Geo-Strategic Trend - 119. page

Epoch Times reported that, in recent years, the CCP in mainland China has strengthened its effort to lure Taiwan college students as part of its united front work. Instead of issuing dinner invitations as they did in the past, they have started to use scholarships or easy admission to colleges in the mainland in order to allow Taiwan college students to adapt to the way of life in the mainland and gradually gain their recognition (and acceptance) of the CCP’s political system. They use three different approaches. One is short-term such as summer camps or tourist visits. The second is done through exchange programs or summer work-study programs. The third is a long term plan which allows the Taiwan college students to study or work in the mainland. Tianjing University is the organizer in one example. It organizes the “Youth Leadership Forum on Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait.” Each year since 2008, it has been inviting Taiwan college students to the mainland for exchange programs with program subsides amounting to tens and thousands of yuan for each student. Another example is that the mainland issued 31 preferential policies to Taiwan in 2017 to lure talent and investment from Taiwan.

The number of Taiwanese students going to the mainland has increased slowly every year. According to statistics, the biggest reason for Taiwanese students to go to the mainland is that it provides a number of scholarships and reduces the economic pressure on students. The ranking of Chinese universities is generally higher than those in Taiwan. In recent years, the mainland has also continuously lowered the threshold for going to the mainland to attend school. However, the enrollment situation in 2019 showed a downward trend. The reason was the effect of the US-China trade war. The Chinese economy has declined, so students are not as optimistic about China’s future prospects.

Source: Epoch Times, November 3, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/11/3/n11630283.htm

Last month, the Moscow based Levada Center, a non-governmental polling and sociological research organization, issued a report about growing anti-immigrant sentiment. According to the report, Russian’s xenophobia has continued to grow for the last three years in a row. Among the interviewees, the percentage that advocates restrictions on migrant laborers has risen to 72 percent this year. That is up from 67 percent in 2018 and 58 percent in 2017.

The relationship between China and Russia is getting closer; the major Russian media, especially the official media, are full of reports praising China. Nevertheless, for the last two years, the Chinese have once again become a main disliked group in Russian society. The report said that the least favored group is the Gypsies, followed by African-American and Central Asian immigrants. The Chinese and the Chechens followed these groups.

Over the past two years, Russia has again experienced negative population growth. The shortage of labor hurts the local economy. A large number of Central Asian immigrants are coming to work in Russia. Compared with the Central Asians, the Russian society has more resistance to accepting Chinese immigrants. The report shows that 39 percent of this year’s respondents advocate restricting Chinese immigrants. That is only one percentage point lower than the number who are against the Gypsies. In contrast, although the relations between Russia and the Ukraine have deteriorated, only 18 percent of the respondents oppose Ukrainian immigrants.

Source: Voice of America, October 22, 2019
https://www.voachinese.com/a/5131547.html

According to a German newspaper, Bild, an MP recently asked the federal government to stop providing low-interest loans to China immediately. He said, “It is pure insanity” for such a practice to continue. It supports China in surpassing Germany in the high-tech field.

The Chinese channel of the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle quoted the Bild article titled, “Blanker Irrsinn (Pure Insanity).” In 2017 alone, Germany’s total development aid to China reached 628 million euros. In addition, since 2013, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW, Credit Institute for Reconstruction) and Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (GED, German Investment Corporation) have provided 630 million euros in low-interest loans for vocational training in China’s machinery manufacturing, chemical, electronics and automotive industries.

Olaf in der Beek, a Member of Parliament at the German Bundestag and head of the Free Democratic Party’s (FDP) Development Committee, said, “If anyone still gives money to China and supports them in surpassing us in the high-tech field, it is pure insanity.” He pointed out, “No one really believes that the offensive campaign under the name ‘Made in China 2025’ is just a coincidence. China wants to surpass Made in Germany, and the German federal government has been using low-interest loans to finance China. This phenomenon must end.”

The article said, “Experts believe the reason that China strongly opposes the revision of its developing country status is that it does not want to give up the benefits of the status it has as a developing country. In fact, China does not need to rely on foreign assistance and China is already one of the world’s largest foreign aid providers.”

Source: Deutsche Welle, October 23, 2019
https://p.dw.com/p/3RmlH

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented in a press conference on a question that CNN asked regarding the recent 39 deaths discovered in a container truck in Britain. The question CNN asked was, “When China just declared major achievements at its 70th anniversary, why are people still fleeing China for the West?” Hua pointed out that the motive for this question itself was very questionable. She said the victims have not yet identified as Chinese citizens and it is a big tragedy regardless which country these people are from. She also said that the Chinese people have never ever had the level of happiness that they have today and from a global angle, the country with serious illegal immigration issues is not China.

Source: Sina, October 25, 2019
https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2019-10-25/doc-iicezzrr4947922.shtml

Objecting to the Chinese Communist Party’s “One China” condition in its  sister city agreement, the government of Prague decided to terminate the sister city relationship with Beijing.

The two cities signed the sister city agreement when Xi Jinping visited the Czech Republic in 2016. The third article of the agreement stated that Prague promised to respect the “one China” policy and acknowledged that “Taiwan is an inseparable territory of China.”

Prague is also the sister city of Taipei.

Prague wanted to annul this “one China” article and contacted Beijing multiple times this year in an attempt to do so, but Beijing never provided any response. Therefore, the city of Prague opted to terminate the relationship.

Beijing did criticize the Prague governor’s trip to Taiwan made last March. Also, early this year, China cancelled the tours to China of four Czech performance troupes, including the Prague Philharmonic, the Pražák Quartet, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Guarneri Trio of Prague.

Source: Oriental Daily, October 7, 2019
https://www.orientaldaily.com.my/news/international/2019/10/07/309504

On October 16th, a new railway was put into operation in Kenya. China built another railway at a cost of US$1.5 billion. The track connected the capital city Nairobi with Naivasha, a small town in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted the opening ceremony of the railway.

The railway is an extension of a rail line built earlier to connect Nairobi and Mombasa, the second-largest city in the country. The Nairobi-Mombasa railway, which cost US$3.2 billion, started operating in 2017. China funded and built that as well.

Kenya’s railway development has been part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative. It includes multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects designed to enhance overland and maritime trade between China and Europe, Asia and Africa.

Kenyatta was re-elected in 2017 for anther five-year term. He pledged to develop infrastructure in Kenya, and railway construction has always been his favorite project. The Kenyan government has been borrowing in order to fund infrastructure projects. The national total public debt is currently about 55 percent of GDP. It was at 42 percent when Kenyatta took office in 2013.

Source: Voice of America, October 16, 2019
https://www.voachinese.com/a/Kenya-Opens-Chinese-Built-Railway-20191016/5126354.html

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered an investigation into the US$1.5 billion light rail project under China’s One Belt One Road initiative. The project was supposed to be completed in 2017. Not only is it still not completed; it is financially dead. The Tokayev administration said that the project “should never even have been established.” Also, it was financially “suspicious.” Tokayev asked for an anti-corruption investigation that would carefully examine the officials in the previous administration. The previous CEO of the light rail company has already fled overseas due to corruption charges. Kazakhstan is the first country on the west side of China to have joined the One Belt One Road initiative. Observers have widely expressed the belief that Tokayev’s public position may damage the image of China’s One Belt One Road grand plan.

Source: LTN, October 8, 2019
https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/2940775