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

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

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

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