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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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Propaganda: The Non-Existent Swiss Biologist Who Said China’s Lab Did Not Leak the Virus

In early August, Many of China’s state media, including Xinhua, People’s Daily, China News Agency, and Global Times, quoted Facebook about a Biologist named Wilson Edwards from Switzerland who stated that it is extremely unlikely that China’s lab leaked the COVID-19 virus. He worried that the World Health Organization lacks an independent scientific judgment and has become a political tool of the U.S. government.

However, on August 10, Switzerland’s Embassy in China issued an official statement that this was fake news. The statement said that Switzerland does not have a citizen whose name is Wilson Edwards, that no academic article was ever published by an author with that name, and that his Facebook account was created on July 24, 2021, with only one posting and three friends. This indicates that this account was not created for a social networking purpose.

Source: Liberty Times, August 11, 2021
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3634411

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Pandemic: COVID-19 Is Spreading in China (August 11, 2021, Update)

The COVID-19 virus keeps spreading in China. During the latest round of the outbreak, a total of 17 provinces have reported COVID-19 cases. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has hidden the real information, the actual number of those infected is unknown.

On August 9, Yangzhou City, Jiangzu Province reported 48 cases, with a cumulative total of 394 cases. Jiangsu Province sent 653 medical doctors and nurses and 2,260 COVID testers from other cities to Yangzhou. On August 11, Sun Chunlan, the Vice Premier of China, visited Yangzhou to check on the COVID-19 outbreak.

Zhengzhou City, Henan Province which just suffered a severe flood due to the government releasing water from a dam without informing people, also reported COVID-19 cases.

The CCP has been using an extreme lockdown method to create “zero” cases. Zhang Wenhong, the lead medical expert on the COVID-19 virus in Shanghai, recently suggested that more and more people feel the pandemic will not end soon. Therefore the world should learn to live with the virus. However, Gao Qiang, formerly of the Minister of Health, criticized this viewpoint.

Sources:
1. China.com.cn, August 11, 2021
http://news.china.com.cn/2021-08/11/content_77685454.htm
2. China’s State Council Website, August 11, 2021
http://www.gov.cn/guowuyuan/2021-08/11/content_5630831.htm
3. VOA, August 11, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/China-weighs-whether-to-abandon-zero-tolerance-approach-on-Covid-20210810/5997594.html

Related postings on Chinascope:

Pandemic: COVID-19 Delta Variant Is Spreading in China Since July

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

“Xi Jinping Thoughts” A Required Course in Shanghai Elementary and Secondary Schools

On August 3, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission issued the “Shanghai Elementary and Secondary School Curriculum Plan for the 2021 School Year.” The Plan specifies that the elementary school version of “Xi Jinping’s Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” will be taught in the first semester of the 3rd and the 5th grades. The middle school version will be taught in the third semester of junior high school; and the high school version will be taught in the first semester of senior high school. The course is mandatory. Each course is to be taught for one hour per week.

The notice emphasized that the city’s primary and secondary schools should not use the original or modified version of foreign teaching materials without getting approval from the city’s educational authorities. At the same time, the notice requires that the “revolutionary culture and the socialist culture” be incorporated into the whole process of primary and secondary education.

Source: Central News Agency, August 7, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202108070070.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CCP’s Central Propaganda Department Launches Campaign against Fake News

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) is China’s government agency in charge of news media and all publication platforms. On August 3, SAPPRFT published an article reporting that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Propaganda Department recently held a teleconference on launching a special campaign against news extortion and fake news. The special campaign includes a focus on cracking down on news agencies and their personnel who use “illegal news activities,  online communication platforms, public accounts that use illegal news activities, and social organizations and individuals who use illegal news activities.”

Ten CCP and government agencies, including the Central Propaganda Department, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Administration of Market Supervision, SAPPRFT, and the All-China Journalists Association jointly organized he campaign.

Political scientist Chen Daoyin told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that the campaign is related to the upcoming politically sensitive period before the 20th CCP National Congress next year. “The Politburo believes that the current domestic and international situation is complicated and severe, and that the economy has yet recovered and become balanced. In addition, this is a sensitive period before the 20th National Congress. It is the CCP’s usual practice to eliminate all the noises and ensure that only the voice of the Party is heard, so as to achieve unity of thought and the authority of the Party.”

Source: Central News Agency, August 5, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202108050263.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Chinese Think Tank Report Finds Fault with U.S. Covid-19 Response

On August 9, three Chinese think tanks published a report titled, “‘America Ranked First’?! The Truth about America’s fight against COVID-19.” The three think tanks were The Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, and the Taihe Institute and Intellisia Institute – in Beijing.

The report was developed into five chapters as follows: “For partisan competitions, not for people’s lives,” “Anti-science and against common-sense measures,” “System failures result in the pandemic being difficult to control,” “The pandemic exacerbated the social gap,” and “The Willful destruction of global resistance to the pandemic.”

The report criticized the U.S. response in several areas, including political infighting, monetary policy, hatred against Asians, “allowing” the spread of the virus, and the “creation” of international conflicts.

The portion ‘America Ranked First’ refers to Bloomberg’s June 28 report. “The U.S.’s Stunning Turnaround in the Pandemic,” which claimed that the U.S. has surged to No. 1. in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking.

The report concluded, that “the U.S. well deserves to be called the world’s No.1 anti-pandemic failure, the world’s No. 1 country of political blaming, the world’s No. 1 country of virus spreading, the world’s No. 1 country of political division, the world’s No. 1 country of abusive currency issuance, the world’s No. 1 country of turmoil during the pandemic period, the world’s No. 1 country of disinformation, and the world’s No. 1 country of origin for tracing terrorism.”

Source: China Central Television, August 9, 2021
http://m.news.cctv.com/2021/08/09/ARTIsfOioJpzCdUoxLzKie9V210809.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

LTN: China Announced the Suspension of Issuing Ordinary Passports

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that China is restricting the border entry and exit of Chinese nationals in the name of controlling the spread of COVID-19. The Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council of China held a press conference. Liu Haitao, Director of Border Inspection and Management of the Chinese National Immigration Administration, announced that, to be strict in preventing the importation of the epidemic, China will tightly restrict the flow of people across borders for non-emergency and non-essential purposes. Travel documents, such as ordinary passports, will not be issued until further notice. Liu blamed these restrictions on a “very obvious” epidemic rebound overseas. Liu also announced detailed policies governing the human flow at international airports, sea ports and land entry points. Land entries still allow cargo transportation. Chinese passports include Diplomatic Passports, Service Passports, Ordinary Passports and SAR (Special Administrative Regions) Passports.

Source: LTN, August 4, 2021
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3627324

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Zoom to Pay $85 Million to Users after Lying about Privacy

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that popular video conferencing provider Zoom Video Communications will have to pay $85 million to its users as part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit. The company was accused of lying about offering end-to-end encryption on its services; as well as providing user data to Facebook and Google without permission. This came nine months after Zoom agreed to security improvements and a “prohibition on privacy and security misrepresentations” in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. However, the FTC settlement didn’t include compensation for users. In addition to payments, Zoom agreed to over a dozen major changes to its practices. Zoom later issued a statement promising, “The privacy and security of our users are top priorities for Zoom.” Back in 2020, it was revealed that Zoom did not offer end-to-end encryption despite claiming to do so. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced more people to work from home, Zoom’s user base has increased fivefold. In April 2021, the company had 497,000 customers with more than 10 employees, compared to only 81,900 in January 2020. Zoom said that, as more people get vaccinated and return to work, its growth may slow down.

Source: Sina, August 2, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2021-08-02/doc-ikqciyzk8970558.shtml

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Apple Added New Flagship Chinese Assembler

Popular Chinese technology news site CNBeta recently reported that Apple has given Chinese electronics maker Luxshare Precision Industry a big promotion, tapping the company for iPhone 13 Pro production. Alongside long-term partners Foxconn and Pegatron, Luxshare is a new assembler making the latest flagship models. This move by Apple is highly unusual, as it used to only allow new faces to assemble old models. It appears that Apple is expanding the diversification of its supply chain for risk management, while also gaining bargain chips in negotiations with Foxconn and Pegatron. However, Apple’s high end model iPhone 13 Pro Max remains exclusively in the hands of Foxconn. In addition to Luxshare, Lens Technology will begin to provide metal frames for the iPhone; Sunny Optical will provide iPhone lens; Goertek and Luxshare will share the manufacturing orders for AirPods 3; and BOE Technology will also supply OLED displays for the iPhone, starting this year. The stock prices of these Chinese companies have all increased significantly.

Source: CNBeta, August 4, 2021
https://www.cnbeta.com/articles/tech/1161825.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations