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

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Taiwan Liberty Times Net: Taiwan Launched Joint Air Defense Exercise in Response to the Threat the PLA Poses

Taiwan Liberty Times Net reported that, since the beginning of this year, despite the on-going spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus, the PLA has performed night time training activities and even flew across the Taiwan Straits Midline a minimum of five times. In response to the threat, on the morning of March 24, the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense launched the “Lianxiang” joint air defense combat training. The upgraded F-16V fighter was reported to have participated in the training. The “Lianxiang” exercise is normally done quarterly each year however it was performed specifically to target the excessive military actions that the PLA has performed.

Source: Taiwan Liberty Times Net, March 25, 2020
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/paper/1361242

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

The Paper: Beijing to Increase Deficit Rate and Issue Special Government Bond

According to The Paper, China’s Politburo held a meeting on March 27. For the first time, it proposed to “appropriately raise the fiscal deficit rate and issue special government bonds” to deal with the impact of the epidemic on the economy. A number of economists recommended a deficit rate of 3.5 percent versus 2.8 percent in 2019. It would bring in 700 billion yuan (US$99 billion). Meanwhile they also recommended issuing a special government bond of no less than 1 trillion yuan (US$140 Billion). Moreover, they reiterated that the local government could increase the scale of their special debt limit from 2.15 trillion yuan (US$300 billion) for 2019. If the deficit rate for 2020 were to increase to 3-4 percent, it would mean that the local government debit limit could go up to 4 trillion yuan (US$560 billion).

Source: The Paper, March 27, 2020
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_6721099

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Trump Signed Taipei Act and Beijing Promised Retaliation

Major Taiwanese news group Eastern Media International recently reported that, on March 26, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Taipei Act into law. Mainland Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a press conference that China urged the United States to correct its mistake and stop the implementation of this wrongful bill. The United States should not set roadblocks for other countries that want to develop a relationship with China. Otherwise, Geng emphasized, the United States will have to face China’s decisive retaliation. Geng said the so-called Taipei Act is yet another example of a serious violation of the One-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, a serious violation of international law and basic norms of international relations, and a gross interference in China’s internal affairs. According to the Taipei Act, the United States will reduce the economic, security and foreign relation ties with the countries that bring severe damage to Taiwan. The Act also supports Taiwan’s observer status in international organizations.

Source: Eastern Media International, March 27, 2020
https://www.ettoday.net/news/20200327/1678300.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

If We Cannot Change China, We Should Stay Away from It

The ongoing pandemic has taught us a hard-learned lesson. The fact that China is an authoritarian regime that refuses transparent governance and freedom of speech, compounded by the reality that it is deeply ingrained in the global economy, makes the current crisis a worst-case scenario.

If China were more isolated, the outbreak in Wuhan might not have escalated into a once-in-a-century catastrophe. When the SARS epidemic burst out in November 2002, the government did not acknowledge it until five months later. When the disease was finally contained in July 2003, a total of 8,000 cases were confirmed, resulting in 774 reported deaths in 17 countries. That pales in comparison to the Wuhan virus. As of today, there have been over 30,000 reported deaths among 650,000 confirmed cases in more than 170 countries, and the figures continue to climb by leaps and bounds. The high fatality rate of SARS may have been attributed to the slow transmission, but one cannot overlook the fact that China’s interaction with the world was relatively inconsequential back then. Only one year into the WTO, China’s share of the world economy was 4 percent instead of the 16 percent it is today; and its position as the world’s factory hadn’t taken shape.

If Beijing were transparent and allowed freedom of speech, the situation could also have been different. A March study by researchers at the U.K.’s University of Southampton showed that, if an intervention took place just three weeks earlier, 95 percent fewer people would have been infected. Three weeks is exactly the time period between the end of December, when the whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang and his colleagues sent out warnings on social media, and January 23, when a lockdown of Wuhan was ordered. By January 20, the official word was that the disease “doesn’t spread from person to person.” In early January, according to the Chinese media Caixin, the Health Commission of Hubei province ordered medical institutions and professionals to destroy all samples of the Wuhan pneumonia virus and not to share the information with the public. On January 3, the National Health Commission issued a notice stipulating that “biological samples and related information must not be provided to other institutions and individuals without approval.” It is less likely that a democratic government in an open society would cover up such a major epidemic and miss the best time to contain the virus.

Unfortunately, neither of these suppositions is true. The world faces high stakes when an anti-democracy regime that routinely suppresses the free flow of information is also an important component of the global economy.

Based on an unproven idea that trade and economic prosperity promote freedom and democracy, the West has, for decades, provided China money, technology, and market access. Be it an excuse for the corporations to profit from the country’s cheap labor or policymakers’ naivety and wishful thinking, the theory turned out to be wrong. China’s economy has grown, but so has the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) domestic control and its global ambitions. People in China shun and shy away from sensitive political topics on social media. “Spreading rumors” or “groundless criticism of the central authority” is a crime punishable by years in jail. Overseas, the regime has been trumpeting its “Belt and Road Initiative,” an infrastructure investment project and a vehicle to expand its ideological influence. In a word, the West’s trade and investment has built a most formidable authoritarian machine. With a larger economy, greater global influence, and a strong position as the world’s factory, Beijing has little to fear when resisting Western ideas.

China has therefore refused to change. In its handling of infectious diseases 17 years ago, it covered up SARS and arrested Dr. Jiang Yanyong, who exposed the outbreak to the outside world. 17 years later, it covered up the Wuhan virus, silenced Dr. Li Wenliang, and detained activists who leaked uncensored coverage of the disaster. Even worse, China denied the cover-up, fueled anti-American propaganda, expelled the journalists who could report to the rest of the world, and blamed the U.S. for originally spreading the virus, while not providing any evidence.

The West must come to terms with the reality that the Chinese regime has not changed and will never change. If another epidemic happens, it will still cover it up and deny all responsibility for it. Delinking China may be the only option to protect ourselves and mitigate the potential damage to the world. If history has proven that the engagement policy is wrong, why not correct it by reversing course? Why should we make friends with someone who refuses to share our values? Why should we trust someone who has repeatedly lied to the world? Why continue to allow a bad government to hold the world hostage? These are all the million-dollar questions we need to ask ourselves.

It’s time to give up the fantasy and learn the lesson that is being taught to us at such a great cost of human lives. If we cannot change China, we should stay away from it!

Perspectives | | |   Opinion US-China Relations

Propaganda and Lies: CCP’s Overseas Propaganda Tactics

The Diplomat published an article that discussed the CCP’s tactics for overseas propaganda. It stated:

The elements of this campaign are well known. The general narrative goes like this: There are doubts about the origins of the virus, and China has demonstrated its effectiveness in managing the crisis. Its authoritarian system is validated in the face of the supposed ineffectiveness of democratic values.

For Beijing, the control of information becomes a priority after an initial relaxation designed to provide a safety valve for a population facing a major humanitarian crisis. Already severe in China, this control has now been reinforced. Above all, the regime is also trying to silence all foreign experts guilty of deviating from the “official line,” denounced in the Chinese media as “anti-Chinese elements.”

The outside world could be impressed by the “reactivity” of a system capable of authoritatively confining tens of millions of people. Italy gratefully welcomed the arrival of a Chinese plane — in the presence of the Italian president and the Chinese ambassador — bringing several doctors and tons of equipment.  The Serbian president also embraced Chinese aid, saying, “Hundreds of thousands of lives in Serbia will be saved thanks to the help that just came to us.”

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Source: The Diplomat, March 24, 2020
https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/chinas-coronavirus-information-warfare/

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Propaganda and Lies: CCP Hires People for Its Propaganda Campaign

Recently, a few cases were reported in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was recruiting people to work on its overseas propaganda campaign.

#1: A Chinese artist Baduicao, who lives in Australia, told Deutsche Welle that he received a tweet inquiry from a “cultural promotion” Chinese media company, asking whether he was interested in cooperating. They asked him to post two tweets each month, with the company providing materials including content, pictures, and video links. The company would pay him 400 to 2500 Yuan (US $56 – 352) per piece. At least four other Chinese with over 10,000 Twitter followers also received the same inquiry. The company sent Baduicao a Twitter sample, which was a 15-second video, with Wuhan Pneumonia scenes and a voice stating the CCP’s propaganda message.

#2: A post on the Internet on March 22 showed that a media in China was urgently looking to hire a Chinese student studying in Europe to record a video about Chinese being discriminated against due to the Novel Coronavirus. The program would take two hours to produce and pay 60 Euro.

#3: As the CCP did not want overseas Chinese to return to China, a video of the “self-confession“ of an overseas Chinese was widely spread on Chinese social media. The man in the video said that he had lived overseas for over twenty years and had almost forgotten his homeland (China). It wasn’t until two months ago when the virus came, that he discovered that China is where people want to be. The man, in tears, asked himself, “Do I still have face to go back to China?” He paused and then said, “Let me just stay here quietly and enjoy the retribution.”

Shortly, Chinese dug out the man’s true identity. He is not an overseas Chinese, but a small actor who works on minor roles. He lives in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, China.

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Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Justice: U.S. Lawyers, Chinese Lawyers, and Student in Turkey Asked China for Compensation

More and more people started looking at lawsuit options to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable for the worldwide outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus.

  • Lawyer Larry Klayman and his group Freedom Watch filed a complaint in federal court in Texas seeking at least $20 trillion from the Chinese government because of its “callous and reckless indifference and malicious acts.” The complaint states, “Although it appears that the COVID-19 virus was released at an unplanned, unexpected time, it was prepared and stockpiled as a biological weapon to be used against China’s perceived enemies, including but not limited to the people of the United States.” The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Klayman, Freedom Watch, and Buzz Photos, a Texas company that specializes in high school sports photography.
  • Some Chinese lawyers formed a volunteer group, the “Legal Advisory Panel on Novel Coronavirus Claims.” It provides legal support to patients and their relatives and even a free service for typical cases. They suggested that the CCP regime should provide compensation for all human rights violations, including patients, relatives of the dead, and minors whose parents passed away.
  • On March 18, a 22-year old Turkish student Cagatay Orkun Celikbas wrote to the Chinese Embassy in Turkey to request compensation for his monetary loss and mental stress, including rent, counseling, and related education expenses incurred during the period that his college closed.

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Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Death Count: Wuhan Distributed an Estimate of over 40,000 Urns

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has loosened the lockdown in Wuhan, the epicenter of the Novel Coronavirus. Starting on March 23, the city distributed cinerary urns of the deaths. Earlier, the city was locked down and thus relatives could not go to the funeral homes to pick up the urns that held their loved ones’ ashes.

This gave people a way to estimate the coronavirus death count in Wuhan, which people believe the CCP has been hiding from the public. The government announced 2,531 deaths in Wuhan.

Radio Free Asia reported that the funeral homes said that they would distribute 500 caskets or urns per day and try to complete the distribution before the Qing Ming Festival (a Chinese festival to sweep the tombs and worship the departed). There will be 12 days from March 23 to the Qing Ming Festival (April 4, 2020). Since there are 7 funeral homes, the total caskets distributed will be 500 x 12 x 7, or  42,000.

Another estimate was based on the number of incinerators. Wuhan has 84 incinerators. Assuming 65 functioned normally, each one ran around the clock, and each body took an hour to burn, that would be 65 x 24 = 1,560 bodies per day. Taking out 200 regular deaths each day would leave 1,360 coronavirus deaths per day. In 30 days, the death count will be 40,800.

A person who requested anonymity told Radio Free Asia that Wuhan funeral homes processed about 28,000 corpses during the peak month of the epidemic. “Each funeral home could only report their numbers to the city, but were not allowed to share with other funeral homes.”

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Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability