Chinascope – Page 173

Lianhe Zaobao: Scholars Concluded Zero Probability of U.S. Sending Troops to Taiwan

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently published a commentary by its Beijing Commissioner. The commentary referred to comments from Chinese and Hong Kong scholars. Even for Ukraine, which is so important geopolitically to the United States, the United States has made it clear that it will not send troops. Based on this, it is fair to say that in the event of a war in the Taiwan Strait, the United States will provide military assistance and share weapons, but the possibility of sending troops directly is zero. The phrase “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow” has continued to appear in public opinion after the situation in Ukraine heated up. The Ukraine crisis is indirectly related to China because of the psychological expectations caused by the Taiwan issue. In terms of geopolitics, Ukraine is more important to the United States than Taiwan. The United States also psychologically regards Ukraine as a “semi-member” of NATO, but Taiwan does not have such a status. External events are a factor for Beijing to consider, but not a decisive factor. Even if there is a window now, for Beijing, the problem is not the reunification of the two sides of the strait, but how to solve the various governance problems that arise after the reunification. The Ukraine issue also made it clear that Russia and the U.S. cannot really come together, which is critical to China. If Russia is classified as part of the West, under the current relationship between China and the West, China will face a very dangerous situation.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, February 20, 2022
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20220220-1244522

Briefings | | March 1, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

CNA: Freedom House Ranked Taiwan’s Degree of Freedom Second in Asia

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that the human rights organization, “Freedom House” just released the 2022 Global Freedom Report. Although global democracy has declined for 16 consecutive years, Taiwan still scored 94 points, second only to Japan in Asia. Freedom House’s 2022 Report issued a warning that global democracy has been on the decline, and that authoritarianism is increasingly likely to replace democracy and become the international standard model of national governance. Globally, Taiwan is tied for 17th place with Iceland, Estonia, Chile and Germany, which also scored 94 points. In Asia, Japan scored 96 points. The Report evaluates 210 countries and regions around the world, and uses the local people’s access to political rights and civil liberties as the evaluation indicators. This year, China maintained its score from last year, with negative 2 points for “political rights” and only 11 points for “civil liberties”, for a total of 9 points, and was once again listed as a “Not Free” country. The report pointed out that in recent years, Beijing’s authoritarian regime has become increasingly oppressive, and the Communist Party has continued to strengthen its control over all aspects of people’s lives, undermining a series of early moderate legal reforms. As for Hong Kong, which China has strongly suppressed, this year it scored 10 points in “political rights” and 33 points in “civil liberties”, a total of 43 points, a sharp drop of 9 points from last year’s 52 points. The Report indicated that today, only two out of ten people in the world live in a free country.

Source: CNA, February 25, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202202250016.aspx

Briefings | | March 1, 2022 | Social Stability

Global Times: Eight Chinese Military Planes Entered Southwest of Taiwan Airspace

Global Times recently summarized and commented on Taiwanese media reports about the event that on February 26th eight Mainland Chinese military aircraft “harassed” the southwestern airspace of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone. This occurred while the USS Johnson missile destroyer was passing through the Taiwan Strait. The aircraft from the Mainland included J-16 and J-11 fighter jets and a Yun-8 anti-submarine aircraft. The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese military has organized troops to monitor the U.S. warship’s passing operations. The U.S. has carried out this provocative act and attempted to support Taiwan by making some gestures. It is both hypocritical and futile. The spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Defense said that, since 2021, the Chinese military has regularly organized bombers, reconnaissance planes, and fighter planes to conduct patrols and combat drills approaching the surrounding area of Taiwan. The actual number of planes dispatched will only be more, not less than the number hyped by the Taiwan media. The goal is very clear, and that is to take decisive action to counter the vicious actions of forces inside and outside of the island who frequently collude and challenge the one-China principle. The Taiwan Air Force claimed on the evening of the 26th that, for the eight Mainland military aircraft, the Taiwan Air Force sent air patrol forces to respond and broadcasted that they would drive them away, and they conducted active monitoring of the anti-aircraft missile system in place.

Source: Global Times, February 27, 2022
https://taiwan.huanqiu.com/article/46z18H1igqE

Briefings | | March 1, 2022 | Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

The “Chained Woman” Case and the One Million People Missing in China in 2020

The “chained woman” case was exposed in January and quickly became the hottest issue among the whole of China. By February 21, case-related articles on the Internet had been read over 6 billion times. This case was about the crime of trafficking women and turning them into sex slaves.

A woman was kidnapped in 1997 and in 1998, she was sold to a village man in Dongji Township, Feng County, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province. The family kept her as a sex slave – though they called her the wife of their first son Dong Zhimin. All of the men in the family including Dong Zhimin, his father, and his brother repeatedly raped the woman. The family locked her up, using an iron chain and pulled out almost all her teeth so that she could not bite any of the sex offenders when They were raping her. Dong has eight children (it is not known whether the woman gave birth to all of them).

After the case was exposed, the Chinese authorities, from the county to city to the central government in Beijing, tried to cover it up. They locked the woman up in a mental hospital. The authorities claimed that she was a missing person, Xiao Huamei from Yunan Province. The public, on the other hand, came up with substantial evidence pointing out that she was Li Ying from Sichuan Province. The reasons that the government denied she was Li Ying were, first, that Li Ying’s father served in the army and the authorities did not want soldiers to feel that they can’t even protect their own families; and second, that Li Ying was kidnapped when she was less than 13 years old. That would mean that Dong’s family group raped an underage girl. The authorities also built walls to block people from entering the village and detained and harassed anyone coming to the township in order to “protect” the woman.

The Chinese people exposed the information that these women trafficking and sex slave cases were common throughout China. In many cases, the whole village helped to guard the kidnapped women and chased them back if they tried to escape. The local authorities acquiesced and even supported the practice, including issuing a fake or illegal residence card, a marriage certificate, and a birth certificate. When kidnapped women went to the court to seek a separation, which was very difficult to accomplish, the judges rejected divorce and asked them to go back to the rapist who kept them as slaves.

An article in the state media “China Daily.” published on February 25, 2021, revealed how severe this human trafficking problem is in China. In 2020 alone, there were one million people missing in China, according to the “China’s Missing People Whitepaper (2020).” This was already a “great improvement” from the 3.94 million who were missing in 2016 and 2.6 million in 2017.

Source: China Daily, February 26, 2021
https://tech.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202102/26/WS60386587a3101e7ce9741248.html

Briefings | | February 28, 2022 | Social Stability

Commissioners Ask Amazon to Support and Advocate for Labor Rights Activist in China

On February 16, 2022, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA), the Chair and Co-chair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) released a letter to Amazon in which they asked publicly that the company support labor rights activist Tang Mingfang’s court appeal to clear his arrest record and compensate him for the fines he was forced to pay and for serving time in prison due to exposing labor abuses in Amazon’s supply chain in China.

The letter also requested publicly that Amazon update its company policies to protect whistleblowers, particularly in China, stating that the exposure of labor abuses and forced labor in the Amazon supply chain is not an exposure of company secrets nor is it a violation of company policy.

Tang Mingfang, 42, was a physical control engineer at Foxconn in Hengyang, Hunan province of China. According to China’s court documents, He was detained in September, 2019, for “leaking confidential company information.” He served a two-year prison sentence and was fined 10,000 RMB (approximately $1,500 US). The information that Tang provided led to changes at the factory where Amazon had a contract and included compensation to unpaid workers. Without Tang, Amazon may not have discovered the illegal use and abuse of student interns at its factories. China does not adequately enforce its own labor laws and workers are prevented from forming independent trade unions. In addition, reports from the South China Morning Post and The Sourcing Journal published found significant problems in the Chinese labor auditing industry including bribery, fraudulent consulting practices, and falsification of factory information in order to pass the company’s audits.

The CECC Commissioners and ranking minority members in Congress, including Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) joined the bipartisan letter with the Chairs.

Source: https://www.voacantonese.com/a/6445449.html

Briefings | | February 25, 2022 | Government/Politics

Hua Chunying: The U. S. Has Been Inciting Tension; the Danger is War; Wang Yi Expressed Understanding of Russia’s Ukraine Action

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular press conference on February 24 that the U.S. has been raising tensions to the point of inciting the danger of war. The U.S. has shipped more than 1,000 tons of weapons and ammunition worth at least $1.5 billion to the Ukraine. At this time, if all parties performed the task of persuading others to be peaceful, we could examine the ins and outs of the Ukraine issue together; we could respect and take care of each other’s security concerns, solve them reasonably, and properly make the situation a soft landing. What would that situation be like? . . . It is really not a responsible behavior for those who follow the United States to fan the flames, and then accuse others of not helping after they set up the fire. “As the initiator, the person who started the fire should consider how to put out the fire as soon as possible with practical actions now, instead of blaming others.”

On February 24, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Wang Yi told him that China always respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. At the same time, we have also seen that the issue has its complex and special historical latitude and longitude, and we understand Russia’s legitimate concerns on security issues.

Source: Xinhua, February 24, 2022
http://www.news.cn/world/2022-02/24/c_1128413011.htm
http://www.news.cn/world/2022-02/24/c_1128413630.htm

Briefings | | February 24, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

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.

Lianhe Zaobao: Scholars Concluded Zero Probability of U.S. Sending Troops to Taiwan

Global Times: Eight Chinese Military Planes Entered Southwest of Taiwan Airspace

Commissioners Ask Amazon to Support and Advocate for Labor Rights Activist in China

Hua Chunying: The U. S. Has Been Inciting Tension; the Danger is War; Wang Yi Expressed Understanding of Russia’s Ukraine Action

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