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Pro-CCP Crowd Attacked Anti-CCP Protesters During Xi Jinping’s Visit to San Francisco

Chinese Embassies and Consulates in the United States organized many Chinese associations and student associations to welcome Xi Jinping when he attended the APEC meeting and the Biden-Xi Summit in San Francisco from November 15 to 17. These pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) people outnumbered the anti-CCP protesters by several times. Over a dozen incidents were reported where pro-CCP people attacked anti-CCP protesters and injured them.

A representative of the Chinese Democratic Party, which opposes the CCP and is banned in mainland China, said that 24 of the group’s members were assaulted by individuals associated with pro-CCP overseas groups, resulting in several injuries. The China Democracy and Human Rights Alliance, as well as the Democracy Front, reported that several of their protesters were also assaulted.

Protester Jia Junwei told Voice of America that “They chased me continuously. After surrounding me with the Chinese flag, a woman in her forties or fifties knocked me down. Then, they kicked my head, and used the flagpole to attack my head. Later, I was taken to the hospital.” Hong Kong protester Zhou Qihong, 74, was assaulted twice on November 15 and 17 in different locations by pro-Communist thugs. Topjor Tsultrim, a member of the Free Tibet organization, informed Voice of America, “At least 30 Tibetan protesters were beaten by pro-CCP groups. The attack at the airport protest site on November 17 was the most intense one against the Tibetan protesters. Three young Tibetan university students were attacked by over 20 Chinese individuals with metal rods, resulting in head injuries and broken bones. Eventually, they had to be taken to the hospital. On the same day, several Tibetans were struck with flags, stabbed with iron rods, and women’s hair was pulled. One of our activists was recording everything when her phone was snatched from her and thrown into the river.”

The San Francisco police didn’t arrest any pro-CCP persons. They did arrested protester Jie Lijian, however.

Jie was released from the San Francisco County Jail without bail on November 20. He told Voice of America, “We were peacefully protesting, and people from Chinese overseas groups attacked my back and head with flagpoles and steel pipes. I began vomiting and needed to use the restroom. In the process of finding a restroom, I was isolated and arrested by the police in an alley.” Jie also said, “If I didn’t defend myself in a situation where my head was being attacked with steel pipes, I wouldn’t be here speaking with everyone. I might have been beaten to death by the other party.”

Many human rights activists believe these attacks should not be allowed to happen in the U.S. They show the CCP’s long-armed influence on U.S. soil. Chinese human rights groups and pro-democracy activists have kept tally of beatings and injuries by the pro-CCP groups; they are planning to provide evidence criminal conduct to the FBI and Congress.

Source: Voice of America, November 22, 2023
https://www.voachinese.com/a/congress-urged-to-probe-attacks-on-chinese-dissidents-in-xi-jinping-protest-20231121/7364581.html

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CCP’s United Front Minister Meets Future Elite Thai Leaders Trained by China

On November 23rd, a high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official met with representatives of the “Thailand-China New Era Leadership Elite Training Program” in Beijing. The official, Shi Taifeng, is a CCP Politburo member and Minister of the CCP’s United Front Work Department. Shi promoted China’s ideology of the “China-Thailand Community for a Shared Future for Mankind” and the CCP’s “Belt and Road Initiative.” On the same day, Wan Lijun, Chairman of the CCP’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, also met with the visiting Thai delegation. Sahathai Maneechot, former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, expressed intention to strengthen close ties with the CCP’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and to collaborate on the CCP’s “Community of Shared Future for Mankind.”

The “Thailand-China New Era Leadership Training Program” started as early as 2018, initiated by the Chinese Association in Thailand. It is held several times a year, with high-ranking figures from Thailand’s political, military, business, and academic sectors participating.

At the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China in September of this year, China’s Premier Li Qiang announced the “Ten Thousand People Training and Seminar Program,” in which China will train 10,000 talents for ASEAN countries in the fields of governance, anti-corruption, and green development.

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, November 25, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/25/n14123929.htm
2. Chinascope, September 15, 2023

Li Qiang Announced China’s Leadership Training Programs for ASEAN Countries

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

China’s New Head of Culture and Tourism is Also Key Official in Central Propaganda Department

On November 14th, the official website of China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism reported that Sun Yeli (孙业礼) became the Party Secretary of China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Sun is expected to become the head of the Ministry as well. Sun also serves as the Deputy Minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Propaganda Department.

The CCP’s decision to give Sun this joint appointment will help ensure that China’s cultural and tourism work serves the party’s needs. The Ministry’s primary responsibility is to “implement the party’s policy on cultural work,” and its secondary responsibilities include “coordinating the development of cultural and tourism industries.”

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism was formed through the integration of the Ministry of Culture and the National Tourism Administration in 2018.  Before Sun Yeli, the two prior Ministers of Culture and Tourism – -Luo Shugang (雒树刚) and Hu Heping (胡和平) — also served as high-ranking officials in the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department.

Source: Epoch Times, November 14, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/14/n14116083.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CCP Trials State-Owned Cafeterias

Back in late 1950s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rolled out community-owned cafeterias, providing free food to the populace at a massive scale. This quickly depleted the country’s food stock and led to hunger and famine. It seems that now the CCP is bringing this infamous practice back.

A recent article in China Digital Times criticized a CCP pilot program for state-owned cafeterias, discussing the cafeteria that recently opened in the Yanshi Community of Shijiazhuang city, Hebei Province. Since the start of the cafeteria’s trial operation in early October this year, the cafeteria has served more than 20,000 customers. It targets thousands of residents in the Yanshi community and surrounding areas, aiming to ensure that customers can “eat to a full stomach with 5 yuan (US$ 0.70) and eat well with 9 yuan (US$ 1.25).” Given current market conditions, it is impossible to sustain those prices without continual subsidies from the government.

The article’s author criticized state-owned cafeterias as follows: The government is using tax revenue collected from the populace at large to subsidize food for specific groups of people (i.e. people living in certain communities) — it is not fair to those who are not served. Meanwhile, if the government builds cafeterias to serve the whole populace then it is just taking people’s money (as tax) and giving it back (as subsidy to cafeteria), adding on top the inefficiency (financial waste) resulting from bureaucratic operations.

Source: China Digital Times, November 7, 2023
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/701932.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

CCP Hires “Fans” to Stage Warm Welcome for Xi Jinping in San Francisco

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for faking things. Whenever its leader visits a country, the Chinese embassies or consulates arrange for Chinese students and other people to stage “voluntary” welcome scenes at the airport or on the street, meant to look like “grassroots” support for the VIP.

Online information shows that such a welcome was put on when Xi Jinping came to San Francisco for the APEC meeting on November 15. An online screenshot revealed that the leader of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) at the University of Southern California (USC) notified the association’s cadres:

“[I] Just received a notice from the Chinese Consulate at Los Angeles, next week from the 13th to the 17th, Xi Jinping will visit the United States. Students from USC CSSA are invited to go to San Francisco to welcome him. Since it is inappropriate to publicize the schedule, we currently only know the following:

  • Students who sign up will all ride a bus to SF.
  • For everyone’s safety, you are not allowed to arrange your own trip or engage in independent activities.
  • All travel expenses and accommodation for food and board are covered.
  • If you want to participate, please contact me before 4:00! Once you sign up, you cannot withdraw.”

On November 16th, a posting on social media platform X showed that some students complained about not getting what the CCP promised earlier (Note: the Chinese consulate usually brings people from multiple places, so this may not come from the USC CSSA):

“1. The Chinese embassy claimed there would be free meals, but only some people received them, and most ordinary students did not.
2. There was a promise of a $400 subsidy per person, but in the end the CSSA told students it will be only $100.
3. Students who expressed desire to withdraw from the participation were directly warned that it would be recorded in their files in China, making them unable to join the communist party or take civil service exams in the future.”

Source: Epoch Times, November 16, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/16/n14117681.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics US-China Relations

German Media: CCP’s Harassing Dissidents in Germany

German Media outlet Der Tagesspiegel (Daily Mirror) reported that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has extended its psychological terror tactics into Germany, targeting overseas dissidents. The report says that the CCP employs tactics such as tracking, hacking email accounts, silencing with hush money, and sending threatening emails with “bloody corpse photos.” For example, two Chinese state actors followed a Hong Kong activist when he went to have lunch with some German congresspeople, taking pictures of them openly so that they would know they were being followed. Another dissident reported that someone opened a porn account with her name on the social media platform X, leading male strangers to ring her doorbell almost every day; she also received rape threats and death threats. Another dissident received several dozen threatening calls in one day, and a scholar received threatening emails with photos of blood-stained corpses.

Source: Epoch Times, November 10, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/10/n14114056.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

China Introduces New Housing Reform

The CCP recently introduced a significant “housing reform” program, outlining a dual-track system primarily focusing on affordable housing to resolve housing market issues. The policy, titled “Guiding Opinions on Planning and Constructing Affordable Housing,” emphasizes two goals:

  1. increasing the construction and supply of affordable housing in major cities, and
  2. limiting investment-oriented commercial housing.

The policy stipulates that 60% of the housing market be allocated to affordable, public rental, and low-cost housing (保障性住房, affordable housing), and 40% be designated as “improved housing” housing (改善性住房, commercial housing). The policy targets three main groups as recipients of affordable housing: low-to-medium-income earners, new graduates, and “talented persons” recommended by the government for housing. Affordable housing is restricted to one unit per applicant, and it is forbidden from being turned into commercial housing. The reform aims to repurpose unused land and commercial housing inventory.

Beijing will carry out the housing reform in cities with over 3 million residents. There are 35 such cities in China, including Beijing, and Shanghai.

Some have raised concern over potential consequences of this policy:

  • it may put additional pressure on China’s commercial real estate market, pushing more real estate developers to bankruptcy;
  • it may result in financial loss for Chinese investors, who are heavily invested in real estate; and
  • China’s local governments may not have sufficient money to fund the development of affordable housing.

Source: Epoch Times, November 10, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/11/10/n14114014.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Discipline Inspector: Diplomats Face High Risk of Being Turned by Foreign Forces

The latest issue of “China Discipline Inspection and Supervision” magazine recently published a signed article by Zhang Jiwen (张际文), the head of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Team stationed at the Office of Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Foreign Affairs Working Committee. The CCP Central Foreign Affairs Working Committee is the highest CCP organ that oversees China’s foreign affair work, including the work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The article says that Chinese diplomatic and foreign affairs officials are the main workforce of foreign affairs work and are at the forefront of such work. They face a relatively high risk of being turned (i.e. recruited) or bribed by foreign forces.

Some commentators view this as a hint regarding what happened to Qin Gang (秦刚), China’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Source: The Paper, November 4, 2023
https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_25180379

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics US-China Relations