Geo-Strategic Trend - 47. page

According to Financial Times, in the past few months, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested foreign diplomat’s  missions in Hong Kong to submit their real estate information, including floor plans. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also wants to collect and review their leases and/or sales contracts.

Diplomats from these foreign countries are concerned that the CCP’s request will jeopardize the security of their buildings and their properties.

Source: Radio France International, October 4, 2022
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/港澳台/20221004-中国据报要求驻港外交使团提供所有房产资料

Cambodia’s first expressway was opened to public use on China’s National Day and is free for one month. As a benchmark project of China’s “Belt & Road Initiative,” the 187-kilometer highway connecting the capital city of Phnom Penh and the southwest port of Preah Sihanouk cost $2 billion, and will reduce the driving time between the two cities from 5 hours to 2 hours. The project is a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract project, with a 50-year license and toll system.

Cambodia’s Khmer Times newspaper reported that South Korea’s Green Eco Energy once bid $536 million to build the project in November 2015, with a 35-year contracting period. In the same year, China’s Henan provincial government submitted a quote of $1.6 billion at the time of signing the MOU. It is not uncommon that Chinese companies often overbid infrastructure projects so that involved officials can take kickbacks.

According to the local Cambodian news network, at the end of October 2021, the Cambodian government forcibly demolished a number of residential buildings during land acquisition for the project, sparking outrage online.

The China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the state conglomerate that undertook the construction of the Phnom Penh-Sihanouk Expressway, signed a contract with the Cambodian government in September to conduct a study and is set to start construction of the country’s second expressway in the middle of next year, It will link Phnom Penh to the Vietnamese border at Bavet City, and will have a length of more than 100 kilometers.

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 28, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/fy-09282022130759.html

During his visit to Africa, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the United States is financing a massive underwater fiber optic cable that will connect Africa to the rest of the world and provide fast communications between Africa and the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe. This will be one of the first projects under the framework of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), a project reportedly launched during the Biden administration with G7 leaders to counter China’s transcontinental “Belt & Road” initiative.

It is no coincidence that the American project is seen as a response to China’s Pakistan and East Africa Connect in Europe (PEACE) cable project. The cable will run from Pakistan to East Africa and then into Western Europe. In the second phase, the fast communication cable will reach South Africa and Singapore.

China has financed the construction of a sizeable communications technology infrastructure throughout Africa. These network technology and communication projects have put China in a dominant position in Africa. Huawei has completed or is building digital processing centers and has built cloud services in many African countries, including Zimbabwe, Senegal, Zambia, Togo, Tanzania, Mozambique, Mali and Madagascar.

Source: Sputnik News, August 2022
https://sputniknews.cn/20220820/1043236644.html

According to the Mexico News newspaper, China’s investment in Mexico has continued to grow, while Chinese companies engaged in exporting to the United States are also showing interest in Mexico. Last year, China invested a record of almost $500 million in Mexico, compared to less than $300 million in 2020 and less than $200 million in 2019. Within two years, “Hofusan Industrial Park,” the first industrial park built by the Chinese in North America, expects to have 35 companies from China. In a recent report, Bloomberg noted that the industrial park has become a haven for China to bypass U.S. tariffs and restart supply chains in the wake of the epidemic. In this way, it takes advantage of the tax exemptions between Mexico and the United States under the framework of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Victor Jeifets, a professor at St. Petersburg State University, told Sputnik News: “The Americans have leverage on Mexico, which is very interested in the U.S. market. At the moment, with the growth of Chinese companies’ influence there, the United States will not go down the road of intensifying conflict with Mexico. The United States needs allies when dealing with China-related issues, and will not take the risk of forcing Mexico to make a choice. Therefore, if the cooperation between China and Mexico does not undermine the USMCA, the United States will not set up obstacles.”

According to Mexican media reports, some new Sino-Mexican cooperation projects have been announced. They include a $1 billion investment over four years by Chinese solar panel maker Solarever Group in a Chinese-owned automotive battery plant in Jalisco. China’s Lingong Machinery Group announced plans to build a $140 million manufacturing plant in Nuevo León, on Mexico’s northern border.

Source: Sputnik News (Russia), September 24, 2022
https://sputniknews.cn/20220924/1044226872.html

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said not long ago that he wants to mend relations with China. However, he described China’s position on Russia’s aggression into Ukraine as “ambiguous.” Zelensky said in a French media interview that he hopes China can help Ukraine, but he also said it would be “difficult,” at the moment, to arrange a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Zelensky also said that before Russia’s aggression against Ukraine seven months ago, there were ‘channels of communication” between Kyiv and Beijing. The two countries used to have “a lot of economic and trade cooperation.” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last week. Kuleba later tweeted that Wang Yi told him that China respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and opposes the use of force as a way to resolve differences between countries.

Source: CNA, September 24, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/202209240220.aspx

BBC Chinese recently published a fact-check article looking into what the latest transportation data showed. China is buying more Russian oil, and India is ramping up imports from Russia as well. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been going on for more than half a year. Asian countries bought oil and gas from Russia at a discount as the West has imposed sanctions on Russia and plans gradually to to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian energy exports to the EU have fallen.  Never-the-less, the EU is still buying huge amounts of oil, more than a million barrels a day. However, EU member states have said that, starting in December, they will ban all oil shipped by sea and most Russian oil is transported by sea rather than through pipelines. India and China, however, have recently become big buyers, accounting for more than half of all seaborne oil exports from Russia. In March, China and India imported more oil from Russia than the 27 EU member states combined. Ocean shipping information showed that India’s import of Russian oil known as Urals and ESPO (Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean) showed sharp increases. Since March, China has also been buying a lot of Urals and ESPO. In early July, China reportedly bought a record amount for the second month in a row. By contrast, Japan has made it clear that it will phase out imports of Russian oil, while South Korea’s imports of Russian crude oil have also declined. While the price of Russian oil is attractive, India’s big refiners are facing difficulties in how to finance these purchases due to sanctions on Russian banks. One of the options India has is to trade in local currencies. Russia also asked India to pay in UAE currency. China’s state-owned oil companies are increasingly using Chinese Yuan instead of US. Dollars to buy oil from abroad. In July, Russia remained China’s largest oil supplier for three consecutive months.

Source: BBC Chinese, September 11, 2022
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-62834711