Chinascope – Page 183

Chinese Economist Banned from Weibo Due to Comments on Financing Childbirths

China has banned the Twitter-like Weibo account of Ren Zeping, an Internet celebrity, and a former economist in mainland China. Ren was also the chief economist for Evergrande China Group, one of China’s largest real estate developers, which is now mired in debt.

At the top of Ren’s Weibo account, the notice said he had “violated relevant laws and regulations.”

What had Ren posted on his Weibo account?

On January 10, 2022, Ren posted an article titled, “The Solution to Findings of Low Fertility — The China Fertility Report.” His article stated that the main reasons for low fertility are the high cost of raising children and high housing prices. Therefore to solve the low fertility rate, China must reduce the cost of raising children. Ren believes that establishing a fertility incentive fund may stabilize growth and boost domestic demand in the short term. It can improve the supply side, optimize the population structure, and help national rejuvenation in the long run.

In his post, Ren suggested that the central bank print 2 trillion yuan (US$314 billion) to support the birth of 50 million babies over the next ten years.

Why 2 trillion yuan? Ren explained that family social welfare expenditures related to childbirth incentives account for two to three percent of GDP in OECD countries OECD stands for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. It is is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. China’s GDP is 110 trillion yuan, so Ren believes the incentive fund should be 2 trillion yuan.

Ren’s figure of 50 million childbirths for ten years is an estimate based on the assumption that 15 million babies are required annually to stabilize the population. There are about 10 million per year using the 2021 low fertility rate of 1.1 percent. So 5 million per year for ten years is 50 million in total.

Ren also urged the authorities to establish the fund as quickly as possible. “We must seize the time when we can still have children from those women born from 1975 to 1985 because they still believe that having more children is a blessing. He reminded that the post-90s and post-2000s generation would not want to discuss having a second or third child. Many people are not even willing to get married.

Why was he banned on Weibo? Some speculated that Ren might have hit a nerve with the authorities. The economic strategy proposed by Ren reflects an unspoken consensus among Chinese economists; that is, the regime’s economic model may have come to an end. The regime has tried to control the high housing prices. In the past, China’s inflation and debt risks were mainly absorbed by real estate. Printing money for more childbirths now would likely increase prices and be suicidal. It could push the Chinese economy further into a recession.

Source: sina.com, January 10, 2022
https://finance.sina.com.cn/zl/china/2022-01-10/zl-ikyakumx9364507.shtml

Briefings | | January 17, 2022 | Economy/Resources

Pandemic: Xuchang Police Accused a COVID Testing Company of Spreading the Virus

On January 12, the Xuchang Police in Henan Province published a short announcement. The police claimed that manager Zhang of the KingMed Diagnostics’ office in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, “violated the provisions of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act and committed acts that caused the spread of the (COVID-19) virus or which had a serious risk of causing such a spread.” The police started an investigation into the case.

In early January, Xuchang found COVID cases in its affiliated city Yuzhou and locked down Yuzhou. Last month, it became the second city in the province to be locked down after Xi’an.

KingMed Diagnostics is the largest medical lab testing COVID-19 in China. By November 2011, it had completed 220 million COVID tests, which was the highest number among all labs in the world. Zhong Nanshan, a communist regime endorsed COVID-19 expert doctor, who speaks for the government from time to time, created the company.

Since the police didn’t disclose what Zhang did, there were rumors on the Internet about what happened. One guess was that KingMed spread the virus and in the meantime collected money from the government for testing it. Another guess was that KingMed received many testing samples but couldn’t complete them in the required time-frame; then the manager reported the test results were ALL negative and discarded the samples that they didn’t have time to test. However, later the government found there were positives cases.

The next day, January 13, KingMed published a statement that the Zhengzhou KingMed office received the Xuchang City’s request to participate in the COVID testing. Zhang and five other people formed a supporting team and came to Yuzhou. They worked on the testing from January 2 to 9. The company’s statement also denied the rumors of “actively spreading the virus,” “faking test results,” and “hiding infection numbers.” The company said that it reserves the right to go after those who spread rumors.

Other postings on Chinascope:
Pandemic: Omicron Appeared in China and One More City Locked Down
Pandemic: COVID Spread to Henan and Zhejiang Province
Pandemic: Xi’an Locked Down

Sources:
1. BBC, January 13, 2022
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-59976287
2. China News Agency Finance, January 13, 2022
http://www.jwview.com/jingwei/html/01-13/457207.shtml

Hot Topics | | January 16, 2022 | Social Stability

CNA: Taiwan Will Add One Billion Dollars to its Fund for Business with Lithuania

The Primary Taiwanese news agency, the Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, in order to strengthen its relationship with Lithuania, the National Development Council will not only set up a US$200 million investment fund for Central and Eastern Europe; it will do more. The Council just announced that it will provide a financing fund of US$1 billion to promote bilateral business cooperation between Taiwan and Lithuania through the two funds. The Council explained that the National Development Fund will supply the US$200 million Central and Eastern European Investment Fund. The Central Bank will provide the US$1 billion in financing to fund to the Export-Import Bank of China. If the above-mentioned funds are not enough, the government can add more funding. In October last year, when the Taiwan economic and trade delegation visited Lithuania, Taiwanese companies and Lithuanian manufacturers held 240 talks leading to follow-up cooperation and development projects. When President Tsai Ing-wen spoke on New Year’s Day, she mentioned the launch of the “Strengthening European Links Program.” Taiwan will start with Lithuania, and will try its best to promote industrial cooperation and trade links that benefit both sides. As for when the two major funds can be launched, the Council revealed that budgets have been prepared and the administrative procedures will be completed soon. However, it is necessary to see whether there are administrative procedures to be carried out in Lithuania. “The idea is as soon as possible.” At present, many Lithuanian companies have expressed interest in areas such as the laser industry, the semiconductor industry, chip manufacturing and a number of others.

Source: CNA, January 11, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202201115018.aspx

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

Wang Yi: As Long as China and Russia Stand Side by Side, the International Order Will Not Get into Trouble; Hegemonism Will Not Win

On December 30, 2021, Xinhua News Agency and China Central Radio and Television conducted a joint interview of China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi. Some of the questions and answers follow:

Reporter: This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation. What significance do the roles of China and Russia, as two major powers, have on global strategic stability and development? How do you evaluate the current Sino-Russian relations?

Wang Yi: Both China and Russia are major countries with global influence. Strengthening strategic coordination and pragmatic cooperation between the two sides is of global significance and irreplaceable.

We set a “China-Russia example” for the global fight against the epidemic. The two sides have always stood by each other and are at the forefront of the world in vaccine R&D, production and external supply; we jointly oppose the stigma and politicization of the epidemic and virus traceability and lead the international community to unite and fight the epidemic in the right direction.

We contribute “China-Russia responsibility” to global governance. The two sides firmly uphold the international system with the United Nations at the core and the international order based on international law. We jointly oppose interference in other countries’ internal affairs, unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction. We let the world see what a great power should be like.

We firmly believe that, as long as China and Russia stand side by side and deepen cooperation back-to-back, the international order will not run into chaos, the justice of the world will not fall, and hegemonism will not win.

Source: Sina.com.cn, December 30, 2021
https://mil.news.sina.com.cn/dgby/2021-12-30/doc-ikyakumx7306289.shtml

Briefings | | January 14, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

China Counters Western Media’s Reports about Xinjiang with Bulk Zombie Accounts on Twitter

On January 12, readers of the Telegram channel “Learning to Strengthen the Nation” reported that they had recently found a large number of zombie {1} accounts on Twitter. These accounts were seen to use the same unified text for Xinjiang-related political propaganda.

This unified text template reads, “I grew up in Xinjiang since childhood. The Xinjiang-related lies concocted by the anti-China forces in the United States and the West are pure fallacies. The lives of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang will not be affected by them.” Most of the publishers use English names. Their IDs are parts from the full English name combined with random numbers.

If you click on some accounts, you can see that both the number of followers and the number of fans fans are 0. The accounts were all registered recently and they all have typical characteristics of “zombie accounts.” A link is attached at the end of the content uniformly published by these accounts (http://www.oushinet.com/static/content/qj/qjnews/2021-12-07/917786853728727040.html), which leads to a European Times article. The article was originally from China News (https://www.chinanews.com.cn).

According to the official profile of the European Times, the newspaper is “the flagship daily of the European Times Culture Media Group, headquartered in Paris, France, and founded in January 1983.” Some netizens found that the official website server of the European Times is located in the state of California in the USA. The website’s domain name has been registered with ICP in Beijing.

{1} Zombie accounts, are user accounts with no verifiable owner.

Source: China Digital Times, January 12, 2022
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/675729.html

Briefings | | January 13, 2022 | Government/Politics

PLA Deployed Unmanned Ground Vehicles at the China-India Border

In September 2020, military soldiers from China and India clashed and the two countries have continued having standoffs along the border between the two countries. The Indian television station Times Now reported that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has stationed unmanned ground vehicles (UGV’s) along the border, including 88 Sharp Claw vehicles. WION reported that the PLA has stationed 120 to 300 Mule-200 vehicles.

According to National Interest, the Sharp Claw can either be controlled remotely, or move on its own. It can be used either as an unmanned delivery truck or as a weapon, such as a mounted firearm.

Sharp Claw was developed by a PLA defense company NORINCO, for surveillance and limited combat capability. The Mule was developed by Zhong Tian Zhi Kong Technology Holdings, with a firing range of 31 miles and a weight capacity of 440 pounds (it can carry ammunition, supplies, or weapons.)

The PLA has also stationed VP-22 anti-mine, anti-ambush vehicles there.

Source: Epoch Times, December 31, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/12/31/n13473000.htm

Briefings | | January 13, 2022 | Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

People’s Lives: Tragic Deaths in Xi’an

Since December 23, 2021, Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province has been locked down for 20 days due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) fierce Internet monitoring and constantly deleting postings that did not follow the party’s main theme, some people in Xi’an still managed to post videos or texts to report on the tragedies due to the authorities’ inhumanity.

A video reported that a woman who was eight-months pregnant went to a hospital in Xi’an, but the hospital refused to treat her since her COVID test result (though negative) expired four hours earlier.

A netizen wrote,“My auntie sat on the chair, using her hands to support her body with great difficulty (as shown in a video).” “Blood flowed down the chair and her pants and the floor was covered with blood.” She was admitted for hospitalization two hours later. By then, the eight-month-old fetus had died.

Another lady who was six weeks pregnant reported a similar experience on January 5. She saw blood in her discharge and went to the hospital. Several hospitals refused to take her. Her husband called several public hospitals and they all rejected her. He called 120 (China’s emergency phone number which is like 911 in the United States) and received no answer either. She was finally accepted by a hospital six hours later, but it was too late. The hospital aborted the baby due to her heavy bleeding.

In another case, on December 31, 2021, a 39-year-old man suddenly had chest congestion. Since he had not had COVID test within the last 48 hours, 120 (China’s 911) refused to help him. He had no choice but to take the test. Even after he got a negative result, three hospitals still refused to take him. The fourth one took him, but it was too late. He died at the hospital.

Another citizen said that his mother needed to have a hemodialysis treatment three times a week, but people enforcing the lockdown wouldn’t let her go through, despite the fact that she showed her proof. However, if she didn’t take the hemodialysis treatment on time, her life could be in jeopardy. So she had no choice but to climb over the highway to go to the hospital for treatment.

The CCP intensified Internet control. On January 10, the CCP controlled media reported that the Xi’an police had processed 30 fake news cases on the Internet and detained 23 people. The authorities didn’t disclose what information those people posted.

Xi’an people also suffered from a severe lack of food. Many people posted on the Internet that the authorities didn’t deliver food to them after the lockdown. A netizen posted on January 9 that she received only one delivery of vegetables during the 20 days of lockdown, which included 2 potatoes, 2 onions, 1 cabbage, and 2 radishes. She asked, “What are we supposed to eat? Exept for the COVID test, we are not allowed to go out. Should we just die out of hunger at home?”

Her second post said, “Today our door was sealed off (we are not allowed to open it anymore). Last evening, I cooked a quarter pound of steak for my six-year-old son, my 61-year-old mother, and me. I took one bite, mother took two bites, and my son had the rest. I was so heartbroken. Both mother and I cried … In such a prosperous time, it is unbelievable that we can’t buy and eat food due to the pandemic.”

Another netizen posted some pictures, showing that the vegetables that other cities sent to Xi’an were left alone in one spot for four or five days. No authorities came to process them.

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Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.

Chinese Economist Banned from Weibo Due to Comments on Financing Childbirths

CNA: Taiwan Will Add One Billion Dollars to its Fund for Business with Lithuania

Wang Yi: As Long as China and Russia Stand Side by Side, the International Order Will Not Get into Trouble; Hegemonism Will Not Win

China Counters Western Media’s Reports about Xinjiang with Bulk Zombie Accounts on Twitter

PLA Deployed Unmanned Ground Vehicles at the China-India Border

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