Links - 9th December 2019 (1) (China's 'Peaceful' Rise)

Organ harvesting of ethnic and religious minorities in China happening on a 'significant scale' - "The Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who previously worked in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, found evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt" that innocent Falun Gong practitioners and Uighur's were being targeted for their organs... "thousands of innocents" had their bodies cut open while they were still alive and their kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, cornea and skin removed and "turned into commodities for sale"."

TikTok starts banning pro-LGBT content worldwide - "the app has now restricted content that go against China. The ban includes any mention of Tiananmen Square or Tibet.The strangeness doesn’t end there. TikTok has also added more levels of guidelines depending on location. Reserved for conservative countries, the new “strict” set bans nudity and vulgarity. The nudity parameters are surprisingly detailed as well. Users cannot post “partially naked buttocks, more than 1/3 length” of a whole cleavage, and overly explicit depictions of sanitary pads.Further, TikTok has also implemented localized sets for certain countries. Turkish users, for example, cannot post any pro-LGBT content. This unusual ban includes hand holding and any content that promotes homosexuality. Unusually, TikTok’s guidelines are much harsher than Turkish law."

China's Interbank Funding Squeeze Has Echoes of Lehman - Bloomberg - "China’s central bank has acknowledged its monetary tools are insufficient. The most powerful ones are proving too blunt to drill through a hardening financial system.The country’s money markets have been shuddering since regulators took over Baoshang Bank Co. last month, despite initial assurances from the central bank and other authorities that they would maintain ample liquidity. While there has been little direct contagion, the seizure of the small commercial lender has hurt confidence. Funding costs for companies have shot up as large banks flinch from lending to some counterparties in the interbank market. For the first time in more than two decades, lenders face the prospect of defaults and haircuts on loans to other financial institutions... That means counterparty risk and solvency risk have arrived – together."

China to take over Uganda's main assets over unpaid rising huge debt - "Uganda’s auditor-general warned in a report released this month that public debt from June 2017 to 2018 had increased from $9.1 billion to $11.1 billion.The report — without naming China — warned that conditions placed on major loans were a threat to Uganda’s sovereign assets.It said that in some loans, Uganda had agreed to waive sovereignty over properties if it defaults on the debt"

He Never Intended To Become A Political Dissident, But Then He Started Beating Up Tai Chi Masters - "Since 2015, Xu has been the director, producer, and host of a lively one-man martial arts talk show called Brother Dong’s Hot Takes that he self-distributes via his various social media accounts... One recurring bit that initially gained Hot Takes a cult following was Xu’s profanity laced call-outs of “fakes,” or pianzi, in the Chinese martial arts world.These callouts were inspired by what Xu calls a “bad wind” of fake tai chi masters penetrating the national consciousness. This was largely thanks to government intervention. Traditional Chinese martial arts (wushu), and tai chi in particular, are a core component of what President Hu Jintao called in 2007 the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Since rising to power in 2013, President Xi Jinping has redoubled efforts to promote and spread “traditional Chinese culture”—which includes tai chi as well as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)—through a battery of subsidies, policy interventions, and good old-fashioned propaganda. Last year, it became mandatory for students in southeastern China’s Fujian Province to prove mastery of 24 tai chi moves in order to graduate from high school. Only a few months ago, state mouthpiece People’s Daily announced the establishment of the “People’s Tai Chi Development Alliance,” which purports to be aimed at making tai chi “fashionable” for young people and showcasing the accomplishments of Chinese civilization to the world. Meanwhile, grandmasters from across China’s martial arts schools were called on to hype up tai chi in the media. In a 2013 program called The Showdown Show, the famed 12th-generation Chen-style tai chi master Wang Zhanhai showed how he could harness his energy to fling off four musclebound attackers in a single movement. On another episode of the show, the 76-year-old pressure point (dianxue) master Zhang Zhenling showed up a group of skeptical, strapping young kung fu students by causing one to double over in pain with a single touch to the ribs. (Zhang then cured the humbled student by touching a pressure point in his neck.) Xu was unimpressed by all of this... The Chinese government would really like for him to stop his war against tai chi. As of this writing, Xu has been ordered to publicly apologize; had to pay the equivalent of USD $36,000 in fines and legal fees; had his social credit score lowered after he refused to apologize, preventing him temporarily from traveling by plane or high-speed train; had one of his gyms shut down; and seen a total of 11 social media accounts mysteriously disappear... recent events had caused him to conclude he would never be on the right side of the law in China, no matter what he did. Not long after he signed the contract to fight Wang Zhenling, his 18th tai chi grandmaster, relevant authorities informed him that the match, or any future matches, would not be allowed to take place. This should be illegal, Xu noted angrily, but his lawyer friend had advised him that in China, the law is essentially “whatever they say it is.” And so, Xu figured, he had nothing more to lose by taking the extra step of hopping the firewall... As someone who has been living and reporting in China for five years, I was caught off guard by Xu’s belief in the power of truth and sincerity. Although he was fully cognizant of the fact that there were things he could say that would have him disappeared tomorrow—that the ruling Party had inflicted and continues to inflict grievous human rights violations on the population such as the concentration camps in Xinjiang, and that the State relentlessly censors reports of said atrocities—he never discarded the notion that the truth had some value.Such a belief is something that’s become almost impossible to hold onto in China, where the truth has long since ceased to matter... the Party had pivoted its policy toward coverage of the Hong Kong protests from the usual program of suppression to an all-out disinformation campaign. State media organs blared with reports of protester violence and a secret CIA plot. These reports left out the disproportionate brutality being inflicted by the Hong Kong police, and that a protestor had lost an eye to a bean bag round."

Jewish Socialist of America on Twitter - "As a Jewish person it infuriates me that people unironically compare the way Tibetans and Uighurs are treated in China to the way Nazis exterminated, enslaved, and mass deported Jewish people. If this so-called “genocide” is actually happening, then where’s the refugee crisis?
Yes, national and ethnic chauvinism exists in China. It has undeniably increased since the revolutionary Mao era ended. No, that doesn’t mean China is now a fascist Han ethno-state, the same way the USSR was never a social imperialist Russian ethno-state.
If anyone thinks what’s happening in Xinjiang is bad, wait until you see how all your own countries treat Muslims! And no, this isn’t “whataboutism,” this is me telling you to study geopolitics, global class war, and the history of U.S.&I.S.-backed terrorism in the region (:"
This is not a parody

Prague city council moves to axe partnership with Beijing - "Prague city council voted on Monday to cancel a partnership agreement with Beijing after it failed to remove an article requiring it commit to the “one China” principle, which refers to China’s stance that Taiwan and it both belong to one China. The city’s leadership, elected last year, says it is non-standard for city-to-city partnerships such as the one signed by the previous administration in 2016, to include diplomatic matters that are up to national governments.“Unfortunately, the Chinese side did not respect our opinion that we do not want the political article, so the negotiations did not lead anywhere,” council member Hana Kordova Marvanova.“For us this is also a gesture that we do not want to declare subservient attitude to the authoritarian regime in China.”... Chinese authorities have already canceled tours of several Czech musical groups to China that had some link to Prague."

BeWater HK - "After Prague unilaterally ended its sister-city agreement with Beijing, the Chinese Embassy in Prague threatened the Prague city council with a statement. "The city council of Prague must change its approach, accommodate current trends and progress in history. We urge the city to return to the correct path which promotes the development of bilateral relations. Otherwise, they will damage their own interests." Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib's Czech Pirate Party responded with a snide statement on their facebook page, saying "We know the Chinese regime likes to view its partners as vassals and does not like disobedience. However, we are a country of free people, with a democratic Constitution. We refuse to bow down to a authoritarian regime responsible for 're-education camps',plus participating in human trafficking and illegal trading of organs. Lastly, we would like to conclude with a picture that will be censored by the Chinese communist government." A picture comparing Chinese President Xi-Jinping with Winnie the Pooh was attached with the statement."

Beijing’s simplistic narrative on Taiwan is fuelling tensions | Financial Times - "International news reports frequently claim that Taiwan “broke away from the mainland at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949”. Beijing “has shaped international discourse to the extent that many observers will talk about China’s plans to    nniversary Taipei celebrates is the Republic of China (ROC), the state created in the first Chinese Revolution in 1911. Taiwan was at that time not part of China but a Japanese colony.Neither the ROC’s ruling party, the Kuomintang, nor the Chinese Communist party viewed Taiwan as part of China during this period. It was not until 1943 that the CCP reversed course... While ROC-centred patriotism still runs strong in the KMT, KMT politicians acknowledge China’s hostile treatment of Taiwan has undermined Chinese identity in the broader population.“Since the 1980s, Taiwan’s gradual international isolation created an internal feeling of insecurity,” says Chao Chien-min, a professor at Chinese Culture University in Taipei and a policy adviser to KMT presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu. “Therefore, if the People’s Republic of China represents China, then the proportion of Taiwanese willing to recognise that they are Chinese naturally goes down.”"

Anonymous wants to take down the Great Firewall of China - "Anonymous China has hacked shangzhi.gov.cn, publicly posting eight user names and passwords on Pastebay. This was soon followed by the hacking of szzfcg.gov.cn, which resulted in the site's full database being leaked and posted to Wikisend. The document was hard to parse, but I could easily see that it included thousands of e-mail addresses, logins, and passwords."

Opinion | What Xi Jinping Hasn’t Learned From China’s Emperors - The New York Times - "The early P.R.C., then, recognized and drew upon the Qing tradition with flexible approaches to diversity and sovereignty. But over the years, especially since Mr. Xi came to power in 2012, the C.C.P. has abandoned its relatively tolerant tradition while intensifying ethnic assimilationism and political rigidity. Today, rather than celebrating the uniqueness of individual cultures, the C.C.P. increasingly promotes a unitary category called “zhonghua,” a kind of pan-Chinese identity. Though supposedly all-inclusive, the customs and characteristics of “zhonghua” are practically identical to those of the Han. The government now calls Mandarin, previously known as the “Han-language” (“hanyu”), the “national language” (“guoyu”) and more forcefully pushes its use in schools and public settings, even though linguistic freedom and the official use of local languages are guaranteed by the Constitution. The P.R.C. once actively supported publishing and bilingual education in non-Han languages. Now, Uighur bookstores in Xinjiang are empty and shuttered. In both Xinjiang and Tibet, bilingual education has been replaced by Mandarin schools, and proponents of Uighur and Tibetan language-learning have been persecuted. Authorities have scrubbed Arabic script from public places across China — including the word “halal” on the front of stores and restaurants. TV shows in non-Mandarin Chinese languages are disappearing from P.R.C. broadcasts. Cantonese is under pressure, in Hong Kong and neighboring Guangzhou province. Similarly, in the name of Sinicizing religion, Mr. Xi’s party-state is razing mosques and churches and has demolished huge swaths of the Tibetan Buddhist monastic centers of Larung Gar and Yachen Gar, expelling monks and nuns and interning some of them in so-called re-education camps like those in which it now holds some one million Uighurs. The C.C.P. has tried to impose “patriotic education” in Hong Kong schools to enforce the teaching of the party’s version of history. When Taiwanese voters elected a leader Beijing didn’t like in 2016, Mr. Xi threatened military force and prevented mainland tourists from visiting the island.Such policies undercut the P.R.C.’s legacy of administrative flexibility and relative ethnic tolerance, as well as expose it to international criticism, exacerbating tensions while undermining the party’s legitimacy"