Chinascope – Page 201

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 | | December 7, 2021 | 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 | | December 7, 2021 | 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 | | December 7, 2021 | 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 | | December 7, 2021 | Government/Politics US-China Relations

Global Times: U.S. Poll Said Over Half of Americans Think China Is the Biggest Threat

Global Times recently published a commentary on the well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES), saying a Ronald Reagan Institute poll showed that over half of Americans see China as its top threat, rather than Russia or any other country. The majority of Americans, on a bipartisan basis, are concerned about the possibility of war breaking out between China and the United States. The institute compared the results with what Americans thought about a number of issues in 2018. The results showed that, for the first time, most Americans see China as the greatest threat. When asked which country they think poses the greatest threat, 52 percent of Americans pointed to China, while only 14 percent said Russia. In 2018, only 21 percent of Americans thought China was the top threat, while 30 percent thought it was Russia. In 2021, 44 percent of Democratic supporters hold this view. For the Democratic Party, this is a sharp upward trend, because in February of this year, only 20 percent of Democratic supporters agreed with this view. Among the respondents to the poll, 20 percent expressed concerns about trade and economics, 19 percent expressed concerns about China’s military development, and 17 percent expressed concerns about so-called “human rights violations.” The institute’s final report pointed out that these worries are closely related to concerns about potential military conflicts between China and the United States. Around 71 percent of Americans expressed concern about this. Among them, 66 percent are Democratic supporters and 79 percent are Republican supporters. On the other hand, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out earlier that, in fact, the United States is the biggest threat to the world. Global Times expressed the belief that, apparently, the U.S. domestic inciting propaganda has worked.

Source: Global Times on NetEase, December 1, 2021
https://www.163.com/dy/article/GQ53TNF805504DP0.html

Briefings | | December 7, 2021 | US-China Relations

African Countries Are Moving Away from Communist China

The Eighth Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) took place in Dakar, Senegal, on September 29 and 30. Epoch Times reported that this eighth conference showed indications that African countries are no longer that close to Beijing.

First, the meeting was reduced to a ministerial-level conference. Beijing sent Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao to the meeting. Xi Jinping also gave an on-line speech. The previous time, 40 Presidents, 10 Prime Ministers, and one Vice President from the African countries, as well as the President of the African Union Commission, attended the Seventh FOCAC in Beijing.

Second, several countries have started separating themselves from Beijing. The Republic of Congo took its mine development rights back from China. The reason was that China failed to deliver on many large contracts that it signed with the Congo, including 31 hospitals and 2 universities.

There was a rumor earlier this year that Kenya would give its port of Mombasa as collateral to Beijing to borrow money from China for rail construction. However, more recently, the Kenyan government stated that the port of Mombasa would not fall into the hands of Beijing even if it defaulted on its repayment.

Uganda, however, after participating in the Communist China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” program, is in danger of losing control of its only international airport to Beijing because of its inability to repay a huge loan or to renegotiate the loan agreement with the lender.

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, November 30, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/11/30/n13408492.htm
2. China’s Official Web Site, “International Society Discussed Sino-African Cooperation, November 30, 2021.
http://news.china.com.cn/txt/2021-11/30/content_77902794.htm

Briefings | | December 6, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

China Central Bank Adviser: Common Prosperity Requires Lowering Gini Coefficient

A People’s Bank of China adviser believes that, to achieve Xi Jinping’s common prosperity, China must lower the Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, to below 0.4. Cai Fang, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the central bank, made this remark at a forum that Caijing magazine hosted on November 27 and 28, 2021.

Cai stated that China’s Gini coefficient should drop from the current 0.47 to close to 0.4 and, by 2035, it should drop close to 0.35. He added, “If it is higher than 0.4, we cannot say that this is common prosperity.”

Cai, who is also an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China needs to reduce inequality through a redistribution of its national income. It should also increase the supply of social welfare and a reduction of the Gini coefficient. There is “a lot of work to do.” China must use different means and ways of the first, second, and third distribution of national income to build an olive-shaped social structure with middle-income groups as the main body. It is more important to create a public service system covering the entire life cycle of the people.

According to China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the first distribution of wealth comes through market competition. The second is achieved through taxes, subsidies, and social welfare programs. The third distribution taps enterprises and individuals to redistribute their wealth through voluntary donations.

The Gini coefficient measures the degree of equality in the income distribution of residents in a country or region. A value of 0 means complete equality. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China’s income Gini coefficient reached the highest point of 0.49 in 2008 and then fell to 0.47 in 2020. According to OECD estimates this year, the average Gini coefficient in developed countries is 0.314.

Sources:

Sina.com, November 28, 2021

https://finance.sina.com.cn/hy/hyjz/2021-11-28/doc-ikyakumx0712227.shtml

Zaobao, November 29, 2021

https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20211129-1218123

China National Development and Reform Commission, September 24, 2021 https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/fggz/jyysr/jysrsbxf/202109/t20210924_1297384.html?code=&state=123

Briefings | | December 4, 2021 | Economy/Resources

Central Propaganda Department: Chinese Media Have the Responsibility and Obligation to Break the Hegemony of Western Media Discourse

In the opening speech at the China Internet Media Forum held in Guangzhou on Nov. 25, 2021, Shen Haixiong, the deputy minister of the Central Propaganda Department and director and editor-in-chief of China Central Radio and Television, stated that Chinese media have the responsibility and obligation to strive to increase their authority and influence in the international public opinion field and to break the long-standing “discourse hegemony” of Western media.

Shen Haixiong said that the Chinese media must promote the formation of an objective, fair, positive and healthy global public opinion ecology, and no longer allow political self-interest, racial discrimination, and ideological prejudice to dominate public opinion and mislead people.

Shen gave two examples of how to control the direction of public opinion.
Shen said that in response to Bloomberg’s false “global anti-(Sars-2) epidemic ranking” this year, China Central Radio and Television used its advantages to organize three rounds of overseas “polls of global netizen’s opinions on fighting the epidemic,” and released a series of influential reports and commentaries regarding the “tracing (of the viral origin) to the United States.”

Shen also said that in recent reports on the situation in Afghanistan, CCTV headquarters seized the exclusive rights, guaranteed the first release, controlled the discourse rights and defined the narratives. It also sent back a large number of exclusive videos of global news and became the main information source of global media. “The headquarters of CGTN microphone was the only media microphone on the stage of the Taliban’s first press conference after the withdrawal of the U.S. military. It continued to disclose the truth about the indiscriminate killings of innocents by the U.S. military, and delivered objective and true first-hand information to the world. It completely shattered the embarrassment that Chinese media could only transmit other media’s reports in international emergencies in the past.”

Source: Zhaobao, November 26, 2021
http://www.kzaobao.com/shiju/20211126/105228.html

Briefings | | December 3, 2021 | Government/Politics

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