{Editor’s Note: Xiang Songzuo, a Chinese economist, professor at Renmin University, and former chief economist at the Agricultural Bank of China, gave a speech on December 18, 2018. Continue reading
Canada’s New Brunswick to Shut Down Confucius Institute
Canada’s Education Minister in the New Brunswick government, Dominic Cardy, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), that he is planning to terminate the Confucius Institute in New Brunswick by June out of concern that teachers only teach what the Chinese Communist Party approves and the Institute presents a “one-dimensional” view of China. Cardy already sent the Confucius Institute a letter of intent to discontinue the program.
Cardy says he’s recently received five complaints from students who attended the Confucius Institute programs. Each told of topics in Chinese history that were off-limits to discussion, such as Taiwan’s recognition and Tibet. Cardy explained, “Their job is to create a friendly, cheerful, face for a government that is responsible for more deaths than nearly any other in the history of our species.”
New Brunswick is not the first case to remove the institute. In 2014 the Toronto District School Board voted to remove the institute from their schools following protests. McMaster University and the University of Manitoba have also removed the Confucius Institute from their campuses over freedom of education concerns.
Source: Radio Free Asia, February 27, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/lf-02272019093950.html
China Times: Digital Silk Road Is beyond One Belt One Road
Major Taiwanese newspaper China Times recently reported that the world has been focusing on China’s eye-catching, ambitious, One Belt One Road. However, beyond that grand plan, China has been pushing the Digital Silk Road in Southeast Asia. This effort can not only bring more potential business opportunities, but also grab strategic controls, such as international data streams. Without direct national support on both the policy end and the financial end, the Digital Silk Road is relatively “low key,” compared to the One Belt One Road program. However it is pushed by major Chinese technology heavyweights like Huawei, ZTE, Alibaba, and Tencent. All of these vendors have strong government backing. The Chinese technology firms have already unseated earlier leaders in the region such as Samsung, on online critical market segments like e-commerce, car sharing, mobile devices, and financial services. The Chinese reach in Southeast Asia also got heavily into the infrastructure level, including telecommunication and submarine fiber cables. A large amount of strategic information, such as government and financial communications, is flowing through physical channels implemented by Chinese providers. The “China Model” in the digital world is getting more and more popular among regional dictatorships.
Source: China Times, February 21, 2019
https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20190221003711-260408
Saudi’s Crown Prince Hails Cooperation with Beijing
On February 22, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Xi thanked Bin Salman for promoting the development of bilateral relations. Bin Salman praised the numerous remarkable achievements resulting from Chinese and Saudi cooperation. He expressed that one day would not enough for him to name them.
The Crown Prince launched the visit to Asian countries after the Khashoggi incident. Agence France-Presse quoted Najah al-Otaibi, a senior analyst at the pro-Saudi think-tank Arabia Foundation, “Riyadh wants to strengthen alliances in Asia — especially now — with the continuing fallout with the United States over Khashoggi’s murder as well as other issues and attempts by the EU to put Riyadh on a black list over money laundering allegations.”
Saudi Arabia had signed an agreement to form a $10 billion Saudi-Chinese joint venture to develop a refining and petrochemical complex in northeastern Liaoning province. Saudi also announced the signing of 35 non-binding memorandums of understanding, including deals related to energy, mining, transportation, and e-commerce. China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner.
Source: Radio France International, February 22, 2019
http://rfi.my/3huK.T
China’s Father of Quantum Could Not Attend AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize Ceremony
Well-known Chinese news site Sohu recently reported that Chinese scientist Pan Jianwei could not attend the ceremony of the Newcomb Cleveland Prize that The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) sponsored due to visa issues. The Prize is one of the oldest science prizes in America (established in 1923). Pan Jianwei, also known as China’s Father of Quantum, is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and The World Academy of Sciences. He currently serves as the Vice President of the University of Science and Technology of China. Pan is on the list of China’s Thousand Talents Program as well as the new 100 Reform Leaders list. Pan missed the ceremony because the “Administrative Processing” for his visa caused a timing delay.
Source: Sohu, February 21, 2019
https://www.sohu.com/a/296269413_115479?sec=wd
UDN: Huawei Dismissed Australia’s Decision on 5G
United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported that 100 days after the Australian government announced its ban on Huawei communications technology for the country’s 5G infrastructure, Australian communications heavyweight TPG Telecom declared it would give up building 5G infrastructure on the national level entirely. TPG had invested around US$2 billion in the 5G infrastructure based on Huawei technology. It is quite amazing that a single Chinese company can have such a profound impact on a fairly sizable section of a nation’s infrastructure. The Huawei ban was a major financial setback for the company, which may take quite some time to recover. Huawei’s Vice Chairman explained that Huawei did not expect to enter all markets. He even named Australia in his comment that the entire Australian telecommunications market is smaller than the size of Guangzhou Mobile and the New Zealand market is smaller than that of his hometown – a mid-sized city in Hunan Province, so “losing a few countries really doesn’t matter.”
Source: UDN, February 21, 2019
https://udn.com/news/story/7086/3657468
China’s Surveillance Industry Produces New Generation of Billionaires
The Chinese surveillance industry, a network of hundreds of millions of cameras, is generating more and more tycoons. The four billionaires with the largest amount of money have total assets exceeding $12.1 billion.
Gong Hongjia, founder of Hikvision, has a net worth of 7.2 billion. Dai Lin, chairman of the board of Tiandy’s, is estimated to have a personal wealth of 1.4 billion. The other two billionaires are Fu Liquan, the chairman of Dahua Tech, and Huang Li, the head of Wuhan Guide Infrared Co.
In 2015, Dai Lin developed the industry’s first infrared-free 24-hour full-color camera and in 2016 he launched the Ultra-Low Light Box Camera, which delivers high resolution color pictures in a dark environment at 0.0008 lux illumination. Dai Lin’s facial recognition system, which was developed in 2017, can achieve a recognition accuracy of more than 90 percent.
Human rights organizations worry that China’s use of surveillance technology for big data collection is used to strengthen social control and intensify the government’s suppression of civil rights. Out of national security considerations, the U.S. government has blacklisted products from Hikvision and Dahua from official purchases.
China plans to implement a comprehensive and real time public security monitoring network by 2020. According to official data, the Chinese government’s domestic security spending in 2017 accounted for 6.1 percent of total government spending, or about 1.2 trillion yuan (US$180 billion).
Source: Central News Agency, February 23, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201902230205.aspx
RFA: Foreign Students Spread Chinese Ideology in Western Countries
Recently, in two incidents, Chinese students used language on campus to attack Tibetans and Uighurs who differed from China’s official values. Radio Free Asia reported that some analysts have said foreign students have been spreading Chinese ideology in Western countries.
Chemi Lhamo, a Tibetan female student in Canada, was elected as the president of the student union, which triggered a reaction from the Chinese students. They accused Lhamo of being for “Tibetan independence” and posted harsh messages on Lhamo’s social media accounts.
In addition, at the Xinjiang Re-education Camp lecture that McMaster University recently held in Canada, a Chinese student suddenly screamed at the speaker, former Canadian Uyghur President Rukiye Turdush, and made a number of swearing slurs. Prior to the lecture, Chinese students in a WeChat group had discussed how to plan the disruption of the lecture and also informed the Chinese Consulate of the activity.
The two incidents seem to have had the effect, gradually, of increasing the outside world’s realization that China’s nationalist sentiments are on the rise in the West. Chinese students seem to be extremely sensitive when dealing with ethnic issues involving Tibet and Xinjiang.
The two incidents on the Canadian university campus are similar to the experience of Wang Qianyuan, a Chinese student at Duke University, and Yang Shuping, a Chinese student at the University of Maryland. Wang Qianyuan tried to reconcile a confrontation between a pro-Chinese government group and some independent Tibetan demonstrators; Yang Shuping publicly criticized China’s air quality. They all suffered from a large number of Chinese “Fenqing” (referring to Chinese youth who display a high level of Chinese nationalism) because what someone did or said did not conform to the choices of the Chinese government.
One interviewee told RFA that, even after the students who are brainwashed in China step outside of China, they continue to spread the Chinese (party) ideology on foreign campuses. These Chinese students stick with each other and have little interaction with the mainstream society in the country where they live. They interact with each other using Chinese social media. Their behavior will cause resistance and resentment against the Chinese community overseas because it is not easy for many Canadians, as in these cases, to tell the difference between Chinese government and Chinese foreign students. At the same time, it is not easy for these Chinese students to exercise their individual rights. When they study abroad, the Chinese government constantly monitors their behavior and activities.
Source: Radio Free Asia, February 15, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shaoshuminzu/hj-02152019095052.html