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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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Mainland Media Not Allowed to Rent Studio in Taiwan to Record Political Programs

Taiwan’s government recently expelled a reporter from China’s Southeast Television who was stationed in Taiwan. He was expelled for violating relevant regulations that prohibit renting a studio in Taiwan in order to host a political program. The Mainland Affairs Council stated that, since that time, there have been no further violations in Taiwan.

During the regular press conference that the Mainland Affairs Council held, Chiu Chui-cheng, the spokesperson for Taiwan, said that on November 17, the Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan had contacted the Ministry of Culture to remind Taiwanese media reporters and asked them to inform their affiliated media on the mainland not to set up studios in Taiwan to record such programs.

Source: Central News Agency, December 3, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202012030326.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

CCP Scholar: CCP Can Use Wall Street to Influence the U.S. Political Circle

On November 28, Di Dongsheng, Vice Dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University and Vice Director and Secretary of the Center for Foreign Strategic Studies of China, delivered a speech at a forum on the topic of the opening of China’s financial sector and the implications in Shanghai. In his speech, Di disclosed that, prior to 2016, China used its connections with Wall Street to influence U.S. political circles but has failed to do so under the Trump’s administration. He indicated that China will restore its ties again under Biden’s administration.

The event had a live audience and was broadcast live via Guan Video, the Chinese online video-sharing platform. Other participants at the event included Zhang Zhixiang, former President of the Asian Development Bank and former Director of the International Department of the Central Bank of the Communist Party of China; the State Council Development Researcher Ding Yifan, deputy director of the Center’s World Development Institute; and Yao Yang, dean of the National Development Institute of Peking University.

Below is a translation of a partial summary of the speech:

At 3:35 minutes: The Trump administration is in a trade war with us. So why can’t we influence the Trump administration? Why is it that, between 1992 and 2016, China and the U.S. used to be able to settle all kinds of issues  No matter what kind of crises we encountered, be it the Yinhe Incident, the (U.S.) bombing of the (Chinese) embassy in Belgrade, or the Hainan Island incident, things were resolved in no time. It was like (a couple) “fighting starting at the bedhead but ending at the bed end” [editor’s note: this is a Chinese Idiom meaning disagreements between a couple are usually resolved quickly]. Everything was fixed within two months. Why? Here is the smoking gun: we have people at the top of the America’s core inner circle of power and influence. We have our old friends.

At 4:33 minutes: Di told a story. In 2015, before Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S., the CCP needed to do warm up preparation work on public opinion. To help to build up the momentum, before Xi’s visit, the CCP wanted to hold a book release event for the first edition of the English version of Xi Jinping’s new book “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China.” Di was assigned the task to book the event and also be the host and guest speaker at the event. When Di contacted the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington to book the event, he was told that he had given too short a notice and the time slot was already booked. Di quickly found out that the owner of the bookstore was a Democrat, a former a journalist in Asia, and didn’t like the CCP. In the end though, the book release event was held at the time the CCP wanted because an elderly Jewish lady intervened. The lady spoke fluent Mandarin with a Beijing dialect. She told Di that she had Chinese citizenship, held Beijing permanent resident status and owned a Siheyuan (quadrangle dwellings) on Chang’an Street in the Dongcheng district. She was the president of the Asia region of a top financial institution.

At 9:30 minutes: For the past 30 to 40 years, we have been utilizing the core power of the U.S. As I said before, since the 1970’s, Wall Street had a very strong influence on the domestic and foreign affairs of the U.S. So we had a channel to rely on. The problem was that after 2008, Wall Street’s role declined. More importantly, after 2016, Wall Street couldn’t influence Trump,  … so during the U.S.-China trade war, they (Wall Street) tried to help. I know that my friends on the U.S. side told me that they tried to help but they couldn’t do much.

At 10:26 minutes: But now we see Biden was elected. The traditional elite, the political elite and the establishment … they are very close to Wall Street. So you heard it, right? Trump has been saying that Biden’s son has some sort of global foundation. Did you notice it? Who helped him (Biden’s son) to build the foundations? There are a lot of stories in all this.

Source:
1. Youtube, December 4, 2020
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwGLItcb498&feature=youtu.be
2. Epoch Times, December 6, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/12/6/n12599572.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

China to Build a Dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, Worrying Downstream Countries

A few days ago, Chinese officials confirmed the “Hydropower Development Plan for the Lower Yarlung Tsangpo River,” which is expected to generate 70 gigawatts of electricity, tripling the capacity of China’s largest Three Gorges Dam power station.

The news has caused tension in India. On December 1, a senior official from the Ministry of Jal Shakti (the Indian cabinet ministry in charge of water affairs) told Reuters that India is planning to build a ten-gigawatt hydropower project in the east to offset the impact of China’s upstream dam construction on water flow.

Jagannath P. Panda, a researcher with the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses based in New Delhi said, “This has been a genuine concern for India for a long time.” In 2002, China and India signed a memorandum on cooperation in the field of water conservancy. In 2018 another memorandum on this river was signed for the purpose of sharing hydrological data to help the downstream countries to deploy flood control or ecological protection plans.

Although India expects China to consult India before building any dam upstream and to maintain transparency of information, China has been “selectively” sharing hydrological information over the past years, or refusing to provide information when relations between the two countries became tense. Every year in the rainy season, India, downstream of the river, has been plagued by floods.

The Yarlung Tsangpo River flows through China and many South Asian countries. Originating in Tibet, the river runs more than 2,000 kilometers in China before heading south into India. Indians call it the Brahmaputra River, which is nearly 650 kilometers long inside the country. After entering Bangladesh, it was renamed the Yamuna River and merged with the Ganges in the Bay of Bengal. Its tributaries also flow through Nepal and Bhutan and are the economic lifeline of many countries in South Asia.

On November 26, the Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) confirmed that it has finalized a hydropower development plan for the lower part of the river and plans to launch the project during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period (2021-2025). Yan Zhiyong, Chairman of PowerChina called this project an unprecedented “historical opportunity.” He said that China will benefit from the geographic advantage of the “big bend” on the lower reaches of the river, which gathers nearly 70 gigawatts of technologically developable resources, a scale tripling the capacity of Three Gorges Dam. Chinese officials have done some beautiful math for Tibet: the dam will provide nearly 300 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of clean, renewable, and zero-carbon electricity every year, bringing in 20 billion yuan (US$ 3 billion) in fiscal revenue.

Farwa Aamer, a scholar from the East-West Center, a U.S. think tank based in Honolulu, Hawaii, explains that the deep anxiety of South Asian countries comes from the scarcity of water resources caused by climate change and the possibility that China’s construction of dams may directly affect the agricultural economy and natural ecology of downstream countries. In addition, the relationship between South Asian countries and China is complicated and lacks a platform for cross-country dialogue. South Asian countries are also quite worried about whether water resources will become a strategic tool for China when relations with China are tense.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 1, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/jt-12012020102607.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

45 Japanese Universities Make Agreements with China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense”

According to a Kyodo News report on November 29, seven defense related Chinese universities that conduct military technological research made an academic and student exchange agreement with a total of 45 public and private universities in Japan, among which nine Japanese universities have joint research programs.

The seven Chinese universities, including Beihang University and Northwestern Polytechnical University, are under the administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which oversees China’s national defense industry. They are known as the “Seven Sons of National Defense.” It has been reported that these universities are also involved in developing the equipment for the People’s Liberation Army. Three universities that are likely to transform their technology into the development of weapons of mass destruction are on the “foreign user list” of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The United States has four of the universities on the list of countries to which exports are banned. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute believes that the risk of cooperating with these seven Chinese universities is “very high.”

Kyodo News interviewed 51 Japanese universities that were in agreement with the Chinese side in the 2017 survey that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan conducted. Kyodo received responses from 49 of them. Six universities had already completed the agreement and 16 universities indicated that they may adjust their agreements. The Shibaura Institute of Technology understands that the Chinese universities are on the “list of foreign users” and is waiting for the end of that agreement. Some universities have also replied that they will adjust parts of multiple agreements or that only the portion on student exchanges will be maintained.

Among the 9 universities that have joint research programs with China, Chiba Institute of Technology replied that it has “discontinued” the programs. Hokkaido University (in the field of nanotechnology) and Osaka University (in the field of nuclear research) stated that they will conduct joint research on the basis of thorough management. As of November 28, seven universities including Kyoto University did not respond to the questions about the existence of a joint research with China.

Source: Kyodo News, November 29, 2020
https://china.kyodonews.net/news/2020/11/5a131355030b-45.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Many Examples of Malicious Reporting and Attacks on Academic Freedom

On November 5, the School of History at China’s Capital Normal University in Beijing hosted an offline lecture, “Shen Zhihua: The Establishment and End of the Soviet Socialist Model.” The lecture was simultaneously broadcasted live on the Chinese video sharing platform Bilibili. The lecturer Shen Zhihua is a well-known expert on Cold War history. He is a tenured professor at the History Department of East China Normal University. The lecture and live broadcast were interrupted after the event had been going on for about one hour. After the incident, the organizer’s social media account issued a statement, “This lecture was forced to transfer to the Tencent meeting (an online video conference platform) halfway through it, due to malicious reporting.” The statement condemned such malicious reporting that seriously interfered with normal academic exchanges, while reserving the rights to pursue further responsibility.

This is one of many incidents in recent years in China in which academic freedom was attacked by “reporting.”

Yang Shaozheng is a former professor at the School of Economics of Guizhou University. He was discharged from office in 2018 for criticizing the government in class and online. Yang told Voice of America (VOA) that, if the authorities would abide by their own constitution and protect citizens’ freedom of speech, there would not be a market for such malicious reporting. “It is precisely because the constitutional provision of freedom of speech is ignored that anyone who says what the Communist Party thinks is politically incorrect will be punished. As a result, malicious reporting happens everywhere.”

You Shengdong, who is 73-years-old, is a former professor of economics at Xiamen University. In 2018, he was reported and later fired because his classroom lectures were not in line with the Chinese communist ideology. Professor You told VOA that the trend of reporting on Chinese university campuses has been rampant and teachers are worried that they cannot teach freely.

“In the past few years, the political and academic atmosphere in Chinese universities has deteriorated. When teachers are giving lectures, there are cameras recording them and informants watching them. I was reported and other teachers were reported. The situation is getting worse.” “If there is no freedom of speech in a country, especially in universities, how can truth be spread? How can knowledge be taught? How can students be taught? In any country, if it is for the people, then it should allow a hundred flowers to bloom instead of seeing that all speak with one voice.”

It has been reported that many universities even openly recruit informants to keep an eye on the teachers, requiring student informants to report on the teachers who spread superstitious ideas, Western values, and criticism of the principles of the Party.

In addition to professors Yang and You, there is a long list of scholars who have been punished for their words.

Deng Xiangchao, deputy dean of the School of Arts at Shandong Jianzhu University, was disciplined and ordered to retire in 2017 because he re-posted articles critical of Mao Zedong. Deng was also dismissed from all government positions.

Shi Jiepeng, a professor at Beijing Normal University, was dismissed in July 2017 for “erroneous remarks on the Internet” and “crossing the red line of ideological management.”

Tan Song, associate professor at Chongqing Normal University, was expelled from the school and detained by the police in September 2017 for investigating the history of land reform, the anti-rightist movement, the Anti-Japanese War, and the Wenchuan Earthquake, as well as for talking about the 1989 student’s movement in class.

Xu Chuanqing, associate Professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, was reported in September 2017 for blaming students for not taking classes seriously. Xu used Japanese students as role models and predicted that Japan would become a superior nation. In 2018, he was given administrative sanctions.

Zhai Juhong, an associate professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, was disciplined. In May 2018, he was expelled from the Party and given an administrative penalty because he criticized Xi Jinping’s constitutional amendments and discussed the institution of China’s National People’s Congress in the classroom.

Wang Gang, an associate professor at Hebei University of Engineering, set up a Wechat group with a focus on civil rights and posted articles that conjectured that China would not embark on the path of constitutional democracy. In July 2018, the school dismissed Wang.

Cheng Ran, a lecturer at Xiangtan University, was demoted because he “quoted a large amount of false information and reports from foreign media” in the classroom and he made remarks that “impaired the image of the Party and state leaders.”

In March 2019, Tang Yun, an associate professor at Chongqing Normal University, had his teacher’s qualification revoked and he was demoted because students reported him for making remarks that harmed the nation’s reputation.

In the famous case of Xu Zhangrun, a professor at Tsinghua University Law School, Xu was suspended in March 2019 for criticizing Xi Jinping’s constitutional amendment, demanding redress of the 1989 student’s movement, and for other remarks.

In April 2019, a student reported Lv Jia, an associate professor at Tsinghua University, for “opposing the Party and violating the constitution.” The Tsinghua communist party discipline organs subsequently put Lv under investigation.

In April 2017, Zi Su, a teacher at the Party School of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee, suggested that the Chinese Communist Party implement intra-party democracy and asked Xi Jinping to resign. In April 2019, he was arrested, charged with “inciting subversion” and sentenced to 4 years.

Huang Chun, a retired female professor at Guizhou Minzu University, was put under administrative detention for 15 days due to her remarks on Twitter and WeChat about Hong Kong’s anti-extradition law amendment bill movement and the 1989 student’s movement.

Liu Yufu, a teacher at Chengdu University of Technology, was under administrative penalty in October 2019 because of his remarks in class and over the Internet.

Cao Jisheng, a lecturer at Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, was subjected to administrative sanctions and a record of demerit in October 2019 for making “inappropriate remarks” in a WeChat group.

Source: Voice of America, November 17, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/academic-seminar-interrupted-malicious-tip-offs-criticized-as-deprivation-freedom-speech-in-China-20201117/5665744.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

U.S. Condemns China’s Failure to Enforce Sanctions against N. Korea

On Tuesday December 1, at an online seminar that the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank hosted, Alex Wong, deputy assistant secretary of state for North Korea, said that China’s failure, if not refusal, to implement UN sanctions aimed at denuclearizing North Korea may be delaying the process.

The UN Security Council obligated all UN Member States to repatriate DPRK laborers by the end of last year. “China continues to host at least 20,000 DPRK laborers, who earn revenue that goes straight back to North Korea’s weapons development efforts. In fact, earlier this year Chinese authorities were making it easier for DPRK nationals to work in China, in complete violation of its UN obligations.”

“The Chinese government increasingly allows its companies to conduct trade with North Korea in a broad spectrum of UN-prohibited goods, including seafood, textiles, iron and steel, industrial machinery, transportation vehicles, and sand and gravel. Chinese companies transact with North Korean companies and establish UN-prohibited joint ventures with them. They even continue to conduct business with UN-designated North Korean entities and those operating on their behalf—including entities that play key roles in North Korea’s weapons programs.”

China also hosts no less than two dozen North Korean WMD and ballistic missile procurement representatives and bank representatives.

“In the past year, on 555 separate occasions, we have observed ships carrying UN-prohibited coal or other sanctioned goods from North Korea to China. On none of these occasions did the Chinese authorities act to stop these illicit imports. Not once.”

“400 of those voyages were North Korean-flagged vessels shipping coal to Chinese coastal waters. Most of these shipments go to China’s busy Ningbo-Zhoushan area, where the vessels are required to provide extensive information about their identity, origin, and destination to local authorities. These ships are not coming to China like a thief in the night. They are ringing the doorbell and literally announcing themselves. Yet the Chinese authorities have done nothing.”

“On another 155 separate occasions, Chinese-flagged coastal barges have sailed directly into North Korea, loaded up on UN-prohibited coal, and then carried the illicit cargo back to Chinese ports.”

Wong acknowledged that China has reduced its overall trade with the DPRK since 2017, and especially in 2020 due to COVID-19. “The remaining illicit, unreported trade that exists is significant and it is trending in the wrong direction. In no other country do we see this breadth and depth of continuing illicit commercial activity with North Korea, the scale of which puts China in flagrant violation of its obligations.”

To help expose sanctions evasion activities by North Korea, the US State Department has, since June 2019, offered up to a $5 million reward for information on such activities.

According to Wong, the State Department on Tuesday launched a website specifically dedicated to such information.

“Today, the State Department is launching a new website, DPRKrewards.com, through which individuals across the globe (can) provide information to our rewards for justice program on DPRK sanction evasions,” he said.

Wong argued that removing or easing sanctions on North Korea now would only weaken the reasons for North Korea to consider denuclearization faithfully.

“Chinese leaders are asking us to build the frame of a house, even furnish it, without laying the foundation first,” said Wong.

Source: U.S. State Department, November 30, 2020
https://www.state.gov/deputy-special-representative-for-north-korea-delivers-keynote-address-at-csis-conference-on-north-koreas-economy/

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

The Paper: India Banned another 43 Chinese Apps

Well-known new Chinese news site The Paper recently reported that, according to the Cybercrime Coordination Center of India’s Ministry of the Interior, the Indian government banned another 43 Chinese apps based on Article 69A of the Information Technology Law. The newly banned apps include widely used Alipay, AliExpress, and Tencent’s WeTV, among others. These are highly popular Chinese apps. The Indian government explained that these apps participated in activities that are not conducive to India’s sovereignty, national security and public order. The Indian government had banned 59 Chinese apps in June and 118 apps in September. Those include well-known apps like TikTok, WeChat and the Xiaomi Browser. So far India has banned a total of 220 Chinese apps. The spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed his serious concerns. China also believed India’s bans violated WTO rules as well as free-market principles and called for immediate corrections of this discrimination against Chinese businesses.

Source: The Paper, November 25, 2020
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_10134794

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology