Government/Politics - 63. page

Sharri Markson, the host of the Australian media, Sky News, reported that a major leak has occurred. The leak contains a register with the details of nearly two million Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members – exposing members who are now working all over the world. The leak also lifts the lid on how the party operates under Xi Jinping. Ms. Markson said the leak is a register with the details of Communist Party members, including their names, party position, birthday, national ID number and ethnicity. “It is believed to be the first leak of its kind in the world,” the Sky News host said. “What’s amazing about this database is not just that it exposes people who are members of the communist party and who are now living and working all over the world, from Australia to the US to the UK,” Ms. Markson said. “But it’s amazing because it lifts the lid on how the party operates under President and Chairman Xi Jinping.” Ms. Markson said the leak demonstrates that party branches are embedded in some of the world’s biggest companies and even inside government agencies. “Communist party branches have been set up inside western companies, allowing the infiltration of those companies by CCP members – who, if called on, are answerable directly to the communist party, to the Chairman, the president himself,” she said. “Along with the personal identifying details of 1.95 million communist party members, mostly from Shanghai, there are also the details of 79,000 communist party branches, many of them inside companies.” Ms Markson said the leak is a significant security breach likely to embarrass Xi Jinping. “It is also going to embarrass some global companies who appear to have no plan in place to protect their intellectual property from theft, from economic espionage,” she said. Ms. Markson said the data was extracted from a Shanghai server by Chinese dissidents, whistleblowers, in April 2016, who have been using it for counter-intelligence purposes. “It was then leaked in mid-September to the newly-formed international bi-partisan group, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China – and that group is made up of 150 legislators around the world. “It was then provided to an international consortium of four media organizations, The Australian, The Sunday Mail in the UK, De Standaard in Belgium and a Swedish editor, to analyse over the past two months, and that’s what we’ve done.” Ms. Markson said, “It is worth noting that there’s no suggestion that these members have committed espionage – but the concern is over whether Australia or these companies knew of the CCP members and if so have any steps been taken to protect their data and people.”

The Chinese Newspaper Epoch Times further identified that the list also included members who worked for the 610 office (an extrajudicial entity set up specifically for the purpose of persecuting Falun Gong).

Sources:
1. Skynews, December 13, 2020; The Epoch Times, December 16, 2020
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6215946537001
2. The Epoch Times
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/12/16/n12623600.htm

According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, as of November this year, the total number of full-time and part-time registered teachers of ideological and political theory courses in higher education institutions in the country exceeded 100,000, an increase of nearly 60 percent since 2015. This represents an average annual growth rate of 14.4 percent.

Liu Guiqin, an official with the Ministry of Education, stated that the ideological and political courses in Chinese universities will “deepen the reform and innovation” during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period. It will also further strengthen these courses by focusing on “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”

In 2019, at a national conference, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, emphasized the importance of ideological and political courses.

Since the 2018 launching of “Marxist theory” as an undergraduate major in universities nationwide and the implementation of the “Special Plan for the Training of Reserve Talent for Ideological and Political Courses in Universities,” the total number of undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students who have the major of “Marxist theory” across the country has exceeded 62,000.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 3, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/kejiaowen/bx-12032020152936.html

The U.K. Daily Mail reported that a leaked database revealed that loyal members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have conducted a massive infiltration of British consulates, universities and some of the UK’s leading companies.

The database was originally leaked on the Telegram, the encrypted instant messaging app. Then in September a Chinese dissident passed it to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), which comprises more than 150 legislators around the world who are concerned about the influence and activities of the Chinese government.

The leaked database of 1.95m registered party members reveals how Beijing’s malign influence now stretches into almost every corner of British life, including defense firms, banks and pharmaceutical giants.

According to a report from The Epoch Times, an analysis of the database further revealed that the list included members who worked for the 610 office (an extrajudicial entity set up specifically to persecute practitioners of Falun Gong).

Sources:
1. U.K. Daily Mail, December 14, 2020.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9046783/Leaked-files-expose-mass-infiltration-UK-firms-Chinese-Communist-Party.html
2. The Epoch Times, December 16, 2020.
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/12/16/n12623600.htm

On December 5, “The 14th Five-Year Plan and a Powerful Country in Thought—the 3rd Forum on the International Influence of China’s Think Tanks and the 6th Symposium on the Construction of New Types of Think Tanks” was held at the Renmin University of China. More than 200 well-known think tank scholars, social elites and media professionals gathered together to discuss strengthening the international influence of think tanks, enhancing the global distribution of Chinese think tanks and promoting an effective way to build a community with a shared future for mankind by means of a country that is powerful in thought.

Liu Yuanchun, vice president of Renmin University of China, pointed out in his opening speech that the Chinese communist Party’s “14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 Vision” put forward new requirements for “newly improved national governance efficiency” and “newly improved social civilization.” The vision also proposed the research direction and mission for the work of Chinese think tanks in the new era. To this end, the Forum concluded that Chinese think tanks in the new era should increase China’s international influence in the dissemination of results, promote international cohesion in the setting of initiatives, and form international synergy in the implementation of plans.

Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng also delivered a keynote speech.

Source: China News, December 6, 2020
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2020/12-06/9355352.shtml

In internal documents that the Epoch Times obtained, the CCP reveals that it has been using winter or summer camps or writing contests in the name of what it calls “culture exchanges” as its propaganda outlet to strengthen its united front work. United front work has, as its purpose, influencing people and organizations inside and outside of China to support the CCP. Below is a list of examples.

1. Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation used the “2020 online summer camp” as a propaganda tool. In the internal document from Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation, it stated that facing the sudden outbreak of COVID 19, some countries started to attack China. Therefore “we have integrated topics such as China’s experience, plan and role in combating COVID 19 into the activities at the summer camp.” According to the consolidated list of camper information, the Hebei Friendship Association in Australia and England and the North American Youth Federation sent 202 students to the 6th session while Madrid Overseas Chinese and Wenlin Chinese Culture School sent 194 students to the 7th session.

2. On November 3, 2020, the Zhangjiakou Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese organized the 21st World Chinese Student Composition Contest in Zhangjiakou City which attracted over 3,800 High school students to the contest. The Zhangjiakou Overseas Chinese Federation requires that the schools and teachers mobilize the children of the returned overseas Chinese and high school students to participate in the competition in order to “inspire students’ patriotic sentiments.” The theme was to “promote Chinese culture” but the contents mostly involved praising the CCP and its efforts to combat COVID 19.

3. On November 29, 2019, the Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation issued an invitation letter to the “Panama Overseas Chinese and the Chinese Association for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China” and invited 19 youths from the association to participate in the 10-day “Seeking Roots Journey” winter camp. The Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation and Handan Overseas Chinese Federation paid for the activities, training, accommodations, transportation, and visits. One of the activities in this camp was to visit several of the CCP’s former revolution bases.

4. From June to September 2019, the Hebei Overseas Chinese Federation organized three sessions of the summer camp with a total of 134 participants. The Federation of Canadian Chinese Associations, the National Chinese School Association in U.S., and the Spanish Chinese and Western Culture and Art School sent students to participate in the 10-day “Seeking Roots Journey” summer camp.

5. Documents from the Handan Overseas Chinese Federation revealed that the organization has strengthened ties with overseas Chinese organizations, businessmen and leaders. It has established contacts with more than 100 overseas organizations including the British Hebei Association, the Chilean Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Tanzania Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Australian Hebei Chamber of Commerce, the Russian Hebei Chamber of Commerce, and the South American Confucius Institute. The Handan Overseas Chinese Federation also set up an official wechat account to “allow the overseas Chinese to hear the “voice of the party” and enable them to increase their political identification with the “Party’s ideology” and spread “China’s voice.”

6. Since 2019, the CCP has conducted in-depth investigations to compile a database of overseas Chinese who were originally from Ningxia, Shandong, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Guizhou and other provinces. It is believed that CCP will use the database to recruit spies or monitor overseas Chinese activities.

Source: Epoch Times, November 27, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/11/27/n12579842.htm

On November 16, the Halifax International Security Forum (HFX), a think tank based in Halifax, Canada, published a Handbook for Democracies to support a shared understanding of the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to freedom around the world. The title of the Handbook is China vs. Democracy: The Greatest Game.

“The year 2020 witnessed a paradigm shift in the democratic world’s understanding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” said Peter Van Praagh, HFX President. “The 2020 paradigm shift in people’s attitudes toward China was a concrete change from the old conventional wisdom that an economically vibrant China would progress toward more freedom for its people, to the new conventional wisdom that the Chinese Communist Party is, in fact, the virus that endangers the world.”

The report said, “HFX spent the past decade calling attention to the challenge China poses through panel discussions at our annual Forum in Halifax. It was not until 2020, however, with the emergence of the global coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan, China, and all the uncertainty that accompanied it, that people around the world began to understand the real threat—to our supply chains, to international organizations, to the open exchange of information, to the protection of confidential information, and to freedom of the seas and skies.”

To compile the report, HFX, between February and October 2020, conducted in-depth interviews with more than 250 global experts and policy-and decision-makers.

The report states, “Accordingly, the PRC is intent on undermining democracy abroad. While the CCP continues to target democracies such as the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, India, Japan, and Australia, it is Hong Kong and Taiwan that stand on the front-line of the PRC’s global assault on democracy; their very existence as democracies now hangs precariously in the balance.”

The report also states, “The PRC has committed to modernizing its military while growing bolder and more assertive geostrategically—and not just in Asia. What may sometimes look like innocent and incremental steps risk developing into a pattern that, in a decade or two, could transform the balance of military power as well as the relevance of alliances and partnerships among democracies.”

The report calls on the world’s democracies saying that they “must pursue a carefully considered yet robust push back—a push back that Xi’s China has brought upon itself. The CCP must recalibrate its global ambitions and step back from its ongoing assault on the world’s democracies.”

The handbook also features a set of principles that HFX will champion around the world to defend the values that underpin democratic societies. At the end of the handbook, it placed a list of practices that undermine its values and way of life and that the democratic world should defend itself from doing:

Ignoring China’s attempts to interfere with democratic societies;

Submitting to, collaborating with, or participating in any censorship or self-censorship of ideas, writings, artistic endeavors, or statements related to the People’s Republic of China;

Participating in any business or technology-related practices or exchanges that aid and abet Chinese Communist Party oppression of its own people;

Neglecting to oppose attempts by the People’s Republic of China to bring global governance of the internet and technological standards into alignment with its own authoritarian values and ambitions;

Supporting or engaging in any kind of punishment or sanction of anyone for engaging in criticism of china;

Failing to support democratically-minded people and governments around the world who the People’s Republic of China pressures or intimidates;

Knowingly buying or trading in Chinese products or services made with forced labor, or that are the result of criminal activities like counterfeiting or intellectual property theft.

Source: Halifax International Security Forum, November 16, 2020
https://halifaxtheforum.org/hfx-publishes-handbook-for-democracies-to-meet-china-challenge/