China Articles - August 1, 2021
Friends,
Below is this week’s edition of articles and reports on the malign activities of the Chinese Communist Party.
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
Kelley E. Currie, National Review, July 15, 2021
Ambassador Kelley Currie discusses how racism and repression fuel the Chinese Communist Party’s most egregious crimes and genocide against their minority populations.
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Schadenfreude over the uncovering of evidence of historic abuse of indigenous children is, of course, an inappropriate reaction from anyone, let alone a government. But it is especially rich coming from a government that stands recently and credibly accused of committing genocide against ethnic and religious minorities, and directed at a country that has so honestly and openly acknowledged its shortcomings. It is precisely China’s own brutal treatment of ethnic and religious minorities that explains why both Chinese propaganda and official outlets have jumped on the tragedy of Canada’s First Nations. In their eagerness to accuse the West of hypocrisy, the Party’s propagandists have highlighted the equivalence between the Chinese Communist Party’s deeply racist, neocolonialist policies in Tibet and Xinjiang and Canada’s long-discredited and abandoned racist policies toward indigenous people. Yet many of the same Chinese propagandists condemning Canada for taking First Nations children from their homes are vigorous defenders of such practices in Xinjiang and Tibet today. If such policies were “shocking and horrific” when Canada carried them out against First Nations in the 1800s, are they any less so when the Chinese Communist Party deploys them against Uyghurs and Tibetans in the 21st century?
The disturbing truth is that the Chinese Communist Party does not fundamentally object to the policies that led to the abuses at the residential schools. Their own policies in Xinjiang and Tibet violate the rights of minorities and are rooted in an imperative to imprint Han Chinese culture onto resistant ethnic nationalities. Just as the stated objective of the residential schools in Canada — as well as that of counterparts in the United States and Australia — was to “civilize” native peoples and help them conform to the dominant culture, so too have the CCP’s “modernization” and “poverty alleviation” efforts in Tibetan, Uyghur, and other minority areas sought to fundamentally alter the local culture in the name of Han-defined progress.
From the beginning of the People’s Republic, there has been an inherent tension between the minority policies espoused by the CCP and the reality of those policies as implemented by a vanguard party controlled by Han cadres. The CCP’s policy toward ethnic nationalities was initially modeled on those of the Soviet Union, which recognized both ethnic homelands and the right of self-determination. The five “major” minority nationalities — Tibetans, Hui, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and Manchurians — were granted “special administrative regions” instead of provinces and were initially promised that they could leave the PRC should they wish to do so. But just as Stalin found ethnic nationalities’ stubborn attachment to their identity a troublesome obstacle to the emergence of the New Soviet Man — not to mention their land too valuable to give away — Mao Zedong and his colleagues found that the Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongolians who previously had been lightly yoked (if at all) to Chinese rule were not especially interested in communism or in the CCP’s particular brand of modernization. This was especially true when it meant they could no longer practice their religion, speak their own language, follow their traditional pastoral lifestyles, and otherwise maintain their distinct non-Han culture.
Han chauvinism was deeply rooted in the colonizing project that the PRC perpetuated when it claimed these lands as intrinsic parts of China. Minority cadres were expected to learn Mandarin and conform to Chinese cultural expectations as part of their modernization. Meanwhile, members of the Han cadres that were sent to Tibetan, Uyghur, and other minority regions were charged with an explicitly civilizing mission rooted in tropes that painted ethnic minorities as indolent and backwards. This pervasive racism against non-Han peoples was such a problem that Mao regarded it as an existential threat to the CCP’s revolution. In a 1953 internal party document, he warned his colleagues against the dangers of “Han chauvinism”: What has come to light in various places in the last two or three years shows that Han chauvinism exists almost everywhere. It will be very dangerous if we fail now to give timely education and resolutely overcome Han chauvinism in the Party and among the people. The problem in the relations between nationalities which reveals itself in the Party and among the people in many places is the existence of Han chauvinism to a serious degree and not just a matter of its vestiges.
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Ultimately, China cannot escape the costs of racism and repression any more than any other country. As a great power, the United States should set the standard for dealing with the shameful aspects of our history in an honest and open manner. We should do so without defensiveness and with an emphasis on the self-correcting and redemptive aspects of democracy. The higher we set our own standards as democratic and open societies, the more obvious it will be that China’s current leadership and political system fall short and fail China’s people.
2. China Discovers the Limits of Its Power
Michael Schuman, The Atlantic, July 28, 2021
Michael Schuman in The Atlantic reports on the Chinese Communist Party’s failure to coerce Australia and what it shows for other democracies facing Beijing’s wrath.
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The most important lesson is also the most unexpected. On paper, the outcome of a China-Australia showdown looks like a foregone conclusion. China, a rising power with 1.4 billion people and a $14.7 trillion economy, should trample a country of 26 million with an economy less than one-tenth the size. But in a world wrapped in interdependent supply chains and complex political connections, smaller countries can wield a surprising armory of weapons. The U.S.-led global order, still held together by common interests, long-standing relationships, cold strategic calculation, and deeply felt ideals, isn’t ready to crumble before the march of Chinese authoritarianism either. The story instead offers a more intriguing twist: a China that badly wants to change the world but can’t even change an uppity neighbor.
Chinese leaders “are trying to make an example of us,” Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister, told me. “It is completely counterproductive … It is not creating greater compliance or affection.” Quite the opposite, he said: “It is confirming all the criticisms that people make about China.”
That should lift spirits in Washington. Australia is a key pillar of the network of alliances that upholds American dominance in Asia and the Pacific. If anything, Washington’s ties to Canberra are becoming even more important. Australia and the U.S. are members of the “Quad,” a loose grouping with Japan and India that largely seeks to contain China. What happens to Australia, therefore, has tremendous consequences for U.S. power in the Pacific.
3. Believe in Hong Kong, but watch the sky
Greater Bay Insight, July 23, 2021
4. Lawmakers: NBA players profiting from ‘slave labor’ in China
Phelim Kine, Politico ChinaWatcher, July 29, 2021
5. VIDEO – Senator Cotton Q&A During a Congressional Executive Commission on China Hearing
Senator Tom Cotton, YouTube, July 27, 2021
Katrina Northrop, Wire China, July 25, 2021
Katrina Northrop of The Wire China reports on how the Chinese Communist Party employs Facebook, a platform banned inside the People’s Republic of China, to manipulate opinions around the world.
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Many Facebook users, for instance, are likely unaware of the Chinese government’s huge presence on the platform. Facebook is not allowed to even operate inside China, and yet, somewhat amazingly, of the platform’s top 25 most “liked” accounts — a list that includes Shakira and Coca-Cola — four are Chinese state media outlets, according to Social Blade data. No news outlets from other countries even make the list.
The audience for these Facebook campaigns is primarily English speaking. According to a Stanford Internet Observatory report, “the seven main English-language Chinese state media Facebook pages have an average of 70.9 million followers, providing the Party apparatus considerable reach.” And because these pages often buy Facebook ads, they can “proactively target users worldwide … even if the users had never previously indicated interest in Chinese state communications.”
Plus, while it is harder to quantify the presence of inauthentic activity — and attribute it to the Chinese government — a wide range of misinformation experts told The Wire that Chinese state actors are undeniably engaged with covert campaigns on Facebook as well.
“They want to control the narrative,” says Albert Zhang, a researcher with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and the author of a recent report on the Chinese government’s information campaigns on Western social media. “Having official accounts on Facebook and buying ads is one way to do that. But their accounts use covert tactics as well, such as interacting with fake accounts to boost their messaging.” In the past two years, Facebook has taken action at least four times related to coordinated campaigns originating in China.
Authoritarianism
7. Telling China’s Story: The Chinese Communist Party’s Campaign to Shape Global Narratives
Hoover Institution, Cyber Policy Center, July 21, 2020
8. The End of Free Speech in Hong Kong
Timothy McLaughlin, The Atlantic, July 27, 2021
Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.
For 15 days this month, prosecutors and defense lawyers in a Hong Kong courtroom wrangled over the history and parsed words in this phrase. The back-and-forth included numerous forays into the obscure in an attempt to pinpoint the exact meaning of the slogan, created five years ago and popularized during 2019’s pro-democracy protests. There were diversions into ancient Chinese history and poetry; the former nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek made a cameo, as did the American civil-rights leader Malcolm X. The crux of the argument: Could these seven words transform a dangerous-driving incident more than a year ago into an act of terrorism and secession?
Today, a panel of judges said emphatically that they could and they had. It found Tong Ying-kit, the first person to face trial under the national-security law imposed by Beijing last year, guilty of terrorism and inciting secession. The motorcycle that Tong, a 24-year-old former waiter, was driving crashed into riot police on July 1, 2020, during a demonstration against the national-security law. A black flag bearing the popular protest mantra flew off the back of his bike when the crash occurred. Tong’s actions caused “great harm to society,” Esther Toh, one of the judges hearing the case, told the court. The protest banner attached to his motorcycle was intended “to incite others to commit secession by separating” Hong Kong from mainland China, according to the judges’ ruling. Tong will be sentenced at a later date. He faces the possibility of life in prison.
The ruling is one of the most significant in Hong Kong’s recent history, criminalizing one of the most popular slogans from the pro-democracy protests that swept across the city in 2019. It sets a precedent that the mere uttering of any phrase or singing of any song that irks the government can now be deemed as among the most grievous of crimes in Hong Kong—a precedent that can, and most likely will, be used against the dozens of government critics sitting in the city’s jails, awaiting their day in court for allegedly violating the security law. The verdict “simply marks the end of free speech in Hong Kong, as a pure expression of politically dissenting opinion can be punished for inciting secession,” Eric Yan-ho Lai, the Hong Kong law fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, told me shortly after the verdict was announced. “Undoubtedly, the verdict aligns with the government narratives on the slogan and thus criminalized anti-government speech.”
9. Under Xi Jinping, the number of Chinese asylum-seekers has shot up
The Economist, July 28, 2021
Between 2012 and 2020, the annual number of asylum-seekers from China rose from 15,362 to 107,864, according to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Since Xi Jinping took power at the end of 2012, 613,000 Chinese nationals have applied for asylum in another country. About 70% of them sought asylum in America in 2020. Many people arrive on tourist or business visas, and then make an asylum application; the ten-year visas for Chinese nationals introduced in 2014 eased the flow of Chinese people into America, says Yun Sun of the Stimson Centre, a Washington-based think-tank.
The increase has coincided with the rule of Mr Xi; he has governed China with an iron grip that gets tighter by the year. Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities have particularly felt the squeeze. Since 2017 at least 1m of them have been detained in concentration camps. According to former inmates and analysis of satellite imagery, prisoners are subjected to torture, forced sterilisations and indoctrination. Those outside the camps live under near-constant surveillance; some have been forced to work in factories in other parts of China. Hundreds, possibly thousands, have fled overseas.
10. China's Top Legislature to Discuss New Laws for Hong Kong, Macau
Bloomberg, July 27, 2021
11. Lawmakers Urge Coca-Cola, Visa, Others to Drop Support for Beijing Olympics
Daniel Flatley, Bloomberg, July 27, 2021
12. Hong Kong names investigator to probe fraud claims at Next Digital
Enoch Yiu and Denise Tsang, South China Morning Post, July 28, 2021
13. Foreign journalists harassed covering China floods, correspondents' club says
Reuters, July 27, 2021
Journalists from several media outlets covering recent floods in China were harassed online and by local residents, with staff from the BBC and Los Angeles Times receiving death threats, according to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC).
14. After the Floods, China Found a Target for Its Pain: Foreign Media
Li Yuan, New York Times, July 28, 2021
A party organization in Henan Province issued a call to arms on social media to confront a BBC journalist covering the disaster there. A day later angry residents surrounded, pushed and yelled at reporters from Deutsche Welle and The Los Angeles Times. Then nationalistic commentators and news organizations used the videos and screenshots of the confrontation to wage a large-scale online attack on journalists working for foreign news outlets.
They described the Western news media’s China coverage as “fake,” “biased,” “slandering” and “evil.” They alleged that foreign reporting on the devastating floods focused on the damage instead of the rescue efforts by the government and the public. They were unhappy these journalists dared to call for transparency and accountability.
15. Chinese businessman who challenged Beijing jailed for 18 years
Christian Shepard, Financial Times, July 28, 2021
A Chinese court has jailed prominent businessman Sun Dawu for 18 years, in a case that has underscored the Communist party’s growing intolerance for entrepreneurs that challenge its rule.
16. Wang Huning: the man behind Xi Jinping
Dylan Levi King, Spectator, July 26, 2021
Although Wang Huning has mostly remained in the shadows, his long out-of-print 1991 book on American politics has been resurrected in the wake of increasing Sino-American tensions. America Against America is a hearty rebuke of Atlantacist democratic institutions, written during Wang Huning's time in the United States. He depicts a society where foundational values were being replaced and fundamental teachings were undermined; the ritual of voting had become meaningless, he realised, given that the government was no longer responsive. The book is about the failure of American democracy but could more accurately be seen as a statement on Chinese politics — and that statement could be summed up as 'let's do the opposite of this'.
Much has been made of the rise of China as a threat to the West, but for Wang Huning, it is not 'America against China', but 'America against America'. China will not attain dominance through a military conflict with the West, but by outlasting them. The next-generation weapons that the People's Liberation Army scientists are surely developing will likely never be used, except in state media propaganda. The real advantage comes from theoreticians like Wang Huning, who produce the ideas that will ensure the durability of the Chinese system.
17. Hong Kong Brings Fresh Charges Against Occupy Central Founder Benny Tai
Luo Yanyun and Man Hoi Yan, Radio Free Asia, July 27, 2021
18. Police Stop Mourners Laying Wreaths Near Flood-Hit Zhengzhou Metro Tunnel
Xiaoshan Huang and Qiao Long, Radio Free Asia, July 27, 2021
Authorities in the flood-hit Chinese province of Henan are preventing relatives and supporters from laying public wreaths for those who died in the Zhengzhou flood disaster of July 20, RFA has learned.
Officials set up barriers at an entrance to the Shakou Road station on Zhengzhou's No. 5 Metro Line, as mourners got ready to mark the seventh day after the deaths of people trapped in trains, stations, and tunnels as the waters swept through the city.
At least 69 people have died in the Henan floods so far, with five reported missing, government officials said.
19. Xi Jinping visits Tibet border region, first by Chinese leader in years
Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu, July 27, 2021
20. AUDIO – Black cat or white cat? Reconciling the two Deng Xiaopings
Cindy Yu, Spectator, July 26, 2021
21. Foreign journalists harassed in China over floods coverage
Helen Davidson, The Guardian, July 26, 2021
Foreign journalists reporting on the aftermath of China’s flooding disaster have faced hostile confrontations in the street and been subjected to “vicious campaigns”, amid increasing nationalistic sensitivity to any negative portrayals of China.
22. How China Evergrande's debt woes pose a systemic risk
Clare Jim, Reuters, July 27, 2021
23. Rescuing China’s Muzzled Past, One Footnote at a Time
Chris Buckley, New York Times, July 25, 2021
For decades, Yu Ruxin, a businessman turned independent historian, scoured used book stalls across China for frayed, yellowing documents about the Cultural Revolution, a decade of mass political upheaval unleashed by Mao Zedong.
The fruit of his long quest was published in Hong Kong this month, a 1,354-page history that sheds new light on the central role of the military during the Cultural Revolution. The People’s Liberation Army is widely known to have been called in to impose order, but Mr. Yu also documents in meticulous detail how the military was also involved in purges and political persecution.
“Through the Storm,” a two-volume Chinese-language book buttressed with 2,421 footnotes, stands out all the more these days, when the Chinese authorities are determined to erase the darkest chapters of the party’s history.
24. ‘The virus is winning’: China’s rebuff of WHO’s new Covid probe alarms experts
Phelim Kine, Carmen Paun and Ruan Heath, Politico, July 25, 2021
25. AUDIO – Xi: Failed Reformer?
Dan Rosen and Jude Blanchette, ChinaTalk, July 10, 2021
26. Hong Kong Leader Jokes About Need for Law to Muzzle Media Leaks
Iain Marlow, Bloomberg, July 23, 2021
27. Chinese prosecutor charged in alleged plot to intimidate citizens to return to China
Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters, July 22, 2021
The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday accused a prosecutor employed by the Chinese government of traveling to the United States to direct a harassment campaign aimed at bullying Chinese residents to return home to face criminal charges.
28. Operation Fox Hunt: How China Exports Repression Using a Network of Spies Hidden in Plain Sight
Sebastian Rotella and Kirsten Berg, ProPublica, July 22, 2021
Launched in 2014, Operation Fox Hunt and a program called Operation Sky Net claim to have caught more than 8,000 international fugitives. The targets are not murderers or drug lords, but Chinese public officials and businesspeople accused — justifiably and not — of financial crimes. Some of them have set up high-rolling lives overseas with lush mansions and millions in offshore accounts. But others are dissidents, whistleblowers or relatively minor figures swept up in provincial conflicts.
China and the United States don’t have an extradition treaty, in part because of well-documented problems in China’s justice system. But U.S. authorities have tried to work with Chinese authorities to bring fugitives to justice. Some who were in the country illegally have been deported to their homeland. In other cases, China has supplied evidence to help American authorities convict legal immigrants for crimes, such as money laundering, committed in the U.S.
Nonetheless, over the past seven years Chinese fugitive hunters have stalked hundreds of people, including U.S. citizens and permanent residents, according to U.S. national security officials. Undercover repatriation teams enter the country under false pretenses, enlist U.S.-based accomplices and relentlessly hound their targets. To force them into returning, authorities subject their relatives in China to harassment, jail, torture and other mistreatment, sometimes recording hostage-like videos to send to the United States. In countries like Vietnam and Australia, Chinese agents have simply abducted their prey, whether the targets were dissidents or people accused of corruption. But in the United States, where such kidnappings are more difficult, Fox Hunt teams have relied mainly on coercion.
29. Reconsidering the History of the Chinese Communist Party
Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, July 22, 2021
Founded in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party has ruled the country since the Communist takeover in 1949, moving between harder and softer forms of authoritarianism. Today, in many ways, Chinese people live in the harshest climate since Mao’s death, as President Xi Jinping has cracked down on dissent, forced more than a million Uyghur people and other Muslim minorities into concentration camps in western China, and stripped Hong Kong of its autonomy. In a new book, “From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party,” Tony Saich, a professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a longtime China scholar, considers these developments in light of the history of the C.C.P. How, Saich wonders, did it transition from “a revolutionary party to a ruling party,” and what has allowed it to reach its current state under Xi?
Environmental Harms
30. As China Boomed, It Didn’t Take Climate Change Into Account. Now It Must.
Steven Lee Myers, Keith Bradsher and Chris Buckley, New York Times, July 26, 2021
31. Can America Trust China to Fight Climate Change?
Sam Geall, Rebecca Peters, Byford Tsang, Andrew Erickson and Gabriel Collins, Foreign Affairs, July 23, 2021
32. France, South Pacific nations to combat 'predatory' fishing as China extends reach
Michel Rose, Reuters, July 19, 2021
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday France and South Pacific nations would launch a South Pacific coastguard network to counter "predatory" behaviour, which an adviser said was aimed at illegal fishing, as China expands its maritime reach.
The United States and allies including France, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, are actively expanding their activity in the Pacific to counter China's influence.
33. EDF says it would shut Taishan reactor if it were in France
David Sheppard, Financial Times, July 22, 2021
Foreign Interference and Coercion
34. Nobel Prize winners accuse China of ‘bullying’ over bid to block summit speakers
Kinling Lo, South China Morning Post, July 28, 2021
35. Exporters wary of repercussions over calling out China on hacking
Anneke Smith, Radio New Zealand, July 21, 2021
36. GCSB boss concerned at hacks from China exploiting security vulnerabilities
Radio New Zealand, July 20, 2021
37. George Osborne's Sino-British 'golden era' has turned radioactive
Ben Marlow, Telegraph, 26 July 2021
38. Deputy Secretary Sherman's Visit to the People's Republic of China
Ned Price, U.S. Department of State, July 26, 2021
39. Podesta Hired to Lobby by Huawei and Bulgarian Energy Company
Kenneth P. Vogel, New York Times, July 23, 2021
40. Academics in Hong Kong suffer curbs on their freedoms
The Economist, July 21, 2021
University administrators are also responsible for Hong Kong’s plummeting ratings. Many reports tell of outspoken academics being denied tenure, refused promotions or unable to get their contracts renewed. “They never say it is political,” says Ip Iam-Chong, who taught at Lingnan University for 18 years before its management rejected his application for tenure in 2020, despite support from his department, and refused to renew his contract which expires in August. Mr Ip believes his difficulties were because of his outspoken political views (he founded a pro-democracy news platform, InMediaHK).
Johannes Chan, a prominent supporter of pro-democracy causes, recently ceased full-time work at the University of Hong Kong where he had served as a law professor. A two-year extension of his contract beyond retirement age (60) had expired. In the past, a five-year extension would have been routine; his application for one was turned down in 2018.
Many academics were disheartened last year when five university presidents signed a letter expressing support for academic freedom but saying they could “understand” the need for a national-security law (its draconian contents were not yet public). “It is upsetting to be part of an institution proactively participating in stifling dissent,” laments one academic, referring to the repressive climate at her university. She says she and many colleagues are looking for jobs in other countries.
Some believe that the chill on campuses is a sign that the party—which does not operate openly in Hong Kong—has infiltrated academia. Party members have long been secretly gathering information about activities on campuses, says John Burns of the University of Hong Kong. Last year the university’s governing board sacked Benny Tai, a tenured law lecturer who had encouraged student protests in 2014 known as Occupy Central. Mr Tai, who is now in jail, said before his imprisonment that the decision was not made by the board, “but by an authority beyond the university”.
There is another threat to academic freedom that is not directly related to the security law. Mr Burns says the central government in Beijing, as well as the authorities in Hong Kong, have put “huge pressure” on universities to open campuses on the mainland. Such ventures often involve compromises: on the mainland campuses China’s political taboos must be observed. Retribution may ensue if parent universities in Hong Kong defy the party’s wishes. In recent years at least two universities in Hong Kong have opened such campuses. Another five, including the University of Hong Kong, say they will follow suit. The territory’s world-class universities risk becoming much like their mainland counterparts, where liberal thinkers have learned to keep their mouths shut.
41. Biden's China Strategy Meets Resistance at the Negotiating Table
Chris Buckley and Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, July 26, 2021
42. Ex-intelligence agents and gang members reportedly laundered money through Chinese firms
Slovak Spectator, July 15, 2021
43. Marketing Games
Eliot Chen, Wire China, July 25, 2021
Dan Blumenthal, American Enterprise Institute, July 16, 2021
45. Chinese oil companies fill void in Iraq
Essam Al-Sudan, Al Monitor, July 22, 2021
46. Biden’s China Policy Borrows From Trump and Adds Allies to Raise Pressure
William Mauldin and Vivian Salama, Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2021
47. White House Assails China’s Opposition to Wuhan Lab-Leak Probe
Jordan Fabian, Bloomberg, July 21, 2021
48. China's CCPC takes centre stage in Iran, Venezuela oil trade-sources
Jonathan Saul, Chen Aizhu, and Marianna Parraga, Reuters, July 22, 2021
Human Rights and Religious Persecution
49. Guangdong Dissident Poet Commits Suicide Amid Ongoing Police Surveillance
Gao Feng, Radio Free Asia, July 27, 2021
An outspoken poet and current affairs commentator from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong has died after ingesting pesticide, RFA has learned.
Li Huizhi, 62, died on July 23 in a hospital in Guangdong's Huizhou city after being rushed there and placed on a ventilator in an attempt to save him.
His friend Li Xuewen told RFA that the poet had posted a suicide note online before taking his own life.
"After he had posted his suicide note online, he turned off his phone," Li Xuewen said. "He took the pesticide, and was taken to hospital after that."
The note suggested that Li had found the increased surveillance under the tenure of ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Xi Jinping unbearable.
50. The Times view on the oppression of Uighurs: China’s Sycophants
Times of London, July 26, 2021
51. Hong Kong Protester Is Convicted in First Trial Under Tough Security Law
Austin Ramzy, New York Times, July 27, 2021
52. ‘They Have My Sister’: As Uyghurs Speak Out, China Targets Their Families
Austin Ramzy, New York Times, July 27, 2021
She was a gifted agricultural scientist educated at prestigious universities in Shanghai and Tokyo. She said she wanted to help farmers in poor areas, like her hometown in Xinjiang, in western China. But because of her uncle’s activism for China’s oppressed Muslim Uyghurs, her family and friends said, the Chinese state made her a security target.
At first they took away her father. Then they pressed her to return home from Japan. Last year, at age 30, Mihriay Erkin, the scientist, died in Xinjiang, under mysterious circumstances.
The government confirmed Ms. Erkin’s death but attributed it to an illness. Her uncle, Abduweli Ayup, the activist, believes she died in state custody.
Mr. Ayup says his niece was only the latest in his family to come under pressure from the authorities. His two siblings had already been detained and imprisoned. All three were targeted in retaliation for his efforts to expose the plight of the Uyghurs, he said.
53. Room for 10,000: Inside China's largest detention center
Dake Kang, Associated Press, July 21, 2021
54. China urged to stop forcibly returning North Korean defectors
Edward White, Financial Times, July 23, 2021
Industrial Policies and Economic Espionage
55. False Promises II: The Continuing Gap Between China’s WTO Commitments and Its Practices
Stephen Ezell, International Technology and Innovation Foundation, July 26, 2021
56. De-Dollarization Efforts in China and Russia
Rebecca Nelson and Karen Sutter, Congressional Research Service, July 23, 2021
57. US-China: Maybe breaking up is not so hard after all
Claude Barfield, American Enterprise Institute, July 20, 2021
58. US Shipbuilding Is At Its Lowest Ebb Ever. How Did America Fall So Far?
Loren Thompson, Forbes, July 23, 2021
59. Wall Street Gets a Chinese Education
The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2021
60. Beijing’s threat to VIEs triggers Wall Street angst over China stocks
Eric Platt, Financial Times, July 27, 2021
61. US companies deflect tough questions over Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
Mark Magnier and Finbarr Bermingham, South China Morning Post, July 28, 2021
62. The National Security Law Makes Hong Kong Business Riskier Than Ever
Thomas Kellogg, Foreign Policy, July 26, 2021
63. Private equity firms to scramble for exit after China's new tutoring rules
Kane Wu, Reuters, July 27, 2021
64. Australia Urges Wine Industry to Find New Markets During China Ban
Sybilla Gross, Bloomberg, July 27, 2021
65. China semiconductors: Tsinghua Unigroup seeks white knight for massive bailout
Che Pan, South China Morning Post, July 21, 2021
66. Sale of semiconductor factory to Chinese-owned firm presents bigger UK risk than Huawei
Harry Yorke, Telegraph, July 24, 2021
67. British state could buy stake in Sizewell nuclear plant to keep China out
Steven Swinford and Emily Gosden, Times of London, July 27, 2021
68. UK looks to remove China's CGN from nuclear power projects - FT
Reuters, July 26, 2021
69. Record U.S. Coal Shipment to China Highlights Australia’s Pain
James Thornhill, Bloomberg, July 21, 2021
70. China Considers Turning Tutoring Firms Into Non-Profits, Keep Them From IPO
Bloomberg, July 23, 2021
71. China sanctions Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
Annika Kim Constantino, CNBC, July 23, 2021
72. Another group of U.S.-listed China stocks plunge as Beijing regulators crack down
Evelyn Cheng, CNBC, July 23, 2021
73. China’s Push to Purge Organized Crime Casts Shadow Over Private Businesses
Chun Han Wang, Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2021
74. Another group of U.S.-listed China stocks plunge as Beijing regulators crack down
Evelyn Cheng, CNBC, July 23, 2021
75. FAST THINKING: Biden’s China policy is coming into focus
Daniel Fried, Julia Friedlander, David Mortlock, and Brian O’Toole, Atlantic Council, July 16, 2021
76. China Weighs Unprecedented Penalty for Didi After U.S. IPO
Bloomberg, July 22, 2021
Cyber and Information Technology
77. China Tech Crackdown: Xi Charts New Model After Emulating Silicon Valley
Austin Carr, Bloomberg, July 27, 2021
78. China's Animal Spirits Deficit
Stephen S. Roach, Project Syndicate, July 1, 2021
79. China's CyberAI Talent Pipeline
Dakota Cary, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, July 2021
80. China's Tencent Suspends New Registrations for WeChat
Paul Mozur, New York Times, July 27, 2021
Jake Sullivan, The White House, July 13, 2021
82. AUDIO – China, Big Tech, and Cyber Defense: The World According to Zegart
Peter Robinson and Amy Zegart, Uncommon Knowledge, July 14, 2021
83. How Taiwan is trying to defend against a cyber 'World War III'
Eric Cheung, Will Ripley and Gladys Tsai, CNN Business, July 23, 2021
84. How China’s Hacking Entered a Reckless New Phase
Andy Greenberg, Wired, July 19, 2021
85. China Is Turning Data Into a State Weapon
James Palmer, Foreign Policy, July 22, 2021,
86. China's new software policy weaponizes cybersecurity research
Dakota Cary, The Hill, July 22, 2021
87. Why China’s digital currency threatens the country’s tech giants
Jeremy Mark, Atlantic Council, July 15, 2021
88. Australia joins international partners in attribution of malicious cyber activity to China
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, July 19, 2021
89. How China Transformed Into a Prime Cyber Threat to the U.S.
Nicole Perlroth, New York Times, July 20, 2021
90. VIDEO – How TikTok's Algorithm Figures Out Your Deepest Desires
Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2021
Military and Security Threats
91. China Appears to Be Building New Silos for Nuclear Missiles, Researchers Say
Chun Han Wong, Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2021
92. The Pentagon Needs More Than Ships and Planes to Deter China
Editorial Board, Bloomberg, July 26, 2021
93. Disturbing actions by China signal cold war, Stephen Roach warns
Stephanie Landsman, CNBC, July 25, 2021
94. China revises Galwan Valley clash toll to 5, says PLA troops were 'besieged'
Snehesh Alex Philip, ThePrint, July 20, 2021
95. UK warned to cool links with China over ‘new cold war’ fears
Patrick Daly, Evening Standard U.K., July 27, 2021
96. A 2nd New Nuclear Missile Base for China, and Many Questions About Strategy
William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, New York Times, July 26, 2021
97. China calls meeting with NZ officials over 'Cold War' mentality
Radio New Zealand, July 21, 2021
98. China Is Building A Second Nuclear Missile Silo Field
Matt Korda, Federation of American Scientists, July 26, 2021
99. Secretary of Defense Remarks at the 40th International Institute for Strategic Studies Ful
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, U.S. Department of Defense, July 27, 2021
100. Ramping the Strait: Quick and Dirty Solutions to Boost Amphibious Lift
Conor Kennedy, Jamestown, July 16, 2021
101. Department Statement on DJI Systems
U.S. Department of Defense, July 23, 2021
102. Hostile Harbors: Taiwan’s Ports and PLA Invasion Plans
Ian Easton, Project 2049, July 22, 2021
103. NATO Futures: Three Trajectories | Center for Strategic and International Studies
Rachel Ellehuus, Center for Strategic and International Studies, July 21, 2021
104. Can China's New Supercarrier Go Toe-to-Toe With the United States?
Robbie Gramer, Foreign Policy, July 15, 2021
One Belt, One Road Strategy
105. VIDEO – After the death of 9 Citizens, China halts Belt & Road project
World is One News, July 21, 2021
106. VIDEO – China’s Ambitions and Security Implications of the Belt and Road
Alison Szalwinski, Edward Lemon, Zongyuan Zoe Liu, and Nadège Rolland, National Bureau of Asian Research, Jun 2, 2021
107. Egypt hopes China can break deadlock in Nile dam dispute
Mohamed El-Shahed, Al-Monitor, July 21, 2021
Opinion Pieces
108. Prepare Now for War in the Pacific
Congressman Michael Gallagher, U.S. Naval Institute, July 1, 2021
109. Future of Indo-China talks
Harsha Kakar, Statesman, July 27, 2021
110. The likelihood of China invading Taiwan increases every day. What the U.S. should do.
Lee Hsi-min, NBC News, July 9, 2021
In his speech celebrating the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary last week, Chairman Xi Jinping proclaimed that China has never bullied or oppressed the people of any other country. Yet that is exactly what Beijing is doing to Taiwan, and its intensifying aggression toward the democratic island is increasingly raising concerns that it will try to take it by force.
The question is not whether the United States should defend Taiwan during war but how to prevent war in the first place. Now is the time to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan security cooperation.
For years, world leaders have been hesitant to respond to China’s military aggression in the region. But Beijing’s escalating rhetoric and military developments are pushing Washington and its allies to work together in ways never done before, such as the joint U.S.-Japanese military planning for a conflict with China over Taiwan. Just Monday, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso declared that in the case of an attack on Taiwan, “Japan and the U.S. must defend Taiwan together."
111. Democratic Quad vs China's Quad
Rajiv Bjatia, Hindustan Times, July 19, 2021
112. On China, the end of delusion and persistence of stalemate
Harsh V. Pant, Hindustan Times, July 20, 2021
113. Understanding China's pettiness complex
Minxin Pei, Asia Nikkei, July 14, 2021
114. A dangerous ambiguity: Why Germany is lukewarm about Biden’s America
Anna Kuchenbecker, European Council on Foreign Relations, July 16, 2021
115. How Science Lost the Public's Trust
Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2021