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People’s Daily: Obama’s State of the Union Address Painted a Rosy Soft Picture

People’s Daily recently published a commentary on U.S. President Barak Obama’s last State of the Union Address. The commentary suggested that lame duck presidents typically provide nothing constructive in their last State of the Union Address. Instead they prefer to focus on their legacy. However, President Obama took painting this kind of “political soft picture” to the next level by describing an optimistic future that he cannot deliver to his people due to his term limitation. The author expressed the belief in the commentary that the general American middle-class is actually in a state of “anxiety and unease” – and Obama’s speech was trying to persuade people to believe that there is hope. With the currently rising “Trump Phenomenon,” the American public is largely in agreement that the nation is on the wrong path. Even the economic recovery is very questionable. Obama seems to realize that there is a gap between reality and people’s expectations. In his speech, he tried to prove that what he has done set the stage for a better tomorrow. 
Source: People’s Daily, January 14, 2016
http://world.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0114/c1002-28052874.html
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

DW Chinese: Microsoft Will Notify Email Victims of Government-Linked Hacking

The Chinese edition of Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, reported that Microsoft announced, on December 30, 2015, that it will start notifying users when there is sufficient evidence that government-linked hackers have targeted their email accounts. Microsoft had failed to do so previously when Chinese authorities allegedly compromised over 1,000 Hotmail accounts. 

Microsoft’s announcement came after Reuters put in a series of inquiries to Microsoft asking why it had not previously taken the initiative to alert its email users. 
Frank Shaw, the Microsoft spokesperson, maintained that Microsoft could not be certain about the source of the breaches. According to two former Microsoft employees, who would not reveal their names, the hacking by elements linked to Chinese authorities started in July 2009 and lasted over three years. The targets included the emails of high-ranking Uighur and Tibetan leaders in multiple countries, Japanese and African diplomats, human rights lawyers, and others in sensitive positions inside China. 
Lu Keng, the spokesperson for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, stated, at China’s December 31 routine press conference, that such rumors were groundless and that channels exist for relevant parties with concrete evidence to communicate constructively with the Chinese side using mutually beneficial cooperation. 
Source: Deutsche Welle Chinese, January 1, 2016. 
http://www.dw.com/zh/ 国黑客入侵海外电邮-北京否认/a-18954083
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

VOA Chinese: Global Magnitsky Act Holds Rights Abusers Accountable

On December 17, 2015, the U.S. Senate passed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The Act directs the U.S. president to sanction human rights abusers in foreign countries, including banning their entrance to the United States and freezing any of their assets that are held in American financial institutions or on American soil. 

VOA interviewed two guest speakers for a satellite TV program, who Joined VOA in discussiong the Global Magnitsky Act’s implications and its potential effect on China’s human rights situation. They were Zhou Fengsuo, former 1989 Tiananmen student leader and founder of Humanitarian China and Cao Yaxue, co-founder of chinachange.org, a website devoted to news and commentary related to civil society, the rule of law, and human rights activities in China. 
Ms. Cao explained that the Global Magnitsky Act is a worldwide extension of the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, inspired by the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax lawyer who represented American businessman Bill Browder’s firm, [Heritage Capital Management, a firm which often supplied the media with information on corporate and government corruption] in Russia. Magnitsky blew the whistle on the largest known tax fraud in Russian history. He was arrested, tortured, and denied access to medical care until he died in 2009.
The VOA host raised the question whether the Act, if it passes the House and is signed into law, would apply to top officials like Jiang Zemin, who faces lawsuits in several countries. Ms. Cao replied that she had raised the same question to Bill Browder, who had pushed for the passage of the Act. Browder’s answer was that the Act would apply to human rights abusers as high as the deputy minister level. She gave specific names of Chinese officials who were at that level or below who had been involved in torturing prominent human rights activists such as attorney Gao Zhisheng. 
Mr. Zhou revealed that a Chinese version of the act could be in the offing, while this global act already sends a warning to Chinese rights abusers, many of whom have families in the United States.
Source: Deutsche Welle Chinese, January 1, 2016. 
http://www.dw.com/zh/ 国黑客入侵海外电邮-北京否认/a-18954083
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

BBC Chinese: The U.S. Gravely Concerned about the Chinese Anti-Terrorism Law

BBC Chinese recently reported that the U.S. State Department has expressed its “grave concern” about the fact that the Chinese Congress is going to pass its Anti-Terrorism Law. The U.S. has criticized this law multiple times before and observed that the proposed new Chinese law further limits the freedoms of speech, association, assembly, and religion. In addition to that, the new law will require foreign companies operating in China to provide the Chinese government with trade secrets such as sensitive computer network information. U.S. President Barak Obama has expressed his concern directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping on this law several times already. However, the Chinese government advised that many Western countries, the U.S. included, have also required Chinese companies to provide encryption keys. Industrial and human rights experts pointed out that the new Chinese law has a very vaguely defined concept for “terrorism,” which grants the Chinese government unlimited power to tighten up and control people’s freedom. 
Source: BBC Chinese, December 22, 2015
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world/2015/12/151222_us_china_terror_law
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: Obama’s Legacy of Hegemony

On December 20, 2016, Xinhua published a commentary in which it rejected the U.S. explanation that its two B-52 bombers didn’t intend to fly over China’s artificial island in the South China Sea. Xinhua questioned “a series of dangerous actions” that the U.S. had carried out in “its recent show of force” in the South China Sea. Xinhua also rebutted the U.S. explanation by citing the recent U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. It said this act “flagrantly violated international law and the norms governing international relations, severely violated the three Sino-US joint communiques, … and caused severe damage to China’s sovereignty and security interests as well as cross-strait relations [with Taiwan].” Xinhua further complained that the U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) excluded China. “People will ask what Washington is truly up to. What does Obama, who will bid farewell to the White House next year, want to leave behind as his diplomatic legacy? [The core of his legacy] is his thinking about ‘hegemony.’  

Source: Xinhua, December 20, 2016 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2015-12/20/c_128549461.htm
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

BBC Chinese: China Sanctions the U.S. for Arms Sales to Taiwan

BBC Chinese recently reported that the United States decided on December 16 to sell Taiwan US$1.82 billion in military equipment, including frigates, amphibious assault vehicles, and Man-portable Air-defense Systems (MANPADS). The U.S. based the arms deal on the Taiwan Relations Act. Chinese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zheng Zeguang later summoned Li Kaian (Kaye Lee), the charge d’affaires to the U.S. Embassy in China to express China’s position of resolutely opposing the arms sale to Taiwan. Zheng also notified Li that the Chinese government decided to take firm and necessary action to protect China’s interests. China will sanction the U.S. companies that made the weapons sold to Taiwan in this recent deal. Zheng called for a revocation of the U.S. decision. However, the U.S. State Department responded that China can do whatever it thinks is appropriate and that the U.S. decision was based solely on Taiwan’s defensive needs. 
Source: BBC Chinese, December 16, 2015
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2015/12/151216_china_us_taiwan_reac
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

U.S. Filed WTO Complaint over Chinese Tax Benefits for Domestic Airplanes

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the United States filed a WTO complaint against China because of the tax exemptions the Chinese government offered to certain domestically manufactured airplanes. The United States accused the Chinese government of tax discrimination, which violates WTO rules. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said that China charged a 17 percent value-added tax (VAT) on imported airplanes under 25 tons. However, Chinese made airplanes such as the ARJ21 enjoyed an exemption. Froman explained that this unfair taxation damaged key U.S. airplane manufactures as well as workers in that industry. The damages also impacted a wide range of airplane parts suppliers in the United States. He especially accused the Chinese government of not publishing the names of the Chinese manufacturers receiving the tax benefits, explaining that this obviously violated the WTO transparency principle. The ARJ21 is China’s first domestically manufactured regional jet model, designed mainly to compete against Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier.
Source: Sina, December 8, 2015
http://finance.sina.com/gb/economy/sinacn/20151208/09061382422.html
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

People’s Daily: U.S. Deploys P-8 in Singapore to Expand the Scope of Monitoring in South China Sea

According to a report from People’s Daily, on December 7 to 14, [2015], the United States deployed the P-8A "Poseidon" anti-submarine patrol aircraft in Singapore for the first time. In an interview, military expert Yin Zhuo told CCTV‘s "Asia Today" that the U.S. deployment of the P-8A in Singapore would allow it to control a wide range in the South China Sea and it could take the opportunity to sell more P-8As and win over the neighboring countries in the South China Sea to deal jointly with China. China’s Foreign Ministry responded that the U.S.’s action of strengthening its military deployment and promoting regional militarization does not comply with the common and long-term interests of the countries in the [related] region. China’s Defense Ministry Information Office also said that China will pay close attention to developments related to the issue and hopes that bilateral defense cooperation is conducive to regional peace and stability, rather than the reverse. 

People’s Daily noted that the process of the P-8A’s gradual deployment has been almost simultaneous with the Obama administration’s service of the Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy. 
By the end of 2013, six P-8As arrived at Japan’s Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. Japan became the first overseas deployment of the P-8A patrol aircraft. The U.S. and Singapore’s decision on December 7 means that, in addition to Japan and the Philippines, the U.S. military’s P-8A now has one more deployment location in the Western Pacific. 

Yin Zhuo said, "A long time ago, the United States had plans to deploy military forces in Singapore and has never given up its plans." The U.S., using the excuse of anti-terrorism and stabilizing the South China Sea, has deployed a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) at Singapore’s Changi base. To control the Strait of Malacca over a larger range, surface ships alone are not enough. The United States needs to deploy the P-8A patrol aircraft in Singapore. 
Source: People’s Daily, December 9, 2015 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/1209/c1011-27905654.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations