US-China Relations - 121. page

On June 18, 2013, Huanqiu (the Chinese edition of Global Times) published an editorial responding to U.S. former vice president Dick Cheney’s hint that Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations, is a possible Chinese spy. According to the article, the Chinese government should not hand Snowden over to the United States because it fears trouble. The U.S. does not have any evidence to prove that Snowden is a Chinaese spy. If the Hong Kong government does not extradite Snowden, it will not lose any points on the moral level. Except for the extradition treaty with Hong Kong, the opinions that the U.S. releases cannot hurt China. The editorial suggested that Chinese reporters contact Snowden more and publicize the information in his hands around the world so as to put Snowden himself at the center of public opinion and lead public attention away from the American politicians’ accusations. The U.S. government will thus be discouraged in demanding Snowden’s extradition in the face of surging discussions of the secrets he released.

It is very practical for the U.S. government to drag the Chinese government into Snowden’s case so as to turn the public’s anger toward the U.S. government into dissatisfaction with the Chinese government. China will feel pressured but does not need to be too nervous. So far, the United States has not openly pressured the Chinese government publicly on the case, which, according to the editorial, is good enough for the Chinese government.

Source: Huanqiu, June 18, 2013
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2013-06/4035403.html

On June 10, 2013, China Gate and several other overseas Chinese websites in the U.S., Canada, and Australia published Shujie Yao’s article titled, “Xi Jinping’s Diplomatic Strategy to Deal with the U.S.: Using 12 Chinese Language Characters (3 four-character phrases) to ‘Nail down’ the United States.”
 
Shujie Yao, a Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham in the UK, gave high praise to Xi Jingping for being smart in the way he obtained the 2-hour “intimate” meeting with U.S. President Obama on June 7, 2013.  The 12 Words for the Diplomatic Strategy are: 1) Use the diplomacy of showing off his wife’s beauty; establish China’s first lady’s image.  2) Allow someone to be free so as to be successful in apprehending him later: ignore the U.S. in Xi’s first overseas trips for the purpose of winning U.S. attention. 3) Rescue the kingdom of Zhao by besieging the capital of the kingdom of Wei: To solve the problems in Asian Pacific areas, China must gain wide support from Africa, South Asia, Latin America, Russia, and other countries first. Then, China will have enough energy to negotiate effectively with the U.S. and with Eastern Asian countries.

[Editor’s note: The reference to Zhao is about a well-known Chinese stratagem to let the enemy fully commit himself against his prey, and then, instead of rushing to the rescue, attack the enemy’s dearest possessions.]

Source: China Gate, June 10, 2013
http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2013/06/10/2446069.html
http://www.neixun.cn/sanshiliuji/sanshiliuji_yingwen_02.htm

In an article published on June 4, 2013, Huanqiu expressed its unhappiness with the United States’ accusations about China’s cyber attacks against the U.S.  Hunqiu warned of the potential danger to security that eight specific American companies may have brought to China. The companies are Cisco, IBM, Google, Qualcomm, Intel, Apple, Oracle, and Microsoft. The article compared these eight companies to the Eight-Power Allied Forces, the aggressive troops that Britain, the United States, Germany, France, tsarist Russia, Japan, Italy, and Austria sent to China in 1900 and said that the eight companies are even more dangerous in a time of crisis.

The writer made three suggestions about how to restrict the power and freedom of these eight companies in China.

Source: Huanqiu, June 5, 2013
http://mil.huanqiu.com/paper/2013-06/3998303.html

In the report, "Strategic Assessment 2012," published on May 28, 2013, in Beijing, China’s military think tank, the Research Center for Military Defense Policy at the Academy of Military Science (AMS), pointed out that, in accelerating its Asia-Pacific "rebalancing" strategy, the United States has a clear intention of targeting China. This has added a lot of variables to China-U.S. relations, but the possibility of a complete confrontation between the two countries remains modest. 

On May 22, 2013, the People’s Daily website launched a column called “The Dishonest Americans Series.” The series invited Chinese to write about their unhappy experiences in the United States. The following is the Editor’s note introducing a complaining article titled “U.S. Refuses to Apologize after Insulting Passengers.”

“From the editor: Most Chinese people think that Americans are honest, reliable, and righteous. However, once you live in that country for a while, you may discover the descriptions above are a bit misleading. Today’s topic on “The Dishonest Americans Series” does not refer to all Americans. We want to disclose some incidents and Americans we have encountered so as to provide a more objective picture of what the U.S. and Americans are really like.”

Source: People’s Daily, May 22, 2013
http://usa.people.com.cn/n/2013/0522/c241376-21564627.html
http://usa.people.com.cn/n/2013/0522/c241376-21564657.html

People’s Daily republished an article reporting on the United States’ recent developments in cyber war preparation. The article said, “Cyberspace has become an entirely new battlefield. In this new battlefield, the U.S. military was the first to wake up and the first to take action. Therefore it has benefited the most.” “It is the same as in physical space, the U.S. military has adopted a series of measures to maintain its leading edge in cyber warfare capabilities. This year, the U.S. Cyber Space Command substantially expanded its capacities, announced that it established 40 global cyber warfare combat forces, secretly implemented cyber warfare rules, and launched the "Tallinn Handbook" via NATO with the intention of using it as the International Code of cyber warfare. The U.S. military markedly speeded up the pace of cyberspace internationalization.” 

People’s Daily published a commentary supporting the Chinese student who criticized Joe Biden, Vice President of the United State, for the comments he made about China.

On Monday, May 13, 2013, Biden spoke at the commencement ceremony of the University of Pennsylvania. About China, Biden said, “You CANNOT think different in a nation where you cannot breathe free. You CANNOT think different in a nation where you aren’t able to challenge orthodoxy, because change only comes from challenging orthodoxy.” Zhang Tianpu, a Mainland Chinese student and graduating senior at the ceremony, felt insulted and wrote a letter to Biden demanding an apology. As of May 22, the letter had collected over 300 signatures.

State media published reports about Zhang. For example, a People’s Daily commentary stated that Biden’s self-righteousness is typical of American pride and prejudice. “The young Chinese are, in general, full of confidence in China’s situation and development. … China is walking its own path and that represents the confidence of young Chinese. This confidence is particularly valuable for the future of China and should be highly commended.”

Some Chinese newspapers and netizens thought differently. Nanfang Daily commented, “The Chinese student asked for an apology, ‘challenged orthodoxy,’ and ‘breathed freely,’ and moreover, he loved his motherland in an orthodox manner, but it reminds us of the classic joke about the former Soviet Union.” There was a popular joke in the former Soviet Union. A visiting U.S. Secretary of State told Brezhnev that people in the U.S. can criticize the U.S. President in front of the White House. Brezhnev replied, “So what? The people in the Soviet Union can also criticize the U.S. President in front of the Kremlin."

On weibo (Chinese version of twitter), some netizens urged Zhang to bring the U.S. style criticism back to China  and “breathe freely.” Others complained about Internet control in which the authorities delete their posted comments on these topics.

Sources:
Huanqiu, May 23, 2013
http://world.huanqiu.com/exclusive/2013-05/3961235.html
People’s Daily, May 24, 2013
http://www.people.com.cn/24hour/n/2013/0524/c25408-21594797.html
Nanfang Daily, May 23, 2013
http://tinyurl.com/o4dgr75
Weibo, May 24, 2013
http://weiba.weibo.com/10015/t/zy9s058OQ; http://weiba.weibo.com/10015/t/zy9s058OQ

The International Herald Leader (IHL), which is under Xinhua, recently published a commentary stating that the United States has exaggerated its “China Threat” theory by identifying several "weapons" ranging from military threats to security threats and the economic threats. The article alleges that China’s normal development and Chinese products, technology, or companies have all become targets of the U.S. “China Threat” theory.

IHL lists a few such "weapons": “The Report on China’s Military Power,” China’s anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) as represented by Dongfeng-21D, the 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test, China stealing U.S. nuclear technology, “Chinese State owned communications companies that threaten U.S. national security by acquiring U.S. companies,” cyber attacks by Chinese hackers, and the Chinese RMB exchange rate.

Source: International Herald Leader, May 9, 2013
http://ihl.cankaoxiaoxi.com/2013/0509/205800.shtml