US-China Relations – Page 26

Cui Tiankai: The United States Is Bound to Contain China, China Must Be Fully Prepared

According to the official website of the China Institute of International Studies, on December 20th, Cui Tiankai, the former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and former ambassador to the United States, attended the 2021 International Situation and China’s Foreign Affairs Conference jointly organized by the China Institute of International Studies and the China Foundation for International Studies . Cui delivered a special speech regarding the development of Sino-U.S. relations.

Cui Tiankai pointed out in his speech that Sino-US relations will remain tortuous and turbulent in the future, and China must be fully prepared for this. “The historical stage of the current Sino-U.S. relations status will continue for some time. The United States will not willingly accept the rise of a big country with a very different social system, ideology, cultural traditions and race.

Cui said that The United States is bound to do everything possible to suppress China. China must be fully prepared and not fight battles without full confidence, nor engage in emotional or exhaustive battles.

Source: Sina, December 22, 2021
https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2021-12-22/doc-ikyakumx5610514.shtml

Briefings | | January 7, 2022 | US-China Relations

Hu Xijin: We Cannot Do Anything to Intel Right Now; We Will Retaliate in the Future

Chinese media discovered on December 21 (2021) that, on its official website, Intel Corporation of the United States publicly requested that its supply chain not use any labor or purchase any products or services from Xinjiang, China. Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of the Global Times, commented, “Intel dares to do this because it has very few Xinjiang products in its supply chain and its CPU is still in demand in China at the present time. It is therefore not too worried about retaliation from the Chinese side …”

Hu Xijin said that the Chinese must have both heart and vision. We have to fight tit for tat with the United States, but there is no need to get overly caught up in them. We need to focus more on the domestic agenda. For a business like Intel, let’s take out a small notebook and write down the bad things it does. The stronger China becomes, the better we will be able to retaliate against them.

Source: Sina, December 22, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/2021-12-22/doc-ikyamrmz0440856.shtml

Briefings | | January 6, 2022 | US-China Relations

A Chinese Student at Yale Called on the School to Reflect on its Ethics in Investing in China

VOA reported that Yale Daily News, the oldest college newspaper in the United States, published an article that a Chinese student wrote. (His name was protected so that his family members in China would not be endagered). The article, titled, “Where is Peng Shuai,” suggested that people should not forget about Peng Shuai as the (Chinese Communist Party) regime has gone rogue; it no longer bothers even with keeping up a façade of protecting human rights.

More importantly, the article asked Yale to reflect on whether its investment in China is ethical. “Despite having a significant Chinese portfolio, which includes top-earning tech companies like Tencent and JD.com, the Yale Investments Office currently has no publicly available ethical policy specific to China; nor has it reviewed any ethical implications.”

“Shouldn’t we be legitimately concerned that Yale’s Chinese portfolio might create a conflict of interest between placating parties close to the CCP and using Yale’s influence to advocate for Chinese people’s human rights? Additionally, what has prevented Yale, while profiting from China, from just releasing a statement acknowledging that human rights abuse allegations even exist?”

“The Yale endowment needs to do some soul-searching. We are demanding answers to these questions, because we have a right to know whether our University that claims to uphold both ‘light and truth’ is playing an unethical role in perpetuating some of the worst human rights abuses in modern history – and whether our institutional integrity remains intact when doing the right thing is hard.”

Source: VOA, January 4, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/yale-chinese-student-pengshuai-20220103/6380863.html

Briefings | | January 5, 2022 | US-China Relations

U.S. Mainstream Media Silent on Their Interview of China’s Ambassador to the U.S.

Radio France Internationale reported on December 28 that Qin Gang, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, recently accepted a joint interview with some mainstream media in the United States. However, in the past few days, there has not been a single media report in the United States on the interview.

According to the official website of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, on December 20, Ambassador Qin Gang accepted a joint interview with the editors-in-chief and senior reporters of many mainstream media in Washington. The Bloomberg Innovation Economic Forum organized the interview in English in the form of a “fireside chat.”

The Chinese Embassy posted the interview content on its homepage and translated it into Chinese. The article emphasized that “all the content may be reported, and used as a background.” The Chinese media also highlighted Qin Gang’s remarks on Taiwan and how he discussed the United States provoking China on the Taiwan issue.

While the media inside China widely reported the interview, they questioned why none of the U.S. mainstream media reported the interview, including those who participated in the interview. “Why did they collectively lose their voice?” At least one commentator thought that the U.S. media did not want merely to reiterate Qin Gang’s propaganda.

Sources:

Radio France Internationale, December 28, 2021
https://tinyurl.com/2p8wa9t2

ifeng.com, December 29, 2021
https://i.ifeng.com/c/8CNA4TZ5PKR

Chinese Embassy to the United States, December 24, 2021
http://www.china-embassy.org/dshd/202112/t20211224_10475267.htm

Briefings | | December 29, 2021 | US-China Relations

LTN: Chinese Diplomat Banned on Facebook; Sought an Explanation

Well-known Taiwanese Newspaper Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that Zhang Heqing, a Chinese diplomat in Pakistan, tweeted on December 22nd that both his Facebook account and page were disabled. He asked Facebook for an explanation. Zhang also said he believes Facebook will never give him a reason as per security and safety reasons. He commented on Facebook’s Twitter account and said, “I need an answer.” However, since China blocks the public from using Twitter and Facebook, netizens also bombarded Zhang’s tweet. Some questioned why he had a Facebook account when the Chinese government has banned the use of Facebook. Some asked, “Didn’t China block Facebook first?” Some tried to find out: “What are you doing on Facebook when you prohibit your people from freely using this same platform?” Some complained saying, “My posts about Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong on Weibo and WeChat have also been deleted, and I was not given a reason either.” Some hoped Zhang would be blocked by Twitter too, just like Facebook.

Source: LTN, December 23, 2021
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3777406

Briefings | | December 27, 2021 | US-China Relations

Subnational Infiltration: Using Western Countries’ Local Governments to Counter the State’s Policy

The Voice of America (VOA) published an article that discussed two research reports exploring the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) subnational infiltration of Western countries. According to the reports, in a systematic way, the CCP takes advantage of the pluralistic and decentralized nature of the Western political system to rope in and encourage local governments to confront and dismantle, at the sub-national level, their state’s negative policies toward China. The VOA called it “encircling the cities from rural areas,” a military strategy that the CCP used to win the civil war in China in the late 1940’s.

In the U.S., the CCP’s strategy is to bypass Washington and to target the governors, mayors, and non-governmental organizations directly. The purpose is to foster a positive connection between Beijing and the local officials or organizations.

The two reports refer to the “All Over the Map” strategy. This strategy addresses the Chinese Communist Party’s “subnational Interests in the United States” as reported by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) and the “Big fish in small ponds strategy,” which is China’s subnational diplomacy in Europe” as discussed in an article by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).

The FDD report states that China has a long history of trying to influence local governments in the United States, including through events and forums that promote U.S.-China relations and friendship cities (or sister cities), Internet forums, governors’ forums, and other examples. Though at the national level, the U.S., holds a critical attitude toward Beijing, the National Governors Association expresses positive descriptions about Beijing.

The MERICS article pointed out that, within the five biggest member countries of the European Union – Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland, local governments have established 146 partnerships with the CCP. In many situations, Beijing or its entities can sign investment or cooperation treaties with Europen cities or regions, which usually do not need the central government’s participation.

Source: VOA, December 7, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-subnational-diplomacy-20211207/6343105.html

Hot Topics | | December 23, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

Pandemic: COVID Spreads to Xi’an

COVID-19 continued spreading in China. The National Health Commission reported 100 cases on December 22, among which, 71 were local residents and the rest were carried in from overseas. Xi’an city, Shaanxi Province reported 63 cases. The CCP is known for hiding information, so the actual infection count is unknown.

Xi’an city had infection cases for several days. Authorities locked down certain areas and then conducted testing for all residents in Xi’an. They found infection cases outside of the lockdown areas – meaning the virus could still spread. The authorities locked down more areas and started the second round of testing the whole city. The authorities also stopped long-distance buses and forbade taxis and mobile-app taxis from going into high-risk areas or going out of the city.

US-China Relations - 26. page