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Social Stability

China’s ‘Designated Residential Surveillance’ System: Calls for Reform Amid Controversy

Southern Weekend, a magazine based in China, reported that the “designated residential surveillance” system in China has recently come under scrutiny due to multiple deaths and allegations of torture to extract confessions. Academics and experts are calling for reform of this practice.

Originally intended as a less restrictive alternative to detention, the “designated residential surveillance” system has evolved into a more severe form of custody. It gained popularity among investigators after 2012 when stricter regulations were imposed on detention centers, making it difficult to use coercive interrogation methods there. The “designated residential surveillance” system, being less transparent and more convenient, became a preferred tool, often misused.

Bian Jianlin, honorary president of the China Criminal Procedure Law Society, argues that this system has been controversial since its inception and should be abolished. He suggests reverting to the original non-custodial nature of residential surveillance.

Several legal experts informed Southern Weekend that the revision of China’s Criminal Procedure Law is still in the consultation stage, and the future of the “designated residential surveillance” system remains undecided.

Source: Radio Free Asia, July 22, 2024
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/jw2-china-house-arreset-07222024121739.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Chinese Investigative Journalists Expose Food Safety Scandal, Highlighting the Importance of Watchdog Reporting

An investigative report in China has exposed a dangerous practice in the food industry, where tanker trucks are used to transport both edible oils and kerosene without proper cleaning between loads. This revelation has sparked public outrage and prompted official investigations.

The report, published by Beijing News on July 2, was the result of a month-and-a-half-long undercover investigation by three journalists. It implicated major state-owned and private food oil companies, as well as chemical plants and transportation companies.

The lead investigator, Han Futao, is a veteran journalist known for his dedication to undercover reporting. His work has highlighted the importance of investigative journalism in China, with some saying that “five investigative reporters are worth 100 market regulators.”

The report has reignited public interest in investigative journalism, which has been declining in China due to worsening conditions for free speech. A 2017 report indicated that the number of investigative journalists in traditional media had decreased by 58%, with only 175 remaining at that time.

The expose has led to an outpouring of support from Chinese netizens, with many making donations to Beijing News to show their appreciation for the reporters’ courage in revealing the truth. This incident underscores the ongoing challenges faced by journalists in China and the public’s hunger for accurate, investigative reporting.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), July 9, 2024
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202407090354.aspx

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Socioeconomic Factors Behind the Decline in Marriage and Divorce Rates in China

An article circulated on Internet talked about how poor economic conditions in China have caused Chinese people to “freeze” (i.e. to not to make major life-style changes or life-changing decisions).

In the first quarter of this year, the number of marriage registrations nationwide was 1.969 million pairs, a decrease of 178,000 pairs from the same period in 2023. Meanwhile, the divorce registrations also decreased from 641,000 pairs in the same period last year to 573,000 pairs, a reduction of 68,000 pairs

What has caused the decline in both marriage and divorce rates? According to the article, the reason is the decline in people’s income and assets. In China, the most crucial hurdle preceding marriage is the purchase of an apartment. Usually, the three families (the young couple and both of their parents) pool their savings together to buy the “marriage” apartment. However, nowadays, despite government policies heavily incentivizing house sales (aiming to stimulate the stagnant Chinese housing market), people are not buying houses or apartment units (being afraid that the price will fall later).

As far as divorce is concerned, the issue of how to divide assets is pertinent. Here, too the sluggish housing market is at play; couples are unable to sell their houses at high prices, meaning that dividing up the couple’s assets for a divorce is difficult.

According to the article, the root cause of the “freeze” in social activity among Chinese people is the socioeconomic impact of a sluggish Chinese economy. This pertains to employees in various sectors of the economy:

  • Government Sector Employees: Central and state agencies are carrying out uniform 5 percent reductions in staffing.
  • Private Sector Employment: The Internet, semiconductor, and advanced manufacturing industries are all under pressure. Jobs at high-tech companies, which used to be good for job-hopping, are becoming less secure. The electric vehicle industry may seem promising, but in reality many EV companies face financial trouble; fierce competition makes EV companies lose money. Chinese industrial transformation, the impact of AI, and oversupply of talent will all have long-term impacts.
  • Finance Sector: the industry is experiencing widespread salary cuts.

Source: China News, June 29, 2024
https://news.creaders.net/china/2024/06/29/2747232.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

Two Incidents of Foreigners Being Stabbed in China Occurred in June

In June, two incidents of foreigners being stabbed in mainland China occurred. Chinese authorities claimed both were “isolated incidents,” but some analysts believe this is due to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fostering and encouraging anti-foreign sentiment among the public.

On June 10, four teachers from Cornell College in Iowa, USA, were stabbed by a 55-year-old local man named Cui while at Beishan Park in Jilin City, Jilin Province. The attacker has been arrested, and the four teachers have returned to the United States. On June 24, at a school bus station in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, a Japanese woman in her thirties and her son were stabbed by a 52-year-old unemployed man named Zhou while waiting for another child to return home from school. A Chinese woman, Hu Youping, who tried to stop the attack, was stabbed multiple times by the assailant and unfortunately died later.

At the time of the Suzhou incident, numerous anti-Japanese comments appeared online, with some even praising the assailant’s actions as patriotic. To preserve its international image, the CCP removed the anti-Japanese comments and shifted the media narrative from “Chinese person stabs Japanese mother and child” to “Chinese person bravely saves Japanese mother and child.”

Source:
1. Epoch Times, June 26, 2024
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/24/6/26/n14277745.htm
2. Radio Free Asia, June 28, 2024
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shehui/hx-06282024045244.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics Social Stability

Lianhe Zaobao: China’s Marriage Registrations Declined in the First Quarter

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that, according to statistics just released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of marriage registrations nationwide in the first quarter of this year was 1.969 million, a decrease of 178,000 couples compared with 2.147 million couples in the same period in 2023. The decline is significant, and it shows that the “compensation effect” after Covid-19 has gradually faded, and the number of marriage registrations is expected to continue to decline this year. He Yafu, a demography expert who has long tracked Chinese marriage registration data, said that due to the decline in the population of childbearing age, the number of marriage registrations in China has continued to decline for nine consecutive years since peaking in 2013. However, in the long term, due to the decline in the young population and changes in fertility concepts, the downward trend in China’s fertility rate and number of births will be difficult to fundamentally change unless strong fertility support policies are implemented in the future to address this challenge. The current Chinese economic environment is blurring the future of the young generation and is having an impact on their planning.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, June 17, 2024
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20240617-3938825

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

LTN: China’s Financial Industry Asks Employees to Give Up Deferred Bonuses

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that, since Chinese leader Xi Jinping launched the “Shared Prosperity” campaign, several companies in China’s financial industry have implemented strict new restrictions on their senior employees to coordinate with the Xi’s policies. The era of high salaries for Chinese financial workers is coming to an end. China’s largest financial groups have asked senior employees to forego deferred bonuses and, in some cases, return salary from several years ago to comply with a pre-tax annual pay cap of RMB 2.9 million yuan (around US$399,047). Some mutual fund managers are also facing pressure to return non-compliant wages from previous years. Chinese state-owned financial institutions such as China Merchants Group, China Everbright Group and CITIC Group have conveyed the above guidance to employees in some of their departments in recent weeks, people familiar with the matter said. Highly paid financial workers, including investment bankers and fund managers, have been denounced by Beijing as “hedonistic” for their extravagant lifestyles and are among the groups hardest hit by Xi Jinping’s “shared prosperity” campaign. It is unclear at this moment how many financial institutions are subject to the guidance. The incomes of most of the high-ranking financial managers are from deferred bonuses.

Source: LTN, June 27, 2024
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/4719200

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

Divided Reactions in China as Students Wave Palestinian Flags After College Entrance Exams

During China’s national college entrance examination on June 7th, multiple exam sites witnessed students waving Palestinian flags and expressing support for Palestine after leaving the exam rooms. Some students even actively approached media outlets to voice their stance. Police officers were also seen confiscating flags from some students, though no punishments were reported.

This occurred at exam sites across multiple provinces, including Hunan, Henan, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu and Jiangxi. Students raised Palestinian flags after exams, with some holding Chinese flags alongside. In Jiangsu, police confiscated flags from two students. At a youth music festival in Shaanxi, an audience member’s Palestinian flag was confiscated by security staff.

While no punishments of students were reported, the incidents revealed divides in Chinese society’s perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some believed that students should prioritize Chinese domestic issues, while others saw the students’ flag waving as aligning with Beijing’s official pro-Palestinian stance.

The student flag-waving sparked divergent reactions online. A plurality of online commentators expressed views that, since Chinese state-run media have been severely criticizing Western support for Israel, the students’ expression of solidarity for Palestine is merely following the Chinese government media’s “safe” (politically-correct) stance. Some speculated that the students are not acting independently but rather that there are forces orchestrating these students’ actions behind the scenes. Overseas Chinese who are critical of the Chinese government took the opportunity to mock the students, suggesting that they should go protest in Gaza themselves.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), June 10, 2024
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202406100181.aspx

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

The WOIPFG Submits List of 81,340 Individuals Suspected of Persecuting Falun Gong Practitioners to FBI

In April 2024 the “World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG)” submitted a list of “parties suspected of being involved in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners” to the FBI. The list named 81,340 individuals, including 9,011 officials, suspected of involvement in organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. These 81,340 individuals are affiliated with various levels of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committees, Political and Legal Affairs Committees, the “610 Office” anti-Falun-Gong security agency, military, armed police, public security, procuratorate, courts, justice, prison, hospital, and medical center systems.

The WOIPFG was founded in New York on January 20, 2003, to collect and investigate evidence of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. Since December 4, 2004, it has released 16 batches of data listing information about alleged persecutors. Wang Zhiyuan, the organization’s chairman, said that the list has a significant impact within the system of mainland China. He gave two examples of officials on the list requesting that their names be removed: One official from China’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee released all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners within his jurisdiction, and another one did some good deeds [to try and atone for having persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in the past]. The WOIPFG agreed to have their names removed from the list.

Source: Epoch Times, April 28, 2024
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/24/4/28/n14236046.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability