Chinascope – Page 191

China Is Improving Cambodia’s Navy Base

The think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that, in photos released by the Cambodian government and commercial satellite images, Chinese dredgers can be seen near Cambodia’s Ream naval base.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said deepening the port is necessary for big warships to use it and that this is part of a secret agreement between China and Cambodia. It quoted a Wall Street Journal report in 2019 that this agreement would allow the People’s Liberation Army to use the Ream naval base in exchange for Beijing providing money to improve the base’s infrastructure.

Source: Epoch Times, January 22, 2022.
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/1/22/n13522623.htm.

Briefings | | January 23, 2022 | Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Population Sees the Slowest Growth in Decades

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total population in mainland China, excluding foreigners, was 1.41 billion people as of the end of 2021, an increase of 480,000 people compared to 2020.

There were 10.62 million newborns and 10.14 million deaths. The natural population growth rate was therefore 0.034 percent for 2021.

Analysts in China observed that the number of newborns in China in 2021 was the lowest since 1949, and the birth rate was the lowest on record.

A moderate forecast for the future trend of China’s population assumes China spends 1 to 3 percent of its annual GDP on incentivizing women to have more children, which is the average spending rate of developed countries. In that case, China’s newborns will drop to below 10 million in the next two or three years, down to 773,000 in 2050 and 306,000 in 2100. Currently, China’s newborns are half that of India. The rate will be one-third of India’s by 2050 and less than one-quarter of India’s by 2100. According to this moderate forecast, China’s newborns will be overtaken by the United States in 2083 and will be two-thirds of the United States in 2100. While China’s total population is more than four times that of the United States, the number of newborns will be overtaken by the United States in two generations, showing the population’s rapid depletion.

Sources:
China National Bureau of Statistics, January 17, 2022
http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/zxfb/202201/t20220117_1826404.html
iFeng.com, January 17, 2022
https://tech.ifeng.com/c/8CssztQSfpL
Caixin, December 14, 2021
https://opinion.caixin.com/2021-12-14/101817400.html

Briefings | | January 23, 2022 | Economy/Resources

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

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, affected by the diplomatic turmoil between Lithuania and China, Lithuania’s oldest brewery Volfas Engelman lost all Chinese orders last fall. CEO Marius Horbačauskas said that Volfas entered the Taiwan market in mid-2020. In the first year, sales volume was about 8,000 liters. However, in 2021, the volume surged to 180,000 liters, a 23-fold increase. Though not wanting to get involved in politics, Volfas was informed near the end of last summer that the Chinese Internet and the media were criticizing Lithuanian products, and they were boycotted in the Chinese market. In the end, Volfas Beer was notified in October that all orders by the end of the year were cancelled. Marius said that 30 years ago, Lithuania fought and sacrificed to break away from the Soviet Union and restore freedom and independence, so it is easy to sympathize with other nations who have experienced similar experiences. Smaller countries have different needs and behavioral patterns and therefore it is easier for them to understand each other.

Source: CNA, January 17, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/202201170363.aspx

Briefings | | January 23, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

CCP Published its Propaganda about Xinjiang in Times Square, in Europe, and in Japan

On January 6, Xinhua News Agency posted an article that China has broadcasted “Discover Shihezi (a city in Xinjiang)” in Chinese and English on the electric billboard “China Screen” at Times Square in New York, 48 times a day for 7 consecutive days. In addition, on January 7, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda machine posted the same video on the websites of the Paris-based Nouvelles d’Europe newspaper and Japan’s AFPBB News and its social media. The videos were in Chinese, English, French, and German. The videos claimed that Shihezi’s present-day “prosperity” is the result of more than 70 years of development under the CCP’s leadership.

A commentator called this the CCP’s global propaganda. It involved lying to Western audiences and to politicians by claiming a place where the CCP forcibly-immigrated Han people and committed genocide was actually a “beautiful” and “green city.” He also criticized Times Square’s electric billboard and other Western companies for giving up moral standards in exchange for the CCP’s money.

in July 2011, Xinhua News Agency rented the biggest and best-located billboard at Times Square, a 60 inch by 40 inch screen, . Media said the rent could be US $300,000 to $400,000 per month.

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 12, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/timesquare-01122022113703.html

Briefings | | January 20, 2022 | Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics US-China Relations

In the Past Three Years, Huawei Invested In Vain in 56 Chip Making Companies

Epoch Times reported that, right before the U.S. issued sanctions against Huawei, Huawei set up Hubble Investment, which, in the past three years, has invested in 56 chip companies. The entire country of China had also set off a vigorous movement to build chips at the same time, but it all ended in vain.

In May 2019, the United States banned Huawei from importing products if at least 25 percent of the components they contained were made in the U.S. On May 15, 2020, the U.S. escalated its sanctions. Any companies, including non-U.S. companies, should not sell any chips produced with U.S. technology and equipment without U.S. approval. Afterward, TSMC, the world’s leading dedicated semiconductor foundry, completely stopped supplying its chips to Huawei

A month before the first U.S. sanction, Huawei established a wholly owned subsidiary, Hubble Investment, with registered capital of 700 million Yuan (US $110 million) in Shenzhen.

According to a market research company PitchBook Data, Hubble Investment has invested in 56 chip companies. The Chinese media Semiconductor Today reported Hubble is like a “wolf” in its chip investment, investing at a rate of nearly one company per month. Its aggressiveness escalated after the second time the U.S. issued sanctions against Huawei. Huawei increased Hubble’s registered capital to 1.7 billion yuan (US $268 million) in January 2020 and Hubble invested in 25 semiconductor-related companies in 2020 alone.

Hubble Investment also moved up the industry chain.

For example, in May 2019, Hubble invested in Radrock (Shenzhen) Technology, focusing on high-performance 4/5G RF front-end chips and WiFi PA products. In July 2019, Hubble invested in 3PEAK, producing high-performance, high-quality integrated circuit products. In August 2019, Hubble invested in SICC Co, producing silicon carbide substrate materials; and in October 2019, Hubble invested in TankeBlue Semiconductor Co., producing third-generation semiconductor SiC wafers.

Topology Research Institute reported that Hubble Investment covers the third-generation semiconductors, wafer-level optical chips, power management chips, clock chips, RF filters, and many other areas, where Huawei relies on the U.S. supplies.

However, there has not been much of a result from Huawei’s chip producing capability. By 2021, it had gradually run out of its chip storage. Hisilicon, which used to supply the high-end Kirin 9000 chips to Huawei, couldn’t do it anymore. Huawei introduced its P50 series mobile phone this year, with some phones equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 processor due to the lack of Kirin 9000 chips. Also, a lack of 5G RF equipment rendered the phones, even with the Kirin 9000 5G SoC installed, still unable to support 5G.

In 2020, not only did Huawei heavily invest in chips companies, but the entirety of China also had a chip investment wave. Chinese semiconductor companies raised nearly US $38 billion through public offerings, private equity, and asset sales, more than double the total for 2019. In the same year, more than 50,000 Chinese companies registered semiconductor-related businesses, four times the total of five years ago. These companies included those with no connection to chips at all, such as real estate developers, cement makers, and restaurants – all of which branded themselves as “chip companies” because the government promised tax breaks and funding for the chip industry.

However, there was no result from these investments. According to statistics from Chinese media in October 2020, six high-profile Chinese semiconductor projects with budgets each over ten billion Yuan (US $1.58 billion), Including Wuhan Hongxin and Jinan Quanxin, were stopped within a little over a year. Some never even produced a single chip.

Source: Epoch Times, January 15, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/1/15/n13506884.htm

Briefings | | January 20, 2022 | Economy/Resources US-China Relations

MI5: Christine Li, Chinese Spy in the United Kingdom

On January 13, 2022, the U.K.’s Security Service MI5 (Military Intellligence, Section 5) informed British Members of Parliament (MPs) that a Chinese lawyer Christine Ching Kui Lee (李贞驹) conducted clandestine political interference work in the United Kingdom. MI5 said Lee works for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) United Front Department.

Lee is not only a member of the CCP’s Overseas Exchange Association, Chief Legal Advisor to the Chinese Embassy in London, and Legal Advisor to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China’s State Council; she is also the secretary of the All-Party China Group in the British Parliament. In 2006, she launched a “British Chinese Political Participation Project” and received a compliment from Downing Street. Her firm, Christine Lee & Co Solicitors, has offices in London, Birmingham, and Beijing. She is also a frequent presence in the British Parliament. She has been pictured in several media releases with former Prime Minister David Cameron, Theresa May, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Xi Jinping.

Lee’s closest contact among political figures is Barry Gardiner, a Labour Party MP. She raised several hundred thousand pounds for Gardiner, who served as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade from 2016 to 2020.

Lee’s son worked for Gardiner. After MI5 exposed Lee’s status, her son resigned from Gardiner’s office. Lee’s attorney office in London was emptied.

Martin Thorley, a researcher at the University of Exeter wrote in twitter that Xi Jinping promoted China to participate in the U.K.’s Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power project during his visit to the U.K.in 2015. However, the U.K. announced in 2016 that it would defer the project. Gardiner criticized the U.K. government’s decision; his opinion became the Labour Party’s main opinion.

Thorley mentioned on February 7, 2013, that Lee also made donations to Sir Ed Davey, Leader of the Liberal Democrats. The Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats were then in power jointly. At that time, Sir Ed Davey served the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change His reputation could convince the Liberal Democrats to support the nuclear power project for China.

Epoch Times also found several Chinese media reports on the CCP’s offering high-status treatment to Lee. On March 23, 2009, China News Services reported that Lee attended, as an overseas representative, the Second Session of the 11th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Lee said that she was arranged to sit in the front rows and was also invited to join the CCP’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the People Republic of China.

China Radio International (CRI) Online reported that Xu Yousheng, Deputy Director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, received Lee in Beijing on April 12, 2011. Xu praised Lee.

In 2013, People’s Daily U.K. Channel opened the “Christine Li Column.”

In December 2017, Lee was hired as a member of the Legal Advisory Panel of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. In her speech, Lee said that she was doing political lobbying .

The Times reported that, when Lee attended a banquet at the Chinese Embassy in London in 2020, she lashed out at the British and other Western countries for their condemnation of the CCP’s suppression of Hong Kong people’s rights. Lee told guests that Western media’s reports of bloody clashes between protesters and riot police, including police brutality, “failed to convey the true picture accurately.”

Source:
1. Epoch Times, January 15, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/1/14/n13505251.htm
2. Epoch Times, January 16, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/1/15/n13507104.htm

Briefings | | January 20, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Pandemic: Beijing Reported COVID Cases

China reported COVID-19 cases including the Omicron mutant. Beijing reported an Omicron case on January 15. It also reported 5 COVID cases on January 19. The Beijing government spokesperson said the Omicron and Delta variants were cross spreading in Beijing and created a higher risk for COVID prevention. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for hiding COVID information, so the actual infection situation is unknown.

Beijing reported that two patients in Fangshan District (counted in the January 19 infection cases) had not left Beijing in the past 14 days. This made people wonder if they got the virus from other people in whom the infection had not yet been detected.

However, the CCP blamed the international mail and the international supply chain. The authorities said that the patient in the January 15 case received an international mail that had been sent from Canada on January 7, going through the United States and Hong Kong, and then arriving in Beijing on January 11. Chinese medical experts found the Omicron virus on that international mail.

Other Chinese cities also blamed international shipping for spreading the COVID virus. Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province said an Omicron patient in their city received an international mail on January 12. Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province said a COVID patient in their city worked in the international supply chain field.

However, experts outside of China questioned the possibility of the mail spreading COVID. Some argued that the virus trace on the mail could have been from the patient who might have already caught COVID by the time he received the mail. The Wall Street Journal also quoted a London doctor, Martin Hibberd, who stated that there is not much evidence to support the theory that COVID can spread over an object’s surface. The virus might only live for 10 minutes on the surface, but shipping can take several hours or even several days.”

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