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US-China Relations - 27. page

Beijing’s Anti-American Korean War Movie Hit North American Big Screens

The Chinese war movie, “The Battle at Lake Changjin” opened in late November in a limited theatrical release in North America.

The Korean War film was released by CMC Pictures with English subtitles in more than 20 selected theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Dallas, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and a few other cities across North America.

Deutsche Welle reported that the film has raised anger in South Korea, with the public calling it “propaganda filled with historical inaccuracies.” South Korean former diplomat Ra Jong-yil called the film “nonsense” and “a whitewashing” and accused it of attempting to reshape the narrative of events during the Korean War.

The movie, a state propaganda to instigate anti-American sentiments amid the tension between two countries, was released in mainland China around National Day holiday.

Source: Xinhua, November 11, 2021
http://www.xinhuanet.com/ent/20211111/e0d97351280848ff890db6789f1594df/c.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Global Times Chief Criticized the U.S. in Its Annual Meetings

Global Times recently reported, in the coverage of its own Annual Meetings, that its Editor in Chief Hu Xijin said the attitude of the United States towards China this year is very bad. Hu complained about the timing of Biden’s Democracy Summit and also about the Biden Administration’s continuation of most of Trump’s anti-China policies. Hu also said that Biden has spurred more radical anti-China attitudes in more Western countries. A number of challenges seem to be increasing. With regard to the Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan issues, the world has also seen that confrontations are intensifying. Hu complained that he and the Global Times have become a target for repeated attacks from the United States, from Taiwan and from the Hong Kong separatists. He also said, on the Internet and in the media, that an international public opinion war is actively going on. Hu thanked the attending guests at the Global Times Annual Meetings under the risk of Covid-19, and he was determined to win the fight against the “political meeting” of the U.S. Democracy Summit.

Source: Global Times, December 11, 2021
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/45wMYnErpeQ

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: The U.S. Pushes 6G Alliance; Excludes China

Xinhua recently reported that, last year, the United States wooed its allies into establishing a 6G “small circle” alliance , excluding China. This year, the U.S. has been strengthening the cooperation among allies in a variety of new ways. The alliance’s key tasks mainly include the establishment of a 6G strategic roadmap, the promotion of 6G related policies and budgets, and the global promotion of 6G technologies and services. At present, dozens of global information and communication industry giants such as Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, and Nokia have joined the club, but leading Chinese 5G companies Huawei and ZTE have been excluded. Chinese scholars expressed the belief that it is understandable, since the purpose of the Alliance is to fix the leadership position of the United States in the upcoming 6G era. Ever since the founding of the Alliance, the U.S. has continuously strengthened its technical cooperation on a government level in the 6G field with Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other countries. This is the latest attempt to “overtake” in the 6G field and regain the global dominance in the communications industry, and to contain China. For example, in April, The U.S. and Japan announced a joint US$4.5 billion for 6G development. In June, South Korea announced a Korea-U.S. joint research program with US$188 million in funding. Samsung U.S. Research Center already received FCC approval of 6G bands. 6G technology is expected to have several to several hundred times better performance than 5G. It includes multiple delivery channels and includes satellite connectivity. The U.S. Alliance and its exclusion of China will inevitably lead to a division in global 6G technical standards.

Source: Xinhua, December 8, 2021
http://www.news.cn/mrdx/2021-12/10/c_1310363619.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

The Chinese Foreign Ministry Asked U.S. Businesses and Local Officials to “Work on” the Biden Administration

On November 30, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng held a virtual conference with representatives from the U.S. business community, state and local governments. the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China), AmCham Shanghai, the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC), and representatives of America’s state and local governments in China, who all attended the dialogue.

At the meeting, Xie explicitly asked the business community and local governments to influence and work on Biden Administration to advance Beijing’s agenda.

Xie said, “We hope you will continue to play a unique and important role, speak out for what is right, and encourage the U.S. administration to follow a sensible and pragmatic China policy and to stop waging a trade war, industrial war or technology war and stop creating confrontation or conflict over values, ideology or geopolitics.”

On trade and economic relations, Xie added, “I hope you can work on the Biden administration to lift the tariff hikes, stop suppressing and sanctioning Chinese businesses, and create a level playing field for Chinese and American businesses.”

Xie also asked the meeting attendees to work on the one-China policy and the Beijing Winter Olympics. “I hope you will use your influence to urge the U.S. administration to truly abide by the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués and honor the true one-China policy, which should not be altered, distorted or negated.  . . . Boycotting the Olympic Games for political reasons would harm the interests of athletes and go against the common aspiration of the international community. Beijing will host the Winter Olympics next February, and Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics in 2028. China and the United States need to support each other and jointly honor the Olympic spirit of solidarity, friendship, fair play and mutual understanding. In this regard, I count on positive contributions from the U.S. business community as well as states and cities.”

Source: Chinese Foreign Ministry website, November 30, 2021
http://new.fmprc.gov.cn/web/wjbxw_673019/202111/t20211130_10459101.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Wall Street’s China-Concept Stocks Plunged across the Board

Well-known Chinese news site Tencent News recently reported that, with the SEC announcement of the regulatory details and the news of Didi’s delisting, on December 3rd, 243 of the over 280 China-concept stocks in the U.S. market fell. More than half them dropped by over five percent, 87 stocks dropped by over ten percent, and 33 stocks dropped by over fifteen percent. Some of the star China-concept stocks lost around 20 to 30 percent in value. Even large companies like Alibaba dropped by 8.23 percent. Since President Trump signed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act into law in December, 2020, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has been working closely with the SEC on implementation details of the law to ensure foreign companies entering the U.S. capital market will abide by U.S. auditing rules. Currently only China and Hong Kong have not allowed overseas securities regulatory agencies to conduct investigations directly, or to use evidence collection and other activities within the territory of China. The Chinese laws also forbid Chinese companies or individuals from providing documents and materials required by overseas auditors without prior authorization. The newly released U.S. regulatory details may directly lead the China-concept companies to delist from the U.S. stock market.

Source: Tencent News, December 4, 2021
https://new.qq.com/omn/20211204/20211204A0AGSN00.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Amazon Chinese Sellers Suffered the Worst Black Friday

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that, on November 30, Amazon’s “Black Friday” came to an end. This year’s market has disappointed Chinese sellers quite a bit. An international e-commerce company in Shenzhen said, “Last year’s Black Friday, we had US$1.5 million in sales on the Amazon platform, but this year sales fell to US$900,000.” However, compared with the Chinese sellers that Amazon blocked directly, the sellers who can still do business on Amazon are considered lucky. Cindy Tai, Amazon’s Vice President of Asia Global Selling, revealed that, in the previous five months, Amazon closed the sales rights of about 600 Chinese brands, involving about 3,000 accounts of these brands, including some large sellers.

These sellers have repeatedly abused the comment function. After numerous warnings, Amazon decided to terminate its relationship with these sellers. Based on past data, those who could really make money during big promotions like Black Friday are often the strong and powerful sellers. This year, however, quite a few top Chinese sellers were forced out of the game early on. Several large Chinese sellers, all with 2020 annual revenues above US$500 million, were removed from Amazon due to the counterfeiting of product reviews. It has been noticeable that many of the sellers are now increasing their investments in other platforms like Wal-Mart and eBay.

Source: Sina, December 2, 2021
https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/1644119190/61ff449602001ulev

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources US-China Relations

China Released a White Paper called, “China: a Democracy That Works”

The United States will hold its first Summit for Democracy on December 9 and 10. It invited 110 countries, citizen groups, and individuals to attend. Taiwan was invited – not President Tsai Ing-wen, but Hsiao Mei-chin, Taiwan’s Representative to the U.S. and Councilor Tang Feng will attend. China and Russia were not invited.

On December 4, China’s State Council Information Office released a White Paper “China: Democracy That Works” and held a press conference.

The White Paper called China’s development a “whole process people’s democracy.” “China’s development of this whole-process people’s democracy not only has complete systematic procedures, but also has complete participation.  … It makes each part and each aspect of the country’s political life and social life reflect the people’s will and to listen to the people’s voice. It effectively prevents the phenomena of making empty promises (to please voters) at the time of election, but without any follow up after the election.” (Note: the last sentence was a criticism of the Western style of democracy.)

Xi Jinping first brought up the term “whole process democracy” when he visited Shanghai on November 2, 2019. It seemed that Xi was trying to define “China’s democracy,” which had been criticized as a “hollow slogan.”

China’s White Paper also stressed the diversity of democracy – “There are multiple ways to implement democracy and it can’t be seen as one-size-fits-all.” “Assessing the political systems of other countries against a single yardstick and forcing other countries to copy a single country’s political structure and democracy model are in themselves undemocratic. It does not have people’s support and is doomed to fail.”

Foreign reporters asked whether “China and the U.S. are in a fight for the discourse power of democracy” since China published this democracy White Paper right before the U.S. Summit for Democracy.

Xu Lin, Deputy Minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department and Director of the State Council’s Information Office responded by blaming the U.S. for imposing its standard for democracy on other countries and creating a mess in its own domestic management while still pointing fingers at other countries.

Source: BBC, December 4, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-59532643

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics US-China Relations

Global Times: U.S. Poll Said Over Half of Americans Think China Is the Biggest Threat

Global Times recently published a commentary on the well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES), saying a Ronald Reagan Institute poll showed that over half of Americans see China as its top threat, rather than Russia or any other country. The majority of Americans, on a bipartisan basis, are concerned about the possibility of war breaking out between China and the United States. The institute compared the results with what Americans thought about a number of issues in 2018. The results showed that, for the first time, most Americans see China as the greatest threat. When asked which country they think poses the greatest threat, 52 percent of Americans pointed to China, while only 14 percent said Russia. In 2018, only 21 percent of Americans thought China was the top threat, while 30 percent thought it was Russia. In 2021, 44 percent of Democratic supporters hold this view. For the Democratic Party, this is a sharp upward trend, because in February of this year, only 20 percent of Democratic supporters agreed with this view. Among the respondents to the poll, 20 percent expressed concerns about trade and economics, 19 percent expressed concerns about China’s military development, and 17 percent expressed concerns about so-called “human rights violations.” The institute’s final report pointed out that these worries are closely related to concerns about potential military conflicts between China and the United States. Around 71 percent of Americans expressed concern about this. Among them, 66 percent are Democratic supporters and 79 percent are Republican supporters. On the other hand, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out earlier that, in fact, the United States is the biggest threat to the world. Global Times expressed the belief that, apparently, the U.S. domestic inciting propaganda has worked.

Source: Global Times on NetEase, December 1, 2021
https://www.163.com/dy/article/GQ53TNF805504DP0.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations