Links - 7th February 2020 (1) (China's 'peaceful' rise)

Chinese communist leaders denounce U.S. values but send children to U.S. colleges - The Washington Post - "In some ways, the rush to U.S. campuses by the party’s “red nobility” simply reflects China’s national infatuation with American education. China has more students at U.S. colleges than in any other foreign country. They numbered 157,558 in the 2010-11 academic year, according to data compiled by the Institute of International Education — up nearly fourfold in 15 years.But the kin of senior party officials are a special case: They rarely attend state schools but congregate instead at top-tier — and very expensive — private colleges, a stark rejection of the egalitarian ideals that brought the Communist Party to power in 1949. Of the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the supreme decision-making body of a Communist Party steeped in anti-American rhetoric, at least five have children or grandchildren who have studied or are studying in the United States... top American universities still carry more cachet among many in China’s political and business elite, in part because they are so expensive. A degree from Harvard or the equivalent ranks as “the ultimate status symbol” for China’s elite... The attraction of a top-brand university is so strong that some princelings flaunt even tenuous affiliations with a big-name American college. Li Xiaolin, the daughter of former prime minister and ex-Politburo member Li Peng, for example, has long boasted that she attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a “visiting scholar at the Sloan Business School.” MIT says the only record it has of attendance by a student with Li’s name was enrollment in a “non-degree short course” open to executives who have “intellectual curiosity” and are ready to spend $7,500 for just 15 days of classes. The welfare of princelings studying abroad can become a matter for the Chinese government.During his final year at Oxford University in England, Bo Guagua ran into trouble because of inattention to his studies. When the university initiated a disciplinary process against him, the Chinese Embassy in London sent a three-person diplomatic delegation to Oxford to discuss the matter with Bo’s tutor at Balliol College, according to an academic who was involved in the episode... The stampede to American campuses has delivered a propaganda gift to critics of the Communist Party, which drapes itself in the Chinese flag and regularly denounces those who question its monopoly on power as traitorous American lackeys. A widespread perception that members of the party elite exploit their access and clout to stash their own children and also money overseas “is a big Achilles’ heel for the party”... The cook at a fast-food eatery near his Cambridge apartment building said Bo Guagua used to come in regularly but didn’t make much of an impression. “He just ordered the usual stuff, BLTs. Nothing special,” said the cook, who gave his name as Mustafa.Staff at Changsho, a Chinese restaurant, however, remember a more extravagant customer. Late one evening, for example, Bo came in alone, ordered four dishes and left after barely touching the food. “He didn’t even ask for a doggie bag,” recalled a restaurant worker, appalled at the waste."

A Sichuan Scenic Area Loses All Buddhist and Taoist Statues - "Located in Nanchong city in the southwestern province of Sichuan, Lingyun Mountain is a national 4A-level scenic area and a Buddhists and Taoists pilgrimage site, adorned with thousands of outdoor religious statues and cliff-carved sculptures. But in its campaign to annihilate religions, the CCP has recently covered all these symbols of faith with high artistic value, reportedly, spending at least eight million RMB (about $ 1,130,000)... In other similar cases in China, explosives have been used to demolish large cliff-carved religious icons, not just cover them"

Beijing Launches New Rule: Residents Must Pass Facial Recognition Test to Surf Internet - "In addition, no cell phone or landline number can be transferred to another person privately... “MIIT’s new rule on using facial recognition to identify an internet user means the government can easily track their online activities, including their social media posts and websites they visit,” Tang said.“Then these people become scared of sharing their real opinions online because their comments could anger the authorities and they could get arrested for it.”"

Opinion | Xi Jinping Wanted Global Dominance. He Overshot. - The New York Times - "The trade war... is the first real occasion to assess Mr. Xi’s leadership capabilities. And his performance might not look so good, even if one discounts the setbacks related to the trade war. First and foremost, Mr. Xi has utterly failed to manage the United States–Chinese relationship. In contrast, every Chinese leader since the founding of the communist state in 1949 had recognized the paramount importance of those ties, worked hard to improve them — and reaped huge benefits... Mr. Xi’s second major shortcoming has been his failure to articulate a coherent set of policies to stop the Chinese economy’s long-term weakening, after many years of stellar performance... A third criticism of Mr. Xi is that under him, China has sponsored or condoned actions by Chinese citizens and entities worldwide that have damaged the country’s international reputation while degrading its own moral fabric.Take intellectual property, for example. The United States seems to have hard evidence that it was the policy of Huawei, a flagship Chinese high-tech company, to reward employees for I.P. theft. And, as I have written before, such a policy is encouraged, arguably even mandatory, under China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law. Traditionally, the ideal Chinese state is a Confucian state that adheres to strict moral and behavioral norms. Yet for all his cracking down on corruption at home, Mr. Xi has encouraged moral turpitude abroad; his vision of China is a nation of patriotic thieves. All Chinese arguably have lost face as a result, and now innocent people overseas may be dismissed out of hand as guilty by association."

Apple self-driving car project: Chinese engineer charged with stealing secrets

More U.S. Firms Say China Has Stolen Their Intellectual Property: Poll - "A new CNBC poll finds that one in five corporations say China has stolen their intellectual property within the last year."

How Donald Trump’s tweets outgunned China’s heavy media weapons in the trade war publicity battle - "China is losing the publicity battle in its trade war with the United States, as its propaganda apparatus fails to respond to information challenges, according to analysts.Beijing’s decades—long preference for secrecy over transparency was not able to keep up as US officials including US President Donald Trump took the offensive and dictated the narrative, the analysts said.’... In contrast to media in the US, Beijing has heavily censored news coverage and public discussion of the trade war since Trump first imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods last July.So much so that the US-China trade war was one of the most censored topics last year on China’s ,widely popular WeChat app, according to WeChatscope, a research project by the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre. Nevertheless, screenshots of Trump’s tweets and international media reports on the trade talks have been circulated widely on Chinese social media platforms. News about the negotiations has also affected China’s share markets. For example, shares fell 5.6 per cent... “Beijing has disclosed little information about the talks in the past year and has found no narrative [of its own] so people are following Trump’s comments,” Wu said."

Beijing Appeals for Foreign Funds in Belt-and-Road Adjustment - "The U.S. and other countries have warned that aspects of the program pose financial risks to borrowers, alleging a lack of transparency and graft in deals that primarily benefit Beijing.... As criticism built over the past year or so, Beijing de-emphasized big-ticket infrastructure projects in its Belt and Road publicity and stepped up pledges to ensure sustainable lending and fight graft. “Everything should be done in a transparent way and we should have a zero tolerance for corruption,” Mr. Xi said... Recalibrating Mr. Xi’s signature foreign policy is a welcome move but also “a big ask,” said George Magnus, an economist at Oxford University’s China Center. “To change its structure by incorporating Western ideas and values including the rule of law, full and open accounting, and market-based transparent lending standards and terms is most likely a bridge too far.”... “Remind me to disinvite your president,” Mr. Guo said at one point, according to the people, who said Chinese officials lodged diplomatic complaints against countries that sought amendments it disliked. China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment"

7 problems created by China's New Silk Road - "countries considering taking on Chinese investment — loans and financial obligations from China that are part of its BRI — should worry about specific risks, which range from financial sustainability to the erosion of national sovereignty... “It’s been almost a cliché that the Chinese government is legitimate as long as there is 7.5% growth,” Eder said. “So [it] didn’t have that anymore. But they’re building up the second pillar of legitimacy with this collection of foreign policy successes, prestige, influence ... worldwide.”... Those projects often entailed “opaque bidding processes for contracts and financial terms that are not subject to public scrutiny,” they added, which usually means a Chinese loan is followed by a Chinese contractor on the construction site... on top of Chinese banks requiring Chinese contractors get the jobs, the contractors don’t even “transfer skills to local workers, and sometimes involve inequitable profit-sharing arrangements,” which didn’t benefit the local community at all. In some cases, China-funded projects even bore the possibility of espionage... With so many of these projects being massive infrastructure undertakings — from power plants to dams — the authors said that “some instances have proceeded without adequate environmental assessments or have caused severe environmental damage.” Finally, the opacity and the convoluted structure of these projects created ripe conditions for corruption, especially “if they have a high level of kleptocracy,” the authors said, particularly in the form of “payoffs to politicians and bureaucrats.” The country that exemplified most of the challenges above was Ecuador — particular with its Coca Codo Sinclair Hydroelectric Dam.Chinese financing of the dam is “a prime example of how infrastructure projects facilitated by Beijing can run against the host country’s public interest, corrupt institutions, and indebt recipient governments”... after all this trouble, the dam itself isn’t operable, which provides no economic benefits, the authors highlighted. “Water released from the dam causes flooding that cripples some downstream farming and has drowned farmers.”“China took advantage of Ecuador,” Ecuador Energy Minister Carlos Pérez said. “The strategy of China is clear. They take economic control of countries.”"

China's Xi Jinping broke promise on South China Sea, says top US general - "The United States military's top general said on Wednesday (May 29) that Chinese President Xi Jinping reneged on promises not to militarise the South China Sea, and called for "collective action" to hold Beijing responsible... "The fall of 2016, President Xi Jinping promised President (Barack) Obama that they would not militarise the islands. So what we see today are 10,000 foot (3km) runways, ammunition storage facilities, routine deployment of missile defence capabilities, aviation capabilities, and so forth""

China's communists fund Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party: What the United States Congress was told - "An influential United States Congress hearing has been told "one of the major fundraisers for Jacinda Ardern's party" is linked to the Chinese Communist Party and it showed China had penetrated New Zealand's political networks.As a result, US lawmakers needed to consider whether New Zealand should be kicked out of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance because of problems at its "political core"... New Zealand "have denied that there's a problem at all" and failed to follow Australia's lead in setting up an inquiry into China's activities."

Award-Winning Photojournalist Disappears In China, And Here Are 21 Of His Pics China Don’t Want You To See - "Most of the Lu Guang’s best photography reveals sad and shocking aspects of life in China, such as this heavy truck carrying coal and lime driving away, causing dust to fly and harming the nearby residents"... “The reality in China is you never know if you’re going to get into trouble because there are no written rules,” the photographer said in an interview"

American Entrepreneurs Who Flocked to China Are Heading Home, Disillusioned - "For years, American entrepreneurs saw a place in which they would start tech businesses, build restaurant chains and manage factories, making potentially vast sums in an exciting, newly dynamic economy. Many mastered Mandarin, hired and trained thousands in China, bought houses, met their spouses and raised bilingual children.Now disillusion has set in, fed by soaring costs, creeping taxation, tightening political control and capricious regulation that makes it ever tougher to maneuver the market and fend off new domestic competitors. All these signal to expat business owners their best days were in the past... absorbing a sixfold rise in tailoring rates since 2003 changed China into a high-cost, low-profit, stressful hardship. He lost the feeling “it’s all happening” in Shanghai and will try Thailand.... Many mark a turn in the climate for foreign businesses at around 2012... The first foreigner hired at a video sharing service called Tudou.com, a China version of YouTube, Mr. Mushero got a fast education about keeping a site functioning on China’s rough-and-tumble internet. One duty involved locating clips of pornography hidden in uploaded cat videos... Tougher regulations and competition deterred foreign players. China’s reputation for technology theft kept many out of the market, which reduced the number of Mr. Mushero’s potential clients. In 2013, the American Chamber of Commerce said only 10% of its members trusted data security enough to consider cloud services in China"