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The CCP Conducted More Interference in Canada’s Election Than any Other Country

According to the Canadian media, the Global News’ report on November 7, Canadian intelligence officials warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that China has allegedly interfered in Canada’s elections, including funding a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reported that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) efforts in interfering in Canada’s election included payments through intermediaries to candidates affiliated with the CCP, placing their agents into the offices of Members of Parliament (MPs) in order to influence policy, seeking to co-opt and corrupt former Canadian officials, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the CCP views as threats to its interests.

The intelligence report asserts that China conducts more foreign interference than any other nation.

In 2019, China’s Consulate in Toronto directed a large clandestine transfer of funds to a network of at least eleven federal election candidates and to numerous Beijing operatives who worked as the candidate’s campaign staffers. The funds were allegedly transferred through an Ontario provincial MPP and a federal election candidate staffer. Separate sources who are aware of the situation said a CCP proxy group, acting as an intermediary, transferred around $250,000 to these candidates and staffers.

Some, but not all, members of that alleged network were willing affiliates of the CCP.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on the same day, apparently in response to the Global News’ report, that China and other countries are finding ways to interfere with the Canadian democratic system. The Canadian government has taken strong measures to prevent this. The government established a special committee of senior officials to handle foreign interference during the two federal elections in 2019 and 2022.

Sources:
1. Global News, November 7, 2022

Canadian intelligence warned PM Trudeau that China covertly funded 2019 election candidates: Sources


2. Radio Canada, November 8, 2022
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/zh-hans/新闻/1931263/中国-干涉-资助-加拿大候选人-政府措施

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

After the Confucius Institute, the CCP Switched to Promoting the Lu Ban Workshop

The Chinese Communist Party has been promoting the “Lu Ban Workshop (鲁班工坊)” in countries along the path of its Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).

Launched by the Tianjin Municipal Government, the Lu Ban Workshops are named after Lu Ban, a famous Chinese craftsman. They provide vocational education, from mechatronics to applied electronics, and from automation to robotics, to residents of hosting countries, with a focus on local needs.

Xi Jinping has personally promoted the Lu Ban Workshop on several occasions, including at his meetings with presidents from the target countries.

The first workshop was established in Thailand in 2016. There are now 25 Lu Ban Workshops in 19 countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Portugal, and in Central Asian countries.

The Lu Ban Workshop has essentially the same export model as the Confucius Institute: Chinese vocational and technical schools seek local partners in targeted countries and offer courses in those local schools to teach skills related to Chinese standards.

There has been growing concern over the Confucius Institutes as they promote the CCP ideology and impose CCP policy at the local partner school. In the past few years, there has been a wave of interest in closing Confucius Institutes and 104 of the 118 Confucius Institutes at U.S. universities have been closed.

Source: VOA, November 6, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/luban-workshop-china-2022-11-06/6821047.html

 

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Newcastle Ends Sister-City Relationship with Chinese City

Newcastle will end its long-standing twin city relationship with Taiyuan, the capital of China’s Shanxi Province, due to allegations that the government has mistreated Uyghurs.

China has been accused of detaining over one million Uyghur Muslims in what has been called “re-education” camps.

Lib Dem Wendy Taylor, who proposed the motion that was passed unanimously on Wednesday, felt that, given the allegations of “horrific abuses,” Newcastle could not have ties with China.

Since 1985, there has been a partnership with the industrial city of Taiyuan, and delegations have frequently visited Taiyuanside. Regarding the Uyghur people, Ms. Taylor stated, “There is talk of rape, forced sterilization, and even organ harvesting.”

As of 2022, In addition to Newcastle,  Taiyuan has a sister city relationships with 12 international cities, including Nashville in the United States .

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 4, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/8-11042022154745.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Hong Kong’s Third Quarter GDP Continued to Decline

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Government just released the advance estimate of GDP for the third quarter of 2022. Compared with the same period last year, the real decline was 4.5 percent, while the decline in the second quarter was 1.3 percent. The Hong Kong government spokesman said that the decline in GDP was mainly due to the weak performance of external demand during the third quarter. For a year-over-year comparison, the total value of exports of goods recorded a real decline of 15.5 percent, which was worse than the 8.4 percent decline in the second quarter. Imports of goods fell by 16 percent in real terms in the third quarter after a 5.9 percent drop in the second quarter of this year. The seasonally adjusted GDP for consecutive quarters fell by 2.6 percent in real terms in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. The deterioration of the external environment and the continued obstruction of cross-border land freight traffic have dealt a serious blow to Hong Kong’s exports. Significant interest rate hikes by major central banks tightened financial conditions and weighed heavily on local demand. Looking ahead, the government spokesman said that a marked deterioration in the external environment will continue to put significant pressure on Hong Kong’s export performance for the rest of the year. Geopolitical tensions and the Covid development will also increase downside risks.

Source: Sina, October 31, 2022
https://finance.sina.com.cn/china/dfjj/2022-10-31/doc-imqqsmrp4424943.shtml

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

Berlin May Give Green Light to a Chinese Takeover of German Chip Factory, Ignoring Opposition from Intelligence

On Thursday October 27, the German newspaper Handelsblatt cited government sources that the German Economy Ministry is reviewing a deal that a China-controlled company proposed for German chipmaker Elmos.

Last December, Elmos, headquartered in Dortmund, agreed to sell its production line to Swedish chipmaker Silex, a wholly owned subsidiary of China’s Sai Microelectronics Group. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country’s chief domestic intelligence agency, gave advanced warning to the government and advised against the deal because China’s mastery of the key technology would enable it to put pressure on Germany. Handelsblatt revealed that the German federal government neglected the advice and was ready to approve the deal.

Aniessa Andresen, Chairperson of the Hong Konger in Germany, told Radio Free Asia that Germany continues to sell its own infrastructure projects and key technological companies to China, even though it has realized that it cannot rely on China. It is puzzling and worrying that the chip deal is still going forward even after warnings from German intelligence agencies. Andresen called on Germany not to become a pawn of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who resisted the acquisition of the Hamburg port terminal by the Chinese state-owned COSCO Group, did not take the same tough stance in the chip deal, giving the reason that “Elmos” technology was “obsolete” and of little value, and that the Chinese could not acquire the needed technology to drive its development.

Taiwanese political researcher Li Youtan pointed out that the “Elmos” incident is similar to China’s acquisition last year of the UK’s chip plant Newport Wafer Fab through the Dutch firm Nexperia, which is controlled by China’s Wintel Technology Corporation. Li believes that the CCP showed its ambition to dominate the world after the 20th National Congress, but is thwarted by its lack of chip technology. If Germany allows the Elmos deal to go through, it will become a weak link in the democratic world.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to China and become the first EU leader to meet Xi Jinping since the 20th CCP Congress. This comes after he drew criticism for backing Chinese state-owned COSCO’s stake in the Port of Hamburg amid a boycott by six federal cabinet ministers.

Source: Radio Free Asia, October 28, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/de-acquisition-10282022112232.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Is Building Its Influence In Central Asia

The French newspaper Le Monde published an article on how China is building up its influence in Central Asia. Russia used to provide military security guarantees to the countries there that were former republics of the USSR. However, as Russia is trapped and weakened in the Ukraine war, it has started losing its grip in Central Asia. Recently confrontations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan demonstrated that Russia is not very effective as the police there.

On the other hand, China’s influence is growing. Beijing is the dominant economic power in that region. Its involvement in the past related more to grabbing local natural resources, such as Kazakhstan’s uranium and oil and Turkmenistan’s natural gas. It has also built up its influence through the Belt and Road Initiative. Now, Beijing is expanding to the security field. It supports these countries to be more independent and to have less control from Russia.

Source: Radio France International, October 20, 2022
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/专栏检索/法国世界报/20221020-趁俄罗斯受到削弱，中国正在中亚布网络，准备伏击

 

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

SK Hynix Considers Abandoning Fab Factories in China

Chinese online high-tech news site ICS Smart recently reported that major South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix just reported its poor third-quarter results. To make matters worse, SK Hynix has doubts about the future fate of its fab factories in China due to new US export control regulations. The company explained that, due to the deteriorating global macroeconomic environment, sluggish demand for DRAM and NAND products, sales and prices have declined, resulting in a sharp decline (-20.5 percent) in revenue month-over-month. Also, on October 7 this year, the United States issued new export control regulations against China, restricting wafer manufacturers located in China from obtaining multiple advanced chip technologies, unless licensed by the U.S. Department of Commerce. This impacts the fab factories of Korean companies such as SK Hynix and Samsung in China. Although on October 11, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both obtained a license from the US Department of Commerce for an additional year, yet after that, what will happen? SK Hynixs’ chief marketing officer Kevin Noh said on a conference call that, as a contingency plan, the company is considering selling fab factories, selling equipment, or moving equipment to Korea. Records show that, as of 2020, SK Hynix had invested more than US$20 billion in China. Under the new U.S. regulations, the operation of SK Hynix in China will be subject to many restrictions.

Source: ICS Smart, October 26, 2022
http://www.icsmart.cn/57115/

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

CNA: U.S. and Singapore Held Strategic Dialogue again after Six Years

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that the United States and Singapore just held a Strategic Partnership Dialogue in Washington to discuss a number of bilateral and regional issues. The joint statement of the two sides after the meeting included the issue of the Taiwan Strait for the first time. The United States reiterated that the differences in the Taiwan Strait must be resolved peacefully and Singapore emphasized the importance  of stabilizing the relationship between the United States and China. The dialogue touched on a number of issues related to bilateral cooperation, including economics and trade, defense, security, and more. The two parties also discussed many regional issues, including tensions in the Taiwan Strait, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the situation in Myanmar. The U.S. emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, called for the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences, and expressed its opposition to any unilateral changes to the status quo. Singapore stated that stable U.S.-China relations are critical to regional and global peace, stability and prosperity and that the U.S. and China should maintain open channels of communication to reduce the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation. The first U.S.-Singapore Strategic Partnership Dialogue was held in 2012. It was held for three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016. It was suspended for many years and was not resumed until this year. This is the first time that the two sides have made a joint statement after the strategic dialogue on the Taiwan Strait issue. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited Washington in March for bilateral talks with U.S. President Joe Biden. The joint statement issued by the two sides at that time only emphasized the importance of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and encouraged the peaceful settlement of disputes, without mentioning Taiwan or the Taiwan Strait.

Source: CNA, October 26, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/202210260040.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend