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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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Xinhua: China’s Micro Leverage Ratio Hit New High

Xinhua reported that, by the end of the first quarter of this year, China’s Micro Leverage Ratio increased by 5.1 percent over last year, reaching 248.8 percent. The record that this set establishes a new high. The Micro Leverage Ratio is defined as the total government debt over the GDP.

This reason for the new high ratio is the slowdown of the increase in fiscal income. On the one hand, the fiscal income increase ratio went down to 2.9 percent in April, the lowest since 2016. On the other hand, government spending is increasing at a faster rate. The actual deficit ratio, defined as (general public fiscal spending minus general public fiscal income), when divided by GDP, has increased to 4.5 percent, the highest in the past ten years.

Therefore, local governments have resorted to issuing bonds to raise money thus hiking up the debt ratio.

Source: Xinhua, June 14, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/money/2019-06/14/c_1210159511.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Lianhe Zaobao: Multiple Chinese Exporters Fined for Forging Labels in Cambodia

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the U.S. authorities have caught and fined multiple Chinese exporters because they were found to have forged Country of Origin labels. These Chinese exporters shipped goods to Cambodia where they forged “Made in Vietnam” labels in the Cambodia Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone. This is in line with an earlier report that Vietnamese Customs discovered several cases of illegal labels designed to bypass the new U.S. tariffs. The U.S. Embassy confirmed this incident. The Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone is located 210 kilometers west of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. It’s an economic development zone that Cambodia and China constructed jointly. It is one of the symbolic projects of China’s One Belt One Road initiative. According to the World Bank Group, the Cambodian economy saw a 7.5 percent increase in 2018 due to the strong growth of exports to the United States.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, June 20, 2019
https://beltandroad.zaobao.com/beltandroad/news/story20190620-965996

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

China’s Movie Market Saw First Box Office Decline in Nine Years

The China Business Journal recently reported from the Shanghai International Film Festival that statistics showed that the Chinese movie market saw a box office year-over-year decline of 6.35 percent in the first five months of this year. During this period, the national total viewership also declined from 689 million people to around 589 million. This is the first time since 2011 for the Chinese movie market to suffer a decline in box office revenue. One of the reasons for this dramatic decline was that, in 2018, the entertainment industry was hit with tax related scandals. Domestic movie makers were affected when the stock they held lost 72 percent of its value in the stock market. Another major issue is that half of the movies in the Chinese market were from the United States. The current poor relationship between China and the U.S. led to a government intervention which affected U.S. movie distribution in China. Even domestic movies were limited in choosing themes and stories.

Source: China Business Journal, June 16, 2019
http://www.cb.com.cn/index/show/zj/cv/cv13451781268/p/1.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

BBC Chinese: Former Interpol Chairman Meng Hongwei Pled Guilty

BBC Chinese recently reported that, according to the Chinese authorities, former Interpol Chairman Meng Hongwei pled guilty to the charge of accepting bribes. Meng reportedly admitted in a Chinese court that he accepted a total of US$2 million in bribes. This happened between 2005 and 2017 when he was a member of the Chinese Communist Party branch at the Chinese Ministry of Public Safety, and when he was serving the positions of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Safety and the Director of the Chinese Marine Police Bureau. Meng was the first Chinese who became the Chairman of Interpol. His arrest was part of the large-scale anti-corruption movement that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been pushing. Meng’s wife, Grace Meng, received French political asylum this May and claimed her husband’s arrest was solely based on political grounds. Meng resigned from his post as the Chairman of Interpol.

Source: BBC Chinese, June 20, 2019
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-48703362

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Epoch Times: Mainland Banned “Politically Sensitive” Songs that Anti-Extradition Bill Protesters Sang in Hong Kong

The mainland banned a song a Hong Kong artist sang after he made a statement in support of the anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong. Well-known singer Lo Ta-yu, who was born in Taiwan and went to Hong Kong in order to advance his career, recently held a concert at the Taipei Arena. During the concert on June 16th, Lo sang the song “Queen’s Road East” which was co-produced with Lin Xi, Hong Kong lyricist, in 1991. Because this song reflects the Hong Kong people’s sense of uneasiness in the face of the transfer of sovereignty, Beijing considers it to be politically sensitive. During the concert, Lo said the following words three times: There are “certain things you can’t rush.” Lo told the media after the concert that he was expressing his view about the anti-extradition bill protests. He said that he felt disheartened when the Hong Kong government used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and Bean bag rounds to target the protesters. On June 19, Chinese netizens noticed that the song “Queen’s Road East” was removed from among the major music sites in the mainland including QQ, NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou Music, and Xiami Music. In addition, the mainland removed “Pearl of the Orient,” another song that Lo produced and also, “Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies” by Beyond, which thousands of protesters sang during the anti-extradition bill protest.

According to hk01.com, Hong Kong’s online media, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Les Misérables was a song widely sung during the protest but it was banned in China. After hearing protesters sing his song, Herbert Kretzmer, who wrote the lyrics of the song wrote to the Daily Mail saying how humbling that his Les Misérables hit has helped (the Hong Kong people) to fight for freedom.

Source:
1. Epoch Times, June 23, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/6/23/n11341454.htm
2. Daily Mail, June 19, 2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7160409/How-humbling-Les-Miserables-hit-helped-fight-freedom.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Large Scale Rally in Taiwan to Say No to CCP “Red Media” and to Safeguard Democracy in Taiwan

According to Radio France Internationale, on Sunday June 23, a large number of Taiwanese gathered in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taiwan for a rally in protest against the infiltration of the mainland’s “Red Media” and to safeguard democracy in Taiwan. Chen Chih-han, a Taiwan Internet celebrity and Huang Kuo-chang, a Taiwan politician and member of New Power Party organized the rally. Despite the rainy weather, tens of thousands of people, many of whom were young people, attended the rally. In addition to voicing their opinions against “CCP totalitarianism” and the infiltration of the (CCP’s) “red media,” the organizers also called for the Taiwan government to impose necessary restrictions on issuing media licenses. Speakers at the rally vowed that Taiwan will not allow mainland media to influence Taiwan. Others criticized that, as mainland companies have entered the Taiwan market, they have also affected Taiwan’s Media. People in Taiwan should be on guard against the infiltration of the “red media.” Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said earlier that the gathering expressed concern about the CCP’s infiltration into the media in Taiwan and she believed that it would also effectively raise everyone’s awareness.

Source: Radio France Internationale, June 23, 2019
http://cn.rfi.fr/20190623-%E5%8F%B0%E6%B9%BE%E6%B0%91%E4%BC%97%E5%A4%A7%E6%B8%B8%E8%A1%8C-%E6%8B%92%E7%BB%9D%E7%BA%A2%E8%89%B2%E5%AA%92%E4%BD%93%E6%B8%97%E9%80%8F/

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Epoch Times: CCP Launched Campaign to Eliminate “Worship of Foreign Things”

The Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently launched a campaign to stop the “worship of foreign things” and to require the locals to change the name of any location or any building that contained a “foreign name.” It has expanded across the mainland in regions including Guangdong, Ningxia, Shanxi, Zhejiang, Shandong, Sichuan, Fujian, Hainan, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia. In Hainan province, it listed 84 areas that required a name change. One of those was the Vienna Hotel, which was named after the capital of Austria. The Vienna Hotels company raised an objection stating that the name was legally authorized in China. The hotel chain has 15 Hotels in Hainan and 2,500 hotels in the mainland. In Zhejiang province, an apartment complex named “Manhattan” and one called “Europe” were ordered to change their names. Moreover, in Fujian province, the government even tried to change the names of the historic mountains because the names sounded “odd.” A number of overseas Chinese media reported the news, calling it a “waste of money and resources” and stated that the campaign received wide criticism and resistance. Netizens in China also posted comments on the Internet. One posting said, “What about Alibaba? Isn’t this worshiping Arabian culture?” Others wrote “the cultural revolution is back!” … “If a foreign name needs to be changed, how about changing Marxism, Communism and the Communist Party because all of them came from overseas.”

Source: Epoch Times, June 23, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/6/23/n11341557.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics