Geo-Strategic Trend - 129. page

On the evening of February 25th, at Warner Theatre in Washington DC, the American Troupe of “Festival of Spring” completed the final performance of its global tour. China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater, a subsidiary of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, put together the show of “Festival of Spring.” The presenters included the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. The former is also an office under the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department; the latter is a liaison organization between the CCP and the overseas Chinese community.

For the season of 2019, six troupes of the “Festival of Spring” program were reported to have travelled to 29 cities in 16 countries with 33 shows, including Medan (of Indonesia), Barcelona, New York, Nairobi, Suva (of Fiji), Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

According to People’s Daily, since 2009, the program of “Festival of Spring” has toured overseas every year during Chinese New Year holiday season. So far, it has dispatched 75 arts groups and done 450 performances in 331 cities across five continents, with nearly 7 million theater or public square audience members.

Tang Cuiying, head of the American Troupe of “Festival of Spring” and a board member of the China Overseas Friendship Association, a CCP led United Front Work organization, stated, “The overseas performances are to bring the blessings and greetings from the homeland to the overseas Chinese, so that they can enjoy the melodies and love from the homeland in an atmosphere of reunion and happiness.” Tang is also an official at the Bureau of Overseas Chinese Affairs under the CCP’s United Front Work Department.

Source: People’s Daily, March 1, 2019
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2019-03/01/nw.D110000renmrb_20190301_2-20.htm

Canada’s Education Minister in the New Brunswick government, Dominic Cardy, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), that he is planning to terminate the Confucius Institute in New Brunswick by June out of concern that teachers only teach what the Chinese Communist Party approves and the Institute presents a “one-dimensional” view of China. Cardy already sent the Confucius Institute a letter of intent to discontinue the program.

Cardy says he’s recently received five complaints from students who attended the Confucius Institute programs. Each told of topics in Chinese history that were off-limits to discussion, such as Taiwan’s recognition and Tibet. Cardy explained, “Their job is to create a friendly, cheerful, face for a government that is responsible for more deaths than nearly any other in the history of our species.”

New Brunswick is not the first case to remove the institute. In 2014 the Toronto District School Board voted to remove the institute from their schools following protests. McMaster University and the University of Manitoba have also removed the Confucius Institute from their campuses over freedom of education concerns.

Source: Radio Free Asia, February 27, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/lf-02272019093950.html

Major Taiwanese newspaper China Times recently reported that the world has been focusing on China’s eye-catching, ambitious, One Belt One Road. However, beyond that grand plan, China has been pushing the Digital Silk Road in Southeast Asia. This effort can not only bring more potential business opportunities, but also grab strategic controls, such as international data streams. Without direct national support on both the policy end and the financial end, the Digital Silk Road is relatively “low key,” compared to the One Belt One Road program. However it is pushed by major Chinese technology heavyweights like Huawei, ZTE, Alibaba, and Tencent. All of these vendors have strong government backing. The Chinese technology firms have already unseated earlier leaders in the region such as Samsung, on online critical market segments like e-commerce, car sharing, mobile devices, and financial services. The Chinese reach in Southeast Asia also got heavily into the infrastructure level, including telecommunication and submarine fiber cables. A large amount of strategic information, such as government and financial communications, is flowing through physical channels implemented by Chinese providers. The “China Model” in the digital world is getting more and more popular among regional dictatorships.

Source: China Times, February 21, 2019
https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20190221003711-260408

On February 22, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Xi thanked Bin Salman for promoting the development of bilateral relations. Bin Salman praised the numerous remarkable achievements resulting from Chinese and Saudi cooperation. He expressed that one day would not enough for him to name them.

The Crown Prince launched the visit to Asian countries after the Khashoggi incident. Agence France-Presse quoted Najah al-Otaibi, a senior analyst at the pro-Saudi think-tank Arabia Foundation, “Riyadh wants to strengthen alliances in Asia — especially now — with the continuing fallout with the United States over Khashoggi’s murder as well as other issues and attempts by the EU to put Riyadh on a black list over money laundering allegations.”

Saudi Arabia had signed an agreement to form a $10 billion Saudi-Chinese joint venture to develop a refining and petrochemical complex in northeastern Liaoning province. Saudi also announced the signing of 35 non-binding memorandums of understanding, including deals related to energy, mining, transportation, and e-commerce. China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner.

Source: Radio France International, February 22, 2019
http://rfi.my/3huK.T

In his annual state of the nation address on Wednesday, February 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia must guard against the possibility of Western countries blocking Russia from the global Internet, and that (therefore) it is necessary for Russia to create its own cyberspace.

Putin endorsed legislation now working its way through parliament that would authorize the state to control the exchange points that connect Russia’s Internet resources to those of the outside world. On February 12, the State Duma adopted the first reading of this “Internet-isolation” bill.

Once the bill is finally approved, the legislation will require the local Internet, known as the RUnet, to pass through exchange points managed by Russia’s telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor. Once in force, the system will protect Russia in the event of a cyberwar while also filtering Internet traffic to the country.

Russian media reported on February 11 that a test, which will cut off all data routes connecting Russia to outside cyberspace, will occur before April 1, though a firm date has yet to be set.

Source: The Paper, February 21, 2019
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3018136

Chinese authorities have drawn global attentions for building re-education camps in Xinjiang. Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights, a Kazakh civil organization, has volunteered to disclose the inside stories about the Xinjiang Re-education camps and to assist the Kazakh, Uighur, and Kirgiz people in Xinjiang in finding missing or imprisoned relatives and friends. Recently, a pro-Beijing local Chinese group in Kazakhstan filed a lawsuit against Atajurt, charging the organization and its founder Serikzhan Bilash with “destroying the friendship between China and Kazakhstan.” It asked the court to declare Atajurt an illegal organization.

According to Radio Free Asia, Atajurt obtained a plethora of information regarding the Chinese government’s ethnic policies and practices in Xinjiang, including burning The Koran, demolishing mosques, prohibiting ethnic minorities from holding traditional weddings or funerals, and even sentencing Imams or causing Imams to die in prison. This information has drawn attention from the United States, the United Nations, and the European Union.

It has been said that the 37-member “patriotic overseas Chinese” group has close ties with the Chinese Embassy. According to Serikzhan, these people have participated in a number of social events that the Chinese Embassy organized in Kazakhstan, such as the annual “National Day” dinner, and they also attended the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (held in Beijing). He said that, “Their purpose is to stop us from organizing activities and stop us from continuing to collect information and evidence about the Xinjiang ‘re-education’ concentration camps.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, February 13, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shaoshuminzu/ql1-02132019094914.html