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Geo-Strategic Trend - 138. page

Sinchew: Most of the Contractors of “The Belt and Road Initiative” Are Chinese

Major Singapore newspaper Sinchew recently reported that, based on a U.S. think tank study, China’s grand “The Belt and Road Initiative” which pushes infrastructure work across Eurasia has largely contracted out work to Chinese bidders. Among the 34 current projects in Europe and Asia, around 89 percent have been contracted to Chinese construction companies and only 11 percent have been given to contractors from other countries. This dramatic difference made the lofty tone of the Belt and Road Initiative look questionable, especially when China is counting on the Plan to win friends in over 70 countries. International analysts have expressed their concern about this China-centric approach, since more and more countries are rethinking their support for the grand Chinese Plan. Compared to the Chinese way of favoring its own contractors, contracts that the West has funded, typically under the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are more neutral toward the bidders and the grants have been more diversified. The study showed that 41 percent of these grants were given to local contractors, 29 percent went to Chinese contractors, and 30 percent went to a bidder from a third country.

Source: Sinchew, January 25, 2018
http://bit.ly/2rJLUtN

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

South Korean Duty-Free Stores Saw Record High Sales

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that South Korean duty-free stores experienced a major loss of customers last year due to the conflict with China on the issue of deploying the U.S. THAAD missile defense system. For example, in the month of November, Chinese visitors to South Korea declined by 42.1 percent. Chinese visitors were the primary buyers at duty-free stores; the headcount reduction caused major concerns earlier last year. However, last November’s nearly US$1 billion in duty-free sales set a historic high for November. This became a typical situation in almost all months last year and duty-free stores achieved their best sales records when having the lowest number of Chinese visitors. Analysts found that the high sales volume were supported by the Chinese proxy shopping channels, which allowed Korea-based agents to make purchases for their Chinese buyers when paid a small fee. The duty-free stores saw a significant increase in sales through these channels.

Source: Sina, January 13, 2018
http://k.sina.com.cn/article_5895814239_15f6afc5f001002glv.html?cre=newspagepc&mod=f&loc=2&r=9&doct=0&rfunc=100

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Bangladesh Government Terminates Contract with CHEC and Adds CHEC to Its Black List

VOA reported that, according to The Daily Star of Bangladesh, the Finance Minister of Bangladesh told the reporter that Bangladesh has canceled the Dhaka-Sylhet road expansion project that was awarded to the China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC). CHEC has been added to the Bangladesh blacklist for alleged bribery of a Bangladesh official and is forbidden from participating in any future projects in Bangladesh. CHEC is a subsidiary of the China Communications Construction Company Ltd. (CCCC) and is a star company in China’s “one belt one road” project. A news article from the Indian media The Print stated that there was also a dispute about the total amount of the project where CHEC proposed a cost that was twice the amount that the Bangladesh Highway Department estimated. The Dhaka-Sylhet road project is one of the US$2.1 trillion investment projects that Xi Jinping signed with Bangladesh when he visited in October 2016.

According to The Daily Star, this is not the first time that CHEC attempted to bribe Bangladesh officials. The CHEC’s last attempt at bribery cost the sons of two Bangladesh senior officials a sentence to six years in jail. China is the largest country to provide foreign aid to Bangladesh. Currently it has several other projects including a highway, an Industry Park, and a harbor expansion going on in Bangladesh. The Daily Star reported that the termination of CHEC contract does not affect these projects.

Source: Voice of America, January 19, 2018
https://www.voachinese.com/a/bangladesh-blacklists-20180119/4215741.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Global Times: The U.S. House Just Passed a Bill to Destroy Taiwan

Global Times recently published a commentary right after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Taiwan Travel Act. The Act encourages exchange visits between the United States and Taiwan on “all levels.” If this Act were to be signed into law, it would signal a fundamental change in U.S. Taiwan policies. It would allow high ranking Taiwanese government officials, such as the President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Defense to visit the United States. The current law in effect, the Taiwan Relations Act, has governed the flexible relationship between the States and Taiwan for decades. It does ban the high-level exchange visits of government officials. Although the Senate has not yet passed the Taiwan Travel Act, the fact that it was even discussed in the House used to be flat out unimaginable. A lot of “power players” in the U.S. wish they could reactivate the Taiwan issue to gamble with China. However, the time for the U.S. to dominate Taiwan Strait affairs has long ended. The new law could lead to a broken balance that would force China to take actions big enough to cause the same level of damage to the U.S. In fact, a potential military move could destroy Taiwan.

Source: Global Times, January 10, 2018
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2018-01/11512000.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

LTN: Putin Ordered a Ban on Importing Chinese Train Cabins

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a train cabin manufacturer on January 10. Putin revealed during the visit that he had ordered the Russian Ministry of Transportation to ban the import of China-made train cabins. He also asked the Russian government to budget for purchasing Russian made cabins in order to protect domestic manufacturing and to facilitate the process of exporting Russian train cabins. The Russian federal authorities sponsored a study on train accidents that occurred in the past several years and found a critical part made in China caused most of the accidents. Since last May, the federal government banned the import of some Chinese parts that easily broke due to violation of required manufacturing procedures. In the latest move, Russia has banned the import of all train cabins made in China.

Source: LTN, January 11, 2018
http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/2309558

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: How North Korean Media Reported the Recent Inter-Korean Talks

Xinhua recently published a report focusing on China’s observation of how the North Korean media reported the globally watched Inter-Korean Talks on the Winter Olympics. Starting January 3, almost the entire world media, especially in South Korea, began covering the Inter-Korean Talks. Although the talks started on January 9, there was no mention of the event across the North Korean media, even after hours into the talks. Typically, major North Korean media such as the central television has 5:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. time slots for critical news. For major events such as nuclear tests, there would be a 3:00 p.m. breaking news report. However, there was no report or any direct mention of the talks. Instead, since the beginning of the new year, the North Korean media circulated blanket-coverage of Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s Greetings Speech. Xinhua published the photos of the January 9 front pages of all major North Korean newspapers and none showed any report of the Inter-Korean Talks.

Source: Xinhua, January 9, 2018
http://news.sina.com.cn/w/zx/2018-01-09/doc-ifyqkarr8123361.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

British Research Showed a Large Number of ISIS Weapons Originated in China

Duowei, a Beijing controlled Chinese media based overseas, recently reported on three years of British research into the sources of ISIS weapons. The research found that around 90 percent of ISIS weapons came from either China or other former communist countries (including Russia). Among all of the weapons that ISIS has, 43.5 percent were made in China. Romania made around 12.1 percent, Russia made 9.6 percent and Hungary made 7.2 percent. ISIS used to claim their weapons were mostly looted goods originally made in the United States. Now it appears that was a lie and only less than two percent were U.S.-made weapons. The British research was based on over 40,000 pieces of weaponry collected from ISIS over the past four years. Its report concluded that China has played a dominant role among the sources where ISIS weapons were made.

Source: Duowei, January 3, 2018
http://news.dwnews.com/global/news/2018-01-03/60033306.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

Sri Lanka Leased Its Territory to China

The Sri Lanka government leased its strategic port Hambantota on the Indian Ocean to China for 99 years as it was stressed because of the financial loans that China provided.

China has been providing financial loans to many countries in South Asia, Central Asia, and Africa, especially under its “One Belt, One Road” initiative. Sri Lanka owed Chinese State-Owned Enterprises a total debt of US$8 billion and was unable to pay the money back. Therefore, it resorted to leasing out its land in repayment of its debt.

Source: Duowei, December 14, 2017
http://news.dwnews.com/global/big5/news/2017-12-14/60029716.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend