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Huanqiu: The U.S. Ambassador Is a “Wolf Warrior”

President Joe Biden nominated Nicholas Burns as the U.S. Ambassador to China. At his Senate confirmation hearing on October 20, Burns took a tough line on dealings with China. He called China the United States’ “most dangerous competitor.” Burns said, “The PRC’s genocide in Xinjiang, its abuses in Tibet, its smothering of Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms, and its bullying of Taiwan are unjust and must stop.”

In his article published on both Weibo and Huanqiu, Huanqiu’s Chief-Editor Hu Xijin Commented on Burn’s Senate hearing. He called Burns the U.S. “Wolf Warrior.”

Hu said, “President Biden’s nominee for the new U.S. Ambassador to China, Mr. Burns, delivered a vicious and systematic attack on China at a hearing on Wednesday, acting like a ‘wolf warrior.’ Instead of demonstrating his willingness to promote friendly relations between China and the United States and their peoples, he presented himself as a ‘wolf warrior ambassador’ who humiliated the original meaning of diplomatic envoy and set a terribly bad example for the global diplomatic community. …”

Hu said that the West blamed Beijing for taking a “wolf warrior” approach. “But actually it is the U.S. that pushes the diplomacy into a ‘wolf war.’” Hu then used a Chinese idiom to describe the U.S. as “the thief who cries out to catch a thief (accusing others of being a thief).”

Finally, Hu said, “Okay, Mr. Burns, we are waiting for you in Beijing.”

Source: Huanqiu, October 22, 2021
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/45HEbsjPcYk

A Huge Explosion in Shenyang

On the morning of October 21, there was a huge explosion on the first floor of a building in Shenyang, a northeastern city in China. Videos posted on the Internet showed a mushroom cloud rose to six stories high. Everything, including the side walls, were all blasted off from the lower floors, with only the steel and concrete remaining. A bus driving by at that moment was pushed 10 meters away. Only the bus frame was left. National Business Daily reported this explosion impacted and ruined a total of 99 buildings.

The Latest official report said 5 people died and 47 were injured. The authorities said it was caused by a gap in a pipeline involved in pipeline work.

People questioned whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hid the actual number of injuries and the amount of the damage, given the miserable scenes of the aftermath.

Epoch Times also pointed out that, whether it is a coincidence or there are some reasons, there have been three explosions in China so far this year. All of them happened within the month before a major political event took place. The first one was on February 23. A restaurant in Beijing exploded. It was within one kilometer (0.6 miles) of Zhongnanhai which is where the top officials live. The explosion caused the building to collapse and seven people were injured. It was a month before the National People’s Congress conference in Beijing.

The second one was at Shiyan City, Hubei Province, in June. The CCP reported 25 deaths and 138 injuries. It was right before the CCP’s anniversary on July 1.

The Shenyang explosion is the third of the three explosions. It occurred within 20 days of the CCP’s 19th Congress Sixth Plenary meeting on November 8.

Right after the second explosion, the authorities reported the case of the rape of Wu Yifan (Kris Wu), a famous movie star and singer. For the third explosion, the authorities immediately reported Li Yundi for hiring a prostitute. Li is a pianist and in China, he is as famous as Lang Lang. These entertainment stars’ news became the hot topics that distracted people from focusing on the explosions.

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, October 22, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/10/22/n13323071.htm
2. National Business Daily, October 24, 2021
https://m.nbd.com.cn/articles/2021-10-24/1958549.html

Lianhe Zaobao: The U.S. Replaced China as India’s Largest Trade Partner

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the United States has replaced China as India’s largest trade partner, while China currently ranks second. According to data that the Indian Ministry of Commerce released, from January to September this year, the bilateral trade volume between India and the United States surged by 50 percent, reaching US$28 billion. During the same period, India’s trade with China increased by 46 percent, reaching $25.3 billion. While India’s relationship with China has deteriorated, it has rapidly strengthened its relationship with the United States and its allies. At the end of September, Indian Prime Minister Modi attended the first face-to-face summit of the US-Japan-India-Australia Security Dialogue (QUAD) during his visit to Washington. The growth of U.S.-India trade is crucial to maintaining and enhancing the U.S.-India strategic partnership. Apart from being members of the World Trade Organization, the United States and India do not have any bilateral trade agreements.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, October 18, 2021
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/world/story20211018-1204362

HKET: Chinese Companies Speed up Negotiations with U.S. to Secure LNG Supply

Hong Kong Economic Times (HKET), the leading financial daily in Hong Kong, recently reported that, due to energy shortage concerns, China is trying to finalize a supply deal with U.S. exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as soon as possible. Sources revealed that major Chinese energy companies are in in-depth negotiations with U.S. exporters to secure long-term LNG supply. These negotiations may lead to agreements worth tens of billions of dollars, which could indicate a major surge in China’s LNG imports from the United States. It is worth noting that during the fierce US-China trade war in 2019, the natural gas trade was once suspended. These talks began at the beginning of this year, but the pace has accelerated in recent months because of the shortage of fuel for power generation and heating in China. Also, this year the price of natural gas in Asia has more than quadrupled, triggering concerns about power shortages in winter. Sources also indicated that at least five Chinese companies are negotiating with U.S. exporters, including large state-owned companies such as Sinopec, CNOOC, and local government sponsored energy distributors like Zhejiang Energy. The U.S. side mainly includes Cheniere Energy and Venture Global. The Chinese buyers have not responded to inquiries.

Source: HKET, October 15, 2021
https://bit.ly/3m8DeY2

 

CCP Newspaper Blasts U.S. for Challenging UN Resolution 2758

In recent days, a senior State Department official  accused China of misusing the October 25, 1971, General Assembly resolution 2758 to deprive Taiwan of the opportunity to take part in multilateral organizations.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, Rick Waters, stated, “We have been actively encouraging member-states, civil society and individuals who care about the problem to support Taiwan’s robust, meaningful participation throughout the U.N. system.”

Global Times, a tabloid newspaper under the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily, published an editorial titled, “The U.S. Will Humiliate itself Challenging UN Resolution 2758, Undermining the one-China principle.”

The newspaper criticized the statement that Waters made as, “an attempt by Washington to issue a fundamental challenge to the one-China principle, trying to break the political status quo of the Taiwan question.”

It went on, “Even the United States, the No.1 Western country, arbitrarily falsified and fabricated the meaning of the UN resolution, completely ignoring its self-claimed responsibility of maintaining international rules. The US has turned itself into a complete political hooligan, which has been an eye-opener for the world.”

The newspaper then dealt a major blow saying, “The current US government is the most incapable and degenerate in the country’s history. The U.S.’ national strength has greatly lost its relative advantage, so the cards of trade and human rights that Washington plays to counter China have almost no effect at all. Meanwhile, the military deterrence from the Chinese mainland is also containing the Taiwan card the US plays. The US then has come to this cheap shot as a ‘new weapon’ to launch an alternative offensive against China.”

Global Times is famous for hawkish, anti-U.S. comments, but saying that the “current U.S. government is the most incapable and degenerate in the country’s history” is probably one of the harshest attacks on the Biden administration.

Source: Global Times, October 24, 2021
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1237157.shtml

Beijing Tightens Control over Macau

Like Hong Kong, Macau is one of China’s other so-called special administrative regions that was supposed to enjoy a high degree of autonomy under the framework of “one country, two systems.” Now Beijing set up a special economic zone that encompasses Macau and the nearby Hengqin Island, which is in Zhuhapart of the neighboring Guangdong Province. It is a prefecture-level city as well as a Special Economic Zone. It is said to implement preferential taxation and other policies. The purpose is to diversify Macau’s economy which primarily centers around the gambling industry, to include finance, high technology, traditional Chinese medicine, tourism, exhibitions and trade.

China has recently exerted control over the casino business in the world’s largest gambling city. The Macau government announced a new measure that strengthens the government’s intervention in the casinos. In response, in mid-September this year, the stock shares of the casinos fell by nearly a third. The new regulation will also limit the number of casino licenses and install government personnel in casino operations.

For the first time, Macau has disqualified opposition candidates in this year’s Legislative Assembly election. In July of this year, Macau authorities disqualified 21 pan-democrats from candidacy on the grounds that they did not uphold Macau’s Basic Law and failed to meet the requirements of allegiance to the city. The turnout in this year’s mid-September legislative elections was only 42 percent, the lowest since the handover of the former Portuguese colony to China in 1999.

Although both the United States and the European Union condemned the Macau authorities’ disqualification of candidates for the Legislative Assembly as being contrary to the rights and interests enshrined in the Macau Basic Law, the Macau government said that the election is entirely an internal matter of Macau and that foreign forces have no right to interfere.

Source: Voice of America, October 18, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/macao-china-control-20211018/6274834.html

Survey: Chinese People with Negative Impression of Japan Rises to 66 Percent

On October 20, A Japanese private nonprofit group, “Genron NPO,” and the China International Publishing Group, a Chinese Communist Party-owned foreign-language publishing organization, released the results of a joint public opinion survey conducted in both countries. The number of Chinese people who answered that they have a “bad” impression of Japan increased by 13.2 percentage points over last year to 66.1 percent. Genron NPO said the reasons are the intensification of the U.S.-China confrontation and historical issues.

Previously, since 2013, impressions of Japan had been on an improving trend. The reason for the worsened impression of Japan is that more Chinese people, by an increase of 8.7 percentage points, blamed Japanese politicians’ for their inappropriate words and actions. Also, many Chinese said they could not understand why Japan follows the U.S. in foreign relations. A representative from Genron NPO had the following analysis: “The disruption of tourist visits to Japan due to the epidemic, which had been the driving force behind the improvement in impressions, is also a major factor.” He pointed out, “Communication between the government and the people has decreased, and the focus is now heavily on confrontation.”

The population of Japanese people who have a negative impression of China also increased. It grew by 1.2 percentage points to 90.9 percent. About half of them cited Chinese official ships sailing near the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China) as the reason.

Source: Kyodo News, Chinese channel, October 20, 2021
https://china.kyodonews.net/news/2021/10/70b859022627-66.html

The Paper: Large Numbers of Human Face Pictures Are Sold in China for Low Prices

Well-known new Chinese news site The Paper recently reported that a simple static portrait photo can be transformed into a video after special software processing. Such a video can be used in the facial recognition processes. Since China now regulates the use of mobile phone SIM cards, all SIM cards must be associated with real names. To battle the illegal use of static facial pictures, communications companies now require video responses to certain commands (like blinking) for authentication. Due to the high demand for SIM cards, some criminals are seizing the opportunity to forge people’s facial videos based on static pictures to pass the registration authentication processes. These videos are sold online in large volume for a few U.S. cents per face, which is coupled with actual personal profile information. Current Chinese laws do not specifically stipulate who has the right to collect facial information. Many companies now collect people’s facial information with very weak security measures for privacy protection. This has caused a massive loss of Personal Identifiable Information (PII) to hackers.

Source: The Paper, October 23, 2021
http://m.thepaper.cn/rss_newsDetail_15036994