin Bridge which the China Road and Bridge Corporation had undertaken, the Kostolac Power Plant, which China Exim Bank had financed, and the E-763 highway, that the Shandong Hi-speed Group had built.

Source: Epoch Times, June 7, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/6/7/n12168584.htm