Chinascope – Page 256

Chinese Ships Enter Senkakus for Two Days Since New Law Allows Use of Arms

On February 7, the Japanese Coast Guard announced that two Chinese Coast Guard vessels entered the Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands at about 3:50 am. The ships turned towards a Japanese fishing boat, about 22 kilometers south of Taisho Island, and made an attempt to approach. Since China’s new law, effective starting this month, allows its coast guard to use military force in waters the country claims, the Chinese government ships have sailed into the Japanese territorial waters near the Senkakus for two consecutive days.

According to the Japanese Coast Guard, the Japanese fishing boat had five people onboard, and Japanese patrol boats were deployed to ensure its safety. Japan’s Coast Guard also issued a warning and demanded the Chinese Coast Guard vessels leave their territorial waters. The two ships left one after another around 9:10 am and sailed to the contiguous area outside the territorial waters.

It is the fifth day this year that a Chinese official ship entered Japanese territorial waters near the Senkakus. Two additional Chinese Coast Guard vessels were sailing in the contiguous area outside the territorial waters, one sporting a cannon-like weapon. The vicinity of the Senkakus, including the contiguous area, has seen Chinese official ships for nine consecutive days.

China’s new coast guard law has stoked concern in Japan, with some in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party urging bolstered measures in the area such as joint military exercises between the Self-Defense Force and the U.S. military near the Senkakus.

The islets sit in the rich fishing waters of the East China Sea and are believed to be home to vast mineral and gas deposits.

The new law allows the Chinese Coast Guard to take “all necessary measures,” including the use of weapons, against foreign organizations or individuals that violate Chinese sovereignty or China’s jurisdiction.

Source: Kyodo News, February 7, 2021
https://china.kyodonews.net/news/2021/02/0c5805c975b6.html

Briefings | | February 9, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

RFI Chinese: Number of HK Residents Moving to Taiwan Sets New Record

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that the Taiwanese authorities announced that, in 2020, around 11,000 Hong Kong residents were granted permission to stay in Taiwan. With the background of the Mainland pushing the new Hong Kong National Security Law, this new number doubled the 2019 total and set a record high. In the meantime, 1,576 Hong Kong residents received Taiwan’s permanent resident status. The previous record was set in 2014, with 7,506 Hong Kong residents allowed to stay in Taiwan. At that time, the “umbrella Movement” was taking place in Hong Kong, which was a massive movement against Mainland communist rule. To support the freedom movements in Hong Kong, the Taiwanese government established a special office to handle immigration requests from Hong Kong. The Office is considering easing the restrictions on work permissions for young Hong Kong college graduates and other Hong Kong residents with special skills. However, the Taiwanese authorities are also on high alert to keep Mainland spies from penetrating Taiwan via the immigration process.

Source: RFI Chinese, February 3, 2021
https://bit.ly/3cP7xiq

Briefings | | February 8, 2021 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Global Times: The UK and Japan 2+2 Meeting Expressed Concern about China Seas

The Chinese government backed newspaper Global Times recently reported that the Foreign Ministers and Defense Ministers of Great Britain and Japan met online. They issued a joint announcement after the meeting expressing “serious concerns” about the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. The ministers also said they are against any intent to change the status quo. They reemphasized the importance of maintaining freedom both of navigation and of flying over the South China Sea, and urged all parties to exercise restraint. Britain, as an outsider, has been raising its voice on the issue of the East and South China seas. Last December, the British Navy announced that it would send the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier to the South China Sea. The Chinese Ministry of Defense spokesperson said that countries from far far away coming to the South China Sea to show military muscle is the true militarization of the South China Sea and that the Chinese military will take necessary measures to resolutely defend China’s sovereignty.

Source: Global Times, February 4, 2021
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/41n77fLOxuB

Briefings | | February 8, 2021 | Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

CFLD, Once Ranked among Top Ten Real Estate Developers, Is in Debit Crisis

After HNA filed for bankruptcy in January, China Fortune Land Development (CFLD or 华夏幸福), a publicly traded Chinese real estate developer in Beijing, said that the company was in debit crisis. The public notice that the company issued stated that it had 5.255 billion (US$810 million) in outstanding loans due while it had 800 million yuan (US$124 million) in cash available to pay these debts. A creditor committee of financial institutions formed on February 1 to coordinate with all parties to resolve the issues.

Back in 2016, CFLD achieved over 120 billion (US$18.6 billion) in revenue and was ranked the number 8 real estate developer in the country. In March 2017, as the local governments in major cities, including a number of regions outside of Beijing, issued housing purchase restriction orders to curb the overheating real estate market, the housing market in the suburbs and cities near Beijing cooled down. CFLD was hit hard in operating cash. In 2018, it tried to sell the ownership of multiple projects to recoup cash. Between July 2018 and February 2019, the Pingan Group injected 18 billion (US$2.78 billion) in cash into CFLD and became the second largest shareholder of CFLD. In 2019, CFLD’s sales revenue dropped 11 percent to 145 billion (US22.4 billion). Its sales in 2020 were estimated to be 96 billion (US$15 billion). Its industry ranking also dropped to 47th place in the nation. The CFLD Chairman of the Board attributed the cause of the debt crisis to the following reasons: it under-estimated the market decline in the suburban regions in Beijing; new market developments were below expectation; excessive expansion and poor management; and COVID 19.

Source: 163.com, February 2, 2021
https://money.163.com/21/0202/09/G1QOMJ63002580S6.html

Briefings | | February 7, 2021 | Economy/Resources

A U.S. Report on a Pro-Chinese Propaganda Spam Network

On February 4, 2021, Graphika, an independent U.S. market research firm issued a report called “Spamouflage Breakout,” detailing the activities of a sprawling pro-Chinese propaganda network that Graphika has dubbed “Spamouflage.” The network uses “fake accounts and reaches real social media users, including some recipients with heavyweight influence. It sends hundreds of videos that praise China, criticize the United States, and attack the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.”

Graphika took note that elements of the network were already active in the second half of 2018, when it primarily attacked Chinese émigré billionaire Guo Wengui (郭文贵, also known as Miles Kwok). In 2019, the main target became the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. After the global outbreak of the corona virus pandemic in 2020, the activities changed focus to praise China. The report alleged that as early as February last year, social media accounts acclaimed China’s rapid response to the fight against the epidemic. Starting in June, the cyber army began to criticize the United States for failing to control the virus.

The network used videos mostly pieced together from news clips, which were full of prejudice and contained false information. The report cited an example of a fake information video titled “Vaccines will not get America out of this mess.” Without providing any evidence, it argued that “the safety of the [U.S. developed Pfizer-BioNTech] vaccine was in doubt, but it was quickly approved.” On January 21, it followed up with another video that claimed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had been approved in haste despite serious risks.

It has been found that the network has successfully engaged real users. “Nevertheless, in the past three months Spamouflage has been amplified by, among others, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, a Pakistani politician, a senior figure at Huawei Europe, a UK commentator and former member of parliament, George Galloway, and four YouTube channels for Chinese viewers with tens of thousands of followers. This is the first time that we have observed Spamouflage content reaching external audiences in this way.”

The report highlighted a few fake social media accounts that Spamouflage has used. One of them called @jingrunhe, screen name “贺景润 He Jingrun,” uses a young woman as its profile picture. This account was created on July 7, 2009, but its first recorded tweet was only posted on January 7, 2020, soon after the United States killed Iranian General Qasem. Then the account repeatedly spread videos and posts that showed a strong alignment with the Chinese government messaging on issues including Hong Kong, Taiwan, relations with the United States, U.S. sanctions, and China’s increasingly troubled relationship with Australia – including an accusation of war crimes against Australian troops. Many Chinese diplomatic accounts interacted with this account. As early as February 2020, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Spokesman Lijian Zhao, one of the best known of China’s “wolf warriors,” retweeted her; he was to do so five times in the next three months. “According to a scan with Meltwater, China’s ambassador to Iran retweeted her 25 times and tweeted her a quote eight times; China’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic retweeted her 15 times and quoted her nine times; the Chinese Embassy in France retweeted her 18 times and quoted her tweet nine times; and the ambassador to Panama retweeted her nine times and quote-tweeted her 15 times.” In addition, He Jingrun was also retweeted by the Twitter account of Huawei Europe, with over five million followers and shared by Huawei Europe senior executive Mike Bai, with over 800,000 followers. Amplified by real people, this account was also retweeted by Chilean politician Hugo Gutierrez (126,000 followers, four retweets), Panamanian TV personality Annette Quinn (109,000 followers, two retweets) and philosopher Fernando Buen Abad (108,000 followers, 13 retweets). It was also retweeted 37 times by Pakistani politician Khurram Nawaz Gandapur (91,000 followers).”

Source: Graphika, “Spamouflage Breakout,” February 4, 2021
https://graphika.com/reports/spamouflage-breakout/
Radio Free Asia, February 5, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/us-fake-02052021025056.html

Briefings | | February 7, 2021 | Information/Technology

Xinhua and US Reported Different Content on China-US High Level Phone Call

Yang Jiechi, Member of CCP Political Bureau and Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State had a phone call on the 6th. This was the first conversation between high-ranking officials of the two countries since Biden took office. However, the reports that each country released were different.

1) In the statement from the U.S. State Department, Blinken “stressed that the United States will continue to stand up for human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong,” and “will hold China accountable for threats to the stability of the Taiwan Strait.” But none of these were mentioned in the news article that Xinhua reported. Instead, it reported that Yang reiterated that Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and other matters are China’s internal affairs and no external forces are allowed to interfere.

2) In the U.S. State Department statement, Blinken “reaffirmed that the United States will work together with its allies and partners in defense of our shared values and interests to hold the PRC accountable for its efforts to threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific region, including across the Taiwan Strait, and its undermining of the rules-based international system.” Xinhua’s report said that Yang emphasized that the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive core issue in China-US relations. He reiterated the “One China Principle” and the three Sino-US joint communiqués. The Xinhua report also said that Blinken repeated that the U.S. will continue to pursue the “One China Policy” and follow the US-China Three Communiqués.

3) In the U.S. State Department statement, Blinken pressed China to join the international community in condemning the military coup in Burma. Xinhua reported that Yang Jiechi reiterated China’s position on the current situation in Myanmar and stressed that “the international community should create a positive external environment for the proper settlement of the Myanmar issue.” China recently blocked the UN Security Council statement condemning the military coup in Myanmar.

Source:
1. Central News Agency, February 7, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202102070110.aspx
2. Department of State, February 5, 2021
https://www.state.gov/secretary-blinkens-call-with-prc-director-yang/
3. Xinhua, February 6, 2021
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2021-02/06/c_1127072350.htm

Briefings | | February 7, 2021 | US-China Relations

Pandemic: People in Shanghai Do not Trust China-Made Vaccine

China has started providing COVID-19 vaccine to doctors, nurses, and people in essential industries. However, several official documents from Shanghai, which the Epoch Times obtained, show that people in Shanghai do not want to take the China-made vaccine.

Jing’an District is a main district in Shanghai, with a population of 1.06 million. It has 9 tertiary hospitals (usually these are the comprehensive and general hospitals in the city and have over 500 beds), 9 secondary hospitals (usually with 100 to 500 beds), and 15 society health service centers.

A report by the Jing’an District Health Committee on January 8, 2021, stated it had “surveyed 113,000 people in the district and 24,000 expressed interest in taking the vaccine.” That means 21.2 percent of the people were willing to take the vaccine, while 78.8 percent people were not.

Two other reports by the Jing’an District Health Committee showed that healthcare providers have a low interest in the Chinese vaccine. The Cishuixian Women and Children’s Hospital surveyed 135 people, but only 33 people were willing to take the shot. In Huadong Hospital, 616 out of 1,261 surveyed people were interested. In the Shanghai Dermatology Hospital, 124 out of 735 surveyed people were interested.

Government employees were not interested either. Only 25 people from the 155 people surveyed in the Shanghai Municipal Health Insurance Management Center were open to taking the vaccine.

Ten delivery companies surveyed 1,196 people, with a total of 12 people showing interest. One taxi company has 2 people out of 101 surveyed who showed interest and another taxi company had only 1 out of 30 surveyed who showed interest.

The district has 42 senior centers and 1 rescue station in the district. A total of 1,317 people in these institutes were surveyed. While 35 institutes reported zero interest, the other 8 institutes had 48 people who showed interest.

Excerpt in Chinese:

新一轮新冠病毒（COVID-19，中共病毒）疫情正在上海扩散，中共已对医生、护士、工勤人员等部分重点人群开展疫苗接种。

大纪元日前获得了中共上海市政府的部分防疫文件，文件披露上海市民普遍抗拒接种新冠病毒疫苗，包括医护人员在内的重点人群多数不愿接种。

上海市静安区卫生健康委员会在2021年1月8日提交的《2020年度静安区疾病预防控制工作汇报》中透露：1. “辖区排摸11.3万人，有意愿接种的2.4万人”；愿意接种新冠疫苗的比例仅为21.2%，不足四分之一；换言之，四分之三的上海静安区市民是不愿意接种新冠疫苗的。

静安区是上海市的主要城区之一，依据静安区卫健委工作汇报文件，静安区常住人口105.77万，户籍91.41万；户籍60岁以上人口占比39.06%；辖区内的医疗资源丰富，有三级医院9家，二级医院9家，社区卫生服务中心15家，公卫专业机构5家。

上海静安区卫健委的内部文件披露出，重点人群接种新冠病毒疫苗的意愿非常低。

以医疗卫生系统为例。根据静安区卫健委今年1月填报的《上海市新型冠状病毒疫苗接种摸底登记汇总表》，上海三级医院慈水仙妇儿医院排摸总人数135人，其中意愿接种人数只有33人，排摸对象属于重点人群中的医疗卫生人员。

根据静安区卫健委去年底填报的静安三级医疗机构《疫苗摸底登记汇总表》数据，意愿接种比例最高的上海市华东医院排摸1,261人，意愿接种616人，占比也未过半；而上海市皮肤病医院排摸735人，意愿接种124人，占比还不到五分之一。

即便是中共的公务员系统，对于新冠疫苗也是相当地抗拒。例如上海市政府的上海市医疗保险事业管理中心排摸155人，愿意接种的只有25人，占比不到六分之一。

而上海静安区卫健委的疫苗摸底文件表明，作为重点人群的物流和运输系统，很多人都不愿接种。静安区内的10家快递公司总共排摸了1,196人，意愿接种疫苗的只有12人，平均一家快递公司只有一人有意愿接种。

静安区卫健委今年1月7日-15日填报的物流行业《疫苗接种摸底汇总表》显示，上海大众运行物流股份有限公司排摸92人，愿意接种的只有30人；上海夜城出租汽车服务有限公司排摸101人，愿意接种的只有2人；上海中山汽车出租公司排摸30人，愿意接种的只有1人。上海芷新（集团）有限公司（含客运总站、芷新客运）排摸300人，意愿接种人数合计53人。

静安区福利和养老机构的《疫苗接种摸底汇总表》显示，在辖区内42家养老院和1家救助站中，有35家机构是零意愿接种、即一个愿意接种疫苗的人都没有；静安区43家养老（含救助）机构排摸总共1,317人，愿意接种的只有48人。

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