Chinascope – Page 190

Taiwan: The CCP Interfered with a Taiwan Referendum

On December 18, Taiwan held four referendums. The Kuomintang, the opposition party, proposed all four of them to challenge the current administration’s decision. The voting result, though close between yes and no, rejected all proposals.

The Information Operations Research Group (IORG), a Taipei-based research group focusing on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) information manipulation and influence over Taiwan, found that the CCP conducted a heavy information war on one of the referendum topics: whether to ban imports of pork containing the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine.

Researchers pointed out that the CCP took on the ractopamine pork issue to ruin the Taiwan-U.S. relationship. The Taiwan government approved the pork imports last year, to remove a block for a free trade deal with the U.S. where ractopamine is widely used.

The IORG report found that from April to November this year, there were eight main hot discussions on the referendums and all of them could be traced back to the CCP. Among them, seven were about the ractopamine pork. On April 10, Beijing’s media started spreading a rumor that “the U.S. gets money from Taiwan by selling ractopamine pork and weapons.” In May, when COVID cases increased in Taiwan, the CCP’s media said, “Even after buying the U.S. ractopamine pork and weapons, Taiwan still cannot get COVID vaccine from the U.S.” After the U.S. announced that it would donate 750,000 doses of vaccine to Taiwan, the CCP changed its story line to, “Because Taiwan bought the American ractopamine pork and weapons, it should get the American vaccines.”

Other CCP information manipulation on ractopamine pork included spreading incorrect or fake news without scientific backing. Some examples follow: “Hong Kong detected Taiwan pork with ractopamine severely exceeding the standard.” “Taiwan soldiers ate the American ractopamine pork,” “Over 160 countries banned ractopamine pork,” “Following netizen’s words, China’s media called the ractopamine pork ‘drugs.’”

Deutsche Welle: China Suddenly Became a “Democratic” Country

For several weeks, China has been trying to inform the world and its people, “We are a democratic country.” The background in the strategic change is the direct competition between Beijing and the United States. Chinese state media and propaganda agencies have spared no effort to declare through all possible channels, “China is a democratic country and superior to the West.”

Earlier this month, China invited foreigners to participate in an online “high-end dialogue” that competed with the American Democracy Summit. Among the participants were representatives from dictatorial countries such as Syria and Cuba, as well as so-called experts, including some international scholars who teach at Chinese universities. Not surprisingly, they also concluded that Chinese democracy is superior to Western democracy.

Roland Boer, a professor at the Institute of Marxism at Dalian University of Technology, is one of them. He said at the dialogue meeting, “Socialist democracy is a more honest and superior form of democracy. It is encouraging to see that China is about to win back democracy for socialism in the world. … Socialism is certainly more democratic than capitalism.”

Source: Deutsche Welle, December 15, 2021
https://www.dw.com/zh/中国突然成了民主国家/a-60130940

Briefings | | December 16, 2021 | Government/Politics

Some Provinces in China Cut Government Employees Salaries

Some Chinese netizens posted on the Internet that, starting in December, civil servants in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Fujian Provinces received notices of pay cuts of about twenty to thirty percent. Scholars believe that this phenomenon reflects the severity of China’s economic challenge, since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) puts the “officials (government employees)” in a much higher class than the normal citizens.

Some examples shared on the Internet include: the annual salary of a police station chief in Shanghai dropped from 350,000 yuan (US$ 55,000) to less than 200,000 yuan, and the salary of a civil servant was reduced from 240,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan. Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province announced cuts in staff positions as well as salaries without giving out reasons. Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai cut the performance bonus for civil servants, causing people’s annual income dropped from 300,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, and in some cases, from 200,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan. Certain areas in Guangdong Province have stopped distributing civil servants’ subsidies for two months and teachers’ subsidies for one month.

According to Henan Business Daily, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection responded to an inquiry by saying that civil servants who drive taxis or deliver food after work are not considered disciplinary offences. Some netizens view this as the authorities allowing or encouraging ordinary civil servants to take part-time jobs in other industries after work.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 9, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql2-12092021054023.html

Briefings | | December 16, 2021 | Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Beijing’s Anti-American Korean War Movie Hit North American Big Screens

The Chinese war movie, “The Battle at Lake Changjin” opened in late November in a limited theatrical release in North America.

The Korean War film was released by CMC Pictures with English subtitles in more than 20 selected theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Dallas, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and a few other cities across North America.

Deutsche Welle reported that the film has raised anger in South Korea, with the public calling it “propaganda filled with historical inaccuracies.” South Korean former diplomat Ra Jong-yil called the film “nonsense” and “a whitewashing” and accused it of attempting to reshape the narrative of events during the Korean War.

The movie, a state propaganda to instigate anti-American sentiments amid the tension between two countries, was released in mainland China around National Day holiday.

Source: Xinhua, November 11, 2021
http://www.xinhuanet.com/ent/20211111/e0d97351280848ff890db6789f1594df/c.html

Briefings | | December 15, 2021 | US-China Relations

New Wave of Layoffs in China’s IT Industry

Chinese media have reported new waves of layoffs at major IT companies. Many employees who are over 35 years old will have difficulty finding new jobs in the industry.

Outlets, including Yicai.com and the Economic Observer, said that amid this wave of layoffs, many employees in their 30s have a greater “sense of crisis” than their younger peers. In China’s IT industry, the age of 35 is a threshold. When employees above that age are laid off, it is very difficult for them for find a new job in big companies.

Reports have told stories of a number of 35-year-old senior employees. Having not yet been told to leave, they are ready to jump ship or start their own businesses. However, not everyone has had enough time to plan for their future. One Baidu employee, who just bought a property in Beijing in August this year, received a notice on December 1, without prior warning, that he had to wrap up and leave by noon on December 3. Another Tencent employee mentioned that he has been intensively interviewed by the human resources department since October and asked to choose between leaving voluntarily and being transferred out.

The year 2021 saw the entire Chinese IT sector caught in waves of layoffs, including giants such as Tencent, ByteDance, Didi Chuxing, and JD.com.

Source: Central News Agency, December 12, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202112120132.aspx

Briefings | | December 15, 2021 | Economy/Resources

Global Times Chief Criticized the U.S. in Its Annual Meetings

Global Times recently reported, in the coverage of its own Annual Meetings, that its Editor in Chief Hu Xijin said the attitude of the United States towards China this year is very bad. Hu complained about the timing of Biden’s Democracy Summit and also about the Biden Administration’s continuation of most of Trump’s anti-China policies. Hu also said that Biden has spurred more radical anti-China attitudes in more Western countries. A number of challenges seem to be increasing. With regard to the Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan issues, the world has also seen that confrontations are intensifying. Hu complained that he and the Global Times have become a target for repeated attacks from the United States, from Taiwan and from the Hong Kong separatists. He also said, on the Internet and in the media, that an international public opinion war is actively going on. Hu thanked the attending guests at the Global Times Annual Meetings under the risk of Covid-19, and he was determined to win the fight against the “political meeting” of the U.S. Democracy Summit.

Source: Global Times, December 11, 2021
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/45wMYnErpeQ

Briefings | | December 15, 2021 | US-China Relations

Lianhe Zaobao: China will Give Up Some WTO Preferential Treatment to Developing Countries

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that Li Chenggang, China’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that China will remain a developing country in the WTO, but will give up some of its preferential treatment for developing countries. This is a major change for China’s trading partners. Li said that, due to some persistent poverty issues, China still considers itself a developing country, but China will seek to divest itself in some areas such as agriculture and financial services. He also said that, as a major fishing country, China may waive all WTO exemptions. WTO members, including the United States, Australia, and Japan, criticized China in a WTO trade assessment in October, pointing out that China provides subsidies to state-owned enterprises. That violates the conditions under which China joined the WTO in 2001. However, Li argued that, in terms of lowering tariff rates and opening up the service industry, it has surpassed some WTO accession standards. He refused to disclose when and under what conditions China will completely abandon its position as a developing country. As the world’s second largest economy, China faces increasing criticism from its trading partners on the issue of China’s status as a developing country.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, December 11, 2021
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20211211-1222073

Briefings | | December 15, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

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.