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China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

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

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

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

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HK01: French Museum Suspends Cooperation with Chinese Art Institutions

Hong Kong’s popular new online media, HK01 Network,  recently reported that the Matisse Museum in northern France has announced the cancellation of its loan of 280 works to the UCCA (Center for Contemporary Art) in Beijing. The Museum cited “the geopolitical crisis triggered by Russia’s declaration of war on Ukraine” and “China’s Relations with Russia.” The exhibition was originally scheduled to open in Beijing on March 26 and was to move to the UCCA pavilion in Shanghai next. UCCA suspended the exhibitions until further notice as the loan program has been cancelled. The Henri Matisse exhibition, originally scheduled to open in Beijing on the 26th of this month, is the largest solo exhibition in China by the French painter. Henri Matisse (1869-1954), is known as one of the masters of modern art. Matisse, together with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, brought great changes to the arts in the early 20th century. So far, China has not condemned Russia for invading Ukraine. China was one of the 35 countries abstaining in the UN General Assembly’s vote on condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Western intelligence revealed that senior Chinese officials have asked senior Russian officials to delay its invasion of Ukraine until after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing this year. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied the allegations.

Source: HK01, March 4, 2022
https://bit.ly/3Kjs5wH

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Duowei News: Chinese Netizens Show Support for Russia; China Will Continue Normal Trade with Russia

Recently, many Chinese netizens have chosen to shop at the “Russia National Pavilion,” the only e-commerce platform in China that is authorized by the Russian embassy. Many items such as snacks  and teas were sold out. The number of fans of the store is also skyrocketing.

On March 2, a thank-you video appeared on the homepage of the store. The commercial ambassador of the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce in China said that, at this difficult time, he would like to thank his Chinese friends for their support to Russia and the Russian National Pavilion.  He said he will remember this deep friendship and, at the same time, call on his Chinese friends to consume rationally.

Regarding whether China would continue to carry on trade with Russia while Western countries sanctioned Russia one after another, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, on March 2, “China firmly opposes any illegal unilateral sanctions. Sanctions have never been the fundamental and effective way to solve a problem. It will only bring serious difficulties to the economy and to people’s livelihoods in the relevant countries, and further aggravate division and confrontation. China requires relevant parties not to damage the legitimate rights and interests of China and other parties when handling the Ukraine issue and relations with Russia. China and Russia will continue to carry out normal trade cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, “The Chinese government’s position is that sanctions are never a fundamental and effective way to solve problems and China always opposes any illegal unilateral sanctions. According to the US Treasury Department’s own published data, in the past 20 years, the number of sanctions imposed by the United States has increased by 10 times.  . . . Since 2011, the United States has imposed sanctions on Russia more than 100 times but everyone can calmly think about it or discuss it. Have the U.S. sanctions solved the problem? Has the world changed for the better because of the U.S. sanctions? Will the Ukrainian problem be solved naturally because of the U.S. sanctions on Russia? Will the security of Europe be more secure because of the U.S. sanctions on Russia?”

Guo Shuqing, Chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said at a news conference that as far as financial sanctions are concerned, China does not agree with the sanctions because it has a bad effect and has no legal basis. China will not participate in the sanctions.

Source: Duowei News, March 3, 2022
https://www.dwnews.com/中国/60280809/中国网友敏感时刻买爆俄罗斯国家馆商品?itm_source=universal_search&itm_campaign=universal_search&itm_content=买爆俄罗斯国家馆商品&itm_medium=web

 

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

China Has World’s Largest Robotics Market but it Has No Core Technology

China is the world’s largest production base and consumer market in the field of industrial robots, but it has almost no pricing rights. The reason is that its key technologies are in the hands of other countries.  

At the end of 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China said that China has been the world’s largest consumer of industrial robots for the last eight consecutive years. The density of robots in manufacturing reached 246 per 10,000 people in 2020. That is nearly twice the global average.  

To carry out each motion a robot makes, it needs a core controller, a servo driver and a servo motor to work together. The core controller is the “brain” of the industrial robot, which directly affects the stability and accuracy of the machine.

The Chinese financial media, Chinese Business Strategies, said in a commentary article in February of this year that the biggest reason that China-made robots are inferior to those of other countries is the “algorithm gap” in the core controller system, which is not only reflected in the core controller, but also slows down the response speed of the servo system. 

Last June, a Chinese Academic Group, The Automation Committee, published an op-ed article, “A Panoramic Analysis of the Industrial Robot Industry Chain.” The article said that the high-end market is also mainly monopolized by international companies. Imported products account for more than 70 percent of China’s industrial robot servo market. A total of 85 percent of the precision reducers necessary for manufacturing industrial robots in China are also manufactured by foreign investors. These are mainly from Japan, Europe and the United States. Therefore, China has almost no pricing power in the field of industrial robots. 

China-made industrial robots are reluctantly used to produce those products with low precision requirements. High-end fields such as aerospace and the military industry have to rely on imported robots. The failure rate of Chinese-made robots is possibly several times higher than the failure rate of imported machines. Chinese companies would rather buy second-hand products from other countries at a high price than buy low-priced Chinese products.  

Source: Epoch Times, Feb. 27, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/2/27/n13608785.htm 

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Xi Jinping’s Telephone Conference with Putin

The Russia’s Embassy in China posted an article stating that Russian President Putin had a telephone conference with Xi Jinping on February 25, the second day after Russia invaded Ukraine.

“The Russian President informed the Chinese President in detail about the reasons for the decision to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (two separatists-controlled regions in Ukraine), to conduct special military operations aimed at protecting civilians from genocide, and to ensure the demilitarization and de-Nazification of the Ukrainian state.”

“Xi stressed (that China would) respect the actions taken by the Russian leadership in the current crisis situation.”

“… Both (Presidents) stated that the use of illegal sanctions to achieve self-interested goals of certain individual countries must not be allowed. In the light of this, the two leaders stressed the importance of strengthening bilateral practical cooperation, taking into account the results of their talks in Beijing on February 4.”

“Overall, the call was friendly and constructive, demonstrating that both sides share the same principled positions on key international issues.”

Source: Russian Embassy in China Website, February 25, 2022
https://beijing.mid.ru/zh/news/_00121/

Hot Topics | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Global Times: “Sanctioning Cats” Is a Satire on the Radicalization of Sanctions

Global Times, China’s state media, published a commentary on the U.S. and other Western countries’ sanctions against Russia. The author of the article was the deputy Chief editor of Securities Daily (Chinese), Dong Shaopeng. The article said:

“At present, the sanctions against Russia by the United States and Western countries have not only increased in scope, but also showed a trend of “crossing the border” and even cats in Russia are sanctioned . The International Federation of Feline Animals (FIFe) has announced that any cats raised in Russia will not be allowed to register on the official pedigree of FIFe outside of Russia. Pet exhibitors from Russia are not allowed to participate in the FIFe Pet Show outside of Russia.”

“The essence of the sanctions is unilateral punishment . . .  Under certain conditions, as a means to correct imbalances in the political and economic fields, sanctions are justified.”

“However, in the context of power politics and hegemonism, the rationality of sanctions has been largely eliminated, and sometimes sanctions and oppression have been mixed together. The United States and Western countries often initiate sanctions out of self-interest, rather than upholding international law or international morality. They have wantonly expanded the scope of the so-called sanctions, not only habitually bullying the weak, but even making up excuses to abuse sanctions, which has radicalized the “sanction culture.” In this Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States and Western countries and entities have imposed sanctions on the use rights of transnational financial infrastructure, public communication tools, international sports competitions, cultural exchange projects, and more, and they have imposed sanctions in areas that belonged to friendly exchanges. The instrumentalization of these domains and platforms has completely distorted the normal communication mechanism between people and countries, violated the norms of international relations and general political principles, and fully exposed the ugliness of its hegemony and power.”

Source: Global times, March 2, 2022
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/471UMdqcRVV

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

Xinhua: SWIFT Sanctions Not enough to Bring Russia to Its Knees

China has not yet taken sides publicly on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but its official Xinhua News Agency has commented on the impact of the expulsion of some Russian banks from the SWIFT system, stressing that the sanctions the West has imposed are not enough to bring Russia to its knees, but will harm the interests of Europe and the U.S. themselves.

A number of Western countries, led by the United States and the European Union, announced on February 26 that they would expel several Russian banks from the Society for the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system. This is by far the most serious financial sanction against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Xinhua commented in one article, citing analysis that SWIFT sanctions are expected to have a greater impact on the Russian economy than before, but are “hardly effective enough to suppress Russia” and are “insufficient to bring the Russian economy to its knees.”

The article said that, in recent years, Russia has made efforts to build a financial firewall against several rounds of Western sanctions. For example in the 2014 Crimean crisis, it vigorously pursued an import substitution policy and further consolidated its dominant position of state-owned banks. Russia’s relatively low level of foreign debt and high foreign exchange reserves means that it is relatively “self-sufficient.”

The report also said that energy exports, which are considered the lifeblood of the Russian economy, have not yet been completely blocked, highlighting the dilemma of the West. The U.S. and Europe have yet to announce the SWIFT exclusion list, but the basic consensus is to maximize the impact on Russia and minimize their own damage, leaving room for the EU to settle energy transactions with Russia.

Xinhua claims that, if sanctions affect energy supply, oil and gas prices will further rise, exacerbating inflation in Europe and the U.S. and causing supply chain problems and possibly causing Russia to collect more revenue from energy exports. It continued, “And Russia’s exclusion from the SWIFT system does not mean it can’t trade. It is just that it will be more difficult and costly to trade.”

The article said that the Central Bank of Russia developed a local version — System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) in 2014. Currently 23 foreign banks are connected to the SPFS system. As of May 2021, 20 percent of inbound transfers in Russia are completed through the SPFS system. The SPFS system can replace SWIFT to a certain extent, but due to the habit of use and relatively few customers, the sanction will prompt some customers to use the Russian system.

Xinhua pointed out in another article that Russia’s exclusion from the SWIFT system will put pressure on the German economy. The direct investment of German companies in Russia is about 24 billion euros. After SWIFT is banned in Russia, it will be very difficult for German companies to conduct remittance and other business in the country. Although there are other alternatives, the process is more complex and more expensive. European companies may have short-term financial problems.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 1, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202203010212.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Chinese Scholar on the Russia-Ukraine War: Geopolitical Scale Tilts towards China again

As Russia was invading Ukraine, Chinese political scholar Zheng Yongnian wrote that the war in Ukraine will divert the strategic energy of the United States and that, “the geopolitical scales are tilting towards China again.”

Zheng is regarded as an advisor for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) General Secretary Xi Jinping. According to Zheng, the new world order is unfolding along two lines: the eastward expansion of NATO and the sense of insecurity in Russia, and the rise of China and the U.S. preventive defenses against it. The current Russian military actions in Ukraine have tipped “the geopolitical scale in China’s favor again.”

Zheng considers that the European geopolitical dispute triggered by the war in Ukraine will greatly delay the shift of U.S. strategic efforts to the Indo-Pacific region. As long as China itself does not make strategic mistakes, not only will the United States not interrupt its modernization process, but China can play a more important role in the process of constructing the New World Order.

Zheng added that the United States is no longer able to maintain the original world order centered around a single superpower. In addition, the New World Order will develop towards diversification. “In today’s world, there is not only Putin’s Russia, but also Modi’s India, Erdoğan’s Turkey, and France and Germany of the European Union.” Western liberal ideology will continue to exist, but will no longer dominate the international order.

“In this situation, we need calmly to analyze the new changes and trends in the interaction between major countries and to be more rational and less emotional.”

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), February 27, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202202270133.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend