Geo-Strategic Trend - 74. page

ARD Fernsehen, a German TV station, reported that one of its investigative programs, “The Munich Report” and the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag (“World on Sunday”) discovered the role that German technology has been playing on Chinese warships.

German manufacturers have developed and even built a sizable portion of the engines that power the Chinese Navy’s warships. The MTU Friedrichshafen, a manufacturer of internal combustion engines, and MAN, the French subsidiary of Volkswagen, are involved. One can find detailed information about the German engine and turbine manufacturer’s supplies to China in the publicly accessible database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). MTU is said to have been a regular supplier of China’s most advanced Brigadier III class destroyers until at least 2020. The supply comes through the circuitous route of licensed production in China. MAN and MTU assured the Munich Report and Welt am Sonntag that they have always complied with export control regulations. According to MTU, the business of delivering submarine components to China “completely stopped” after the Song-class submarines were equipped. The company “has never signed a contract with the Chinese Ministry of Defense or armed forces itself.” The engines installed in the Brigantine III-class destroyers, as SIPRI calls them, do not require an export license because they are so-called dual-use goods. That is, the engines can also be used for civilian purposes.

This year, the Chinese Navy is putting more of its Brigantine III-class destroyers into service. The most recent is the destroyer Kaifeng, which was unveiled in July on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

MTU and MAN can claim that their deliveries are permitted. The EU imposed an arms embargo on China after the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, but the embargo’s binding effect is limited. Sebastian Rossner, a Cologne-based lawyer and export expert, told Germany’s ARD public broadcaster, “Because the EU arms embargo on China was not formally decided in accordance with the European treaties, certain exports of ship engines may also be permissible (if intended for the Chinese navy).” He added, “If you want to change this, the EU must either amend the Dual-Use Regulation or formally impose an arms embargo.”

Source: Radio France International, November 7, 2021
https://rfi.my/7tZR

Major Taiwanese news network China Times recently reported that, 37 different countries including Switzerland, the European Union, and Japan have stopped granting the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) to Chinese goods. After they did so, the General Administration of Customs of China issued an announcement to stop issuing GSP certificates of origin (Form A) for the export of goods to the aforementioned 37 countries. The only countries that still retain China’s GSP treatment are Norway, New Zealand and Australia. For goods exported to these three countries, companies can still apply for a GSP certificate. The Generalized System of Preferences is a universal, non-discriminatory, and non-reciprocal preferential tariff system in which developed countries (beneficial countries) grant exports from developing countries (beneficiary countries). It is based on the most-favored-nation tariffs and further provides tariff reductions, exemptions, or even full tax exemptions in order to help the economic development of developing countries.

Source: China Times, November 2, 2021
https://www.chinatimes.com/cn/newspapers/20211102000132-260203?chdtv

According to the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, Anja Karliczek, the Federal Minister of Education and Research, has called for the termination of all Confucius Institutes in Germany.

Karliczek has written a letter to the German Rectors’ Conference and to the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. She advises to reassess the roles of Confucius Institutes in German higher education and to draw the right conclusions.

The Confucius Institutes at the universities of Duisburg-Essen and Hanover received wide attention last week, as a planned online lecture about a book on the head of state, Xi Jinping, was canceled because of the intervention of Chinese government representatives.

Karliczek writes that for some time she has been “very concerned” with the activities of the 19 Confucius Institutes at German universities. Their influence on the work at the universities is “unacceptable.” The minister recommends that universities “carefully analyze their cooperation with institutes” and “resolutely counter China’s influence.”

Karliczek said that, In addition, universities should maintain closer contact with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Intelligence Service,.

Confucius institutes, installed at the university campuses of many Western countries as a Chinese language teaching facility, are considered a propaganda and infiltration tool of the Chinese Communist Party.

Der Spiegel commented that university policy falls into the purview of the individual federal states. It is a matter of concern when a German federal minister expresses explicit concerns and criticism over with the work of universities and their cooperation agreements.

Source: Radio France International, October 31, 2021
https://rfi.my/7sNG

The Fourth World Laureates Forum opened on November 1 in Shanghai. China’s state newspaper People’s Daily reported that more than 130 of the world’s top scientists, including 68 Nobel Laureates, are participating in the 3-day event.

The forum organizers announced the creation of the World Laureates Association Prize, including two individual awards: the Mathematics and Intelligence Science Award, and the Medical and Life Science Award. Each is to be awarded once a year, with an award amount of RMB 10 million (US$1.6 million). The awards will be launched formally and awarded in 2022. The award money comes from the Shanghai World Laureates Development Fund, with a contribution of 500 million yuan ($78 million) from Sequoia China.

The World Laureates Association and the Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST), jointly organized the 4th World Laureates Forum under the guidance of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.  (CAE). CAST, CAS, and CAE are all Chinese government agencies.

The World Laureates Association was established in Shanghai in 2019. There are 72 scientist members, including 51 Nobel Prize Laureates, six Wolf Prize winners, six Lasker Award winners, four Turing Award winners, two MacArthur ‘Genius Grants’ winners, and one Fields Medal winner.

Source: People’s Daily, November 2, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-11/02/nw.D110000renmrb_20211102_4-13.htm

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the United States has replaced China as India’s largest trade partner, while China currently ranks second. According to data that the Indian Ministry of Commerce released, from January to September this year, the bilateral trade volume between India and the United States surged by 50 percent, reaching US$28 billion. During the same period, India’s trade with China increased by 46 percent, reaching $25.3 billion. While India’s relationship with China has deteriorated, it has rapidly strengthened its relationship with the United States and its allies. At the end of September, Indian Prime Minister Modi attended the first face-to-face summit of the US-Japan-India-Australia Security Dialogue (QUAD) during his visit to Washington. The growth of U.S.-India trade is crucial to maintaining and enhancing the U.S.-India strategic partnership. Apart from being members of the World Trade Organization, the United States and India do not have any bilateral trade agreements.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, October 18, 2021
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/world/story20211018-1204362

On October 20, A Japanese private nonprofit group, “Genron NPO,” and the China International Publishing Group, a Chinese Communist Party-owned foreign-language publishing organization, released the results of a joint public opinion survey conducted in both countries. The number of Chinese people who answered that they have a “bad” impression of Japan increased by 13.2 percentage points over last year to 66.1 percent. Genron NPO said the reasons are the intensification of the U.S.-China confrontation and historical issues.

Previously, since 2013, impressions of Japan had been on an improving trend. The reason for the worsened impression of Japan is that more Chinese people, by an increase of 8.7 percentage points, blamed Japanese politicians’ for their inappropriate words and actions. Also, many Chinese said they could not understand why Japan follows the U.S. in foreign relations. A representative from Genron NPO had the following analysis: “The disruption of tourist visits to Japan due to the epidemic, which had been the driving force behind the improvement in impressions, is also a major factor.” He pointed out, “Communication between the government and the people has decreased, and the focus is now heavily on confrontation.”

The population of Japanese people who have a negative impression of China also increased. It grew by 1.2 percentage points to 90.9 percent. About half of them cited Chinese official ships sailing near the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China) as the reason.

Source: Kyodo News, Chinese channel, October 20, 2021
https://china.kyodonews.net/news/2021/10/70b859022627-66.html

In 2020, Hungary received a US$1.9 billion 20-year-term loan from China for a railway construction project. Hungary’s foreign ministry said that the contract agreement with China must be kept confidential. If it were not, it would be detrimental to the national interest. On October 7, 2021, a Hungarian court ruled that the government must make the contract public by October 22.

In 2014, Hungary, China and Serbia signed the original memorandum of understanding to rebuild and expand the railway line between Budapest, the Hungarian capital, and Belgrade, the Serbian capital. The long-stalled project, which has been on hold since 2017, is planned to rebuild and expand the 150-kilometre (93 miles) line between Budapest and Kelebia (a village in Southern Hungary). Construction in Serbia will begin in 2018. China is to provide 85 percent of the financing in the form of loans and Hungary will provide 15 percent.

In 2020, Hungary received the 20-year loan of $1.9 billion of the from China. In April of the same year, the Hungarian parliament voted to keep all details of the railway project confidential, including a feasibility study of its profitability, stressing that it was necessary in order to obtain the loan from the Bank of China.

Bernadette Szel, a member of Hungary’s independent opposition party, filed a lawsuit to make the Chinese loan agreement public. On October 7, Szel won the second appeal. The court ruled that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not attached any credible evidence that the issuance of the contract would harm Hungary’s national interests. and that the documents must be published within 15 days.

According to Reuters, the railway project, part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, will be China’s first major infrastructure project in the European Union. The aim is to help transport Chinese goods from Greece to Western Europe. It is viewed as Beijing’s efforts to open new foreign trade links within the EU. The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has been a strong supporter of the project.

Source: Radio Free Asia, October 20, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/cl-10202021131904.html