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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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China Builds its Own Value Chain: Will Overtaking on a Curve Work?

Wu Jiemin, a researcher at the Institute of Sociology, Taiwan Academia Sinica, won the “Humanities and Society Academic Award” issued by the Academia Sinica for his book Rent-Seeking Developmental State in China: Taiwan businessmen, Guangdong Model and Global Capitalism. The book discusses in great detail the connections between China and global capitalism.

In an interview with Voice of America, Wu Jiemin said that China is trying to bypass the global value chain system controlled by Western countries to build a value chain system that Chinese capital can control on its own. The U.S.-China confrontation situation cannot be changed in the short-term. If China wants to succeed in the challenge, it must make a big breakthrough in science and technology. However, scientific and technological development is closely related to academic and free speech and China is currently under a highly authoritarian rule. Without freedom of thinking and speech, Wu doubts such “overtaking on a curve” would be successful.

According to Wu, one of the key features in China is a massive systematic and collective rent seeking undertaking. The so-called rent-seeking is a term in economics. The country is not directly engaged in production activities but intervenes in the industrial chain to extract a certain amount of interest. This interest is called economic rent or political rent.

Wu said that China has a special system design for extracting benefits, including value-added fees, management fees, approval fees for leased land, and social security fees. Further, local governments play an important and unique role. Rent-seeking activities in China are rampant.

“The local government acts like an intermediary or broker, which is to integrate the resources needed in various production processes to a certain extent. … In this process, the local government also obtains a lot of tax benefits from the manufacturers, including economic rents obtained from foreign capital and local manufacturers. This revenue becomes an additional income for the local government outside of its budget. Part of it goes to the hidden coffers for the officials, some goes to the personal pocket of the official and the rest becomes tax revenue to fund construction.” On the other hand, foreign investors in China are disgusted by the rent-seeking behavior of local officials, but they have to deal with them and seek their protection.

Wu believes that in the past 10 years, the Guangdong model transformation and the Chinese model transformation have focused on bypassing global value chain hegemony and trying to build a value chain system that Chinese capital can control by itself.

In Wu’s opinion, one side of China’s development model is its biggest gain in foreign exchanges and fiscal revenues that it has spent on the military, economic modernization, and urbanization. China’s subways, high-speed rails, and highways are examples. However, Wu said that the other side of China’s development model is high exploitation of labor, low welfare, and lack of human rights.

Source: Voice of America, January 20, 2021

https://www.voachinese.com/a/China-successfully-challenge-US-passing-global-value-chain-hegemony-build-his-own-self-capital-value-chain-20210120/5744700.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Canada Bans Import of Forced Labor Products from China

In response to China’s violations of the human rights of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the Canadian government introduced a series of new measures this week, including prohibiting domestic companies from doing business with companies that are involved in the forced labor of Uyghurs.

The series of measures include banning the importation of the products of forced labor and requiring Canadian companies to ensure that they do not export to China any products that may possibly be used for surveillance and the infringement of human rights. Canada will provide business consultation on Xinjiang related issues and conduct investigations on forced labor and supply chain risks.

A poll conducted at the end of December 2020 showed that 45 percent of Canadian respondents believed that Canada should reduce trade with China. Only 10 percent believe that trade with China should be increased.

Source: Voice of America, January 15, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/canada-announces-new-measures-to-address-human-rights-abuses-in-xinjiang-20210115/5739655.html

 

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Twitter Refuses to Delete Hua Chunying’s Fabricated Xinjiang Propaganda

On Thursday, January 14, Hua Chunying, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Communist China, circulated a propaganda video on human rights in Xinjiang on Twitter. The propaganda denied the CCP’s forced labor policy against the Uyghurs and accused the United States government of spreading rumors. In response, a Twitter spokesperson said on Friday, January 15, that the tweets of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not violate their company regulations.

The spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, issued a series of tweets on Thursday that the existence of forced labor in Xinjiang “is the biggest lie of this century. It aimed at restricting and suppressing Chinese (CCP) authorities and Chinese companies and curbing China’s development.”

However, according to reports from multi-party investigations, in recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has intensified its crackdown on Uyghur ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The actual evidence exposed the mass detention of approximately 1 million people, the mandatory re-education programs, the highly invasive surveillance, the religious suppression, the forced sterilization of women, and the forced labor.

The Associated Press has conducted extensive investigations on this, including first-hand interviews with about 30 former CCP’s detainees, and found that the CCP authorities had conducted pregnancy tests on thousands of Uyghur women and forced them to undergo forced abortions and sterilization.

The Chinese Communist regime has consistently denied these allegations on Twitter and claimed that the place where these detainees were held was a vocational training center aimed at curbing religious extremism and preventing terrorism.

One of Hua Chunying’s tweets on Thursday also accused the United States of fabricating lies and using “bad actions” to violate international trade rules and “damage the interests of global companies and consumers including those in the United States.”

A promotional video was attached to the tweet, with the title of smiling workers working in Xinjiang factories, spreading the message, “Many of our living habits have been changed and improved.” This video became the latest propaganda material that the Chinese Communist regime used to whitewash its repressive actions in Xinjiang.

A Twitter spokesperson told Fox News that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Communist’s denied having a forced labor policy in Xinjiang, accused the U.S. of disinformation on Twitter and said China did not violate their company’s regulations.

The Chinese Communist Party has banned one billion ordinary people from using Twitter, but it seems that officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the party’s media are not restricted.

Source: China News, January 15, 2021
https://news.creaders.net/china/2021/01/15/2311011.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics US-China Relations

Economy: How Much Did China Buy from the U.S. in 2020 to Fulfill Its Trade Agreement Promise?

The United States and China signed the Phase I Trade Agreement on January 15, 2020. Washington agreed to reduce some added tariffs in exchange for Beijing, in the years of 2021 and 2022, agreeing to buy an additional total of $200 billion in goods and services from the U.S., over and above China’s purchases from the U.S. in 2017.

A year after the agreement, China didn’t reach its purchase target and the U.S. trade deficient from China increased again.

China agreed to buy around $159 billion in American goods. However, according to a report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, by November 2020, China’s actual purchases were around $82 billion, or 52 percent of the target.

China fulfilled 67 percent of its purchase goal on agricultural products, 52 percent on manufacturing goods, and 31 percent on energy products.

On the other hand, China kept increasing its exports to the world. Beijing stated on January 7 that leading with the strong export of medical supplies, China’s trade surplus with the world has increased to $535 billion, the new high from 2015.

The U.S. also tried to remove structural blocks that American companies faced in China in the Phase I Trade Agreement, in the areas of protecting intellectual property, avoiding forced technology transfer, and easing restrictions on market entry to China.

Last June, China announced it would open its $45 trillion financial market to the world. It also granted American Express a license for clearing house transactions. In September, China issued a draft regulation on protecting business secrets. However, these actions have not materially changed the real situation in China.

Some analysts think that the positive side of the trade agreement is that the Trump administration changed people’s view of China in the economic field and made companies rethink their dependence on the supply chain from China.

Doug Barry, the spokesperson of the US-China Business Council told VOA, “I hope the new administration can support the successful completion of the Phase I agreement and reach an accord with China to start the work of Phase II, which will focus on resolving China’s subsidies to state-owned enterprises, opening more economic fields to foreign competitors, and other trade issues.”

Source: VOA, January 16, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-trade-economy-tariff-20210115/5739614.html

Hot Topics | | |   US-China Relations

Sichuan Professor Fell to Death, in Protest of Forced Demolitions

Tuo Jiguang, a professor at Sichuan Normal University, fell from a campus building around 8 o’clock on the morning of Monday January 18 2021. His friends said that Tuo, after experiencing 10 years of forced eviction and different forms of suppression, finally chose to fight with death.

Professor Tuo Jiguang was a doctor of literature, a postdoc in journalism and communication, and a postdoc in law. Before teaching at Sichuan Normal University, Tuo worked as a reporter and editor at the two largest local newspapers, West China Metropolis Daily and Chengdu Economic Daily.

In October 2020, Tuo Jiguang, filed a public complaint against Pu Fayou, head of Chengdu’s Chenghua District, for abusing power and violently demolishing citizens’ legally owned property. Tuo mentioned in the complaint letter that, since 2011, his two residences in Chenghua District had been subjected to the immediate danger of demolition. During the process, the demolition staff resorted to a number of means such as threats, pressure from his workplace and online defamation to force him into an agreement. “But the family finally withstood the pressure and did not succumb.” In the end, Pu Fayou presided over an executive meeting of the district government and ordered the two houses to undergo “violent demolition.”

Mr. Chen, one of Tuo’s friends, told Radio Free Asia that the reason for his suicide was because the Chenghua District government demolished his two houses. These two houses were his legal residences. He has been defending his rights since 2011. Mr. Chen also pointed out that even with dual post-doctoral degrees and qualifications as a lawyer and journalist, under the suppression of government agencies, social elites like Tuo Jiguang can only be forced to fight with death.

In 2009, Li Chuncheng, then head of Chinese Communist Party committee of Chengdu city, carried out massive demolition and triggered intense government-civilian confrontation. A woman named Tang Fu-zhen burned herself to death in protest of the forced demolition, drawing widespread attention. Tuo is another tragic case of human death due to “forced demolitions” which are rampant across China.

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 18, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/professor-01182021060434.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Falun Gong Identifies 75 Perpetrators among Leaked List of 1.95 Million CCP Members

Sky News of Australia reported on December 13, 2020, about a leaked register with the details of nearly 2 million Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members in organizations around the world. “Along with the personal identifying details of 1.95 million communist party members, mostly from Shanghai, there are also the details of 79,000 communist party branches, many of them inside companies.”

Falun Gong’s official Minghui.ca website reported that, among the 1,957,239 mostly Shanghai CCP members exposed, there are 75 “610” members, most of whom can be found on the List of Villains, a compilation of the people who have actively participated in the persecution against Falun Gong.

The “610” office is an extra-legal apparatus set up by then head of the CCP Jiang Zemin when he launched the campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in 1999. Its sole responsibility is to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong throughout the whole country. The “610” offices are subordinate to the CCP committees at different levels of the Chinese government. The Central “610” Office was once able to mobilize the entire state apparatus and almost all social resources, using the police, military, armed police, intelligent agents, diplomats, and even the medical system, to implement its persecutory policy. According to Minghui, over the past two decades, the “610” office has been responsible for at least 4,595 deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China.

Cui Tiejun, head of the “610” Office in the Xuhui District of Shanghai city, was among the 1.95 million leaked CCP members. Since June 2004 when Cui took the position, he has personally given hate speeches in order to incite hatred against Falun Gong. The “610” Office in Shanghai has branches spread all over the districts and counties, and all the way down to townships, villages, and neighborhoods.

On December 10, the U.S. announced sanctions against 17 officials of foreign governments for violations of human rights or for corruption. Among them was Huang Yuanxiong of Xiamen Public Security Bureau Wucun Police Station for his involvement in the detention and interrogation of Falun Gong practitioners.

On December 10, 2020, Falun Gong practitioners from 29 Western countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, submitted a latest list of persecutors to the local governments, requesting that the authorities prohibit the entry of persecutors and their families and freeze their assets.

The list includes a few high level CCP officials: Politburo Standing Committee Member Han Zheng, head of the CCP’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee Guo Shengkun, Supreme Court Chief Justice Zhou Qiang, deputy secretary of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Liu Jinguo, and the deputy director of The National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Deputy Director Fu Zhenghua. Almost all of these top officials once served as 610 cadres.

Source: Minghui, January 16, 2021
https://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2021/1/16/418642.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics