Matt Turpin's China Articles - June 4, 2023 (34th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre)
Friends,
Today is the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, in which hundreds, if not thousands, of Chinese students were killed by the People’s Liberation Army when Deng Xiaoping ordered that the peaceful protest be crushed.
I’ve always preferred this angle of the famous “Tank Man” photo… the long line of tanks demonstrates just how brave this particular lao baixing was as he carried his groceries and made history.
While it is important to commemorate this crime, it is critical to remember the brave Chinese citizens, including senior officers, who stayed true to their conscience and refused to participate.
One such individual was Major General Xu Qinxian, commander of the elite 38th Group Army of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). According to Louisa Lim’s book on the history of the Tiananmen, days before the massacre, General Xu and other commanders of PLA units in the Beijing Military Region were summoned for a meeting. There the military region deputy commander, General Li Laizhu gave verbal orders to mobilize the region’s soldiers and turned to each commander for an acknowledgement.
When Li got to the 38th’s Commander, Xu replied that he could not follow a verbal order and demanded an order in writing.
Li replied, “There are no written orders today. We’ll get them later. That’s what happens in wartime.”
Xu stated, “Now is not a time of war. I cannot implement a verbal order,” after which he refused to take part, left the meeting, and was arrested shortly afterwards. He spent years in prison and remained under strict surveillance until his death in 2021 at the age of 85… unsurprisingly, Xu’s story and the news of his death remain censored in the PRC.
To former student protesters, General Xu was one of the few PLA officers who “kept their conscience.” In an article in Vice about Xu’s death, Dan Wang, the exiled student leader, remarked that “Xu resisted the order out of the belief that the people’s army should not be used to suppress the people. He upheld his honor as a soldier.”
Another such leader was Zhao Ziyang, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (1987-1989) who was removed from power in essentially a coup days before the massacre by Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng, and other Party elders from their positions on the Central Military Commission. (NOTE: the People’s Liberation Army is not a national, professional army subservient to the national Government and ultimately accountable to its citizens. It is a “Party army” that is commanded by the Central Military Commission, which is a Chinese Communist Party institution, not a State institution. Its formal name is the “Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China.”)
Zhao had expressed sympathy for the student’s demands for political reform and was stacked. He was held under strict house arrest until his death in 2005. Determined to get the truth out, Zhao wrote a memoir about his experience and kept it secret until it was smuggled out of the PRC after his death. It was published in 2009 as Prisoner of the State: the Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang.
Of course, the Chinese Communist Party has largely erased General Secretary Zhao Ziyang from its pantheon of leaders, just as it has done with Liu Shaoqi (the PRC head of state after Mao moved to the “second rank” and who was killed by the Party during the Cultural Revolution in 1969) and General Secretary of the CCP Hu Yaobang, removed from power by Deng and Li Peng in 1987 for favoring political reforms. It was Hu Yaobang’s death in April 1989, and the sympathy which Chinese citizens had for their former leader, that sparked the student movement.
Zhao, after being removed from power, was replaced by the relatively unknown mayor of Shanghai, Jiang Zemin, who became the “new” General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Jiang held that post until 2002 when he began to turn over power to Hu Jintao.
The Party’s “erasing” of Zhao (along with Liu and Hu) helps perpetuate the false image of leadership stability and meritocracy that simply does not match the history of the Party (this video from two weeks ago of John Thornton, former President of Goldman Sachs and the Brookings Institution, provides one example of how “friends of China” parrot these false narratives).
This is why the commemoration of June 4th 1989 remains important to this day. It is a reminder that the world must safeguard the memory of these Chinese heroes, as well as the legitimate desires of the Chinese people for liberty, until the Chinese people can reclaim their history from the clutches of the Party.
Portraits of Chinese Communist Party “leaders” in an exhibit at the Party’s revolutionary memorial in Yan’an. From left, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping. Left out are the CCP leaders who were either killed by the Party or removed from power and placed under house arrest for advocating reasonable political reforms.
For more on how the Party erased this period from the minds of Chinese citizens, and the rest of the world, read Louisa Lim’s The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited.
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In Sweden this week the United States and the EU held the fourth round of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) and on the other side of the world, Singapore hosted the Shangri-La Dialogue for defense officials across the region. And as those events were unfolding, a PRC warship nearly collided with a U.S. Navy destroyer, accompanied by a Canadian frigate, as they transited the international waterway of the Taiwan Strait (see #10 below).
According to the joint statement released after the TTC, it looks as if Europe and the United States are getting closer to defining export controls around technology areas like artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and advanced wireless networks. While the discussions no doubt focused on the coordination and enforcement measures for export controls focused on Russia and Belarus, I think we can conclude that this work is also being done with an eye on the PRC.
It appears clear to me, that we are in the beginning stages of creating a whole new multilateral export control regime for dual-use items that will supersede the Wassenaar Arrangement. Wassenaar replaced the Cold War-era CoCom (Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls) which the United States and its allies used to deny advanced technology to the Soviet Union and its satellites, including the People’s Republic of China. Created in 1996, Wassenaar brought the Russian Federation and the former Soviet Republics into the agreement (though the PRC was never included given the comprehensive arms embargo from the Tiananmen sanctions). Today Russia’s inclusion in Wassenaar makes the multilateral agreement unworkable (changes in Wassenaar require unanimity from all members) and it is why we will likely see a new regime take shape in the form of a new “CoCom” to accompany this new “cold war.”
At the Shangri-la Dialogue, Secretary of Defense Austin initiated a handshake with the PRC Defense Minister, General Li Shangfu, after their Singaporean hosts seated them at the same table with the Australian Prime Minister seated between them. One must assume they exchanged a few words over dinner, as each had interpreters seated next to them… it looks like America “won” and got the meeting it wanted.
As things were unfolding in Singapore, the U.S. National Security Advisor announced in a speech on Friday that the United States seeks a dialogue with both Russia and the PRC on nuclear arms without preconditions and to decrease the risk of nuclear conflict. Over the past year, Russia has abandoned the last nuclear agreement with the United States and the PRC has never agreed to arms control talks with the United States even as it pursues a massive build-up of nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
My prediction is that it will take years for Moscow and Beijing to agree to arms control talks that both the Trump and Biden Administrations have called for. The rest of the international community should put significant pressure on Beijing and Moscow to participate in these negotiations, if we want to avoid catastrophe.
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
1. China’s Fading Recovery Reveals Deeper Economic Struggles
Stella Yifan Xie and Jason Douglas, Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2023
China’s era of rapid growth is over. Its recovery from zero-Covid is stalling. And now the country is facing deep, structural problems in its economy.
The outlook was better just a few months ago, after Beijing lifted its draconian Covid-19 controls, setting off a flurry of spending as people ate out and splurged on travel.
But as the sugar high of the reopening wears off, underlying problems in China’s economy that have been building for years are reasserting themselves.
The property boom and government overinvestment that fueled growth for more than a decade have ended. Enormous debts are crippling households and local governments. Some families, worried about the future, are hoarding cash.
COMMENT – Six months after abandoning zero-COVID the PRC’s economy is fading.
2. U.S. Manufacturers Seek China Alternatives as Tensions Rise
John Keilman, Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2023
Fears of military conflict and increasing security worries have some U.S. manufacturers re-evaluating their reliance on China.
Executives are plotting alternate supply chains or devising products that can be made elsewhere should China’s hundreds of thousands of factories become inaccessible. That prospect became more conceivable, they said, after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine prompted companies to sever ties with Russia, sometimes taking huge write-downs.
U.S. companies were further rattled after Chinese authorities recently questioned workers at Boston-based consulting firm Bain & Co. and raided the Beijing offices of Mintz Group, a due-diligence firm based in New York. The government has also barred major Chinese firms from buying products made by U.S. semiconductor company Micron Technology, citing national-security risks.
COMMENT – It should be remembered that today’s trade flows reflect yesterday’s geopolitical conditions and investment decisions. As companies weigh new geopolitical conditions and risks, tomorrow’s trade flows will look different.
3. Chinese tech entrepreneurs keen to 'de-China' as tensions with US soar
David Kirton, Reuters, May 31, 2023
For the ambitious Chinese tech entrepreneur, expanding into the U.S. just keeps getting harder.
Before 2019, there were few major impediments to having a Chinese company that did business in the U.S. from China. But amid escalating U.S.-Sino trade tensions, particularly after Washington slapped sanctions on telecom giant Huawei, some Chinese firms began setting up headquarters overseas - moves that could help them draw less U.S. government attention.
Now, some mainland China tech business owners say they need to go further and gain permanent residency or citizenship abroad to avoid the curbs on and the biases against Chinese companies in the United States.
COMMENT – PRC tech entrepreneurs are looking to leave China and establish their companies in the United States or third countries as a way to avoid regulatory crackdowns in the PRC, gain access to capital beyond the tight controls of the CCP, and minimize their exposure to geopolitical risk.
The United States and other countries should roll-out the welcome mat and offer generous incentives to these individuals.
4. VIDEO –Inside Samsung’s and Apple’s Manufacturing Moves Outside of China
Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2023
Samsung started relocating certain operations away from China more than a decade ago—now Apple is making similar moves.
A range of geopolitical factors are pushing tech giants to relocate their operations from China. Here’s a closer look at the strategy behind Samsung’s and Apple’s manufacturing moves outside of China.
5. PODCAST – How Information Flows Impact Decision Making
Tyler Jost and Jude Blanchette, Pekingology, May 11, 2023
Jude Blanchette and Tyler Jost discuss what research about Chinese Communist Party decision-making suggests we should expect in the foreign policy space as Xi Jinping enters his third five-year term.
“Xi may be a strongman with unchallenged control of the Party apparatus, but the decisions he makes in shaping China’s foreign policy are only as good as the information he receives from his subordinates.”
COMMENT – I’ve long shared Jost’s conclusions about how foreign policy and national security information moves up the chain to Xi and his immediate circle of advisors. I would be surprised if anyone in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could deliver information that contradicts Xi’s worldview. One consequence from a decade in office and no successor on the horizon is that Xi’s gatekeepers are well-established.
6. China says its reporters in India ‘about to drop to zero’ amid mutual expulsions
Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu, June 1, 2023
China’s government has said the number of Chinese journalists in India was “about to drop to zero”, amid a string of mutual expulsions of journalists by the two countries.
Chinese authorities have since April 2023 effectively revoked credentials for three of the four Indian reporters accredited in the country. In early April, the Chinese Foreign Ministry “froze” the visas of two Indian correspondents barring their return to China, while last month a third journalist did not have their accreditation renewed, leaving only one active Indian correspondent in China.
COMMENT – The expulsions of Indian journalists in the PRC and PRC journalists in India has been building over the past two months and suggests that relations between Delhi and Beijing remain as fraught as ever.
7. WAY BACK MACHINE - Amidst chill in ties, Beijing freezes visas for Indian journalists
The Hindu, April 4, 2023
In a surprising move, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) decided to “freeze” the visas of two Indian journalists based in Beijing, indicating that more “counter measures” could follow against other Indian journalists, unless New Delhi offers reciprocal visa and tenure terms to Chinese journalists in India.
On Tuesday, a Chinese MFA official informed The Hindu’s Beijing correspondent Ananth Krishnan as well as the Prasar Bharati correspondent Anshuman Mishra, both of whom are presently in India, that they should not return to China as their journalistic visas had been “frozen”.
‘Counter-measures’ - Two other journalists belonging to the news agency PTI and the Hindustan Times, who are at present in China, have been informed that the MFA is considering its options and “counter measures” against what it claims is India’s unfair treatment of Chinese journalists. China is reportedly demanding more visas for its correspondents to cover India. It is also asking for current visa tenures, that need to be renewed every three months, to be increased to 12-month visas, as the Chinese MFA provides Indian journalists with year-long visas.
The MEA declined to comment formally on the move. However, sources denied that India had taken any action against Chinese journalists in the recent past. They said that many Chinese reporters based in Delhi had left during the Covid pandemic and not returned, and it was “factually incorrect” to suggest any “measures” that merited “counter-measures” had been employed against them. MEA sources also pointed out that there are still some Chinese journalists with valid Indian visas, who could report from India if they so wished. In addition, the sources said that Chinese journalists had been facilitated to cover the G-20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Delhi and a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Varanasi.
8. Treasury Sanctions China- and Mexico-Based Enablers of Counterfeit, Fentanyl-Laced Pill Production
U.S. Department of the Treasury, May 30, 2023
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 17 individuals and entities involved in the international proliferation of equipment used to produce illicit drugs. These targets are directly or indirectly involved in the sale of pill press machines, die molds, and other equipment used to impress counterfeit trade markings of legitimate pharmaceuticals onto illicitly produced pills, often laced with fentanyl, frequently destined for U.S. markets.
COMMENT – Great move by the Administration to use the SDN List (Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List) against these individuals and entities responsible for drug trafficking. The PRC Government is ultimately responsible for these crimes through acts of omission and neglect.
Given the Chinese Communist Party’s refusal to cooperate with the United States in enforcing Beijing’s own laws, these sanctions from OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) are likely the only way to impose cost on this criminal behavior. We can be pretty certain that if this drug trafficking were taking place inside the PRC and harming Chinese citizens, Beijing would act swiftly.
Since these actions are killing Americans, the Chinese Communist Party sees no reason to lift a finger.
According to the National Institutes of Health, in 2021, synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) caused over 70,000 preventable deaths in the United States… a 7.5-fold increase since 2015.
9. Suspicious Activity What Are German Fighter Pilots Doing in China?
Malk Baumgärtner, Jörg Diehl, Matthias Gebauer, et al, Der Spiegel, June 2, 2023
A handful of former German pilots are apparently now in China to provide military training – and are earning huge salaries for their services. Their activities have raised sensitive questions for German security officials.
Alexander H.’s old life seems a long way away from the opaque world of military espionage, a Chinese airbase and questions surrounding the betrayal of state secrets. In a quiet, modern housing development outside of Rostock, Germany, a neighborhood with carefully trimmed hedges and well-manicured yards, stands the yellow-painted home where Alexander H. used to live. It’s not far from his former workplace, the base south of Rostock in the town of Laage that is home to the Tactical Air Force Wing 73 "Steinhoff." An officer in the German military, the Bundeswehr, Alexander H. – aka "Limey" – used to train pilots on the Eurofighter combat aircraft.
Neighbors recall a friendly man with strawberry-blond hair. They say that at some point, he left the country with his American girlfriend, likely to the United States. And Alexander H. even registered his move in March 2013 – but the destination he provided was not in the U.S. He listed his new address as the airport in Qiqihar.
Qiqihar is a remote city in northeastern China, in the province of Heilongjiang, which shares a border with Siberia. One flight a day lands here from Beijing, with the flight attendants making sure on the approach that all the window shades have been closed. Nobody is supposed to catch sight of the Chinese-made Jian-11 fighter jets parked on the tarmac and in the hangars.
Qiqihar is home to an airbase belonging to the People’s Liberation Army. And it is here that former Bundeswehr officer Alexander H. apparently lived and worked. It is thought that he was there to train Chinese pilots.
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German security officials believe it is very possible that the pilots have passed on military expertise and confidential operational tactics, and even practiced attack scenarios, such as an offensive against Taiwan. And all that at a time when tensions between China and the West have been growing.
COMMENT – This report may sound familiar because there has been a few other former military pilots from the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom accused of similar crimes.
A former U.S. Marine fighter pilot, Daniel Duggan, is in an Australian prison awaiting extradition back to the United States to stand trial for training PLA pilots to land on aircraft carriers.
Authoritarianism
10. Chinese warship nearly hits U.S. destroyer in Taiwan Strait during joint Canada-U.S. mission
Mackenzie Gray, Global News, June 4, 2023
A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon, during a rare joint Canada-U.S. mission sailing through the Taiwan Strait, the latest aggressive military move from Beijing in the South China Sea.
Global News has been travelling on HMCS Montreal, the Canadian frigate participating in the mission, since May 25 in the South China Sea and witnessed the near collision from the bridge wing of the ship.
A People’s Liberation Navy ship picked up considerable speed and cut in front of the bow of the Chung-Hoon, a maneuver HMCS Montreal’s commander, Capt. Paul Mountford, called “not professional.”
When the Chinese vessel altered its course, Mountford says the crew called the American ship and told them to move or there would be a collision. The Americans responded by asking the Chinese to stay clear of the ship, but the Chung-Hoon ultimately needed to alter course and slow down to avoid a crash.
COMMENT – Kind of hard to make out in this screenshot of the video from Global News, but it shows the Chinese warship deliberately turning in front of the U.S. Navy destroyer, USS Ching-Hoon, the ship named after Rear Admiral Gordon Pai’ea Chung-Hoon, the first Asian-American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (1934) and first Asian-American flag officer.
The story of Rear Admiral Chung-Hoon is an inspiring one… on December 7, 1941, then Lieutenant Chung-Hoon was serving on the battleship USS Arizona but was on a weekend pass when the attack took place. He raced back to his ship, but by the time he arrived it had sunk. He went on to command a destroyer in WWII and win the Navy Cross, as well as other ships during the Cold War.
Photo: RADM Gordon Pai’ea Chung-Hoon
11. China’s Young People Can’t Find Jobs. Xi Jinping Says to ‘Eat Bitterness.’
Li Yuan, New York Times, May 30, 2023
With youth unemployment at a record, the Communist Party is trying to reset expectations about social mobility by talking up the virtue of hardship.
Gloria Li is desperate to find a job. Graduating in June with a master’s degree in graphic design, she started looking last fall, hoping to find an entry-level position that pays about $1,000 a month in a big city in central China. The few offers she has gotten are internships that pay $200 to $300 a month, with no benefits.
Over two days in May she messaged more than 200 recruiters and sent her résumé to 32 companies — and lined up exactly two interviews. She said she would take any offer, including sales, which she was reluctant to consider previously.
“A decade or so ago, China was thriving and full of opportunities,” she said in a phone interview. “Now even if I want to strive for opportunities, I don’t know which direction I should turn to.”
China’s young people are facing record-high unemployment as the country’s recovery from the pandemic is fluttering. They’re struggling professionally and emotionally. Yet the Communist Party and the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, are telling them to stop thinking they are above doing manual work or moving to the countryside. They should learn to “eat bitterness,” Mr. Xi instructed, using a colloquial expression that means to endure hardships.
COMMENT – “Eat bitterness” is not an appropriate response to the legitimate expectations of one’s own citizens.
But then again, the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t see itself as accountable to its own citizens, in fact, they view their citizens as “subjects” put on this earth to serve the Party. The Party acts in ways that are little different from the aristocracies and hereditary empires that ruled much of the world before the 20th Century.
Rejection of that reactionary form of governance is what motivates citizens to challenge aristocracies and one-Party states… it is what happened 34 years ago in the PRC and is bound to keep happening until the Party allows itself to be held accountable by its own citizens.
12. China’s cancel culture is nationalist, not woke
The Economist, May 25, 2023
13. A Chinese Alternative to Bloomberg Terminals Quietly Limits Information Overseas
Rebecca Feng, Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2023
14. Taiwan Ambassador Says Ukraine’s Success Against Russia Will Help Deter China
Edward Wong, New York Times, May 30, 2023
Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, said Tuesday that Ukraine’s success in defending itself against Russia’s invasion, with the help of the United States and other nations, is important for deterring China from trying to invade Taiwan, a democratic island that the Chinese government considers part of its territory.
“I think pushing back on aggression is the key message that will help to deter any consideration or miscalculation that an invasion can be conducted unpunished, without costs, in a rapid way,” Ms. Hsiao told reporters over a breakfast organized by The Christian Science Monitor. “We must ensure that anyone contemplating the possibility of an invasion understands that, and that is why Ukraine’s success in defending against aggression is so important also for Taiwan.”
COMMENT – Ambassador Hsiao is right to link Putin’s illegal invasion and attempted annexation of Ukraine to the nearly identical desires of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party that threatens to invade Taiwan and annex that country to the PRC.
For reasons that I suspect are largely partisan, some folks in Washington denounce this linkage and insist that the United States must cease its efforts to defeat Moscow in Ukraine, so that it can concentrate all its attention on deterring the PRC.
Suffice to say, I disagree with this argument.
In my opinion, it is a fantasy to think that we can separate the ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine from the potential war of aggression that Beijing threatens to launch against Taiwan. While it is convenient to divide the world regionally, Taiwan and Ukraine are intertwined. Not because the Biden Administration says so, but because Beijing and Moscow have connected them with their ‘no limits friendship’ and pseudo-alliance.
15. How China is expanding its law enforcement activities across Africa
Jevans Nyabiage, South China Morning Post, May 30, 2023
China’s influence in Africa has expanded to law enforcement as it seeks to protect its nationals abroad or arrest those wanted for alleged crimes.
From South Africa to the North African nations of Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, China has signed public security and law enforcement agreements with some 40 African nations, according to a report by Africa-China security expert Paul Nantulya.
He gives the example of a joint operation in Uganda that led to the capture and deportation of four Chinese nationals who were allegedly part of a criminal gang. More than 30 Chinese commandos took part in the operation with Ugandan special forces in January 2022.
As China expands into African countries and funds mega projects under its Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese nationals are increasingly being targeted in attacks. Most recently, nine Chinese workers were killed at a gold mining site in the Central African Republic in March.
As China expands into African countries and funds mega projects under its Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese nationals are increasingly being targeted in attacks. Most recently, nine Chinese workers were killed at a gold mining site in the Central African Republic in March.
Chinese nationals have been warned of an increased risk of kidnappings and attacks in the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Nigeria. China’s public security ministry sent a team of experts to the DRC last year when the situation worsened, and Beijing said it would send criminal investigators to Nigeria after a rise in kidnappings and attacks on Chinese there.
Nantulya said security cooperation was growing, as was “promotion of Chinese policing norms within African police forces”. He said more than 2,000 African police and law enforcement personnel had received training in China between 2018 and 2021.
The report was published last week by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defence University in Washington, where Nantulya is a research associate.
Among the agreements, Ethiopia and China’s Ministry of Public Security have signed a cooperation framework to protect “major Chinese-assisted projects in the country” such as the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Standard Gauge Railway. In neighbouring Kenya, the government worked with China to set up an elite police force to protect the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway.
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Meanwhile, Chinese police training involves not just technical skills but political and ideological principles based on the Communist Party’s model of absolute party control of security forces and the state, Nantulya said.
Nigeria, Lesotho, Mauritius and at least 20 other countries have relationships with China’s Special Police College, which conducts counterterrorism training, according to Nantulya. He also gave the example of Rwanda and the African Union counterterrorism programme, which have ongoing relationships with the Shandong Police College.
Some of the training is carried out in Africa, such as a joint programme by the Algerian Ministry of Interior and Local Authorities and the Chinese Academy of Governance. More than 400 Algerian police, law enforcement, and civil service personnel graduated from that programme between 2015 and 2018.
“China has a particularly receptive audience among some African leaders concerned with regime survival. They admire the [Communist Party’s] methods of control and its ubiquitous and expansive police-state machinery that dwarfs the PLA’s budget,” Nantulya said.
COMMENT – So much for Beijing’s decades of declarations and pledges that China never interferes in the internal affairs of other countries.
I wonder when we will hear about the arrival of “colonial administrators” from the CCP to supervise their mega-projects and other investments.
16. VIDEO – Bossier City family details son’s horrifying experience being imprisoned in China for nearly a decade
Domonique Benn, KSLA News 12, May 23, 2023
17. China, India Kick Out Nearly All of Each Other’s Journalists as Rivalry Escalates
Keith Zhai, Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2023
China and India have expelled almost all of each other's journalists as a result of intensified rivalry. The move marks a significant escalation in the ongoing tensions between the two countries. China and India accuse each other's journalists of spreading disinformation and engaging in activities detrimental to national security. This development adds to the growing list of issues fueling the Sino-Indian rivalry.
18. China Rebuffs Pentagon Chief, Blunting Push for Rapprochement
Nancy A. Youssef, Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2023
COMMENT - Secretary of Defense Austin took the high-road and initiated a handshake with General Li Shangfu, PRC Defense Minister, at the opening dinner of the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore.
I could be wrong, but I suspect this photo won’t be available behind the Great Firewall.
19. US Sanctions Chinese Firms Over Pill-Pressing Machines
Daniel Flatley, Bloomberg, May 30, 2023
Companies ship pill-presses through the US to Mexico and fake drugs often contain lethal doses of fentanyl, US says.
The US accused several Chinese companies of shipping machines that make counterfeit pills to the US and Mexico, and hit more than a dozen entities with sanctions as it looks to crack down on a trade officials say is contributing to the opioid crisis.
The sanctions were directed at companies and individuals that produce, sell and transport so-called pill presses, which are used to make illegal drugs look like legitimate pharmaceuticals, the US Treasury Department said in a statement. Officials said the counterfeit pills are often laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and frequently sent to the US.
Environmental Harms
20. Europe’s green transition impossible without China, says Dutch minister
Alice Hancock and Andy Bounds, Financial Times, May 27, 2023
21. China swelters through record temperatures, putting pressure on power grids
Chi Hui Lin, The Guardian, June 2, 2023
Temperatures across China reached or exceeded their records for the month of May, the country’s National Climate Centre has said.
Weather stations at 446 sites registered temperatures that were the same as, or greater than, the highest ever recorded for the month of May, deputy director of the National Climate Centre Gao Rong said at a press briefing on Friday.
On Monday, the Shanghai Meteorology Bureau reported that the city had recorded a temperature of 36.1 degrees Celsius. The previous record for May was 35.7C, which occurred in 2018.
Over the next three days, most of southern China is expected to be hit by temperatures of more than 35C, with temperatures in some areas exceeding 40C, according to national forecasters on Friday.
Foreign Interference and Coercion
22. Illegal Agents of the PRC Government Charged for PRC-Directed Bribery Scheme
U.S. Department of Justice, May 26, 2023
A federal court in the Southern District of New York today unsealed a complaint charging two individuals with acting and conspiring to act in the United States as unregistered agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), conspiring to bribe and bribing a public official, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the complaint, John Chen, aka Chen Jun, 70, a Los Angeles resident and former citizen of the PRC, and Lin Feng, a Los Angeles resident and PRC citizen, allegedly participated in a PRC Government-directed scheme targeting U.S.-based practitioners of Falun Gong — a spiritual practice banned in the PRC. Chen and Feng were arrested today in the Central District of California.
“The Chinese government has yet again attempted, and failed, to target critics of the PRC here in the United States,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege the defendants in this case attempted to bribe someone they thought was an IRS agent in order to further the Chinese government’s campaign of transnational repression in the United States. But the individual they attempted to bribe was in fact an undercover law enforcement agent, and both defendants were arrested this morning. The Justice Department will continue to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute efforts by the PRC government to silence its critics and extend the reaches of its regime onto U.S. soil. We will never stop working to defend the rights to which every person in the United States is entitled.”
COMMENT – More “transnational repression” as the PRC Government targets largely Asian-Americans inside the United States with threats and intimidation.
To borrow a phrase often employed by the spokesperson for the PRC Ministry of ForeignAffairs, I think it is time for Beijing to “reflect on its behavior and change course.”
23. The Dawn of Xivilization: Israel and China’s New Global Initiatives
Tuvia Gering, Institute for National Security Studies, May 31, 2023
In the last two years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has announced three global initiatives: the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI). These new initiatives are a means of bolstering the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, with Xi at its head. More importantly, they reflect how China’s foreign policy has evolved and the lessons learned from its global engagement in the ten years since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was launched.
Due to the prominence of these initiatives in China’s foreign policy, Israel will need to closely monitor their progress and weigh the implications for its security and interests. While Jerusalem must strive to continue cooperating with China where those considerations are maintained, it must avoid blanket support for initiatives that serve China’s propaganda and interests at the expense of the West and the US in particular.
Such backing could lend credence to Beijing’s efforts to undermine Washington’s security framework in the Middle East, which is the bedrock of Israel’s security. Additionally, it could support Beijing’s efforts to undermine universal norms and values.
24. Here be dragons: India-China relations and their consequences for Europe
Frédéric Grare and Manisha Reuter, European Council on Foreign Relations, May 25, 2023
25. Specter of China looms over EU-US summit
Mark Scott, Barbara Moens, Sarah Anne Aaru, and Doug Palmer, Politico, May 26, 2023
26. Europe Rebuffs China’s Efforts to Split the West in Pushing Ukraine Cease-Fire
Bojan Pancevski and Kim Mackrael, Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2023
27. Germany’s ‘China City’ doesn’t want you to call it that anymore
Loveday Morris, Kate Brady, and Emily Rauhala, Washington Post, May 22, 2023
Local officials who not long ago touted Duisburg as Germany’s “China City” say that’s not a tagline they want to use anymore. “Public opinion has changed, political opinion has changed,” said Markus Teuber, the China commissioner for Duisburg, the sole German city to have such a post.
The shift in this western German city of 500,000 mirrors a broader rethink in Europe on relations with Beijing. Trade continues to flow — China remains the 27-nation European Union’s top trading partner. Yet the E.U. has inched closer to Washington’s skeptical view of Beijing, a trend the United States expects to continue despite a Chinese “charm offensive,” according to U.S. military documents leaked on the group-chat platform Discord.
…
Johannes Pflug, head of the China Business Network Duisburg and formerly the city’s China commissioner, said the trains from China — which had been trumpeted in numerous press releases — are only a small fraction of the port’s business.
“The city of Duisburg had not that much good news in the past years, that they made the mistake to stress too much a positive thing,” he said. “For the port of Duisburg, I can confirm, yeah, we made a mistake.”
Now the city is more clear-eyed, he said.
COMMENT – Fascinating
28. Jamie Dimon gathers business elite in Shanghai amid China-US tensions
Kaye Wiggins and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Financial Times, May 26, 2023
29. US-China tensions have upended global order, Jamie Dimon warns
Kaye Wiggins, Thomas Hale, and Joe Leahy, Financial Times, May 31, 2023
COMMENT – An amazing display of patriotism by Jamie Dimon… gather a bunch of business elites in Shanghai to praise the Chinese Communist Party on Memorial Day.
Thanks a lot Jamie!
30. Spy agency warns Canadian MP that she’s on Beijing’s ‘evergreen’ target list
Zi-Ann Lum, Politico, May 29, 2023
Human Rights and Religious Persecution
31. Thousands of ethnic minority Muslims defy Chinese authorities in defense of mosque
Nectar Gan and Wayne Chang, CNN, May 30, 2023
32. Beijing LGBT Center shutters after 15 years, citing uncontrollable factors
Zhao Yuanyuan, The China Project, May 19, 2023
“I don’t think the Center crossed a line, but rather the line crossed them.”
33. PODCAST – China's LGBT Crackdown
Drum Tower, Economist, May 30, 2023
Marginalized groups in the PRC, like the LGBT community, have had their space in civil society erased by the Chinese Communist Party which views anyone other than the idealized Han citizen, as a national security threat.
David Rennie and Alice Su discuss these developments with Darius Longarino of Yale Law School and Raymond Phang, co-founder of Shanghai Pride.
COMMENT – This crushing of civil society is not the hallmark of a strong and confident government. It is the symptom of a paranoid regime that lacks confidence in its own legitimacy and fears that its own citizens will turn against it at the first opportunity… hence why the CCP remains terrified of Tiananmen.
This abuse of the PRC’s own citizens deserves greater visibility across progressive groups in the U.S. and Europe. Those groups have been noticeably silent on what’s happening inside the PRC.
Of note, Taiwan granted same-sex couples the right to jointly adopt children last month in yet another example of the divergence between the Party in Beijing and the people in Taiwan. (Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019, making it the first country in Asia to do so.)
34. Rubio, Merkley Introduce Landmark Legislation to Hold the CCP Accountable for Crimes in Xinjiang
Senator Marcio Rubio, May 31, 2023
35. Jailed Dutch-Chinese scientist 'forgotten' by his country and company
Jan van der Made, RFI, May 26, 2023
Industrial Policies and Economic Espionage
36. The U.S.-Chinese Economic Relationship Is Changing—But Not Vanishing
Jami Miscik, Peter Orszag, and Theodore Bunzel, Foreign Affairs, May 24, 2023
De-risking may be driven largely by the private sector, but public policy will play a vital role in shaping the eventual outcome. To succeed in its targeted approach to neutralizing potential dangers, the United States will have to persuade its allies and partners to pursue a common strategy. The May G-7 communiqué endorsing de-risking was a good first step. Export controls, investment restrictions, and subsidies have more power if they are jointly implemented by a U.S.-European superbloc.
As the Biden administration has leapt forward with export controls and industrial policies aimed at subsidizing domestic production, divisions have emerged between the United States and Europe—divisions that are being actively exploited by Beijing as it seeks to isolate Washington from its partners. A shared Western framework for de-risking would offer a more coordinated, balanced, and effective approach to competition with China than racing ahead alone. It may also strengthen, rather than erode, the foundations of a stronger transatlantic alliance.
37. US ‘Won’t Tolerate’ China’s Micron Chips Ban, Raimondo Says
Sam Kim and Eric Martin, Bloomberg, May 27, 2023
38. How Taiwan became the indispensable economy
Lauly Li and Cheng Ting-Fang, Nikkei Asia, May 31, 2023
39. South Korea to Avoid Cashing In on China’s US Chipmaker Ban
Sam Kim, Bloomberg, May 27, 2023
40. Rare rains claim millions of tonnes of Chinese wheat right before harvest
Mandy Zuo, South China Morning Post, May 30, 2023
41. Readout of Ambassador Katherine Tai's Meeting with Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic of China Wang Wentao
Office of the United States Trade Representative, May 26, 2023
42. Goldman Sachs’s China dealmaker stops tapping US investors
Kaye Wiggins, Financial Times, May 29, 2023
43. Has China become too cosy with private equity?
Will Louch, Yuan Yang and Kaye Wiggins, Financial Times, May 30, 2023
44. Musk Stays Away from Twitter for Longest in a Year During China Trip
Jinshan Hong, Bloomberg, May 31, 2023
Elon Musk, a prolific presence on Twitter and owner of the social media platform, didn’t send any tweets while he was in China for his first visit since the pandemic.
Up till the early hours of May 30, Musk had tweeted every single day in 2023 — often multiple times. His silence in China marked the billionaire’s longest hiatus from the platform since June 2022, when he was in the midst of buying Twitter and taking it private. Many foreign social media platforms are banned in China, including Twitter and Facebook, although they are widely accessed over virtual private networks, or VPNs.
COMMENT – Good to see that even Elon Musk knows that you must take a burner phone on any trip to China.
45. Elon Musk is Beijing’s ideal foreign investor
Pete Sweeney and Katrina Hamlin, Reuters, May 31, 2023
Elon Musk may be China’s most popular American. The obstreperous entrepreneur landed in Beijing on Tuesday for his first visit to the country since 2020 and was immediately ushered into a meeting with Foreign Minister Qin Gang. With foreign capitalists questioning the country’s investability, the central government has cause to telegraph its gratitude. Musk has given the Chinese Communist Party everything it could have reasonably expected, and more.
Musk’s decision to build the world’s largest Tesla (TSLA.O) factory in Shanghai in 2019 was crucial to developing the country’s robust electric-vehicle supply chain. The massive plant can produce more than 750,000 cars a year, equivalent to over 10% of the nation’s total new energy-vehicle sales in 2022. The suppliers that sprung up to serve the Gigafactory support homegrown marques now, helping China overtake Japan to become the world’s top automobile exporter in the first quarter. More competition has diluted Tesla’s market share, but its China sales have consistently grown at triple-digit rates, touching $18 billion in 2022 up from $3 billion in 2019 – 22% of the company’s total revenue. The People’s Republic is the top market for Tesla’s Model Y, helping it become the world’s top-selling vehicle.
Worries that Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, which had previously gone aggressively after Beijing’s army of propaganda bots, might damage Tesla’s position in China were misplaced. In fact, the opposite seems more likely. Musk has halted the practice of flagging Chinese state-affiliated media, and his “absolute” support for free speech appears limited to countries where such rights are well-defended already. He has been more inclined to comply with requests to silence opposition party critics inside countries like India and Turkey, citing his need to obey local laws. This is an encouraging precedent for the CCP. Article 38 of Hong Kong’s national security law, which criminalises behaviour that “induces hatred” toward the central government, specifies that it applies to everyone, everywhere.
Finally, Tesla’s success in China is useful for officials battling the narrative that investing in the People’s Republic has become too risky under President Xi Jinping, especially for foreign firms with valuable technology. State media quoted Musk saying the United States and China share “inseparable” interests and that Tesla opposes decoupling.
This all provides the $638 billion Tesla with good political cover in the world’s largest automobile market. There are risks, however. Musk’s cosiness with Beijing could cause problems in Washington, where his SpaceX venture has government contracts. But for now Beijing and Musk are getting what they want out of the arrangement, and that means it is likely to endure.
COMMENT – Really disappointing.
46. Fake Signals and American Insurance: How a Dark Fleet Moves Russian Oil
Christiaan Triebert, New York Times, May 30, 2023
COMMENT – Incredible graphics in this article.
Cyber & Information Technology
47. TikTok Creators’ Financial Info, Social Security Numbers Have Been Stored In China
Alexandra S. Levine, Forbes, May 30, 2023
COMMENT – Unsurprising… now that we are past the debt limit crisis, perhaps Congress and the Administration can get back to removing TikTok from the United States.
48. PODCAST – China’s Approach to Artificial Intelligence: A Conversation with Gregory C. Allen
ChinaPower, May 24, 2023
49. Mapping the Semiconductor Supply Chain: The Critical Role of the Indo-Pacific Region
Akhil Thadani and Gregory C. Allen, CSIS, May 30, 2023
50. China launches a new crew into space, including its first civilian astronaut
Associated Press, May 30, 2023
51. China’s chip sector needs change after OPPO setback
Jeff Pao, Asia Times, May 24, 2023
52. Portugal paves way to a Huawei ban on country’s 5G network
Anna Gross and Barney Jopson, Financial Times, May 26, 2023
53. China urges Japan to halt export restrictions on chips
Joe Cash and Bernard Orr, Reuters, May 28, 2023
Military and Security Threats
54. People's Republic of China State-Sponsored Cyber Actor Living off the Land to Evade Detection
Cybersecurity Advisory, America’s Cyber Defense Agency, May 24, 2023
55. China vessels near disputed Japan islands sending location data
Kyodo News, May 27, 2023
56. China warns against Japan PM's attendance at NATO summit
Kyodo News, May 26, 2023
China expressed caution Friday at Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's attendance at a NATO summit scheduled for July, saying Tokyo should not do anything that damages mutual trust between regional countries.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a press conference in Beijing that NATO's eastward foray into the Asia-Pacific "undermines regional peace and stability" and countries in the area "should be on high alert."
COMMENT – Right… the thing undermining regional peace and security is cooperation between Japan and NATO… it couldn’t possibly be the country that continuously threatens its neighbors with military invasions and the annexation of their territory.
Note to Beijing: If your neighbors are setting up collective security agreements around you, perhaps that’s because you are threatening them.
57. NATO official visits Taiwan as patchwork approach to countering Beijing emerges
Chris Horton, The China Project, May 24, 2023
58. Chinese Malware Hits Systems on Guam. Is Taiwan the Real Target?
David E. Sanger, New York Times, May 24, 2023
59. Netherlands fears Chinese cyberattacks amid chips battle
Pieter Haeck, Jacopo Barigazzi, and Nicolas Camut, Politico, May 31, 2023
One Belt, One Road Strategy
60. Along China's Belt and Road, lenders' problem debt mounts
Nikkei Asia, Iori Kawate, Nikkei Asia, June 1, 2023
Troubled loans grew fourfold during pandemic as borrowers hit hard times.
Chinese overseas loans went sour at a far worse rate in recent years as the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation took a toll on emerging economies involved in Beijing's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
A total of $76.8 billion in debt was renegotiated -- in some cases written off -- from 2020 to 2022, data from the Rhodium Group shows. This figure is more than four times the $17 billion in problem debt for the preceding three years.
61. Italy’s Meloni: Good China relations possible without Belt and Road
Gregorio Sorgi, Politico, May 28, 2023
Government in Rome is still considering its decision on the BRI, Italian prime minister tells Il Messaggero.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday that the country can enjoy good relations with China even without being part of Beijing’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Meloni gave her strongest remarks to date on the BRI in an interview with the Italian daily Il Messaggero amid speculation that Italy might soon drop out of Beijing’s global infrastructure project, which Rome joined in 2019, drawing criticism from the U.S.
“Italy is the only G7 member that signed up to the accession memorandum to the Silk Road, but it is not the European or Western country with the strongest economic relations and trade flows with China,” the Italian leader noted in the interview.
COMMENT – With all due respect to my Italian friends…
62. China Is a Loan Shark with No Legs Left to Break
Christina Lu, Foreign Policy, May 9, 2023
Beijing’s conversion into a major creditor has upended international finance—and not in a good way.
In the messy world of international development finance, no country has disrupted the existing setup quite like China, which in the past decade has eclipsed both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the world’s largest creditor by lending out hundreds of billions of dollars.
Beijing now, for the first time, has the keys to the car. The problem is that the car is jacked up, on blocks, and the key doesn’t actually work. China’s gamble on checkbook diplomacy turned out little different from a Las Vegas weekend, except none of it stayed in Vegas.
Debt woes have plagued governments for centuries. Hapsburg Spain had more defaults than branches on its family tree. The rise of national banks in the 17th century, first in Holland and later in England, helped. But it wasn’t really until after World War II that the world got a lender of last resort. Or first.
Rather than turning to wealthy private lenders, for decades debt-ridden governments have largely sought help from the Paris Club, an informal group of major creditors, alongside the IMF and World Bank, multilateral institutions that were set up after the war. China didn’t join that particular party, but it is crashing the wedding all the same.
China’s emergence as a major lending power is now upending that system, forcing everyone involved to navigate a changing landscape in which the new heavyweight shuns the old playbook. Beyond following different criteria in lending, China has also favored a bilateral approach to debt renegotiations that clashes with the Paris Club’s coordinated framework. Efforts to include China have flopped, too: Beijing has repeatedly refused offers to join the group while questioning the norms that have underpinned international debt-restructuring practices.
COMMENT – Can a country that is the world’s largest creditor (the PRC surpassed the World Bank, the IMF, and all Paris Club members combined in 2017) still be considered a “developing country”?
According to estimates, 44 countries owe debt equivalent to more that 10% of their GDP to PRC lenders.
Lu is absolutely right to refer to the PRC as a “loan shark.”
Opinion Pieces
63. 5 Steps the US Must Take to Deter a War with China
Seth Corpsey, The Messenger, May 25, 2023
64. China’s Status Anxiety
Rohan Mukherjee, Foreign Affairs, May 19, 2023
In early February, the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina. China’s response was angry and defiant: an official spokesperson accused Washington of frequently flying its own spy balloons over Chinese territory and said the United States should “reflect on itself and change course, rather than smear and instigate a confrontation.”
This kind of tit-for-tat response is becoming increasingly commonplace as China’s power grows. In domains as diverse as international trade, human rights, maritime law, and military surveillance, Beijing has accused the United States of hypocrisy and double standards—while responding in kind to Washington’s moves. The allegation in each case is broadly the same: the United States does not adhere to the rules of its own so-called rules-based, liberal international order and therefore cannot legitimately criticize China for acting similarly.
China’s belligerence is risky for a country with a much weaker military and far fewer allies than the United States. Why then does Beijing persist in behaving this way? The answer can be found in a central yet often overlooked dynamic in great-power politics. Aside from the usual objectives of security and prosperity, rising powers value their status in the international order—the rules and institutions that regulate relations among states. The pursuit of status can motivate states to do striking things, such as pour billions into space programs, nuclear weapons, and grand sporting events.
For a rising power such as China, an intolerable sense of inequality is created when an established great power bends or breaks international rules without allowing Beijing the same privilege. China wants to be recognized as an equal of the world’s preeminent great power, the United States. Under some conditions, persistent inequality of this sort can lead a state to turn hostile toward those it sees as its oppressors.
China’s approach to the international order depends on the extent to which the order’s rules and institutions recognize its desire for status. Beijing is more likely to cooperate with institutions that place it on an equal footing with Washington and has typically challenged or sought to reform institutions that do not. The durability of the international order, therefore, depends on whether or not its core institutions—and their architect, the United States—can create sufficient status-based incentives for China to cooperate with them.
COMMENT – Rohan Mukherjee offers an interesting perspective, but one I don’t agree with.
I doubt there is anything other countries could do to reassure and soothe an increasingly paranoid Chinese Communist Party.
One counterargument to Mukherjee is the one made by Christina Lu in her Foreign Policy article above, “China is a Loan Shark with No Legs Left to Break” (#59). As evidence of efforts to respect the PRC’s status, Beijing has been offered a seat at the Paris Club “table” for over two decades, but has repeatedly refused to join and routinely questions the entire premise of transparent international debt-restructuring.
The Party rejects the entire notion that rules, constitutionalism, or law can constrain them in any way… why should we expect that “international rules” would be any different? This rejection of accountability sits at the center of the Party’s entire approach to governance… there is absolutely no evidence that even if Beijing were treated with the respect the Party believes it is due, that it would subject itself to the rules and institutions that regulate relations among states.
Its refusal to renounce the use of force against its neighbor Taiwan, in contravention of the UN Charter, is just one example among many.
65. A Unique Opportunity Not to Be Squandered: Advancing Our Relationships in Central Asia
Robert Schlesiger, Daniel Egel, Jeffrey Martini, RAND, May 25, 2023
66. Stress-Testing Chinese-Russian Relations
Robert E. Hamilton, Foreign Policy Research Institute, May 25, 2023
67. The next Chinese tech threat is already here
Charles Parton, The Spectator, May 29, 2023
68. Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life
Brandon Weicher, 19FortyFive, May 24, 2023
69. Volt Typhoon’s Jolt to U.S. Complacency
Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2023
Western intelligence agencies and Microsoft Corp. disclosed that an outfit known as Volt Typhoon is spying on anything that might be vulnerable in a conflict, including assets on Guam, where there is a U.S. military base. Microsoft said China’s goal may be to choke off U.S. communications in a crisis.
COMMENT – So what is “Volt Typhoon”?… I had to think back a bit myself.
Under the new naming convention that Microsoft uses for cyber hacking groups, various weather-themed names are associated with countries and non-state actors.
Typhoon = People’s Republic of China
For close readers of this newsletter, we covered this in the April 30 issue of China Articles (#49 - Microsoft is giving hackers weather-themed names like storm, typhoon, and blizzard )
70. China’s war chest: Beijing seeks to remedy its vulnerability to food and energy embargoes
Amy Hawkins, The Guardian, May 28, 2023
71. Is a Chinese Vessel Raiding Pacific Graves?
Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2023
72. China thesis lurches from one lazy extreme to next
Pete Sweeney, Reuters, May 25, 2023
73. How China’s jobless youth were raised to have unrealistic expectations
April Zhang, South China Morning Post, May 31, 2023
74. China Can’t Have It Both Ways in Europe
Joshua Eisenman, Foreign Policy, May 30, 2023
75. The panda in the room – the UK’s China strategy
Charles Parton, Council on Geostrategy, June 1, 2023
76. Claudia Rosett at Tiananmen Square: The Communist Party Pulls the Trigger
Claudia Rosett, Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2023