Matt Turpin's China Articles - December 11, 2022
Friends,
It appears that the Chinese Communist Party has begun the process of ending its Zero-COVID policies. Whether or not there will be a reversal is anyone’s guess. Though I doubt the Party will abandon the social control measures it developed over the past two years so easily, as the first pieces from The Economist point out.
This week I’m attending the inaugural Canada-U.S. Commission on China in Montreal. I look forward to hearing how our Canadian colleagues have been wrestling with the reality of a far more aggressive PRC and what that means for Sino-Canadian relations. In late November, the Canadian Government has released its new Indo-Pacific Strategy which recognizes the PRC as an “increasingly disruptive global power” and this week Ottawa announced its intention to send more Canadian warships through the Taiwan Strait as a signal of resolve to the PRC (see #48 below).
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
1. AUDIO – Drum Tower: Control pique
Alice Su and David Rennie, The Economist’s Drum Tower Podcast, November 28, 2022
Protests in cities across China show there is real anger over the zero-covid policy and the party's intrusion into every corner of people's lives. A neighbourhood surveillance system is mobilising people to police one another. Could public unrest threaten Xi Jinping’s plans for total control?
The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, hear from somebody who has lived through street-level surveillance in China's most tightly policed region of Xinjiang.
COMMENT – So I think this is my new favorite podcast, Alice and David do an excellent job and this episode is no exception.
2. How Xi Jinping is mobilising the masses to control themselves
Alice Su, The Economist, November 10, 2022
In 1963 mao zedong launched a campaign known as the “Four Clean-ups”, an attempt to rid China’s politics, economy, organisations and ideology of reactionary elements. Ordinary people were encouraged to name and shame anyone they deemed ideologically suspicious. Mao seemed particularly pleased with the small town of Fengqiao in the east. Around 900 of its 65,000 residents were called out by their neighbours in public “denunciation rallies”. The “Fengqiao model” demonstrated how the party could enlist people to solve problems at the local level, Mao said. The larger campaign resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and was a precursor to the horrors of the Cultural Revolution.
China’s current ruler, Xi Jinping, seems to share Mao’s taste for mobilising the masses to police one another (if not for the chaos and mass murder of the earlier effort). Mr Xi praises the Fengqiao model, which he has redefined as a way of empowering people. He talks of qunfang qunzhi, or “mass prevention and mass governance”. In reality he is using people to supplement the Communist Party’s other tools of control. It is a low-tech arm of a high-tech police state. Rwanda, a small African autocracy, has something similar.
COMMENT – As Alice points out in the Drum Tower episode above, regular Chinese people who participated in the protests across the PRC seem particularly upset at the Party’s efforts to impose Cultural Revolutionary-like social controls on them. Like anyone else around the world, the Chinese people object when their government robs them of their dignity.
3. The Spontaneous Activation of China’s Civil Society
Nathan Gardels, Noema Magazine, December 2, 2022
No one in the present leadership misses the fact that, with hundreds of millions of netizens, China’s cybersphere is the Tiananmen Square of the 21st century, with all the historical resonance that implies. To try to extinguish this incipient public space outside the Party-state, instead of accommodate it as a critical feedback loop for good governance, would be to invite the very fate of the Soviet Union they are so obsessed with avoiding.
4. Chinese activists stage hunger strike outside Apple's California headquarters
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Axios, December 6, 2022
Two Chinese pro-democracy activists began a hunger strike on Monday in front of Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California, calling on the company to remove restrictions on AirDrop in China.
The big picture: Recent widespread demonstrations in China against COVID restrictions and limited freedoms have inspired solidarity protests among Chinese communities abroad.
Details: In October, people in China used AirDrop, an Apple feature allowing users to share files and images with other devices nearby, to evade online censors and disseminate photos of a protest banner hung on a bridge in Beijing that called for an end to COVID restrictions and for Chinese President Xi Jinping to step down.
But a Nov. 9 update to Apple's mobile operating system limited the AirDrop feature in the Chinese market. The update automatically disables sharing after 10 minutes for anyone outside of a person's contacts, making it harder for such images to be shared widely in China.
5. Apple Makes Plans to Move Production Out of China
Yang Jie and Aaron Tilley, Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2022
In recent weeks, Apple Inc. has accelerated plans to shift some of its production outside China, long the dominant country in the supply chain that built the world’s most valuable company, say people involved in the discussions. It is telling suppliers to plan more actively for assembling Apple products elsewhere in Asia, particularly India and Vietnam, they say, and looking to reduce dependence on Taiwanese assemblers led by Foxconn Technology Group.
Turmoil at a place called iPhone City helped propel Apple’s shift. At the giant city-within-a-city in Zhengzhou, China, as many as 300,000 workers work at a factory run by Foxconn to make iPhones and other Apple products. At one point, it alone made about 85% of the Pro lineup of iPhones, according to market-research firm Counterpoint Research.
6. Germany struggles to get China parts to replenish ammo stockpile
Jens Kastner, Nikkei Asia, December 6, 2022
The supply of military aid to Ukraine is depleting Germany's stockpiles of ammunition -- an issue that may be exacerbated by the slowdown of component imports from China.
German ammunition makers at a recent defense symposium near Munich flagged that the lead time for orders of cotton linters from China -- a key component for propelling charges for both small guns and artillery -- has tripled to up to nine months, German-language daily Die Welt reported.
While cotton linters are a commodity material produced and traded across the globe, the report cited unnamed industry sources saying that all European ammunition manufacturers rely on China for them.
The massive bottlenecks in raw material supply "concern especially ammunition and special steels," Wolfgang Hellmich, the defense affairs speaker for the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) in parliament, told Nikkei Asia, when asked whether there are supply bottlenecks for China-sourced materials for military equipment.
On Nov. 28, the German government held an ammunition roundtable with arms-makers, but concrete results were not publicized.
"[At the ammunition roundtable], it was discussed how the ammunition bottlenecks can quickly be reduced, and all sides are working at full steam for solutions to prevent serious inventory gaps," he added.
The German defense ministry has not replied to an inquiry for this article as of press time.
The management of German ammunition manufacturer MEN Metallwerk Elisenhuette, was cited by Die Welt as criticizing the government for being slower in placing orders with the defense industry than other European countries. A spokeswoman for the company confirmed the statements in the report but declined to make further comment.
The delay comes against the backdrop of Beijing refusing to condemn Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine, and China continuing to hold frequent joint military drills with Russia. But at the same time, Russia's firing of tens of thousands of artillery rounds per day in Ukraine have made the Bundeswehr, the German military, realize that its own stockpiles would be grossly inadequate for such high-intensity warfare.
Like other countries, Germany keeps its ammunition stockpiles secret, but many observers believe that the Bundeswehr would run out of ammunition within days or even hours in the event of war. In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the SPD-led government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz established a special 100-billion-euro ($106 billion) fund to upgrade its underequipped armed forces.
With Germany simultaneously transferring ammunition to Ukraine's military, such as for multiple rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, the slowdown of imports of key components from China obviously puts the government in a dilemma.
"There is a reliance on China, and this is posing challenges for the stockpiling effort," said Henning Otte, a parliamentarian for the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who serves as the deputy chair of the Bundestag's defense committee.
Across the Atlantic, Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at RAND Corp., points out that U.S. defense companies also use Chinese rare earth, raw materials and components.
"This reflects the globalized nature of production. Department of defense policy makers are trying to persuade the companies to reduce or eliminate their reliance on Chinese suppliers," Heath said.
7. As China moves away from zero-Covid, health experts warn of dark days ahead
Simone McCarthy, CNN, December 7, 2022
China’s zero-Covid policy, which stalled the world’s second-largest economy and sparked a wave of unprecedented protests, is now being dismantled as Beijing on Wednesday released sweeping revisions to its draconian measures that ultimately failed to bring the virus to heel.
The new guidelines keep some restrictions in place but largely scrap the health QR code that has been mandatory for entering most public places and roll back mass testing. They also allow some Covid-19 cases and close contacts to skip centralized quarantine.
They come after a number of cities in recent days started to lift some of the harsh controls that dictated – and heavily restricted – daily life for nearly three years in China.
8. China Wants Your Attention, Please
Joshua Kurlantzick, Foreign Policy, December 5, 2022
Beijing’s massive expansion of state media hasn’t quite worked as planned. But watch out for Xinhua’s growing global deals.
Over the past decade, Beijing has invested heavily in trying to upgrade its major state media outlets such as China Global Television Network (CGTN), Xinhua News Agency, and China Radio International (CRI), and to make them seem more professional. It has tried to normalize them to audiences as little different from the BBC, CNN, or Al Jazeera—most likely Beijing’s preferred model—a station based in an authoritarian state but producing respected work.
For years in the 2010s, China hired respected foreign reporters to staff bureaus of outlets such as CGTN in the United States, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, and other places, and initially gave them a bit of room to cover interesting stories—as long as those did not directly affect China. The global journalism market is terrible: Between 2001 and 2016, newspaper publishing in the United States lost more than half the jobs in the industry, a higher rate of loss than in coal mining, not exactly an industry of the future. China’s outlets found many willing and credentialed reporters to join. Today, the Chinese government’s funding for state media dwarfs that of any other country’s state media funding, including that of the United States. In 2018, CGTN reportedly spent around $500 million to promote the network in Australia alone; it has also engaged in extensive promotion in Europe and North America.
In an effort to expand its influence within the domestic politics and societies of other countries, China in the past decade dramatically expanded other tools of influence as well, which I chronicle in my new book, Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World. These have included the use of disinformation online, payments to politicians to spout pro-China ideas, control of Chinese student associations in many countries, the funding of programs at universities, and other tactics.
But state media has been central to China’s efforts to influence other countries, control information about and protect the party, and gain what Chinese leaders and officials have called “discourse power” to amplify China’s narratives about its policies, its party, its leader, and its role in the world. Beijing’s cause is helped by a global environment in which resources for quality media are decreasing, democratic and authoritarian leaders alike are demonizing media, and publics’ trust in journalism is falling. Such a set of circumstances would seemingly make it easier for Chinese outlets to win readers, listeners, and viewers.
AUTHORITARIANISM
9. How China’s Police Used Phones and Faces to Track Protesters
Paul Mozur, Claire Fu, and Amy Chang Chien, New York Times, December 2, 2022
On Sunday, when Mr. Zhang went to protest China’s strict Covid policies in Beijing, he thought he came prepared to go undetected.
He wore a balaclava and goggles to cover his face. When it seemed that plainclothes police officers were following him, he ducked into the bushes and changed into a new jacket. He lost his tail. That night, when Mr. Zhang, who is in his 20s, returned home without being arrested, he thought he was in the clear.
But the police called the next day. They knew he had been out because they were able to detect that his phone had been in the area of the protests, they told him. Twenty minutes later, even though he had not told them where he lived, three officers knocked at his door.
Similar stories are being told by protesters across China this week, according to interviews with those targeted and human rights groups following cases. As the authorities seek to track, intimidate and detain those who marched in defiance of the government’s strict Covid policies last weekend, they are turning to powerful tools of surveillance the state has spent the past decade building for moments like this, when parts of the population turn out and question the authority of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
…
Mr. Zhang’s experience is a common one. Although he knew about the facial recognition cameras that clutter China’s public spaces, he underestimated the phone trackers. Tiny boxes with antennas, the devices are much easier to miss. Mimicking a cell tower, they connect to the phones of all who pass by, and record the data for the police to check. Still, Mr. Zhang, who like other protesters interviewed for this article declined to give his full name out of fear of police reprisal, was lucky. After a harsh interrogation and a warning not to attend a protest again, the police left his apartment.
He said the ordeal had left him “terrified,” and he believed it would be effective at curbing the momentum the gatherings had generated. “It’s going to be very difficult to mobilize people again,” he said. “At this point, people are going to get off the streets.”
10. AUDIO – What It’s Like Inside One of China’s Protests
Sabrina Tavernise and Vivian Wang, The Daily, November 30, 2022
11. Protestors Scoff at “Foreign Forces” Accusations
Alexander Boyd, China Digital Times, December 2, 2022
Chinese protesters shot down insinuations that their demonstrations this past week were controlled by shadowy “foreign forces,” a tactic often used by the state and its defenders to strip dissent of its legitimacy.
Dozens of protests against zero-COVID took place over the weekend and into the early parts of this week in several major cities after a fire in a locked-down Urumqi apartment killed at least 10 people, a number local residents contend is drastically underreported. Some of the protests veered into explicitly anti-regime demonstrations, with calls for an end to the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping’s rule. Authorities have combined traditional repressive measures—arresting those who attended with the aid of high-tech surveillance—with a campaign of distraction and counterprogramming intended to divert attention from them and their causes.
Two leaked directives from the Cyberspace Administration of China show that the state has also moved to cut off citizens’ already limited access to the foreign internet and increase its control over the heavily censored domestic internet.
…
On Weibo, accusations of foreign influence or control levied by the state and its supporters were widely mocked:
isekisi里的旋转小字：I’ve come to understand their underlying logic, which is that “Chinese people do not deserve nice things.” If you ask them why other countries can gradually re-open but we cannot, they say that China’s population is too big to adopt those foreign tactics. Ha, sure. If you ask them why foreign youth can enjoy uncensored music, art, and film to their heart’s content but Chinese youth cannot, they say that Chinese youth are too easily influenced. Ha, sure. If you ask them why there are robust labor laws abroad but in China “996” is a blessing, they say China is still a developing country and must take measured steps. Ha, sure. No matter what you ask them, they’ll never give you a straight answer. Instead they’ll parrot lines about how Chinese people don’t deserve A, or can’t do B, or aren’t quite ready for C. And then, despite the fact that they can’t seem to find any good in the Chinese people, they’ll tell you all about how patriotic they are.
9527kw：Wait, which one is it again: do “foreign forces” want us to keep doing zero-COVID or do they want us to open up? Can we get a definitive answer? I’m hopelessly confused
MianMaoKu：”Foreign forces” are so weak, every time they organize a mass protest it comes to nothing. They’ve got no organization, no planning, no proper procedures, and never get any results.
ZizekButler： Every time the people start some kind of movement, it’s blamed on “foreign forces.” Only in a nation that doesn’t belong to the people are the people considered “foreign,” and their every action chalked up to “foreign forces.”
Cindy Yu, Twitter, November 28, 2022
13. 3 core activists of June 4 vigil group in Hong Kong to face national security trial without jury
Ng Kang-Chung, South China Morning Post, December 4, 2022
Hong Kong’s justice minister has ordered a trial without a jury in a national security case involving three core activists of the now-disbanded alliance behind the city’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil, the veteran group has revealed.
The order, dated last Thursday, said the decision to hold the trial before judges alone was made on grounds including the “involvement of foreign factors” and the “protection of personal safety of jurors and their family members”, according to a post uploaded to the Facebook page of the group’s former leader Chow Hang-tung on Sunday.
According to the post, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok also expressed concern that “if the trial is to be conducted with a jury, there is a real risk that the due administration of justice might be impaired”.
Tony Cheung and Ng Kang-chung, South China Morning Post, December 4, 2022
Hong Kong’s national security cases can be handed over to mainland Chinese courts if Beijing decides to ban overseas lawyers from arguing in the legal proceedings and defendants are unable to hire local practitioners, a political heavyweight has said.
Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong’s sole delegate to China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, on Sunday also said the Immigration Department could consider refusing to issue or renew the work visas of overseas lawyers, if they were coming to the city to represent defendants in national security cases.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Monday asked Beijing to interpret the city’s national security law after the top court upheld a decision to allow British barrister Timothy Owen, a king’s counsel, to defend media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying against charges of collusion with foreign forces.
COMMENT – The Hong Kong judicial system has become a series of show trials that would make Stalin proud.
15. China's Xi unwilling to accept western vaccines, U.S. official says
Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom, Reuters, December 4, 2022
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is unwilling to accept Western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with COVID-19, and while recent protests there are not a threat to Communist Party rule, they could affect his personal standing, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Saturday.
Vivian Wang, New York Times, December 4, 2022
The world’s harshest Covid restrictions exemplify how Xi Jinping’s authoritarian excesses have rewritten Beijing’s longstanding social contract with its people.
17. ‘Breach of the Big Silence’: Protests Stretch China’s Censorship to Its Limits
Paul Mozur, Muyi Xiao, and John Liu, New York Times, November 30, 2022
Days later, videos of chants and confrontations are still visible on the Chinese internet. It’s a sign of how a groundswell outmatched the world’s best internet control system.
18. China's white-paper protests will have long-term impact: Kevin Rudd
Ken Moriyasu, Nikkei Asia, December 6, 2022
Ex-Australian PM sees higher Taiwan invasion risk in 2030s.
The "white-paper protests" that have taken place in cities across China in opposition to COVID lockdowns will not immediately topple the current administration, but they will have an impact in the future, possibly when President Xi Jinping steps down, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Nikkei Asia.
Rudd, a fluent-Mandarin speaker and a keen observer of Chinese politics, cited the four-decade correction of the Mao Zedong years, led by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, and said that there will be a similar correction of Xi's Marxist-Leninist tilt after he steps down, bringing China back to a more pragmatic "middle course."
19. After Xi’s Coronation, a Roar of Discontent Against His Hard-Line Politics
Chris Buckley, New York Times, December 1, 2022
Striding out to speak to the Chinese nation just under six weeks ago, Xi Jinping exuded regal dominance. He had just won what was likely to be another decade in power. His new team of subordinates stood out as unbending loyalists. A Communist Party congress had cemented his authoritarian agenda and promised a “new era” when China’s 1.4 billion people would stay in ever-loyal step with him and the party.
But a nationwide surge of protest has sent a stunning sign that even after one decade under Mr. Xi’s rule, a small and mostly youthful part of the population dares to imagine, even demand, another China: more liberal, less controlling, politically freer. A murmur of dissent that has survived censorship, detentions and official damnation under Mr. Xi suddenly broke into a collective roar.
“I can regain my faith in society and in a generation of youth,” Chen Min, an outspoken Chinese journalist and writer who goes by the pen name Xiao Shu, wrote in an essay this week. “Now I’ve found grounds for my faith: Brainwashing can succeed, but ultimately its success has its limits.”
20. Online Management Requirements for The Mourning of Jiang Zemin
Samuel Wade, China Digital Times, November 30, 2022
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
Online media platform management requirements for the mourning period from the National Radio and Television Administration’s Online Media Department:
The “mourning period” will last from November 30 – December 7, and the funeral will take place on December 6.
Overall tone: solemn and dignified, affectionate and orderly.
During the mourning period, the color scheme of website home pages, app home screens, and pages that link to reports about mourning activities should be changed to black and white. Note: content related to General Secretary Xi or 20th Party Congress special coverage may not be changed to black and white.
Suspend streaming entertainment programs during the mourning period.
Suspend new online entertainment programming.
Pull existing entertainment programming from home pages and home screens, and use those spaces to recommend weighty historical and revolutionary main-melody content. Do not recommend World Cup content on home pages, with the exception of match livestreams.
Completely suspend bullet screens throughout the mourning period. Completely disable the “Like” function on mourning-related content. Do not show entertainment topics in “Hot Search” or “Trending Topic” lists.
Correctly handle the relationship between mourning content and other kinds of content so as to achieve a harmonious tone and avoid misreadings or misunderstandings. Do not use ads incongruous with mourning activities. Do not place ads before or after reports on mourning activities, and show no commercial advertising at all on the day of the funeral. Do not run ads whose content includes mourning for Jiang Zemin. Do not run any commercial advertising related to the mourning activities. At the end of the mourning period, resumption of normal advertising should not be excessively abrupt.
Streaming platforms should uphold the highest standards in terms of presenters’ clothing, adornment, words, behavior, programming content, etc.
In case of uncertainty, all platforms should use CCTV’s website and app as the standard. (November 30, 2022)
COMMENT - The team at China Digital Times does a great job acquiring and leaking the internal censorship guidance from the Propaganda Department.
21. China Stems Wave of Protest, but Ripples of Resistance Remain
Chang Che, Chris Buckley, Amy Chang Chien, and Joy Dong, New York Times, December 5, 2022
Students, residents, lawyers and workers are still challenging the country’s Covid-19 restrictions, even though the intensity of the political chants has been dialed back.
22. Chinese Abroad: Worried, Wary and Protesting
Amelia Nierenberg, New York Times, December 5, 2022
Huanjie Li, 26, has never been more worried about her family. And she has never been more worried about sharing that fear with them.
Ms. Li, who grew up in northeastern China and moved to Queens more than six years ago, has not spoken to her relatives overseas since widespread demonstrations began there.
“I don’t want them to get accidentally flagged as foreigners trying to talk about Chinese national safety,” Ms. Li said.
As the largest protests since the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprisings ripple across China, Chinese people in New York and the broader diaspora are watching, waiting.
Worry is paramount. They fear that with the return of lockdowns, their families will again not have enough food. They wait for friends to resurface online after attending demonstrations. They try to communicate and to evade censors’ algorithms on Chinese social media.
But they cannot share their worries openly with the people they love back in China, or even talk about the protests. Even though the country’s internet censors are struggling to contain the swell of online discontent, they say, it is too risky.
“We just say: ‘Be careful’ or ‘Do you have enough food?’” said Ms. Li “We just repeat that over and over again. I don’t know if they understand what I’m trying to say.”
23. The Problem with Zero: How Xi’s Pandemic Policy Created a Crisis for the Regime
Yuen Yuen Ang, Foreign Affairs, December 2, 2022
The Chinese people’s frustration with their government’s “zero COVID” policy has reached a boiling point. Starting on November 26, protests erupted across multiple cities, with people taking to the streets and demanding an end to harsh lockdowns.
Many held up pieces of blank white paper, protesting wordlessly against censorship. A few others went beyond criticizing public health restrictions, taking aim at the authoritarian political system. “We don’t want COVID tests! We want freedom!” a group of demonstrators in Shanghai chanted, repeating words from an earlier lone protestor who unfurled a banner on a bridge in Beijing. It has been more than 30 years since China has seen simultaneous and spontaneous protests that cut across social groups, coupled with calls for freedom.
The last time, of course, was during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which rattled China’s ruling elite to the core and ended in a bloody crackdown.
24. Why former Chinese leader Hu Jintao was highest profile absentee from Jiang Zemin’s funeral
William Zheng, South China Morning Post, December 6, 2022
ENVIRONMENTAL HARMS
25. ‘Silent’ China sparks fear of biodiversity summit failure
Louise Guillot, Politico, December 5, 2022
Negotiators are concerned Beijing isn’t doing enough to drive countries toward an ambitious deal to save nature.
China is in the driver's seat of negotiations to deliver a global deal to end nature loss, but campaigners and negotiators worry it's fallen asleep at the wheel.
As president of this year's global COP15 biodiversity summit, which kicks off in Montreal on Wednesday, Beijing is in charge of steering talks aimed at landing an ambitious agreement to conserve nature. The stakes are high, as countries failed to meet their 2020 targets to stop and reverse biodiversity loss for the past two decades.
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE AND COERCION
26. Google Faces Pressure in Hong Kong Over Search Results for National Anthem
Newley Purnell, Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2022
Google is under fire from officials and legislators in Hong Kong over a pro-democracy song that is showing up in search results for the national anthem, raising tensions between American tech giants and authorities as Beijing tries to spread patriotism in the city.
Two members of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing legislative council in recent days have joined the city’s chief secretary in criticizing the Alphabet Inc. unit for showing the song, “Glory to Hong Kong,” among its top results.
Hong Kong’s official anthem has been China’s “March of The Volunteers” since Beijing regained sovereignty over the former British colony 25 years ago. Antigovernment protesters in 2019 adopted “Glory to Hong Kong”—before the imposition of a national security law—and it has featured prominently on Google and YouTube since then.
That has led to confusion in recent weeks at sporting events when the protest anthem was played, angering local officials and triggering an investigation by the Hong Kong police’s organized crime bureau.
27. Mongolians protest alleged theft of coal sold to China
Associated Press, December 6, 2022
Protesters angered by allegations of corruption linked to Mongolia’s coal trade with China tried to force their way into the State Palace in the capital, demanding dismissals of officials involved in the scandal.
The U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar issued an alert Monday saying that several hundred protesters had gathered in the freezing cold in the city’s Sukhbaatar Square during the weekend and marched to the presidential residence.
The demonstrators chanted and sang, stamping their feet to stay warm. They were demanding that the government hold officials accountable for the alleged theft of 385,000 tons of coal from stockpiles on Mongolia’s border with China.
28. A more pragmatic Xi Jinping launches a global charm offensive for China
Lily Kuo, Washington Post, December 4, 2022
After almost three years of staying cloistered within his own borders, Xi has been on a global charm offensive. In the six weeks since he secured a new term as the head of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese military, paving the way for him to rule indefinitely, he has met formally with at least 26 heads of state or government from every continent.
29. EU Sues China in WTO Over Trade Retaliation on Lithuania
Daniel Michaels, Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2022
30. Buying ‘guaranteed acceptance’ to elite US universities: the risks and rewards for Chinese students
Xinrou Shu, South China Morning Post, December 4, 2022
Chinese students are paying education ‘consultants’ to get them into top US universities by falsifying grades, academic transcripts and personal statements.
31. LinkedIn a Recruiting Hotspot for Firms Connected to Chinese Military, Lawmaker Warns
Jimmy Quinn, National Review, December 6, 2022
Governor Kristi Noem, Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2022
33. Maryland Bans TikTok in State Agencies, Latest State to Act
James Pollard and Scott Bauer, Associated Press, December 6, 2022
Maryland is banning the use of TikTok and certain China and Russia-based platforms in the state’s executive branch of government, Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday, the latest state to address cybersecurity risks presented by the platforms.
The Republican governor announced an emergency cybersecurity directive to prohibit the platforms’ use, saying they could be involved in cyberespionage, government surveillance and inappropriate collection of sensitive personal information.
“There may be no greater threat to our personal safety and our national security than the cyber vulnerabilities that support our daily lives,” Hogan said in a statement, adding: “To further protect our systems, we are issuing this emergency directive against foreign actors and organizations that seek to weaken and divide us.”
The Maryland directive comes a week after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, also a Republican, banned state employees and contractors from accessing TikTok on state-owned devices, citing its ties to China. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, also a Republican, on Monday asked the state’s Department of Administration to ban TikTok from all state government devices it manages. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts blocked TikTok on state electronic devices in August 2020.
The U.S. armed forces also have prohibited the app on military devices.
“It is a risk that most governments are starting to realize it’s not worth taking,” said Trenchcoat Advisors co-founder Holden Triplett, a former FBI government official who worked in Beijing and counterintelligence.
While there has been much debate about whether the Chinese government is actively collecting TikTok data, Triplett said the app poses a clear vulnerability. Because TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is a Chinese company, it would have to comply with any potential requests from Chinese security and intelligence requests to hand over data, which could include employee’s location and contacts, he said.
34. Wisconsin's Republican D.C. delegation urges Tony Evers to order TikTok deleted from state devices
Lawrence Andrea, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 6, 2022
In a letter to the Democratic governor Tuesday, the state's Republican delegation in Washington called on Evers to ban the popular video sharing app from state government devices and asked him to delete his own account, arguing the Chinese government can use TikTok to spy on users and promote Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
"Wisconsinites expect their governor to be aware of the dangerous national security threats TikTok poses and to protect them from this avenue for CCP intelligence operations," the letter, signed by U.S. Reps. Mike Gallagher, Tom Tiffany, Glenn Grothman, Bryan Steil and Scott Fitzgerald, as well as U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, read. "As governor, you should prohibit this app from state government devices."
35. TikTok National-Security Deal Faces More Delays as Worry Grows Over Risks
John D. McKinnon, Aruna Viswanatha, and Stu Woo, Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2022
A potential deal between the Biden administration and TikTok—once expected around year-end—has run into more delays, according to people familiar with the situation, as worry grows over national-security concerns that U.S. officials say the popular app poses.
The review has dragged on amid a range of concerns, including how TikTok might share information related to the algorithm it uses to determine what videos to show users, and the level of trust Washington would need to place in the company, these people said. U.S. officials haven’t returned to TikTok with additional demands to address the recent concerns, some of the people said, leaving the path forward unclear.
36. Don’t use Chinese X-ray machines on EU’s borders, MEPs say
Shannon Van Sant, Politico, December 5, 2022
European lawmakers are warning that a €1 billion fund for European Union customs control equipment should not allow bids from Nuctech, a Chinese state-owned manufacturer.
Nuctech makes X-ray machines, scanners and explosive-detection systems and was led for years by the son of former Chinese leader Hu Jintao. In a letter to the European Commission, the MEPs say that any deal for Nuctech to provide scanning equipment risks national security, and could allow information on goods and travelers to fall into the hands of the Chinese government.
They call for the Commission to bar Nuctech from Customs Control Equipment Instrument (CCEI) tenders. The CCEI provides funds for countries to buy, upgrade and maintain technology along the EU's external borders.
37. Biden must do more to disrupt the fentanyl supply
Jim Crotty, Spectator, December 6, 2022
The US can press China and Mexico to take more resolute action.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
38. Dissident artist Weiwei says China unrest won’t alter regime
Barry Hatton, Associated Press, December 7, 2022
Dissident Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is taking heart from recent public protests in China over the authorities’ strict COVID-19 policy, but he doesn’t see them bringing about any significant political change.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” he told The Associated Press in an interview at his home in Portugal.
The recent unrest in several Chinese cities that has questioned Beijing’s authority — going so far as to demand President Xi Jinping’s resignation in what have been the boldest protests in decades — is “a big deal,” Ai acknowledges. But it is unlikely to go further, he says.
Challenges to Chinese Communist Party rule are routinely snuffed out with whatever degree of brutality is required. Ai points, for example, to how Beijing cracked down on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement two years ago.
In his view, some “realistic thinking” is required.
39. Japan Upper House Shows Concern about Human Rights in China
Nippon.com, December 5, 2022
Japan's House of Councillors on Monday adopted a resolution showing concern about human rights abuses in Chinese regions including Xinjiang.
The upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, passed the resolution with a majority vote with support mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling bloc and opposition parties such as the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) and the Japanese Communist Party.
While avoiding direct criticism of China, the resolution strongly urged the country's government to fulfill accountability so the international community can understand.
The resolution mentioned "serious human rights situations" marked by violations of religious freedom and forced imprisonment in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong and elsewhere.
40. Amnesty International Canada says it was hacked by Beijing
Rob Gillies, Associated Press, December 6, 2022
The Canadian branch of Amnesty International said Monday it was the target of a cyberattack sponsored by China.
The human rights organization said it first detected the breach Oct. 5 and hired forensic investigators and cybersecurity experts to investigate.
Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, said the searches in their systems were specifically and solely related to China and Hong Kong, as well as a few prominent Chinese activists. The hack left the organization offline for nearly three weeks.
U.S. cybersecurity firm Secureworks said there was no attempt to monetize the access, and “a threat group sponsored or tasked by the Chinese state” was likely behind the attack because of the nature of the searches, the level of sophistication and the use of specific tools that are distinctive of China-sponsored actors.
INDUSTRIAL POLICIES AND ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE
41. CEOs Will Have to Reckon with Chinese Machines
Anjani Trivedi, Bloomberg, December 1, 2022
Caterpillar Inc. should be worried: China’s machines are coming for the pole position of a company considered an economic bellwether.
As a deflated real-estate sector and Covid-Zero strategy destroy demand, the country’s biggest construction-machinery makers — unfazed by the uncertainty — are looking for greener pastures. They are exporting heaps of excavators and diggers, encroaching on their top global competitors’ market share. Their overseas revenue has risen sharply this year — as much as 54% for some — and at a faster pace than previously.
Despite worries about an imminent global economic downturn, demand for this heavy equipment has persisted. Commentary from Caterpillar and its peers suggests pockets of strong activity are building as order backlogs have built up. Higher commodity prices and infrastructure spending have helped boost mining and construction in parts of the world. Trouble is, supply — or production — has been running short because many parts and components still aren’t available.
To plug the gap, Chinese companies like Sany Heavy Industry Co. have pushed their machines to Europe, Latin America, the US and Southeast Asia, where they are needed. In a recent half-year report, the construction machinery giant noted that it had made “outstanding progress” overseas with double-digit growth, and its international revenue accounted for over a quarter of the total. Cranes made by Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co. were used to build Lusail Stadium, the largest in Qatar and a venue for the FIFA World Cup. The firm has grown its market share in Asia in recent quarters, too. Others are setting up production in Mexico to circumvent tariffs and invest in research and development outside China to raise their global stature. In doing so, they are beginning to pose a real threat to Caterpillar’s — and other machinery giants’ — market dominance.
There isn’t much Caterpillar can do for now. Parts shortages have been a persistent issue over the past two years. Even though it’s been able to raise prices to offset increasing costs, the firm said in an earnings call in early November that its topline would’ve been higher were it not for supply-chain constraints. It’s working with suppliers to mitigate the impact of shortfalls that have caused manufacturing inefficiencies.
42. India Holds Up Export of 27,000 Vivo Phones in Clash with China
Sankalp Phartiyal and Shruti Srivastava, Bloomberg, December 6, 2022
43. BYD Has Tesla in Its Sights After a Year of Runaway Growth
Danny Lee, Bloomberg, December 5, 2022
44. China can’t afford to ban Taiwan’s semiconductors
Min-Hua Chiang, East Asia Forum, December 3, 2022
In recent years, China has attempted to prevent Taiwan from developing ambitions for independence by enforcing economic embargoes. But Taiwan has grown its manufacturing strength and economic resilience while China has failed to advance its semiconductor industry. It is becoming increasingly clear that Beijing’s ability to wield an economic club over Taiwan has significantly weakened.
In early 2021, China banned the imports of several agricultural products from Taiwan. China’s anger over US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022 has led to more products being added to the embargo list. But for Taiwan, China’s import prohibition represents much thunder and little rain.
The agricultural sector only accounts for a small portion of Taiwan’s economy — less than 2 per cent of Taiwan’s gross domestic product. Given the small size of the sector, embargoes are not likely to significantly impact Taiwan’s economy. They are a political gesture that shows the Chinese leadership’s concerns over Taiwan pulling away from the mainland.
This is not the first time that China has sanctioned Taiwan’s economy for political reasons. Yet, so far, China has not been able to harm Taiwan’s economy or turn public opinion in favour of reunification.
Alana Goodman, Washington Free Beacon, December 6, 2022
President Joe Biden's Department of Energy is touting a grant to a lithium battery company as a move that would help herald the shift to green energy and ensure the United States is cultivating domestic sources of energy. It did not say, however, that the Texas company receiving the grant operates primarily from China and is under scrutiny from American financial regulators.
CYBER AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
46. The 6G showdown with China is coming
Elisabeth Braw, Financial Times, November 30, 2022
47. In Phoenix, a Taiwanese Chip Giant Builds a Hedge Against China
Don Clark and Kellen Browning, New York Times, December 6, 2022
U.S. companies and officials have long worried about overly relying on Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, for the world’s most advanced computer chips. That’s because Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is the biggest maker of leading-edge chips, is based there.
Now a hedge against that risk is taking shape in — of all places — the northern outskirts of the most populous city in Arizona.
TSMC outlined a $40 billion plan on Tuesday to expand and upgrade a U.S. production hub that it is building in Phoenix. At the 1,100-acre site, where gleaming buildings bearing the company’s logo are springing up among the desert shrubbery and cactus-dotted foothills, TSMC plans to import advanced manufacturing technology that has largely been limited to its factories in Taiwan.
The enhancements could allow the Phoenix factory — TSMC’s first major U.S. production site — to eventually produce chips, for Apple’s iPhones, that can perform nearly 17 trillion specialized calculations per second. TSMC later plans to build a second factory there that will feature even more advanced production technology, targeting future smartphones, computers and other smart devices.
MILITARY AND SECURITY THREATS
48. Canada to send more warships through Taiwan Strait in signal to China
Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times, December 5, 2022
Canada plans to sail more warships through the Taiwan Strait to affirm the waters claimed by China are international, after Ottawa released an Indo-Pacific strategy that described Beijing as an “increasingly disruptive” power.
“We need to make sure that the question of the Taiwan Strait is clear and that it remains an international strait,” Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly said in an interview.
“We will continue to enforce the international rules-based order when it comes to the Taiwan Strait. And that’s why also we had a frigate going through the Taiwan Strait this summer, along with the Americans, [and] we’re looking to have more frigates going through it.”
Chinese officials earlier this year told their US counterparts that China did not recognise the strait as international waters.
Speaking from Bucharest where she was attending a Nato foreign ministers’ meeting, Joly said Canada was “committing to new military assets” in the Indo-Pacific to help ensure peace and stability there. She was speaking just after Canada released its first strategy for the region which called for a “once-in-a-generation shift”.
49. US Upgrades Taiwan Weapons Package with Newer Patriot Missiles
Anthony Capaccio, Bloomberg, December 5, 2022
ONE BELT, ONE ROAD STRATEGY
50. EU courts Western Balkans as Russia and China loom
Suzanne Lynch, Politico, December 6, 2022
The EU faced a near boycott the last time it tried to gather Western Balkan countries in Brussels, when three leaders, led by Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić, threatened not to come. This time, Brussels is going to them, anxious not to lose the region to Russian and Chinese sway.
All 27 EU leaders will travel to Albania’s capital on Tuesday for a one-day gathering to make their case, marking the first time an EU-Western Balkans summit is being held in the region. The shifting location, said one senior EU official centrally involved in the planning, “represents a new dynamism in our relations.”
51. Xi Will Visit Saudi Arabia, a Sign of China’s Growing Middle East Ties
Vivian Nereim and David Pierson, New York Times, December 6, 2022
52. Gulf states, looking East, to reinforce economic ties with China as Xi visits Saudi
Rachna Uppal, Reuters, December 6, 2022
Trade and investment ties between China and Gulf Arab states are expected to feature prominently in President Xi Jinping's visit to Saudi Arabia this week as the region increasingly looks East to drive economic transformation at home for a post-oil era.
China, the world's biggest energy consumer, is a major trade partner of Gulf oil and gas producers and while economic ties remain anchored by energy interests, bilateral relations have expanded under the region's infrastructure and technology push.
53. China’s Xi heads to Saudi Arabia, adding strain to US ties
Adam Lucente, Al Monitor, December 6, 2022
OPINION PIECES
54. U.S., Europe Need a Grand Bargain on Semiconductors and Electric Vehicles to Counter China
Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2022
Behind this rhetorical camaraderie, though, old habits of protectionism and parochialism are reappearing. First, South Korea, Japan and the European Union complain that the electric-vehicle subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden signed into law in August, discriminate against their manufacturers and suck investment from them. Second, those same allies have rebuffed U.S. calls to join its restrictions on the export of sensitive semiconductor technology to China.
There’s a grand bargain to be had here: The U.S. makes its allies eligible for its EV subsidies and those allies join its semiconductor controls. The politics and details of any such bargain are, of course, difficult, maybe insurmountable. Yet such an accommodation, if it happened, would entail almost no economic cost to the U.S. or its allies—and potentially large long-term gains.
55. The Dangerous Wisdom of Chinese Crowds
Niall Ferguson, Bloomberg, December 4, 2022
In China, the crowd has played a revolutionary role on more than one occasion. Now, it is forcing the Chinese Communist Party to resolve its Covid-19 “trilemma,” with potentially momentous consequences.
56. Cardinal Zen’s Trial: More Oppression Than Meets the Eye
Nina Shea, National Review, November 25, 2022
Cardinal Joseph Zen, along with five co-defendants, was convicted on November 25 by a Hong Kong magistrate’s court of a regulatory breach for failing to properly register a humanitarian-aid fund of which he was a trustee. The fine of about $512 that he has incurred is relatively small, but there’s more to this case than meets the eye.
When asked about Zen’s trial last September, Pope Francis responded, “He says what he feels, and you can see that there are limitations there.” Every observer understands that the cardinal’s real offense was dissenting from Chinese Communist Party repression. His real sentence, therefore, includes self-censorship and self-restraint from anything that might be construed as countering party ideology. It is a taste of much worse legal trouble ahead for the Church. Moreover, the draconian National Security Law, under which Zen is separately being investigated, contains a vague prohibition on “foreign collusion” that hangs like the sword of Damocles over him and the rest of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong.
The trial of the 90-year-old Bishop emeritus of Hong Kong sent shock waves through the region’s Church community, signaling that none there is safe. Unlike mainland China, Hong Kong has never had a Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) policing its Catholic Church. Once a center of reliably free Christian learning and discourse, the region’s Christians are now getting used to checking what they say and do. As the current bishop of Hong Kong, Stephen Chow, explained, “The difficulty of the national security law lies in not knowing where the red line is. Educators, social workers, and even legal professionals face barriers. . . . Everyone needed to know where the boundaries were so they would know how to express themselves.” It was a telling complaint from one who favors dialogue and compromise.
In an interview last February, Bishop Chow, an educator and former Jesuit-school head, staunchly defended as indispensable the mission of Hong Kong’s 249 Catholic schools in developing “independent thinking.” He asserted, “I find it unacceptable for human dignity to be ignored, trampled upon, or eliminated entirely.” Shortly after Zen’s arrest last May, he sounded more wistful than defiant. Using the analogy of a flower growing in the crack of a wall, he reflected, “I can feel that Hong Kong, including our Church, are becoming more like an existence within cracks. . . . That spaciousness for our freedom and expression, which we had taken for granted, seems diminishing.” In October, with the Vatican approving, his diocese felt it was prudent to change the name of its commission on “Justice and Peace” to the less provocative “Commission on Integral Human Development.”
On November 15 and 16, while the Zen verdict was pending, Chow, along with theologians from the Holy Spirit Center, the renowned research center of China’s Catholic Church, was called to a command performance — an online conference with the leaders of the CCPA and the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference (CCBC), neither of which the Vatican recognizes as legitimate. According to the government-approved press, CCBC chairman and conference organizer Bishop Shen Bin opened by praising the recently concluded, “victorious” Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress, and establishing that its “spirit” would guide the conference toward “fully implementing Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” Referring to both the CCPA and the Hong Kong diocese, Bin then made a stunning pronouncement: “It is necessary to jointly promote the translation and interpretation of the Bible, and promote sinicization of China’s Catholicism.” An example illustrating what he was talking about can be found in a recent government textbook, in a lesson on enforcing the law, which retells John’s Gospel account of the adulterous woman with a new ending: It concludes with Jesus stoning the woman. If Chow pushed back on this plan to enlist him and the others in the project to conform Scripture and Catholic teaching to party ideology, it was not reported.
This brought to mind a meeting with Cardinal Zen and a group of China observers in my Washington office, in April 2011. Stating that repression against China’s churches was being overlooked, the cardinal explained that, rather than using attention-grabbing physical torture and bloody attacks against Christians, the Chinese Communist Party applied measures to control the Church that were incremental, more insidious, and calculated to evade Western economic sanctions. He cited the case of Bishop Feng Xinmao. In December 2010, Feng refused to attend the Conference of Chinese Catholic Representatives, convened in Beijing to select new leaders for the CCPA, because he did not want to validate a group that is viewed as illicit by the Vatican. As a journalist who was present recounted, “According to Cardinal Zen, ‘more than 100 police’ were dispatched ‘to ensure that the bishop [went] to the meeting.’” A decade later, insidious pressures, including repeated brainwashing in hidden detention sites, continue to be applied to force Catholic bishops and others to conform to the Chinese Communist Party’s religious diktats and change the character of China’s Catholic Church and the Christian religion.
Zen is among the few Catholic bishops to have advocated for persecuted Chinese Catholics. He led campaigns on behalf of Bishop Julius Jia, who is detained in a secret “black” jail for defying the party’s prohibition on children from praying. He championed imprisoned lay dissenters, such as Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai. He strongly condemned the CCPA as a “schismatic Church,” and criticized the Vatican’s Ostpolitik agreement to “normalize” China’s Catholic Church and to give Beijing a role in mainland episcopal appointments.
The Vatican has not officially protested Zen’s trial, consistent in its practice of maintaining virtual silence about China’s persecuted bishops. (I was able to research their names in old news accounts and by consulting Church experts.) It argues that such criticism of the Chinese Communist Party would be harmful to its dialogue with Beijing — a dialogue in its fourth decade, with little to show.
Some mischaracterize Zen’s courageous witness as “intemperance.” Yet, for most of his ministry, he quietly served as a theology professor in CCPA-aligned seminaries and, during a stint as supervisor of his Salesian order, found it necessary to work with mainland government authorities. He held back his criticisms until he retired from episcopal responsibilities, in 2009.
The trial is likely to have silenced China’s last globally prominent dissident. Zen’s outspoken criticisms of the party were the desperate warnings of a hero trying to shake the world out of its ignorance and complacency. Aside from the occasional riot over Covid lockdowns and one-off protests that are quickly crushed, no prominent and sustained voice of dissent remains in the country. It is now up to us to speak out for China’s voiceless.
57. Shanghai Gang faction will fade away with ex-president Jiang Zemin’s death
Benjamin Kang Lim, Straits Times, December 7, 2022
58. China’s digital Stasi sees all from cyberspace
Ian Williams, Times of London, December 3, 2022
With 540 million cameras, AI that identifies you by your walk and knows how you’re feeling, and a system to rate a citizen’s loyalty, President Xi has built a 21st-century state to crush dissent.
Shanghai police descended in force on to the city’s underground railway system demanding passengers hand over unlocked phones and checking them for images of protests and forbidden apps. They moved methodically along lines of nervous passengers, agents of an Orwellian surveillance state.
Police and paramilitary forces have flooded tense city centres in an attempt to stifle protests against Covid restrictions, the biggest challenge to President Xi since he assumed power a decade ago — and the worst unrest since the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989, which ended in a massacre of students at the hands of the military.
59. Australia Stays the Course Against Chinese Aggression
John Lee, Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2022
Australia is about to enter its fourth year of economic punishment at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. That’s no small encumbrance. When the Australian Labor Party assumed power in May, many political watchers speculated it might pursue a softer approach to Beijing after senior Labor leaders—including Penny Wong, now foreign minister—had criticized then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison for mismanaging the relationship with Australia’s largest trading partner. Others, such as former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating, urged the new government to pursue a more independent foreign policy that was less reliant on the U.S.
Fortunately, the opposite is occurring. The Labor government isn’t only supporting the foreign-policy approach of its predecessors in the center-right Liberal Party; it is promising to fast-track Liberal-era plans to work with Washington to counter the Chinese threat. That a Labor government is doing so should reassure the Biden administration that Canberra knows that working more closely with the U.S. is the only way to prevent Beijing from achieving its expansionist ambitions.
This new consensus will surely be on display this Tuesday at the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultation, or Ausmin, an annual meeting between the countries’ secretaries of state and defense. The deliberations will seek to build on Aukus, the September 2021 pact among the U.S., U.K. and Australia, dedicated to enhancing allied military capacities in the Indo-Pacific.
60. China’s Restive Middle Class Will Be Xi’s Greatest Test Yet
Howard W. French, Foreign Policy, December 6, 2022
Middle-class people, it turns out, have limited patience for things like intrusive social monitoring and censorship of personal expression.