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Epoch Times: Ten CCP “Wolf-Style” Diplomatic Events That Backfired in 2019

Epoch Times listed ten diplomatic events in 2019 in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tried to coerce the world but got slapped in the face in return.

  1. The NBA Incident: After the Houston Rockets Manager Daryl Morey’s words, “Fight For Freedom, Stand With Hong Kong” were posted on Twitter, Beijing blocked NBA and Rockets games in China. However, the U.S. media and politicians overwhelmingly criticized the CCP for trying to control Americans’ freedom of speech. The CCP quietly toned down its voice and restarted broadcasting certain NBA games.
  2. South Park: The South Park cartoon TV program is known for its dark humor. The 2nd episode of its 23rd season was called “Band in China” (meaning “banned in China”). It touched many CCP taboos including camps in Xinjiang, organ harvesting, quitting the CCP, self-censored media, and Hong Kong protests. Beijing banned this episode. South Park then issued a fake, sarcastic apology, “Like the N.B.A., we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn’t look just like Winnie the Pooh at all.”
  3. Hong Kong Protests: The CCP blamed U.S. diplomat Julie Eadeh for supporting Hong Kong protesters and exposed information about her husband and children in the newspaper in August. The U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus called the CCP a “thuggish regime.” The CCP also tried to prevent the U.S. from passing the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” but the U.S. Congress passed it with overwhelming support and President Trump signed it into law.
  4. Joshua Wong at the Italian Congress: The Italian Congress invited Joshua Wong, a student activist and Secretary-General of the pro-democracy party Demosistō, to give a speech at an online conference. The China’s Embassy in Italy claimed on Twitter that inviting him to the Italian politicians’ conference was an irresponsible act. Italian politicians and media uniformly criticized the CCP for interfering in their affairs.
  5. Huawei at Faroe Islands: In November, Feng Tie, China’s Ambassador to Denmark, threatened Bárður Nielsen, the Primary Minister of the Faroe Islands. He said that if they would not sign up Huawei with a 5G contract, they would have no chance of getting a free trade agreement from China. Many politicians from Denmark criticized the CCP and expressed that they would protect Denmark and its autonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.
  6. Prague’s Sister City: On October 7, the Czech Republic’s capital city of Prague decided to end its sister city relationship with Beijing because China requested it to acknowledge the “one China principle,” acknowledging only the Communist regime but not Taiwan. Beijing retaliated in several ways. It cancelled the Czech’s performance troupes’ tours. The Czech Republic criticized Beijing for interfering in its affairs.
  7. Huawei in Canada: On January 17, 2019, Lu Shaye, then China’s Ambassador to Canada, stated at a news conference that there would be “consequences” if the Canadian government prohibited Huawei from providing 5G network equipment to Canada. Ralph Goodale, the Canadian Minister of Public Safety responded that Canada would not yield to Beijing on national security issues.
  8. The “Potter King” Incident: Taiwan Internet Celebrity “Potter King” hosted a show with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and posted it on YouTube. Papitube, a media company in China, which signed “Potter King” for China’s market demanded that he remove the posting from YouTube since he called her “President.” “Potter King” answered that if he can’t call his President the “President” (because if the CCP’s rule), he’d rather not to make money from China. He said, “From the beginning, I have never kneeled down (to the CCP).”
  9. The Kong Linlin Incident: On September 30, China Central Television reporter Kong Linlin slapped a U.K. Conservative Party member at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham. After the incident, Beijing called Kong the victim who was “personally attacked.” On November 29, the Birmingham Court ruled that it was Kong who was guilty.
  10. The Michael Gui Award: Michael Gui is a Swedish citizen who lived in Hong Kong and published books opposing CCP leaders. Beijing arrested him 2015. In early November this year, the Swedish PEN announced it was awarding him the Tucholsky prize. Gui Congyou, China’s Ambassador, requested of Amanda Lind, the Swedish Culture and Democracy Minister, not attend the award ceremony, threatening that Beijing would take “counter measures” against Sweden and prohibit her from entering China. Mrs. Lind still attended the event. Stefan Lofven, the Swedish Prime Minister stated, “We are not going to give in to this type of threat. Never! We have freedom of expression in Sweden and that’s how it is, period.”

Source: Epoch Times, December 20, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/12/20/n11735005.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics US-China Relations

DW Chinese: China Performed Precise Blockage during Democratic Presidential Debate

Deutsche Welle Chinese Edition recently reported that the Chinese government performed a precise blockage of the online real-time streaming of the latest Television Debate of U.S. Democratic Party Presidential Candidates. At around 9:00 PM, the official online video streaming went “black-screen” in China, without warning. At that very moment, PBS moderator Judy Woodruff was asking Mayor Pete Buttigieg about whether boycotting 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was the right response to China’s detaining Uighurs in Xinjiang, China. Mayor Buttigieg responded by accusing President Trump of not doing enough about China’s human rights records. The online streaming in China was blocked for about nine minutes, during which time the debate also focused on the Hong Kong movement, the South China Sea situation, and China’s military ambitions.

Source: DW Chinese, December 20, 2019
https://p.dw.com/p/3V9Go

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Trump’s Twitter Response after Impeachment Was Widely Reported in China

Beijing News quickly reported that, after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, the U.S. President posted a picture to respond. He tweeted as soon as he completed his speech at a Michigan rally with a picture in which he pointed out to his supporters that, “In reality they’re not after me. They are after you. I’m just in the way.” Trump indicated in the Michigan speech that the impeachment was “illegal, unconstitutional, and partisan.” He called his supporters to “drive Pelosi out of office.” The Republicans have been accusing the Democrats of attempting to overturn the Trump administration because they could not accept the 2016 presidential election result. However, the Democrats said they were just defending the Constitution. {Editor’s comment: The Trump pictorial twitter response was widely reported and republished in Chinese official media, including in Beijing News, Beijing Daily, Global Times, iFeng, China.com, Tencent News, Sohu, Sina, and others.}

Source: Beijing News, December 19, 2019
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/world/2019/12/19/663954.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

China’s Domestic Software Push Is Hard to Implement

Taiwanese online news site Storm recently reported that China’s central government established a three-year plan to replace all foreign hardware and software in the entire government system. Although the Chinese government did not confirm the existence of such a plan, the news was verified via multiple channels. It is relatively easy for the Chinese government to switch entirely to Chinese vendors like Lenovo, which is a preferred supplier today anyway. However, nearly all software in use today in the government system was designed to run on either Microsoft Windows or Apple MacOS. It is expected to be very challenging to replace U.S. made operating systems and the day-to-day software packages that run on top of them. Chinese domestic operating systems attempted this in the past decade or two and failed multiple times. There are hardly any software developers who are willing to develop for the domestic operating systems. Analysts expressed the belief that the new policy will have a major impact on the Chinese IT industry. However, the private sector may not go along with the government to replace IT environments. Even in the hardware space, with strong domestic vendors’ support, it is very hard to overcome the fact that critical components like CPU and memory are almost all made outside of China.

Source: Storm, December 9, 2019
https://www.storm.mg/article/2041930

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Oriental Daily: Hong Kong Businessman Refused Entry to U. S.

Primary Malaysian Chinese language newspaper Oriental Daily recently reported that only a few days after Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, a wealthy Hong Kong businessman with Mainland background was refused entry to the United States once his private jet landed in the U.S. The well-known pro Mainland Hong Kong newspapers Takungpao and Wenweipo both publicly confirmed that their reporters also face U. S. Visa restrictions. One of the primary points of the new U. S. Hong Kong Act was that the U. S. Government be authorized  to refuse entry, restrict visas, and freeze assets of certain individuals who obstruct Hong Kong freedom. Hong Kong democracy activists said the new bill is a major milestone and they will work actively with local residents to come up with recommendations to add to the U. S. blacklist. They are also working with law makers in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, and Germany to pass similar laws.

Source: Oriental Daily, December 3, 2019
https://www.orientaldaily.com.my/news/international/2019/12/03/317194

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

Chinese’ Companies Default Problems

On December 6, Epoch Times’ YouTube Channel “Crossroads of the World”  had a discussion on companies in China that are defaulting on their debt.

Host Tang Hao listed the following recent default cases in China:

  • October 24, Xiwang Group Company Limited, China’s largest corn oil producer, was unable to pay back its 1 billion yuan (US $140 million) short-term bond.
  • November 11, Guirenniao, a Chinese sneaker company could not pay its 500 million yuan bond.
  • November 19, Dongxu Optoelectronic Technology Co Ltd, China’s largest LCD glass substrate manufacturer, couldn’t pay its 2 billion yuan debt.
  • November 27, Xiwang Group couldn’t pay another debt of 861 million yuan.
  • December 2, The Beijing University Founder Group, the largest college-owned enterprise in China, defaulted on a 2 billion short-term bond. The company had 370 billion yuan in assets.
  • December 3, Guirenniao defaulted again, on a 647 million yuan debt.

Tang Hao gave three reasons for these defaults: One, many companies followed the government to take on excessive debts to seek high-expansion. Two, the trade war with the U.S. hurt China’s economy. Three, the owners of the companies, who have low moral values, do not feel any social obligation to pay back their company’s loans. They may just spend the money lavishly or put the borrowed money into their own pockets.

As a result, companies’ credit problems have also dragged down the banks:

  • In May, Baoshang Bank Co., Ltd. had a severe credit risk and the People’s Bank of China and the Banking Regulatory Commission took it over.
  • In July, the Bank of Jinzhou had a high cash risk and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had to infuse it with money.
  • In August, Hengfeng Bank in Shandong Province had a cash crisis and the Shandong government took it over.
  • In October, Yichuan Rural Commercial Bank in Luoyang City, Henan Province suffered a bank run that lasted three days.
  • In November, Yingkou Coastal Bank in Liaoning Province suffered a bank run.
  • In November, the government took over Harbin Bank in Heilongjiang Province.

Source: YouTube, December 6, 2019

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources US-China Relations

China Decided to “Teach the United States a Hard Lesson.”

People’s Daily reported on December 2 that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a ban on U.S. military vessels and aircraft. They are now prohibited from using Hong Kong for logistics. At the same time, China also announced sanctions on a number of U.S. NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) that China identified as “playing an evil role in the Hong Kong riots.” The People’s Daily commentary suggested that it’s about time to “teach the United States a hard lesson.”

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) reported on December 3, along with several Taiwanese media companies, that the Mainland ban should be considered an opportunity for Taiwan to extend an invitation to the U.S. Navy to dock at a Taiwanese port for logistical supplies. The U.S. never truly had a dependency on Hong Kong, and Taiwan can offer much better reliability for supplies.

Global Times published a commentary on December 6 that maintained the region is facing a historic change of military balance. China now has a far superior military power over the Taiwan Strait. The commentary explained that, if the U.S. and Taiwan get closer, Mainland aircraft can attempt flying over the Taiwanese presidential palace and the Mainland navy also has the option of entering the Taiwanese coastal line. The cost for the U.S. to intervene in a Taiwan Strait conflict is rapidly growing. So if Taiwan wants more collusion with the U.S., just go ahead.

Sources:
(1) People’s Daily, December 2, 2019
http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2019/1202/c1003-31486087.html
(2) CNA, December 3, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/201912030145.aspx
(3) Global Times, December 6, 2019
https://m.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKobF2

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

Global Times: Washington Cannot Cut the Ties between Hong Kong and the World

Global Times recently published a commentary as part of the wave of Chinese media attacking the new U.S. law, The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, that President Trump just signed. Global Times asserted that the U.S politicians are simply turning Hong Kong into a jump point to deter the rise of Mainland China. The commentary indicated that China has now become so powerful that Hong Kong can no longer be used as a “strategic Western chess piece.” The U.S. move may be able to create a little bit of trouble for China right now, but in doing so, it may destroy the United States’ interest in Hong Kong. The commentary described the “One Country Two Systems” arrangement as a reasonable setup that is good for both Mainland China and Hong Kong. It is a system which was working well until the U.S. came up with this new law that threatens to take away Hong Kong’s favorable trade partner status. The author claimed that Hong Kong can continue to sustain its prosperity with or without the U.S. The commentary concluded that Hong Kong’s global status was not something that the United States granted; therefore, the U.S. cannot simply cut the ties that Hong Kong has established with the world, .

Source: Global Times, November 30, 2019
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKo4lA

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations