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Concerns Over China’s Newly Passed Anti-Espionage Law

China passed a new Anti-Espionage Law on April 26, which will be enforced on July 1. Epoch Times published an article to analyze the law.

Article 4 defined what is counted as espionage activity. Item 3 broadened it to include “activities conducted, or instructed or financed to be conducted by others, by foreign agencies, organizations, and individuals other than spy organizations and their agents, and activities conducted by domestic agencies, organizations, or individuals in collusion with them, to steal, spy, buy, illegally possess state secrets, intelligence, as well as documents, data, information, and items related to national security and interests, or to instigate, induce, coerce, or buy state employees to mutiny.” This opens the door for the government to claim any foreign organization, company, or individual’s action as spy work.

Article 14 defined “No individual or organization may illegally obtain or hold documents, data, information, or items that are state secrets.” Article 38 defines the authority to interpret “state secrets” is vested in the “confidential department of the state, or the confidential departments of a province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government.”

The law also gives the law enforcement agency great power in searching and investigation. Article 24 defined that “State security organs when carrying out the counter-espionage task can show their identify card, and then check the identity card of Chinese citizens or foreign personnel, inquire the relevant individuals and organizations, and inspect the accompanying items of any identity-unknown or suspected individual.” Also, Article 26 and 27 defined that with a district-level (lower than a city) approval, the security staff can search individual’s or organization’s electronic equipment, documents, data, materials, and items.

Sources:
1. China’s government site, April 27, 2023
http://www.gov.cn/yaowen/2023-04/27/content_5753385.htm
2. Epoch Times, May 1, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/5/1/n13985487.htm

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Local Government Called for the Central Governments to Take Over Their Debts

Some China’s local governments admitted that they could no longer handle their debts and called for central government’s help. The Research Center on Development, Guizhou Province said that Guizhou Province “is unable to effectively resolve the (local debt) problem on its own.” The center made the statement in a report “Study on the Resolution of Local Government Debt,” which pointed out that local debt is a significant and urgent problem, but it is extremely difficult for the local governments to resolve it due to their limited financial capability. The report is unavailable on the Internet now.

Some local governments in Yunnan Province also reported desperate debt situation. By end of 2022, Yongping County’s total debt reached 3.44 billion yuan (US$500 million). Its debt ratio reached 991 percent and fiscal self-sufficiency rate was only 15.66 percent. Tengchong City also claimed financial difficulty where its fiscal capability could just keep the government payroll going.

Source: China News Agency (Taiwan), April 28, 2023
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202304280110.aspx

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People’s Daily Urgently Destroyed Papers due to Missing Xi Jinping’s Name

On the evening of March 30, officials responsible for the distribution of the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, People’s Daily, issued an urgent notice to stop delivering and destroy the newspaper immediately, according to Hong Kong-based Ming Pao. Although the notice was harshly worded, no explanation was given for the action. Screenshots of the notice were circulated on social media.

Sources familiar with the situation have pointed out that the incident was a result of the omission of the three characters of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name in an opinion article published in the newspaper. Ming Pao reported that on March 30, page 5 of People’s Daily contained a commentary article titled “Unity and struggle is the only way for the Chinese people to create greatness in history”. In the article, Xi Jinping’s name was erroneously missed from the sixth line of the seventh paragraph before the word “comrade.” The sentence, which should have started as “the Party Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping as the core…”, was instead misprinted as “the Party Central Committee with comrade as the core….”

According to the same source, the notice to stop delivering and destroy the newspaper was issued after an internal investigation. As the incident was made public and could cause adverse effects, it is expected that the editor and other responsible persons will be punished.

Source: Liberty Times (Taiwan), April 4, 2023
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/4260403

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Top Officials Will Report Work to the CCP Central Committee and to Xi Jinping

Xinhua News Agency reported on March 2 that, “According to the relevant provisions of the Party’s Central Committee, members of the Politburo; the Secretaries of the Party’s Central Committee Secretariat; members of the CCP committees at the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Council, and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC); and the Party Secretary of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate shall report to the Party Central Committee and to General Secretary Xi Jinping in writing every year.”

All these officials are at the State level or Vice-State level. There are 24 members (including Xi Jinping) in the party’s Politburo, 7 Secretaries at the Secretariat, 10 members at the Congress’s party committee, 10 members at the State Council party committee, 12 members at the CPPCC party committee, one party secretary of the Supreme Court, and one party secretary of the Supreme Procuratorate. Excluding overlapping counts, a total of 57 officials will report to the CCP Central Committee and Xi Jinping.

Source: People’s Daily, March 3, 2023
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2023/0303/c1024-32635242.html

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The CCP Provided a Downgraded Reception for Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou

Taiwan’s former President and former Kuomintang Chairman Ma Ying-jeou arrived in China on March 27 to worship his ancestors. Political observers take his reception in China as the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) countermeasure to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s trip to the U.S. at the same time.

Reports showed that the CCP provided a much lower level of reception to Ma than what he had expected:

  • The CCP called him “Mr. Ma Ying-jeou” instead of “President Ma Ying-jeou.”
  • Ma did not receive a “Presidential treatment” at the airport.   Ma’s team expected to see Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Politburo, a state-level official to welcome Ma there. Instead, Chen Yuanfeng (陈元丰), Deputy Director of the State Councils’ Taiwan Affairs Office, a Deputy-Ministerial level official, came to meet Ma at the airport.
  • Ma planned to bring six secret service agents, each with a gun and a bulletproof jacket and Ma himself would wear another (the seventh) bulletproof jacket. However, Beijing only allowed Ma and his guards to carry 3 guns, 2 bulletproof briefcases, and 3 bulletproof jackets. (meaning Ma would not be able to wear one). Beijing also didn’t allow them to bring any radio and anti-listening bug devices with them.

A commentator pointed out that the CCP treated Ma not as a former president, but rather as a former provincial governor, since it wanted to downgrade Taiwan to the level of a province.

Source:
1. Liberty Times, March 27, 2023
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/4252848
2. China Times, March 23, 2023
https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20230323004426-260407?chdtv

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Beijing Interfered in the Canadian 2022 Local Election

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reported that, last year, China’s Vancouver Consulate interfered in the election of Vancouver’s mayor and the election of its city council .

A CSIS report on January 10, 2022, summarized that Tong Xiaoling, then China’s Consul-General, discussed how to “groom” the Chinese diasporas to get political positions in order to advance Beijing’s interests. In the middle of November 2021, Tong said they needed to try all of their efforts to increase the minority’s vote ratio. She stressed this was necessary because candidates would rely on those votes (to be elected). Tong also expressed that they needed to get a specific person (Tong had her eyes on who to select, but the CSIS report didn’t disclose his name) to enter the Vancouver city council.

It appeared that the CCP had also interfered in the election of Vancouver’s mayor. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sanctioned Member of Parliament Michael Chong for criticizing Beijing, then Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart cancelled his meeting with the CCP diplomats and strengthened ties with Taiwan. Both Tong and the Chinese language media criticized Kennedy. Some Chinese language media called him the “Cold War Mayor.” In the  election for mayor, Kennedy lost to Chinese diaspora candidate Ken Sim by a small margin – 37,000 votes.

Source: Epoch Times, March 16, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/3/16/n13951845.htm

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The CCP’s New Control over the State Council and the People’s Congress

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) published a “(Communist) Party and State Organization Reform Plan (党和国家机构改革方案)” on March 16. The Epoch Times commented that the essence of the Reform Plan is to “strengthen the party central committee’s centralized and unified leadership,’” to further consolidate power under the CCP and to use the CCP’s organs to oversee and manage the state functions.

Item one of the plan is to establish the CCP’s Central Finance Committee (中央金融委员会) to “study and review major policies and issues in the financial field.” The CCP will dissolve the State Council’s Financial Stability and Development Committee (国务院金融稳定发展委员会) and move its responsibilities and place them under the office of the new party committee. Item two of the plan is to create the CCP’s Central Finance Working Committee (中央金融工作委员会) so as to “unify the party’s work in the financial field.” These two items set the structure for the CCP to define financial policies and manage work directly. The State Council will establish the Bureau of Financial Supervision and Administration (国家金融监督管理总局) as an execution vehicle.

Item three is to establish the CCP’s Central Technology Committee (中央科技委员会), to let the party “provide centralized, unified leadership” over the technology field, including resolving major strategic, directional, and overall issues, defining national strategic technological tasks and significant research projects, managing national labs, and coordinating military-civilian technology fusions.

Item four is to establish the CCP’s Central Social Work Department (中央社会工作部), to oversee the party’s development work throughout the whole country and in every economic structure (in the public and private sectors) and every industry. It also “provides guidance on working on people’s complaints (信访工作).”

Item five is to establish the Office of the (CCP’s) Central Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Work (中央港澳工作办公室), which also uses the name of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, but that state council office is no longer a separate office by itself.

Item six is to establish the National People’s Congress Representatives Work Committee (全国人大常委会代表工作委员会), which is responsible for allocating representative quotas and reviewing qualifications, directing and coordinating representative’s research work, managing representative’s proposals, and other related functions. Thus, the party is directly managing the congress representatives.

Source: Epoch Times, March 17, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/3/17/n13951999.htm

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Chinese City Announced Stoppage of Public Transit Operations

An Internet picture showed a notice from the Public Transit Company at Mohe City, Heilongjiang Province, announcing it would stop its public transit operations due to heavy financial losses. The notice said that it had not been able to make payments on its bus purchase loans, employee salaries, and electric fees on charging poles. Usually public transit companies rely on government funding to subsidize their low fare. The financial problem showed the local government had a severe shortage of money.

After the announcement, the city government contacted the company and settled the issue. The public transit operation did not stop.

Source: Guancha, February 13, 2023
https://www.guancha.cn/economy/2023_02_13_679622.shtml

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