US-China Relations - 59. page

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, according to the latest report that the American Institute of International Education (IIE) released, for the 2018-2019 academic year, China remains the largest source of U.S. foreign students. However, the growth rate of Chinese students is slowing and has reached the lowest point in a decade. It appears this is a direct result of problems such as visa issuance. China has been the largest foreign student source for the U.S. for ten years now. For the 2018-2019 year, China has 370,000 students in the States. This represents one-third of the total number of foreign students in the U.S. Geng Shuang, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented on the IIE report at a press conference. He thought that the reduction in the growth rate apparently showed that current U.S. policies impacted the image and the reputation of the United States and that they also blocked healthy exchanges between the U.S. and the outside world. He thought this, in fact, might hurt U.S. interests. Although President Trump has expressed his position of welcoming Chinese student multiple times, yet it would be better if this positive attitude displayed itself in reality. Geng said that, hopefully, next year’s number will look better.

Source: Sina, November 22, 2019
https://chinanews.sina.com/gb/2019-11-22/doc-ifzramam2666041.shtml

Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, was scheduled to hold a seminar at Columbia University on Thursday, November 14. The topics included the human rights situation in China, including Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and Beijing’s infiltration overseas. The day before the meeting, Columbia University told the organizers that the seminar had to be cancelled. According to Radio Free Asia’s interview of Teng Biao, a human rights activist and lawyer from China who was supposed to speak at the seminar, the explanation that the University gave was that a Chinese student group said that it would go to the seminar to hold a protest. As the school could not guarantee the safety of the participants, it decided to cancel the event.

A commentary published on the overseas Chinese website Boxun compared the incident with an event in 2017 at the University of California-San Diego, in which the Dalai Lama had been invited to give a commencement speech. Despite the opposition from the campus Chinese students’ organization, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), UCSD stood behind its decision to host the Dalai Lama.

The commentary questioned whether the so-called Chinese student organization mentioned by Columbia University is the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), a network of organizations that the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department oversees. The commentary questioned whether the CSSA has registered as a foreign agent with the U.S. Department of Justice pursuant to The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The commentary also questioned whether Columbia University has upheld freedom of expression and academic freedom.

Mr. Teng Biao pointed to the fact that, in recent years, there have been multiple incidents in which the Chinese Communist Party used Chinese students to interfere with freedom of speech and academic freedom on a U.S. campus and that these incidents deserve high attention from American society. It is understood that Columbia is the only Ivy League university in the United States that {still} hosts a Confucius Institute.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 15, 2019.
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/lh-11152019155936.html
Boxun, November 16, 2019
https://www.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2019/11/201911161023.shtml

Huang Kunming, head of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and a member of the CCP Politburo, delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Internet Conference.

Lianhe Zaobao [the largest Singapore-based Chinese-language newspaper] reported that, without specifying which country he was referring to, Huang was criticizing the United States. He stated, “Some countries have used national security as an excuse and have restricted and attacked other countries and enterprises. This has increased the uncertainty and even the antagonism in cyberspace.”

Huang warned, “The Cold War and zero-sum game thinking have hindered exchanges in cyberspace. Cyber hegemony and bullying behavior in cyberspace have jeopardized the mutual trust in Internet space.”

This is the second year for Huang to attend the opening ceremony of the World Internet Conference. In his speech last year, he called for “effectively safeguarding the right to development, participation, and governance of all countries in cyberspace.” This year, he took a tougher, offensive stance and emphasized the rationality of China’s development of a new generation of Internet technology to seek more space for China’s 5G technology in the international communities.

Although the World Internet Conference this year is not getting as much attention as it did in previous years, it remains an important platform for China to declare its cyber position and compete for the right to speak on global Internet space. In his keynote speech, Huang Kunming reiterated China’s vision of promoting China from a “big cyber player” to a “major cyber power.”

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, October 21, 2019
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20191021-998663

Jin Canrong, a scholar at Renmin University of China, spoke at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum. He stated that China and the United States should show transparency to each other and that both countries ought to avoid a hot war. Jin said, “China has the ability to destroy the United States.”  He said that the U.S. can destroy China ten times but China need only destroy the U.S. once. The Beijing Xiangshan Forum was an international event that the Chinese military hosted. Jin made the above remarks when the Taiwan based Central News Agency interviewed him.

Jin added that many Chinese scholars today hope to return to the “keeping a low profile” foreign policy from the Deng Xiaoping’s era, believing that with a continuation of that policy, China will attract little attention and there will be no problems (between the two countries). Jin refuted the idea as “being very naïve.” “Keeping a low profile would lead Americans to think it is deception.” If Deng Xiaoping were still alive, Jin believes Deng will also change his strategic thinking because Deng’s strategy came out of “practice.” It is useless even if the policy has not changed. Anyway, China is too strong to hide it.

Jin said that China and the U.S. should also avoid a cold war, which is no good for either side. The game played between the two powers needs to be transparent. Therefore, it was necessary to show some strength during the recent military parade so as to avoid miscalculations by the hostile parties. After all, in  history, “miscalculations” caused many wars.

Source: Central News Agency, October 21, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201910210268.aspx

On October 25, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying commented on Vice President Mike Pence’s China speech for the Wilson Center. Hua said, “(the Pence speech) deliberately distorted China’s social system and its human rights and religious conditions and unreasonably criticized China’s domestic and foreign policies. Pence’s remarks were exactly the same as his speech given last October, full of arrogance, hypocrisy, political prejudice and lies.”

Hua continued, “On these issues, Pence headed a handful of American politicians in calling white black and black white, made carping comments, and spread rumors and slander. Their purpose was to interfere with China’s internal affairs and obstruct China’s stability and development. However, dark clouds cannot cover up the sun and lies cannot cover up the truth. Any attempt to undermine China’s national unification, ethnic unity, and social stability, as well as any plot to damage the reputation of and splash dirty water on China is destined to be only daydreaming and to be cast aside by history.”

“People like Pence easily make irresponsible remarks and boss around other countries. At the same time, they turn a blind eye to the serious problems in the United States. They attempt to cover up their political problems by defaming other countries and diverting the attention of the American public.” Hua added, “We advise some people in America to take a hard look in the mirror, see clearly their own problems, mind their own business, stop yelling around the world, and pack up the set of tricks that harm others without benefiting themselves.”

Source: Xinhua, October 25, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2019-10/25/c_1125153705.htm

China has long been requesting U.S. diplomats to report and get approval from the Chinese government for meetings with local officials or educational and research institutions in China. As a reciprocal response, on October 16, the U.S. State Department issued a new rule that Chinese diplomats in the U.S. will now have to report meetings with state and local officials, as well as visits to educational and research institutions.

China’s Embassy to the U.S. responded on Twitter: “The US State Department’s latest restrictions on Chinese diplomats are in violation of the Vienna Convention. So far, the Chinese side does not place similar requirements on American diplomats and consular officers in China.”

The U.S. Embassy to China responded on Twitter on October 18: “@AmbCuiTiankai’s Twitter is an example of the open information environment in the U.S. In China, access to Facebook, Twitter & YouTube is blocked and the PRC prevents our diplomats from using Chinese social media. China, why not unlock @USA_China_Talk so your people can see it?”

Source: Epoch Times, October 18, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/10/18/n11597655.htm