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Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

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Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

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Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

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The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.

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CNA: Estimates Say Twitter Accepts “Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year” from China for Ads

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, although China bans 1.4 billion citizens from Twitter, its government spent a great deal of money on global advertising on the Twitter social platform. China has become Twitter’s fastest-growing overseas advertising market and one of its largest revenue generators outside the United States. A review of open government information shows budget documents and propaganda tweets from 2020 to 2022 found that Chinese local governments and the Communist Party propaganda offices in cities, provinces and even in districts across China have been buying a large number of Twitter ads in the U.S. These campaigns are often outsourced by the government to state media, spreading the word about its economic achievements to international audiences, and, with exemptions, circumventing Twitter’s ban on state media advertising. For the first time, it shows how important China has become to Twitter. Twitter is in a tough spot right now, as the company’s U.S. business has stagnated and it still faces investor pressure on growth goals. However, China’s business has become a source of internal conflict at Twitter. One group is inclined to expand its business opportunities as much as possible. The other is concerned about the wisdom of dealing with state-run institutions amid growing tensions between the United States and China. According to sources familiar with this matter, Chinese gaming, e-commerce and technology companies are also major Twitter customers. The overseas advertising that Twitter sells to Chinese customers is estimated to be “hundreds of millions of dollars a year.” Twitter declined to comment on internal discussions and its sales in China.

Source: CNA, September 14, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/202209140066.aspx

Briefings | | |   @CS Information/Technology US-China Relations

TikTok Refused to Commit to U.S. Demand to Block User Data Flowing to China

Taiwanese news site NewTalk recently reported that, at the Homeland Security Committee Senate hearing a few days ago, when confronted by US senators, TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas refused to promise to prevent the flow of U.S. user data to China. Pappas only said the company will work with the U.S. government on an agreement that will “address all national security concerns.” When asked if the company would completely block access to all U.S. data by “Chinese TikTok employees, employees of parent company ByteDance, or any other Chinese person with the ability to access information about U.S. users,” Pappas was reluctant to commit. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance and its founder is Chinese. Under China’s National Security Law and its Intelligence Law, the Beijing government can compel companies to provide intelligence agencies with customer information. In June of this year, online news BuzzFeed pointed out, based on leaked meeting recordings, that ByteDance’s Chinese employees had repeatedly accessed TikTok’s US user data. TikTok later admitted that ByteDance employees could, under certain circumstances, have access to the data of U.S. users.

Source: NewTalk, September 16, 2022
https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2022-09-16/817811

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

China’s Mobile Phone Market Saw a Significant Decline in July

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that, according to official data released by the China Institute of Communication, in July, mobile phone shipments in the domestic market were 19.908 million units, a year-over-year decrease of 30.6 percent. Among these, 5G mobile phones were 14.672 million units, a year-over-year decrease of 35.7 percent. From January to July 2022, the domestic shipments of mobile phones totaled 156 million units, a year-over-year decrease of 23.0 percent. Among these. 5G mobile phone shipments were 124 million units, a year-over-year decrease of 17.7 percent. In July, domestic brand mobile phone shipments were 18.281 million units, down 29.4 percent year-over-year, accounting for 91.8 percent of mobile phone shipments in the same period. A total of 18 new models were launched in July, down 25.0 percent year-over-year. The latest data from market agency CINNO Research shows that in July, affected by the continued downturn in consumer spending in the Chinese domestic smartphone market, except for Apple mobile phones, mainstream domestic Android brands all showed a negative year-over-year decline. Among them, Vivo and OPPO fell significantly. They were down 34.7 percent and 33.3 percent year-over-year respectively. Honor and Xiaomi fell by 12.1 percent and 17.5 percent year-over-year respectively. Thanks to the continued strong market performance of the iPhone 13 series, Apple saw a positive year-over-year sales growth in July. In the face of the continuous decline in domestic market demand,  there has been no breakthrough in chip design, or in appearance or function. Major domestic mobile phone brands are still facing serious challenges.

Source: NetEase, September 15, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HHBH64VR05129QAF.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology

Boston University: How Much African Debt Did China Forgive?

On August 19, 2022, China announced it would waive 23 interest-free loans (IFLs) for 17 African countries. The loans  had been due by the end of 2021 . Beijing didn’t specify the details. The Global Development Policy Center of Boston University estimated that each of the forgiven debts might be between $45 million and $610 million, with a possible total of $2.2 billionl, or around 1 percent of the $159.98 billion that China committed to lend to African countries from 2000 to 2020.

The research also pointed out that,  from 2005-2022, Beijing did ten debt cancellations for African countries including the most recently announced one. IFL provisions and cancelations are important diplomatic and symbolic tools in China’s lending practices and are likely to continue to be in the future.

Source: Boston University, September 9, 2022

China’s Interest-Free Loans to Africa: Uses and Cancellations

 

 

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

Deutsche Welle: German Automobile Industry Maintains Close Ties with the CCP

Recent research by the German Economic Institute (IW) showed that Germany’s direct investment in China in the first half of the year reached a historic high. Between January and June this year, German companies directly invested 10 billion euros (US $10 billion) in China. In the past, the half year record was 6.2 billion euros.

The German government authority, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs & Energy, is working to modify its China policy. It will tighten the guarantee for companies’ overseas investments.

However, Germany’s automobile industry is moving in the opposite direction. Former CEO Herbert Diess of Volkswagon insisted that China’s business is important to Germany. The Chairman of Daimler AG said that sales from China accounted for one third of Mercedes-Benz sales. On June 28, Audi and its Chinese partner First Automobile Works (FAW) officially kicked off a new energy vehicle project with an investment of over 35 billion yuan (US $ 5 billion) in Changchun City, Jilin Province. On June 23, the BMW Group launched its new plant “Rida Plant” in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. The project, costing RMB 15 billion, is by far the largest single investment by BMW in China’s market.

Source: Deutsche Welle, September 7, 2022
https://www.dw.com/zh/为什么德国部分工业界同柏林对华政策唱反调/a-63044035

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

“Free Xinjiang” Blocked on Reddit – Netizens Criticize Tencent’s Possible Infiltration

A group of netizens set up a Chinese version of “Free XinJiang” on an American social media site, Reddit, to provide a platform for Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims and supporters to communicate in Chinese, and to upload reports and information on the Chinese Communist authorities human rights violations in XinJiang.

However, just within the first 23 hours after its creation, Reddit received a large number of malicious complaints that had been filed against this information on the Chinese Communist authorities’ human rights violations.

Tony, the administrator of the “Free Xinjiang” section, suspected that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), through its online army consisting of fifty-centers, had made these illegal “posts” and then filed these “complaints,” thereby triggering the shutdown of the channel. He also suspected that that since Reddit had been taking investments from Tencent since 2019, it had become an accomplice of the Chinese Communist Party.

In February 2019, Reddit announced that it had raised $300 million in Series D funding, half of which came from Tencent, the top Chinese internet company. In 2020, Tencent participated in Reddit’s Series E round of funding again.

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 5, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/reddit-09052022123021.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

By 2027, China Faces Having a Shortage of Network Security Personnel of 3.27 million

China’s Ministry of Education recently issued a “White Paper on the Real-World Capabilities of Cybersecurity Talent,” The White Paper states that 34 universities in the country already have academic programs of cyberspace security in place. Still, by 2027, China will see a shortage of 3.27 million cyber security personnel, At that time, the annual production of college educated talent in this field is estimated to be only 30,000.

According to mainland Chinese media, the areas of high demand include the ability to conduct real-time attack and defense, to identify vulnerabilities, and to fill the needs of engineering and development.

A scholar at the Steering Committee of Cyberspace Security in Higher Education under the Ministry of Education said, “When we are attacked with the backing of a nation’s power, should we fight back? We should do what we should do as the government allows. From the perspective of talent training, at least we should do both the shield and the spear. We can only really safeguard our national security if we do a good job of both the spear and the shield.”

Source: China Central Television, September 7, 2022
https://news.cctv.com/2022/09/07/ARTIZbES3G0QfcMBN6W1UwyU220907.shtml

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

RFA Chinese: WeChat Notified Overseas Users that Data will be Sent to China

Radio Free Asia (RFA) Chinese Edition recently reported that a large number of overseas WeChat users have been notified that, if they accept the WeChat service agreement, their personal information will be sent back to servers in China. Experts pointed out that WeChat once intended to set up domestic and overseas versions to avert any allegations of infringement overseas. The fact is, however, that WeChat has never stopped acting as the CCP’s censorship proxy. Jurists are calling on Western countries to legislate to ban Chinese apps to prevent the CCP from its long-arm intrusions. On September 6, WeChat users in many countries said that when they were about to read the content of their WeChat subscription, they suddenly received a prompt saying that once the overseas users activate the WeChat function, their personal information will be sent back to China for processing. Under international pressure and the requirements of privacy protection regulations, in September last year, WeChat “separated” into the domestic version of Weixin and the international version of WeChat. It then asked non-China-bound mobile phone users to re-sign the WeChat agreement to show that the company complied with the  laws and regulations of the host country. So now it has just torn off the original mask. Experts said that the Chinese government has always used WeChat in China as a tool to control society and censor speech, which is actually part of its establishment of China’s high-tech totalitarian control, and it has always used WeChat as a tool to export censorship overseas. The United States and other Western countries should consider and re-evaluate WeChat’s threats to national security, data security, personal privacy, etc. Western countries should pass legislation on Chinese apps, or even block Chinese apps, like India has done.

Source: RFA Chinese, September 7, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/wechat-09072022123951.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics Information/Technology