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

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

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Accountability: Australian Foreign Minister Rejected China’s “Economic Coercion” and Defended Australia’s Call for Investigating Virus Origin in China

#1: On April 22, Australian Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, at a virtual meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the G20, called for international experts to investigate the coronavirus origin and the wild animal markets in China which China said was the source of the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week scolded the World Health Organization (WHO) for supporting the reopening of China’s wet markets, saying it was ‘unfathomable’ to back live animal markets. (Daily Mail)

#2: On April 26, the Australian Financial Review published its interview with the Chinese ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye. Cheng threatened Australia with economic impact, where China is the largest consumer of the education and tourism services that Australia offers.

“The Chinese public is frustrated, dismayed and disappointed with what Australia is doing now.”

“I think in the long term… if the mood is going from bad to worse, people would think ‘Why should we go to such a country that is not so friendly to China? The tourists may have second thoughts.

“The parents of the students would also think whether this place which they found is not so friendly, even hostile, whether this is the best place to send their kids here.

“It is up to the people to decide. Maybe the ordinary people will say ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?'” (The Australian Financial Review)

#3: On April 27, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne rejected China’s attempted “economic coercion” against Australia. Payne said in a statement that Australia had made a “principled call” for an independent review of the COVID-19 outbreak which started in Wuhan. “We reject any suggestion that economic coercion is an appropriate response to a call for such an assessment, when what we need is global cooperation.” (Reuters)

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1. Source: Daily Mail, April 22, 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8245763/Australia-calls-probe-Chinas-wet-markets-Scott-Morrison-speaks-Donald-Trump.html

2. Source: The Australian Financial Review, April 26, 2020
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/china-consumer-backlash-looms-over-morrison-s-coronavirus-probe-20200423-p54mpl

3. Source: Reuters, April 27, 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-australia-china/australia-rejects-chinese-economic-coercion-threat-amid-planned-coronavirus-probe-idUSKCN2290Z6

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Beijing News: Beijing Reached Level Six Pollution in Two Hours

Beijing News reported on April 24 that, within two hours, the city suffered an air pollution level six, which is the highest severity possible. The primary pollutant was PM10. At 7PM, Beijing city air quality index arrived at 350, which qualified as level six. Northwest of Beijing, including the Olympics Village, it reached 400. Some areas, including a few train stations of the city, even reached the maximum index value of 500, which is the highest measurable with the equipment in place. This level of air pollution was unusually high, even for a city like Beijing. {Editor’s note: Particulate Matter 10 (PM10) describes inhalable particles, with diameters that are generally 10 micrometers and smaller. According to the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), the U.S. National Annual Second Maximum 24-Hour Average for PM10 has been consistently below 150 for the past 30 years.}

Source: Beijing News, April 24, 2020
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/04/24/720854.html

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Leadership: Fu Zhenghua Removed from the Deputy Party Secretary Position in the Ministry of Justice

After Sun Lijun, Deputy Minister of Public Security, was taken down, Fu Zhenghua, another high ranking official on the public security team was also removed from the Deputy Party Secretary position of the Ministry of Justice.

Fu was the Deputy Party Secretary and Executive Deputy Minister of Public Security and the previous head of the “610 Office” (in charge of persecuting Falun Gong). He was appointed as the Minister of Justice in 2018. Following the CCP tradition, he also held the Deputy Party Secretary position of the Ministry of Justice. The common interpretation of moving him out of the Ministry of Public Security at that time was to make it easier to investigate his problems at the Ministry of Public Security.

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Leadership: Chinese Media’s Discussions on the Downfall of Deputy Minister of Public Security Sun Lijun

On April 19, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Commission on Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI) announced that it was investigating Sun Lijun (孙力军), Deputy Minister of Public Security, who “has severely violated the party’s discipline and the law.”

It was surprising to many people as Sun was known as a powerful official who had been involved in many arrests of dissidents and who was sent to Wuhan to oversee the police during the coronavirus outbreak. The following are discussions from Chinese media about his downfall.

#1: Sun Is Not Loyal to Xi Jinping

Zhao Kejian, Minister of Public Security held an emergency meeting on April 19, stating “resolutely support the investigation of Sun Lijun.” Zhao said, “Sun Lijun has long been ignoring the party’s political discipline and political rules, violating the discipline, violating the rules, disrespecting (the leader), and doing things on his own will.” This suggests that Sun is not loyal enough to Xi Jinping. (Radio France International)

#2: Sun’s Position Is Too Critical for Political Infighting

Sun is in charge of the No 1 Bureau and No 26 Bureau in the Ministry of Public Security. The No 1 Bureau is the Political Security Bureau, responsible for intelligence gathering, including the control of religion, anti-subversion, and overseas resources (pro-China organizations, spies, etc.). Sun is also the Director of the Public Security Ministry’s Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Affairs Office. Xi Jinping’s cronies in Hong Kong were not able to direct the ministry’s spies in Hong Kong since they took directions from Sun.

Sun was in such a critical position that his support could determine if a political coup would succeed. Sun was in the camp of former CCP head Jiang Zemin and was against Xi. Sun’s downfall means that Xi has the recent political infighting under control. (Epoch Times)

#3: Sun Was Sent to Wuhan So That Wang Xiaohong Could Take over His Work

An insider pointed out that the taking down of Sun Lijun was well planned out. Sun was sent to Wuhan to oversee the police there during the coronavirus outbreak, to get him out of Beijing. Then Xi Jinping appointed his follower Wang Xiaohong to be the Party Secretary and Director of the Special Service Bureau, Ministry of Public Security, to take over the work from Sun.

There was also a guess that Sun might have leaked secrets about Xi’s visit to Wuhan, such as Xi’s snipers aimed at Wuhan police officers as they were afraid that Wuhan police might attempt to assassinate Xi. (Radio Free Asia)

#4: Sun Has Been Involved in Many Arrests

Xi has long been managing secret works of the Public Security Ministry. He was the Deputy Director of the “610 Office,” which was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong. He also directed the execution of arrests and the interrogation of political dissidents. Guo Wengui, a Chinese real estate billionaire who fled to the U.S. and became a political activist against the CCP, stated that Sun came to the U.S. in May 2017 to try to persuade him to return to China, but he rejected Sun’s suggestion. Sun was also said to be behind the arrest of the owner and the staff of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books (a book store that published books revealing shady information about the CCP’s top leaders) and the massive arrests of human rights attorneys on July 9, 2015. (Radio Free Asia)

#5: Sun Has Damaged Xi Jinping’s Image

A political commentator said that Sun’s arrests of political dissidents had damaged the CCP’s image and made Xi Jinping look bad. Sun also ordered other people to do things, claiming that he received orders from Xi Jinping’s Office or Peng Liyuan’s Office (Peng is Xi’s wife). (Radio France International)

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Tanzania Reportedly Terminated 10 Billion Belt and Road Loan Agreement

China’s “Belt and Road” economic strategy faced a setback. African media reported that Tanzanian President John Magufuli terminated the US $10 billion loan with China that was to be used to expand the Bagamoyo port.

China originally planned to provide the loan to Tanzania to expand the port of Bagamoyo, on the condition that China was granted the right to lease the port for 99 years. The Tanzanian government would not have the right to comment on China’s activity during this period. The agreement was signed by former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, but the media report quoted Magufuli as saying, “Only a drunk person would accept some of those terms.”

According to the report, since taking office in 2015, Magufuli decided to resume negotiations with China hoping to reduce the lease term from 99 to 33 years. In addition, China must obtain permission in advance to carry out related business activity in the port. Now because China has not started the talks within the deadline that Magufuli provided, Tanzania announced the termination of the agreement.

The China Merchants Group managed the Bagamoyo Port project.  The Oman Sovereign Fund and the Tanzanian government jointly developed it. A memorandum of cooperation was signed in March 2013, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on October 16, 2015. It was originally scheduled to be in use between 2020 and 2021.

Source: Hong Kong Oriental Daily, April 24, 2020
https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/cnnews/20200424/bkn-20200424173210681-0424_00952_001_cn.html

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Multiple Swedish Cities Terminated Sister City Agreement with China

Recently after Sweden closed its last Confucius Institute, Goteborg, Sweden ’s second largest city, also announced that it has decided not to renew its sister city agreement with Shanghai.

According to a report from Dagens Nyheter, Sweden ’s largest newspaper, on April 22, following Linköping, the fifth largest city in Sweden, and Örebro, the seventh largest city also announcement the termination of their sister city relationships with their counterparts in China, shortly after the city of Goteborg announced the suspension of its sister city relationship with Shanghai.

According to related reports, Shanghai and Gothenburg established a “friendly exchange relationship” in 1986. The two sides also signed an agreement to become sister cities on October 23, 2003. At the time, Gothenburg became the 51st “international friendly city” for Shanghai. Over the years, the two cities have conducted exchanges and cooperation in the fields of urban public transportation, water treatment, environmental protection, and port management. The agreements between Shanghai and Gothenburg officially expired at the end of 2019. The ruling Swedish Social Democratic Party suggested that the renewal be considered in the future, but other parties thought that the agreement should be terminated. Although the sister city relationship between the two cities no longer exists, the Trade Bureau and Port Authority of Gothenburg will be allowed to continue to maintain its original relationship with Shanghai and China.

While Gothenburg is another Swedish city that has announced the end of its sister city agreement with Chinese cities in the past few months, Linköping City previously terminated its agreement with Guangzhou City. Luleå and Xi’an, Västerås and Jinan have also terminated their sister city programs. Larks Vikinge, the mayor of Linkoping, told Sweden’s Dagens Samhalle in February this year that “as the Chinese embassy threatened the Swedish government, we decided to discontinue all political ties with China.” He also said that a Guangdong delegation was originally scheduled to visit the city in December 2019, but it was told it would not to be welcomed.

In February this year, Mayor Anders Teljeback of Westeros told the Financial Times that he decided to stop cooperating with Chinese cities because “in the past few years, China has escalated domestic Suppression of its people.

It is worth mentioning that the official website of the Chinese Embassy in Sweden posted an article written by Ambassador Gui Congyou, which Sweden Daily originally published. The article criticized “some moderate Swedish politicians use of COVID 19 to make wrong remarks about China and said the remarks were full of false facts, absurd logic and evil intentions.”

Source: Radio France Internationale, April 20, 2020
http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E6%AC%A7%E6%B4%B2/20200424-%E7%91%9E%E5%85%B8%E5%A4%9A%E5%BA%A7%E5%9F%8E%E5%B8%82%E8%BF%91%E6%9C%9F%E7%9B%B8%E7%BB%A7%E8%A7%A3%E9%99%A4%E4%B8%8E%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%9F%8E%E5%B8%82%E5%8F%8B%E5%9F%8E%E5%85%B3%E7%B3%BB

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World against the CCP: An Open Letter to Advocate an Open and Free China and Stop Supporting the CCP

Over one hundred politicians, scholars, and human rights advocates around the world signed an open letter to the world, appealing to people around the world to join the courageous and conscientious Chinese citizens including Xu Zhangrun, Ai Fen, Li Wenliang, and Ren Zhiqiang to advocate for an open and free China, and not to support the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as some people have done “for decades.”

The letter stated,

“The current global crisis has been caused by the regime that so many of you have been tolerating or supporting for decades.

On 2 April 2020, a group of one hundred Chinese establishment scholars wrote an open letter decrying the “many critical voices politicizing the COVID-19 pandemic.” They stated that “(at) this stage of the pandemic, the exact source and origin of COVID-19 remain undetermined, but these questions are unimportant and finger pointing is demeaning and hurtful to everyone.” They also argued against what they alleged is the politicizing of the epidemic.

The open letter exemplifies what the independent intellectual Professor Xu Zhangrun has called the “ridiculous ‘Red Culture’ and the nauseating adulation that the system heaps on itself via shameless pro-Party hacks who chirrup hosannas at every turn.”

Professor Xu—now under house arrest—has called on his compatriots to stop their uncritical support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and instead to “rage against this injustice; let your lives burn with a flame of decency; break through the stultifying darkness and welcome the dawn.”

While the exact source and spread of the virus are not clear, yet the question of origin is highly important, for the people of China and for all humankind: only by understanding how this global disaster could emerge can we prevent it from happening again.

The roots of the pandemic are in a cover-up by CCP authorities in Wuhan, Hubei province. Under the influence of the CCP the World Health Organization first downplayed the pandemic. Taiwanese health officials also allege that it ignored their alerts in late December about human-to-human transmission. Under pressure from the CCP, democratic Taiwan—which has coped with the pandemic in exemplary fashion—is excluded from the WHO.

We should never forget that China’s Chernobyl moment was a self-inflicted wound. The CCP silenced Chinese doctors who wanted to warn other health professionals during the early stage of the outbreak: Dr. Ai Fen can no longer appear in public after accepting a domestic media interview; her colleague Dr. Li Wenliang died while fighting the virus in Wuhan. On his deathbed Dr. Li famously said that “a healthy society shouldn’t have only one voice.”

…

The global pandemic forces us all to confront an inconvenient truth: by politicizing all aspects of life including people’s health, continued autocratic one-party rule in the People’s Republic of China has endangered everyone. Rather than trusting the CCP’s intentions and accepting establishment academics’ uncritical approval of the party-state’s policies, we should pay greater attention to the voices of what can be termed ‘unofficial’ China. These independent-minded academics, doctors, entrepreneurs, citizen journalists, public interest lawyers and young students no longer accept the CCP’s rule by fear. Neither should you.

As an international group of public figures, security policy analysts and China watchers we stand in solidarity with courageous and conscientious Chinese citizens including Xu Zhangrun, Ai Fen, Li Wenliang, Ren Zhiqiang, Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin, Li Zehua, Xu Zhiyong, and Zhang Wenbin, just to name a few of the real heroes and martyrs who risk their life and liberty for a free and open China. Their individual voices are already forming a chorus. They demand nothing less than a critical evaluation of the impact of CCP policies on the lives of Chinese citizens and citizens around the world. We urge you to join them.

Signed, in alphabetical order: …”

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Source: Citizen Power Initiatives for China, April 16, 2020

Open letter: The Communist Party’s rule by fear endangers Chinese citizens – and the world

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Hiding Information: Chaoyang District in Beijing Has Many Coronavirus Infection Cases

On April 20, China identified Chaoyang District, Beijing as a “High Risk” region for the coronavirus pandemic, the only “High Risk” area in China.

Epoch Times obtained an official document from the Chaoyang District government, titled “Summary Report of the Management of Four Types of People,” dated April 19. The document showed that on April 19, 3,357 people in the district were under isolation or close watch.

Beijing has been quarantining and testing “four types” of people, including confirmed patients, suspected patients, people who had close contact with infected patients, and asymptomatic carriers.

On April 19, the Beijing Coronavirus Epidemic Prevention and Control Leading Group issued a new work plan to conduct a nucleic acid test on eight types of people and have them pay for the testing expenses:

  1. Patients, including confirmed patients, suspected patients, recovered patients who came back to the hospital for a recheck, and people who had a close contact with them.
  2. People with a fever.
  3. People who needed to be hospitalized.
  4. People who entered Beijing from abroad.
  5. People coming to Beijing from Wuhan who were about to end the quarantine.
  6. Staff members of central party organs and the central government who returned from Wuhan.
  7. People who came to Beijing from other part of China and stayed at hotels.
  8. The graduating high school and middle school students and their teachers, who come to Beijing from other part of China.

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