Geo-Strategic Trend – Page 108

Diplomacy: France Called in China Ambassador Because of Chinese Embassy’s Remarks

Radio France International reported that France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called in China’s Ambassador Lv Shaye for publishing articles criticizing France and Western countries for slandering China.

The Foreign Minister said that he expressly disagrees with some of the recent remarks of the People’s Republic of China’s Ambassador to France. He said that some publicly expressed opinions are not in line with the good bilateral relations between France and China. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs said that some comments were related to the containment of the new coronavirus.

On April 12, China’s Embassy in France published an article, “Reverse the facts that had been reversed – the observations on the novel coronavirus epidemic by a Chinese diplomat in France.” The article praised China because it had implemented the most comprehensive, most complete, and most strict measures to contain the coronavirus. It also criticized “certain self-claimed objective media, experts, and politicians in the West who did not contribute ideas to contain the virus in their country or the world, but spent their time on slandering and attacking China.”

The article said, “We see that, in Western countries, politicians attack each other for their votes; (some country) proposed a ‘group immunization’ strategy to leave the public to resist the slaughter of the virus on their own; (some countries) grabbed other’s epidemic prevention materials; (some countries) bought epidemic prevention materials with public money and sold them to private companies for profit; (some countries) let the elderly in nursing homes sign the ‘Consent to Give up Emergency Rescue;’ nursing home staff members collectively fled from their duties without permission, causing many elderly to starve and to die; (one country) fired an aircraft carrier captain for requesting that infected sailors be permitted to land ashore for treatment… But we didn’t see any major Western media reports on them or provide in-depth investigations that reveal the truth. Where is the conscience of these fair and objective media and experts? Where are their professional ethics?”

Epoch Times: Mainland Deployed Liaoning Carrier to Taiwan Strait Region

On April 10, China sent an H-6 jet bomber, KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft and a J-11 jet fighter into the Southwest ocean region of Taiwan and conducted training. On April 11, the China Liaoning Carrier also reached the eastern ocean region outside of Taiwan together with four battleships and one replenishment oiler. On both days, the US RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft was spotted in Bashi Channel south of Taiwan along with the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer passing through the Taiwan Strait in international waters. This marks the 6th time this year that the mainland aircraft came close to Taiwan.

Source: Epoch Times, April 12, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/4/12/n12024504.htm

Briefings | | April 13, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Beijing News: China and EU Decided to Set-up Temporary Appeal Arbitration Arrangement

Beijing News recently reported that, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China and the European Union, along with more than ten other WTO (World Trade Organization) member countries decided to establish a temporary appeal and arbitration arrangement while the official WTO appeal mechanism cannot function. The new arrangement will perform the WTO article 25 process to settle appeal and arbitration cases among participating countries. The dispute settlement mechanism is one of the core functions of the WTO. The official unit stopped functioning after December 11, 2019, due to certain member country blocking the judge selection process. China and other WTO member countries are working hard to notify the WTO of this new arrangement and welcome more countries to join. The participating countries in the temporary arrangement issued a Minister-level joint announcement on March 27, 2020.

Source: Beijing News, March 27, 2020
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/finance/2020/03/27/709985.html

Briefings | | April 1, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Taiwan Liberty Times Net: Taiwan Launched Joint Air Defense Exercise in Response to the Threat the PLA Poses

Taiwan Liberty Times Net reported that, since the beginning of this year, despite the on-going spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus, the PLA has performed night time training activities and even flew across the Taiwan Straits Midline a minimum of five times. In response to the threat, on the morning of March 24, the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense launched the “Lianxiang” joint air defense combat training. The upgraded F-16V fighter was reported to have participated in the training. The “Lianxiang” exercise is normally done quarterly each year however it was performed specifically to target the excessive military actions that the PLA has performed.

Source: Taiwan Liberty Times Net, March 25, 2020
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/paper/1361242

Briefings | | March 31, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

IMF Managing Director Said 20 More Countries Seek Help

Well-known Chinese news Tencent News recently reported based on information provided by Reuters that Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) just revealed that an additional 20 countries have ask for help. She said the IMF is prepared to utilize its full lending power (around US$1 trillion) to support its member countries to combat the coronavirus crisis. She did not list the names of the countries seeking support. However, Iran indicated last week that it did ask the IMF for an emergency loan. Georgieva-Kinova also made it clear that a globally coordinated financial stimulus action is becoming more and more reasonable. She made the comments before attending the G7 teleconference and pointed out that the global action should be on a scale similar to the 2008 global financial crisis. She praised the easing policies that the U.S. Federal Reserve has led.

Source: Tencent News, March 18, 2020
https://new.qq.com/omn/20200318/20200318A096K200.html

Briefings | | March 25, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

World Journal: The U.S. Met Hong Kong Political Representatives from Both Sides

Well-known U.S. Chinese language newspaper World Journal recently reported that a Hong Kong political group attended The US-HK Dialogue that the World Affairs Council, the largest nonprofit organization for international affairs in the United States, had hosted. The group consisted of four representatives from Hong Kong’s pro-mainland parties and three from pro-democracy parties. In California, the group met Johnathan Fritz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacific Affairs, and Hanscom Smith, Consul General representing the United States to Hong Kong and Macau, as well as people from the House Foreign Relations Committee. The event occurred right before the State Department’s annual Hong Kong Report was about to be released. The pro-mainland representatives described the conversations as frank and constructive, while the pro-democracy representatives brought detailed requests on what more the U.S. government should do on sanctioning the current Hong Kong government, especially on the human rights protection side. With the recent passage of the Taipei Act in Washington, it appears the U.S. government has a comprehensive political view on the issue of Hong Kong and Taiwan. It’s not unusual for the pro-democracy activists to visit the United States. However, pro-mainland leaders are not frequent visitors, especially not in groups. This at least made the typical label of “colluding with foreign powers” that Mainland media often gave the HK pro-democracy parties look very weak.

Source: World Journal, March 9, 2020
https://bit.ly/2IOgZlG

Briefings | | March 15, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

RFA: Xi’s One Belt One Road Initiative Faces Major Issues

Radio Free Asia (RFA) Chinese Edition recently reported that, the symbolic China-Pakistan Corridor, which is a key piece of the One Belt One Road initiative, is now facing serious challenges. The problems lie in the Port Gwadar Project, which is a US$62 billion undertaking. Gwadar is the ending point of the China-Pakistan Corridor, which is located in Southwest Pakistan. The project planned to construct the port facilities, roads, railways, oil pipes, tens of factories and Pakistan’s largest airport. However, seven years after the project’s initiation, the airport construction hasn’t even started and the investment money has been late for three years and still counting. The industrial park south of the airport shows no sign of starting. The port now has only three berths and the only visitor to the port was the Pakistan Navy. The planned weekly cargo ships from Karachi are nowhere to be seen. Some experts think that the true objective of building the port was to establish a Chinese naval base named Jiwani. According to public records, the main challenge to the China-Pakistan Corridor is money. So far, the initiative has only completed less than one third of the project, costing US$19 billion. Pakistan has not been able to continue the construction work due to lacking further funding.

Source: RFA Chinese, March 4, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/pakistan-belt-03042020052407.html

Briefings | | March 10, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

LTN: China Responded to Bernie Sander’s Military Protection Promise on Taiwan

Well-known Taiwanese Newspaper Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that U.S. Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders claimed that he would take military action to protect Taiwan if Mainland China took Taiwan by force. Sanders stated this position of his in a CBS 60 Minutes interview. He said he will “absolutely” take military action and he wanted to make this position clear to the world. The new spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, responded in a press conference. Zhao said that the Chinese government noticed Sander’s comments; however, Taiwan issues are Chinese domestic matters and foreign countries have no right to intervene. Zhao would like to urge American politicians to remain careful on this matter and avoid destroying regional stability. Zhao is new to the spokesperson position. He served in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 24 years and worked at the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. and in Pakistan.

Source: LTN, February 24, 2020
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/3078700

Briefings | | March 3, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

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