US-China Relations - 44. page

The US State Department announced on Friday, December 4, that it would terminate five exchange programs with China, one of which is related to Hong Kong.

These programs include the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the U.S.-China Friendship Program, the U.S.-China Leadership Exchange Program, the U.S.-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.

Such programs were conducted under Section 108A of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act (MECEA), which allows U.S. government employees to travel using foreign government funds.

The state department’s statement called these programs PRC funded propaganda programs disguised as “cultural exchanges.”

“While other programs funded under the auspices of the MECEA are mutually beneficial, the five programs in question are fully funded and operated by the PRC government as soft power propaganda tools. They provide carefully curated access to Chinese Communist Party officials, not to the Chinese people, who do not enjoy the freedoms of speech and assembly. The United States welcomes the reciprocal and fair exchange of cultural programs with PRC officials and the Chinese people, but one-way programs such as these are not mutually beneficial.”

Source: U.S. State Department, December 4, 2020
https://www.state.gov/termination-of-prc-funded-propaganda-programs/

On November 28, Di Dongsheng, Vice Dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University and Vice Director and Secretary of the Center for Foreign Strategic Studies of China, delivered a speech at a forum on the topic of the opening of China’s financial sector and the implications in Shanghai. In his speech, Di disclosed that, prior to 2016, China used its connections with Wall Street to influence U.S. political circles but has failed to do so under the Trump’s administration. He indicated that China will restore its ties again under Biden’s administration.

The event had a live audience and was broadcast live via Guan Video, the Chinese online video-sharing platform. Other participants at the event included Zhang Zhixiang, former President of the Asian Development Bank and former Director of the International Department of the Central Bank of the Communist Party of China; the State Council Development Researcher Ding Yifan, deputy director of the Center’s World Development Institute; and Yao Yang, dean of the National Development Institute of Peking University.

Below is a translation of a partial summary of the speech:

At 3:35 minutes: The Trump administration is in a trade war with us. So why can’t we influence the Trump administration? Why is it that, between 1992 and 2016, China and the U.S. used to be able to settle all kinds of issues  No matter what kind of crises we encountered, be it the Yinhe Incident, the (U.S.) bombing of the (Chinese) embassy in Belgrade, or the Hainan Island incident, things were resolved in no time. It was like (a couple) “fighting starting at the bedhead but ending at the bed end” [editor’s note: this is a Chinese Idiom meaning disagreements between a couple are usually resolved quickly]. Everything was fixed within two months. Why? Here is the smoking gun: we have people at the top of the America’s core inner circle of power and influence. We have our old friends.

At 4:33 minutes: Di told a story. In 2015, before Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S., the CCP needed to do warm up preparation work on public opinion. To help to build up the momentum, before Xi’s visit, the CCP wanted to hold a book release event for the first edition of the English version of Xi Jinping’s new book “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China.” Di was assigned the task to book the event and also be the host and guest speaker at the event. When Di contacted the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington to book the event, he was told that he had given too short a notice and the time slot was already booked. Di quickly found out that the owner of the bookstore was a Democrat, a former a journalist in Asia, and didn’t like the CCP. In the end though, the book release event was held at the time the CCP wanted because an elderly Jewish lady intervened. The lady spoke fluent Mandarin with a Beijing dialect. She told Di that she had Chinese citizenship, held Beijing permanent resident status and owned a Siheyuan (quadrangle dwellings) on Chang’an Street in the Dongcheng district. She was the president of the Asia region of a top financial institution.

At 9:30 minutes: For the past 30 to 40 years, we have been utilizing the core power of the U.S. As I said before, since the 1970’s, Wall Street had a very strong influence on the domestic and foreign affairs of the U.S. So we had a channel to rely on. The problem was that after 2008, Wall Street’s role declined. More importantly, after 2016, Wall Street couldn’t influence Trump,  … so during the U.S.-China trade war, they (Wall Street) tried to help. I know that my friends on the U.S. side told me that they tried to help but they couldn’t do much.

At 10:26 minutes: But now we see Biden was elected. The traditional elite, the political elite and the establishment … they are very close to Wall Street. So you heard it, right? Trump has been saying that Biden’s son has some sort of global foundation. Did you notice it? Who helped him (Biden’s son) to build the foundations? There are a lot of stories in all this.

Source:
1. Youtube, December 4, 2020
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwGLItcb498&feature=youtu.be
2. Epoch Times, December 6, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/12/6/n12599572.htm

On Tuesday December 1, at an online seminar that the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank hosted, Alex Wong, deputy assistant secretary of state for North Korea, said that China’s failure, if not refusal, to implement UN sanctions aimed at denuclearizing North Korea may be delaying the process.

The UN Security Council obligated all UN Member States to repatriate DPRK laborers by the end of last year. “China continues to host at least 20,000 DPRK laborers, who earn revenue that goes straight back to North Korea’s weapons development efforts. In fact, earlier this year Chinese authorities were making it easier for DPRK nationals to work in China, in complete violation of its UN obligations.”

“The Chinese government increasingly allows its companies to conduct trade with North Korea in a broad spectrum of UN-prohibited goods, including seafood, textiles, iron and steel, industrial machinery, transportation vehicles, and sand and gravel. Chinese companies transact with North Korean companies and establish UN-prohibited joint ventures with them. They even continue to conduct business with UN-designated North Korean entities and those operating on their behalf—including entities that play key roles in North Korea’s weapons programs.”

China also hosts no less than two dozen North Korean WMD and ballistic missile procurement representatives and bank representatives.

“In the past year, on 555 separate occasions, we have observed ships carrying UN-prohibited coal or other sanctioned goods from North Korea to China. On none of these occasions did the Chinese authorities act to stop these illicit imports. Not once.”

“400 of those voyages were North Korean-flagged vessels shipping coal to Chinese coastal waters. Most of these shipments go to China’s busy Ningbo-Zhoushan area, where the vessels are required to provide extensive information about their identity, origin, and destination to local authorities. These ships are not coming to China like a thief in the night. They are ringing the doorbell and literally announcing themselves. Yet the Chinese authorities have done nothing.”

“On another 155 separate occasions, Chinese-flagged coastal barges have sailed directly into North Korea, loaded up on UN-prohibited coal, and then carried the illicit cargo back to Chinese ports.”

Wong acknowledged that China has reduced its overall trade with the DPRK since 2017, and especially in 2020 due to COVID-19. “The remaining illicit, unreported trade that exists is significant and it is trending in the wrong direction. In no other country do we see this breadth and depth of continuing illicit commercial activity with North Korea, the scale of which puts China in flagrant violation of its obligations.”

To help expose sanctions evasion activities by North Korea, the US State Department has, since June 2019, offered up to a $5 million reward for information on such activities.

According to Wong, the State Department on Tuesday launched a website specifically dedicated to such information.

“Today, the State Department is launching a new website, DPRKrewards.com, through which individuals across the globe (can) provide information to our rewards for justice program on DPRK sanction evasions,” he said.

Wong argued that removing or easing sanctions on North Korea now would only weaken the reasons for North Korea to consider denuclearization faithfully.

“Chinese leaders are asking us to build the frame of a house, even furnish it, without laying the foundation first,” said Wong.

Source: U.S. State Department, November 30, 2020
https://www.state.gov/deputy-special-representative-for-north-korea-delivers-keynote-address-at-csis-conference-on-north-koreas-economy/

In June of this year, the US Department of Justice received a financial statement from China Daily, which showed that over the past three and a half years, China Daily paid a total of nearly US$19 million in advertising and printing costs to different US media. In the past six months alone, China Daily has invested nearly US$2 million in advertising in the US media. From May to October this year, China Daily spent more than US$4.4 million in printing, distribution, advertising and administration. Of the money paid, more than US$85,000 was spent on advertising with The Wall Street Journal, US$34,000 was spent on the Los Angeles Times; and US$100,000 was paid for advertising in the Foreign Policy Magazine. In addition to advertising fees, China Daily also pays a high printing cost to many newspapers.

The financial statement disclosed that China Daily paid to open a “China Watch” column on the inside pages of two newspapers to publish commentaries on China’s economy, culture and geopolitics. The Wall Street Journal has a website that China Daily funds. It is simply a reprinted version of “China Daily,” carrying articles such as Beijing’s handling of COVID 19 as well as articles that criticize US officials because they blame the Chinese government for misleading the West and causing the virus to spread throughout the world. In August this year, some newspapers cut off their ties with China Daily. For example, the Washington Free Beacon disclosed that the New York Times quietly ended its partnership with China Daily.

In February of this year, the U.S. State Department listed China Daily, the Xinhua News Agency, the China Global Television Network, China Radio International, and the overseas edition of People’s Daily as “foreign agents” because China has direct control over them and they are part of the CCP’s propaganda machinery.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 23, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/propaganda-11232020111312.html?encoding=simplified

On November 18, U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, published a majority report entitled, “The United States and Europe: A Concrete Agenda for Transatlantic Cooperation on China,” to advance greater collaboration between the United States and Europe on the challenges that China poses.

Risch’s counterparts from the EU and the U.K Foreign Affairs Committees are Member of the European Parliament David McAllister, chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Member of Parliament Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, who joined him in the release of the report. Jamie Fly, senior fellow and senior advisor to the president at The German Marshall Fund of the United States moderated the event.

Risch stated, “Legislatures in free and open nations must step up and do our part to protect our freedoms and uphold the interests and values that nations on both sides of the Atlantic share. It is my hope that this report and event are just the starting point as we continue to chart a cooperative path forward on China.”

David McAllister said, “The transatlantic partners are facing similar challenges as regards China: unfair trade practices, cyber security, disinformation and the pursuit of geopolitical and technological dominance.”

Tom Tugendhat added, “It is clear to policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic that we’re seeing active attempts by the Communist Party of China to undermine the rules based system and rewrite the code of global exchange. We need to back our values and invest in our allies to defend our interests, and that means a coordinated response. The peace and prosperity of the last 70 years is based on the values of freedom that matter to us; together we can defend them.”

“Just as the United States and its European allies have tackled so many other challenges together, hopefully leaders on both sides of the Atlantic will follow this report’s advice and find common approaches to ensure that China does not further threaten the prosperity and security of Americans and Europeans,” said Jamie Fly.

Source: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, November 18, 2020
https://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/chair/release/chairman-risch-publishes-report-discusses-greater-transatlantic-cooperation-on-china-with-parliamentarians

According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post on the 13th, after the US presidential election, China and the United States restarted their stalled behind-the-scenes diplomacy. This semi-official communication channel is usually through former officials, think tanks and business leaders. A Chinese government consultant revealed that semi-official exchanges between China and the United States have been suspended in recent months, but they have now resumed. Professor Wang Xiangsui of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics revealed that several people close to Biden have recently contacted China and discussed with Chinese think tanks how to restart Sino-US relations.

Wang Xiangsui said that the message from the Biden camp is positive. The message sent by the Democrats visiting China is that China and the United States should avoid a Cold War or direct conflict. Both parties must learn how to manage their differences and find ways to coexist. A Chinese government adviser had previously met Kurt Campbell and Jake Sullivan from the Biden camp. He said that in the past few years, some former Democratic Party officials have visited Beijing many times.

Source: China Press, November 16, 2020
http://www.uschinapress.com/static/content/SZ/2020-11-16/777859594532954112.html