Geo-Strategic Trend – Page 71

BBC Chinese: Pro-Mainland Candidates Won Almost All Seats in HK Legislative Council Elections

BBC Chinese recently reported that the results of the Hong Kong Legislative Council election were released on December 20. Eighty-nine of the ninety seats were captured by pro-mainland candidates. Only the social welfare functional constituency seat was filled by the candidate who claimed not to be pro-mainland. This is the first election in Hong Kong after the implementation of the HK National Security Law and after drastically revising the election system to implement “Patriots Run Hong Kong.” Nathan Law, the former Hong Kong Legislative Council member in exile, said that the low voter turnout rate indicates that the Hong Kong people are “boycotting” this election. It is a strong signal to the international community showing that the people of Hong Kong do not have free and fair elections. The district direct-elections had a turnout rate of 30 percent. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam said that the Hong Kong government has not set a target for turnout rate. Experts explained that the low voter turnout was expected because the pro-democracy supporters do not have their favorite candidates available (to vote for) and the real opposition has either been jailed or has gone into exile. They have no way to participate in the current system.

Source: BBC Chinese, December 20, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-59723776

Briefings | | December 28, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Kyodo Chinese: Japan and the U.S. Drafted Combat Plans for Emergencies in Taiwan

Major Japanese news agency Kyodo recently reported in its Chinese edition that sources close to the Japanese government have confirmed that the Japanese military and the U.S. military have formulated a draft of a new Japan-U.S. joint operations plan that envisages emergencies in Taiwan. The contents include that, in the initial stage of the emergency, the U.S. Marine Corps will set up temporary military bases for offensive purposes on the Ryukyu Islands – from Kagoshima Prefecture to Okinawa Prefecture. Local residents are likely to be involved in the fighting. It is expected that, at the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee (2+2) meeting attended by foreign affairs and defense ministers to be held early next year, a consensus will be reached on officially starting operations for the formal formulation of plans. Normally, no new bases would be built. However, in the initial stage as the urgency of emergencies in Taiwan increases, the U.S. troops will be deployed with the support of the Japanese military. The establishment of U.S. military bases in Japan requires the Japanese government to make policy decisions and improve relevant laws on land use and protection of local residents. In the joint statement of the Japan-US summit meeting in April this year, Taiwan Strait Stability was included after about half a century. The two sides secretly advanced discussions on the formulation of a joint combat plan.

Source: Kyodo Chinese, December 23, 2021
https://china.kyodonews.net/news/2021/12/544994c0a929.html

Briefings | | December 26, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Subnational Infiltration: Using Western Countries’ Local Governments to Counter the State’s Policy

The Voice of America (VOA) published an article that discussed two research reports exploring the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) subnational infiltration of Western countries. According to the reports, in a systematic way, the CCP takes advantage of the pluralistic and decentralized nature of the Western political system to rope in and encourage local governments to confront and dismantle, at the sub-national level, their state’s negative policies toward China. The VOA called it “encircling the cities from rural areas,” a military strategy that the CCP used to win the civil war in China in the late 1940’s.

In the U.S., the CCP’s strategy is to bypass Washington and to target the governors, mayors, and non-governmental organizations directly. The purpose is to foster a positive connection between Beijing and the local officials or organizations.

The two reports refer to the “All Over the Map” strategy. This strategy addresses the Chinese Communist Party’s “subnational Interests in the United States” as reported by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) and the “Big fish in small ponds strategy,” which is China’s subnational diplomacy in Europe” as discussed in an article by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).

The FDD report states that China has a long history of trying to influence local governments in the United States, including through events and forums that promote U.S.-China relations and friendship cities (or sister cities), Internet forums, governors’ forums, and other examples. Though at the national level, the U.S., holds a critical attitude toward Beijing, the National Governors Association expresses positive descriptions about Beijing.

The MERICS article pointed out that, within the five biggest member countries of the European Union – Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland, local governments have established 146 partnerships with the CCP. In many situations, Beijing or its entities can sign investment or cooperation treaties with Europen cities or regions, which usually do not need the central government’s participation.

Source: VOA, December 7, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-subnational-diplomacy-20211207/6343105.html

Hot Topics | | December 23, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

China Is Shipping Goods over Land

Due to COVID and the container shortage, the global supply chain has been problematic for quite some time. Shipping over land has become a new option for supply chain companies.

The path from China to Southeast Asia occurs as follows: Container trucks deliver the containers to the Kunming train station. The trains ship the containers to Vientiane in Laos in 20 to 24 hours, and then trucks deliver them to the target regions, such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and even Singapore. The total duration is about a week and the cost is half that of an of air shipment.

The path from China to Europe is as follows: The container truck delivers the containers to the Chengdu train station or Shanghai train station, and then a train ships the containers to European countries via the Siberian Railway. It takes about two weeks to deliver them.

Source: Sing Tao Daily, December 13, 2021
https://std.stheadline.com/realtime/article/1787009

Briefings | | December 23, 2021 | Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

CCP’s Meeting with European and American Marxist Parties

On December 15, the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held a meeting with European and American Marxist parties through a video conference. Representatives of more than 20 European and American Marxist political parties and left-wing political organizations from Spain, Britain, the United States and other countries attended the meeting.

Song Tao, head of CCP’s International Liaison Department, said, “The CCP is willing to strengthen exchanges with Marxist parties around the world and promote the continuous development of the world socialist cause.” Song also relayed the remarks of Xi Jinping on the CCP’s concept of democracy.

According to the official People’s Daily, leaders of European and American Marxist parties spoke highly of the great developmental achievements that China has made under the leadership of Xi Jinping’s CCP Central Committee, and they endorsed Xi’s idea of democracy. They also expressed their willingness to strengthen cooperation with the CCP, uphold multilateralism, and jointly promote the cause of world socialism.

Source: People’s Daily, December 17, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-12/17/nw.D110000renmrb_20211217_7-03.htm

Briefings | | December 21, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

RFI Chinese: Chinese Company Will Build a Thousand Schools in Iraq

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that, according to officials from the Iraqi Ministry of Construction and Housing, Iraq needs to build a total of 8,000 schools “to fill the gap in the education field.” Iraq’s payment method will be petroleum products. Not long ago, with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kazimi as a witness, Iraq signed 15 agreements with two Chinese companies. China Power Construction Group will build 679 schools, and Sinotech will build 321 schools. These school construction projects are part of the cooperation framework agreement between the governments of China and Iraq. The first batch of school buildings will start soon and will be delivered in one year. It will take two years to complete the construction of all 1,000 schools. This is the number of schools built in the first stage. Around 3,000 schools are expected to be built in the second stage, and 4,000 schools will be built in the final stage. There are 40 million people in Iraq. Of those, nearly 3.2 million school-age children are out of school. Iraq is a country with extremely rich energy reserves, but after decades of the war and corruption that has plagued the country, its infrastructure is declining.

Source: RFI Chinese, December 19, 2021
https://rfi.my/80uM

Briefings | | December 21, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Hong Kong Democracy Movement Leaders Were Sentenced to Jail

China News recently reported that eight people, including Jimmy Lai, the founder of the newspaper Apple Daily, and former members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council Li Cheuk-yan and Wu Chi-wai, were sentenced to from four to fourteen months of jail time. They were sentenced because, last year, they participated in and incited others to participate in an illegal assembly. According to BBC Chinese, the judge stated that last year’s June 4th rally had not been approved due to Covid-19, but the defendants ignored the risk of virus transmission and called on citizens to gather in Victoria Park. Ultimately, there was no large-scale transmission resulting from that gathering. Jimmy Lai submitted a personal letter of explanation. He reiterated that he did not participate in the June 4th Victoria Park rally last year. He only held a candle in front of reporters to remind everyone to remember that there was a group of young men and women in Tiananmen Square 31 years ago who sacrificed their lives for truth and justice. He also said that if he had been guilty of mourning the June Fourth Movement, he would be happy to be punished and share the responsibility of seeking truth and justice for the souls of the dead.

Sources:
(1) China News, December 13, 2021
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/ga/2021/12-13/9628861.shtml
(2) BBC Chinese, December 13, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-59635861

Briefings | | December 20, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Taiwan: The CCP Interfered with a Taiwan Referendum

On December 18, Taiwan held four referendums. The Kuomintang, the opposition party, proposed all four of them to challenge the current administration’s decision. The voting result, though close between yes and no, rejected all proposals.

The Information Operations Research Group (IORG), a Taipei-based research group focusing on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) information manipulation and influence over Taiwan, found that the CCP conducted a heavy information war on one of the referendum topics: whether to ban imports of pork containing the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine.

Researchers pointed out that the CCP took on the ractopamine pork issue to ruin the Taiwan-U.S. relationship. The Taiwan government approved the pork imports last year, to remove a block for a free trade deal with the U.S. where ractopamine is widely used.

The IORG report found that from April to November this year, there were eight main hot discussions on the referendums and all of them could be traced back to the CCP. Among them, seven were about the ractopamine pork. On April 10, Beijing’s media started spreading a rumor that “the U.S. gets money from Taiwan by selling ractopamine pork and weapons.” In May, when COVID cases increased in Taiwan, the CCP’s media said, “Even after buying the U.S. ractopamine pork and weapons, Taiwan still cannot get COVID vaccine from the U.S.” After the U.S. announced that it would donate 750,000 doses of vaccine to Taiwan, the CCP changed its story line to, “Because Taiwan bought the American ractopamine pork and weapons, it should get the American vaccines.”

Other CCP information manipulation on ractopamine pork included spreading incorrect or fake news without scientific backing. Some examples follow: “Hong Kong detected Taiwan pork with ractopamine severely exceeding the standard.” “Taiwan soldiers ate the American ractopamine pork,” “Over 160 countries banned ractopamine pork,” “Following netizen’s words, China’s media called the ractopamine pork ‘drugs.’”

Geo-Strategic Trend - 71. page