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China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

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Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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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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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

 

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources US-China Relations

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

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

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

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

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

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

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

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Zhongwang, Asia’s Largest Aluminum Extrusion Manufacturer Is in Serous Operational Trouble

On October 15, Zhongwang, the Hong Kong-listed Chinese aluminum extrusion manufacturer, suddenly announced that its subsidiaries had encountered serious operational issues. Three of the independent non-executive directors resigned. The Zhongwang Group is Asia’s largest manufacturer of industrial aluminum extrusion products and a Chinese Communist-controlled military-civilian fusion company.

The Zhongwang Group was formed in 1993 in Liaoning province. In 2009, the holding company, China Zhongwang Holdings Limited, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In 2017, Zhongwang acquired Una Aluminum, a high-end German aluminum extrusion company, and Silver Yachts, an Australian all-aluminum super yacht maker. On August 30, Zhongwang suspended trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after it failed to release its financial results by the day they were due.

In 2014 through 2017, Forbes and Hurun named Liu Zhongtian, founder of the Zhongwang Group, the richest man in Liaoning province and the richest man in Northeastern China. He was once worth nearly 30 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion). In 2020, Zhongwang’s share price dropped below 10 billion yuan (US$1.57 billion). In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Liu for an alleged scheme to avoid payment of $1.8 billion in custom duties.

Source: Epoch Times, October 21, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/10/16/n13309339.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Beijing Updates Approved Media List, Tightening Control

On October 20, 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published an updated list of approved news sources. The list contains Internet news providers from which other sites can reprint contents.

Compared to the 2016 list, the updated list of 1,358 news sources includes more public and social media accounts based on how they followed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) directions in the past. According to the CAC, the update also eliminated media from the previous 2016 list because those media “no longer meet the requirements, have a poor daily performance, and lack influence.”

Caixin, one of China’s best-known outspoken business publications, was eliminated from the 2021 list.

Despite increasingly tight control under China’s Xi Jinping, the privately funded Caixin has published many articles that the CCP does not like and has become influential as a result. That influence is a challenge for the CCP.

People currently subscribe to Caixin reports because Caixin has a strong team of investigative reporters known for their exclusive reports. The extent to which the removal from the 2021 news source list may impact Caixin’s business remains to be seen.

CCP controlled media must publish in accordance with CCP’s agenda. Everyone is a reporter or photographer in the Internet age, a reality that the CCP cannot change. It is questionable whether the CCP’s updated approval of the media list will effectively shut down different voices.

Source: Cyberspace Administration of China, October 20, 2021
http://www.cac.gov.cn/2021-10/20/c_1636326280912456.htm?showOutlinkMenu=1&hgWebShareTitle=

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Civil Service Employee – the Most Competitive Position in China

On October 22, China’s 2022 National Civil Service Examination registration was closed. Preliminary statistics suggest that the number of applicants this year has increased by more than 200,000 compared to last year. Many jobs are highly competitive. For example, a position at the Tibet Post Office Administration attracted applications from 15,000 people.

It is expected that the unemployment number in China will continue to rise this year due to COVID 19, government policies to curb after-school tutoring programs and the over-heated housing market. Even though there are more open positions this year, the number of applicants has also surged.

Registration for the national exam for Civil Service applicants began on October 15. By 4:00 pm on October 16, the central agencies and the subsidiaries had received 778,000 applications, 200,000 more than last year. The job pool includes 312,000 positions from 75 departments and 23 direct agencies.

Source: Central News Agency, October 24, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202110240029.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics