Chinascope – Page 170

The State Department Placed Restrictions on CCP Officials Who Repress Minority Groups, Dissidents, and Human Rights Defenders

iThe U.S. Department of State announced on March 21 that it is taking action against officials of China (the People’s Republic of China, or PRC) for their involvement in repressive acts against members of ethnic and religious minority groups and religious and spiritual practitioners inside and outside of China’s borders, including within the United States.

The statement said, “The United States rejects efforts by the PRC officials to harass, intimidate, surveil, and abduct members of ethnic and religious minority groups, including those who seek safety abroad, and U.S. citizens, who speak out on behalf of this vulnerable population.” It “imposes visa restrictions on PRC officials who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, policies or actions aimed at repressing religious and spiritual practitioners, members of ethnic minority groups, dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, labor organizers, civil society organizers, and peaceful protestors in China and beyond.”

Source: Department of State website, March 21, 2022
https://www.state.gov/promoting-accountability-for-transnational-repression-committed-by-peoples-republic-of-china-prc-officials/

Briefings | | March 23, 2022 | US-China Relations

China Trains Personnel to Censor Online Religious Information

China’s Zhejiang Provincial government recently issued a notice that it will train auditors of Internet religious information starting on March 31. The content of the training includes “basic knowledge of religion” and “religious policies and regulations.” Several provinces and cities have made announcements for such training and examinations.

Pastor Liu Yi, who now lives in California and once worked for many years in churches in Zhejiang, said that religious auditors have existed in China since a long time ago. Liu said, “At the beginning of the Chinese Communist Party’s takeover of China, there were such personnel in Christian and Catholic churches, monitoring the sermons and Bible studies. If any so-called anti-socialist content was found, it would be reported to the authorities.”

The Measures for the Administration of Religious Information Services on the Internet, published by China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA), came into effect on March 1 this year. The document prohibits any organization or individual from establishing any religious organizations, religious colleges, religious activity sites, or developing congregations online, and it also prohibits overseas organizations or individuals from “engaging in Internet religious information services” inside China.

According to the announcement of the Tianjin Municipal government on March 7, the scope of training also includes “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” “Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law,” “Socialist Core Values ,” and “General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Discourse on Religious Work.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 22, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/sc-03222022150905.html

Briefings | | March 23, 2022 | Social Stability

Chinese Scholar: Total Population May Peak in 2022

With China’s natural population growth approaching zero last year, Cai Fang, the former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CAAS) and a member of the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, believes it is entirely possible that China’s population will reach its peak in 2022.

According to the 2021 population data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s total population was 1.41 billion at the end of last year, with a natural growth rate of 0.34 per 1,000.

Cai said in a speech at a conference on March 18th that the most prominent factor affecting China’s long-term economic growth is population.

The demographic factors are now creating constraints on the demand side. Cai noted, “In the past we had negative growth in the working-age population, which was a supply-side constraint. Now we may be experiencing negative growth in the total population, which will create a new constraint on the demand side.”

Cai added that with the weakening of the comparative advantage of manufacturing and the slowdown of the growth in GDP, the export-and-investment-driven growth model is unsustainable. There is an urgent need to shift to a model that relies more on domestic consumption. As the population growth rate has declined, the growth rate of total consumption has also declined, and it is declining rapidly. He pointed out that the trend of population change is irreversible and cannot be reversed in the short term or in the foreseeable future. He said that the only thing that can change is the income distribution.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore), March 21, 2022
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20220321-1254491

Briefings | | March 23, 2022 | Economy/Resources

Global Times: U.S. Revoked Chinese Telecom Companies’ Licenses Again

Global Times recently reported that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continues to target Chinese telecommunications companies,and revoked the operating licenses of two Chinese companies in the United States on the grounds of “national security.” The FCC officially decided on March 16th to terminate the licenses of Pacific Networks and its wholly-owned subsidiary ComNet for providing interstate and international communication services in the United States. In its announcement, the FCC offered a range of reasons for the action. The FCC indicated that Pacific Networks and ComNet belong to Chinese state-owned enterprises and are exploited, influenced and controlled by the Chinese government. They are likely to be compelled to implement the Chinese government’s demands without adequate legal procedures under independent judicial oversight. China’s national security environment has changed since the FCC authorized the companies to provide communications services in the United States. Their ownership structure gave them, their parent companies and affiliates, and the Chinese government the opportunity to access, store, disrupt and mislead the U.S. in its communications, allowing them to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States, thereby greatly increasing the U.S. national security and law enforcement risks. Earlier this year, the FCC also revoked the licenses of China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both responded by stating that the United States continues to generalize the concept of national security, abuses government power, and maliciously suppresses Chinese telecommunications companies without a factual basis. China firmly opposes this.

Source: Global Times, March 18, 2022
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/47EcXX8ntB9

Briefings | | March 22, 2022 | Information/Technology US-China Relations

The Chip Industry Encounters another Unexpected Event

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima, Japan. The earthquake also shut down some factories, including chip maker Renesas Electronics. This tragedy in Japan once again casts a shadow over the auto industry, which is suffering from chip supply bottlenecks and rising raw material prices. A total of three Renesas factories were affected. One of them is an important chip production base for Renesas, and automotive chips account for about two-thirds of the products it produces. The earthquake also affected Japanese car companies such as Toyota and Nissan. Renesas is the world’s third largest automotive chip maker and the world’s largest manufacturer of microcontrollers (MCUs), accounting for about 19 percent of the global market. In addition to Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Great Wall Motors and other automakers are also customers of Renesas Electronics. Many automobile companies are planning to raise prices. Since 2020, the global auto industry has been plagued by chip shortages. According to Auto Forecast Solutions (AFS) data, due to the shortage of automotive chip supplies, the global automobile production volume was reduced by 11.31 million vehicles in 2021, a drop of 14.6 percent, of which the Chinese vendors reduced production by 2.148 million vehicles in 2021. According to the latest forecast from AFS, global automakers may cut production by more than 1 million vehicles in 2022 due to chip shortages. In this context, chip prices have also risen. The shipment cycle of chips is also much longer than before the pandemic. China’s auto production and sales account for about 33 percent of the global market, but auto semiconductors and other components mainly rely on overseas suppliers.

Source: Sina, March 18, 2022
https://news.sina.com.cn/s/2022-03-18/doc-imcwipih9278428.shtml

Briefings | | March 21, 2022 | Information/Technology

Large Real Estate Developer Yango Group Defaulted Domestically and Internationally

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that the Yango Group of Fujian Province has a market value of RMB hundreds of billions. Its domestic and overseas debts exploded at the same time. On March 16, China Construction Bank issued an announcement that Yango’s RMB 600 million medium-term notes “20 Yango MTN001” missed their due date of March 15. The issuer, Yango Group, failed to pay the interest or principal in full on schedule, which constituted a breach. On the same day, the company’s controlling shareholder, Sunshine Group, announced that the principal and interest of the existing overseas bonds “YANGOG 12.5 02/20/22” (US$106 million) and “YANGOG 12.5 01/04/24” (US$300 million) defaulted. More defaults are expected in the next one-year timeframe since there are payments due every month. In the past month, Yango Group has also suffered a number of holdings being judicially frozen. After the thunderstorm in Yango, the company’s senior executives were in turmoil and many of them departed. Yango is a publicly traded company with a real estate business in over 100 cities across China. It ranks among the top 20 real estate companies in China.

Source: NetEase, March 17, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/H2LE9J030530NLC9.html

Briefings | | March 21, 2022 | Economy/Resources

China Encounters Obstacles in Global Race for Cobalt

At the beginning of March, a Congolese court ordered Chinese Molybdenum Co. (Luoyang Luanchuan Molybdenum) to cede control temporarily (for approximately six months) of the cobalt mine –Tenke Fungurume. The state-owned miner Gécamines SA of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accused Chinese Molybdenum of trying to evade paying millions of dollars in royalties by under-reporting reserves. China Molybdenum acquired the mine from Freeport McMoRan Inc. in 2016 for $2.65 billion. The investigation has been extended to several other Chinese companies there. That extension threatens to affect China’s global competition in cobalt.

The DRC’s cobalt belt is the world’s richest source of cobalt. It has become critical to the global transition to cleaner energy. Cobalt can boost charge rates and has a stabilizing effect, extending battery life and preventing cathode corrosion that can lead to battery fires. Just one electric vehicle can require between 10 and 30 pounds of cobalt to build its battery, depending on the manufacturer.

China has been using electric vehicles as a breakthrough point to catch up with the Western auto industry. It has not only included them in the ten key areas of “Made in China 2025” but has also laid out a big plan to monopolize cobalt by investing heavily in Africa. China’s interest includes areas from cobalt mining to the generation of lithium batteries. It also includes cobalt refining, manufacturing battery cells, integrating battery modules and assembling batteries. China is trying to control the entire ecosystem. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that, for more than a decade, Chinese companies have spent billions of dollars buying out U.S. and European mines in the DRC’s cobalt belt.

According to the estimates by Darton Commodities, Chinese refineries supplied 85 percent of the world’s battery cobalt in 2020. Most of this cobalt came from the DRC. Last year the DRC accounted for 70 percent of the world’s total cobalt production. Chinese companies dominate nearly 70 percent of the country’s mining industry.

The DRC is one of the world’s poorest countries. More than 60 percent of its 90 million people live on less than $1.90 a day. According to the World Bank, the DRC’s annual budget is about $7 billion. In the middle of last year, during a visit to mining areas, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi vowed that his government would continue to review mining contracts to ensure that the Congolese people benefit from their vast extractive industry and finally break the so-called resources curse by paying higher wages and royalties.

Euractiv even reported that the Congolese workers of Sicomines who are employed by a company a Chinese consortium owns claim that they do the same work as Chinese workers do but are paid much less than Chinese and their Chinese supervisors subject them to degrading treatment.

Source: Epoch Times, March 12, 2022

https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/3/12/n13641727.htm

Briefings | | March 18, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

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

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

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

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