China Articles - January 23, 2022
Friends,
This week Slovenia joined Lithuania as the second EU Member to challenge the Chinese Communist Party on its efforts to isolate Taiwan. After announcing that his country would exchange trade offices with Taiwan, the Slovenian Prime Minister referred to Taiwan as a “democratic country” and stressed that he supports the “sovereign” decision of the Taiwanese people should they “want to live independently.”
This is tough news for Beijing, as a second member of the 17+1 (a forum established in 2012 to promote cooperation between the PRC and Central and Eastern European countries) has broken the CCP’s cardinal rule on Taiwan. Lithuania pulled out of the 17+1 in May (which technically made the forum the 16+1 again), but it appears likely the group will soon become the 15+1. The Party elite must be asking themselves: who will drop out next and has the forum been irreparably tarnished?
Also in European news, the French Parliament put President Macron, who denounced any efforts to conduct a diplomatic boycott and plans to send a minister to the Beijing Olympics, in a difficult position. By a vote of 169 to 1, the National Assembly passed a resolution labelling Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs as genocide and crimes against humanity (note to Chamath Palihapitiya, see #7, #8 and #46 below). Only one member of President Macron’s party voted against the resolution.
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
1. Commission publishes a toolkit to help mitigate foreign interference in research and innovation
European Commission, January 18, 2022
The European Commission published a toolkit on how to mitigate foreign interference in research and innovation. The publication outlines best practices to support EU Higher Education Institutions and Research Performing Organisations in safeguarding their fundamental values, including academic freedom, integrity and institutional autonomy, as well as to protect their staff, students, research findings and assets.
Foreign interference occurs when activities are carried out by, or on behalf of, a foreign state-level actor, which are coercive, covert, deceptive, or corrupting and are contrary to the sovereignty, values, and interests of the European Union.
Scientific research is a collaborative process by nature in which researchers and organisations typically build upon existing research and collaborate to further scientific development. Higher Education Institutions and Research Performing Organisations are of particular interest to foreign actors due to their prominent role in society, their co-operation with the public, private, and third sectors, and their creation of knowledge and innovative new technologies that are crucial for tackling societal challenges and ensuring prosperity and are often relevant for dual civil and military usages.
This document has been co-created with Member States and stakeholders and is meant as an inventory of best practices and collection of evidence, which is neither exhaustive nor binding.
2. Slovenia to bolster trade ties with Taiwan, wading into row with China
Stuart Lau, Politico, January 18, 2022
Slovenia has become the latest tiny European country to take a pop at giant China over Taiwan, with plans to strengthen trade ties with the self-ruling island.
The foreign ministry of Taiwan on Tuesday confirmed plans with the Balkan nation to set up trade offices in each other's territory, announced by Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Janša on Monday — a move that threatens to further fuel ongoing EU tensions with Beijing over Lithuania's warming diplomatic ties with Taipei, which prompted China to unleash a strict trade embargo.
Referring to Taiwan as a "democratic country," Janša told Indian public broadcaster Doordarshan that Slovenia and Taiwan are "working on establishing [an] exchange [of] representatives. Of course, this would not be the level of embassies. It would be the same level [that] many of the EU member countries [have with Taiwan]."
Janša also said he'd support the "sovereign decision" of Taiwanese people should they "want to live independently."
The Chinese government has not yet publicly commented on Janša's remarks, but it has repeatedly warned EU countries not to recognize Taiwan diplomatically under the "one China" policy, which considers the self-ruling island part of its territory. It has also ramped up military threats against Taiwan in recent months, as the current government there pursues a more pro-independence agenda.
Janša criticized Beijing's response to Lithuania's relations with Taiwan as "terrifying" and "ridiculous." Last August, Vilnius authorized Taiwan’s request to set up a “Taiwanese” representative office in the country, but using that name offended Beijing, which prefers “Taipei” instead.
"Frankly speaking, there is a vast majority of the EU member countries holding some kind of representative offices with Taiwan. And Lithuania is not [an] exemption," Janša said. "There are some slight differences in naming, but it is not important. I think that China protested every time when some European countries established such offices, but they never went so far as they did in this case, and it is terrifying; it’s terrifying trying to isolate countries, a small country, who also fought for its independence 30 years ago."
He added that China's continued threats to Vilnius — including its de facto ban on most trade from there as well as pressure on other EU companies dealing with Lithuania — won't deter Slovenia in its plans.
"Formally, European Union backs Lithuania. Any kind of … pressure on Lithuania and some other countries in Europe will not benefit China’s government," Janša said. "Good relations, good trade relations are in common interests. If one side is trying to hurt [these] relations, maybe they could benefit on short term, but on long term, they are all losers."
Janša wouldn't say, however, whether Slovenia plans to remain part of the so-called 16+1 group led by Beijing that includes Central and Eastern European countries but which Lithuania quit last year.
He also hit out at Beijing's initial handling of the coronavirus pandemic. "We surely know that China didn’t behave in good faith in the beginning. We were not informed what was really happening," Janša said. "I think we have to discuss these issues and make the Chinese authorities accountable."
3. Involuntary Returns – report exposes long-arm policing overseas
Safeguard Defenders, January 18, 2022
A new report from Safeguard Defenders exposes China’s massive, growing and global covert Sky Net operation to force ‘fugitives’ overseas back home, often via illegal means and in violation of national sovereignty of target countries.
The report exposes an ocial legal interpretation that outlines the use of such return methods – including direct references to the use of entrapment and kidnappings overseas.
Operational command of Sky Net was taken over by China’s new National Supervision Commission (NSC) in 2018 – despite it not being a judicial organ.
Covert operations, including kidnappings, take place even in countries that have signed extradition treaties with China.
Sky Net and Fox Hunt continues despite the pandemic and is set to greatly increase in scope.
4. ‘Checking a box’: Biden’s Beijing diplomatic boycott flop
Phelim Kine, Politico China Watcher, January 20, 2022
The Biden administration’s diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics aims to thread the needle. It’s intended to convey U.S. revulsion toward human rights abuses in China while still allowing U.S. athletes to compete. But Republican lawmakers and rights advocates say the administration has squandered the opportunity to build an effective coalition that would actually get Beijing’s attention.
Only nine other nations have joined the boycott so far — fewer than the number of countries that supported the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games — and the international response has ranged from indifference to scorn.
That paltry showing undermines U.S. credibility as an effective coalition builder against authoritarian repression and rendered Washington the perceived loser of a geopolitical influence contest that Beijing is peddling as a propaganda victory.
“The reason the diplomatic boycott has been largely a failure is because the U.S. wasn’t leading [and] instead, the Biden administration spent a year twiddling its thumbs and had provided no top cover to the world at large,” said Rep. MICHAEL McCAUL (R-Texas), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “The only other option is the president tried to get our allies on board and failed, [and] if we tried to get France or Germany or others on board with this diplomatic boycott and we weren’t able to do so, that’s even worse than not trying to build a boycott coalition.”
The U.S. announced its diplomatic boycott Dec. 6, three days after Lithuania did so, in protest of what White House spokesperson JEN PSAKI described as “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.” China has denied the genocide accusations but Psaki said the boycott was necessary to avoid perceptions of U.S.-China “business as usual” in the face of ongoing atrocities.
5. VIDEO – Economic entanglement and systemic rivalry: Germany and China at a crossroads
Deutsche Welle, January 9, 2022
China is Germany's biggest trading partner. Almost 1 in 3 shipping containers in the German city of Hamburg is either heading to China, or coming in from a Chinese port. In Hamburg the ties are so strong that a shipping line owned by China's government even bought a stake in this terminal.
This is a story of how Germany pumped up its economy on business with China and how it got closer than any other western power to the leaders in Beijing. Only to wonder if all of this is a good idea. Under president Xi Jinping, China has become a darker dictatorship, one that's challenging the power and values of the West. China is not only developing, but also bit by bit exporting an authoritarian regime that is antagonistic against our belief in democracy and human rights. The US is lining up the West to take a stand for democracy in a battle of the systems that will define this century. Many want Germany to join. There's going to be pressure from within the German population, from Germany's major allies outside of Europe, pushing Germany towards a harder line.
But is Germany really prepared to risk all this in a showdown with China? Germany's new government faces a choice - a dilemma. Should it keep following the money? Or does it need to think again? In this video we're going to find out how Germany got so entangled with China, how the last few years have shown what it is they're really dealing with. And we'll examine whether the new team running Germany really wants to make a new start.
6. The Big Business of Uyghur Genocide Denial
Alexander Reid Ross and Courtney Dobson, New Lines Magazine, January 18, 2022
A New Lines investigation reveals a network of charities funneling millions into left-wing platforms that take Beijing’s side on the genocide allegations — and they’re all connected to an American tech magnate
7. Silicon Valley Won’t Own Up to Its China Problem
Nick Bilton, Vanity Fair, January 21, 2022
Billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya was decried for saying “nobody cares” about Beijing’s alleged genocide of its Uyghur Muslim population. But his declaration may be more in line with the tech world’s mindset than anyone wants to admit.
8. Contra a Billionaire Bro: Why We Should Care About China’s Rights Violations in Xinjiang
Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept, January 18, 2022
AUTHORITARIANISM
9. China forced 2,500 ‘fugitives’ back from overseas during pandemic, report finds
Helen Davidson, The Guardian, January 18, 2022
Chinese authorities captured more than 2,500 “fugitives” from overseas and brought them back to China during the pandemic, under a program using methods ranging from family intimidation to “state-sanctioned kidnapping”, according to a new report.
10. Zero-Covid Policy Shakes Hong Kong’s Economy and Its ‘Soul’
Alexandra Stevenson, New York Times, January 21, 2022
11. A Covid Contact-Tracing Contrast Lays Bare China’s Inequalities
Sha Hua, Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2022
Two Covid-19 contact-tracing efforts in China’s capital have combined to open a window into extreme inequality that has engrossed many in the world’s most populous country.
On Jan. 15, health authorities in Beijing reported on the recent movements of a Covid-19 patient they described as a professional woman. A portrait of the type of life led by the city’s wealthy elite, the itinerary showed her skiing in the suburbs, shopping at Christian Dior and Lane Crawford, and eating at a well-known Peking duck restaurant.
Four days later, Beijing health authorities reported the activities of another Covid patient, a migrant worker, whose record of movements painted a starkly different picture: It showed him working some 30 jobs in the span of two weeks, mostly in the early morning hours, hauling bags of cement and construction waste back and forth across the city’s vast districts.
The contrast caught the attention of Chinese social-media users, some of whom posted the itineraries side-by-side to form a tale of two city lives. The fate of the migrant worker, a 44-year-old man named Yue Zongxian, struck a chord with the Chinese public, who quickly dubbed him “the hardest working man based on contact-tracing records.”
12. Xi Jinping’s job is safe but China’s leadership is being shaken up
The Economist, January 13, 2022
13. Beijing 2022 official warns against violations of 'Olympic spirit'
Reuters, January 19, 2022
Behaviour by athletes that violates the Olympic spirit or Chinese rules could be subject to punishment, a Beijing 2022 official said, after rights groups voiced concern about the safety of competitors if they protest at next month's Games.
14. China sells Xinjiang as a winter sports hub
Robin Brant, BBC, January 20, 2022
15. Winter Olympics tickets will not be sold as China seeks to contain Covid
Vincent Ni, The Guardian, January 17, 2022
16. Cross-country Exposure: Analysis of the MY2022 Olympics App
Jeffrey Knockel, Citizen Lab, January 18, 2022
MY2022, an app mandated for use by all attendees of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, has a simple but devastating flaw where encryption protecting users’ voice audio and file transfers can be trivially sidestepped. Health customs forms which transmit passport details, demographic information, and medical and travel history are also vulnerable. Server responses can also be spoofed, allowing an attacker to display fake instructions to users.
17. Engrave Danger: An Analysis of Apple Engraving Censorship across Six Regions
Jeffrey Knockel and Lotus Ruan, Citizen Lab, August 18, 2021
We analyzed Apple’s filtering of product engravings in six regions, discovering 1,105 keyword filtering rules used to moderate their content.
Across all six regions we analyzed, we found that Apple’s content moderation practices pertaining to derogatory, racist, or sexual content are inconsistently applied and that Apple’s public-facing documents failed to explain how it derives their keyword lists.
Within mainland China, we found that Apple censors political content including broad references to Chinese leadership and China’s political system, names of dissidents and independent news organizations, and general terms relating to religions, democracy, and human rights.
We found that part of Apple’s mainland China political censorship bleeds into both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Much of this censorship exceeds Apple’s legal obligations in Hong Kong, and we are aware of no legal justification for the political censorship of content in Taiwan.
We present evidence that Apple does not fully understand what content they censor and that, rather than each censored keyword being born of careful consideration, many seem to have been thoughtlessly reappropriated from other sources. In one case, Apple censored ten Chinese names surnamed Zhang with generally unclear significance. The names appear to have been copied from a list we found also used to censor products from a Chinese company.
18. Hong Kong to cull 2,000 hamsters after COVID-19 outbreak
Jessie Pang and Tyrone Siu, Reuters, January 18, 2022
19. Declining and dangerous China
Amit Bhandari, Gateway House, January 13, 2022
Falling birth rates have become a concern for the Chinese regime. Add to it a shrinking external footprint, diminishing prospects for new foreign capital and domestic economic trouble in the tech and real estate sector, and China's vulnerabilities are clear. This signals danger for China's neighbours.
ENVIRONMENTAL HARMS
20. China’s coal production hit record levels in 2021
Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian, January 17, 2022
In blow to climate campaigners, China’s coal production reached record levels last year as the state encouraged miners to ramp up their fossil fuel output to safeguard the country’s energy supplies through the winter gas crisis.
Carbon Brief, January 20, 2022
22. China car sector falling short of 'net zero' goals – Greenpeace
Reuters, January 18, 2022
23. China mined a record amount of coal in 2021. It might produce even more this year
Laura He, CNN, January 19, 2022
China produced more coal than ever last year as its power stations struggled to meet demand for electricity, undermining plans to curb carbon emissions.
While the surge in output helped bring the power crisis under control, coal prices are creeping up yet again this year amid expectations that China is going to need even more of the fossil fuel to power its economic recovery.
Coal output hit a record 4.07 billion metric tons last year, up 4.7% from 2020, according to data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics earlier this week. Imports of coal also rose last year, to their highest level since 2013.
China is already the world's largest coal producer and consumer, but its record production is notable given that just a year ago the country was touting aggressive measures meant to seriously curb its emissions.
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE AND COERCION
24. MI5's intervention on China marks a watershed moment
Julia Pamilih, The Telegraph, January 17, 2022
25. AUDIO - How MI5 uncovered a Chinese ‘agent’ in parliament
Michael Safi, The Guardian, January 19, 2022
26. Back Lithuania or face more coercion from China, lawmakers tell EU chiefs
Finbarr Bermingham, South China Morning Post, January 18, 2022
Inaction against unofficial trade embargo will allow Beijing to intensify ‘divide and rule’ practices and weaken European unity, MEPs warn. Businesses from France, Sweden and other member states report they are becoming embroiled in China’s dispute with Vilnius over Taipei ties.
27. German big business piles pressure on Lithuania in China row
Andrius Sytas and John O’Donnell, Reuters, January 21, 2022
Lithuania is under pressure from German companies to back down in a dispute with China to end a blockade of the Baltic state, as European trade officials struggle to defuse the row, people familiar with the matter said.
28. ‘We Are Taiwanese’: China’s Growing Menace Hardens Island’s Identity
Amy Qin and Amy Chang Chien, New York Times, January 19, 2022
29. Campaign group urges UK Universities to cut ties with Chinese state-linked companies
Charline Bou Mansour, Evening Standard, January 19, 2022
A student campaign group has raised concerns over patient privacy after it found previous and existing ties between UK universities and Chinese state-linked companies which the US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence warned may be serving as a “global collection mechanism for Chinese government genetic databases.”
Chinese genomics giant, BGI Group, which runs the state-owned national gene bank, is believed to have significant and long-standing ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s military.
Mimi Lau, South China Morning Post, January 14, 2022
31. More MI5 alerts to come to counter foreign interference
Gordon Corera, BBC, January 18, 2022
32. Priti Patel tells MPs to be on their guard against foreign agents
Gavin Cordon, The Independent, January 18, 2022
The Home Secretary said the threat of interference in UK politics from hostile powers is ‘growing and diversifying’.
33. Are Russia and China Teaming Up Against America in a Global Information War? Yes and No.
Clint Watts, Alliance for Securing Democracy, January 13, 2022
Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer, IRSEM, October 2021 [ORIGINAL IN FRENCH]
For a long time, it could be said that China, unlike Russia, sought to be loved rather than to be feared; that it wanted to seduce, project a positive image of itself in the world, and arouse admiration. Today, Beijing has not given up on seduction, on its attractiveness, and on its ambition to shape international norms. Not “losing face” remains very important for the CCP.
And yet, Beijing is also increasingly comfortable with infiltration and coercion: its influence operations have been considerably hardened in recent years and its methods increasingly resemble Moscow’s. The Party-State has entered a “Machiavellian moment” in the sense that Beijing now appears to believe that, as Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, “it is better to be feared than loved.”
This evolution shows a “Russification” of Chinese influence operations. And our report analyzes this evolution, with the ambition of covering the entire spectrum of its tools of influence, from the most benign (public diplomacy) to the most malign – which means interfering in other countries’ affairs (clandestine activities). To do so, our analysis proceeds in four parts, successively presenting the concepts, actors, actions pertaining to this moment, and it ends with several case studies.
35. Treasurer Moore Announces Board of Treasury Investments Ends Use of BlackRock Investment Fund
West Virginia State Treasurer, January 17, 2022
The decision was based on recent reports that BlackRock has urged companies to embrace “net zero” investment strategies that would harm the coal, oil and natural gas industries, while increasing investments in Chinese companies that subvert national interests and damage West Virginia’s manufacturing base and job market.
“As the state’s chief financial officer and chairman of the Board of Treasury Investments, I have a duty to ensure that taxpayer dollars are managed in a responsible, financially sound fashion which reflects the best interests of our state and country, and I believe doing business with BlackRock runs contrary to that duty,” Treasurer Moore said.
Treasurer Moore said this action is consistent with his belief that the state should not do business with firms whose corporate policies directly threaten West Virginians’ interests and livelihoods.
Treasurer Moore also pointed to the significant financial risks associated with firms that invest heavily in China, due to that country’s lack of free market protections, intellectual property rights and outright government interference in markets and business activities.
“The Chinese government’s blatant interference and controls over businesses and markets creates a tremendous amount of uncertainty and risk for anyone attempting to invest there,” Treasurer Moore said.
BlackRock has been criticized for investing in some Chinese companies that have been identified by the U.S. Department of Commerce as “acting contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States.”
“BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has been outspoken in pressuring corporate leaders to commit to investment goals that will undermine reliable energy sources like coal, natural gas and oil under the guise of helping the planet, but at the same time he’s pouring billions in new capital into China, turning a blind eye to abhorrent human rights violations, genocide and that country’s role in creating the COVID-19 global pandemic,” Treasurer Moore said. “Even liberal financier George Soros has said BlackRock’s China investments are ‘a tragic mistake’ that could potentially damage our national security.
“Any company that thinks Communist China is a better investment than West Virginia energy or American capitalism clearly has a bad strategy,” Treasurer Moore said. “We will continue to give our state’s business to people who aren’t simultaneously trying to destroy our economy.”
36. Naval association rejects Taiwanese members after pressure from China
Kathrin Hille and Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times, January 13, 2022
China’s increasingly muscular efforts to isolate Taiwan internationally have paid off in Washington after a foreign naval association caved to Chinese pressure and reversed course on letting Taiwanese officers join the group.
Several people familiar with the dispute said the Washington-based Naval Attachés Association rescinded an invitation for Taiwan to join the organisation, which includes officers from US allies, after China strongly objected.
The US navy has banned officers from attending NAA events. Carlos Del Toro, navy secretary, last month said it did not support China’s “coercive tactics” and opposed efforts to “manipulate independent organisations”.
China often leans on governments, NGOs, companies, and the media to deny Taiwan’s sovereignty. But the NAA case was a rare example of it forcing a group in the US to sever ties with the island.
37. Behind West Asia’s dash for China
Kabir Taneja, Observer Research Foundation, January 20, 2022
HUMAN RIGHTS AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
38. French parliament passes motion condemning China 'genocide' against Uyghurs
Myriam Rivet, Reuters, January 20, 2022
France's parliament passed an opposition-led motion asking the government to condemn China for "crimes against humanity and genocide" against its Uyghur Muslim minority and to take foreign policy measures to make this stop.
39. French parliament puts pressure on Macron by declaring Chinese treatment of Uyghurs a ‘genocide’
Giorgio Leali and Stuart Lau, Politico, January 20, 2022
France's National Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution labeling Beijing's treatment of the Uyghur minority in China’s Xinjiang region as a "genocide," spelling trouble for Emmanuel Macron's government, which is planning to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics in just two weeks.
The resolution "officially recognizes the violence perpetrated by the authorities of the People's Republic of China against the Uyghurs as constituting crimes against humanity and genocide" and it calls on the government to do the same and to act to stop the violence.
Only one MP voted against: Buon Tan, a member of Macron's La République En Marche (LREM) party and the chair of the France-China friendship group of the parliament.
40. China touts support from Gulf states for Uyghur treatment
Associated Press, January 14, 2022
China said Friday it gained support on issues including the treatment of Uyghur Muslims from a number of Persian Gulf states following talks between their foreign ministers at which they agreed to upgrade relations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the ministers and Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf expressed firm support for China’s “legitimate positions on issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang and human rights.”
He said they “expressed opposition to interference in China’s internal affairs and politicization of human rights issues.” They also rejected the “politicization of sports and reaffirmed their support" for China’s hosting of the Beijing Winter Olympics that open on Feb. 4, he said.
China is accused of detaining more than a million Turkic Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region as part of a campaign to wipe out their traditional culture, language and beliefs. It claims Taiwan as a wayward province to be brought under its control by force if necessary.
Alison Killing and Megha Rajagopalan, BuzzFeed, January 13, 2022
Amid rising tensions and the approaching Beijing Olympics, the US banned Xinjiang cotton last year. But Hugo Boss still took shipments from Esquel, which gins cotton in Xinjiang.
42. U.S. lawmakers call Tesla expansion in Xinjiang 'misguided'
David Shepardson, Reuters, January 20, 2022
The chairmen of two congressional panels on oversight and trade on Thursday assailed Tesla's expansion in China's far-western Xinjiang region, where detention camps have drawn heavy criticism, and asked the electric car maker about its Chinese product sourcing.
43. What the Uyghur Legal Action in Turkey Against CCP Leaders Means
Ruth Ingram, Bitter Winter, January 14, 2022
44. VIDEO – Museum in Turkey shows Uyghur detention experience
Associated Press, January 19, 2022
UK House of Commons Library, January 18, 2022
The Tribunal’s judgment found evidence that China had detained “hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs – with some estimates well in excess of a million […] without any, or any remotely sufficient, reason and subjected [them] to acts of unconscionable cruelty, depravity and inhumanity”.
The judgment stated that torture of Uyghurs “attributable to the PRC [Peoples’ Republic of China] is established beyond reasonable doubt”. It also said that crimes against humanity attributable to the PRC “is established beyond reasonable doubt” by acts of: “deportation or forcible transfer; imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty; torture; rape and other sexual violence; enforced sterilisation; persecution; enforced disappearance; and other inhumane acts”.
On the subject of genocide, the Tribunal’s judgment emphasised the difficulty of assessing what legal standards should apply, and how such standards interact with public understanding of the phrase. However, they conclude that: [O]n the basis of evidence heard in public, the Tribunal is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the PRC, by the imposition of measures to prevent births intended to destroy a significant part of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as such, has committed genocide.
The evidence the Tribunal reported of birth-prevention measures included enforced abortions, the removal of wombs against women’s will, the killing of babies immediately after birth and mass enforced sterilisation through the insertion of IUD devices that were only removable by surgical means.
The judgment reported evidence of reduced birth-rates particularly in indigenous Uyghur counties: Across the 29 counties with indigenous-majority populations for which we have 2019 or 2020 data, the birth-rate has fallen by 58.5% from the 2011-15 baseline average […] In those counties that are over 90% indigenous, the birth-rate fell at an even greater rate, showing a 66.3% decrease in 2019-20.
The Tribunal found however, that “there is no evidence of organised mass killings”.
46. Warriors part-owner backtracks after saying he doesn’t care about Uyghur abuse
The Guardian, January 18, 2022
47. US basketball player Sonny Weems racially abused by fans in China
David Culver and George Ramsay, CNN, January 19, 2022
In a video circulating on social media, fans can be heard repeatedly shouting the "N" word and "get out of China" at 35-year-old Weems, who plays for the Guangdong Southern Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association.
48. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche: Statue Removed, Relatives Arrested
Lopsang Gurung, Bitter Winter, January 18, 2022
Fifteen years after the suspicious death in jail of the charismatic Buddhist monk from Kham, the CCP is still afraid of him.
49. Xi’s ‘New Era’ Marked by Rights Abuses
Human Rights Watch, January 13, 2022
The Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021, amid crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and the devastation of civil liberties in Hong Kong, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022. The Chinese government’s heightened repression at home, and use of “hostage diplomacy” and confrontational “wolf-warrior diplomacy” abroad generated international pushbacks against its human rights record.
INDUSTRIAL POLICIES AND ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE
50. Chinese Investment in U.S. Plane Maker Draws FBI, National-Security Reviews
Kate O’Keeffe, Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2022
The FBI and a U.S. investment-screening panel are investigating a Chinese investment in an aircraft startup following allegations of improper technology transfer to China, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Under review is a Chinese government-backed investment company’s nearly 47% stake—the largest of any shareholder—in Icon Aircraft Inc., a California-based maker of small recreational, amphibious planes. A group of U.S. shareholders has accused the Chinese firm of hollowing out Icon and moving its technology, which the Americans say has possible military applications, to China.
51. U.S. bill would block defense contractors from using Chinese rare earths
Ernest Scheyder, Reuters, January 14, 2022
52. What’s Next for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act
Haley Byrd Wilt, The Dispatch, January 18, 2022
53. China's demographic dividends to end soon, expert warns
Reuters, January 19, 2022
54. Murata’s Thailand move heralds Japan tech shift from China
Mitsuru Obe, Financial Times, January 18, 2022
Murata Manufacturing and other Japanese tech suppliers are cutting their dependence on China as the US-China stand-off deepens.
The world’s largest capacitor maker and an iPhone parts supplier, Murata said in November that it would open a new plant in Thailand in October 2023. In an interview with Nikkei Asia, Murata president Norio Nakajima said the new plant would eventually be expanded to become as large as the one in Wuxi, near Shanghai, where Murata produces multilayer ceramic capacitors for consumer electronics.
Murata, which has depended on greater China for more than half of its revenue, expects the share to go down over time as the company looks to Indo-Pacific for future growth. It is an example of Japan Inc trying to deal with geopolitical risks amid US-China rivalry.
CYBER AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
55. Cambodia’s Internet May Soon Be Like China’s: State-Controlled
Charles McDermid, New York Times, January 15, 2022
56. U.S. examining Alibaba's cloud unit for national security risks – sources
Alexander Alper, Reuters, January 19, 2022
57. Security scanners across Europe tied to China govt, military
The Independent, January 19, 2022
At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party
58. The Strategic Importance of a U.S. Digital Trade Agreement in the Indo-Pacific
David Feith, Testimony to the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, January 19, 2022
It is a rare pleasure nowadays to deal with an issue on which there is strong bipartisan common ground. Many Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, including from this Subcommittee, have together urged the Biden Administration to pursue new arrangements for expanding digital trade with America’s partners in the Indo-Pacific. I wish to stress three main points today:
First, a U.S. digital-trade agreement in the Indo-Pacific would indeed serve American interests economically and strategically.
Second, such an agreement is by no means all that is needed. Our country should improve its overall approach to digital trade – starting by curbing the massive and now unregulated flows of sensitive data from the United States to China.
Third, U.S. diplomacy should seek to cooperate with allies on both of these tracks – to expand digital trade among friends, and to limit it with China.
MILITARY AND SECURITY THREATS
Nicolas Regaud, IRSEM, January 20, 2022 [ORIGINAL IN FRENCH]
While the scenario of a Chinese operation by force against Taiwan is now considered credible in the short to medium term, the Europeans are slow to grasp the extent of its consequences on their own strategic interests. Unless they jeopardize their relations with the United States, they should then show solidarity on the political but also military level. Awareness of European issues and assets would be likely to help dissuade China from crossing the Rubicon.
The use of force to reunite Taiwan with the People's Republic of China, and thereby complete the "Great Chinese National Rebirth", is no longer a theoretical scenario and should be considered feasible - if not probable - in the present decade. President Xi Jinping made it clear when he came to power in 2012 that resolving the Taiwan question would not be left to the next generation. Since then, the strengthening of Chinese military capabilities at all levels has led American strategists to question Washington's ability to prevent a takeover of Taiwan, if the White House decides to intervene. Several scenariosare now possible: remote control of Taiwanese maritime and air flows via an extension of the Chinese ADIZ in the East China Sea announced in 2013 and a comparable decision on the maritime level; formal blockade (which is an act of war); or even general multi-domain aggression. Depending on whether China seeks to urge Taipei to come to the negotiating table or to engage in a decisive showdown, the crisis can be long-term or last from a few days to a few weeks.
For the United States and its allies in the region – first and foremost Japan and Australia – this is a vital strategic issue, whatever the conflict scenario . For Washington, this clash of wills would not only be at stake in the defense of a young democracy, but also in maintaining the international status of the United States and their strategic pre-eminence in the Indo-Pacific (and in the the world). For their allies, the stake would be the maintenance of the system of alliances which ensured the security of the region for more than seventy years. Because a lack of American reaction or, worse, a defeat against China, would have the result of weakening the credibility of American security guarantees in the region.Consequently, one can also think that this would encourage South Korea and Japan to acquire nuclear deterrence capabilities, thus dealing a probably fatal blow to the international non-proliferation regime.
60. China Is Watching Ukraine with a Lot of Interest
Michael Schuman, The Atlantic, January 13, 2022
As Joe Biden confronts Vladimir Putin about Russia’s military buildup along its border with Ukraine, another world leader is probably watching with keen interest. China’s Xi Jinping, too, has a geopolitical grievance in his neighborhood—in his case over Taiwan, the microchip-rich island that Beijing insists is and always should be part of China. Like Putin, who is eager to bring Ukraine back under Moscow’s control, Xi worries that a former chunk of his country’s empire is growing closer with the United States and its allies. How Xi interprets (or worse, misinterprets) the outcome of the Ukraine standoff could influence whether and how China tries to reunify with Taiwan, and thus has implications for the security and stability of East Asia.
61. China ‘abducts’ Indian teenager hunting near disputed border
Joe Wallen, Samaan Lateef, and Bengia Ajum, The Telegraph, January 20, 2022
62. Malaysian FM sees shift in China’s justification of sweeping South China Sea claims
Muzliza Mustafa, Radio Free Asia, January 18, 2022
63. Iran Seeks Closer Ties with China as Nuclear Talks Drag On
Benoit Faucon, Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2022
64. The Strategic Logic Behind India’s Sale of BrahMos Missiles to the Philippines
Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, Observer Research Foundation, January 21, 2022
65. The beginning of a new nuclear arms race?
Rakesh Sood, Hindustan Times, January 12, 2022
ONE BELT, ONE ROAD STRATEGY
66. China’s Lending Comes Under Fire as Sri Lankan Debt Crisis Deepens
Philip Wen, Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2022
67. Indian Ocean Region: What India does, China now wants to do better
N. Sathiya Moorthy, Observer Research Foundation, January 19, 2022
OPINION PIECES
68. The shaky ground that digital democracies walk on
Samir Saran, Hindustan Times, December 15, 2021
69. A Costly Lesson in Chinese Business Practices
Jillian Kay Melchior, Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2022
70. Canada and India must forge deeper partnerships to counter shared threats
Vikram Sood and Sameer Patil, Observer Research Foundation, January 21, 2022
The world has fractured along fault lines of strategic competition. On one side is an authoritarian model backed by China’s Communist party; and on the other is the shared values and interests of great democracies like India and Canada.
From two ends of the Pacific, our nations have a shared interest in contributing to the rise and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region. Our potential hinges on animating supply chains enabled by trust and underpinned by the rule of law, on unlocking technological and scientific potential, and on accelerating development. It hinges on achieving energy security and clean infrastructure, combating poverty and educating billions.
71. China and Russia test the limits of EU power
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, January 17, 2022
Are Europeans doomed to spend the 21st century being pushed around by outside powers? In Brussels, they like to argue that the collective power of the EU is the only way of saving the old continent from that ignominious fate. Although no single European country can stand toe-to-toe with America or China, the EU collectively ranks as one of the world’s three largest economies.
But the idea that the EU’s economic weight can be easily converted into geopolitical power is undergoing a brutal reality check. The Ukraine crisis has seen the EU sidelined. Meanwhile China has imposed unofficial economic sanctions on Lithuania, an EU member — and Brussels is struggling to find an appropriate response.
If things go badly for the EU over the coming weeks and months, talk of a “geopolitical” Europe will sound increasingly ridiculous. But it is also possible that the current crises — in particular the Lithuanian challenge — will lead to a leap forward in the EU’s ability to defend its interests in the global arena.
Manoj Joshi, The Tribune India, January 18, 2022
73. Unravelling the Thucydides’ Trap: Inadvertent Escalation or War of Choice?
Athanassios Platias and Vasilis Trigkas, The Chinese Journal of International Politics, Summer 2021
No other text in the intellectual history of International Relations has become as frequent a victim of confirmation bias and selective presentism as has Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. Most recently, misinterpretations of the classical treatise have engendered the popular catchphrase, “the Thucydides’ Trap”, and thinkers and politicians’ resultant drawing of erroneous parallels between the Peloponnesian War and current Sino-US relations. This article seeks to deconstruct the Thucydides’ Trap core thematic of inadvertent escalation, and to outline the logic of hegemonic transition as it is actually expounded by Thucydides.
Although Thucydides is the first thinker in the West clearly to identify the significance of structure in interstate affairs, his hegemonic transition theory is complex rather than purely systemic. Thucydides thus dedicates most of his work to assessing the strategic decisions made in fervid political debates, evidencing his perception of polity and politics as key elements that dynamically interact with structural conditions to effectuate strategic choice.
Consequently, the Peloponnesian War was not an outcome of inadvertent escalation, but of premeditated strategic choices made by adversaries with clashing policy objectives. Therefore, within the structural constraints, it is on leadership and strategy that Thucydides puts a premium, and hence prioritizes prudence (Sophrosyne/Σωφροσύνη) as the most consequential virtue of statesmanship. Building on the Thucydidean logic of hegemonic transition, we conclude by presenting six strategic corollaries of contemporary Sino-US relations, remaining attentively cognizant at all times of the limitations of historical analogies, and abiding by ex antiquis et novissimis optima [‘the best of the old and the new’].
74. Xi Jinping's great leap backwards is killing China's growth miracle
Jeremy Warner, The Telegraph, January 19, 2022
75. China is still the ultimate prize that Western banks can't resist
Laura He, CNN, January 14, 2022
For many companies, doing business in China is getting trickier by the day. But Western banks and asset managers are more than willing to up their bets on the world's second biggest economy, convinced that the opportunities remain too good to pass up.
Major banks in recent weeks have inked deals to expand their footprint in China — or are otherwise attempting to take greater control of their businesses there — after years of being forced to enter the market via joint ventures. That's despite fraught geopolitics, a slowing economy and an increasingly hostile environment for private business.
76. How Beijing’s global ambitions are playing out in politics, economics, and technology
Mary Hui, Quartz, January 19, 2022
77. The waning efficacy of China’s vaccines presents a ‘smart power’ opportunity for the West
Sam Brown, British Foreign Policy Group, January 17, 2022
More recently, however, China’s own vaccine diplomacy efforts have hit a stumbling block. The efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine, the most widely distributed Covid-19 vaccine in the world, has come under scrutiny, with researchers raising concern about the protection it offers against both the Delta and Omicron variants of the virus. The Singaporean Government has recently announced that even three doses of either Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccines would not be enough to confer fully vaccinated status, having published new data that highlighted the outsized incidence of Covid-19 fatalities reported for those who received China-made vaccines. Surges in cases in countries previously reliant on Chinese-produced vaccine has stoked further unease.
The fallout from these efficacy questions has seen shipments of both Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines distributed by China through bilateral or multilateral deals, bilateral donations, and donations to COVAX, decline in the final months of 2021. According to data from UNICEF, exports fell from a peak of over 100 million doses per month for each vaccine over the summer, to around half of that in November and December 2021.
78. China’s Tech Crackdown Is a Geopolitical Play
Kendra Schaefer, The Information, January 19, 2022
79. Hong Kong risks sinking into Venetian obscurity
Andrew Hunt and Ben Ashby, Nikkei Asia, January 18, 2022
80. Russia, China and the Bid for Empire
Robert D. Kaplan, Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2022
Intellectuals can’t stop denouncing the West for its legacy of imperialism. But the imperialism on the march today is in the East. Russia and China are determined to consume Ukraine and Taiwan, legacies of the Romanov and Qing dynasties respectively, into the latest versions of their historical empires. Technology has intensified this struggle for imperial geography. Great-power war has become entirely imaginable because of the reduced emphasis on thermonuclear bombs in an era of hypersonic missiles, automated weapons systems, and information warfare. Russia and China demonstrate that the struggle for empire has rarely had such nerve-racking stakes.
The notion that we can play Russia off against China—as the Nixon administration played China off against the Soviet Union—is a fantasy. President Biden’s reward for giving up opposition to Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany has been the advance of nearly 100,000 Russian troops to the Ukrainian border area. National security adviser Henry Kissinger’s secret 1971 visit to Beijing occurred in the context of dramatic military tensions on the Chinese-Soviet frontier. China was in desperate need of U.S. help. Russia today has no such need.