Geo-Strategic Trend - 85. page

A new study revealed a trend that China is turning to more autocratic regimes in securing natural resource supplies and is buttressing its tactics to weaponize trade against geopolitical rivals.

“China’s resource security redrawing geopolitical map,” a section of the report Political Risk Outlook 2021 recently issued by Verisk Maplecroft, a U.S. based research group, describes how China diversifies its imports and achieves its resource security.

“Beijing prefers suppliers from stable autocratic regimes over democracies that involve frequent changes of governments and potential shifts in policy. Autocracy is a governance system it is comfortable operating with and can influence.”

“China is seeking to strengthen its control over global supply chains via overseas investments and partnerships with international majors. Beijing has been supporting Chinese SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) to ‘go global’ and establish control of resource bases overseas since the late 1990s. … The number of Chinese-owned base metals and gold companies in Oceania has grown from zero in 2000 to 59 in 2020.”

“Geopolitical instability in the Middle East and the South China Sea has induced China over the past decade to diversify its seaborne imports with overland imports, as reflected by its massive investment in energy pipelines with Russia and Central Asia. The Myanmar-China oil and gas pipelines are another example of China’s attempt to reduce its reliance on a sea lane that transits through strategic chokepoints, in particular the Strait of Malacca.”

BY diversifying its natural resource suppliers, Beijing is able to bring greater geopolitical leverage. Beijing can use trade as a coercive weapon. “This diplomatic tool is most effective when wielded against commodities in which China has a diversified import profile and the target state is dependent on the Chinese market.”

Beijing has also strengthened its relationship with Russia driven by their deteriorating relationships with the West. With increased Chinese investment in and trade with the “Belt and Road” countries, “these partnerships will reshape multilateralism with an economic order that is more China-centric.”

Source: Verisk Maplecroft, March 18, 2021
https://www.maplecroft.com/insights/analysis/chinas-resource-security-redrawing-the-geopolitical-map/

On Friday March 19, in a prominent position in a French newspaper, on the Le Monde website page, there was an article about a Chinese ambassador’s verbal attack against a French think tank researcher. The article said that China’s “wolf warrior diplomacy” reappeared. It cited that the Chinese Embassy in Paris posted on its twitter account calling Antoine Bondaz, a member of a French independent think tank Foundation for Strategic Research, “petite frappe.”

According to the article, in mid-February, after Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye learned that a group of French senators planned to visit Taiwan, Lu sent a warning letter to the chairman of the senator team. In return, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied that French parliamentarians are free to go where they want to go.

Bondaz wrote on his twitter account saying that Chinese ambassador’s behavior is not acceptable and that Beijing has no right to tell French elected officials what to do, let alone that a diplomat made the demand. Bondaz learned about Lu Shaye’s response through his friend because it has been over a year since Ambassador Lu blocked Bondaz on twitter. Bondaz then replied on his twitter account saying, “Insulting researchers instead of arguing with them is a sign of weakness.”

Le Monde’s article pointed out that after France started to talk about the mass detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, its relationship with Beijing became tense.

Bondaz received wide support for his remarks on twitter. European Parliament member Raphaël Glucksmann replied, “If our leaders have a little dignity and a sense of a nation, we should explain (to China): “if you keep pissing us off, you will go straight back to China.” François-Xavier Bellamy, another European Parliament member told Bondaz “Don’t let this go. Otherwise, it would mean (you are a) coward and (that is) dangerous.”

This is not the first time that Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye made similar insulting remarks. On April 14, 2020, French Foreign Minister Le Drian summoned the Chinese ambassador because Ambassador Lu Shaye made some comments to the medical staff in a French nursing home. He wrote on the Embassy website that the medical staff in the French nursing home “left their jobs overnight and left the elderly in the nursing home to die of starvation and disease.”

Source:
1. Radio France Internationale, March 19, 2021
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%93%E6%A0%8F%E6%A3%80%E7%B4%A2/%E6%B3%95%E5%9B%BD%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E6%8A%A5/20210319-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E9%A9%BB%E5%B7%B4%E9%BB%8E%E5%A4%A7%E4%BD%BF%E9%A6%86%E6%94%BB%E5%87%BB%E4%B8%80%E6%B3%95%E5%9B%BD%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E5%91

Norway will close its first and only Confucius Institute, the one in Bergen and affiliated with the University of Bergen and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. This will be the second Nordic country, after Sweden, that will no longer have a single Confucius Institute.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Harald Bøckman, a researcher at the University of Oslo, said, “China has tried to establish a second Confucius Institute, but local authorities opposed it and thwarted their effort. The Confucius Institute in Bergen was challenged from the beginning. Other research institutes refused to set up Confucius Institutes because Beijing ran them.”

The initiative to establish the Confucius Institute in Bergen in 2007 came from the College of Western Norway, later renamed to Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. As the school’s focus is on martial arts, China’s Beijing Sport University became its partner. In addition to Chinese language teaching activities, the most unique feature of the Confucius Institute in Bergen is the teaching of martial arts. The Confucius Institute also quickly took root at the University of Bergen, working with Chinese language teaching as an academic discipline within its language department.

Sweden has had a total of four Confucius Institutes at its universities and by December 2019, all had been closed. The last Confucius classroom was closed in April 2020, making it the first country in Europe to close all Confucius Institutes and classrooms.

The Confucius Institute in Bergen has been criticized as being controlled by China’s Hanban and an extension of official Chinese propaganda. Bøckman pointed out, “It is certainly the same problem, because the Confucius Institute is a program and goal set by the Beijing government and runs counter to the standards used by Western academic institutions. The Confucius Institute remains a propaganda tool that is a soft power outlet for the Chinese authorities.”

In recent years, the Chinese government’s crackdown in Hong Kong and Xinjiang has indirectly affected the closure of the Confucius Institute in Bergen. However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was that, starting last year, the Chinese government decided to replace its cooperation partner from Beijing Sport University, which had been in place for many years, to China University of Political Science and Law. The China University of Political Science and Law is one of the main academic institutions for the training of Chinese elite in terms of ideology. Its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party and government has been very close. This was what finally prompted the University of Bergen to decide to close the Confucius Institute. The Confucius Institute in Norway will thus become history.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 19, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/cl-03192021135434.html

On Thursday March 11, the newly re-elected International Olympics Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announced on its official website that China has pledged to provide vaccines for athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympics this year and the Beijing Winter Olympics next year. The IOC will pay for the vaccines, and also affirmed that “any vaccination program must be conducted with full respect for national vaccination priorities.”

Chinese official media also announced “for every dose of vaccine that the International Olympic Committee purchases, China will also provide two additional doses of vaccine to delegations participating in the vaccination and they can provide them to the people of their own country.”

Wu’erkaixi, former student leader of the Tiananmen protests of 1989 and deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Legislative Yuan’s Inter-party International Human Rights Promotion Association, pointed out that Beijing has used the International Olympic Committee as a pawn in its “vaccine diplomacy.”

Wu’erkaixi said, “Obviously China is attempting with this ‘vaccine diplomacy’ to shed its responsibilities in the spread of the virus. China has been trying to buy international organizations and then have them speak for China itself. I call on the world to reject the Chinese government’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’ very clearly. The IOC should not be the pawn of the Chinese government, nor should it be the advocate of China’s foreign propaganda.”

Guan Yao, a member of U.S. based think tank “Dialogue China,” also criticized the IOC for endorsing China when the quality of the Chinese vaccine is in question.

Guan said, “China uses vaccines as a means of diplomacy and propaganda. Now it is using the International Olympic Committee to sell it to the world. As an authoritative international organization, the IOC has made this decision even when there are disputes about the efficiency and safety of the Chinese vaccine. I think the IOC has become a propaganda tool of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Japan’s Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said on Friday March 12 that the IOC had not consulted with Japan about the Chinese vaccines and that Japanese athletes would not take them. She said the vaccines have not been approved for use in Japan.

The Tokyo Olympics was originally scheduled to be held in the summer of last year, but it was postponed for one year due to the epidemic. More than 10,000 athletes are reportedly participating in the games.

Beijing is accused of committing genocide against Uyghurs and suppressing democracy in Hong Kong. More than 180 organizations and parliamentarians from many countries are calling on the International Olympic Committee and the world to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 12, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/vaccine-03122021100604.html

China and Russia have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the construction of an international lunar research station. This is the latest agreement between China and Russia on a number of cooperative decisions on space projects. The signing of the memorandum coincides with Russia’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the first manned spacecraft flight and the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first space station.

The China National Space Administration is building the lunar research station in conjunction with Roscosmos, Russia’s state corporation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research. It will be an integrated scientific test base, built on the lunar surface or in lunar orbit, for the purpose of scientific research activities such as exploration and utilization of the moon itself, lunar-based observation, basic scientific experiments and technology verification. Both parties claim that this research station will be open to all interested national and international partners.

There is no detailed plan or timetable for the construction of the station. A reference may be the construction process of the International Space Station (ISS), which is now in operation while orbiting about 400 kilometers from the Earth. This space station, with the participation of 15 countries, took a total of 10 years to accomplish.

This cooperation between China and Russia is of considerable importance to each side. Russia’s space program is clearly lagging behind in comparison with the many projects such as the United States and China’s exploration of the Moon and Mars in recent years. By joining forces with China, Russia has a chance to return to the ranks of the leading nations in space technology. If this cooperation with Russia is successful, it could be one of the largest international collaborations in China’s space history. In short, Russia wants to rebuild its former glory in space technology, and China wants to catch up with the United States’ dominance.

Source: BBC Chinese, March 10, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-56346151

China’s 13th National People’s Congress (NPC), which concluded on Thursday March 11, adopted the resolution on the 14th Five-Year Plan and the long-range objectives through the year 2035. The second part of the resolution indicates that China will bring in more high-end talent from overseas to help the development of cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, life sciences, aviation and aerospace. The purpose is to achieve the goal of making China a science and tech super power.

The resolution also mentions that, in the next five years, China will “implement a more open talent policy and build a research and innovation highland that gathers outstanding talent from home and abroad.” At the same time, China will “improve the policies for foreign high-end talent and professionals to reside in China while doing work, research and exchanges and it will improve the policies on permanent residency for foreigners and explore its technical immigration policy.” The policies include a sound system of remuneration and benefits, children’s education, social security, and tax concessions that will attract foreign talent. In addition, the document also considers establishing an international technical organization and allowing foreigners to work in China’s state-run technology institutions.

Cheng Xiaonong, a Chinese economist living in exile in the U.S. told Radio Free Asia that the new policy of introducing talent in the new five-year plan is an extension of the “Thousand Talents Program” that China has done. The essence is to steal foreign intellectual property and advanced technology by poaching talent from other countries.

China’s Thousand Talents Program (TTP) was launched in China in 2008. Afterwards, some TTP scholars have come under the scrutiny of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for alleged espionage in the U.S. Since 2018, the FBI has been increasing the number of arrests and prosecutions of TTP scholars. At the same time, the U.S. Department of State began applying tougher restrictions on Chinese students by shortening from 5 years to 1 year the duration of visas for those planning to study aviation, robotics, and advanced manufacturing.

In September 2018, a working group for the Thousand Talents Program asked related Chinese organizations not to mention the wording “Thousand Talents Program” to the public in order to protect the safety of overseas talent. The word “Thousand Talents Program” and other related words have long been blocked on the Internet in mainland China.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 11, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/kejiaowen/bx-03112021113226.html