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CNA: Three U.S. Senators Visited Taiwan

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, according to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT, the de facto Embassy of the United States in Taiwan), three U.S. Senators will be visiting Taiwan on June 6. The visit intends to discuss topics on the U.S.-Taiwan relationship and regional security. Senator Ladda Tammy Duckworth (D), Senator Daniel Scott Sullivan (R) are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator Christopher Andrew Coons (D) is a member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, a member of Senate Committee on Appropriations, and a co-sponsor of the Taiwan Assurance Act (also known as the Taipei Act).  The Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said these U.S. senators are all long-term supporters of Taiwan, and they are prioritizing the visit to Taiwan to demonstrate their firm bi-partisan support of Taiwan in the U.S. Senate. This is the first international visit that the Senate Armed Services Committee planned to have, after the breakout of the Covid-19 Pandemic last year. The whole U.S. Senate visiting group includes ten people. A meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is part of the schedule. [Editors Note: According to DW, the U.S. was expected to give 750,000 doses of COVID vaccine to the island. Taipei had accused China of blocking it from making a deal to procure doses from a German firm, but Beijing denied the accusation.]

Source: CNA, June 5, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202106055008.aspx
DW: June 6, 2021
https://www.dw.com/en/us-senators-visit-taiwan-in-trip-that-may-irk-china/a-57790467

COVID Is Shutting Down the Taiwanese Chip Making Industry

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the COVID pandemic is spreading in Taiwan, impacting various world-class chip suppliers in the semiconductor industry. The latest bad news came from King Yuan Electronics (KYEC), which is the world’s largest semiconductor packaging and testing company. The company announced a 48-hour suspension of operations due to a widespread group COVID infection affecting 45 workers. KYEC services major downstream chipmakers like MediaTek (Taiwan), NVIDIA (USA) and STMicroelectronics (Switzerland). Currently, Taiwan is the world’s number one provider of foundry as well as packaging & testing. It is also the world’s number two IC design provider. The Taiwanese semiconductor industry is currently the second largest in size, only after the United States. In the meantime, Malaysia, another major chip packaging & testing country, already closed down the entire country and manufacturing lines are keeping only 10 to 20 percent of their labor, just to keep the machines powered, with zero production output.

Source: Sina, June 6, 2021
https://news.sina.com.cn/s/2021-06-05/doc-ikqcfnaz9279554.shtml

No Major Chinese Cellphone Manufacturer Plans to Use Huawei’s HarmonyOS

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that Huawei just announced its mobile phone operating system HarmonyOS will replace Android and will challenge Google. However, none of the major Chinese domestic mobile phone heavyweights, such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo plan to use HarmonyOS. It’s worth noting that Android is an open-source system and anyone can use it. What Huawei cannot use is the Google suite of applications (such as Gmail), which do not have a large share of the Chinese market. To the Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, the important part of a mobile device operating system is its ecosystem. The Mobile device hardware profit margin for these manufacturers is extremely narrow. Software and related services provide their primary profitable income, and Huawei’s new HarmonyOS has a very limited number of apps. Also, in the past, Huawei took a very competitive approach in dealing with other domestic manufacturers. The mobile vendors are very hesitant to rely heavily on Huawei. In fact, Google has been a lot more neutral than Huawei when developing business relationships with the Chinese manufacturers. Huawei used to promise not to enter the mobile phone market – then it became the world’s second largest mobile phone maker, crushing all domestic competitors.

Source: NetEase, June 4, 2021
https://3g.163.com/dy/article_cambrian/GBJVC2ET0511DT6P.html

Two New Zealand MPs Resigned Due to Ties with Beijing

On May 26, news website Politik revealed that the resignations of two former MPs in New Zealand in 2020 had been orchestrated after the National and Labour party leadership received security briefings over growing concerns about their links to Beijing.

On May 27, in a personal column in the New Zealand Herald, Matthew Hooton, political adviser to Todd Muller, who was leader of the New Zealand National Party in 2020, confirmed that their departure was the result of the intervention of intelligence agencies.

Yang Jian, an MP from the National party and Huo Raymond, an MP from the Labour party resigned last July within 11 days of each other. Yang had served as MP for 10 years and Huo had served for seven years. During their terms as MP, they were frequently spotted participating in the events that the Chinese consulate or the United Front Department had organized. In 2017, two weeks before New Zealand’s September 2017 general election, Financial Times and Newsroom.co.nz reported that Yang has been teaching at a Chinese military institution for over 15 years. However, he did not disclose the teaching experience in his citizenship application. In 2019, Yang accompanied the leader of the National Party and met with Guo Shengkun, China’s secretary of Political and Legal Affairs.

In 2017, Anne Marie Brady, a Chinese scholar at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, published the report called, “Magic Weapons.”  The report listed a number of encounters that Yang and Huo had with Beijing’s United Front organization in New Zealand. The report mentioned that both Yang and Huo openly supported the Belt and Road initiative. Huo set up the Belt and Road Research Association in New Zealand and named himself as the Chairman. Huo organized a fund-raising banquet for the current Mayor of Auckland and raised over US$188,000. The participants were mostly Chinese. One of the items auctioned during the fund raising was the book Xi Jinping Talks about Governance Theory. Xi Jinping had signed the book. A Chinese buyer paid 150,000 New Zealand dollars (US$109,000) for the book. In addition, Huo once prevented New Zealand from inviting the Dalai Lama to visit. He told New Zealanders that the Dalai Lama was a separatist and a slave owner. In September 2019, he also introduced Beijing’s “New and Old Tibet” exhibition to New Zealand.

Source: Epoch Times, May 31, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/5/31/n12987469.htm

Chinese Generations Y and Z Caught Between “Involution” and “Lying Down”

Involution (内卷Nei Juan) and Lying Down (躺平 Tang Ping) have become buzzwords among Generations Y (born in the 1990’s) and Z (born in 2000) in China. One refers to “excessive competition” while the other one indicates “dropping out of competition.” Both of them reflect the frustration of China’s younger generation towards the fierce competition in society.

On Weibo, there are over 1 billion views on topics related to “Involution.” In 2020, “Involution” became one of the “top ten buzzwords” in China. Involution came from Clifford Geertz who used it to describe the agricultural process in which many centuries of intensifying wet-rice cultivation in Indonesia had produced greater social complexity without significant technological or political change. Generations Y and Z in China use it to describe their feeling of powerlessness when faced with competition. If they don’t work hard and don’t compete, they will fall behind or end up dropping out; they are repressed and unable to make a breakthrough. What they are facing is unlike the1990’s or early 2000 when China’s economy was taking off. That was the time when their parents benefited. Generations Y and Z missed that window. Meanwhile they have also found that their parents or employers do not understand them very well.

In April 2021, six months after the word “Involution” gained popularity, Lying Down (躺平 Tang Ping) appeared. It is a way that those in the younger generation show their resistance to “Involution.” “Lying Down” means that Generations X & Y withdraw from the competition by giving up what they think is meaningless. The state media quickly expressed concern and even condemned the words. Guangming Daily pointed out that “Lying Down” is disadvantageous to economic and social development. The society needs the younger generation to bring “creative contributions” when China’s economic development is facing challenges such as an aging population. Nanfang Daily criticized that it is shameful to “Lie Down” and not making an effort. Other media call it an irresponsible attitude towards their parents and tens and millions of tax payers. The official media reports are merely there to maintain social stability. They had to allow the younger generations to release their frustrations, but many people will undoubtedly regard “Lying Down” as a social problem.

Source: BBC, June 2, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-57304453

Chinese Customs Announced List of Unqualified Imports, Naming H&M and Nike

On June 1, China’s General Administration of Customs announced a list of unqualified imported children’s products. Swedish clothing brand H&M and U.S. sports brand Nike are on the list for using hazardous materials. H&M and Nike were targets of a boycott in China after Chinese netizens unearthed old statements from the brands stating that they had taken a stand against cotton sourced from the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang over concerns about reports of forced labor involving the Muslim Uyghur minority.

The official website of the General Administration of Customs (GAC) of China reported the quality of some imported children’s products investigated over the past year, involving 81 batches of imported children’s products in five categories: clothing, toys, toothbrushes, shoes, and pacifiers and bottles. Among them, ten brands including H&M, Nike, MUJI, ARCELO BURLON, Bonton, GAP, GU, mikiHOUSE, STORY LORIS, and ZARA allegedly failed to pass the standard for rubbing color fastness, or the ability to sustain the original color of dyed fabrics when rubbing. GAC claimed there is a risk that dyes or harmful substances may be absorbed by the human body through the skin, mouth and other health hazards.

Source: Central News Agency, June 1, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202106010379.aspx

Chinese Investment in Eastern Europe’s Clean Energy

China’s state media People’s Daily reported the official launch of a 100 MW solar power plant in Kaposvár, Hungary last week. The project, built by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC), is expected to generate 130 million kilowatts of electricity per year, saving 45,000 tons of standard coal and reducing 120,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions after it is connected to the grid.

The Kaposvár plant is the largest solar power plant in Hungary in terms of installed capacity. The paper quoted the Hungarian Minister of Innovation and Technology, Laszlo Palkovics, “The ‘Belt & Road Initiative’ is highly compatible with Hungary’s policy of ‘opening up to the east.’ The Kaposvár solar power plant is a key project of cooperation between Hungary and China in the field of clean energy.”

The paper continued, “Due to the high proportion of coal in the energy structure, Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are generally facing the challenge of energy transition. … CEE countries have set their own emission reduction targets and energy transition tasks and are vigorously investing in hydrogen, nuclear, solar, wind and other clean energy. Many Chinese enterprises have actively participated in the energy transition of CEE countries. Many Chinese manufacturers of new energy vehicles, lithium battery and parts have set up factories in CEE countries. A large number of green, low-carbon, eco-friendly and popular clean energy projects have been steadily promoted. Projects such as the Mozura wind farm in Montenegro, the combined cycle power plant in Pančevo, Serbia, and the hydropower plant in Dabar, Bosnia and Herzegovina have completed or started construction, bringing huge economic and environmental benefits to the local communities.”

The report also mentioned the solar power plant in Poland. The China-Central and Eastern Europe Investment Cooperation Fund invested in it and acquired it. In February, the plant’s first batch of four projects were officially completed and connected to the grid after one year of construction. Poland’s Minister of Climate and Environment Michał Kurtyka said, “By 2040, half of Poland’s installed power generation capacity should have zero-emissions. We very much hope that Chinese companies actively participate in the development of Poland’s clean energy industry and look for mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation opportunities.”

Source: People’s Daily, June 3, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-06/03/nw.D110000renmrb_20210603_5-17.htm

Italian Parliament Condemned China’s Human Rights

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, passed a motion on May 26 expressing its strongest condemnation of “the various human rights violations that China has committed against its ethnic minorities and religious groups.” It called on China to grant the UN High Commissioner access to “re-education camps” in Xinjiang. The resolution from the parliament of the first European country who joined China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” certainly dealt a blow to China.

The motion shows that the pro-China trade and economic policy of the former Italian government has begun to falter. In particular, since he became prime minister in February this year, Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, has come to the forefront of the European Union’s efforts to strengthen its tough stance on China. Draghi had recently invoked its so-called Golden Power to block China’s takeover of a semiconductor firm in Italy.

The Chamber of Deputies did not adopt the use of the term “genocide”, which has been used by the Canadian and U.S. governments. In Europe, the British Parliament first proposed to adopt the finding that the Chinese government’s serious and systematic violations against the Uighurs in Xinjiang were genocide. Because the discussion of “genocide” caused a serious political division, the motion ultimately chose to avoid the word.

The motion calls on the Draghi government and EU partner countries to take a “firm stand” against China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which include illegal birth control, the repression of religious freedom, forced labor in detention camp factories, arbitrary detention and the use of digital technology for surveillance purposes.

Laura Harth, campaign director of Safeguard Defenders, a human rights non-governmental organization, told Radio Free Asia, “The bill was debated in Parliament and the media made a big deal out of it. Before it was very difficult to discuss the Uighur issue in Italy, but the epidemic from China has significantly changed the attitude of the MP’s.”

Italy, single-handedly signing the “Belt and Road Memorandum” with Beijing among EU member states, has been seen as an important bridgehead for China to conquer EU. The Italian public began to see the other side of China upon the outbreak of the epidemic, as well as from receiving the fake news spread by Chinese diplomats on Twitter, claiming that Italians were grateful for Chinese aid and were playing the Chinese national anthem. In March, Deputy Foreign Minister Marina Sereni summoned the Chinese Ambassador to protest against the sanctions that  China imposed on several European parliamentarians and to reiterate Italy’s position in defense of human rights and freedoms.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 31, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/cl-05312021160148.html