Skip to content

U.S. Chip Policy against China Has Shown Results

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that the Chinese tech giant Huawei is once again facing new technology curbs amid an escalation in U.S.-China strategic competition. Some scholars pointed out that, under the cooperation of the United States, Japan and the Netherlands, China’s semiconductor industry is facing real danger. Also, two months after China’s largest chipmaker, Yangtze Memory Technology, was included in the “Entity List” of entities banned by the U.S. Department of Commerce, it announced plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce. The U.S. government has stopped issuing permits to U.S. companies to export most products and technology to Huawei. This move highlights that the United States has further tightened regulations and related policies on technology exports to China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference, “This is blatant technological bullying. This practice violates the principles of the market economy and the international economic and trade rules. It damages the international community’s confidence in the U.S. business environment. Mao also emphasized that the bullying behavior seriously undermines the order of international trade. Not only does it damage the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, but it also affects the stability of the global industrial chain and the supply chain. Part of the reason for the move by the U.S. Ministry of Commerce is that Huawei has changed a lot compared to when it focused on 5G four years ago. For example, Huawei has expanded its business to submarine cables, cloud computing and other fields. Huawei has yet to comment on the matter.

Source: NetEase, February 1, 2023
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HSFTUF1A055618XM.html

BBC Chinese: Philippines Opens Four Additional Bases for the U.S. Military

BBC Chinese recently reported that the U.S. has, through an agreement, gained access to four new military bases in the Philippines. These important sites will provide the U.S. military with a forward position to monitor Chinese activities in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. With the agreement, Washington has filled a gap in the U.S. chain of Pacific islands from South Korea and Japan to Australia in the south. That gap in the island chain used to be none other than the Philippines, which borders two of the biggest potential flashpoints, Taiwan and the South China Sea. According to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) signed by the United States and the Philippines in 2014, the United States previously had limited access to five bases located in the Philippines. The new locations and expanded access will allow for more rapid support for humanitarian and climate-related disasters in the Philippines and to address other shared challenges. The White House did not disclose the locations of the new military bases, but three of them may be located on the island of Luzon on the northern edge of the Philippines. If China is not considered, this is the only large landmass close to Taiwan. This agreement to some extent reverses the situation in which the United States left its former colony more than 30 years ago, and the impact cannot be underestimated. However, the White House is seeking access to “light and flexible operations” sites that can resupply and monitor “as needed,” rather than military bases housing large numbers of troops.

Source: BBC Chinese, February 2, 2023
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-64494506

F-35 First Deployed at U.S. Arctic Base

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDQ: SINA) recently reported that the U.S. Air Force’s F-35A stealth fighter jets have been deployed for the first time at Thule Air Force Base, the northernmost U.S. military base in Greenland. In the region, the warplanes took part in a joint military exercise run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) from January 15 to 31. Thule Air Force Base, 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, was home to four F-35A stealth fighter jets. According to markings on one of the jets it showed that the planes were deployed at the  Alaska Eielson Air Force Base, which is another very important military base related to the Arctic. As Russia seeks to expand its influence in the Arctic region, Thule Air Base is playing an increasingly important strategic role. As for China, U.S. officials have been sounding the alarm about China’s “interest in the Arctic.” The U.S. media claimed that the deployment of the F-35 fighter jets and its ever-expanding concept of operations is largely to ensure “the dominance of the United States in the light of the potential Chinese threat and the Russian threat.” Given that competition for Arctic resources has increasingly become an important part of U.S. geopolitical interests, the U.S. will continue to strengthen its military presence in the Arctic region. Not long ago, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed, during his visit to Canada, that Russia’s and China’s cooperation in the Arctic is not in the interests of NATO countries. The spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that NATO falsely claimed that the China-Russia cooperation poses a challenge to NATO’s values and interests, which once again exposed NATO’s attempt to export the Cold War mentality and to replicate confrontation between camps.

Source: Sina, February 1, 2023
https://mil.news.sina.com.cn/2023-02-01/doc-imyefnhe6749794.shtml

People’s Lives: Organ Harvesting Happened in China 30 Years Ago

Mr. Guo Zhigen (郭志艮), a resident at Qingtao City, Shandong Province, told the Epoch Times that he has heard about an organ harvesting case that happened 30 years ago.

In April 1991, Mr. Guo stayed in the Hospital Affiliated with Qingdao University in Qingdao to treat his aplastic anemia. One summer afternoon, on his way to the bathroom, he heard someone crying when passing the nephrology department (hematology and nephrology departments were in the same area at that time). He asked the patient what happened and was told that the patient was going to receive a kidney transplant the next day and was worried about the result since he signed a document to relieve the hospital from accountability. The patient looked like an official under 40-years-old.

The patient’s family member also told Mr. Guo that the police had a “body confiscation team.” Police had already matched both the blood of the person to be executed and the recipient. On the day of execution, the police would ask the dead person’s family members for all sorts of documents to prove their relationship to the dead. As long as there was a document they didn’t bring with them, the police would then refuse to acknowledge their connection to the dead and they then declare the dead person’s body as unclaimed. The “body confiscation team” could then take it to sell to hospitals.”

According to Mr. Guo, the hospital performed two liver transplants on the next day. The operation for the patient he met went well, but the other patient died on the operating table. Qingdao’s newspaper reported that the kidney transplant was successful.

According to published information, the hospital affiliated with Qingdao University was among the first group of hospitals in China to do kidney transplants. It did the first kidney transplant in 1982.

Source: Epoch Times, January 31, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/31/n13919567.htm

Government and Leadership: China Plans to Delay the Retirement Starting Age to 65

China’s current retirement rule is that a male’s retirement starts at age 60 and a female starts at age 50 (female cadres start at 55). However, an internet posting, quoted a report by the CITIC Group, formerly the China International Trust Investment Corporation, saying that Beijing is planning to delay the retirement starting age. The government might announce the new plan this year, start implementation in 2025, and by 2055, reach the goal of males and females both retiring at age of 65.

A lack of workers due to the aging population is a reason for the authorities to consider delaying the retirement starting age. However, the big reason is that the government does not have enough money to pay for the retirement pensions.

Source: jrj.com, February 3, 2023
https://m.jrj.com.cn/madapter/finance/2023/02/03190037316790.shtml

Hospital’s Death Certificate Needs State Council’s Approval If the Cause Is COVID

Since December, China has suffered a massive number of COVID infections and a large number of deaths. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hides the infection count and especially the death tolls. Epoch Times obtained an official document from the Guangxi Autonomous Region Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center (document number SJSX223577) issued on December 25, 2022. The document stated that any death caused by COVID must be approved by the central government.

The document said that the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Joint Control System required that, for any death of a COVID patient or patient who had both other diseases and COVID, the death report must first be discussed at the hospital or the medical institute within 24 hours. Then it needs to pass the city’s (COVID) expert group’s review and get its approval. Then it needs to be submitted to the Autonomous Region’s Health Committee’s designated email account, and then following the procedure it is to be reported to the State Council’s Join Prevention and Join Control System’s Medical Treatment Team. Once the State Council’s team approves the cause, the corresponding medical institute can submit it as a COVID case to the Epidemic Direct Report Network. Death cases without the “state’s approval” cannot be submitted to the Epidemic Direct Report Network as a COVID case.

The document also stressed keeping the process confidential and not to disclose the city’s (COVID) expert group’s opinion. Cases with severe COVID infections or deaths, “due to the information’s sensitive nature, must be handled by designated personnel, and must be submitted to the designated email account. WeChat or QQ (social media tools that are more likely to be leaked to the public) are strictly prohibited.”

Source: Epoch Times, February 1, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/2/1/n13919948.htm

Saudi Arabia Used China’s Laser Weapon to Shoot Down Drones

In March 2022, Saudi Arabia shot down 13 drones using the China-made “Silent Hunter” (寂静狩猎者) laser weapon system. This might be the laser weapon’s first showing in real war.

Currently many countries lack effective ways to deal with invasive drones. The traditional ariel defense weapon (e.g. an air-defense missile) is too expensive to use to shoot at a drone and also a drone might be too small for a large-sized air-defense radar system to find.

The advantages of China’s Silent Hunter system are:

  1. It has a low cost. The cost of one shot is less than $1.
  2. It is powerful. Its standard output is 30K watts and its maximum distance is 4,000 meters. It can penetrate 5 layers of a 2 millimeter thick steel plate at a distance of 800 meters and a 5 millimeter steel tank at a distance of 1,000 meters.
  3. It has a high mobility.
  4. It has a high degree of automation.  It automatically captures and locks on the target, it can strike multiple targets at the same time, can switch to a new target and complete aiming in six seconds, and it can hit its targets at an extremely high hit rate.

Source: Phoenix, February 4, 2023
https://news.ifeng.com/c/8N8VrBhtl1w

Chinese Students Do Not Want to Go Back to China after Graduation

China has about 1 million students studying outside of China. Many have expressed that they will think twice about whether to go back to China after graduation. One major reason is the communist regime’s three-year enforcement of the “Zero-COVID” policy that they understand is not for the interest of the people but for politics. Quite a number of these Chinese students had gathered in the campus or in front of Chinese Embassy or Consulate to appeal or support their fellow people in China. (Editor’s Note: The Chinese students studying abroad used to be a group loyal to Beijing in the past, but the spread of COVID has changed many of them).

Another reason for their not wanting to return is the dismal economic situation in China.

Source: Liberty Times, January 29, 2023
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/4195240