{Editor’s Notes: On June 9 and Jun 16, Hong Kong citizens held two marches with millions in attendance to protest the controversial extradition bill that the Hong Kong government intended to pass. Continue reading
China’s Ministry of Commerce Admitted Manufacturers Are Moving Out of China
Well-known Chinese news site Sohu recently reported that multiple senior leadership team members of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce jointly held a press conference on July 2. The Ministry admitted that industrial players and even supply chains are moving out of China. However, they suggested that it is normal for companies to move in and out as their globalization priorities change. It is understandable that places with lower costs may attract some companies to move out of China. One cannot simply conclude that this is a direct result of the China-US trade friction, since there are many causes. In the press conference, the Ministry also mentioned that its focal points for work this year are to “stabilize foreign trade” and to “stabilize foreign investments.” The Ministry is currently “cleaning up” existing regulations in preparation for the new Foreign Investment Law to take effect next January.
Source: Sohu, July 2, 2019
http://www.sohu.com/a/324264713_115479
Global Times: The “Employment Boom” in the West Hides Trouble
Global Times recently published a commentary on the obvious improvements made in reducing unemployment in the West. The article suggested that, although the industrialized countries in the West, especial the United States, enjoyed a so-called “full employment” in the past couple of years, yet many potential issues are moving towards crisis. The commentary says the major tax cut may have boosted the economy but that force is weakening, especially when the budget deficit continues to grow. In the meantime, the labor participation rate remains flat or even worse in the West. Trade friction on the global level also poses a threat to economic growth. The Brexit uncertainty is a good example of the factors that may slow down global growth, which will, in turn, slow down employment. The author concluded that it is much harder to sustain an employment boom in countries like the United States. How long the current state can last is highly questionable.
Source: Global Times, July 6, 2019
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/hqpl/2019-07/15099065.html?agt=15422
China’s June Manufacturing PMI Numbers Showed Declines
Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the just-released Caixin Chinese Manufacturing PMI June number reached 49.4, which indicated a decline in the manufacturing sector. This number is in line with the Manufacturing PMI index that China’s National Bureau of Statistics released a couple of days earlier. It was also 49.4. It is unusual for these two independent indicators to be exactly the same. In June, China’s total manufacturing industrial output suffered a decline. Employment in manufacturing continued to shrink. Many manufacturers did not hire people to fill the vacancies freed up by workers who left their job. The new order level continued to see a decline. Product inventory level decreased due to the production slowdown and the companies have been filling orders with inventory. Manufacturers are reducing the purchasing volume for raw materials. In June, the average cost reached a seven-month high and the product price saw a slight increase as well. PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) is an indicator of financial activity reflecting purchasing managers’ acquisition of goods and services. A PMI number below 50 typically reflects a decline.
Source: Sina, July 1, 2019
https://finance.sina.com.cn/china/gncj/2019-07-01/doc-ihytcitk8835974.shtml
Hong Kong Apple Daily Left Front Page Blank to Show Dissatisfaction
Recently, the Hong Kong government began to suppress and arrest the people who participated in the protest against the Extradition Law. The pro-mainland media in Hong Kong either give little coverage to the incidents or their reports are along the same line as the official party controlled media in the mainland. This has made the communities in Hong Kong quite angry. On July 4th, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily published its paper with the top part of the front page left blank and with ten Chinese characters on the bottom section which read as follows: “When freedom of the press is unreasonably suppressed.” It thus expressed its strong dissatisfaction with the Hong Kong government’s unreasonable suppression of freedom of the press. The “silence” of Apple Daily won the support of the people on the Internet. They posted the following messages: “Go! Apple!” “Don’t give up! We need you,” “Keep Going,” “I Support you.”
Also, Apple Daily had been hit with a strong Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack previously, which the newspaper believed was an attempt to try and suppress their reporting on Hong Kong protests.
Sources:
1. Aboluowang, July 7, 2019
https://www.aboluowang.com/2019/0707/1312159.html
2. Reclaim the Net, June 14, 2019
Hong Kong news outlet Apple Daily is under DDoS attack after protest coverage
RFI: Over Tens Thousand Wuhan Residents Protest against Waste Burning Power Plant
The residents of Yangluo Street, Xinzhou District, Wuhan, on the outskirts of Hubei Province, have been protesting on the streets because the authorities expressed their intention to build a large-scale waste burning power plant. Some media said that the number of protesters was more than ten thousand people. The local police used force to disperse the demonstrators and some people were reportedly injured. The protest started on June 28 and lasted until July 2 and 3 when images taken from the protest scene started to circulate on the Internet. According to the local residents, the authorities plan to build a power plant that can burn 4,000 tons of waste each day. The location of the plant is in an area with a population of over 300,000 people and there are two large size colleges. People are concerned about the toxic quality of the air from the plant and the fact that the authorities did not communicate with the locals about the project.
From the video and photos taken at the scene, it can be seen that the public protest went into the late evening. Thousands of people were on the streets. The uniformed police force is seen standing next to them. After a fight broke out, the police took away a number of residents. Some of them were injured and had blood flowing from their heads. Meanwhile there are inconsistent messages from the local officials. One official’s open letter said that the news about the power plant was fake news and there were no plans to build such a plant. However based on public information, in June, officials from Wuhan City responded to a question and stated that the existing landfill in the region of Yangluo Street would stop operating by the end of 2020 and would be replaced with a waste burning power plant that can burn 2,000 tons of waste each day.
Source: Radio France Internationale, July 6, 2019
http://cn.rfi.fr/20190706-%E6%AD%A6%E6%B1%89%E4%B8%87%E4%BA%BA%E4%B8%8A%E8%A1%97%E5%8F%8D%E5%AF%B9%E5%BB%BA%E7%84%9A%E5%8C%96%E5%8E%82-%E8%AD%A6%E6%96%B9%E5%BC%BA%E5%8A%9B%E6%B8%85%E5%9C%BA%E8%A7%81%E8%A1%80/
China’s Spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Ministry: The U.K. Foreign Minister Is Talking Nonsense
On July 3, after the U.K. Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, made comments about “serious consequences” if Beijing breaches the legally binding joint agreement between the U.K. and China over Hong Kong, Geng Shuang, the spokesperson for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry countered.
Xinhua summarized Geng’s statement as follows: Hong Kong affairs have to do purely with China’s internal affairs; the hope is that the United Kingdom will stop overestimating its capabilities to violently interfere in Hong Kong affairs.
Geng made the following statements in his answer to a reporter’s question on China’s response to Hunt’s comments.
“First, after Hong Kong was returned to China, all the rights and responsibilities that the U.K. had over Hong Kong, as defined in the Joint Declaration of the U.K. and China, were completed. Since July 1, 1999, China has been executing its sovereignty over Hong Kong following its Constitution and the Basic Law of Hong Kong. The U.K. has no sovereignty, administrative rights, or monitoring rights over Hong Kong. It is the self-inflated dream that the U.K. is playing as the ‘guardian’ of Hong Kong.
“Second, it is a sheer lie that the freedom of Hong Kong residents was obtained through the U.K.’s efforts. I remind Mr. Hunt, there was no democracy in Hong Kong under the British rule. It was (China) that guaranteed Hong Kong residents their democracy rights and their freedom.
“Third, the violent rush into the Legislation Council on July 1 is a severe law-violation event that breaks the law and damages the social order. It was like claiming black is white when Mr. Hunt says the Hong Kong government is ‘suppressing.’
“Last, I want to stress that Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affair. We resolutely will not allow any government, organization, or individual to brutally intervene. We hope the British government, especially Mr. Hunt, will not overestimate its own capability and violently interfere in Hong Kong affairs. It will be in vain.”
Source: Xinhua, July 3, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2019-07/03/c_1124706383.htm
The “Magical Prediction” of Hong Kong Police
A video titled “The ‘Magical Prediction’ of the Hong Kong Police” exposed several facts that indicate it was very likely that the Hong Kong police set up the Hong Kong protesters so they would enter the Legislative Council on July 1.
On the official video in which the police officer condemned the protesters for using metal material to damage the building and then rushed into the building, his watch showed the time to be 5:05. However, the protesters did not enter the Legislative Council until 9 p.m.
The video showed several middle-aged radical “protesters” who pushed a metal cart to break the glass doors, while the policemen inside the door were just calmly standing and watching. When a councilman tried to stop the action, a very radical “protester” simply pushed the councilman to ground. This protester’s face was fully covered, and he wore gloves. All these radical “protesters” later completely disappeared.
There were also some other awkward phenomena. The policemen inside the building set off a gas canister when there was no protester entering the building; then 4 minutes later, around 9 p.m., they just left. Five minutes later, the gate was broken and protesters came in.
Newsweek added other information, saying, “Pro-democracy internet users in Hong Kong are circulating a video they claim proves that Monday’s violent protests were allowed—and perhaps even encouraged—by the city’s police force in order to undermine the credibility of demonstrators.” They also “suggested that police-directed agent provocateurs may have been active among the protesters, perhaps even leading the attack on the Legislative Council building.”
Sources:
1. Newsweek, July 2, 2019
https://www.newsweek.com/hong-kong-protesters-legco-building-break-police-set-video-officer-statement-watch-1447038
2. YouTube, July 2, 2019