Chinascope – Page 179

Duowei News: China’s Retort to NATO’s Call to Condemn Russia: “We Will Never Forget the Embassy Bombing Incident”

Duowei News, a Chinese news media based in North America and a major media portal of China’s “great overseas propaganda” network, reported that, in a press conference on March 15, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed that China has an obligation as a member of the UN Security Council actually to support and to uphold international law and join the rest of the world in condemning Russia’s invasion.
In response, the spokesperson for the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union retorted, “We have taken note of the relevant remarks. The Chinese people can fully relate to the pains and sufferings of other countries because we will never forget who bombed our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.[ [ ] We need no lecture on justice from the abuser of international law. As a Cold War remnant and the world’s largest military alliance, NATO continues to expand its geographical scope and range of operations. What kind of role has it played in world peace and stability? NATO needs to do some good reflection.”
[ [ ] Referring to the bombing of its embassy in Yugoslavia by Nato forces decades ago

Source: Duowei News, March 17, 2022
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3170821/china-harks-back-belgrade-embassy-bombing-after-nato-cites-its?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article&campaign=3170821 https://www.dwnews.com/全球/60282371/北约呼吁中国谴责俄罗斯中方强硬回击永不会忘炸馆事件

Briefings | | March 17, 2022 | Government/Politics US-China Relations

National Congress Proposals: Graduate Earlier to Have a Baby Earlier

China finished its National “Lianghui” from March 4 to March 12 this year. “Lianghui,” or the “Two Conferences,” is a common Mandarin Chinese abbreviation for the National People’s Congress and the National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. It is a rubber stamp process to show there is “democracy” in China: the representatives can review, approve, and comment on the work of the central government and propose policies to the governments, though that has no substantial effect.

A few representatives made proposals this year to encourage more births, indicating that China is facing a serious birth shortage problem.

A university vice president suggested to shorten the education of elementary, middle, and high schools from 12 years to 10 years, so that “people can graduate earlier, start work earlier, get married earlier, and then have babies earlier.”

Another representative suggested to completely lift the birth control policy in Northeastern China. China’s current policy is that a couple can have up to three children. According to Beijing’s 2020 Census, the population in Northeastern China dropped 11 million from 2010 to 2020.

Another proposal was to allow people to retire at the age of 45. The earlier retirement could free up more jobs to young people, so that they have less pressure to focus on their job and delay the time to have baby.

There are also proposals to allow single women to have one child and mandate men to take one month of paternity leave.

Source: Epoch Times, March 10, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/3/10/n13635697.htm

Briefings | | March 17, 2022 | Economy/Resources

Democratic Republic of Congo Halts China’s Control of a Cobalt Mine

Cobalt is a key material in the lithium-ion battery, and critical to electric cars. In the past 10 years, Chinese companies have spent several billion dollars to buy up the cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest cobalt supplying country in the world.

Recently a Congo court ordered China Molybdenum Co. to temporarily give up its control of the Tenke Fungurume mine. Gécamines SA, Congo’s state mine company reported that China Molybdenum Co. provided a false, low mine reserve number to the government to evade several million dollars in fees. The Congo authorities stopped the Chinese company’s operation in the mine for six months, until the accounting firm Mazars re-assesses the true value. The investigation has also expanded to a few other Chinese companies.

Last year, Congo President Félix Tshisekedi vowed that his government will continue reviewing mine contracts to ensure the Congo people benefit from the mining. Earlier this year, the Biden administration sent a group to Congo to discuss how the U.S. can obtain cobalt.

Source: Epoch Times, March 12, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/3/12/n13641727.htm

Briefings | | March 17, 2022 | Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

Pandemic: Shanghai Partially and Shenzhen Fully Locked Down, Jilin Locked Down the Province

The COVID-19 virus is spreading in China. Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen all reported Omicron cases. Authorities reported 3,507 confirmed infection cases and 1,647 asymptomatic cases, or 5,154 cases in total, in one day on March 14; whereas, in the past, the official daily infected count was only in the range of one or a few hundred. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for hiding COVID information, so the actual infection count is unknown.

China’s National Health Commission issued a statement on March 15 that from March 1 to 14, the cumulative number of reported infections in China exceeded 15,000 and has spread to 28 provinces and municipalities.

Several cities in China were locked down. The Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province lockdown was from March 14 to 21. Shanghai is also partially locked down: schools, residential communities, and hospitals that had COVID cases or had people in close contact with COVID patients were locked down. All train and long-distance bus stations were closed on March 14, and all elementary and middle schools have changed to online teaching.

Other locked-down cities include Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province on March 11; Yuchen City, Shandong Province on March 11; Dongguan City, Guangdong Province on March 14; and Langfang City, Hebei Province on March 15. Shengyang City, Liaoning Province shut down its international airport on March 15.

Jilin Province became the first locked down province in this round. It reported 4,067 cases on March 14 and an accumulation of over 8,000 patients since February 28. Authorities announced a lockdown of the whole province on March 14, prohibiting its 24 million residents from leaving the province. Jilin City in the province also built several modular hospitals with 10,000 beds.

Jiangsu Province, next to Shanghai, asked its residents to report any person coming from Shanghai or other infected areas. Wuxi City, Jiangsu published an award policy on March 12: reporting a person who had close contact with a COVID patient but didn’t quarantine himself would receive an award 2,000 yuan (US $315); reporting a person who left home while taking home quarantine – award 1,000 yuan; and reporting a person who came from an infected area but didn’t report himself to the local authorities – award 500 yuan. If any of the reported persons tested positive, the reporter will be awarded another 10,000 yuan. Nantong City, Jiangsu Province also announced an award of 200 yuan for reporting a person coming from Shanghai or other high or medium risk areas that the local authorities are not aware of.

Russian Newspaper Listed 10 Ways in which China Benefits from the Russia-Ukraine War

On March 12, the Russian newspaper The View (Взгляд) listed 10 areas in which Chinese companies have benefited from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War and the sanctions from the U.S. and European countries.

First, the Union Pay system will be a winner. After Mastercard and Visa rejected overseas payment transactions, seven major Russian banks have indicated they plan to connect to China’s Union Pay system.

Second, the Chinese banking system will benefit. The West’s refusal to issue loans to Russian banks and invest in Russian assets creates opportunities for Chinese banks.

Third, it is good for the Chinese Yuan. Cutting off the access to the Dollar and the Euro will create a shortage of Western currency for Russian banks. Russian banks, companies, portfolio investors and ordinary people will turn their attention to the Chinese yuan.

Fourth, the Russian-Chinese trade will continue to climb to historic records.

Fifth, more Chinese consumer goods will enter the Russian market. Chinese clothing and daily products will become realistic substitutes for imported goods due to the shortage of dollars and euros.

Sixth, Chinese automakers will be in a favorable position.

Seventh, China will have access to all Russian energy and other raw materials that Europe rejected.

Eighth, Chinese investors will actively invest in Russian companies under favorable conditions, as competitors are exiting the Russian market.

Ninth, China’s role as a bypass route for Russia will increase. China could become a ‘middleman’ through which Russia could ship needed Western parts while paying to third parties.

Tenth, Chinese airlines will be in an advantageous position. After Russia bans European airlines from flying over its airspace, passengers will fly with Asian airlines, including Chinese airlines.

Source: HK01.com, March 14, 2022
https://www.hk01.com/即时国际/746656

Briefings | | March 16, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Exit of Visa and MasterCard Prompts Russians Banks to Adopt Chinese UnionPay

According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, the demand for China’s UnionPay cards has increased significantly as Visa and MasterCard exited from the Russian market, which has made it impossible to use cards issued by Russian banks for overseas and cross border payments.

Founded on 26 March 2002, UnionPay, also known as China UnionPay (CUP), is an association for the China’s banking card industry, operating under the approval of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC, the central bank of China). It is an electronic funds transfer at point of sale network, and the only interbank network in China that links all the automatic teller machines (ATMs) of all banks throughout the country. UnionPay cards can be used in 180 countries and regions around the world. In 2015 UnionPay overtook Visa and Mastercard in the total value of payments made by customers and became China’s largest card payment processing organization. However, only 0.5 percent of this payment volume was outside of China.

Gazprombank issued 1,000 physical and 3,700 virtual CUP cards on March 9 alone, despite an average issuance of 400 bank cards per month. Bank ZENIT claims to have received 1,000 daily applications, although there was little demand for CUP cards before March 6. The Russian Agricultural Bank has issued hundreds of thousands of CUP cards since 2017. The Post Bank (Russia) has started processing virtual CUP cards since March 9, the daily applications once exceeding 12,000.

A total of 10 Russian banks have launched UnionPay cards. In addition, five banks are studying the introduction of Mir-CUP dual cards. Mir is a Russian payment system for electronic fund transfers established by the Central Bank of Russia.

The CUP card can be used by Russian citizens abroad for ATM transactions. In recent years, Chinese tourists have frequently travelled and spent money abroad. Many countries around the world have started adopting CUP cards.

Source: Sputnik News, March 11, 2022
https://sputniknews.cn/20220311/1039902015.html

Briefings | | March 16, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Cyber Regulator Sends Team to Social Media Firm Douban

On March 15, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), China’s top cyber regulator, directed its office overseeing the city of Beijing to send a team to Douban to “supervise its rectification and reform.”

Douban is an interest-based networking site in China that lets users form online communities and review films, books and music. At the end of last year, the head of the CAC had already met with the person in charge and chief editor of Douban.com, as there were “repeated appearances of information prohibited by laws and regulations being published or transmitted on Douban.com and its accounts.”The CAC ordered Douban “immediately to rectify and seriously deal with the persons responsible” in accordance to the Cybersecurity Law. The CAC’s office in Beijing imposed administrative penalties totaling 1.5 million yuan (US$ 0.24 million) in fines on Beijing Douwang Technology Co., the main operator of Douban.com.

In fact, this is not the first time that the CAC punished Douban. From January to November 2021, the CAC directed its office in Beijing to impose 20 penalties on Douban, for a total cumulative fine of 9 million yuan (US$ 1.4 million).

Source: China.com.cn, March 15, 2022
http://tech.china.com.cn/app/20220315/385795.shtml

Briefings | | March 15, 2022 | Information/Technology

Russian Banks Switched to China UnionPay

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that, after the two major credit card brands Mastercard and Visa announced the suspension of their operations in Russia, several Russian banks, including Sberbank, announced on the same day that they plan to switch to China UnionPay. They have started issuing cards using the UnionPay payment system. This move is expected to ease the impact of the current situation on Russian cardholders. In addition to Sberbank, Alpha Bank and Tinkoff Bank both issued announcements to switch to UnionPay. Russia’s Pochta Bank, Gazprom Bank, Russian Industrial Communications Bank and some other small banks have already cooperated with China UnionPay. On March 6, Mastercard and Visa announced that they would stop their business in Russia in response to Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. Visa and Mastercard accounted for 74 percent of Russian payment transactions according to a previous report by The Wall Street Journal.

Source: Sina, March 6, 2022
https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2022-03-07/doc-imcwiwss4544738.shtml

Briefings | | March 15, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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