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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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People’s Daily: U.S. Presidential Debate Should Not Discuss China

Hours before the September 29, 2020, presidential debate, People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), published a commentary titled, “The U.S. Election Should not Manipulate the ‘China issue’ as in a Spectacle.”

 

The author of the commentary was Zhongsheng, a homophonic abbreviation of the “Voice of China” which is generally viewed as representing the opinion of the CCP leadership on international issues.

 

The commentary stated, “It must be emphasized that the U.S. election is an internal affair of the United States. China is not interested in it and has never interfered with it. Distractions and shifting conflicts cannot resolve the problems that the United States faces. The biggest ‘enemy’ of the United States is itself.”

 

The commentary further stated, “As an independent country, China has the right to safeguard its sovereignty, security, and development interests. It will not sacrifice its principles to cooperate with the U.S. election game. Some U.S. politicians should immediately stop playing tricks that drag China into American domestic politics.”

 

Source: People’s Daily, September 29, 2020

http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2020-09/29/nw.D110000renmrb_20200929_2-03.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics US-China Relations

Chinese Fishing Fleet Leaves Galapagos and Heads for Peru

In June of this year, about 300 Chinese fishing boats arrived near the Galapagos Islands, one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world, to fish for giant squid in international waters.

Ecuador’s naval operations commander, Daniel Ginez, said this week that the size of the Chinese fleet is larger than in previous years. He said these fishing boats can be classified as vessels that are preying on fishing resources. “With such a large number of fishing boats we have the risk that certain species will be diminished,” Ginez explained.

At present, the Chinese fishing fleet is heading south to the waters near Peru.

With large fishing fleets, both Peru and Ecuador are highly dependent on seafood for their livelihoods and foreign exchange. World Bank data shows that in 2018, the two countries caught 4.5 million tons of fish, but that was only 25 percent of China’s ocean catches.

According to the statistics of Oceana, an organization that tracks fishing activities, the fishing time of Chinese fishing vessels between July 13 and August 13 totaled more than 73,000 hours, accounting for 99 percent of the fishing activities around the reserve.

The excessive fishing that Chinese ocean vessels conduct in international waters has spurred accusations from coastal countries and opposition from the international community. U.S. President Trump specifically mentioned in his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday September 22 that “China dumps millions and millions of tons of plastic and trash into the oceans, and fishes excessively in other countries’ waters.”

Soon afterwards, the US Embassy in Peru sent a tweet accusing the Chinese fleet of changing the name of the vessel and turning off GPS tracking, so as to restrict surveillance of its activities. The tweet said, “Overfishing can cause huge ecological and economic damage. Peru cannot afford such a loss.”

Last month, the U.S. Coast Guard coordinated with the Ecuadorian Navy to send ships to the area to patrol more than 3,000 miles in international and Ecuadorian waters to monitor this huge Chinese fishing fleet. Ecuador is also reportedly cooperating with neighboring countries such as Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia to establish a corridor of marine reserves to restrict commercial fishing.

China’s global fishing fleet is enormous. Estimates suggest it has 17,000 vessels, far exceeding other countries in the world. It is almost impossible to be thorough in monitoring these vessels. Now that it has nearly depleted the waters near China, China’s ocean fleet has been sailing further and further around the globe. Many underdeveloped countries that rely on fishery resources lack the ability to protect their maritime sovereignty.

Source: Voice of America, September 24, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-fishing-iuu-security-20200924/5596670.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Beijing Issues Notice to Speed up Development of New Media

On September 26, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Media’s In-depth Development.” They then issued a notice requesting that all authorities conscientiously implement it.

The “Opinions” asked, with all speed, to develop new mainstream media that is highly competitive and exerts a strong influence.

It also pointed out that “high-quality content, advanced technology, professional talent, and funding should be geared toward the Internet media and mobile platforms, effectively becoming the basis for emerging communication.”

The “Opinions” considers that it is necessary to “drive the development with advanced technology, make good use of the achievements of information technology such as 5G, big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, strengthen research on new technologies in the news communication, and promote the innovation of key technologies.”

The “Opinions” also mandates to make efforts to “tell Chinese stories well, and to spread Chinese culture.”

Source: People’s Daily, September 27, 2020
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2020-09/27/nw.D110000renmrb_20200927_2-01.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

LTN: U.S. Sanctions China’s Chip Maker SMIC

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that, according to an official document that the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued, the U.S. government has decided to apply export controls on goods sold to SMIC based on the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR) Section 744.21. The restriction is based on the fact that SMIC products are ultimately used for military purposes. The U.S. Department of Commerce has informed U.S. export companies about this decision. The document listed SMIC and its branches as well as directly related companies inside and outside of China. SMIC is China’s largest chip maker and Huawei’s only hope for a domestic supply of chips. However, SMIC depends heavily on U.S. technology for manufacturing equipment and software. Also, SMIC technology is generations behind leading chip-making vendors like TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). This new U.S. sanction will place huge pressure on Huawei as well as the entire Chinese chip-making industry.

Source: LTN, September 26, 2020
https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/3304204

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

RFA Chinese: Swedish Company MSAB Withdrew from Hong Kong

Radio Free Asia (RFA) Chinese Edition recently reported that Swedish technology company Micro Systemation AB (MSAB) announced its plan to leave the Hong Kong market and will no longer provide technical solutions to the Hong Kong Police and other Hong Kong government agencies. MSAB made its name in Hong Kong by assisting the police department in unlocking phones. MSAB also intends to leave the entire Chinese market. The company explained that the decision was made based on the fact that the U.S. dropped Hong Kong’s special status. It would rather not risk the possibility of suffering a U.S. sanction. MSAB’s technology resulted in some recent arrests of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, so the company is facing heavy criticism. At the same time, Canadian financial asset management company BMO and the Denmark retirement fund management company Akademiker Pension also announced plans to leave the Chinese investment market, including Hong Kong.

Source: RFA Chinese, September 24, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/htm/hk-evacuate-09242020072640.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

President of the Philippines: South China Sea Arbitration Ruling Cannot Be Challenged

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte said in his UN speech that The Hague International Arbitration Tribunal’s 2016 South China Sea award cannot be challenged or downplayed. The Philippines is strongly against any attempt to destroy the Tribunal’s Ruling. Duterte did not name China in his speech. China did not honor the Tribunal’s award. However, the Duterte government took a pro-China approach when it came to power in 2016 with the hope of building a better relationship with China. The Philippines largely put The Hague’s South China Sea award on hold since then. In the past several months with the Covid pandemic, the Duterte government has started to lean towards the United States. Experts expressed the belief that the foreign policies of the Philippines are apparently changing.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, September 23, 2020
http://www.uzaobao.com/cngov/2020-09/2378336.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Director of Religious Affairs: Christianity in China Is Completely Free from Foreign Influence

On September 23, Wang Zuoan, Director of China’s State Religious Affairs, who is also the Deputy Minister of the United Front Work Department, spoke at the 70th Anniversary of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement conference. He stated that, through the “Three-Self” patriotic movement, Chinese Christianity has completely gotten rid of the control and influence of foreign forces. He also emphasized that the “Sinification of Christianity” should be the main focus of religious work.

Wang said that he hopes that “the Chinese Christian community will focus on the following: the major changes unfolding in the world, something unseen in a century, the overall strategy of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and its earnest study, and the implementation of the important talks that Xi Jinping gave on religious issues and religious work.” Wang also stated that religious work should continuously enhance the “five identities.” This refers to the people of all ethnic groups recognizing the great motherland, the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the Chinese Communist Party, and socialism with Chinese characteristics.

In a separate speech, Rev. Xu Xiaohong, Chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee, said that the committee “must always adhere to the direction of the Sinicization of Christianity in our country, and make a contribution to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

The “Three-Self” movement is a movement that Chinese Christianity created after the CCP established its power. It is against foreign interference. It means “autonomy” (independence from foreign religious organizations), “self-support” (economic independence from foreign governments or foreign religious organizations) and “self-propagation” (preached and interpreted by Chinese missionaries) of the Chinese church. The Christian church that China officially recognizes is often called the “Three-Self Church.”

Since 2016, Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the “Sinicization of religion” in his speeches. In addition to “Sinicization,” Xi Jinping also emphasized guiding “religion to adapt to the socialist society” and “using socialist core values to guide and educate religious people and believers.”

Sources:
1. Xinhua, September 24, 2020
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-09/24/c_1126537213.htm
2. Central News Agency. September 25, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202009250238.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Chinese Netizens Challenge China’s Spokesperson’s Comments on US COVID-19 Death Count

On September 25, Hua Chunying, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, once again tweeted and criticized the U.S. In the tweet, Hua wrote “200,000. This is not cold statistics but real lives. Without the right to survival, #HumanRights is only an illusion and nonsense.” At the same time, she attached a picture of a poster from the #COVIDMemorialProject with the following words, “In memory of the 200,000+ Americans who have needlessly lost their lives to COVID-19.”

After Hua’s remarks were posted on Sina Weibo, many people criticized them and made sarcastic remarks. By September 27, all the negative comments had been deleted. Below is the translation of some of those comments that were in the screenshot:

“Not sure how many deaths you (the CCP) have concealed! Have Americans been denied their human rights? Remember those people from Hubei (who died). Their names were not even reported.”

“You only care about fighting with foreign countries and don’t even care about the massive flooding in China!”

“Those who died in Wuhan do not mean anything! I prefer human rights rather than the right to survive. I own the right to survive and it has nothing to do with others.”

“The pigs in a pigpen are limited in their rights to survive. Do they have human rights?”

“The U.S. has compared human rights and freedom in the U.S. with what is going on in China (in the CCP), and China (the CCP) is now comparing its death toll with the death toll in the United States. China has taken the comparison and called its lower death toll a so-called victory. The CCP uses it as evidence that the Chinese people enjoy better human rights. Thus they deluded themselves that they have won a mental victory.”

“Auntie Hua, you are an Idiot. You will become a schizophrenic sooner or later.”

Comments were also left on twitter:

AbhiSpeaksStrait: “They have died because of the China Vi-Rus.”

Phantom： “What’s the real Chinese number?”

Jeri Carroll: “These numbers are not accurate. Most were in nursing homes. Most died from other medical conditions and it was then listed as COVID. It was fraud to the extreme in order to get federal money.”

Source:
1. Epoch Times, September 27, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/9/27/n12433654.htm
2. Twitter

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations