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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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LTN: China’s Control over the Video Game Market Brings Greater Risks than TikTok

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that U.S. information security specialists and the U.S. think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS) pointed out Chinese technology companies pose a bigger threat than the damage that comes from using TikTok. In the past ten years, Chinese tech giant Tencent invested in or acquired multiple major world-class video game makers like Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Epic Games and Supercell. Americans spend much more time on the video games these vendors have developed than they do on TikTok and WeChat. The Chinese “soft power” reflected in these video games includes monitoring user behavior, blocking players with certain political positions and controlling video game story lines. Beijing may actually be able to read the content on millions of the computers that run these games. China can also obtain a player’s personal information as well as payment channel information. A number of experts suggested Washington should take immediate action before it’s too late.

Source: LTN, October 31, 2020
https://bit.ly/2IeOJfr

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

British Intelligence Agencies Are Focusing on China

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that, based on British media reports, UK intelligence agencies MI5, MI6 and GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) are establishing a new program that is currently hiring “mandarin linguists.” The goal of the program is to respond to the “intelligence threats from China.” GCHQ job postings have been listed on its website and the employees will be stationed in London, or Cheltenham, where the GCHQ monitoring and surveillance center is located. GCHQ is one of the largest linguist employers in Britain, and this new effort requires the applicants to perform “accurate analyses” and discover the “insights of the intelligence information.” They will be part of the “core functions” of the intelligence work. China’s intelligence operations now have a very large scale, and the British intelligence community is considered “far behind.” So in addition to hiring more hands, the new program also plans for a new round of technology upgrades. The British intelligence community is set to deepen the cooperation with the “Five Eyes” alliance member countries as well as the European Union.

Source: Sina, October 30, 2020
https://m.us.sina.com/gb/finance/huanqiu/2020-10-30/detail-ihacmqme8729613.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

RFI Chinese: Hong Kong Saw a Flood of Primary and Middle School Dropouts

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that, under the new political reality after China passed the HK National Security Law, many local primary schools and middle schools are losing students, especially the elite schools. Some well-known schools in this new wave of dropouts lost 40 to 50 students at the end of last school year, and another ten to twenty right after the new school year started. Many professionals in Hong Kong’s education field expressed their concern that another much bigger wave of dropouts will occur after the pandemic in foreign countries concludes. This latest wave is the worst level in a decade. Wealthy parents who hesitated before about whether they should send their children overseas now fast-tracked their decision making and took actions earlier rather than later. One parent who plans to move to Britain herself said she will take her middle-school daughter with her because it is unacceptable for her to receive her education under such a system where the government is tightening control and will intensify “patriotic education.” The dropouts are occurring in all districts of the city of Hong Kong.

Source: RFI Chinese, November 7, 2020
https://bit.ly/2JNLjRl

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Senior Chinese Official Threatens to Take Taiwan by Force

Wang Zaixi, former deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office under China’s State Council, recently published an article in the state media People’s Political Consultative Conference Newspaper. Wang said, “It may be difficult to achieve the purpose of reunification across the strait if we do not use military force and rely solely on political negotiations, non-governmental exchanges, and unconditionally making compromises.”

Regarding the reason why China should pursue military means, the former senior official said that it is because the situation in Taiwan has undergone fundamental changes and that the possibility of peaceful reunification is diminishing. In his view, the “Taiwan independence” forces have already taken a strong hold in Taiwan and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which advocates “Taiwan independence, has taken the stage and fully grasped power in Taiwan. The Kuomintang (KMT), which opposes “Taiwan independence,” has lost its ability to check and balance the issue.

Wang also proposed the “Peking Mode,” a third option in his view. The so-called “Peking Mode” is also a warfare choice, where the reunification is achieved through using military force as a threat and winning the war without a battle. “This mode can minimize casualties and reduce costs.” “The Peking Mode” got its name from the Battle of Pingjin during the Chinese civil war between 1948 and 1949, when the Chinese Communist’s military surrounded the city of Peking (today’s Beijing) and forced the 250,000 KMT troops to surrender.

When Xi Jinping, head of Chinese Communist Party, inspected the navy a few days ago, he said, “We must put all our minds and energy on preparing for a war and maintain a high level of alertness.” This remark was regarded as a threat to the DPP government. Wang Zaixi declared that mainland China now basically has the strength and conditions to resolve the Taiwan issue.

In December 2019, Wang also made a comment on when and how to “solve the Taiwan issue.” He said, “If the KMT had won the election, cross-strait relations would ease, but reunification will take more time. If the DPP continues to govern, the cross-strait relations will intensify, but it may accelerate the reunification process.”

Source: Radio France International, November 9, 2020
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/中国/20201109-中国国台办前副主任王在希-不动用武力两岸恐难实现统一

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

New Indicator of CCP Official’s Performance Evaluation — Safeguarding Xi’s Core Position

China’s state media Xinhua News Agency reported on November 5 that the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Committee has issued the “Notice on Improving the Performance Evaluation to Promote High-Quality Development.” The item listed in the notice requires CCP cadres to implement the “two safeguards” as a basic criterion for evaluating an officials’ performance. The so-called “two safeguards” are the slogans that the authorities put forward after Xi Jinping took office: “Safeguard Xi Jinping’s core position in the CCP Central Committee and the entire party; safeguard the authority of the CCP Central Committee and centralized leadership.”

According to the report, this notice required all regions and units to implement “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” and implement the “Regulations on the Evaluation of the CCP and the Government’s Leading Cadres.”

The CCP Central Committee issued the full text of its “Work Regulations” in mid-October. This regulation requires that the Central Committee, the Politburo and their members take the lead in safeguarding “General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core position in the Central Committee and the entire party.”

Source: Central News Agency, November 5, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202011050337.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Huanqiu Mistakenly Reported the FEC Chairman for Stating, “No Voter Fraud”

As China’s state media is picking up media coverage on the U.S. election, the Chinese readers are not receiving reports from all sides. On November 7, Ellen Weintraub, the former Chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) who is currently acting as the Democrat Commissioner of the FEC, had an interview with CNN. China’s mouthpiece Huanqiu published the interview in Chinese on its website with the title “Chairman of the US Federal Election Commission: No Evidence of Voter Fraud and Illegal Votes Being Cast.” The article quoted the following statement that Weintraub made: “State and local officials and poll workers throughout the country really stepped up.  … There is no evidence of any kind of voter fraud. There is no evidence of illegal votes being cast. … There really has been no evidence of fraud. None of the complaints have any evidence of fraud attached to them.”

However, Huanqiu misstated Ellen Weintraub’s title as the Chairman of the FEC. Based on the FEC website, the FEC Chair is James E. “Trey” Trainor, III.

Ironically, Trey Trainor confirmed during an interview with Newsmax TV on Nov 6, that there was voter fraud. He commented that locations such as Pennsylvania that did not grant access to observers to watch the ballot counting process could be instances of voter fraud.

“I do believe that there has been voter fraud taking place in these places,” he said. “Otherwise why wouldn’t they allow the observers to go in?”

Huanqiu didn’t cover Trey Trainer’s statements in its article.

Source:
1. Huanqiu, November 7, 2020
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/40bgF8EdRGM
2. CNN, November 7, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-biden-election-results-11-07-20/h_8fb33ec91239500dfba354e3541b7aa6
3. Newsmax, November 6, 2020
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/trey-trainor-fec-trump-2020-election/2020/11/06/id/995772/

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Slovakia Outlawed the Communist Party

Slovakia recently passed a law declaring that the former Czechoslovak Communist Party is a criminal organization and prohibited displaying communism and Nazi fascist signs in public. After Ukraine, the three Baltic countries, and Poland, Slovakia became an additional Eastern European country that took similar actions.

The Slovak Parliament passed a legal amendment on November 4, declaring that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which was in power from 1948 to 1990, and the branch of the Communist Party in Slovakia are criminal organizations. The reason is that the Communist Party suppressed civil society and restricted the freedom of the people during its ruling period.

The law prohibits signs that symbolize communism, Nazi fascism and other authoritarian political systems from being on monuments and commemorative plaques. It also prohibits naming streets, squares, and other public places after Communists and Nazi fascists. The vast majority of parliamentarians voted affirmatively to support the passage of this law.

In recent years, countries such as Ukraine, the three Baltic countries, and Poland, which have a history of communist rule, have adopted a number of methods to remove communism.  They denounced that communism as being the equivalent of Nazi fascism. The European Parliament also passed corresponding resolutions. Slovakia, once a member of the socialist camp, therefore became another Eastern European country that took similar actions. As early as 1993, in a law on the communist system, the Czech Republic, Slovakia’s neighboring country, defined the Czechoslovak Communist Party as a criminal organization .

Like the Communist Parties in many countries in the world, the Czechoslovak Communist Party was formed in the early 1920s and subsequently received leadership and commands from the Communist International and Moscow. The Czechoslovak Communist Party is also closely linked to political persecution and to bloody repression.

Source: Voice of America, November 6, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/Slovakia-passed-a-bill-to-ban-communist-symbols-20201106/5650850.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend