China Articles - January 30, 2022
Friends,
This week the PRC’s trade war against Europe took a new turn as Brussels decided to challenge the PRC’s economic coercion of Lithuania at the World Trade Organization. While WTO disputes can take decades to resolve (an WTO panel ruled this week against Obama Administration tariffs on the PRC from 2012), the EU action likely represents an important first step in a multipronged response. What remains to be seen is whether the EU will employ its new anti-coercion instrument as well.
Harvard Business Review published a fascinating piece for business executives on doing business in Xi Jinping’s China (#4). Given the ubiquitous nature of the Chinese Communist Party across all aspects of the nation’s economy and society, Seth Kaplan recommends proactively finding alternatives to doing business in the PRC.
Yale University seems to be joining the growing list of institutions of higher education that are divesting from the People’s Republic of China over gross human rights atrocities. It appears that this is being forced upon unwilling administrators and endowment managers by student and alumni outrage over the University’s silence on the CCP’s crimes and willingness to fund activities that are in direct conflict with the University’s stated values (in the January 9th issue, I recommended everyone read this anonymous article in the Yale Daily News: “Where is Peng Shuai?”).
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
1. VIDEO – Beijing Winter Olympics: A disaster for the environment?
Deutsche Welle, January 14, 2022
Since November, hundreds of snow machines have been running continuously in the middle of what used to be an expansive Chinese nature reserve to create an artificial landscape for the Beijing Winter Olympics. The amount of energy and water, often pumped from far-away lakes, makes this Olympics perhaps the least environmentally-friendly event in the history of the Games.
2. Russia and China’s plans for a new world order
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, January 23, 2022
Financial Times Columnist Gideon Rachman describes the coordinated efforts of Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China to overturn the liberal international system. Both leaders view the United States as the principal threat to their regimes and are coordinating their efforts to bring about a major change in the global order.
While Rachman does not use the term, what he is describing to his readers is a new cold war, one that is every bit as complex and dangerous as the first cold war in which the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China battled liberal democracies for many of the same reasons. Only this time, the latter is far more capable than the former ever was.
3. EU sues China in WTO over Lithuania blockade
Stuart Lau, Politico, January 27, 2022
The European Union Thursday launched a World Trade Organization case against China over what it calls "discriminatory trade practices" against Lithuania. The move comes after Beijing blocked most trade with Lithuania after the Baltic state deepened ties with Taiwan.
The statement by European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said: "The EU is determined to act as one and act fast against measures in breach of WTO rules, which threaten the integrity of our Single Market. We are in parallel pursuing our diplomatic efforts to deescalate the situation."
4. How to Navigate the Ethical Risks of Doing Business in China
Seth Kaplan, Harvard Business Review, January 26, 2022
Seth Kaplan examines the increasingly fraught environment for businesses operating in the PRC. Given that the Chinese Communist Party has asserted its control over nearly every aspect of the Chinese economy executives need adopt a series of new principles:
1) increase your due diligence on any initiative involving China,
2) proactively consider the alternatives to doing business in China,
3) avoid transferring technology that might have military or surveillance applications, or investing in ways that will make sensitive tech more available,
4) be as transparent as possible about your operations and investments, and your ethical safeguards, and
5) give employees with conscientious objections to doing business with China a way to voice these concerns and opt-out of specific projects.
5. ‘Your only right is to obey’: China’s thousands of disappeared
Philip Sherwell, Times of London, January 22, 2022
Determined to avoid embarrassment at the Winter Olympics, Beijing is crushing dissent with a system of ‘black jails’ into which tens of thousands have vanished.
6. Yale to begin investigating potential Chinese investments in light of human rights concerns
Philip Mousavizadeh, Yale Daily News, January 27, 2022
After objections from various parts of the Yale community, the University will begin investigating how its investments in the PRC may be supporting genocide, gross human rights abuses and the military modernization of the People’s Liberation Army.
AUTHORITARIANISM
Paul Mozur (Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times Reporter), December 31, 2021
8. They Were Reporters in Hong Kong. Now They Drive Cabs and Sell Fried Chicken.
Viola Zhou, Vice News, January 25, 2022
The demise of the city’s independent news outlets has left hundreds of journalists out of a job. Many are not coming back.
9. Beijing migrant worker's search for son sparks outrage, sympathy
Reuters, January 20, 2022
10. Hong Kong security chief says new laws will reflect "importance of spies"
Greg Torode and Jessie Pang, Reuters, January 26, 2022
Yet another example of the PRC’s “America Initiative.”
11. Chinese TV dramas to label foreign actors in credits
Tsukasa Hadano, Nikkei Asia, January 25, 2022
Chinese television dramas will display the nationalities of actors who have foreign citizenship in their credits starting this April under pressure from the government, a move that could limit dual citizens' opportunities to appear on-screen.
The rule, issued in late December by China's National Radio and Television Administration, also covers actors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as production crews.
The change comes amid a cultural clampdown by the government that aims to promote patriotism and loyalty to the ruling Communist Party. The new disclosure requirement could make it tougher for actors from outside the mainland to appear in Chinese dramas.
…
As the rift with between China and the West widens over human rights and other differences, the government is trying to promote nationalist sentiment and public unity. Speaking in December at a conference of cultural and artistic organizations, President Xi Jinping said that artists and writers must promote "a national spirit with patriotism at its core."
12. Cult Classic ‘Fight Club’ Gets a Very Different Ending in China
Viola Zhou, Vice News, January 24, 2022
Fight Club is getting an entirely different ending in a new online release in China, where imported films are often altered to show that the law enforcement, on the side of justice, always trumps the villain.
The 1999 film by David Fincher originally ends with the Narrator (Edward Norton) killing his split personality Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). With the female lead Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), he then watches all the buildings explode outside the window and collapse, suggesting Tyler’s anarchist plan to destroy consumerism is in the works.
The exact opposite happens in the edit of the same film released in China. In the version on the Chinese streaming site Tencent Video, the explosion scene has been removed. Instead, viewers are told that the state successfully busted Tyler’s plan to destroy the world.
“Through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding,” a caption said. “After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”
From episode 12, season 16 of The Simpsons… an episode that ironically has been removed by Disney+ in Hong Kong.
13. Open Source
Katrina Northrop, The Wire China, January 16, 2022
Despite popular perceptions that China is a black box, creative new research methods are shining a light in and giving us insight into some of the Chinese Communist Party’s most horrendous crimes.
14. Global tensions grow as Chinese rocket scientist defects to the West
Marco Giannangeli, Express, January 23, 2022
15. China launches internet ‘purification’ campaign for lunar new year
Ryan McMorrow, Financial Times, January 25, 2022
16. How Beijing’s global ambitions are playing out in politics, economics, and technology
Mary Hui and Elizabeth Economy, Quartz, January 19, 2022
17. Expats eye escape from Hong Kong as China’s Covid restrictions bite
Kate Whitehead, Times of London, January 16, 2022
18. China Detains Prominent Activists as Olympics Near, Citing State Security
Chao Deng, Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2022
Chinese authorities have detained two prominent human-rights activists, quietly intensifying a crackdown on dissent weeks before Beijing hosts the most politicized Winter Olympics in recent memory.
Free-speech advocate Yang Maodong was formally detained in the southern city of Guangzhou on suspicion of inciting subversion on Jan. 12, two days after his wife died of cancer in the U.S., according to his sister.
Mr. Yang, who writes under the pen name Guo Feixiong, has been blocked from leaving China for the past year. Authorities rejected his pleas, and entreaties from friends and family, that he be allowed to be with his wife in her final months. Friends said they had lost contact with the 55-year-old in early December, though it was only on Monday that police officially confirmed his detention to his family.
“It’s really too cruel, too heartless,” Yang Maoping, his sister said, adding that police had been vague about the reason for his detention.
Xie Yang, a 49-year old lawyer who has taken up politically sensitive cases related to religion and land rights, was detained on Jan. 11, also on subversion charges, and is being held in the southern city of Changsha, according to his family.
Human-rights advocates linked the detentions to the coming 2022 Winter Games, scheduled to begin on Feb. 4, which have been dogged by criticism over China’s human-rights record.
“You can imagine authorities all over the country are tightening control pre-emptively to strike out any potential dissent and criticism,” said Renee Xia, a senior researcher with Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a Washington, D.C., based group.
19. Protesting Winter Olympics athletes ‘face punishment’, suggests Beijing official
Helen Davidson, The Guardian, January 19, 2022
Any athlete behaviour that is against the Olympic spirit or Chinese rules or laws will be subject to “certain punishment”, a Beijing 2022 official has said in response to a question about the possibility of athlete protests at next month’s Winter Games.
20. Athletes warned against speaking up on human rights at Beijing Games
Reuters, January 18, 2022
21. VIDEO – 'Shameless,' former NBC host [Bob Costas] says of the Olympics returning to Beijing
Ramishah Maruf, CNN, January 24, 2022
Former NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, who has covered 12 Olympic Games as a host and commentator, did not hold back when discussing the challenges journalists will face during the Beijing Winter Olympics next month.
"The IOC deserves all of the disdain and disgust that comes their way for going back to China yet again," Costas said on CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday.
Costas referenced the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2015 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia as examples of the International Olympic Committee's seeming disregard for the prevalence of human rights abuses when selecting host nations. But now, there's a "greater understanding of everything that China represents," he said.
22. Winter Olympics Sponsors Caught Between Beijing, U.S.
Stu Woo and Georgi Kantchev, Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2022
23. Chinese dialects in decline as government enforces Mandarin
Vincent Ni, The Guardian, January 16, 2022
Linguists concerned as regional languages dwindle amid push to strengthen uniform national identity.
The destruction of language diversity across China receives very little attention. The rich cultural diversity that has existed across China for thousands of years is being replaced by the hyper-nationalism of an idealized Han identity. The Han supremacist language and symbols of the Chinese Communist Party seek to marginalize and eventually erase this rich history.
24. Preparing for Deterioration of the Latin America and Caribbean Strategic Environment
Evan Ellis, Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 14, 2022
Although the outcome is not inevitable, Latin America and the Caribbean are currently on the precipice of a downward spiral into populist authoritarian governments, economic collapse, social unrest, and expanded presence and influence of China across the hemisphere—and it does not look like “the calvary is coming” to turn the situation around.
Although those dynamics are just now becoming clear, numerous reinforcing dynamics are driving the strategic environment of the region in a very troubling direction. For the moment, the skies of the region are still mostly clear, but the storm is coming.
The region’s worrisome trajectory is the consequence of three mutually reinforcing phenomena: the Covid-19 pandemic, engagement with China, and the spread of a particular model of leftist authoritarian populism. The dynamic is enabled by long-standing citizen discontent with poverty, inequality, corruption, insecurity, and poor governance that fails to address those ills.
While right-wing populism is also problematic, the dynamics that lead left-wing populists to turn away from free markets and embrace the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as an alternative source of resources present unique challenges for U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. strategic position in the hemisphere.
25. For China’s Half-Million Foreign Students, a Painful Wait Extends into Third Year
James T. Areddy, Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2022
The pandemic has scrambled life for students everywhere. The challenges have been uniquely complex for hundreds of thousands of international students enrolled at Chinese universities but locked out of the country for two years.
Sandra Herrera says going to Beijing in 2019 with a scholarship for graduate school marked the most exciting period in her life. But within seven months she was back in her country, El Salvador, trying to salvage her M.B.A. from 14 time zones away with a poor internet connection.
ENVIRONMENTAL HARMS
26. The Looming Environmental Catastrophe in the South China Sea
Murray Hiebert, The Diplomat, January 14, 2022
Steven Zeitchik, Washington Post, January 24, 2022
28. The Real Price of 'Made in China'
Senator Bill Cassidy, Newsweek, January 24, 2022
29. How green can Beijing's "green Olympics" really be?
CBS News, January 3, 2022
30. China Is Finding Fewer Reliable Sources of Coal. That Could Be Bad News for the Climate
Amy Gunia, Time, January 12, 2022
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE AND COERCION
Katrina Northrop, The Wire China, January 23, 2022
With significant business interests in China, NBC is facing tough choices about how to cover the Olympic host country.
32. China hires western TikTokers to polish its image during 2022 Winter Olympics
Vincent Ni, The Guardian, January 22, 2022
33. China financiert onderzoek naar mensenrechten aan VU [China funds research into human rights at VU] – ORIGINAL IN DUTCH
Laura Steenbeeke and Robert Chesal, NOS, January 19, 2022
[GOOGLE TRANSLATE] A research center of the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam is conducting research into human rights with the help of money from a Chinese university. This is evident from documents in the hands of the NOS. Professors at the center regularly argue for an alternative view of human rights, including when it comes to China.
The VU's Cross Cultural Human Rights Center (CCHRC) received between 250,000 and 300,000 euros a year in 2018 , 2019 and 2020 , according to the documents. The money will come from the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing. Universities in China are closely linked to the political regime, the communist party. Until this year, the university in Chongqing was the sole funder of the research center.
Committed professors associated with the center regularly champion China's human rights policy. This is striking because the country has been under fire for years for human rights issues, for example in the Xinjiang region. The VU denies that academic independence is at stake, but experts who consulted the NOS question this and speak of an unusual financing construction.
34. Australian opposition leader: China relations won’t change
Rod McGuirk, Associated Press, January 26, 2022
35. UK Intelligence Agency Targets China’s United Front
Duncan Bartlett, The Diplomat, January 22, 2022
Spymasters in the U.K. and other countries are going public in their push against CCP influence.
36. Ministers failed to act on warnings before Commons spy alert over Christine Lee
Caroline Wheeler and Gabriel Pogrund, Times of London, January 16, 2022
The former head of MI5 has accused ministers of failing to act on warnings that might have stopped an alleged Chinese agent infiltrating Westminster and described foreign interference as a “live and present threat” to democracy.
Lord Evans of Weardale, chairman of the committee on standards in public life, said the case of Christine Lee, who was identified by the security services last week, demonstrated the need to address vulnerabilities in the political system.
Lee, 58, “knowingly engaged in political interference” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to the warning circulated by MI5. She has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund staff in the parliamentary office of Barry Gardiner, formerly Labour’s shadow international trade secretary. She denies wrongdoing.
37. UK government promoted firm at center of alleged Chinese influence operation for years
Nina dos Santos, CNN, January 20, 2022
The British government had been directing investors towards the law firm run by a woman accused by the country's own intelligence service of political interference on behalf of China for years, documents from its trade department show.
On Thursday Britain's domestic counter-intelligence service, MI5, issued an "interference alert" about a "potential threat" posed by Christine Ching Kui Lee, a lawyer with offices in China and the UK.
38. ‘Only a matter of time’ before Taiwan has no allies, Chinese vice foreign minister says
Amber Wang, South China Morning Post, January 18, 2022
39. China ‘shocked’ by Slovenia’s plans to allow Taiwan to open an office
Teddy Ng, South China Morning Post, January 19, 2022
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian accuses Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa of making ‘dangerous remarks that challenge the one-China principle and support Taiwan independence.’
40. Beijing Says International Mail Is Possible Culprit in First Omicron Case
Wenxin Fan, Wall Street Journal, January 17, 2022
Niraj Chokshi, New York Times, January 21, 2022
42. Hungary Opposition Cheered by ‘Symbolic Victory’ on Referendum
Zoltan Balogh, Balkan Insight, January 21, 2022
Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony announces the success of collecting enough signatures for a referendum on Chinese Fudan University. The success of a drive to collect signatures for a vote on a controversial Chinese university campus has lifted opposition spirits ahead of the April 3 elections.
43. A Visionary without a Country
David Golden and Jeff Kao, ProPublica and the Chronicle of Higher Education, January 20, 2022
Celebrated scientist Joe Tsien retreated to China after his Georgia university and the U.S. government began investigating him. He says he’s a victim of anti-Asian discrimination, but key parts of his story don’t add up.
…
Augusta University records, Chinese media reports and obscure filings tucked away in Chinese and American courts, plus conversations with Tsien and his friends and colleagues in both countries, tell a more complicated story. They show that Tsien is far less a victim than he asserts, and that he concealed key aspects of his dealings, including efforts to seek and commercialize Chinese patents for American-funded research.
The documents and Tsien’s associates depict him as an ambitious outsider in both his native and adopted countries, part schemer and part dreamer. There was no indication that he was aiming to help China or its government at the expense of the U.S. His goals appeared to be personal: to advance himself and his family.
44. China aggressively recruited foreign scientists. Now, it avoids talking about those programs
Dennis Normile, Science, January 20, 2022
The criminal charges against Harvard University chemist Charles Lieber—and dozens of others ensnared in the U.S. Department of Justice’s China Initiative—have put a spotlight on the Thousand Talents Program (TTP), a Chinese government effort that brought Lieber and other scientists from overseas to China’s universities and research institutes.
U.S. authorities have portrayed the program as an effort to pilfer know-how and innovation, a claim many scientists dispute. But as the scrutiny of the TTP grew, the program slipped out of sight.
Official mentions of the TTP have disappeared, and lists of TTP awardees once posted on government and university websites are no longer available. But experts say the TTP has simply been folded into other programs, and recruitment is continuing. More than ever, the effort focuses on scientists of Chinese origin, and part-time appointments of the type that Lieber had have become rare.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
45. How a Kazakh Critic of China Became an Asylum Seeker in the Netherlands
Laila Adilzhan, Bitter Winter, January 19, 2022
46. $65 Million to Finance Uyghur Genocide Denial
Massimo Introvigne, Bitter Winter, January 21, 2022
47. The Spotlight Shifted Away from Peng Shuai. Some Players and Fans Want It Back.
Christopher Clarey and Ben Rothenberg, New York Times, January 26, 2022
48. Navratilova says Tennis Australia capitulating to China over Peng
Andrew Both and Courtney Walsh, Reuters, January 24, 2022
Martina Navratilova said Australian Open organisers were cowardly to prevent fans from wearing shirts bearing messages of support for Chinese doubles player Peng Shuai at the Grand Slam.
INDUSTRIAL POLICIES AND ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE
49. Request to the World Trade Organization for Consultations by the European Union
EU Ambassador to the WTO, January 27, 2022
The above-described complex of measures are inter-linked and show a targeted prohibition or restriction relating to trade in goods or services from or to Lithuania or linked to Lithuania which is intended to be generally applicable.
These measures are attributable to China which, through actions of the Government, and/or through measures designed, promulgated, or applied by entities (including local government bodies, non-governmental bodies and state-owned enterprises) in Chinese territory acting as, under the authority of, or in concert with the Government, has encouraged, incentivised or otherwise instigated a coordinated policy designed to restrict trade from and with the EU, and more specifically, Lithuania, in a manner that is inconsistent with the terms of the covered agreements.
50. China-Based Auditors Pose Risks for U.S. Companies, Study Shows
Jean Eaglesham, Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2022
The probability that accounting problems will occur increases as Chinese firms perform a larger share of an audit, say three professors.
51. Can Latin America and the Caribbean Trust China as a Business Partner?
Leland Lazarus and Evan Ellis, The Diplomat, December 29, 2021
A lack of due diligence, corruption, and a disregard for indigenous rights and the environment have characterized many Chinese infrastructure projects in the region.
Amanda Lee, South China Morning Post, January 25, 2022
CYBER AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
53. China’s Tech Crackdown: A Year-in-Review
Brian Liu and Raquel Leslie, Lawfare, January 7, 2022
54. China harvests masses of data on Western targets, documents show
Cate Cadell, Washington Post, December 31, 2021
55. China’s Vast Blueprint for Tech Supremacy Over US
Bloomberg, January 23, 2022
MILITARY AND SECURITY THREATS
Jun Mai, South China Morning Post, January 22, 2022
CPPCC member and US specialist Jia Qingguo criticizes the Party’s overemphasis on absolutes like security and self-sufficiency. Warns that kind of thinking doomed the Soviet Union.
57. Dredgers Spotted at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base
Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, January 21, 2022
Dredgers have been spotted off the coast of Cambodia’s Ream Naval base in government-released photos and satellite imagery. Dredging of deeper port facilities would be necessary for the docking of larger military ships at Ream, and was part of a secret agreement between China and Cambodia that U.S. officials reported seeing in 2019.
That deal reportedly granted China military access to the base in return for funding facilities improvements. Cambodian officials have confirmed that China is funding construction at Ream, but maintain that there are no plans for Chinese military access.
58. China Says Rail-Borne Trade with North Korea Has Restarted
Bloomberg, January 17, 2022
59. Chinese air force incursion of Taiwan not conducive to peace, UK PM says
William James, Reuters, January 26, 2022
60. China, Russia take another step closer, agreeing to strengthen coordination on Asian affairs
Erika Na, South China Morning Post, January 26, 2022
ONE BELT, ONE ROAD STRATEGY
61. Colombo Port City: A new Dubai or a Chinese enclave?
Anbarasan Ethirajan, BBC, January 19, 2022
62. France snubs China with its Indo-Pacific forum
Stuart Lau, Politico, January 27, 2022
As France prepares to roll out the red carpet in Paris next month for a forum where EU ministers will meet 30 Indo-Pacific foreign ministers, the absence of China will be all too conspicuous.
France's guest list for the event on February 22 runs from regional heavyweights like Japan, India and South Korea through to archipelagos like Comoros and Micronesia, but Beijing isn't there.
The event will focus on "the challenges security and defence, digital issues and connectivity, in the context of the 'Global Gateway' initiative on global infrastructures, as well as global issues," according to the French government's outline of its EU priorities at the start of the year.
Global Gateway is the name given to the EU's aspirations of matching Beijing massive Belt and Road Initiative — a network of strategically crucial infrastructure systems connecting China to Western economies.
63. Barbados’ New Republic: A Win for China?
Judith Mwai and Lauren Ashmore, The Diplomat, January 27, 2022
64. Britain cannot turn a blind eye to Chinese economic imperialism as war threatens
Ben Wright, The Telegraph, January 26, 2022
OPINION PIECES
65. Keynote speech by Minister of State Tobias Lindner at the MERICS China Forecast 2022
German Federal Foreign Office, January 26, 2022
This year will be an important year from a China policy point of view. The Chinese Communist Party will hold its 20th Party Congress and with it will likely confirm a third term for Xi Jinping as leader of the Communist party, the Chinese state and the Chinese military. The decisions taken in Beijing will have an impact on China’s relations with the EU and Germany in 2022 and beyond.
At the same time, the new German government will adapt its approach towards China:
As you all know the coalition agreement includes a considerable amount of language on China. It includes the need for a new, comprehensive China strategy that is embedded in a joint EU-China policy. What will this mean in practice for our relationship with China?
We are facing a rising China that is ever more self-confident and less willing to compromise in promoting its interests, and especially so vis-à-vis smaller states, for example Lithuania.
We are facing a China that openly promotes its authoritarian model of governance including in UN institutions, while arguing that its own political system is inherently superior to democracy.
At the same time China aims at placing its state-led economy at the top of global high-tech value chains and is determined to shape international norms, rules and standards.
66. China needs a new growth model, but that requires serious reform
Eswar Prasad, Financial Times, January 20, 2022
The Chinese economy has held up remarkably well through the pandemic but now faces a combination of waning growth and financial market volatility. This reflects a number of dilemmas that Beijing is grappling with, some of which are of its own making.
67. Analysis: If Xi secures just 5 more years, he loses
Katsuji Nakazawa, Nikkei Asia, January 27, 2022
Here is an interesting yardstick of success for Chinese President Xi Jinping at the ruling party's national congress later this year.
"If all he gets is another five-year term as party general secretary, leaving prospects for his ultra-long-term reign unclear, it will, in effect, be a defeat," one Chinese political source whispered recently. His grip on the party will gradually weaken, the person said.
The comment reflects a delicate atmosphere that has lingered for more than two months since the "third resolution on history" was adopted at the sixth plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party's 19th Central Committee in November.
68. Analysis: From leader to students, overconfidence clouds China
Katsuji Nakazawa, Nikkei Asia, January 20, 2022
Reckless policies hurt economy and delay Xi Jinping's goal to overtake U.S.
69. Tokyo, Beijing, and New Tensions Over Taiwan
June Teufel Dreyer, Foreign Policy Research Institute, January 19, 2022
70. No friendly politician is too obscure for insecure China, not even Barry Gardiner
Nick Cohen, The Guardian, January 15, 2022
71. China’s Economic Downturn Gives Rise to a Winter of Discontent
Kevin Rudd, Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2022
72. How Xi’s ‘magic weapon’ targets Britain
Ian Williams, Times of London, January 16, 2022
The name is innocuous enough, as is the large nameless compound it occupies next to Communist Party headquarters in downtown Beijing. But the United Front Work Department is one of the most important tools of Communist Party power, a “magic weapon”, as Mao once called it. Until last week, it was targeting Britain with little resistance.
The broad aim of united front work is to influence opinion and policy in favour of China. On the surface that is not an unusual thing for a government to want to do. Influence is the stuff of all diplomacy, but China has persistently crossed the line between influence on the one hand, and infiltration and interference on the other. The UFWD is an opaque organisation, responsible for co-ordinating these operations. Much of its work is covert, using front organisations or individuals to funnel money and favours.
The parliamentary activities of Christine Ching Kui Lee barely scratch the surface of activities that span politics, business and academia.
As a strategy, united front work dates back to Russia, where Lenin and his fellow Bolshevik conspirators used the term to describe efforts to infiltrate, persuade or cajole non-party elements at home and abroad to join the revolutionary cause. Mao Zedong took it up with gusto, as has Xi Jinping, who sees it as a vital tool for pushing Chinese interests abroad and stifling criticism of his repression.
Xi began to reinvigorate the united front system soon after coming to power, substantially boosting staffing and funds and calling for closer co-ordination of the organisations the UFWD oversees. In a 2015 speech to the Central Conference on the organisation, he called on them to step up their befriending of non-Party individuals: “We conduct the united front work not for window dressing or good name, but for pragmatic reasons, because it plays a role, a big role, and an indispensable role,” he said.
A united front teaching manual describes its work as “a big magic weapon which can rid us of 10,000 problems in order to seize victory”. It exhorts cadres to be gracious and inclusive as they attempt to “unite all forces that can be united”, but to be ruthless against enemies.
The outing of Lee last week will have stirred a sense of déjà vu in Australia. In 2017, Canberra experienced its own political funding scandal, when it was revealed that politicians and political parties had received donations from businessmen linked to the Chinese government. One senator, after accepting money, called on Australia to respect China’s claims in the South China Sea and warned his paymaster of an investigation by the security services. The scandal prompted Australia to examine every aspect of its relationship with China, including its unhealthy trade and economic dependency. It led to the exposure of Communist Party meddling on university campuses, in businesses, think tanks and in the Chinese language media. It also exposed efforts to co-opt ethnic Chinese migrants and their organisations.
The trail led to that anonymous UFWD compound in downtown Beijing, and the Australian government accused China of trying to subvert its democracy. It introduced tough anti-foreign interference laws. The laws ban foreign political donations and require foreign lobbyists to register. They also criminalise covert, deceptive or threatening actions that are intended to interfere with democratic processes or provide intelligence to overseas governments.
These laws represent the most robust push back to date by a Western democracy against Chinese interference, and are designed to include actions that previously fell short of definitions of espionage – a yawning gap that still exists in UK legislation, which explains why no action could be taken against Lee.
Two of the biggest enablers of united front work are gullibility and greed on the part of the targets – and these are as abundant among British businesses, politicians and academics as they were in Australia. In Britain, David Cameron’s “golden age” of relations with China opened the door to UFWD organisations, few questions asked. And in many ways what we are now seeing is a bad hangover from that period.
British universities have been a particularly fruitful target for united front work, accepting money from opaque Chinese sources, and pushing back against demands for greater transparency. Universities have also allowed academic debate to be influenced by a UFWD-linked group that ostensibly represents Chinese student and scholars. In many institutions united front work has effectively neutered what passes as China Studies, stripping it of any critical examination of the Communist Party’s behaviour in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet or around Taiwan.
The UFWD operates in parallel and co-ordinates with China’s conventional espionage agencies and cyber operations, though it is in many ways more effective. That MI5 felt the need to sound the alarm last week is testament to its concern about just how thoroughly compromised British institutions have become.
73. China's Covid Victory Over America Turns Out to Be Pyrrhic
Niall Ferguson, Bloomberg, January 23, 2022
74. China's trade war with Lithuania a 'test' the West cannot afford to fail
James Crisp, The Telegraph, January 15, 2022
Lithuania's foreign minister tells the Telegraph Beijing is deploying a 'weapon of economic destruction' to force Vilnius to cut Taiwan ties
75. A new era of spying has caught us napping
Edward Lucas, Times of London, January 17, 2022
The exposure of a Chinese influence operation in Westminster highlights deeper problems
76. ‘Web3’ is on the way. Authoritarians should be worried.
Anthony Vinci and Nadia Schadlow, Washington Post, January 26, 2022
Geopolitics is about relative power and relative gains. Conceptually, Web3 is innately more beneficial to Western liberal democracies, which value democracy and personal privacy. This would return the advantage to the West and force China and other authoritarian states to confront their weaknesses, change them or fall behind.
77. China Risks Going to Economic Hero to ‘Zero’ In 2022
William Pesek, Forbes, January 24, 2022