May 2020 – Page 3 – Chinascope

Public Opinion: A Tsinghua Professor Criticized the CCP’s Handling of the Coronavirus and Called for Political Reform

From May 21 to May 27 and May 22 to May 28, respectively, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is holding its “Lianghui,” or the “Two Conferences,” which stands for the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (NCPPCC). The “Lianghui” is a rubber stamp process to show there is “democracy” in China: the representatives of the people in the country can review, approve, and comment on the work of the central government and can make decisions about the personnel in the committees of the NPC and the NCPPCC.

Around the same time, Xu Zhangrun, a Tsinghua Professor, wrote a lengthy article, listing the CCP’s errors in handling the coronavirus, running the country, and holding a prejudiced ideology. He called for political reform and true democracy in China. His article was widely spread on the Internet though the CCP continues to delete it.

Professor Xu’s article makes the following main points:

(The Regime’s) Politics is (to rule by) Fear, to (Survive) Disasters, and to (have Being be the) Savior
There is an Interdependence between the Savage State and Totalitarian Politics
(Although it is a Big Country, China Is Only) a Small Country in Human Civilization
(The Concept that the CCP Promotes) a “Community of a Shared Future for Mankind” No Longer Exists
Ideological Prejudice is opposed to a Rational State of Good Governance
A Political Foundation (should be) Based on Truth and Responsibility

On the last point, Xu further listed eight points for the government to start implementing, to “avoid the disaster from happening again”:

Reveal the true history, completely investigate the cause and the origin of the novel coronavirus, and provide the actual infection data to the public.
Thoroughly go after the accountability including the highest political responsibility (of the officials) and order (them) to apologize to the people for their crimes and hand them over to justice.
Release all innocent citizens including citizen “reporters” (people who reported the true pandemic outbreak situation on their own since the news reporters of the government-controlled media were not allowed to do so), human rights attorneys, religious leaders, and people who were against the authorities’ violence; stop persecuting university professors who tell the truth.
Select a site in Wuhan to build a “2020 Crying Wall,” engraving the names, gender, and birth and death dates of all victims of this pandemic.
Select a site in Wuhan to build a “Righteous People Statue” for the eight whistleblowers (they told others about the Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan but the authorities punished them) and for the one person “who handed out the whistle” (referring to Aifen who provided the infection information to the whistleblowers) to promote citizen’s integrity and public justice.
Require the government to set up a special fund for the orphans whose parents died of coronavirus or died for treating the virus; however, this fund should not cover the orphans of the Internet police who died from overwork from deleting people’s posting on the Internet.
Establish “Dr. Li Wenliang’s Day,” or China’s “Freedom of Speech Day,” to let all citizens remember the Constitution’s declaration of citizens’ rights to freedom of speech.
Stop the Internet policing policy; remove the Internet Information Office’s power to violate citizen’s privacy and freedom of speech and power to admonish teachers, doctors, and writers for their thoughts; establish a law to expose officials’ assets; abolish all CCP organizations and their affiliated organizations in academic and education institutes; immediately stop the nationwide practice of forced-abolition of people’s homes and return the ownership of land back to the citizens (the CCP claims that the land belongs to the government). Further, stop the ban on establishing private media and non-CCP parties and establish a one-person-one-vote system. In all, start political reform and publish a political reform timetable.

China Pumps US$22.5 billion into its Chipmaker SMIC

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), headquartered in Shanghai and incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is a Chinese semiconductor foundry company. On May 15, the Hong Kong-listed chip maker announced that two China state-backed funds injected a total of US$22.5 billion into its wafer factory that will help SMIC produce advanced chips.

As the Trump administration has moved to block global chip supplies to blacklisted telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies, which is gradually shifting its own wafer design and production from Taiwan based TSMC to SMIC in response to the possibility of more restrictive measures, China is betting the local chip foundry can help reduce the country’s reliance on US technology.

The plant has the capacity to produce 6,000 14-nanometre wafers a month and plans to boost that to 35,000. After the capital infusion, the SMIC plant’s registered capital jumped from US$3.5 billion to US$6.5 billion. The chip maker’s stake in the facility will drop from 50.1 per cent to 38.5 per cent, according to the company.

Source: Central News Agency, May 17, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202005170185.aspx

Briefings | | May 23, 2020 | US-China Relations

On Divine Intervention – Part II – Can Man Discern Evil?

By Nathan Li and A. Freeman

We saw in Part I of this series that, from 900 to 200 BC the Divine sent His emissaries to inspire, to teach, and to guide man in His ways, and, at times, to show him the consequences of his acts. Continue reading →

Analyses | | May 22, 2020 | Government/Politics Opinion US-China Relations

China’s Spy Activities in Belgium

The State Security Service, the Veiligheid van de Staat (VSSE), a Belgian state intelligence agency, recently spoke out about China’s spy activities in the military and scientific arena posing threats to EU security.

In October 2019, Belgium declared Song Xinning, the Confucius Institute president of the Free University of Brussels (VUB), as persona non grata, revoking his visa and banning his entry into the 26 European Schengen states for 8 years. During his ten-year tenure at VUB, Song had engaged in espionage activities for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and was regarded as “sabotaging national security.”

“As part of the ambitious ‘Made in China 2025’ project, which provides for rapid development of know-how in China itself, all available means must be used to import as much knowledge as possible into China,” the VSSE told the EUobserver, a not-for-profit online newspaper based in Brussels, when it was describing China’s goal of siphoning information from abroad. “These include formal knowledge transfer programmes, such as exchanges between researchers, joint ventures, and takeovers of companies. In some cases, China also does economic espionage.”

On May 7, the EUobserver disclosed some details of some confidential VSSE reports dated from 2010 to 2016, which stated that Chinese spies have targeted Belgian biological warfare and vaccine experts, British pharmaceutical giant and vaccine-maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Belgium and Belgian high-tech firms.

VSSE is also concerned about the China Belgium Technology Centre (CBTC), a Chinese-funded “smart valley” in Louvain-la-Neuve. It houses 23 Chinese and Belgian firms in the life sciences, IT, and high-tech manufacturing sectors, and will house up to 800 Chinese high-tech specialists and entrepreneurs when it is completed in late 2021. “And even if the CBTC itself was not a front for Chinese intelligence, it could be used by the MSS (Ministry of State Security) as a back door in the future, the VSSE warned.”

On May 15, the French newspaper Le Monde, also reported on long-held VSSE suspicions that Chinese intelligence had installed surveillance equipment in Malta’s EU embassy in Brussels in 2007, when a Chinese firm renovated the building.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 15, 2020.
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/cl-05152020125714.html
EUobserver, May 6, 2020
https://euobserver.com/science/148244

Briefings | | May 21, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

World against the CCP: China Became the Target at the World Health Assembly

An article from Radio Free Asia stated that Beijing was isolated at the World Health Assembly (WHA) that was held on May 18 and 19, 2020. It mentioned several points:

1. A proposal, initiated by Australia, drafted by the European Union, and signed by 122 countries including Russia, Japan, and Nigeria requested an “independent investigation” into the origin and spread of the novel coronavirus. All 194 member countries, including China, voted yes and passed the resolution. The article commented that the reason the Beijing supported the resolution was that it changed its strategy after failing in a direct confrontation against the world. It will now join the investigation team, with the hope to alienate and instigate member countries and to muddle the investigation by changing the investigation site, the objectives, and the methods, to get itself out of having any accountability.

2. Xi Jinping promised to donate 2 billion dollars to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the next two years. John Ullyot, the Spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement that China’s commitment “is a token to distract from calls from a growing number of nations demanding accountability for the Chinese government’s failure to meet its obligations.”

3. The article also stated that, despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) global propaganda campaign, it has ended up being in a worsened situation of isolation. It mentioned a few things that the CCP didn’t anticipate:

The entire world, including countries that used to have a good relationship with Beijing, aligned with the U.S. (against the CCP) as one side.
Russia joined the alliance despite China’s offer of substantial financial support to Russia when it was boycotted by the U.S. and Europe.
African countries, who used to be the CCP’s good friends, jumped uniformly to the opposite side, with Nigeria being the leader and demanding 200 billion dollars in compensation. The African League also asked for compensation.
WHO Director-General Tedros had a dramatic change. He supported the “investigation” request and even proactively requested a review of whether to invite Taiwan to attend the assembly.

Monthly Archives: May 2020 - 3. page

China Pumps US$22.5 billion into its Chipmaker SMIC

On Divine Intervention – Part II – Can Man Discern Evil?

China’s Spy Activities in Belgium

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