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Global Times Chief Editor: the Taliban and China Are Friends

On July 9, the Taliban spokesman stated that they have made territorial gains and secured 85 percent of the region in Afghanistan. They also see China as a friend and welcome China to return to invest in Afghanistan. In response to the comment, Hu Xijin, the Chief Editor of Global Times, published a post on weibo boasting that the Taliban and China are friends.

Hu wrote in the post: “Now you understand how stable and powerful China’s diplomacy is. The United States has been fighting in Afghanistan for 20 years. More than 2,000 soldiers have been killed. It cost the U.S. one trillion U.S. dollars. The Taliban sees the U.S. as an enemy, and the Afghan government sees the U.S. as a selfish escapee. China’s approach, however, makes us friends with both Kabul and the Taliban. What’s important is that we will always be friends with Afghanistan.”

People posted comments trashing Hu’s post. One person wrote, “Who agrees that you and the Taliban are friends?” “Are we at a point that we need to be friends with the Taliban and use it as an achievement to show off?” “My views of the world, life and values are completely destroyed.” “Do we have no friends?” “It turns out that terrorists are also politically correct. Those who commit so-called terrorist attacks in Hong Kong must be killed without mercy! Meanwhile, Taliban terrorists can be friends. As a person and a country, you really have no bottom line. ”

Source: 163.Com, July 12, 2012
https://www.163.com/dy/article/GEML1RSU055250DA.html

RFA: CCP to Build Grassroots Governance and Abandon Grassroots Democracy

According to Xinhua News, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued a new directive to build grassroots government organizations. It no longer talks about expanding grassroots elections and other democratic autonomy mechanisms. Instead, it emphasizes the party’s comprehensive re-engineering of grassroots organizations as well as the implementation of tight control over them.

The “Opinions of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party and the State Council on Strengthening the Modernization of the Grassroots Governance System and Governance Ability,” included 7 major sections. It included overall requirements, improving the party’s overall leadership of the grassroots governance system, and strengthening the governance capability of grassroots political power. It also detailed 27 items, emphasizing the use of artificial intelligence and other modern scientific and technological information methods to strengthen the party’s overall control over grassroots government organizations, enhance organizational mobilization capabilities, and completely abandon the grassroots democratic experiments which have been carried out over the past two decades.

The document emphasizes “adhering to the party’s overall leadership of grassroots governance and enabling the party’s leadership to run throughout the entire process and all aspects of grassroots governance.” It also states that it plans to take about five years to establish a grassroots governance system with unified leadership of the party organization and use another 10 years to finish the modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capabilities.

Source: Radio Free Asia, July 11, 2012
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/9-07112021170004.html

CCP Anniversary Celebrations at Canadian Universities

While July 1 was Canada’s National Day, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) in Canada held events to celebrate the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Since mid-June, the messages about the “July 1 Party Centennial Campaign” have been circulating on WeChat among Canadian users. The CSSA’s at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU), as well as the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver organized the event. The event encourages students to submit artistic and literary works to express their so-called “love for the country and the Party.” Words in praise of the CCP were everywhere in the works of the winners of the awards that the organizers announced. For example, “The Chinese Communist Party has led the Chinese people to miracles that have shocked the world,” “We were born under the red flag and grew up in the spring breeze, and the shining five stars are our faith.”

A student at the University of British Columbia came from an immigrant family in Hong Kong. He told Radio Free Asia that clashes between Chinese and other students on university campuses have already occurred over Hong Kong and Xinjiang issues. The CSSA’s way of doing things is weird. Not all CSSA members are international students, and many are Canadian citizens or residents.

This is one of numerous examples of how Chinese authorities influence campus affairs in Canada.

Source: Radio Free Asia, July 8, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/lf-07082021140950.html

Cooperation between China and CEE Countries

On July 8, China’s official People’s Daily newspaper reported on the cooperation and economic relationships between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

In February 2021, the head of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, hosted the China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Summit in Beijing via video link and delivered a keynote speech.

In 2020, the China-CEE trade volume exceeded US$100 billion for the first time, a growth of 8.4 percent over 2019. In the first four months of this year, China-CEE bilateral trade totaled US$40.71 billion, which was 47.9 percent higher than the same period in 2020.

On May 27, the 100 MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant project in Kauposzburg, Hungary’s largest PV power plant, was put into operation. The China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC), a subsidiary of China General Technology Group invested in and built the PV plant. After grid connection, It is expected to generate 130 million kWh of electricity annually.

The “China-CEE Energy Cooperation Report” that the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute released shows that, as of September 2020, Chinese enterprises had invested more than 4 billion euros in wind power, photovoltaic and other fields in Central and Eastern Europe. The Chinese new energy vehicle, lithium battery and parts manufacturers have set up factories in CEE countries to integrate into the European new energy vehicle industry supply chain. Key energy cooperation projects such as the Dabar hydroelectric power station in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Pancevo combined-cycle power station in Serbia are under construction.

Montenegro is the leader of those China-CEE countries in the environmental protection cooperation mechanism. The key projects that Chinese enterprises constructed in Montenegro include the Mozura wind power station and the first phase of eco-renovation of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Station.

Source: People’s Daily, July 8, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-07/08/nw.D110000renmrb_20210708_1-17.htm

CCP Summit of World Political Parties

According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, on July 6, Xi Jinping, head of Chinese Communist Party (CCP), attended the summit of the Chinese Communist Party and world political party leaders through video conferencing.  Xi delivered a speech.

As part of the CCP’s 100 anniversary celebration, it was reported that more than 500 leaders of political parties and organizations from more than 160 countries, as well as more than 10,000 representatives of political parties attended the meeting. More than 100 countries’ political parties set up nearly 200 venues in their countries for their own party representatives to attend the summit remotely. The 160 countries included Russia, Spain, Vietnam, and others from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Source: Xinhua, July 7, 2021
http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2021-07/07/c_1127628998.htm

Vacancy Rate for China’s Commercial Office Space Nears Thirty Percent

Three major commercial office transactions have taken place in China in the past month. On June 28, Capital Land sold six Raffles City locations to Ping An Life Insurance for 9.6 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion). The week before, SOHO China sold 91 percent of its stock shares to the Blackstone Group for US$3 billion. On June 7, Hexie Health Insurance acquired SK Tower in Beijing for 9.06 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion). Three large commercial real estate transactions within 22 days totaled approximately 38 billion yuan (US$5.9 billion), a rare phenomenon in the industry. Insurance companies, asset managers and other institutions are acquiring commercial real estate in China at a moderate price.

According to statistics from the Beike Research Institute, a real estate industry think tank, the average annual growth rate of commercial office space over the past decade has exceeded 10 percent. By 2020, the total area of commercial business premises was 2.9 billion square meters (31 billion square feet). The estimate for sales of commercial real estate in 2021 approximates 2.6 trillion yuan (US$0.4 trillion).

Office buildings in China feature low rental yields, sloppy operations and high vacancy rates. In the second half of 2020, commercial office vacancy rates in first-tier cities were all above 20 percent, representing ten-year highs. The measure in Shanghai and Shenzhen even exceeded 25 percent. The national average vacancy rate for commercial office space is close to 30 percent.

Source: Central News Agency, July 2, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202107020087.aspx

China’s One-Cent Masks Are Driving U.S. Manufacturers Nuts

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that many U.S. small personal protection equipment (PPE) vendors are having a hard time because of heavy competition. An example is mask manufacturer Premium-PPE. its mask sales dropped by 90 percent since last year, and only 50 of its 280 employees still remain employed. According to the American Mask Manufacturer’s Association (AMMA), all of its 26 member companies are expected to close down in the next 60 to 90 days. AMMA said this is the result of unfair trade competition from Chinese mask makers They are dumping one-cent masks into the U.S. market. Thousands of U.S. jobs will be at risk over the next two months. AMMA wrote to the Biden administration asking for the government to support “buy America” and for a ban on federal purchases of masks that do not meet American standards. AMMA plans to file an appeal to the WTO. However, the U.S. International Trade Administration refused to reveal whether the Administration will support this appeal or not.

Source: Sina, June 19, 2021
https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2021-06-29/doc-ikqciyzk2567453.shtml

UDN: Ten Big Changes in Hong Kong after a Year of the HK National Security Law

United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported on ten major changes in the ten years since the Hong Kong National Security Law was imposed. In the past ten years, 117 political activists have been imprisoned. One out of every five Hong Kong residents is leaving the city and two of every five are considering it. The head of the police was promoted to Chief Secretary for Administration. This makes him the second in command in the Hong Kong government. Many members of the Legislative Council from the opposition parties were removed from the Council; common law principles have been questioned and foreign judges are leaving. Independent media companies such as Apple Daily have closed their doors. The annual Tiananmen Square Massacre memorial parade has been banned. The education contents in schools have changed while teachers are resigning. Numerous books, newspapers and movies have been censored. Foreign investors (such as Vanguard) are leaving, causing a drastic drop in office space rentals. Rob Chipman, former Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said that move-outs of multinational corporate executives have increased by 30 percent. Some have been monitoring (the situation) since 2019 and concluded that, it appears now it is “about time to leave.”

Source: UDN, June 30, 2021
https://udn.com/news/story/7331/5568555?from=udn-catelistnews_ch2