Chinascope – Page 289

HKEJ: All Three Top Apple Suppliers Invested in India

The Hong Kong Economic Journal (HKEJ) recently reported that the three largest Apple suppliers – Taiwanese manufactures Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron – are all betting high on India’s Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI). Anonymous sources revealed that the total additional investments that these three vendors have planned is now at the level of US$900 million. The US$6.65 billion PLI program is India’s new investment encouragement initiative to expand the total output of India’s smartphone manufacturing industry. Sources have said that Foxconn received 40 billion Rupees (around US$543 million), Pegatron received 13 billion Rupees (around US$177 million) and Wistron received 12 billion Rupees (around US$164 million). Today Foxconn’s Indian manufacturing volume can meet the full demand of Chinese buyer Xiaomi and it is planning to increase its iPhone volume. Wistron now produces 200,000 second generation iPhone SE per month in India and its plan is to double that figure by the end of this year. Pegatron does not operate in India at this time, but new factories are in the planning stage.

Source: HKEJ, September 29, 2020
https://bit.ly/2Gt5vGp

Briefings | | October 6, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

DW Chinese: The Pope’s Refusal to See Mike Pompeo May be Related to China

Deutsche Welle Chinese Edition recently reported that the Pope refused to see U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing the need to remain neutral in the middle of the U.S. presidential election. However, another possibility is the background at this time. It is that the Vatican-China agreement is due for renewal. Since it was signed, the details of the agreement have never been released. The Vatican has remained quiet on Chinese human rights matters since then, like on the issues of Uighurs concentration camps in Xinjiang and even the Hong Kong situation. Secretary Mike Pompeo has recently urged the Vatican to maintain its moral authority when facing the Chinese communists. The Pope also refused to see the 88-year old retired Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, who arrived in Rome a couple weeks back and waited for four days without any success. This refusal has nothing to do with the U.S. presidential election. In the past two years, China gave the Vatican a say in the appointment of two Catholic Chinese bishops and the Pope also blessed eight bishops that Beijing had previously appointed without any input from the Vatican.

Source: DW Chinese, September 29, 2020
https://bit.ly/33wEP0J

Briefings | | October 6, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

The U.S. Issued Three Major Measures against the CCP around China’s National Day

The U.S. released three major measures against the CCP around October 1, which is China’s National Day. On October 2, the U.S. Immigration Service issued a policy announcement prohibiting Communist Party members and those who have joined the Communist Party from applying for U.S. immigration status. On October 1, U.S, Congressman Scott Perry and three other Congressmen jointly introduced legislation to “add the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to the Top International Criminal Organizations Target (TICOT) List and to provide United States law enforcement agencies a strategic directive to target the CCP’s malign activities.” On September 30, the Republican China Task Force of the U.S. House of Representatives released the results of an expansive survey on the CCP and an action plan to address the growing danger of the CCP. The Task Force mentioned that the CCP, like the Soviet Union, will be a threat to the United States for generations. The report stated that the United States’ diplomatic strategy towards the CCP has failed, and Washington must respond to the CCP’s challenge and reverse the failed strategy of engagement with China.

Mr. Zhang Lin, a well-known democracy activist from Anhui Province who is now living in the U.S., told The Epoch Times that both the Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S. have become more aware of the evil nature of the CCP. Since the U.S. has increased its sanctions against the CCP, the CCP has been facing mounting pressure from the U.S. Every year around October 1, there used to be a meeting of pro-communist leaders to organize the China’s National Day celebration in the U.S. This year, however, it was quiet. In the parade Zhang Lin organized in Flushing on September 27, the pro-CCP groups did not make any trouble at all. They did not even hold up the CCP national flag, which would have been unheard-of in the past.

Source: The Epoch Times, October 3, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/10/3/n12450833.htm

Briefings | | October 5, 2020 | Government/Politics

U.S. Bans CCP Members from Immigrating to the U.S.

On October 2, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy manual to “address inadmissibility based on membership in or affiliation with the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party. Membership in or affiliation with the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party is inconsistent and incompatible with the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America, which includes pledging to ‘support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.’” The policy also states that “unless otherwise exempt, any intending immigrant who is a member or an affiliate of the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate), domestic or foreign, is inadmissible to the United States.”

The past immigration laws have regulations on the immigration of Communists and members of totalitarian political parties. The latest guidelines mainly indicate that the requirements of the federal immigration law must be strictly enforced. They clearly stipulate that Communists and related personnel should be prevented from obtaining immigration or permanent resident status in the U.S.

It has been reported that some Chinese immigrants and students studying in the U.S. have gone through the procedures to withdraw from the Communist Party through relevant means. Such means include proving proof that they have withdrawn from the Communist Party through a newspaper.

Since the beginning of this year, the conflicts and disputes between the U.S. and China over issues such as the trade war, COVID 19, Huawei, and Hong Kong have escalated step by step. In addition, in recent years, many Chinese scholars and international students have stolen U.S. technology secrets, forcing the U.S. to launch a series of espionage cases. Sanctions contain the gradual tightening of visas for certain individuals and international students. In early July, citing violations of human rights, the U.S. Department of the Treasury added four Chinese officials, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, to the sanctions list, banning them from entry into the U.S. and freezing their assets.

Washington’s recent sanctions target not only high-ranking officials in the Chinese government, but also personnel from key companies and organizations. U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo stated on July 15 that the U.S. will “impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally.” Prior to this, the U.S. began to impose visa restrictions on China’s official media reporters. At the beginning of June, the U.S. also announced that it would no longer issue graduate visas to international students related to the Chinese military, and that visas already issued will also become invalid.

Source: Voice of America, October 3, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/USCIS-new-policy-guidance-indamissiblity-based-on-party-membership-20201003/5607582.html

Briefings | | October 4, 2020 | US-China Relations

SMIC Stockpiling Supplies Far More Than One Year’s Needs

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is the Chinese partially state-owned publicly-listed semiconductor foundry company. The U.S. Department of Commerce has placed an export restriction on its suppliers. It is scaling up its procurement from upstream suppliers in the United States, Europe, and Japan, with a size exceeding a full-year’s demand for 2020. The procurement items include etching, lithography and wafer cleaning equipment. The purchase of consumables used to maintain the operation of the equipment is also more than one year’s need. SMIC is even cooperating with other Chinese chip manufacturers to establish a shared reserve of such parts, and has established a central warehouse to store these products.

A source from a U.S. chip equipment manufacturer said that SMIC is eager to stock up on equipment. The company ordered more equipment than needed for its current expansion plan. At the end of last year, ASML (ASML.US), Europe’s largest chip manufacturing equipment manufacturer, shipped an advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) chip production tool to SMIC. However, the transaction has been put off.

SMIC relies heavily on foreign semiconductor equipment suppliers, including U.S. based Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA, Taradyne, ASML in the Netherlands and Tokyo in Japan.

Source: Sina.com, October 4, 2020
https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2020-10-04/doc-iivhvpwz0355862.shtml

Briefings | | October 4, 2020 | Information/Technology US-China Relations

Embassy Returns Former Mongolian President’s Letter to Xi Jinping on Replacing Mongolian Language

Former Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj recently wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping to protest against the authorities’ push for the use of Chinese teaching materials in Inner Mongolia. Elbegdorj tweeted on September 25th that the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia returned the letter. Elbegdorj also posted a message on Facebook saying that he will not retract this letter to the Chinese leader and that this letter will attract more and more attention.

In the content of the letter that Elbegdorj posted on his Twitter account, he mentioned that China’s Constitution stipulates that “all nationalities have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written language.” He pointed out that this is now flagrantly infringed upon with respect to the Mongolian children in Inner Mongolia.

He also said, “I write to you (Xi Jinping) as I could not sit idle hearing that the tens and hundreds of thousands of Mongolians and their children that wish to exercise their rights that the Constitution has granted are experiencing indescribable anguish.”

The Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Chai Wenrui said that he noticed that Elbegdorj recently made remarks on the issue of bilingual education reform in Inner Mongolia. Chai added that the views in his letter to the Chinese leader are completely wrong, and China does not accept them.

The Chinese authorities are accused of suppressing the Mongolian mother tongue and culture in Inner Mongolia, triggering a backlash in public opinion in Mongolia. When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Mongolia a few days ago, more than one hundred demonstrators gathered in Sukhbaatar Square in front of the Mongolian Government Palace, shouting, “Defend our mother tongue” and “Wang Yi go away.”

Source: Central News Agency, September 26, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202009260207.aspx

Briefings | | October 4, 2020 | Social Stability

Xi Jinping’s Name Written into the “Work Regulations” of the CCCCP

A recent politburo meeting in China decided to include General Secretary Xi Jinping’s name in the “Work Regulations” of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party (CCCCP), an important document of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), alongside its Constitution. It is believed that as long as the “Work Regulations” remain in effect, Xi Jinping will remain as the core of the party.

On Monday September 28, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party (CCCCP) held a meeting to study and formulate the 14th Five-Year Plan for the nation’s socioeconomic development, and goals to be achieved by the year 2035. General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the meeting, which also discussed the “Work Regulations” of the CCCCP. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the formulation and issuance of the “Work Regulations” is an “inevitable requirement for firmly safeguarding the authority and centralized leadership of the CCP Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core. It is also a major move for upholding and improving the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and for promoting the modernization of the national governance system. It therefore carries great and far-reaching significance for winning the great victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.”

Bao Tong was the political secretary of former CCP general secretary Zhao Ziyang, who lost power because he showed sympathy for the students in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Bao told Radio Free Asia, “If Xi Jinping must be maintained as the core in the ‘Work Regulations,’ it is the official party document stating that he will always be the core of the Central Committee, unless this document is abolished. As long as this document stands, he is the core.”

Bao added that it was Deng Xiaoping, the former CCP leader, who first put forward the idea of “core.” “His (Deng’s) definition of the ‘core’ is ‘having the final say.’ … In the past, Mao Zedong was the core, and Mao had the final say. … Therefore, the ‘core’ is connected with the words ‘final say.’ I think the ‘core’ can only be explained this way, and there is no other explanation.”

This is the second time that Xi Jinping’s name has been written into an official document of the Central Committee of the CCP, after it appeared in the CCP Constitution in 2017.

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 29, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/ql2-09292020061358.html

Briefings | | October 1, 2020 | Government/Politics

China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized