US-China Relations - 45. page

An internal document that Epoch Times recently obtained shows that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China as “hostile forces” “to contain and to block.”

The document that the Foreign Affairs Bureau of Leizhou City, Guangdong Province, issued on April 5, 2018, was titled, The “Working Plan for Guarding against and Combating Hostile Forces’ Infiltration and Destructive Activities in order to Maintain Political Security.”

The plan identifies the focus of “preventing and combating hostile forces” from the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China and lists the details of the methods.

According to the internal documents, the priority is to “prevent the penetration of and destruction by the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China.”

The “objective is to counteract the internalization, personalization, and agency of the U.S. and Western embassies and consulates in China in their infiltration activities and to block them effectively from communicating with key political persons, lawyers, ‘public intellectuals,’ ’rights defenders and specific interest groups,’ and to sever their ties and break their network, in order to compress their penetration space, reduce their penetration energy, and defeat their penetration scheme.”

The Leizhou Foreign Affairs Bureau listed several implementation measures. “Cut off any connections between the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China and with key [Chinese] figures in the country. Strengthen intelligence and early warnings, find out about the infiltration activities of the U.S. and other Western consulates in Guangzhou in a timely manner and use various methods such as reminders, warnings, striking, and other methods to discourage relevant [Chinese] figures from participating in the activities to such an extent that the U.S. and other Western consulates in Guangzhou ‘cannot connect, cannot enter and cannot make things happen.’”

In addition to these measures, the Foreign Affairs Bureau also directed “to establish a database of key personnel of the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China. Use big data to collect background information about activities and the whereabouts of relevant personnel [diplomats].”

Source: Epoch Times, October 16, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/10/12/n12471193.htm

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the previous U.S. strategy of peacefully transforming China has apparently failed, so now the United States has started to worry that the Chinese scholars and students can be used as weapons against the U.S. As part of the Trump administration’s overall Chinese strategy, the U.S. government has been speeding up its radical process of delinking with China. Due to the pandemic and the change of Chinese students’ choice of destination, as well as the changes in U.S. policies, this June’s number of U.S. student visas granted to Chinese students was eight, and another eight Chinese applicants were granted visiting scholar visas. The same numbers in June of 2019 were 34,001 and 5,736, respectively. With the new restrictions imposed on the academic exchanges between China and the U.S., the opportunities for the United States to better understand the complex Chinese society will significantly decline. If Washington continues its policies, it will lose the capabilities to influence China in many areas like the economy, the financial system, public health, environmental protection, education and cultural exchanges.

Source: Sina, October 16, 2020
https://finance.sina.com.cn/wm/2020-10-16/doc-iiznctkc5875586.shtml

TOEFL, the Test of English as Foreign Language, is an important test for foreign students to take in order to study in the universities in the U.S. China’s official TOEFL test site recently opened the first wave of registration for the 2021 TOEFL test. People were shocked to find out that the slots from January to August for test centers in Beijing and Shanghai were gone in the first 5 minutes. However, later on, the China TOEFL site assured the test takers that more seats would be released later on every Wednesday and Friday.

Chinese netizens commented that the media inside of China constantly attack the U.S. but the TOEFL test slots were still taken in the first 5 minutes. Many Chinese high ranking officials, diplomats or spokesperson send their daughters and sons to study in the U.S. People joked that it is because “Slandering America is their job but living in America is their life.”

Source: Liberty Times Net, October 17, 2020
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3324266

The local public security bureau officers questioned a Chinese citizen from Chongqing city for placing an online order for American flags.

On October 2, after President Trump tested positive for COVID 19, a group of Chinese citizens in Chongqing city wished to express their support for Trump. They planned to have a gathering with American flags in the background, take pictures, and then post them on the Internet. On October 6, the officers from the local public security bureau questioned Huang Yang, who was in charge of ordering the American flags, for four hours. They asked Huang about ordering American flags and threatened him. It was obvious that the public security bureau taped the conversation of Huang Yang with his friends and that was how they learned about the information. Huang challenged the officers and asked why the authorities were scared when he only placed an online order for American flags. He wondered which law he violated. Some local residents who knew about the story joked that for the evil CCP regime, the American flags are talisman that will drive away any ghosts. They thought, “Since they are afraid, why don’t we buy more?”

Source: 6do.news, October 10, 2020
https://6do.news/article/3272651-61

On October 2, following the news that President Trump and the first Lady tested positive for COVID 19, China’s official Youth League Weibo account organized a live video group chat session titled, “The Virus Finally Found the Person who Understands it the Best” and encouraged the followers to post comments that are related to the word “懂” (“understand”). The live chat used a popular Chinese song titled, “He doesn’t know” to insinuate that Trump doesn’t know China. Trump often says that no one understands China better than he does, so those pro-CCP youths in China have given him the nick name, “King of Understanding” because of it. During the session, there were comments that cheered the news, but there were also comments criticizing the youth league for hosting the chat session. At the same time, the official Weibo account of the Political and Legal Committee also joined the live video chat.

In a 51 second video, a number of comments had the word “understand” in it. There were also people posting comments such as “(Trump contracting COVID 19 is) China’s National Day gift.” Another comment was, “It’s okay, two more bottles of disinfectant please.” At the same time, people posted complaints about the live video comment session. One person wrote, “I hope you can understand the meaning of these things that the CCP Youth League has issued.” “Your cheer on this side of the ocean gave voters on the other side of the ocean a chance to share the same hatred, stupid as a pig” “Once again it challenged the bottom line of my understanding of human moral values.”

Since the news of Trump contracting COVID 19 first appeared, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs basically repeated diplomatic rhetoric. The Ministry openly cheered about the news, also fearing that it would further harm Sino-US relations. So the youth league hosting a live video group chat session became a channel to guide the opinion of the younger generation and let the pro-CCP youths express their hatred against the U.S. The Youth League’s Weibo and Zhihu accounts have gained popularity among young people in China since they use the internet pop culture. They have become a public opinion tool for the CCP to disseminate its propaganda information targeting the country’s youth.

Source: Epoch Times, October 5, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/10/5/n12454878.htm

In October, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a first-of-its-kind Homeland Threat Assessment. The report mentioned major threats that countries such as China and Russia pose, including cybersecurity and foreign influence. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf called China a long-term strategic threat to the United States.

The report stated that the United States faces potential threats that China poses in terms of cyber security, foreign influence, and supply chains.

On October 6, Wolf tweeted, “The most long term strategic threat to Americans, our Homeland, and our way of life is the threat from China.”

The report said, “China already poses a high cyber espionage threat to the Homeland and Beijing’s cyber-attack capabilities will grow.”

“Chinese cyber actors will, almost certainly, continue to engage in wide-ranging cyber espionage to steal intellectual property and personally identifiable information (PII) from U.S. businesses and government agencies to bolster their civil-military industrial development, gain an economic advantage, and support intelligence operations. China possesses an increasing ability to threaten and potentially disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure.”

DHS expects China’s cyber operations against U.S. companies to focus on critical manufacturing, defense, the industrial base, energy, healthcare, and transportation sectors.

“Chinese operatives probably are waging disinformation campaigns using overt and covert tactics—including social media trolls— to shift responsibility for the pandemic to other countries, including the United States.” “Since August 2019, more than 10,000 suspected fake Twitter accounts with suspected ties to the Chinese Government have been involved in a coordinated influence campaign.”

On the 2020 U.S. presidential election, “China likely will continue using overt and covert influence operations to denigrate the U.S. Presidential Administration and its policies and to shape the U.S. domestic information environment in favor of China. China will further use its traditional ‘soft power’ influence toolkit—overt economic measures and lobbying—to promote U.S. policies more aligned with China’s interests.”

China will also “seek to cultivate influence with state and local leaders directly and indirectly, often via economic carrots and sticks such as informal and legal or social agreements that seek to promote cultural and commercial ties. Chinese officials calculate that U.S. state- and local-level officials enjoy a degree of diplomatic independence from Washington and may leverage these relationships to advance policies that are in China’s interest during times of strained relations.”

In terms of economic security, “China and Russia will continue to represent the top threats to U.S. supply chain security, given the sophisticated intelligence and cyber capabilities they can use to infiltrate trusted suppliers and vendors to target equipment and systems. Criminal actors also will engage in efforts to compromise supply chains, with such methods as inserting malicious code in a third party’s software to conduct operations against firms that use the software.”

The report identifies China’s threat in U.S. supply chains of medical products. DHS is “targeting illicit Chinese manufacturers who produced and disseminated fraudulent or prohibited COVID-19 PPE and medical supplies to the United States. This has resulted in the seizure of over 1,000,000 FDA-prohibited COVID-19 test kits and 750,000 counterfeit masks.”

“China is collecting information on U.S. supply chain shortages and is using the COVID-19 crisis to build additional leverage with the United States. … China could exploit future shortages of critical supplies by conditioning their provision on U.S. acquiescence in other matters important to Beijing.”

On academic institutions and research, “China—which has mobilized vast resources to support its industrial development and defense goals—will continue exploiting U.S. academic institutions and the visa system to transfer valuable research and intellectual property (IP) that Beijing calculates will provide a military or economic advantage over the United States and other nations.”

“China will remain the leading source of U.S. trade policy violations. Actions by China-based criminal organizations will continue to present the principal challenge to U.S. enforcement of trade laws and policies in the year ahead, despite progress in U.S.-China negotiations aimed at addressing this issue.”

Wolf told CBS during an interview that the China threat “cuts across a variety of different threats, from the cyber threats we see, from foreign influence, to supply chain security, to exploiting our academic and visa systems, foreign investment here in the U.S., trade policy violations and the like.” He said, “It goes on and on and on. …”  “Just across the board, threat after threat stream, we see China playing a very significant and enhanced role really trying to do the U.S. some long-term harm.”

Source: Voice of America, October 7, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/dhs-homeland-threat-assessment-china-20201007/5612461.html

On October 2, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy manual to “address inadmissibility based on membership in or affiliation with the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party. Membership in or affiliation with the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party is inconsistent and incompatible with the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America, which includes pledging to ‘support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.’” The policy also states that “unless otherwise exempt, any intending immigrant who is a member or an affiliate of the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate), domestic or foreign, is inadmissible to the United States.”

The past immigration laws have regulations on the immigration of Communists and members of totalitarian political parties. The latest guidelines mainly indicate that the requirements of the federal immigration law must be strictly enforced. They clearly stipulate that Communists and related personnel should be prevented from obtaining immigration or permanent resident status in the U.S.

It has been reported that some Chinese immigrants and students studying in the U.S. have gone through the procedures to withdraw from the Communist Party through relevant means. Such means include proving proof that they have withdrawn from the Communist Party through a newspaper.

Since the beginning of this year, the conflicts and disputes between the U.S. and China over issues such as the trade war, COVID 19, Huawei, and Hong Kong have escalated step by step. In addition, in recent years, many Chinese scholars and international students have stolen U.S. technology secrets, forcing the U.S. to launch a series of espionage cases. Sanctions contain the gradual tightening of visas for certain individuals and international students. In early July, citing violations of human rights, the U.S. Department of the Treasury added four Chinese officials, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, to the sanctions list, banning them from entry into the U.S. and freezing their assets.

Washington’s recent sanctions target not only high-ranking officials in the Chinese government, but also personnel from key companies and organizations. U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo stated on July 15 that the U.S. will “impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally.” Prior to this, the U.S. began to impose visa restrictions on China’s official media reporters. At the beginning of June, the U.S. also announced that it would no longer issue graduate visas to international students related to the Chinese military, and that visas already issued will also become invalid.

Source: Voice of America, October 3, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/USCIS-new-policy-guidance-indamissiblity-based-on-party-membership-20201003/5607582.html