China Articles - July 10, 2022
Friends,
Like many of you, I was deeply saddened by the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo this week. Abe-san was a once in a generation leader who felt strongly that his country had a responsibility to defend the liberal international system that had provided prosperity and security for the Japanese people. He felt that this system of rules was not only worth defending, but was our best chance at providing that same prosperity and security to the rest of the world in opposition to growing authoritarianism and illiberalism (see Misha Auslin’s “Shinzo Abe Cast Japan in a Leading Role on the Global Stage” in the Wall Street Journal).
In tribute, please read his February 2013 speech titled ‘Japan is Back.’ The Prime Minister described his vision for a Japan that champions an international system of rules and an Indo-Pacific region that is free and open. To put in context, this was a month after Barack Obama began his second term as President, a year before Putin’s annexation of Crimea, and two months after Xi Jinping’s secret inaugural speech to the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee.
Abe-san’s vision for an international order based on limited government and a rule-based system could not be more different than Xi’s vision of an existential struggle between socialism, led by a Leninist party, and capitalism, in which the CCP would eventually sweep away the international system maintained by liberal democracies like Japan, the European Union, and the United States.
While the world has lost a great defender of democracy, what makes me optimistic about the future is that Abe Shinzo’s leadership inspired us to defend transparency, the rule of law and democracy. One need only watch the first piece this week about PRC business practices in South America or read the second piece about the destruction of freedom in Hong Kong to appreciate Abe’s efforts.
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
1. VIDEO – Undercover in Guyana: Exposing Chinese Business in South America
Isabel Yeung, Vice News, July 7, 2022
China’s rapidly growing presence in South America has reached Guyana. Vice News goes undercover to expose allegations of corruption in business deals between the two countries.
2. The Hong Kong Handover at 25
Benedict Rogers, Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2022
Hong Kong was one of Asia's freest and most open cities when the UK handed over to the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, 1997. The city is now a repressive police state.
3. Vast Cache of Chinese Police Files Offered for Sale in Alleged Hack
Karen Hao and Rachel Liang, Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2022
A massive collection of data on Chinese citizens that was pulled from an unsecured police database has been offered up for sale by a hacker group. If confirmed as legitimate, it would be one of the world’s largest caches of personal data and it provides insight into the scope and scale of what the Chinese Communist Party maintains on its own citizens.
4. Five Years After Vanishing, Chinese Canadian Billionaire Faces Trial
Amy Qin, New York Times, July 4, 2022
This week the CCP began the show-trial of Xiao Jianhua, a Canadian citizen, who was kidnapped five years ago from a Hong Kong hotel. His case epitomizes the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to cover up the worst excesses of corruption and greed with the Party. Xiao, once a well-connected fixer for various high-profile CCP families, is now being made an example of.
5. Best and Bosom Friends: Why China-Russia Ties Will Deepen after Russia’s War on Ukraine
Andrea Kendall-Taylor and David O. Shullman, CSIS, June 22, 2022
The partnership between China and Russia has become one of the most critical features of the contemporary strategic relationship. Russia’s war in Ukraine has created economic and diplomatic dilemmas for China, but it hasn’t altered the fundamental alignment of interests and autocratic values that drives that relationship. In this Marshall Paper, David Shullman and Andrea Kendall-Taylor explain why the Sino-Russian relationship will only get deeper as a result of the war—even as it reveals strains and divisions that the United States and its allies may, eventually, be able to exploit.
Authoritarianism
6. China is Tightening Its Grip on Big Tech
Chris Stokel-Walker, WIRED, June 29, 2022
7. Xi Jinping Visits Hong Kong to Mark Anniversary, Capping Crushing of Dissent
Chun Han Wong, Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2022
8. China’s Communist Party nears 97 million, with more younger and educated members
Guo Rui, South China Morning Post, June 30, 2022
9. The significance of Xi Jinping’s visit to Hong Kong
Charles Parton, Council on Geostrategy, June 30, 2022
10. PODCAST – What’s the future for Hong Kong
The Economist, June 30, 2022
11. China Starts Trial of Vanished Canadian-Chinese Billionaire
Chin Han Wong, Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2022
12. Hong Kong’s Lee Sidestepped Sanctions With $1.4 Million in Cash
Kiuyan Wong, Bloomberg, July 5, 2022
13. China wants to control how its famous livestreamers act, speak, and even dress
Zeyi Yang, MIT Technology Review, July 4, 2022
14. Five stand trial for sedition in Hong Kong over children’s books about sheep
Sum Lok-kei, The Guardian, July 6, 2022
15. The next wolf warriors: China readies new generation of tough diplomats
Richard McGregor and Neil Thomas, Nikkei Asia, July 6, 2022
The Economist, July 1, 2022
How a free and open Hong Kong became a police state
17. A More Muscular NATO Emerges as West Confronts Russia and China
Steven Erlanger and Michael D. Shear, New York Times, June 29, 2022
NATO leaders outlined a muscular new vision that names Moscow as the military alliance's primary adversary but also declares China to be a strategic “challenge” for the first time.
Environmental Harms
18. Chinese Coal-based Power Plants
Mark Green, Stubborn Things, June 28, 2022
Foreign Interference and Coercion
19. Philippines abandons joint energy exploration talks with China
Nikkei Asia, June 23, 2022
20. China rejects NASA accusation it will take over the moon
Reuters, July 4, 2022
21. U.S. Blacklists Five Chinese Firms for Allegedly Helping Russia’s Military
Kate O’Keeffe, Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2022
22. Labeled a ‘Challenge’ by NATO, China Signals Its Own Hard-Line Worldview
Amy Qin and Austin Ramzy, New York Times, July 1, 2022
23. China Slams NASA Chief Nelson as Race to the Moon Gets Heated
Bloomberg, July 4, 2022
24. China Hits Back at New Zealand’s Ardern After NATO Comments
Matthew Brockett, Bloomberg, June 30, 2022
25. US Ambassador Urges China to Stop Spreading Russian ‘Lies’
Bloomberg, July 4, 2022
26. Beijing is trying to weaken sanctions on Russia
Joe Webster, Sup China, June 30, 2022
27. India blocks Pakistan’s BRICS invitation
Kamran Yousaf, The Express Tribune, June 27, 2022
Human Rights and Religious Persecution
28. Solar Products Detained Under New US-China Law, Analyst Says
Bloomberg, June 29, 2022
29. Companies Face Compliance Challenges Under U.S. Forced-Labor Law Targeting China
Richard Vanderford, Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2022
30. MPs call for UK ban on two Chinese CCTV firms
Chris Vallance, BBC, July 3, 2022
31. China Offers Women Perks for Having Babies. Single Moms Don’t Qualify.
Alexandra Stevenson, New York Times, July 6, 2022
32. U.S. Aims to Expand Export Bans on China Over Security and Human Rights
Edward Wong and Ana Swanson, New York Times, July 5, 2022
33. China Destroyed Muslim Culture In This Ancient City — Then Turned It Into Disneyland
Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing, and Christo Buschek, BuzzFeed News, June 30, 2022
34. Prominent Chinese Lawyer Zhang Sizhi Dies at 94
Yuan Ye, Sixth Tone, June 27, 2022
35. China has a PR problem – and it’s not just over Hong Kong. Here’s why in three charts.
Lili Pike, Grid, June 29, 2022
36. Negative Views of China Tied to Critical Views of Its Policies on Human Rights
Laura Silver, Christine Huang, and Laura Clancy, Pew Research Center, June 29, 2022
Industrial Policies and Economic Espionage
37. Huawei founder seeks business ideas from staff as US sanctions bite
Iris Deng, South China Morning Post, July 06, 2022
38. China takes wider aim at foreign tech with national standards plan
Shunsuke Tabeta, Nikkei Asia, July 06, 2022
39. SenseTime Plunge Raises Stakes for Slew of China Lockup Lifts
Bloomberg, July 6, 2022
40. American Factories Are Making Stuff Again as CEOs Take Production Out of China
Ryan Beene, Bloomberg, July 5, 2022
41. Boeing Pain From US-China Trade War Seen in Airbus Bonanza
Julie Johnsson, Bloomberg, July 1, 2022
42. Volkswagen Pulls Out All the Stops to Address China Challenges
Stefan Nicola and Monica Raymunt, Bloomberg, June 30, 2022
43. Tencent, ByteDance Implement Fresh Layoffs Amid China’s Economic Pains
Raffaele Huang, Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2022
44. Decouple – Outbound Screening and the NCCDA
David R. Hanke, Eitan Berkowitz, and Derek Ha, Arent Fox Schiff, June 30, 2022
Longstanding concerns on Capitol Hill about certain “outbound” activities conducted by U.S. companies and investors, particularly in the technology sector, both in China as well as outside of China with a China nexus, have given rise to significant legislative developments this year.
Cyber & Information Technology
Yong Xiong, Hannah Ritche and Nectar Gan, CNN, July 5, 2022
A massive online database apparently containing the personal information of up to one billion Chinese citizens was left unsecured and publicly accessible for more than a year – until an anonymous user in a hacker forum offered to sell the data and brought it to wider attention last week.
The leak could be one of the biggest ever recorded in history, cybersecurity experts say, highlighting the risks of collecting and storing vast amounts of sensitive personal data online – especially in a country where authorities have broad and unchecked access to such data.
The vast trove of Chinese personal data had been publicly accessible via what appeared to be an unsecured backdoor link – a shortcut web address that offers unrestricted access to anyone with knowledge of it – since at least April 2021, according to LeakIX, a site that detects and indexes exposed databases online.
46. TikTok Confirms Some China-Based Employees Can Access US User Data
Alex Barinka, Bloomberg, July 1, 2022
47. Hackers Claim Theft of Police Info in China’s Largest Data Leak
Sarah Zheng, Bloomberg, July 4, 2022
48. Chinese AI Champion SenseTime’s Stock Tanks as Investor Lockup Ends
Rebecca Feng and Jing Yang, Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2022
49. British satellite programme 'at risk' from sale of UK tech giant
James Titcomb, The Telegraph, July 3, 2022
50. In a big potential breach, a hacker offers to sell a Chinese police database.
John Liu, Paul Mozur and Kalley Huang, New York Times, July 05, 2022
51. The CCP’s information campaign targeting rare earths and Australian company Lynas
Albert Zhang, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, June 29, 2022
52. China pushes forward with home-grown operating systems to rival Windows
Che Pan, South China Morning Post, July 01, 2022
53. Chinese hackers kept up hiring drive despite FBI indictment
Eleanor Olcott, Financial Times, July 02, 2022
54. China censors news of alleged hacking of Shanghai police database
Ryan McMorrow, Financial Times, July 05, 2022
55. China activates data in the national interest
Rebecca Arcesati, Mercator Institute for China Studies, July 4, 2022
56. Lawmakers ask F.T.C. chair to investigate TikTok’s data practices.
David McCabe, New York Times, July 5, 2022
57. Chinese Internet users are spooked by alleged government data breach
Jan Li, Quartz, July 5, 2022
Mandiant, June 28, 2022
59. China lured graduate jobseekers into digital espionage
Eleanor Olcott and Helen Warrell, Financial Times, June 30, 2022
Military and Security Threats
60. U.S., Key Allies Close Ranks Against China
Daniel Michaels and Charles Hutzler, Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2022
61. Russia arrests scientist for alleged collaboration with Chinese secret services
Reuters, July 1, 2022
62. Second Russian scientist from Siberian city detained on treason charges, TASS reports
Reuters, July 2, 2022
63. We Are Now in a Global Cold War
Michael Hirsh, Foreign Policy, July 06, 2022
64. China’s rise pushes Asia-Pacific nations to embrace Nato
Kana Inagaki, Nic Fildes, and Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times, July 03, 2022
65. Russian laser scientist dies two days after arrest for state treason
Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, July 5, 2022
66. Chinese – Russian relations: How to respond?
James Rogers and Patrick Triglavcanin, Council on Geostrategy, July 5, 2022
67. Is Your New Car a Threat to National Security?
Justin Ling, WIRED, July 1, 2022
68. Wary of China threat, Taiwanese join Ukraine’s fight against Russia
Lily Kuo and Vic Chiang, Washington Post, July 3, 2022
One Belt, One Road Strategy
69. Pakistan’s Sharif woos China by targeting Belt and Road bottlenecks
Adnan Aamir, Nikkei Asia, July 5, 2022
70. China’s Digital Advance in Latin America
Evan Ellis, CEEEP, June 30, 2022
71. China Has Yet to Learn the Rules of the Pacific Chess Game
David Fickling, Bloomberg, July 4, 2022
Opinion Pieces
72. Why Does China Own So Much of Ukraine?
Elisabeth Braw, Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2022
73. China is steadily wiping out German industry
Diana Choyleva, Nikkei Asia, June 30, 2022
74. Gap between China, South Korea is widening as Seoul pivots to Washington
Shi Jiangtao, South China Morning Post, July 5, 2022
75. TikTok Is the New Front in Election Misinformation
Tim Culpan, Bloomberg, June 28, 2022
76. Henan displays China's economic cracks all at once
Yawen Chen, Reuters, July 6, 2022
77. Biden’s new Europe military deployments are well intentioned but a serious mistake
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner, June 29, 2022