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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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World against The CCP: Japanese Prime Minister Abe Said Coronavirus Came from China

On May 25, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan has removed the emergency status for the entire country.

#1: Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that, at a press conference, when reporters asked about the escalation in the tension  between the U.S. and China during the pandemic, Abe answered, “China spread the novel coronavirus to the world; this is a fact.” He also stated that the U.S. is Japan’s only ally, that the two countries share the same basic values, and that Japan and the U.S. cooperate when responding to international issues. (Central News Agency)

#2: Liberty Times, another Taiwan media, reported that, on May 26, Zhao Lijian, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, criticized Japan, saying that its “(action of) blindly following politics should not be above scientific judgment.” However, a video of the press conference showed that Zhao was reading from a script without much enthusiasm. Zhao is a “fighting wolf” of the Chinese Communist Party who, a few months ago, launched a wave of attacks on the U.S. He blamed the United States for spreading the coronavirus to China. (Liberty Times)

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Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

World Against The CCP: Filipinos and Peoples from Other Countries Reject the CCP’s Propaganda Song

On April 23, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) posted a song on YouTube with the Filipino name “Lisang Dagat” (meaning “One Ocean,” the song’s Chinese name is “海的那邊”).  The song was to show the CCP’s message that Beijing and the Philippines are collaborating on fighting the coronavirus. China’s Ambassador to the Philippines wrote the lyrics, diplomats and singers from both China and the Philippines performed the song.

The 4 minute and 26 seconds Music Video is embedded with many scenes from the CCP’s propaganda such as: that the Philippines were whole-heartedly moved when they received aid from China, including appreciation statements from several of the Philippines’s officials such as President Rodrigo Duterte, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr., Chief Implementer of the National Task Force of COVID-19 Carlito Galvez Jr., and Secretary of Health official Francisco Duque.

However, the Filipino public rejected this CCP’s propaganda since the two countries have had high tension over the South China Sea as both sides have claimed sovereignty over large overlapping territories and Beijing seized islands near the Philippines and expanded them into bigger man-made lands.

Within three days of being posted on YouTube, the song received 100,000 dislikes and only 1,000 likes. Some comments were:

  • “The West Philippine Sea is ours.”
  • “This is the most disgusting song I have ever seen.”
  • “You can buy our politicians but not our sovereignty.”
  • “Nobody wants to share the same sea with you.”
  • “This is a total insult to the sovereignty and people of the Philippines.” (SET News)

Then people from other countries joined to “dislike” the song. By early May, the dislike count rose to 200,000. Some comments were:

  • “I’m a Taiwanese. I think this song is insulting.”
  • “We support the Philippines. I am from South Korea.”
  • “I’m a Malaysian. Brothers of the ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, let us unite against the CCP!”
  • “I’m from Vietnam, I am here to press the Dislike key!” (Epoch Times)

By May 30, there were 216,000 dislikes and 3,900 likes to the song.

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Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Infection Count: All Trains in Mudanjiang City Are Stopped

The true situation of the coronavirus outbreak in northeastern China is unclear to the public as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been hiding the real information. However, there are signs to indicate the severity.

The Paper reported that, on May 27, trains and long-distance buses going through Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province will stop going through or skip the city. When they will resume operation is unknown. Mudanjiang City and Suifenhe City (under the supervision of Mudanjiang) are on the border with Russia and have had infection cases due to people returning from Russia.

The city’s high schools reopened for senior students recently. However, on May 25, those schools all closed again. In China, all senior high school students are intensely preparing for the National College Entrance Exam, which will decide what college they can get into. The exam has been postponed until July 8 and July 9, a month from the original dates, due to coronavirus pandemic.

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Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Taiwan Develops Humanitarian Assistance Program for Hong Kong Citizens

As Beijing pushed forward and imposed a new national security law on Hong Kong, Chen Ming-Tong, Minister of the Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), announced on Thursday May 29 that Taiwan developed the Hong Kong Humanitarian Assistance Action Plan in accordance with Article 18 of the “Laws and Regulations Regarding Hong Kong & Macao Affairs.” The plan contains four principles: the government takes the lead; MAC is in charge of cross-agency collaboration; the government establishes and implements a legal entity; funding comes from the government’s budget.

Chen made it clear that Taiwan will adopt a two-part policy and treat Hong Kong citizens and the Hong Kong government separately. It will definitely not treat the Hong Kong people the same as it treats the people from mainland China. “Article 18 is for the Hong Kong people who want to come to Taiwan. For example, if a person is a financial professional or has technological talent and he wants to come to Taiwan, we have an overall plan to make it more convenient. The policy objective includes what happens after people come, how they deal with their resettlement, and how they take care of their lives. All of these are in this action plan.”

Chen added, “As the golden standard of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy has declined, we must have second thoughts. In the past we regarded Hong Kong as the third (independent) place in politics. Now, with Beijing’s imposition of the National Security Law, then, on the issue of national security, does the Hong Kong government carry out its own will or Beijing’s? Because the national security goal of Beijing is to unify Taiwan and wipe out the Republic of China, we have concerns about our national security. At this point, Article 60 applies to the future situation of the Hong Kong government. We must evaluate and may consider suspending part of the act if it jeopardizes our national security.” Article 60 of the “Laws and Regulations Regarding Hong Kong & Macao Affairs” is a provision to enable Taiwan to respond when “any change occurs in the situation of Hong Kong or Macau such that the implementation of this Act endangers the security of Taiwan.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 28, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/htm/tw-guidelines-05282020063302.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Mainland Media Issued Apology for False Reporting of Meng Wanzhou Trial

Jiemian.com, a mainland online news media published a false report about Meng Wanzhou’s trial and had to retract the news and issue an apology. On May 27, the judge for British Columbia’s Supreme Court in Vancouver ruled that Meng Wanzhou, the former Huawei Chief Financial Officer met the threshold of double criminality and the U.S. extradition case would move forward. This means that after being confined for 544 days to her residence in Vancouver, Meng remains under house arrest. Ironically Jiemian.com, a financial news website in China, published an article at midnight on May 26 saying that Meng was acquitted and could return home in four days. The article was widely distributed in China for 12 hours until it published an apology and retracted the news. The court result of Meng Wanzhou drew heated discussion over the internet and made it the top search listed on Weibo. At the regular press conference on May 26, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, repeated the demand to free Meng in order to avoid further damage to Canada-China relations.

Source: Epoch Times, May 28, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/5/28/n12142060.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Supreme Court Report Boasted that China’s Business Environment Ranking Improved; the Quality of Judicial Procedures Ranks at the Top in the World

According to The Paper, on May 25, in the speech given at the National 13th National People’s Congress, Zhou Qiang, the president of the Supreme People’s Court, gave a report which summarized the department’s work. The report referenced the “Doing Business 2020” report that the World Bank issued. That report “measured the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.” Zhou’s report mentioned that China introduced a law to enforce business contracts, made resolving insolvency easier, and improved the transparency and predictability of the judiciary system. It also stated that the number of legal cases the court processed relating to business helped to re-enforce the fact that China is governed by the rule of law. Zhou claimed that the index from the report stated that the rank of China’s business environment has improved considerably, that the quality of the judicial procedure ranks at the top in the world,  and that China is the “World’s Best Practitioner.”

Source: The Paper, May 25, 2020
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_7544167

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Won’t Set a GDP Growth Target

On May 22, the third session of the 13th China’s National People’s Congress was held in Beijing. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered a government work report, stating that China will not set a GDP growth target for 2020. For the first time since setting economic growth targets in 1994, China will not set a specific target for annual economic growth. Li Keqiang explained, “[M]ainly because of the great uncertainties of the global pandemic situation and the economic and trade situation, China’s development is facing some unpredictable factors. This will help guide all parties to focus on the “six stabilities” (stabilizing employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and expectations), and “six protections” (protecting the employment of residents, basic livelihood, market players, food and energy security, supply chains in the industrial chain, and basic-level operations)

The government work report announced that China will issue 1 trillion yuan in government bonds for COVID-19 control.

Source: BBC Chinese, May 22, 2020
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/business-52766866

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

A Chinese City to Implement Permanent “Health Barcode”

Hangzhou, a Chinese city 100 miles southwest of Shanghai, plans to launch a permanent “health barcode,” a system that monitors people’s health real-time and establishes a personalized index based on a number of indicators. Local media report that a score between zero and 100 will be given after reading personal medical records, physical examination results, and lifestyle management data. The program is considered an expansion of the current nationwide health code program, launched in February, to track potential infections and close contacts of the new coronavirus. An official infographic shows individual scores that are presented in different colors. A low score is displayed in purple or red, and the higher scores are in green.

Factors that affect the score include exercises, alcoholic drinking, smoking and sleep. For example, drinking 200 ml of alcohol resulted in a drop of 1.5 points, and smoking 5 cigarettes led to a drop of 3 points. In contrast, walking 15,000 steps earned 5 points.

The city’s health department said it planned to complete the project in May or June, but did not disclose how the personal information would be collected.

The ambitious program, however, did not win public opinion. The news has caused an uproar on social media. A large number of netizens consider the collection of health data a violation of privacy and may also lead to discrimination. Someone commented, “What should I do if I am asked to show the health code when I look for a job?” In a poll on Weibo, 6,020 out of the 7,000 who were questioned chose not to support it.

After the outbreak of the corona virus, every Chinese province began to implement its own health code system. This system is mainly based on China’s two main applications: Tencent’s WeChat and Alibaba’s Alipay. In May this year, the authorities announced a nationwide unified health code system. Chinese media report that the health code requires the users to declare information including their real name, gender, mobile phone number, and address. It also integrates air, railway, highway, and public transportation data, as well as telecom operators and payment data with banks and financial institutions.

Today, in most parts of China, entering and leaving communities and buildings requires that each person show a green-colored health code, an indication of no infection. The system is believed to play an important role in tracking the chain of transmission of the virus. At the same time, the massive collection of personal data has caused widespread concerns about the infringement on privacy.

Source: BBC Chinese, May 26, 2020
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-52805052

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology