Government/Politics – Page 14

Japan Rebuts Claim by Beijing Regarding Statement by Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba on Taiwan-China Reunification

Following a meeting in Tokyo on March 21, 2025, between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a clarification contradicting a claim by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had published text on its website stating that Ishiba had said he “respects China’s stated position” on China-Taiwan reunification; the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that Ishiba had made such a statement.

The disputed text on the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website stated “The Japanese side fully recognizes the importance of the four political documents between Japan and China, respects China’s stated position, and is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China to promote the development of bilateral relations, bringing greater benefits to the people of both countries.” Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “Prime Minister Ishiba did not make such a statement” in regard to the phrase “respects China’s stated position.” The Japanese Ministry has lodged a protest with Beijing.

As of this writing, China’s Foreign Ministry website has not removed the text that was inserted into Ishiba’s statement. Instead, China’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that Japan should “adhere to the four China-Japan political documents” at a press conference on March 24, 2025. At the conference, a reporter for the China Review News Agency asked Guo for China’s position on the “four China-Japan political documents.” Guo said that those documents, including the 1972 China-Japan Joint Statement and the 1978 China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, “constitute legally binding guidelines for bilateral relations.“ He further stated, “The historical context and legal basis clearly demonstrate that adhering to the One-China principle is a solemn political commitment and an international legal obligation that Japan must uphold.” “The rhetoric such as ‘a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency’ and claims that the China-Japan Joint Statement lacks legal binding force’ severely undermine the political foundation of China-Japan relations are not only completely wrong but also extremely dangerous. We urge Japan to honor its commitments, handle the Taiwan issue prudently, and take concrete actions to sustain the momentum of improving China-Japan relations.”

Sources:
1. China News Agency (Taiwan), March 22, 2025
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/202503220243.aspx
2. China’s Foreign Affairs’ Ministry website, March 21, 2025
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/wjb_673085/zzjg_673183/xws_674681/xgxw_674683/202503/t20250321_11580043.shtml

3. China’s Foreign Affairs’ Ministry website, March 24, 2025
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/202503/t20250324_11580936.shtml

Briefings | | March 26, 2025 | @CS Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Chinese Supporter of Taiwan Reunification Faces Deportation from Taiwan

A mainland-born Chinese Liu Zhenya who lived in Taiwan after marrying a Taiwanese resident was denied residence in Taiwan on grounds that she promoted a “Chinese takeover of Taiwan by force.”

Liu runs a Chinese social media channel on Douyin (a platform similar to TikTok, owned by ByteDance and operated in mainland China). Her channel, called “Yaya in Taiwan (亚亚在台湾),” has 475,000 followers. Among the over 300 videos she has posted, the most-watched one, with 2.77 million views, featured her daughter loudly shouting, “I am Nezha, and I’m here to take you all in!” {Editor’s Note: Nezha, a child-god from a Chinese fairy tale, was good at fighting. The statement hinted taking Taiwan over by force.}

The rest of Liu’s content mainly consists of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “positive energy” videos promoting messages such as “Cross-strait reunification,” “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and “Returning to our mother’s embrace is the more realistic choice” {a euphemism for Taiwan returning to mainland Chinese control}.

Born in Hunan Province, Liu married and had two children in China. She divorced her husband and married a Taiwanese man, thus becoming a “mainland spouse.” This status allowed her to obtain a residence permit in Taiwan.

In Taiwan, she gave birth to her daughter, her third child, who is legally Taiwanese. She divorced her Taiwanese husband (and there were suspicions that the marriage was fake to begin with and that she married only to get Taiwanese residence status). She returned to mainland China and remarried her original husband. Then she came back to Taiwan to raise her Taiwanese-born daughter, and she managed to bring her parents, her mainland-Chinese husband, and her two mainland-born children from mainland China to Taiwan.

On March 15, Taiwan’s immigration authorities revoked Liu’s dependent residence permit because of her “Yaya in Taiwan” channel’s open advocacy for forceful reunification of mainland China and Taiwan.

After her permit was revoked, Liu immediately deleted her previous videos and started to praise Taiwan’s culture, people, and medical system on her channel. She said in a media interview that her three children were too young and that she needed to stay in Taiwan with them. She filed an appeal against the immigration authorities’ decision. Taiwan’s High Court sustained the authorities’ decision after watching her three videos promoting the “CCP’s reunification with Taiwan by force.” Liu is now required to leave Taiwan by March 25.

Some netizens left sarcastic remarks on the internet regarding Liu’s enjoyment of the benefits of life in Taiwan while supporting the CCP. One such comment read, “The most remarkable consensus in this incident is that both people on the mainland and in Taiwan unanimously support her return to the mainland; but the most ironic part is that the only person who doesn’t want to go back is her, despite her continuously saying that Taiwan should be returned to mainland China’s embrace.”

Two other “Mainland Spouses” who also advocated for “reunification with Taiwan by force” are also facing deportation.

Sources:
1. China Digital Times, March 22, 2025
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/716799.html
2. X Platform, March 23, 2025
https://x.com/xinwendiaocha/status/1903754992911302969
3. Wenxue City, March 22, 2025
https://bbs.wenxuecity.com/mychina/1093226.html
4. Yahoo, March 22, 2025
https://tw.news.yahoo.com/亞亞聲請停止執行被駁回-限3-25前離境-另2中配也遭廢居留許可-003641063.html

Briefings | | March 26, 2025 | @CS Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

CCP Scolds Li Ka-shing for Selling Panama Port Operations to the US

On March 13, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council reposted a commentary from Ta Kung Pao titled “Don’t Be Naïve, Don’t Be Confused.” Ta Kung Pao is the CCP’s mouthpiece in Hong Kong.

The article’s key points are as follows:

“Currently, the world is undergoing accelerated changes unseen in a century, and the strategic rivalry between China and the United States is becoming increasingly intense. The situation is turbulent, with high winds and rough waves. The U.S. views China as its primary competitor and is making every effort to contain and suppress China’s development.

Recently, a particular development has sparked strong reactions from various parties: Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings Limited announced that it had reached a preliminary agreement with a consortium led by BlackRock to sell 80 percent of its assets in Hutchison Ports. This deal involves transferring ownership and operation of 43 ports and related logistics networks across 23 countries—including the Balboa and Cristóbal ports at both ends of the Panama Canal.

Netizens have widely criticized and condemned this transaction and CK Hutchison, viewing it as a spineless surrender driven solely by profit, disregarding national interests and betraying the Chinese people. Such public sentiment is entirely understandable.

Faced with a matter of such great importance and principle, the company in question must think carefully. It must seriously consider the nature and key implications of this issue and reflect on which stance it should take and whose side it should stand on.”

Source: Sina, March 16, 2025
https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-03-16/doc-inepuytu1080379.shtml

Briefings | | March 22, 2025 | @CS Government/Politics US-China Relations

American Students Share Experiences Regarding CCP-Organized Exchange Program

During his visit to the U.S. in November 2023, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping announced in San Francisco that China would invite 50,000 American youths to visit China for “exchange and study.”

Two students from Duke University shared their experiences after participating in a CCP-organized exchange camp last summer. Kyle Abrahm said, “Every city we visited had some kind of innovation museum. When you walked into these museums, they were spotless, and besides the tour guides, we were the only people there. That’s when I started to feel that everything was artificially staged and controlled because we didn’t actually experience any real cultural exchange. What we got was exactly what the regime wants to show us.” He added, “The guides always talked about China’s strengths, China’s resilience, and China’s innovation: ‘Look at what we are doing,’ and they constantly compared their data to the U.S. It all felt like they were trying to say, ‘This is how we are beating the U.S.’”

Matthew Rodriguez recounted an incident during a discussion at the Kunshan Chinese Opera Museum. An American student raised a question about Shen Yun Performing Arts, a group whose performers are mainly practitioners of Falun Gong that showcases traditional Chinese culture predating the CCP’s rule. (Editor’s Note: the CCP has been persecuting Falun Gong for 26 years since 1999.) The Chinese hosts quickly avoided the sensitive topic, which then led to an argument at the event.

Source: Epoch Times, March 10, 2025
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/25/3/10/n14454651.htm

Briefings | | March 14, 2025 | @CS Government/Politics US-China Relations

Veteran Journalist on Structure of CCP State Media Control Mechanism

A veteran journalist who worked for over 20 years at China’s largest financial media group, serving as the head of the news center’s reporting department, recently gave an interview with New Tang Dynasty Television on the topic of the Chinese state media’s extensive censorship and fake news practices.

He categorized China’s media landscape into four major sectors:

Traditional Media – This includes newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. These are controlled by various levels of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda departments in a top-down hierarchical structure, where each level monitors the one below it, ultimately leading to self-censorship.
State-Run Internet Media – This refers to the websites of major state-controlled media outlets. These platforms operate under the same strict supervision as traditional media.
Privately-Owned News Websites – While these websites do not have a direct government organization overseeing them, they fall under the control of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). The CAC put pressure on website owners, who in turn instruct their editors on what content is acceptable, effectively enforcing censorship through an indirect but systematic approach.
Independent (Social Media a.k.a. “Self-Media”) Platforms – This sector appears relatively free on the surface, as it lacks an official regulatory body. However, platforms like WeChat implement strict content review mechanisms and follow CAC directives. As a result, accounts and groups are frequently deactivated. “I myself have had my accounts deactivated four or five times, which is considered relatively few. Some of my friends have been banned more than 20 times,” the journalist stated.

Source: Epoch Times, March 9, 2025
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/25/3/8/n14454037.htm

Briefings | | March 14, 2025 | Government/Politics

Xinhua: Nezha 2 Sets New Tone for CCP’s “Culture Going Abroad” Effort

{Editor’s Note: The Chinese animated movie “Nezha 2” reportedly generated $2 billion in box office revenue in China. However, there have been reports that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took measures to boost viewership of the movie by ordering organizations and companies to take all their employees to watch it. The CCP is now pushing the movie to the global market.
Regarding the movie’s content, some criticized it on the following grounds: though the movie was based on Chinese legend of divine powers, it twisted the traditional stories around and promoted the idea that an individual beings can determine their own fate by disregarding the will of the divine.}

An article by Xinhua News Agency praised the movie for setting a new benchmark achievement for the CCP’s “culture going abroad” initiative.

After becoming the highest-grossing film in Chinese cinema history and setting a new global record for the highest box office earnings in a single market, Nezha: Rebellion of the Demon Child (hereinafter referred to as Nezha 2) has officially embarked on its journey to international markets. Starting from February 13th, Nezha 2 will be released in multiple countries and regions, including Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Li Wei, Chairman of 1905 Pictures, believes that by reconstructing narratives and leveraging innovative technology, the film breathes new life into ancient mythology. Its success validates the effectiveness of the “traditional culture + contemporary expression + industrialization” model. “It can be said that Nezha 2 has ‘found a balance between Eastern aesthetics and global storytelling,’ offering a cultural example that coexists beautifully alongside Hollywood animation narratives. Chinese animated films are striving to transition towards ‘cultural resonance.’”

“We need to creatively tell Chinese stories and convey China’s voice by integrating cultural uniqueness with an international perspective,” Li Wei added.

Source: Xinhua, February 14, 2024
https://app.xinhuanet.com/news/article.html?articleId=cfe535905f5d4271327c39f0de0c5e3a

Briefings | | March 14, 2025 | Government/Politics

Wang Yi Discusses CCP’s Interpretation of UN Resolution 2758

At the press conference of the National People’s Congress on March 7, 2025, Chinese Politburo member and Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that the United Nations’ (UN) General Assembly Resolution 2758 did not clearly define Taiwan’s international position, countering the view held by most Western nations.

According to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, Wang offered his own interpretation of the resolution: “In 1971, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed Resolution 2758, restoring all legitimate rights of the People’s Republic of China at the UN and expelling representatives of the Taiwan authorities from all UN bodies. This resolution fully settled China’s representation issue including Taiwan, and completely ruled out the possibility of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan.'”

Wang claimed that Taiwan’s only designation at the UN is “Taiwan Province of China” and that Taiwan has never been, and will never be, a country. He warned that advocating for “Taiwan independence” equates to splitting China, that supporting such a movement constitutes interference in China’s internal affairs, and that condoning it undermines stability in the Taiwan Strait.

Wang Yi stated that the view held by Western countries is “a blatant challenge to the authority of the United Nations and the post-war international order,” calling such views “absurd and dangerous.” He said that “those spreading such views need to brush up on basic knowledge.”

Source: China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, March 7, 2025
https://www.mfa.gov.cn/wjbzhd/202503/t20250307_11570172.shtml

Briefings | | March 14, 2025 | Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Government/Politics - 14. page