China Articles - July 31, 2022
Friends,
This week I’m joining you from the annual ‘China Forum’ at the University of California, San Diego which brings together Government officials, scholars, and business leaders from across the country to examine the state of U.S.-China relations. The one public portion of this forum was former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s remarks, China’s Shifting Economy and Politics: Impact on U.S.-China Relations.
As you might imagine, the consensus is that the relationship is growing increasingly hostile and that after the 20th Party Congress (likely in October), Xi Jinping will become increasingly aggressive in achieving the Party’s goals at the expense of democracies around the globe.
It remains to be seen whether U.S. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi with visit Taiwan this week, but she has begun her trip to Asia. This is likely the last Asia trip Speaker Pelosi will do in her position, so I believe there is a strong incentive for her to meet with President Tsai in Taipei. For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has treated her as persona non grata. Speaker Pelosi has been a long-time and vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party’s atrocious human rights abuses going all the way back to her protest in Tiananmen Square as a junior Congresswoman in 1991.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), along Rep. Ben Jones (D-GA) and Rep. John Miller (R-WA) holding a protest banner in Tiananmen Square in September 1991, minutes before being escorted away by PRC police – Associated Press photo.
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
1. China Is Playing Hardball with Troubled Debtors. That’s Dangerous for All of Us.
Peter Coy, New York Times, July 22, 2022
The CCP’s corruption and lack of transparency may cause a full-blown international debt crisis.
2. FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications
Katie Bo Lillis, CNN, July 23, 2022
The FBI uncovered evidence that Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases could disrupt U.S. nuclear command and control.
3. Getting Ready for a Long War with China: Dynamics of Protracted Conflict in the Western Pacific
Hal Brands, American Enterprise Institute, July 25, 2022
A Sino-American war that occurs in the coming years would most likely feature far higher risks of nuclear escalation than many observers recognize.
A protracted war in the western Pacific would present the United States with severe challenges—and some unexpected opportunities. American officials must begin to think through six key issues: endurance, resilience, coercion, termination, exploitation, and continuation.
4. China Targeted Fed to Build Informant Network and Access Data, Probe Finds
Kate O’Keeffe and Nick Timiraos, Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2022
China tried to build a network of informants inside the Federal Reserve system, at one point threatening to imprison a Fed economist during a trip to Shanghai unless he agreed to provide nonpublic economic data, a congressional investigation found.
The investigation by Republican staff members of the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs found that Fed employees were offered contracts with Chinese talent-recruitment programs, which often include cash payments, and asked to provide information on the U.S. economy, interest-rate changes and policies, according to a report of the findings released Tuesday.
In the case of the economist, the report said, Chinese officials in 2019 detained and tried to coerce him to share data and information on U.S. government policies, including on tariffs while the U.S. and China were in the midst of a trade war.
The report doesn’t say whether any sensitive information was compromised in what it said has been a decadelong effort that began around 2013. Access to such information could provide valuable insights given the Fed’s extensive analysis of U.S. economic activity, its oversight of the U.S. financial system, and the setting of interest-rate policy.
5. China Has a Problem with Data Leaks. One Reason Is Its Surveillance State.
Karen Hao, Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2022
Centralizing multiple streams of personal data in a single place as a result of China’s state-run surveillance program increases risk of theft, cyber security experts say.
6. Combating Beijing’s Sharp Power: Transparency Wins in Europe
Martin Hala, Journal of Democracy, July 2022
After a long period of engagement, the CCP’s sharp power has been increasingly challenged throughout the world, in part as a response to General Secretary Xi Jinping’s more aggressive approach. The openness of democratic societies that had often been a weakness exploited by the CCP has in this process proven a strength, providing resilience when fully utilized for research and outreach. As a result, the CCP’s sharp power seems to be generally on the retreat in open societies, focusing instead on countries and regions characterized by less openness and more opportunities for manipulation and corruption.
Authoritarianism
7. China’s Wuhan Locks Down District with One Million People
Dan Strumpf and Keith Zhai, Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2022
8. Hong Bashes Global Media with hundreds of Complaint Letters
Kari Soo Lindberg and Yasufumi Saito, Bloomberg, July 24, 2022
From Slovakia to Japan, top Hong Kong officials have fired off at least 500 letters blasting critical foreign media coverage, as the city wages a global battle to safeguard its reputation as a liberal financial hub.
At least 174 media outlets in almost 30 countries received missives from city leaders -- including its now chief executive, John Lee -- since China announced in May 2020 that it would impose a national security law on the former British colony. The correspondence, often written both in English and the publication’s native language, was uploaded to the “Clarifications” tab of the government’s communications platform known as Brand Hong Kong.
9. Stringent Covid controls take their toll on GDP growth
Max J. Zenglein and Francois Chimits, MERICS, July 22, 2022
10. China’s Rural Banking Smash-Up
Nathaniel Taplin, Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2022
11. China’s Collapsing Global Image
Joshua Kurlantzick, Council on Foreign Relations, July 20, 2022
12. ‘We show hotshots who’s boss’: how China disciplines its tech barons
Lulu Chen, The Guardian, July 24, 2022
13. Wall Street watchdog 'not willing' to send auditors to China, Hong Kong before complete audit deal
Katanga Johnson, Reuters, July 27, 2022
14. Hong Kong government plans new law banning computer data deemed harmful to Hong Kong
Cheryl Tung, Lee Yuk Yue, and Chen Zifei, Radio Free Asia, July 21, 2022
15. HSBC installs Communist party committee in Chinese investment bank
Stephen Morris and Tabby Kinder, Financial Times, July 21, 2022
16. Callous messages following Abe’s death highlight anti-Japanese sentiment in China
Edward White, Financial Times, July 24, 2022
17. HSBC says China’s Communist party branches have ‘no influence’
Aljazeera, July 22, 2022
18. Chinese Envoy Accuses U.S. of ‘Hollowing Out’ One-China Principle
Kelly Wang, Caixin Global, July 22, 2022
Environmental Harms
19. Hotter, Longer and More Widespread Heat Waves Scorch China
Vivian Wang, New York Times, July 26, 2022
20. The Economic Effects of Extreme Heat in China
Sara Hsu, The Diplomat, July 25, 2022
21. Endangered sea cucumber ‘could be finished’ as illegal fishing carries on
Mexico News Daily, July 25, 2022
22. Chinese paddlefish and sturgeon officially extinct
China Dialogue, July 28, 2022
Foreign Interference and Coercion
23. China backs Indonesia as G20 looms
Nadya Yeh, Sup China, July 26, 2022
24. Analysis: Xi opens Beijing's heavy gates to receive Jokowi
Katsuji Nakazawa, Nikkei Asia, July 28, 2022
25. China’s Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Is Fading
Ray Weichieh Wang, The Diplomat, July 27, 2022
26. Sherman, Kennedy to visit Solomons, where fathers fought and U.S. now vies with China
Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom, Reuters, July 24, 2022
27. AUDIO – Examining China’s role in Latin America with Dr. Evan Ellis
Daniel F. Runde and Evan Ellis, Center for Strategic & International Studies, July 27, 2022
28. Powering Utah, with China’s Help
Isabella Borshoff, The Wire China, July 24, 2022
29. The 53 fragile emerging economies
The Economist, July 20, 2022
30. Update: China Blocks Another Philippine Resupply Mission
Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, July 27, 2022
Human Rights and Religious Persecution
Laura Murphy, Nyrola Elimä, and David Tobin, Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice, July 2022
"Until Nothing Is Left" documents in great detail the egregious human rights violations of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which is a paramilitary corporate conglomerate designed to suppress and colonise the Indigenous people of the Uyghur Region
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (also known as the XPCC or Bingtuan or corps) is a state-run paramilitary corporate conglomerate that operates in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region or XUAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The XPCC functions as a regional government, a paramilitary organization, a bureau of prisons, a media empire, an educational system, and one of the world’s largest state-run corporate enterprises. The central government of the PRC considers the XPCC a “special system of integration of government, military and enterprise.” As such, the XPCC is a colonial institution, responsible for land expropriation and explicitly dispatched by the top levels of the party-state to act as a military and industrial force to suppress Uyghur dissent.
The XPCC has been sanctioned by the United States government and has been banned from importing its goods into the country, all because of the Bingtuan’s role in human rights violations in the Uyghur Region. Other countries have sanctioned XPCC officials. As this report documents in stark detail, the XPCC is involved in a pervasive program of egregious rights violations that effect the most marginalized people in the Uyghur Region. The region, its people, and their identities are seen as critical security threats to China’s cultural integrity, the stability of the state’s borders, and the absolute authority of the CCP. In the last five years in particular, the XPCC has played a critical role in suppressing Uyghur life, culture, and identity through the following means:
extrajudicial internment and imprisonment
land expropriation
forcible migration of people
repressive, pre-emptive policing
social engineering
religious persecution
forced labour
From cradle to grave, Uyghur people are subjected to centrally directed indoctrination delivered by the XPCC. The XPCC’s deliberate program of social engineering requires that every minoritized citizen shed their cultural heritage and language in favour of Han practices and Xi Jinping ideology. This report documents the way this constellation of repressive programs is designed to make the Uyghur people docile and dependent on the state. It identifies the ways the XPCC has operationalized these programs in the last five years to create a reign of terror.
32. Xinjiang paramilitary group plays "critical role" in Uyghur repression, report finds
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Axios, July 26, 2022
33. Hong Kong should ditch China-imposed national security law: UN panel
Reuters, July 27, 2022
34. Smithsonian’s Hong Kong ties rile pro-democracy activists
Nicolle Liu and Phelim Kine, Politico, July 21, 2022
Industrial Policies and Economic Espionage
35. Cracks appear in US$50 billion Russian-Chinese passenger jet project
Minnie Chan, South China Morning Post, July 23, 2022
36. China’s nascent green hydrogen sector: How policy, research and business are forging a new industry
Mercator Institute for China Studies, January 24, 2022
37. Xi lays out vision for China's next five years at special meeting
Nikkei Asia, July 28, 2022
38. Senate Advances Expansive Industrial Policy Bill to Counter China
Catie Edmondson, New York Times, July 26, 2022
39. Inverted yield curve in China savings rates signals sustained economic slowdown
Sun Yu, Financial Times, July 25, 2022
40. Semiconductor Subsidies, Tariffs Are the Price of Reducing Dependence on China
Grep Ip, Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2022
Cyber & Information Technology
41. China Could Unleash a Cyber-Pearl Harbor on America
Matt Erickson, 19FortyFive, July 26, 2022
42. New Kid on the Block
Chang Che, The Wire China, July 24, 2022
43. SenseTime defied US sanction to raise capital in Hong Kong. Where does it go from here?
Peggy Sito and Daniel Ren, South China Morning Post, July 23, 2022
44. China below the Radar: Israel-US Strategic Dialogue on Technology
Assaf Orion and Shira Efron, Institute for National Security Studies, July 26, 2022
45. Revealed: Documents Show How Roblox Planned to Bend to Chinese Censorship
Joseph Cox, Vice, July 25, 2022
Military and Security Threats
46. Biden Will Speak with Xi on Thursday as US-China Ties Worsen
Jenny Leonard, Bloomberg, July 26, 2022
47. Chinese Military Actions Against Foreign Ships, Aircraft Are No Accidents — They’re Policy
John Grady, USNI News, July 26, 2022
48. China’s Domestic Troubles Will Hang Over Biden-Xi Call
Peter Baker, New York Times, July 28, 2022
49. U.S. Officials Grow More Concerned About Potential Action by China on Taiwan
Edward Wong, David E. Sanger and Amy Qin, New York Times, July 25, 2022
50. Tech experts need defence training for Nato’s race against China
Elisabeth Braw, Financial Times, July 26, 2022
51. Gen. Mark Milley Says Chinese Military Aggression Has Worsened
Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2022
52. China sending troops and tanks to Russia
Ryan Morgan, American Military News, July 26, 2022
On Tuesday, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced its delegation of troops participating in the 2022 International Army Games (IAG) in Russia had departed by train from the Chinese Inner Mongolian city of Manzhouli, on its way to the city of Zabaikalsk in Russia’s southeast. The Chinese delegation left for China along with vehicles for the “Masters of Armored Vehicles” and “Tank Biathlon” competitions.
53. Russia’s war altered Xi’s plans: Mattis
Shelley Shan, Taipei Times, July 27, 2022
Christopher Woody, Business Insider, July 27, 2022
One Belt, One Road Strategy
55. China’s emerging Belt and Road debt crisis
Financial Times, July 27, 2022
56. Laos’s Economic Crisis Spiraling out of Control, as it Struggles With Massive Debts to China
Joshua Kurlantzick, Council on Foreign Relations, July 20, 2022
57. Is Pakistan the Next Sri Lanka?
Muhammad Akbar Notezai, The Diplomat, July 23, 2022
58. China In Eurasia Briefing: The Belt And Road Adapts To Russia’s War
Reid Standish, Radio Free Europe, July 20, 2022
59. China’s Belt and Road spending in Russia drops to zero
Edward White, Financial Times, July 23, 2022
Opinion Pieces
60. Why Corporate Apologies to Beijing Backfire
Elisabeth Braw, Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2022
61. Note from Nimitz: You Need Lots of Ships to Take Risks in War
James Holmes, 19FortyFive, July 24, 2022
62. Opinion | I Was Wrong About Chinese Censorship
Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, July 21, 2022
63. World War I History Is Wrong, and Skewing Our View of China
Hal Brands, American Enterprise Institute, July 24, 2022
64. What Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan Trip Says About China
Michael Schuman, Atlantic, July 27, 2022
65. The High Costs of Disengagement for China
George Magnus, The Wire China, July 24, 2022
66. China wants to ‘reduce misunderstanding’ with the U.S. It could start by talking.
David Ignatius, Washington Post, July 22, 2022