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

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

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Chinese Companies Are Mining Lithium and Rare Earths in Afghanistan

Liberty Times reported that at least 20 Chinese companies, both state-owned and privately-owned, have inquired about lithium projects in Afghanistan. Global Times reported that, currently, five Chinese companies have stationed representatives in Afghanistan. They are conducting site inspections in order to develop lithium projects.

Afghanistan has large untapped reserves of copper, iron, zinc, lithium, and rare earths. These reserves are valued at more than $1 trillion.

Source: Liberty Times, November 24, 2021
https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/3746854

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

The Chinese Foreign Ministry Asked U.S. Businesses and Local Officials to “Work on” the Biden Administration

On November 30, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng held a virtual conference with representatives from the U.S. business community, state and local governments. the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China), AmCham Shanghai, the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC), and representatives of America’s state and local governments in China, who all attended the dialogue.

At the meeting, Xie explicitly asked the business community and local governments to influence and work on Biden Administration to advance Beijing’s agenda.

Xie said, “We hope you will continue to play a unique and important role, speak out for what is right, and encourage the U.S. administration to follow a sensible and pragmatic China policy and to stop waging a trade war, industrial war or technology war and stop creating confrontation or conflict over values, ideology or geopolitics.”

On trade and economic relations, Xie added, “I hope you can work on the Biden administration to lift the tariff hikes, stop suppressing and sanctioning Chinese businesses, and create a level playing field for Chinese and American businesses.”

Xie also asked the meeting attendees to work on the one-China policy and the Beijing Winter Olympics. “I hope you will use your influence to urge the U.S. administration to truly abide by the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués and honor the true one-China policy, which should not be altered, distorted or negated.  . . . Boycotting the Olympic Games for political reasons would harm the interests of athletes and go against the common aspiration of the international community. Beijing will host the Winter Olympics next February, and Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics in 2028. China and the United States need to support each other and jointly honor the Olympic spirit of solidarity, friendship, fair play and mutual understanding. In this regard, I count on positive contributions from the U.S. business community as well as states and cities.”

Source: Chinese Foreign Ministry website, November 30, 2021
http://new.fmprc.gov.cn/web/wjbxw_673019/202111/t20211130_10459101.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

CCP Official on Social Stability and the “Fengqiao Experience”

Guo Shengkun, secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission 0f the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), published an article in the official People’s Daily on December 2, stressing the “Fengqiao Experience” and “grid-based” administration, as well as combat against the infiltration of subversive and destructive activities by hostile forces.

The article proposed to focus on the outstanding issues affecting national security and social stability, and on improving the ability to prevent and resolve major risks and hazards.

It called for “strictly preventing and combating the subversive and destructive activities of hostile forces, carrying out in-depth anti-terrorist and anti-secession battles, and effectively building an iron wall to maintain national security.”

Guo also emphasized the “Fengqiao Experience” to maximize the prevention of social conflicts, reduce confrontation and promote stability.

The “Fengqiao experience” was a Mao-era practice from the 1960’s. It involved mobilizing the masses in order to “strengthen the dictatorship over class enemies.” It was named after Fengqiao Township, a part of the city of Zhuji in Zhejiang province.

Gao vowed to strengthen the grassroots work, deepen the “grid-based” administration, and strive to nip risks in the bud. The Chinese government has divided local communities into a grid pattern, with each grid made up of from dozens up to hundreds of households.  A designated person called the “grid administrator” leads the administration process.

Recently in Beijing, the city government has been organizing a number of community surveillance groups. They include the “Chaoyang Masses” (朝阳群众), the “Haiding Internet Users” (海淀网友), and the “Xicheng Aunties” (西城大妈). These groups have been used to implement the “Fengqiao experience” as part of the CCP’s practice of battling social instability.

Source: People’s Daily, December 2, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-12/02/nw.D110000renmrb_20211202_1-06.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Beijing Appointed National Security Advisers for Macau

On December 3, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, China’s central government decided to establish a national security affairs advisor and three national security technical advisors to be on a Committee for Safeguarding the National Security of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR). Beijing actually made this decision on November 30 in its reply to the Chief Executive of Macau.

The reply also said that the head of the Liaison Office of the Central Government in the Macau SAR in Beijing will take the position of national security advisor and that staff members in the Liaison Office will fill the positions of technical advisors. The Liaison Office works as Beijing’s representative in Macau.

The national security affairs adviser will be in charge of “supervising, guiding, coordinating, and supporting the Macao SAR in the function of safeguarding national security.” The duties of the national security technical adviser shall include “assisting the national security affairs adviser” and advising on matters pertaining to the duties and functions of the office of the Committee for Safeguarding the National Security of the Macao SAR.

In addition, the reply mentioned that the national security affairs adviser shall sit in on meetings of the Committee, and the national security technical advisers shall sit in on meetings of the office of the Committee.

The Hong Kong National Security Law that passed last year also provided for the establishment of a “Committee for Safeguarding National Security.” The Chief Executive would chair the Committee. His duties would include analyzing and assessing the situation of the HKSAR’s national security, planning relevant work, formulating policies, promoting the development of legal systems and implementation mechanisms, and coordinating major operations. The Committee in Hong Kong also has a national security advisor that Beijing appointed. The advisor would attend its meetings and provide advice on related matters.

Source: Xinhua, December 3, 2021
http://www.news.cn/gangao/2021-12/03/c_1128126706.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Wall Street’s China-Concept Stocks Plunged across the Board

Well-known Chinese news site Tencent News recently reported that, with the SEC announcement of the regulatory details and the news of Didi’s delisting, on December 3rd, 243 of the over 280 China-concept stocks in the U.S. market fell. More than half them dropped by over five percent, 87 stocks dropped by over ten percent, and 33 stocks dropped by over fifteen percent. Some of the star China-concept stocks lost around 20 to 30 percent in value. Even large companies like Alibaba dropped by 8.23 percent. Since President Trump signed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act into law in December, 2020, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has been working closely with the SEC on implementation details of the law to ensure foreign companies entering the U.S. capital market will abide by U.S. auditing rules. Currently only China and Hong Kong have not allowed overseas securities regulatory agencies to conduct investigations directly, or to use evidence collection and other activities within the territory of China. The Chinese laws also forbid Chinese companies or individuals from providing documents and materials required by overseas auditors without prior authorization. The newly released U.S. regulatory details may directly lead the China-concept companies to delist from the U.S. stock market.

Source: Tencent News, December 4, 2021
https://new.qq.com/omn/20211204/20211204A0AGSN00.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Amazon Chinese Sellers Suffered the Worst Black Friday

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that, on November 30, Amazon’s “Black Friday” came to an end. This year’s market has disappointed Chinese sellers quite a bit. An international e-commerce company in Shenzhen said, “Last year’s Black Friday, we had US$1.5 million in sales on the Amazon platform, but this year sales fell to US$900,000.” However, compared with the Chinese sellers that Amazon blocked directly, the sellers who can still do business on Amazon are considered lucky. Cindy Tai, Amazon’s Vice President of Asia Global Selling, revealed that, in the previous five months, Amazon closed the sales rights of about 600 Chinese brands, involving about 3,000 accounts of these brands, including some large sellers.

These sellers have repeatedly abused the comment function. After numerous warnings, Amazon decided to terminate its relationship with these sellers. Based on past data, those who could really make money during big promotions like Black Friday are often the strong and powerful sellers. This year, however, quite a few top Chinese sellers were forced out of the game early on. Several large Chinese sellers, all with 2020 annual revenues above US$500 million, were removed from Amazon due to the counterfeiting of product reviews. It has been noticeable that many of the sellers are now increasing their investments in other platforms like Wal-Mart and eBay.

Source: Sina, December 2, 2021
https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/1644119190/61ff449602001ulev

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources US-China Relations

Caixin: China’s Manufacturing PMI Fell Below 50 in November

Well-known Chinese financial site Caixin recently released its official Chinese Manufacturing PMI index number for November, which was 49.9. Caixin PMI was formerly known as HSBC PMI, which was a well-respected economic indicator widely monitored globally by financial institutions. Although the power shortage has eased, due to the rebound of the Covid-19 pandemic and weak domestic and foreign demand, the Caixin China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell into a contraction zone in November. Manufacturing supply has recovered significantly, but demand is weak. The new export order index and employment index have both fallen into the contraction range for four consecutive months. Though the price index has fallen sharply, yet Inflation pressure still cannot be ignored. Small manufacturing company rescue is still the focus of future policy. The interviewed companies reported that suppliers’ inventory levels remain low. Logistics delays and supply chain delays continue. Adequate attention should also be paid to the deterioration of employment and the weaker consumer purchasing power.

Source: Caixin, December 1, 2021
https://pmi.caixin.com/2021-12-01/101812028.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China Released a White Paper called, “China: a Democracy That Works”

The United States will hold its first Summit for Democracy on December 9 and 10. It invited 110 countries, citizen groups, and individuals to attend. Taiwan was invited – not President Tsai Ing-wen, but Hsiao Mei-chin, Taiwan’s Representative to the U.S. and Councilor Tang Feng will attend. China and Russia were not invited.

On December 4, China’s State Council Information Office released a White Paper “China: Democracy That Works” and held a press conference.

The White Paper called China’s development a “whole process people’s democracy.” “China’s development of this whole-process people’s democracy not only has complete systematic procedures, but also has complete participation.  … It makes each part and each aspect of the country’s political life and social life reflect the people’s will and to listen to the people’s voice. It effectively prevents the phenomena of making empty promises (to please voters) at the time of election, but without any follow up after the election.” (Note: the last sentence was a criticism of the Western style of democracy.)

Xi Jinping first brought up the term “whole process democracy” when he visited Shanghai on November 2, 2019. It seemed that Xi was trying to define “China’s democracy,” which had been criticized as a “hollow slogan.”

China’s White Paper also stressed the diversity of democracy – “There are multiple ways to implement democracy and it can’t be seen as one-size-fits-all.” “Assessing the political systems of other countries against a single yardstick and forcing other countries to copy a single country’s political structure and democracy model are in themselves undemocratic. It does not have people’s support and is doomed to fail.”

Foreign reporters asked whether “China and the U.S. are in a fight for the discourse power of democracy” since China published this democracy White Paper right before the U.S. Summit for Democracy.

Xu Lin, Deputy Minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department and Director of the State Council’s Information Office responded by blaming the U.S. for imposing its standard for democracy on other countries and creating a mess in its own domestic management while still pointing fingers at other countries.

Source: BBC, December 4, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-59532643

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics US-China Relations