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China Cancels Entrance Exam for Foreign Students amid Concerns over Brainwashing

Undergraduate programs in a few top universities in China are canceling their entrance exams for foreign students. Parents of domestic students feel angry; others believe that, as Beijing’s Confucius Institute program faces growing resistance overseas, this is a way to work around to the brainwashing of foreign kids.

In early May, Peking University posted on its website a “Notice on the Adjustment of the Undergraduate Entrance Examination Program for International Students in 2020.” It had an explanation that remote interviews, instead of written exams, would be used to admit students, citing concerns about the ongoing epidemic. A few top tier universities, including Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, and Shanghai Jiaotong University, copied the practice.

Chinese netizens are angry. While Chinese kids have to take a tough college entrance examination, why is it so easy for foreign students to go to a good university? Ms. Zhu told Radio Free Asia (RFA), “As prestigious universities in China, they should give priority to Chinese kids. It is a shame for the Chinese Communist Party to do this.”

Shi Dajun, a Chinese education scholar, believes this policy has everything to do with the resistance that Confucius Institutes (CIs) have received in recent years. “Not only Tsinghua Peking University, but many schools are exempting admission exams for foreign students. After the CIs have been defeated abroad, this is a new direction.”

Mr. Cai, a retired professor from Lanzhou University, told RFA that it may be a strategic measure to attract foreign students, so that China’s totalitarian ideas can be planted in the minds of young Westerners. China provides students in Africa and countries along the “Belt and Road” an annual stipend of 300,000 yuan (US$42,000). “This is a way to bring up a whole pro-China generation and lay a good foundation for friendly relations with these countries. One can say that the state spares no expense in this regard, and is doing something we cannot see.”

Shi Daijun added, “Originally, Beijing wished to use the Confucius Institute to push the patriotic education abroad, as a way to brainwash foreigners. The brainwashing of Chinese people is now almost done. They feel it more urgent to brainwash foreign young people.”

According to the Ministry of Education, the budget for foreign students in China in 2019 was 3.92 billion yuan (US$ 0.55 billion), an increase of 18.1 percent over 2018.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 11, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/ql-05112020060257.html

Briefings | | May 17, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Leadership: Xi Jinping Went to Shanxi Province While Sidelining the Commander of Beijing Garrison

The People’s Daily reported that Xi Jinping went to Shanxi Province on May 11 and 12. During the trip, he visited the Yungang Grottoes, which was famous for stone-carved Buddhist sculptures. (#1, People’s Daily)

Chen Pokong, a political commentator on China’s affairs who frequently appears on Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, said that Xi’s trip was linked to the soft removal of Wang Chunning, the Commander of Beijing Garrison. (#2, YouTube)

Xinhua announced on May 10, that Zhang Fandi, the Political Commissar of Beijing Garrison replaced Wang Chunning as a Beijing Communist Party Committee Member and a Standing Committee Member. (#3, Xinhua)

In the Chinese Communist Party (CCP’s) structure, the People’s Liberation Army unit has two top leaders: a commander in charge of the military actions and a political commissar for political activities. One of them, from a local garrison, also serves as a member of the locale’s (provincial or municipal) communist party standing committee, which is the highest power decision-making organ in the locale.

Wang Chunning is a Lieutenant General. He became the Commander of the Beijing Garrison in 2016. In January this year, he took over the Beijing Communist Party Standing Committee Member position from Jiang Yong, then Beijing Garrison Political Commissar. Major General Zhang Fandi took over the Political Commissar position from Jiang Yong at the same time. Wang has served the Beijing Standing Committee Member for only four months. (#4, Beijing News)

In his analysis, Chen Pokong pointed out:

The head of Beijing Garrison is extremely critical to Xi as it can control Beijing.
Wang Chunning has a higher military rank than Zhang Fandi. In a normal situation, Zhang would not take over Wang’s Beijing Standing Committee Member position.
This indicates that Xi Jinping no longer trusts Wang.
Xi might do a soft removal of Wang, like what he did to Fu Zhenghua recently. Fu was the Minister of Justice. He was removed from the position of Deputy Party Secretary of Justice Ministry’s Party Committee on April 20, then removed from the Minister of Justice post on April 29, and then removed from the position of Deputy Director of the CCP Central Committee’s Office for the Rule of Law on May 5.
When Xi took down Sun Lijun and Fu Zhenghua, he went to Shaanxi Province, probably to avoid the supporters of Sun and Fu, to take actions against him in Beijing. This time, Xi probably did the same thing: going to Shanxi Province while pushing out Wang Chunning. (#2, YouTube)

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Hot Topics | | May 17, 2020 | Government/Politics Social Stability

Infection Count: Wuhan Plans to Test All People in Ten Days

There are signs that Wuhan faces the risk of a coronavirus recurrence.

On May 11, the Epidemiological Big Data and Epidemiological Investigation Team of the Wuhan Municipal Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center issued an “Emergency Notice on Carrying out the City’s Novel Coronavirus Nucleic Acid Screening.” The notice informed the command center of each district of Wuhan that the government decided to carry out a “ten-day battle” on the nucleic acid screening for the coronavirus throughout the entire city. It advised that each district shall make arrangements to screen all people in its jurisdiction within ten days. (Editor’s note: This implies Wuhan needs to test 1 million people per day. There are concerns as to whether China has that much testing capacity.)

Changjiang Daily, the newspaper under the Wuhan Party Committee, reported that on the same day, Wang Zhonglin, the Wuhan Party Chief hosted a video conference for the Wuhan command center. He said at the meeting, “(We) should have a deep understanding that ‘decisive achievement’ does not mean ‘decisive victory’ and ‘reducing the response class’ does not mean ‘reducing prevention.’ We can never take it lightly, care less, or slack off (on the coronavirus prevention and control).” (#1, China News Agency)

On May 8, Xi Jinping declared in a speech that “the war to defend Wuhan and Hubei has obtained a decisive achievement.” (#2, People’s Daily)

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Hot Topics | | May 17, 2020 | Social Stability

Infection Count: Jilin City Locked Down Due to Coronavirus Epidemic

Amidst a recurrence of the Coronavirus, Jilin City in Jilin Province required a residential neighborhood to lock down.

#1: On May 7, Jilin Province reported an infection case in Shulan City, which is a subordinate city under Jilin City. On May 9, the Jilin government reported 11 confirmed cases in Shulan. On May 10, Shulan city adjusted to a high risk status of the coronavirus epidemic from medium risk. On May 11, the Shulan Mayor announced that Shulan “entered a war time state.” (Stock Times)

#2: Due to Shulan City’s coronavirus epidemic, Jilin City stopped all long-distance buses and chartered tour buses; the graduating high school students (12th graders) and graduating middle school students (9th graders) which had come back to school for classes were asked to stay at home for online classes once again; the plan to bring other high school students back to school were also postponed. Jilin City required all residential neighborhoods and villages to lock down completely; any person wanting to leave the city had to provide a negative result within 48 hours on testing that was conducted; all school activities were to be closed; all drug stores and clinics were not to sell fever-reduction drugs; all clinics were not to take patients with a fever and were directed to designated hospitals for treatment; all tour sites and movie theaters were to be closed; and all cafeterias were to be closed. (China Economic Net)

#3: Shulan City issued a notice to search for all people who went to Qinghua Public Bath from April 1 to May 6 and required them to perform self-quarantine at home for 21 days. The bath was near the residence of two infected patients. (Beijing News)

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Hot Topics | | May 17, 2020 | Social Stability

World Against the CCP: Trump Administration to Pull TSP out of Funds Investing in Chinese Companies

On May 11, the U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and National Economic Council Chair Larry Kudlow wrote to U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia stating that the White House does not want the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), a federal employee retirement fund, to have money invested in the stock of Chinese companies.

Secretary Scalia wrote to Michael Kennedy, the chairman of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, sharing the Kudlow/O’Brien letter noting the two have “grave concerns with the planned investment on grounds of both investment risk and national security.” (#1, Stock Times)

TSP manages near 600 billion dollars of retirement money for several million federal employees including Congressmen, White House staff, and military staff. It plans to invest about 4.5 billion dollars in the Morgan Stanley Capital International All Country World Ex-U.S. Investable Market Index (MSCI ACWI ex-USA IMI). That index covers 22 developed and 26 emerging markets and consists of large, mid, and small-cap stocks from more than 6,000 companies, including Chinese securities.

The MSCI index fund controversy is that it includes “many firms that are involved in the Chinese Government’s military, espionage and human rights abuses,” which Senator Marco Rubio and other U.S. law makers have repeatedly pointed out. For example, AviChina Industry & Technology Ltd. is the listing company for the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) that develops manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles, and other weapons systems for the People’s Liberation Army. AVIC and its subsidiaries have been the subjects of repeated sanctions for proliferation activities related to Iran, North Korea, and Syria. Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology (Hikvision), a state-run technology firm, provides tens of thousands of surveillance cameras throughout the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The cameras support the Chinese Communist regime in detaining over one million Uighur Muslims and other ethnic and religious minorities. (#2, Senator Marco Rubio’s website)

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Hot Topics | | May 17, 2020 | Social Stability

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

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.

China Cancels Entrance Exam for Foreign Students amid Concerns over Brainwashing

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