Chinascope – Page 178

Taiwan: Chinese Think Tanker: China Can Take Taiwan by Force in One Week by 2027

Jin Canrong, a Professor and Vice Dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University in Beijing, is a hawkish think tanker in China. He got the world’s attention for providing diplomatic advice to the communist authorities.

In his recent interview with Nikkei Asia, he made the following statement:

“Reunification by force will be pushed to become a reality after the Chinese Communist Party’s 20^th National Congress is over in the fall of 2022. The leadership is likely to bring the date to 2027, around the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).”

“China already has the capability to reunify Taiwan within a week. The PLA can defeat any U.S. force within 1,000 nautical miles of (China’s) coast.”

“Japan should never intervene in the Taiwan emergency affair. The United States can no longer win over China on this. If Japan intervenes, China will have no choice but to defeat Japan as well. (Japan) should realize that a new change is taking place.”

Pandemic: Hangzhou and Xiong’an Suffered CCOVID-19

On February 1, China reported 63 COVID-19 infection cases from 8 municipalities and provinces, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, and others. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for hiding COVID-19 information, so the actual number of cases is not known.

Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province has reported cases daily since it first reported an Omicron case on January 26. The Binjiang District, which had the most cases, sent over 300 buses to transfer 2,000 families, with about 9,000 people, from their homes to designed isolation sites. In some situations, the bus took people to certain hotels, but the hotels refused to accept the people. By now, the city has moved 30,000 people into designated isolation sites.

Xiong’an, Beijing’s satellite city, which has been designed to host the Beijing city government (Beijing will host the central government functions), reported five COVID-19 cases recently and locked down the city. However, this is a “secret” lockdown: the government didn’t publicly announce it, but only told the 1.3 million people in the city that they must stay at home and not go out. It also blocked the roads so people couldn’t leave the city. Foreign media confirmed the lockdown. Also commentators pointed out that the infection number was likely to be much higher than five, otherwise the authorities did not need to lock down 1.3 million people.

Taiwan: IOC Pushed Taiwan to Attend the Olympic Opening Ceremony

On January 28, Taiwan announced that its athletes who were attending the Beijing Winter Olympic Games would not attend the Olympic’s Opening Ceremony and the Closing Ceremony. From January 29 on, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) contacted Taiwan’s Olympic Committee multiple times, stating that the Olympic Charter requests Olympic Committees of all countries to attend the related ceremonies. The Taiwan Olympic Committee discussed the issue with the athletes and then announced that they would attend both ceremonies.

The Taiwan team uses the name “Chinese Taipei” to attend the Olympic Games. In January, Beijing suddenly called it “China Taipei” making many Taiwan people feel it was purposely belittling Taiwan (indicating Taipei is under China). That is why Taiwan announced earlier that it would not attend the ceremonies.

Global Times: EU Says It Has Sued China in the WTO

Global Times recently reported that the European Union’s (EU’s) Trade Commissioner, Dombrowski, issued a statement, saying that the EU has filed a lawsuit with the WTO over China’s discriminatory trade practices against EU member Lithuania. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian later responded that China has always acted in accordance with WTO rules. Zhao reminded the EU to distinguish right from wrong and to be wary of Lithuania’s attempt to kidnap China-EU relations. He added, “Lithuania, like other EU member states, should fulfill the political commitments made when establishing diplomatic relations with China.” Some observers expressed the belief that the WTO ruling process is extremely long and that the probability of Lithuania winning is close to zero. Dombrowski said that, since December 1, 2021, Chinese customs has banned the import of Lithuanian products. Also Chinese companies are canceling orders from Lithuania and reducing exports to Lithuania. In addition, China is encouraging multinational companies to ditch the use of Lithuanian components in their production. Otherwise they could face import restrictions. Dombrowski said, “Initiating WTO litigation is not a step we take lightly. However, after many unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue bilaterally, we believe there is no other way but to request WTO dispute settlement.” The Lithuanian government expressed its gratitude to the European Union on the 27th. “The WTO proceedings will be very long, but this will provide important answers to the question of whether China’s actions are in line with international trade rules,” said Lithuania’s President Nauseda. Lithuania Foreign Minister Landsbergis said the EU’s move “shows the unity and the unity of the EU and sends a clear message to China that the EU will not tolerate any politically motivated economic coercion.”

Source: Global Times, January 28, 2022
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/46ZwTy7yuL7

Also see: “CNA: China Cut Orders: Lithuania’s Century-Old Brewery Switched to Taiwan”

CNA: China Cut Orders; Lithuania’s Century-Old Brewery Switched to Taiwan

Briefings | | February 1, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Apple Surpassed Vivo in Q4 to Become the Top Brand in China

Well-known Chinese news site Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) recently reported that Counterpoint Research just released the Chinese smartphone’s market sales data for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021. Based on the data for the whole year of 2021, Vivo ranks first in the Chinese market, with a market share of 22 percent. OPPO ranked second with a market share of 21 percent. Apple ranked third, with a year-over-year sales growth rate of 47 percent, which was the fastest among the top five manufacturers. Xiaomi and Honor are fourth and fifth respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Apple surpassed Vivo to become the No. 1 brand in China, with a market share of 23 percent, the highest ever. The new iPhone 13 has been a successful thanks to the relatively low starting price it had at its launch in China, as well as its new cameras and 5G capabilities. Also, Apple’s main rival in the premium segment, Huawei, faces declining sales due to ongoing U.S. sanctions. Huawei’s market share dropped from 31 percent to 10 percent. In the fourth quarter, faced with more severe parts shortages, slowing sales channel penetration, and competition from Honor, Xiaomi ranked fifth in the quarter.

Source: Sohu, January 26, 2022
https://www.sohu.com/a/519193877_115565

Briefings | | January 31, 2022 | Economy/Resources Information/Technology

Micron Disbands Shanghai DRAM Design Team

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the major U.S. storage manufacturer, Micron Technology, is disbanding its Shanghai Research and Development (R&D) center with about 150 employees. It has selected more than 40 core R&D personnel to provide qualifications for immigrating to the United States. These core employees will be able to bring their family members and immigrate to the United States. It is still unclear how many employees will choose the immigration path. Sources confirmed that, instead of disbanding the entire Shanghai R&D center, Micron only took out the DRAM design department, which has more than 100 people in total. In addition to the design team, the Micron Shanghai R&D Center also includes sales, testing and other departments. According to a former Micron employee, Micron’s DRAM design team had previously lost a large number of personnel to Chinese domestic chip design companies and storage manufacturers. Micron’s move is highly likely to prevent technology leakage. Although the number of domestic DRAM companies is relatively small, yet several new DRAM manufacturers may emerge in the next few years and the existing DRAM companies are also looking for talent. Micron is apparently consolidating its product design and R&D capabilities to areas outside Mainland China. Micron has been emphasizing the importance of intellectual property protection for a long time. Micron had previously taken UMC to court for leaking trade secrets. Micron indicated after winning the case that intellectual property protection is an important cornerstone for Micron to remain competitive. Currently, Samsung ranks first in the market with a market share of 41.5 percent, SK Hynix ranks second with a market share of 29.3 percent, and Micron ranks third with a market share of 23.4 percent. The top three manufacturers together account for 94.2% of the global DRAM market.

Source: Sina, January 25, 2022
https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2022-01-25/doc-ikyakumy2509223.shtml

Briefings | | January 31, 2022 | Information/Technology US-China Relations

Kicked out of America! China Unicom Ordered to Stop All Business in the U.S.

Well-known Chinese news site Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) recently reported that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 4 to 0 to revoke China Unicom’s subsidiary’s 214 license. The FCC cited national security concerns. The decision means China Unicom (America’s) Operations Limited must stop all services in the United States within 60 days. The company provides mobile services, leased lines, Internet access and cloud services in the United States. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said, “There is growing evidence that Chinese operators pose a threat to the security of our telecommunications networks.” Rosenworcel also said that the FCC will conduct similar measures against Pacific Networks Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary ComNet. This is not the first time the United States has dealt with companies in the Chinese telecommunications industry. Last October, the FCC decided to revoke China Telecom Americas’ authorization to operate in the U.S. In 2019, the FCC also rejected China Mobile’s application to do business in the United States. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a statement saying that, the U.S. has revoked China Unicom’s license based on subjective speculation and suspicion without listing the specific illegal facts of the company.

Source: Sohu, January 28, 2022
https://www.sohu.com/a/519542752_639898

Briefings | | January 31, 2022 | Information/Technology US-China Relations

China’s Residential Foreclosures Are Spiking

Chinascope recently reported that 200,000 people in China stopped making their mortgage payments (See: http://chinascope.org/archives/28823). On January 14, 2022, Professor Han Fuling from the School of Finance of the Central University of Finance and Economics posted on Weibo, “At the beginning of 2022, the four major banks sued 200,000 owners for defaulting on their mortgages.” Weibo has since removed the posting. The four major banks are the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, and the Construction Bank.

Since the beginning of 2022, there has been more news about defaults and foreclosures of residential houses in China.

All Foreclosure Auctions are well-known online auction platforms in China. As of January 30, 2022, 1.72 million court-ordered foreclosures of residential houses were placed on the auction list.

In 2017, the number of foreclosure houses was 9,000; in 2018 it was 20,000; in 2019, 500,000; in 2020, more than 1.2 million. As of mid-December 2021, foreclosure houses in China hit a record high at over 1.68 million.

Among them, Jiangsu Province ranked first with 209,900 units, Zhejiang ranked second with 179,300 units, and Henan, Guangdong, and Shandong ranked third, fourth, and fifth.

While these are cumulative numbers, not net annual increases, an unprecedented spike is happening in foreclosures of residential houses.

Source: Xinhua Daily Media Group, January 17, 2022

http://www.xhby.net/fc/xwzx/202201/t20220117_7388962.shtml

Briefings | | January 31, 2022 | Economy/Resources

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.