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Subnational Infiltration – Ireland Professor Resigned to Protest University’s Pro-Russia and Beijing Stance

Ben Tonra, Professor and Vice Principal of the College of Social Sciences and Law at the University College in Dublin (UCD), resigned to protest the university’s taking a soft position towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its backing for the Confucius Institute from China.

“Based on the statements and response of the University’s leadership to the invasion of Ukraine and the role of the Confucius Institute on campus, it is clear to me that I do not share the values underpinnings of the UCD’s global engagement strategy,” he said on Twitter.

Professor Tonra was upset that UCD called Russia’s invasion “the situation in Ukraine.”

The UCD’s Confucius Institute was established in 2006. In 2021, a group of professors expressed strong opposition to a course on Chinese history and politics being delivered by the Confucius Institute which is one of the Chinese Communist Party’s invasive infiltration tools.

A spokesman for the university said the course was delivered by the Irish Institute for Chinese Studies (IICS), an academic center in the university, not by the Confucius Institute at UCD.

However, “a professor pointed out that [IICS and the UCD’s Confucius Institute] were established at the same time, are in the same building, have the same director, the same email address, the same phone number, overlapping senior staff, and share the same mission to promote teaching Chinese studies,”

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, March 8, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/3/8/n13630531.htm
2. The Irish Times, August 7, 2021
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/ucd-staff-say-college-institute-teaching-chinese-studies-devalues-reputation-1.4641042

Pandemic: By March 9, COVID Had Spread to 19 Provinces and Municipalities in China

As of March 9, the COVID-19 pandemic had spread to all four municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing) and 15 provinces.

Both Jilin City and Changchun City in Jilin Province confirmed their cases were the omicron variant. Jilin city has set up three modular hospitals with 1,186 beds to supplement the existing hospitals.

Shanghai has been reporting over 50 cases (both confirmed cases and asymptomatic cases) each day for several days, whereas in the past a city usually only report the infection count in single digits or teens.

Since the Chinese Communist Party is known to hide the infection information, the actual infection number is unknown.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source: Epoch Times, March 9, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/3/9/n13633055.htm

Propaganda: Chinese Teacher Taught Students: “Ukraine Is a Spendthrift”

An online video showed a Chinese teacher teaching elementary students that Ukraine is a spendthrift and has wasted all of the assets it inherited when it separated from the USSR.

The teacher said Ukraine inherited a large amount of military assets and asked the students what those assets included. The first students answered, “Nuclear weapons.” The second said, “6,000 tanks.” The third said, “Three aircraft carriers fully loaded with planes that could go anywhere.” (Note: Ukraine sold one carrier to China. It  became China’s first aircraft carrier.)

Then the teacher asked the students what they learned from the Ukraine incident. Students answered by quoting Xi Jinping’s words, “Each of us must live his life in his own way.” Also, “We must study well so we can [later] build the country and defend the country.”

Source: Yahoo!, March 7, 2022
https://tw.news.yahoo.com影-中國女師罵烏克蘭-敗家子-洗腦學生影片瘋傳-072932351.html

China’s Defense Budget Increased to a 3-year High

At China’s 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) meeting on March 5, the central and local government budgets were publicized. According to the report, the official budget for national defense for 2022 is 1.45 trillion yuan (US$229.5 billion), an annual increase of 7.1 percent. The official national defense spending for 2021 is $1.36 trillion (US$215.2 billion).

This year’s 7.1 percent growth is the highest since 2019, when the country’s spending grew at 7.5 percent. The increase in 2021 and 2020 were 6.8 percent and 6.6 percent respectively.

The increase in China’s military spending this year is higher than the official target of 5.5 percent in economic growth. In recent years, the targeted economic growth rates have been reduced year by year while the military spending has been rising at an increasing rate.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 5, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202203050227.aspx

Optimism of U.S. Companies in China is Declining

The American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) recently published its 24th annual edition of the China Business Climate Survey (BCS) Report.

According to the 2022 BCS Report, In 2021, US companies in China reported a declining level of optimism due to multiple challenges. These included sustained air travel disruptions, an increasingly uncertain regulatory environment, difficulty attracting and retaining talent, and the strained US-China relationship.

US companies operating in China faced mounting pressure and risks  on politically sensitive issues as well. One example is navigating US-China bilateral tensions, which remains a top challenge and concern for companies. 42 percent of companies have been facing mounting pressure to speak out and make (or not make) statements on politically sensitive issues. This has often caused them problems in both the U.S. and Chinese markets.

More than twice as many companies feel “much less welcome” in China compared to last year. One-third of respondents report that foreign companies are treated unfairly versus domestic competitors.

Most believe labor costs will increase in 2022, in line with fears that labor costs and wages are a growing HR challenge.

47 percent of the over 300 respondents report they are confident or very confident that the Chinese market will open up more to foreign investment over the next three years. This figure is down 14 percentage points from last year.

Optimism is down across almost all aspects of business operations in China and pessimism up more than 10 percentage points with regard to the regulatory environment and economic growth. 37 percent of members see China’s investment environment improving, a 13 percentage point decrease from last year and the lowest in four years. Concerns about an uncertain Chinese policy environment is the most-cited reason for declining investment.

Source: AmCham China, March 2022.
https://www.amchamchina.org/2022-china-business-climate-survey-report/

Canadian Embassy: “Support Ukraine” Spray-painted on its Light-box

On March 1, the Canadian Embassy in Beijing flew the Ukrainian flag and displayed the wording, “We support Ukraine” and “We are with Ukraine” on the light box on its outer wall. On its official Weibo account, the Chinese counterpart of Twitter, the Embassy posted an article titled, “Today, in Beijing, we raise the Ukrainian flag to express our solidarity with the people of Ukraine.” However, Chinese netizens flooded the comment section of the article with criticism.

On March 2, the light box signboard with “We support Ukraine” written on it was found spray-painted in red with the wording “Fxxx NATO,” which seems to be a way to express dissatisfaction with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Canadian Embassy’s solidarity with Ukraine. The spray-painted area was later covered up, but the light box signage saying, “Support Ukraine” has not been removed.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the mainstream opinion in China is mostly in favor of Russia and against Ukraine, although there have also been some people who expressed their position in support of Ukraine and against Russian aggression.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 3, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202203030249.aspx

LTN: Poland Plans to Double its Army to “Become NATO’s Strongest”

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that Ukraine has suffered from Russian aggression, making countries adjacent to Russia quite nervous. NATO member Poland has announced that it is necessary to update next year’s military expenses and expand its military scale to strengthen its defense ability. The Polish Army will expand from 143,500 soldiers to 300,000. The Polish government said it plans to focus on the defensive ability of its capital, Warsaw. The military expenses for next year were increased from the 2.5 percent of GDP proposed in October last year, to 3 percent, and may increase more if necessary. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak pointed out that this will be a framework to have one of NATO’s strongest armies. He also said, “The evil empire is trying to be reborn (and come) through our eastern frontier.” Poland intends to raise funds from the bonds or interest of the Central Bank of Poland and other banks. Since the E.U. stipulates that the budget overspending cannot exceed 3 percent, Poland is negotiating with the EU not to include military spending in the budget deficit.

Source: LTN, March 5, 2022
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3849139

Global Times: The Ukraine War Brings Damage to Trade between Indian and Russia

Global Times recently reported that, according to Indian media, the Indian government may soon resort to swapping rupees for trade with Russian rubles, bypassing Western sanctions to avoid disruptions to India-Russia trade. Since the end of 2021, Russian and Indian defense export payments have been made in rubles and rupees, abandoning the use of U.S. dollars. To ensure Russia maintains fertilizer supplies to India amid sanctions, the Indian government and banking sources revealed there is a plan for Russian banks and companies to open Indian rupee accounts in some state-owned banks for trade settlement as part of the barter system. Russian economic experts pointed out that Russia is still evading sanctions through some friendly neighbors. Russia’s trade and capital flows will turn east again. Global Times also reported that, as one of the world’s leading arms exporters, the new round of U.S. sanctions may hugely impact Russian military enterprises on their export of weapons systems. India may have to swallow the “bitter fruit” produced by the U.S. and the West’s sanctions against Russia. Russia has been India’s largest arms supplier since the 1970s. Although the United States has been courting India in recent years to provide India with American-style equipment, more than 60 percent of India’s weapons and equipment comes from Russia and India’s authorized defense industry production chain basically comes from Russia. Senior Indian government officials said that the Indian army currently has sufficient reserves of Russian-made ammunitions and weapons’ spare parts. However, India’s orders for weapons worth about US$8 billion from Russia will face uncertainty. Since Russia was kicked out of the SWIFT system by the United States and the West, payments for arms transactions between the two countries will be seriously affected. In addition, the weapons projects jointly developed and produced by India and Russia may also be hit hard.

Source: Global Times, March 4, 2022
https://finance.huanqiu.com/article/473CosONcMc
https://mil.huanqiu.com/article/4730vkchnhV