China news roundup / Nachrichten 2021-10-21
China's trade practices come under fire
"China said it was committed to deepening reform and opening up its economy.
[...] This December marks 20 years since China joined the WTO"
--- & for at least as long, we hear the same Chinese song about deepening reform & opening up.
Biden’s pick for China ambassador says ‘we cannot trust the Chinese’ on Taiwan
"“We certainly cannot trust the Chinese” on the issue of Taiwan, Burns said. “Our responsibility is to make Taiwan a tough nut to crack.”
He accused the Chinese government of being “an aggressor against India along their long Himalayan border, against Vietnam, the Philippines and others in the South China Sea, against Japan, in the East China Sea”.
[...] “Beijing has launched an intimidation campaign against Australia, and even more recently Lithuania
,” he said. “The PRC’s genocide in Xinjiang, its abuses in Tibet, its smothering of Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms and its bullying of Taiwan are unjust and must stop.”"
--- Sounds like he's a good choice for US ambassador. Sadly, we wouldn't hear anything like that from most ambassadors from EU countries. But at least the EU parliament has the courage to stand up to China:
"On Thursday, an overwhelming majority of the European parliament voted for a report supporting an increase in EU-Taiwan relations, guided by the EU’s one-China policy."
--- The EU's 'One-China policy' is bullshit, but the overall sentiment here is commendable.
"The adopted report also proposed changing the name of the EU’s de facto diplomatic presence in Taiwan from the “European Economic and Trade Office” to “European Union Office in Taiwan”."
--- Ouch. That would hurt the feelings of all Chinese. Would. Because it's rather improbable that the current EU Commission agrees to that. Although there are signs of change:
EU to ‘work with Taiwan’ despite China
"The EU wishes to enhance relations and cooperation with Taiwan within the framework of its “one China” policy, while strengthening their people-to-people ties, she said.
Exchanges between the two sides have also been expanded in that past few years to include human rights, trade and economic issues, she said.
“While enhancing ties with Taiwan, the EU also has to address China’s assertiveness and attempts to intimidate Taiwan’s like-minded partners,” Vestager said."
--- If Vestager's views are representative for the whole EU Commission that would be quite an improvement over the current China appeasement.
"Vestager also referred to the Lithuania-China rift that occurred after the Baltic nation pledged to bolster ties with Taiwan, saying that “Lithuania and all member states find themselves coerced for taking decisions that China finds offensive.”
[...] Calling for solidarity in the bloc, Vestager said the EU would “continue to push back these attempts and adopt appropriate tools, such as the anti-coercion instrument currently under preparation,” to respond to similar situations."
--- First time I hear proper support for Lithuania from EU officials.
COP26: Document leak reveals nations lobbying to change key climate report
"A number of countries argue in favour of emerging and currently expensive technologies designed to capture and permanently store carbon dioxide underground. Saudi Arabia, China, Australia and Japan - all big producers or users of fossil fuels - as well as the organisation of oil producing nations, Opec, all support carbon capture and storage (CCS)."
--- I suspect, this technology is one reason (beside creative bookkeeping) why China may think it would be possible to achieve CO2-neutrality by 2060. They probably plan to use carbon-capture plants to counter their still high emissions. Only problem is that these plants (at least for now) are very energy-intensive themselves.
China streaming service pulls Celtics games after Enes Kanter calls China's Xi 'brutal dictator'
""My message for the Chinese government is: free Tibet," Kanter, wearing a shirt featuring the Dalai Lama, said into the camera
[...] Kanter went on to call the situation in Tibet "cultural genocide.""
--- Ouch! That hurts the feelings of all Chinese, & the pockets of NBA officials. But I doubt that they could make him apologise for his stance. He seems to be fairly principled. Unlike LeBron James who would probably call him uneducated (& perhaps would want to send him to a Chinese 're-education' camp).
"Tencent, which streams NBA games online to the millions of fans in China, removed replays of past Celtics games and appeared to take Boston off the upcoming streaming schedule."
--- Was to be expected. & is probably only the beginning. Earlier today some Celtics social media accounts in China were still available. Would be surprising if it stays that way.
China Cuts Caixin From Approved Media, Curbing Influence
"The ouster of Caixin -- a financial news organization that has reported on official corruption, pollution issues and public anger at the government -- means its articles cannot appear on the internet platforms such as Sina.com that are popular ways for the Chinese public to consume news."
--- Caixin was the last major Chinese news source with somewhat independent reporting. It seems those times are largely over now. Because as far as I understand this, excluding Caixin from that list not only means that it is not to be quoted/linked to, but also that Caixin cannot do much original reporting anymore.
cf.: China Updates Rules on News Reposting
China: The patriotic 'ziganwu' bloggers who attack the West
"a new crop of bloggers known as the "ziganwu", whose rise in fame on Chinese social media has been inextricably linked with the ascendancy of Chinese nationalism.
Their name refers to the infamous "wumao" army of trolls who are paid to spread state propaganda - but the difference is that the "ziganwu" do it for free."
--- Not really that new, but coming to more prominence now, because the state media openly support & use them.
"While they may not be directly paid by the state, these influencers still benefit by having their profiles boosted in national media and using this recognition to build their personal brands, say analysts.
With increased readership, they can earn significant amounts from advertisements or paid content."
--- Besides, like foreign China shills, getting little goodies from state media, like paid travel & hotel stays. Like going to certain places in Xinjiang to show all those shiny, happy people.
""Sometimes the rules on what you can or cannot say are very murky," says Ms Koetse. "It can only take one Weibo post for these influencers to disappear.
"They might be helpful for official discourse as long as their personal convictions are in line with the official stance, but the moment they are seen as no longer useful, or perceived as going against [the government's] discourse - they will go.""
--- Being a nammie with strong convictions can bring you into conflict with the CCP. & then you get easily cancelled. Don't question the supremacy of the CCP!
Squid's Victory? China streaming site accused of copying Squid Game
"Chinese streaming giant Youku has come under fire for allegedly plagiarising Netflix hit Squid Game, after pushing promotional material for a new variety show called... Squid's Victory.
Like Squid Game, the show will see contestants compete in "large-scale kids' games". Even its posters are very similar to that of the Korean hit.
[...] Due to a work error, the first draft of the new Game's Victory show - which was shot down before - was mistakenly used in promotional activities at a trade fair"
--- Must have been a temporary worker... Plagiarising is totally uncommon in China, after all.
"Others said that they were "fed up" with how much Chinese producers plagiarised Korean content. Popular rap music competition show The Rap Of China, for example, has been criticised before for being a copy of South Korea's Show Me The Money"
--- A constant source of pain for Chinese nammies: Korean pop culture (from music to soap operas) has been very popular in China for at least a decade now.
Flights cancelled, schools closed as China fights virus outbreak
"on Wednesday, state-owned tabloid Global Times cautioned that the new virus cases in Inner Mongolia were likely to affect coal imports from Mongolia because of supply chain disruptions"
--- Doesn't look like the power crunch will end soon.
China’s national security threatened by Australian lobster smuggling, says new Hong Kong customs chief
"“On the surface, it is a simple matter of smuggling lobsters, but these activities undermine our country’s trade restrictions against Australia,” Ho told reporters.
“Stopping lobster smuggling is a very important part of protecting national security, so we will pursue it diligently.”"
--- Yes, those ugly foreign lobsters are highly sophisticated anti-communist subversion tools. Not to mention that they are obviously used by evil Western forces to spread disease among Chinese: China-linked disinformation campaign blames Covid on Maine lobsters
China tested two hypersonic weapons this summer, says report
7 in Hong Kong die from bacterial outbreak linked to freshwater fish, as experts caution market shoppers
China sets 2025 efficiency goals for energy-intensive industries
China Evergrande shares fall sharply after $2.6bn asset sale collapses
--- DW News: "Housing crisis in China: Evergrande shares tank after re-entering trade"
--- Today: "China May Be Spreading Disinformation To Americans Through Social Media"
--- WION: "Gravitas: An Indian diplomat was criticising Belt and Road, Her mike went off"
Vom Harvard-Absolventen zum Haftaufseher: So instrumentalisiert China einstige Austauschschüler
"Viele junge Chinesen, die bald die Parteielite im Land stellen werden, haben trotz ihrer Ausbildung im Westen keine Hemmungen, als Kollaborateure an einem der schwerwiegendsten Menschenrechtsverbrechen unserer Zeit mitzuwirken."
--- Schwachsinniger Titel. Aber die Tatsache, daß ehemalige Harvardstudenten jetzt in führenden Positionen den chinesischen Kulturgenozid in Xinjiang durchsetzen, zeigt doch sehr schön, daß die naive Idee, chinesische Studenten im demokratischen Ausland würden dazu beitragen, China zu öffnen, völlig daneben liegt.
In Einzelfällen mag das funktionieren, aber es ist halt nicht so einfach, jahrzehntelange Konditionierung zu durchbrechen, v.a. wenn die Chinesen auch im Ausland unter sich bleiben & sich fast ausschließlich aus chinesischen Nachrichtenquellen informieren.
Festnahmen und Milliardenschulden
"Das Ganze ist eine hochpolitische Angelegenheit, denn HNA war zwar formell ein privates Unternehmen, allerdings hatte das Firmenmanagement enge Beziehungen zur Führungsspitze der Kommunistischen Partei."
--- Privat mit chinesischen Charakteristiken, v.a. die Provinzregierung bzw. KPCh Hainan ist stark involviert.
Alibaba könnte chinesischen Chiphersteller Tsinghua Unigroup retten
"Die Tsinghua Unigroup selbst spricht von sieben potenziellen Investoren, nennt allerdings keine Namen. Eine endgültige Entscheidung über die Umstruktierung der Tsinghua Unigroup ist für Februar 2022 vorgesehen. NikkeiAsia berichtet, dass die Alibaba-Gruppe unter den sieben Firmen ist. Alibaba war bereits an einer Übernahme Unisplendours interessiert. Dieser Teil der Tsinghua Unigroup stellt Cloud-Infrastruktur bereit. Die Übernahme hätte Alibaba bis zu 7,7 Milliarden Dollar gekostet, wurde aber nicht vollzogen."
--- Wäre eine leichte Überraschung, käme Alibaba zum Zuge. Die Prozessorentwicklung ist Staatsziel & von daher wird die KPCh im Falle eines Falles Staatsunternehmen favorisieren. Andererseits hat man Alibaba inzwischen doch wieder unter der Knute. Mal abwarten...
