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Taiwan TV Hostess Counter-statement against CCTV Hostess Went Viral on the Internet

A video showing a Taiwan TV hostess counter a statement that a CCTV hostess made went viral on the Internet.

Following China’s recent announcement of 26 additional measures “to further promote economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” a CCTV hostess stated in her program that the future of Taiwan is national unity and the fate of Taiwan is connected with China. At the end of her program, she said, “Wanwan (meaning Taiwan), please come home.”

On November 6, during a live broadcast, Taiwan’s “Times News” political commentary host Chen Ningguan imitated CCTV’s tone and humorously responded, “Xiangxiang (Hong Kong) is suffering from domestic violence. Please stop it. Both Xixi (Tibet) and Xingxing (Xinjiang) are under surveillance. Since Xiangxiang (Hong Kong) is subject to domestic violence, Wanwan (Taiwan) does not want to go home. Wanwan (Taiwan) is scared to see what is happening to Xixi (Tibet), Xingxing (Xinjiang) and Xiangxiang (Hong Kong). Wanwan (Taiwan) likes Internet freedom and does not like to climb the wall (break through Internet censorship.) Wanwan (Taiwan) is not Zhongzhong (mainland).” Chen’s response draw heated responses on the Internet. Some people posted “Wanwan (Taiwan) has our own home even though we have some garbage from Gonggong (mainland) at home. Xiangxiang (Hong Kong) is just like hell right now after it went back to the mainland. How does the mainland believe that Taiwan will be attracted back to the mainland?” One post said when “Gonggong (the CCP) is collapsed, Wanwan (Taiwan) will come home.”

Meanwhile many Taiwan politicians responded that they can clearly see the intent of the 26 measures that Beijing tried to introduce. Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president responded that the mainland wants to influence the election in Taiwan and force Taiwan to accept the “one country two system” policy. Taiwan’s response is, “It is impossible.”

Source: Aboluowang, November 9, 2019
http://www.aboluowang.com/2019/1109/1366924.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

The Epoch Times: CCP Relies on Heavy Lobbying in Europe

The Epoch Times recently reported that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has funded many think tanks and institutions and adopted savvy lobbying tactics across Europe in order to promote its agenda. However, the Europe Union (EU) has been watching the CCP’s actions.

Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Chairman and Founding Partner of Dezan Shira and Associates, which advises foreign investors on Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), reported, “China has devoted a large number of resources to lobbying the EU and influential persons connected with it.” “It has mapped out the entire EU structure and, via Embassies, managed to piece together a concise map of who is connected to whom and who is likely to be able to further China’s business interests.”

Beijing has also built up its lobbying experience in its investment push into Africa. In 2015, China bid on and won the Budapest-Belgrade railway project from Hungry and Serbia. China was likely to run it in the same way it ran the BRI projects. The EU then intervened, “insisting that the tender be monitored and subject to controls and regulations imposed from Brussels.” The EU’s involvement made it hard for Beijing to run the project as it desired. Therefore, Beijing adjusted its strategy and put more effort into lobbying the EU so that it could get more and better policy support and a green light for its business and other activities.

Malgorzata Jakimow, assistant professor of East Asian Politics at Durham University and Secretary of the Center for Contemporary Chinese Studies (CCCS), said, “China’s think tank networks are huge. They have been recognized by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the predominant tool for soft power.”

A report that the lobbying watchdog, Corporate Europe, published in April noted, “Often, conferences and seminars held in Brussels with a China theme receive Chinese Government sponsorship.” The report also listed dozens of organizations and networks scattered throughout Europe that have substantial ties to China.

Charles Parton, a former British diplomat to China and a senior associate for the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a defense and security institute, said that many Chinese-born academics in the West are cautious about what they can say because the CCP has control over the lives of their relatives back in China and over whether they can visit or return to China. “It would be quite dangerous for these people, for their health, and for their careers, to do anything but talk the party line.” Parton said he could think of one particular person who is frequently called upon to comment on the radio and speak to the media, but what he says is always purely the CCP Propaganda Department’s message.

Source: The Epoch Times, October 16, 2019
https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-belt-and-road-lobbying-push-into-europe-flies-under-the-radar_3113447.html

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RFA: China Shows Signs of Further Suppression of Religious Freedom

Radio Free Asia, (RFA)recently reported that China’s Zhejiang Province started implementing a new regulation on November 1. It requires that all domestic religious groups must “Sinicize.” This means that no foreign power can influence any religious locations or activities. Critics said the Chinese government frequently suppresses religious activities under the name of “collusion with anti-China forces.” This new regulation is only making things worse. The official Zhejiang provincial version of the regulation requires all religions to practice the Socialist Core Values. No individual or organization can intervene in the government’s legal, executive, or educational functions in the name of religion. The new regulation also requires the government to improve information systems that administer religious activities. No churches or priests in Zhejiang have accepted RFA’s requests for an interview.

Source: RFA, November 1, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/religion-11012019093329.html?encoding=simplified

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

A Chinese Dissident Founded an Anti-CCP Federation

Epoch Times held an interview of a Chinese political dissident, Mr. Wang Zhongyi (whose original name was Wang Rui). Mr. Wang founded a non-governmental organization called the World Youth Freedom Federation (世界青年自由联盟), with the goal of overthrowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Mr. Wang applied for political asylum in Taiwan when he visited there in 2014. He came to the U.S. in 2018 and registered the federation in April 2019. The organization has over 60 members.

Mr. Wang found that nobody, either inside or outside mainland China truly likes the CCP, but most of them are afraid of the party. “If you want to take on the CCP, the CCP will take you on. It can kill you even if you are outside China.”

To him, this is a twisted situation. It should be that the CCP in the U.S. itself feels scared. How is it that the anti-CCP people have the fear? To change the CCP, Mr. Wang called for the young to join his organization, which does not appeal to or recommend anything to the CCP. Instead it just wants to “overthrow the CCP.”

The organization has two major tasks: “Assistance” and “Protection.”

Many Chinese political dissidents face difficulties when they come to the U.S. as they don’t understand the U.S. system. The federation integrates the resources from its members to provide assistance to the newcomers in a number of areas including job search, school, immigration status, apartment rental, transportation, and even obtaining a driver’s license.

This will enable people to feel the benefits and warmth of the U.S. system. “Only then will they know to pass the warmth on to others and will they have time and energy to promote universal values.”

On the protection side, Mr. Wang thinks that the CCP’s propaganda has misled many dissidents, making them think that the CCP is very powerful. His organization will protect those anti-CCP people. Many young members of the federation have a license as an armed guard, so people don’t have to fear the CCP spies’ threats.

“Being anti-CCP is the responsibility (of our generation). Let’s not pass down the suffering to the next generation.”

Mr. Wang was grateful for the U.S.’ saving many Chinese, but he understood that the U.S. cannot bring all Chinese over. His responsibility is to make China the same as the U.S. He feels that more and more young Chinese who escaped to the U.S. share the same view. He wants his federation to become the key resource to stop the CCP’s overseas expansion and gradually contain the CCP’s influence within China; in the end he and his coworkers will go to China to fulfill their mission.

“We only want to overthrow the CCP. Then we will dissolve our organization.” Mr. Wang does not care who becomes the President after the CCP, because there can never be any regime worse than the CCP. The federation is to build up the power of the people but not to make the choice for the people.

Source: Epoch Times, October 1, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/10/1/n11559203.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

National Post: Host on Chinese-language Station in Toronto Fired for Criticizing the CCP

According to the Canadian news media, the National Post, a talk-show host on a major Chinese-language radio station in Ontario says he was fired because, while on the radio, he questioned a pro-Beijing community leader .

Mr. Kenneth Yau was an unpaid guest host on the Fairchild Radio’s AM1430 station. He interviewed Simon Zhong, head of the Toronto Community and Culture Centre on September 30. Zhong is considered a China ally. Mr. Yau pressed Zhong to explain how he could both be “100 percent Canadian” and also respect the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

After the show, many pro-China listeners complained to the Toronto station. A few days later, the station let Mr. Yao go, using the reason that his on-air style was “too loud.”

Mr. Yau said he has also challenged Beijing’s stance on the Hong Kong protests, prompting threats from listeners to kill his family and rape his daughter. He also defended Canada’s arrest of a Huawei Technologies executive.

Mr. Yau thought that the station felt pressure both from advertisers who had connections with China and relatively recent immigrants who grew up on the mainland under Communist rule and were more loyal to the regime than those who came earlier from places such as Hong Kong.

The incident underscores what many Chinese Canadians see as a troubling reality: most of the media catering to their community are loath to say anything critical of Beijing.

That includes self-censoring topics that the Chinese government considers taboo, such as discrimination against the Falun Gong and human rights in Tibet.

Another host, Anita Lee, on Fairchild’s AM1740 station was let go after expressing support for protesters in Hong Kong. She played Glory to Hong Kong, the rousing anthem that the demonstrators have adopted, an ode to freedom, democracy, and human rights. After a barrage of complaints, Ms. Lee returned to work. Fairchild said she had simply left to spend more time with her children.

Source: National Host, October 8, 2019
Host on Chinese-language station in Toronto says he was fired for criticizing Beijing

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Aboluowang: Buddhist Monks Required to Participate in National Day Patriotic Ceremony

Aboluowang reported that, on October 1, China’s National Day, Buddhist temples were required to put on patriotic performances while monks and nuns had to participate in the ceremony to pledge allegiance to the communist party. A video posted on the Internet showed that, on October 1, inside Guansheng Temple located in the Town of Liangbei in Yuzhou city of Henan Province, a group of monks led by the master along with the officials from the local religious and Buddhist Association, participated in the patriotic ritual ceremony. Holding the national flag in hand, the group of monks shouted patriotic slogans and sang patriotic songs to praise the “party” and the “motherland.” In another video, 16 nuns performed a dance accompanied by a patriotic song to “show their loyalty to the party and the patriotic spirit to the country.” In an official document that the “National and Religious Affairs Bureau” of Lushan City, Jiangxi Province, issued on September 5, the religious community was told that, during the national day celebration, that they need to organize a series of activities in a number of different forms, using their own personal experiences, to reinforce religious personnel’s “love for the party and the country” while firmly demonstrating their strong belief that they are “in consensus with the party.”

Source: Aboluowang, November 4, 2019
https://www.aboluowang.com/2019/1104/1364299.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xi Jinping’s New Book on the CCP’s Leadership

According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, on October 27, the Institute of Party History and Literature, a research body of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party, published general secretary Xi Jinping’s new book. The book, Ensuring the Party’s Leadership over All Work, contains over 70 “key discourses” from Xi’s speeches and other documents written between November 2012 and July 2019. A partial list of titles included are translated below:

Ensuring that the Party Has Always Been the Strong Leadership Core of the Cause of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,
Strengthening the Party’s Leadership in Economic Work,
Doing Propaganda and Ideological Work Better,
The Key to Doing a Good Job in Ethnic Work Is in the Party and in the People,
Strengthening and Improving the Party’s leadership in Literary and Art Work,
Implementing the Party’s Leadership in the Whole Process and all Aspects of Governing the Country by Law,
Ensuring the Party’s Absolute Leadership over the Army Is the Soul of a Strong Army.
On Strengthening the Party’s Leadership in United Front Work,
Social Organizations Must Consciously Adhere to the Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,
Ensuring the Party’s leadership in News and Public Opinion Work.
Ensuring the Party’s Basic Policy on Religious Work and Doing a Good Job in the New Situation,
Ensuring the Party’s Leadership over State-owned Enterprises Is a Major Political Principle,
Strongly Holding the Party’s Leadership over the Work of Colleges and Universities,
Strengthening and Improving the Party’s leadership in the Work of Agriculture, Farming, and in Rural areas,
Ensuring that the Control of Diplomatic Work Lies in the Central Committee of the Party,
Resolutely Shouldering the Political Responsibility of Developing Ecological Civilization.

Source: Xinhua, October 27, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/leaders/2019-10/27/c_1125158604.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics