Skip to content

Ecuador’s Former President Accused of Accepting the CCP’s Bribes

Lenin Moreno, who was the President of Ecuador until he was succeeded by the incumbent on May 24, 2021,  was sued by prosecutors on March 5 for accepting bribes amounting to US $76 million from China’s state-owned enterprise Sinohydro between 2009 and 2018. The government of Ecuador contracted Sinohydro to build the Coca Codo Sinclair Dam under China’s “Belt & Road Initiative.” Construction started in 2010 and the dam was put in use in 2016. However, by 2018, 7,648 large and small cracks had been identified on the dam’s wall.

Source: Aboluo, March 8, 2023
https://www.aboluowang.com/2023/0308/1875096.html

Renting a “Girlfriend”

China’s one-child policy has now generated a new industry – “The girlfriend” rental business. Chinese tradition is that a son (but not a daughter) will carry on the family heritage. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forced people to have only one child, some families chose to abort the pregnancy if the baby was a girl. China’s seventh census in 2020 showed that the male to female ratio in China was 105 to 100 and there were 35.9 million more males than females.

As a result, many young men cannot find girlfriends. Of course, there are reasons such as work pressure and so on other than the population parity. A new business started that when a young man goes home for Chinse New Year or other occasion, he hires a woman to go together with him and act as his girlfriend to quiet down his parents’ pressure on him to find a girlfriend.

An article reported that in the year 2022, a woman lending herself out as a “girlfriend” charged 1,000 yuan per day for her services (the price could go to 2,500 yuan per day during holidays) and she made 40,000 yuan (US$ 6,000) from this business.

Source: Guancha, March 17, 2023
https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2023_03_17_684476.shtml

European Media Expose “Loyalty Contracts” for Chinese Students Studying Abroad

A joint investigation by Deutsche Welle and the German media outlet CORRECTIV reported that Chinese students studying in Germany are being closely monitored by the Chinese authorities. Those who receive scholarships from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) are required to sign an agreement and report to the Chinese embassy. Those who violate the agreement will be punished. According to the report, several German universities have already established cooperation with the CSC, and one Chinese student who signed the agreement said he was afraid to participate in demonstrations in Germany, while other Chinese students also expressed fear of surveillance by the Chinese authorities.

The China Scholarship Council is a unit directly under the administration of the Chinese Ministry of Education and is responsible for organizing, funding and managing Chinese citizens studying abroad and foreign citizens studying in China. The majority of Chinese students currently studying abroad with government support are receiving  scholarships provided by the CSC, which covers the study and living expenses of Chinese students admitted to overseas universities. Overseas institutions that cooperate with the CSC accept Chinese students with government scholarships, and all costs are covered by the Chinese side, without taking away from the foreign school’s own research funds. Therefore, this kind of cooperation is welcomed by overseas institutions, and some of them even provide special quotas for Chinese students with government scholarships. In recent years, the students with government scholarships have tended to be in the fields of science and technology, and some European institutions have found that some Chinese students have military backgrounds, which has increased the suspicion that European countries have toward Chinese students.

Besides Germany, countries such as Sweden have also discovered agreements between Chinese students and the CSC, and some universities have even terminated their cooperation agreements with China as a result. The agreements signed between the students and the Chinese authorities mainly stipulate that the students must return to China to serve for two years after graduation, that the scholarship recipients must have two Chinese citizens as guarantors, that the guarantors who are permanent residents of China should take a single trip abroad not exceeding three months, and that the spouse should not act as a guarantor. If the scholar violates the agreement, the guarantors are jointly and severally liable.

The agreement also stipulates that, during the period of study, the signatory “shall not engage in any activities detrimental to the interests and security of the motherland,” “shall obey the guidance and management of the embassy or consulate abroad during the period of study,” and “shall report regularly on the progress of study and research.” The agreement is not terminated until the signatory returns to China after two years of service.

The agreement requires the scholar not to interrupt his or her studies without cause, or the sponsor, who lives in China, will be liable for the compensation. The agreement came to light earlier this year when a Chinese student at Lund University in Sweden was advised to discontinue his studies due to poor academic performance. The student was concerned that discontinuing his studies would cause his family trouble because of the agreement he had signed with the Chinese authorities. Following reports in the Swedish media, leading universities such as Lund University and Uppsala University in Sweden said that, following reports in the Swedish media, in the future they would stop cooperating with the CSC.

Source: Voice of America, March 18, 2023
https://www.voachinese.com/a/agreement-of-loyalty-exposed-20230318/7011347.html

China’s Local Government Finances Are under Severe Pressure

Statistics from China’s Ministry of Finance show that from January through February of this year, the public budget revenue of local governments was RMB 2.38 trillion, an annual growth rate of only 2 percent; national tax revenue decreased compared to the same period last year. Revenue from the sale of state-owned land use rights was 562.7 billion yuan, down 29 percent from the same period last year.

A professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics said that local governments have been in financial trouble for a long time and that the three-year epidemic has deepened the crisis. The economic slowdown has reduced local government revenues and property market adjustments have caused a sharp decline in local government finances. Some local governments are in financial distress.

This year’s central government work report mentioned that, “Some grassroots governments have large deficits.” The budget report emphasized the requirements of living a tight life and keeping a firm grip on budget management, asset allocation, and government procurement.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 21, 2023
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202303210283.aspx

Official Media on Xi Jinping’s Visit to Russia: China Should Say Four “Don’ts” to the West

During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia, the official Xinhua News Agency published a commentary saying that Western countries were worried about the Chinese leader’s trip to Russia and that China needed to say four “don’ts” to the U.S. and the West.

“Don’t make irresponsible remarks about the normal interactions between sovereign states.” The article said, “Friendship and cooperation between China and Russia are growing. Since 2013, the top leaders of China and Russia have met 40 times; Chinese leaders have visited Russia eight times. Whether the United States and the West like it or not, whether there is a crisis in Ukraine or not, normal contacts between the two countries should not be interrupted.”

“Don’t compare China-Russia relations with those between small groups of U.S. allies.” He added, “The U.S. is stuck in the Cold War mentality, drawing in one faction and isolating the other, forming various alliances and coterie. China and Russia,however, are not allies. It makes no sense for the U.S. and the West to tie China and Russia together at every turn.”

“Don’t undermine China’s efforts to promote peace talks on Ukraine.” The article boasted, “China has recently brokered a successful resumption of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two of the Middle East’s oldest enemies. This has drawn waves of praise from the international community and made the United States envious and jealous. It is now worried that the Ukraine issue will be turned around in the same way.”

“Stop using the Ukraine crisis as an excuse to attack and sanction China. The writer criticized, “The U.S. has the military, financial and technological hegemony to slander and oppress China. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is another ‘China containment card’ in the hands of the U.S., which links China and Russia and labels them as authoritarian states and an axis of evil in an attempt to tarnish China’s image. The U.S. has also sanctioned some Chinese companies for suspected support of terrorism.”

Source: Central News Agency, March 21, 2023
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202303210125.aspx

Chinese Peasant Retirees Receive $324 a year as Pension

A posting about a Chinese peasant’s income has been spreading widely over the Internet. The author said that her mother-in-law, a migrant worker (a peasant who came to the city to work) in Chengdu City, Chongqing Province, where she has been since 2005, receives a pension of107 yuan (US$16) each month. However, only one single grocery shopping trip (she avoided the expensive items) had cost her 110 yuan. She was not the worst though. The author’s mother, a peasant in Henan Province, received only 240 yuan (US$35) pension – in the whole year.

With such a small amount of money, medical treatment is nothing but a remote concept. After a villager was diagnosed with cancer at a county’s hospital, he ended his life by drinking pesticides. He didn’t bother with a re-check at a provincial level hospital (which has better medical resources and whose diagnosis could be more reliable), because the travel expense (to the city) was too high.

In another report, the Yicai Media Group reported that the average pension for peasants in China is 188 yuan ($27) per month, which is only 5.26 percent of the pension for urban employee retirees (3,577 yuan per month). The communist regime in China has long treated peasants as second class citizens and provided them with inferior services as compared with the city dwellers.

Though China defined the male retirement age as 60 and female as 50 or 55 depending on their work type, 510 million, or one-third of the young elderly (people of Age 60-69) are still working. Based on the statistics of the young elderly, they accounted for 6.8 percent of the worker population in China in the “China’s Census – 2020” report. Among them, 62.44 percent are working in the agricultural fields.

Source:
1. Secret China, March 17, 2023
https://www.secretchina.com/news/gb/2023/03/17/1031202.html
2. Sina, March 17, 2023
https://finance.sina.cn/chanjing/gdxw/2023-03-17/detail-imymayim4479732.d.html?oid=3819239134138970&vt=4&cid=79649&node_id=79649

TikTok Faced Bans in Britain, Belgium, Demark and New Zealand

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that British cabinet minister Oliver Dowden announced in the House of Commons that the British government will ban government staff from using the Chinese app TikTok on official mobile phones. The ban then took effect immediately. The UK’s move is in line with the U.S. and the European Commission, marking a “180-degree shift” in the UK’s previous position.

Earlier, United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, also reported that the Belgian Prime Minister said on March 10, because of concerns about online security, privacy and disinformation, that, for at least six months, Belgium will temporarily ban the use of TikTok on devices owned or paid for by the Belgian federal government. In the meantime, the Danish public broadcaster and TV station Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) advised employees not to use TikTok on business mobile phones due to security concerns. This is the first news organization to issue such an advice.

In addition, the New Zealand Chinese online news site Solace Media also reported that Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, chief executive of Parliamentary Services, said that, following the advice from cybersecurity experts, Parliamentary Services have informed Members of Parliament and staff that TikTok should be removed from all devices that have access to Parliament’s network.

Sources:
(1) Sina, March 16, 2023
https://k.sina.com.cn/article_1686546714_6486a91a02001unh8.html?from=news&subch=onews
(2) UDN, March 10, 2023
https://udn.com/news/story/7332/7024437?from=udn-relatednews_ch2
(3) Solace Media, March 17, 2023
https://bit.ly/42jEnPB

Vietnam to Welcome the “Largest Ever” U.S. Business Delegation

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that more than 50 defense, pharmaceutical and technology companies, including SpaceX, Netflix and Boeing, will join a delegation organized by the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council to visit Vietnam soon to explore investment and sales opportunities in the country. The U.S.-ASEAN Business Council Vietnam Chief Representative Ngo Thu Thanh said that similar activities organized by the organization have a history of 30 years. However, this time, Vietnam will usher in the largest delegation in history. Ng Thu Thanh pointed out that most of the companies in the delegation already have operations or production bases in Vietnam, such as Apple, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and some companies are planning on expansion. Ng Thu Thanh revealed that Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Bell will hold meetings with several Vietnamese state-owned defense procurement companies. Boeing said in a statement that its discussions with Vietnam will focus on their growing partnership and ways to strengthen the country’s aerospace and defense capabilities. SpaceX, which is looking to sell satellite internet services to Vietnam and other countries in the region, was also in the delegation. The delegation also includes a number of semiconductor companies, pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, Visa, Citibank, Meta and Amazon Web Services, along with other large companies. The trade friction between China and the U.S is in the ascendant, and the trend of staying away from China has allowed Vietnam to benefit. This visit shows that the international community is paying more attention to this rising international manufacturing center. With the expansion of the middle class, Vietnam, with a population of 100 million, has also become a rapidly growing consumer market. After Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s resignation in January, some companies also came to learn more about the local political situation.

Source: Sina, March 17, 2023
https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2023-03-17/doc-imymczux4277665.shtml