Geo-Strategic Trend - 92. page

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that news is breaking on an up-coming major reorganization of The Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LOCPG). The LOCPG was established in 2000 as the replacement of the Xinhua News Agency (HK office). It was widely recognized as the unofficial representative of the Mainland government in Hong Kong. Anonymous insiders said this new reorganization does not intend to reduce the headcount. Instead, the plan is to overhaul the “ways of doing things” completely. The future LOCPG will no longer “just do PR work and cut the ribbons for grand openings.” Instead, more resources will be devoted to Hong Kong’s day-to-day operations like how to improve the local economy. The large-scale reorganization is expected to replace half of the current 480 LOCPG staff with new people, most of whom “barely understand the local dialect (Cantonese).”

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, January 28, 2021
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20210128-1119964

In an open letter, more than 100 renowned China experts, researchers and human-rights activists across the globe have called for a suspension of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI).

Prior to publication, the open letter to the EU institutions was provided to DER SPIEGEL, the German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. The open letter stated, “Despite evidence of ethnic cleansing, forced labor, and other gross human rights violations, the leadership of the European institutions have chosen to sign an agreement which exacts no meaningful commitments from the Chinese government to guarantee an end to crimes against humanity or to slavery.”

The letter continued, stating that the deal is “based on a naive set of assumptions about the character of the Chinese Communist Party,” and “entrenches Europe’s existing strategic dependency on China and runs counter to Europe’s core values.”

Even the current degree of dependency, the authors write, is “alarming.” The letter argues that Chinese state-owned companies took advantage of the period following the 2008 financial crisis “to buy substantial stakes in key European infrastructure.”

“Furthermore,” the letter continues, “it is delusional to imagine that China will keep promises on these issues of investment and trade when it has broken its promises so regularly in recent years.” As examples, the authors cite the suppression of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, forced labor camps for the Muslim Uighur minority, the most recent sanctions Beijing has imposed on Australia and sabre rattling in the direction of Taiwan.

Among the signatories are researchers from the London School of Economics and from Princeton University in addition to Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, who lives in Germany. The former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata and Harriet Evans, a professor at the University of Westminster and an expert in gender and human rights issues in China, have also joined the effort.

Source: Deutsche Welle, January 25, 2021
https://p.dw.com/p/3oNk4

In order to take advantage of China’s medical data, global pharmaceutical giants are pursuing cooperation with local Chinese companies. The Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi has established a joint venture with China’s Ping An Insurance, including a research base in Shanghai.

Ping An Insurance has a focus on life insurance and a related financial business that utilizes the latest technology, and is involved in online diagnosis and treatment. Shionogi hopes to use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze the big data obtained through cooperation to facilitate drug research.

China is burdened with a rapidly aging population, leading to an excessive waiting time in hospitals and high medical expenses. Pharmaceutical giants hope to gain a foothold by working with local companies that have an established customer base.

Eisai, another Japanese pharmaceutical giant, also announced in October last year that it had established a joint venture with JD.com, a top Chinese e-commerce company. In 2021, it plans to launch online diagnosis and treatment for patients with dementia. German pharmaceutical giant Merck has also decided to cooperate with Alibaba Health Information Technology (AliHealth), a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group, in the field of artificial intelligence.

Source: Kyodo News, January 22, 2021
https://china.kyodonews.net/news/2021/01/86bac79d2244.html

According to an exclusive news report that NDTV India published, China built a new residential village in Arunachal Pradesh (known as southern Tibet) on the eastern part of the disputed border between India and China. It has caused the tension between India and China to escalate again. A satellite photo from NDTV showed there were no villages in the Arunachal Pradesh area in August 2019 but as of November 2020, there were 100 residential buildings.  Before the end of the year, the Indian Army decided to withdraw from its station in the northeast which was dealing with counter-insurgency and will redeploy 10,000 soldiers to respond to Chinese threats.

An official document from 2017 advised that, to ensure political stability in Tibet, Beijing authorized the construction of 624 residential buildings in the disputed area along the China and Indian border as part of the Tibetan poverty alleviation plan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reiterated at a regular press conference on January 21 that China does not find anything illegal as “China’s normal construction on its own territory is entirely a matter of its sovereignty.”

Source: Liberty Times News, January 25, 2021
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3421148

In response to China’s violations of the human rights of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the Canadian government introduced a series of new measures this week, including prohibiting domestic companies from doing business with companies that are involved in the forced labor of Uyghurs.

The series of measures include banning the importation of the products of forced labor and requiring Canadian companies to ensure that they do not export to China any products that may possibly be used for surveillance and the infringement of human rights. Canada will provide business consultation on Xinjiang related issues and conduct investigations on forced labor and supply chain risks.

A poll conducted at the end of December 2020 showed that 45 percent of Canadian respondents believed that Canada should reduce trade with China. Only 10 percent believe that trade with China should be increased.

Source: Voice of America, January 15, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/canada-announces-new-measures-to-address-human-rights-abuses-in-xinjiang-20210115/5739655.html