Singapore waves red flag on foreign interference, fears naming - "Singapore’s government ministers have been waving the red flag on foreign interference activities and referred to a particular country. The ministers have dropped hints about the country in their speeches but stopped short of revealing the identity of the elephant in the room. Analysts that Yahoo News Singapore spoke to said the Singapore government is fearful of a severe economic impact arising from any reprisal that could be undertaken by the country if it were named. Unlike the government’s reticence, the analysts have identified the origin of foreign actors behind a recent wave of hostile information campaigns targeting various countries including Singapore: China. The Asian superpower has been actively engaging in global foreign interference activities amid its intense geopolitical rivalry against the US and the West, and desire to trumpet its achievements and authoritarian system of government in the eyes of the world... Through various social media platforms, particularly Wechat, China has been targeting societal groups, businesses, the broader public, and officials in Singapore. Its goals are to steer global perspectives towards Beijing’s positions on issues ranging from Taiwan, the South China Sea disputes, to even the ongoing Ukraine war... These efforts may further bolster the generally positive views of China among Singaporeans, as indicated in a Pew Research Centre survey of 17 economies released last year. The survey showed that Singapore and Greece were the only economies where the majority of their respondents have broadly positive views of China. About 64 per cent of respondents in Singapore viewed China positively, compared with only 10 per cent in Japan, 22 per cent in South Korea, and 27 per cent in Taiwan. Associate Research Fellow James Char from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) said, “There is very likely an attempt by Beijing to shape narratives in Singapore to actually align…normal Singaporeans to believe in the greatness of the Chinese model and the narratives about Chinese foreign policy.” In general, China’s desire to push its perspective on policies on the global stage is not necessarily a problem, said National University of Singapore (NUS) political scientist Chong Ja Ian. “The problem is when these actions start complicating political processes that need to run their course in these various countries”... the Military College released its 646-page report written in French entitled "Chinese influence operations - a Machiavellian moment" in late September last year. In it, the Military College wrote about the extensive network that China had built over the years to exert its deleterious influence around the world, including Singapore... In contrast, Singapore has openly confronted the US government as far back as the 1960s and 1970s about its interference in the city-state’s affairs... The approach arose because of the stark contrasts between the transparent American style of governance and the opaque Chinese Communist Party model... Assoc Prof Chong said the Chinese would respond particularly strongly to being named as a key source of foreign interference activities. “This is a feature of authoritarian systems that are very powerful. They would rather have a lot of praise for the system. In the case of China, they have been particularly robust in their efforts to clamp down anything that could look like criticism.” Unlike the Chinese, the Americans are used to criticisms from other countries including Singapore... Both analysts cited the example of how Australia’s exports to China were severely curbed as a result of Canberra’s public accusations about Chinese foreign interference and its demand for transparent investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic... From late 2016 to early 2017, Singapore was embroiled in the “Terrex” saga after nine armoured military vehicles from a vessel that were bound for the city-state from Taiwan were seized in Hong Kong... analysts across the region attributed the seizure to Beijing’s unhappiness over Singapore’s continuous military ties with Taiwan, including the city-state’s army exercises in the “renegade province”, and its internationalist stance over the South China Sea disputes... it was clear that China-linked actors were involved in the saga and noticed the considerable online chatter against Singapore then. “During the Terrex saga, this trope was being spread that Singapore was taking a position against China when it was quite obvious we were voicing the usual platitudes about observing an international rules-based order (on the South China Sea disputes) and UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).” To further underscore the government’s concerns about foreign interference, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the issue at the recent National Day Rally in his English and Chinese speeches... When asked if Singapore is targeted by China for foreign interference because of its Chinese-majority population, Assoc Prof Chong said there are sustained efforts to play up ethno-nationalism among the ethnic Chinese communities living outside the mainland. Similar concerns have also been highlighted in Malaysia, where the ethnic Chinese population is a fairly large minority... While regulatory frameworks including the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA) are critical in defending Singapore against such activities, Assoc Prof Chong said that there has been a recent spike in disinformation regarding issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Ukraine war, with the latter characterised by an amplification of Russian and Chinese perspectives."
Of course, to China shills who make up the fifth column, the US is evil and China is good and China is sensitive to criticism because it is good and unfairly maligned but the US doesn't mind being criticised because they know they are evil
Beijing’s Influence Operations Target Chinese Diaspora - "Taiwan, an island populated with ethnic Chinese, has long felt the weight of intrusive PRC efforts to dominate its media, interfere with political campaigns, and strong-arm its leaders — all of which has exacerbated political polarization and social tensions. Others are beginning to feel the pressure as well. Australia and New Zealand, for example, continue to grapple with the Chinese government’s efforts to influence domestic politics. Australia’s security services have reported efforts by Chinese agents to infiltrate policymaking circles and strengthen Beijing’s influence over the country’s Chinese diaspora community. Indeed, Chinese officials have signaled their intention to advance more policies to earn the loyalty and goodwill of diaspora communities — in part by scrutinizing their treatment by foreign governments. Yang Jiechi stated in his article that it had become “necessary to actively push the governments of countries of their residence to build a favorable environment for Chinese compatriots.” In the past few years, PRC diplomatic officials in Malaysia have carried out regular visits to ethnic Chinese communities, endorsed pro-China political candidates, and attended high level meetings by political parties dominated by ethnic Chinese. Beijing’s influence operations cynically exploit the diversity of other countries for the CCP’s own ends. Coercion and intimidation of Chinese living abroad harms their civil rights and freedoms and damages their political institutions. The efforts by the People’s Republic to muzzle critical diaspora Chinese media voices, infiltrate and manipulate policymaking, and encourage the formation of pro-Chinese political factions not only harms the sovereignty of other countries, they can also exacerbate social tensions within pluralistic societies and encourage polarization. In Malaysia, for example, efforts by Chinese government officials to generously fund Chinese language schools and endorsements of particular candidates have stirred resentment on the part of some ethnic groups who see such actions as interference in the country’s internal affairs. This tension contributed to the 2015 protests in Kuala Lumpur. Chinese government efforts to recruit agents also threatens to encourage unfounded fears and racism towards individuals of Chinese heritage."
How do I clear my Dad's brainwashing? He wants to join China as a soldier : singapore - "I wish I was joking My Dad has watched PRC propaganda YouTube channels for years. Today he scared the crap out of me when he announced that should war come to China, he'll fight for China as a soldier even if he is renounced by SG He even said Chinese blood (Chinese as in people from China, not Chinese-race from SG) flows in all of us. He is also far more critical of Western countries (especially USA) and Taiwan nowadays. My Dad was never like this before"
Hu Jintao: Fresh China congress footage deepens mystery over exit - "Fresh footage has emerged showing more of what happened before China's former leader Hu Jintao was dramatically led out of a session during last week's Communist Party Congress in Beijing. It shows in greater detail how outgoing Politburo member Li Zhanshu, to Mr Hu's left, takes a file away and speaks to him. Then China's current leader Xi Jinping gives lengthy instructions to another man who subsequently attempts to persuade Mr Hu to leave. The unexpected moment led to intense speculation, with some arguing that it was a deliberate power play by Mr Xi to show that the more consensus-driven Hu era was definitively over while others suggested it could have been because of Mr Hu's poor health. The official Xinhua news agency later tweeted that Mr Hu had been escorted from the chamber after feeling unwell - but it did not report that domestically... Many wondered if it was a deliberate piece of political theatre. Unlike Mr Hu, whose presidency between 2003 and 2013 was seen as a time of opening up to the outside world, Mr Xi has presided over a country that has become increasingly isolated. The new footage, filmed by Singapore-based Channel News Asia, does not debunk the official line that Mr Hu was ill. But it also suggests that Mr Hu's handling of the document in front of him played a role in the incident. Adding to the intrigue, Li Zhanshu appeared to be about to stand up to help Mr Hu but was then seemingly tugged back down into his seat by Wang Huning to his left. Meanwhile Mr Hu said something to an impassive Mr Xi as he was escorted out, while the other men seated in the row did not turn around as he was led out. Deng Yuwen, a former editor of Communist Party newspaper the Study Times, says there is no reason that the party would put a document that Mr Hu was not allowed to read right in front of him at such a high-profile meeting with cameras rolling. "It was indeed an unusual situation," he says. "No-one can explain it until there is more evidence of what was inside the file, or what was being said at the scene." Wen-ti Sung, a lecturer at the Australian National University, says the new footage remains inconclusive. "China is all about order, especially at high profile events like that and especially in Xi's era where it's all about control," he said. "So an arguably out-of-control Hu and this sudden exit definitely seems strange, and that's why it justifies a lot of the rumours. But that's not to say that the rumour or speculation about a purge is necessarily correct." But Mr Deng says the spectacle of other senior officials - including Mr Hu's former second in command Wen Jiabao - looking straight ahead as Mr Hu was led out behind them does say something about Mr Xi's China... If the previous day's drama was indeed unscripted and motivated by concern for Mr Hu's well-being, Mr Xi's new Politburo Standing Committee line up the following day drove home the symbolism of the former leader's exit - there would be no return to the policies of the Hu Jintao era."
China’s ex-president Hu Jintao leaves stage unexpectedly at closing session of CPC congress - "The end of the party congress would reveal that top officials including current Premier Li Keqiang and Mr Wang Yang, who heads the top advisory body to China’s Parliament, would not be in the party’s new Central Committee. Both men are seen to be part of the Communist Youth League faction, to which Mr Hu belongs... The debate underscores how Chinese elite politics have become opaque under Mr Xi, who has clamped down on leaks. Tidbits like this can offer rare insights into happenings within the party. But while the clip has spawned heated debate outside of China, there has been no mention of it on Chinese social media, which is heavily censored."
Hang Seng Today: China’s Plunging Stock Market Becomes High-Risk Bet on Xi - Bloomberg - "China’s lurch toward one-man rule has made it more important than ever for investors to align their portfolios with the priorities of President Xi Jinping. Some are deciding it’s not worth the trouble. Chinese stocks tumbled by the most since 2008 in Hong Kong and the yuan hit a 14-year-low after Sunday’s confirmation that Xi’s policies of stronger state control over the economy and markets will continue unchallenged for years. Unlike in places like the US or UK -- where dramatic market reactions can force policy pivots or even overthrow entire governments -- it’s becoming apparent that investors are only an afterthought for Xi. That narrative was reinforced by Beijing’s move to delay the release of a raft of economic data without explanation, and risks further alienating money managers who are already leery of Chinese assets... Monday’s market reaction -- especially offshore -- may suggest that international funds do not consider themselves to be aligned with Xi’s policies, who has implemented tough curbs on investor favorite choices from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to education firms. With a new leadership team packed with his allies, analysts also expect little dissent against Xi’s Covid Zero strategy... Chinese policy making is not known for transparency. Playing that guessing game had never been so costly for investors as in the past two years, with Xi ending China’s days of limitless private sector-growth in favor of state-directed “common prosperity.” In mid-March, Beijing appeared to heed investor concerns after one of the biggest stock market routs in history. China’s top financial policy committee released a sweeping set of pledges including one to make policy more “transparent and predictable.” But less than two weeks later, the Politburo, led by Xi, published a 114-character readout of its latest meeting -- the briefest of the president’s tenure -- keeping investors in the dark again. The strong-man risk in China and its implications have been a long-standing problem for some global funds. Some of the most extreme cases included Boston-based Zevin Asset Management cutting its China exposure to zero, or the manager of a $184 billion public pension fund in Texas halving its target allocation to the country’s stocks... What’s clear is anyone hoping Xi would usher in a more benign investing environment in his second decade in power is getting a painful reality check. “The market is concerned that with so many Xi supporters elected, Xi’s unfettered ability to enact policies that are not market friendly is now cemented,” said Banny Lam, head of research at CEB International Investment Corp."
China's Aggression Predates Xi Jinping—It Started With Hu Jintao - "While Beijing exhibited some troubling behavior in the 1990s, it was Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor, who presided over changes the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) internal system and foreign policy the following decade... Understandably, most U.S. analysts missed this hard turn in Chinese domestic and economic policy. China was still engaging in a charm offensive throughout Southeast Asia and wowed countries with its “Beijing model” of authoritarian capitalism abroad. China’s economy was also still booming from the changes it had made in the 1980s and 1990s that allowed it decades of growth. It was thus easy to miss Hu’s reversals of economic reforms."
Zeal and China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomacy - "China’s ‘Wolf Warriors’ are doing a better job than any American diplomat of arousing anti-Chinese feelings around the world. It is tempting, but, alas, not very credible, to think of them as CIA sleeper agents, now awoken to do Donald Trump’s bidding. Still, even Fu Ying, a former Vice-Foreign Minister, herself no slouch when it comes to being tough, was sufficiently concerned about the effect these doughty warriors were having to warn in a People’s Daily commentary that “A country’s power in international discourse relates not just to its right to speak up on the global stage, but more to the effectiveness and influence of the discourse.”... Many years ago, it fell to me to host a dinner for a Chinese Foreign Ministry senior official and his delegation who were visiting Singapore for ‘consultations.’ He was an interesting fellow and it was no hardship to entertain him. I liked him and considered him a colleague insofar as any foreign diplomat can be a colleague. But I knew that he was not really visiting to ‘consult’ but rather to ask us not to discuss the South China Sea (SCS) at a forthcoming ASEAN meeting. And he knew that I knew. It had become a ritual request before every ASEAN meeting. And I knew that he knew that the ritual answer would be that such an important issue had to be discussed. It was a pleasant dinner. Through the first few courses, my Chinese colleague and I drank together and talked about everything except the SCS. It was only as dessert approached that he asked whether he could step outside for a smoke. As host, I followed him out. “You know why I’m here?” he asked as he lighted up. “Yes,” I replied. “So?” he laconically enquired. “Not possible,” I said. And that was the end of our discussion on the SCS. We rejoined our other colleagues to continue drinking and chat of cabbages and kings. He knew what my answer on the SCS would be before he asked. He knew that our countries would have to work together on other issues, and that it was pointless to argue about something on which we could not agree. That could only poison the atmosphere without achieving anything. But he had his instructions, just as I had mine. He knew that I had no authority to change a national position, just as he had no authority not to ask me to do so. He carried out his instructions in as painless a way as possible for both of us. I would have done the same in his place. That Chinese diplomat, now long retired, was of a generation that had endured much, including the Cultural Revolution. He was a patriot. Having endured and survived what China had endured and survived, he was confident enough in himself and his country to act as he did. Ironically, today, many younger Chinese diplomats who know only a wealthy and rising China are too uncertain of themselves to disagree without a public quarrel to prove how ‘patriotic’ they are. Their brashness is brittle. So too apparently is their confidence in China. They demand overt approbation for Chinese policies. They bridle and profess umbrage when praise is not effusive enough, or otherwise at the slightest criticism... In 2019, President Xi Jinping reportedly told Chinese diplomats to show more “fighting spirit.” The concentration of power that has occurred on his watch, his insistence on CCP control of thought and deed, and his use of the CCP’s disciplinary apparatus and the anti-corruption campaign to enforce his will have together amplified his wishes – perhaps even beyond what he intended. All of this has certainly added to the anxieties, personal and institutional, in the Foreign Ministry. Taking a hard line is safe. But ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy is not just the result of institutional self-doubt in the Foreign Ministry or of some Chinese diplomats wanting to suck up to the boss. It is also a symptom of a deeper and wider malaise in the Chinese system. China is a land of contradictions: it is so big and complex that it would be foolish to seek consistency on everything. One of the most important contradictions is that the CCP is simultaneously very powerful and persistently insecure... In his classic work, From the Soil, the Chinese sociologist, Fei Xiaotong, explained the essential difference between Western and Chinese society by reference to the rural foundations of Chinese society. This led to the greater immediacy and importance of family and local networks of personal relationships centred on themselves rather than institutions of the state. The pervasiveness of guanxi (connections) in Chinese culture points in the same direction as Fei’s essential idea. As a result, Fei argued, Chinese society had a deeply ingrained “self-centred quality,” and traditional Chinese society was ‘selfish.’ Sun Yat-sen was suggesting much the same thing when he described the Chinese people as loose grains of sand. Such ‘selfish’ personal networks challenge a Leninist party’s basic principle of centralized rule and claim to a monopoly of power and authority"
Hacker Offers to Sell Chinese Police Database in Potential Breach - The New York Times - "In what may be one of the largest known breaches of Chinese personal data, a hacker has offered to sell a Shanghai police database that could contain information on perhaps one billion Chinese citizens. The unidentified hacker, who goes by the name ChinaDan, posted in an online forum last week that the database for sale included terabytes of information on a billion Chinese. The scale of the leak could not be verified. The New York Times confirmed parts of a sample of 750,000 records that the hacker released to prove the authenticity of the data... The hacker’s offer of the Shanghai police database highlights a dichotomy in China: Although the country has been at the forefront of collecting masses of information on its citizens, it has been less successful in securing and safeguarding that data... China’s government has worked to tighten controls over a leaky data industry that has fed internet fraud. Yet the focus of the enforcement has often centered on tech companies, while authorities appear to be exempt from strict rules and penalties aimed at securing information at internet firms... "there is no mechanism to hold government agencies responsible for a data leak"... In one sample, the personal information of 250,000 Chinese citizens — such as name, sex, address, government-issued ID number and birth year — was included. In some cases, the individuals’ profession, marital status, ethnicity and education level, along with whether the person was labeled a “key person” by the country’s public security ministry, could also be found. Another sample set included police case records, which included records of reported crimes, as well as personal information like phone numbers and IDs. The cases dated from as early as 1997 until 2019. The other sample set contained information that appeared to be individuals’ partial mobile phone numbers and addresses. When a Times reporter called the phone numbers of people whose information was in the sample data of police records, four people confirmed the details. Four others confirmed their names before hanging up. None of the people contacted said they had any previous knowledge about the data leak. In one case, the data provided the name of a man and said that, in 2019, he reported to the police a scam in which he paid about $400 for cigarettes that turned out to be moldy. The individual, reached by phone, confirmed the details described in the leaked data... On Chinese social media platforms, like Weibo and the communication app WeChat, posts, articles and hashtags about the data leak have been removed. On Weibo, accounts of users who posted or shared related information have been suspended, and others who talked about it have said online that they had been asked to visit the police station for a chat."
Meme - "8 years after this Onion article turns into an actual one in Foreign Policy magazine"
"CIA Uncovers Chinese Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States"
"China wants to avoid doing anything that would interrupt the process of U.S. decline."
A balanced media narrative is in order
Published by the Straits Times as "Time to wake up to Western media bias". The usual China shill stuff, with the usual talking points and keywords. Bertha Henson: "A Leslie Fong lecture. More ranting than reason unfortunately. He also doesn’t deal with how the Chinese media also do the same thing."
The Coca-Cola Ad You've Never Seen - The Dispatch - "The Beijing Olympics are shaping up to be a public-relations disaster for companies trying to straddle both U.S. and Chinese markets. The human rights abuses the Chinese government is perpetrating toward the predominantly Muslim Uyghur people, which the U.S. last year termed a genocide and Human Rights Watch has labeled crimes against humanity, hang as a pall over the Games. The U.S. and several other Western countries have opted for a diplomatic boycott. The fraught situation has placed the Olympic sponsors—the 13 companies that shell out the most eye-popping piles of cash to fund the Games—in a real bind. Ordinarily, the Olympics are as bankable a cash cow for brands as any other sporting event—more so, when you consider the event’s peerless visibility around the globe. From Albania to Zimbabwe, the Games are synonymous with traits any brand would love to be associated with: youth, vigor, beauty, endurance, excellence. Thus the monster payouts to secure exclusive licensing rights... exclusive contracts, it turns out, can be a double-edged sword. Any company without a preexisting Olympics relationship might look at the controversy surrounding the Beijing games and decide simply to save its advertising dollars for better days—the 2024 Paris Games aren’t far away! For the sponsors, though, even beyond the sunk cost of the exclusivity rights themselves, there’s no way simply to slink out of the spotlight. They can’t remove themselves from the political question, because either remaining a part of or ducking out of the Olympics would be to make a political statement. And when it comes to China, as every multinational corporation knows well, some political statements are a lot more expensive than others... companies like Coca-Cola—which, by the way, has faced its own accusations of making use of forced labor in Xinjiang and in 2020 lobbied against a bill to punish companies that did so—find themselves in a bizarre situation: They’ve determined that the financially optimal play is to keep partnering with the Beijing Olympics, but to do so with as little of the miasma surrounding these particular Games as possible sticking to their clothes afterward. It may be the world’s first example of companies devising their marketing strategy around trying to ensure people think of them as little as possible"
xi-jinping-china-president-bad-emperor-syndrome - "Everywhere in China, leader Xi Jinping is there. His picture is splashed on the front pages of state newspapers, required to be displayed at houses of worship from Buddhist temples to Christian churches, and beamed from billboards across the country. Red propaganda banners in cities and villages extol his personal philosophy, Xi Jinping Thought. Inside detention camps, Uyghurs – an ethnic group that have suffered in a massive crackdown – are made to wish Mr Xi a long life before being allowed to eat... He has consolidated power by ousting political rivals, locking up dissidents, and making unprecedented changes, like enshrining his doctrine in the constitution. Mr Xi has successfully put himself firmly at the “core” of everything – made more evident than ever after a recent major political meeting ended with his coronation for a historic third term... Mr Xi also humiliated his predecessor, Hu Jintao, by ejecting him from the stage at the closing ceremony – all in front of the public... Civil society has largely been snuffed out in China, with authorities silencing anyone seeking reparations or airing grievances against the state. Mr Xi has squeezed private enterprise out of fear that the wealthy were beginning to wield too much power and influence. Billionaires like tech entrepreneur Jack Ma – who has star power much like Tesla’s Elon Musk – have gone missing after criticising the government. Mr Ma was more fortunate than others – he eventually reappeared, whereas others like China’s Donald Turmp, outspoken tycoon Ren Zhiqiang, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after calling Mr Xi a “clown”. Mr Xi has even gone after pop culture, from celebrities to cartoons – both foreign and domestic – to ensure the next generation grows up with what he deems appropriate. Those values put him at the centre of it all, encourage traditional gender norms, and oppose anything remotely Western. To that end, children as young as six are required to study his doctrine at school; men deemed too effeminate have been banned from television shows; and even vegetarianism is frowned upon for being a foreign lifestyle choice. “Whether it’s exams for Chinese, chemistry or politics, it has to cite quotes from the ‘boss’ to promote core ideology,” a Chinese school teacher told The Telegraph's How to Become a Dictator podcast. Students and teachers alike are being brainwashed by the propaganda, he said. “They’ve enhanced patriotic education – ideas such as attacking Taiwan, or anti-US and pro-Russia messages with a clear slant. Students have become very anti-American as a result”... Covid-related measures have become yet another way to control the population, and to snuff out dissent. This summer, people organising a bank protest all of a sudden found their contact tracing codes had turned red, which confined them to their homes and barred them from entering public areas. So the government is already wielding this tool to restrict freedom of movement and punish dissenters – all under the guise of public health, and without ever putting anyone in a physical prison. There’s no sign of letting up. If anything, Mr Xi may be forced to govern with an ever-growing iron fist in order to stay in power. His anti-corruption campaign to purge challengers has created many enemies. His politics, which have cleaved China from the world, have upset many elite Chinese of his generation. His policies have halted the economy – the World Bank estimates China will see 2.8 per cent growth this year, a far cry from double-digit expansion before Mr Xi took the reins a decade ago. Mr Xi may be soaring on his pedestal, but there is a very real question of whether he’s got the right people around him, and whether they’re giving him sound advice. Being surrounded by only ‘yes-men’ may mean nobody dares to share countervailing perspectives. They themselves may fear being purged themselves if they do so – and in Mr Xi’s regime, that’s a dark place to end up. “Once you become a dictator…who can you trust? Can you trust the people around you?” said Frank Dikotter, a historian and professor at Hong Kong University."
Mark Dreyer on Twitter - "China today - a story in 33 acts. *33 newspapers which look almost identical*"
'China is not an immigrant country': draft law sparks online racism - "A new draft law that could make it easier for foreigners to gain permanent residency in China has stirred up a torrent of xenophobia online. The proposal, released by the justice ministry last week, has been gathering billions of views and a flood of angry posts on social media, targeting Africans in particular. "China's forty years of family planning policy does not make it a place for foreign trash to soar," wrote one user on the Twitter-like platform Weibo, referring to the one-child birth limit China imposed between 1980 and 2016. The person went on to use racist language against black people, saying: "Our common Chinese ancestry will not be tainted by Africans." Some Weibo-users posted videos of black people apparently committing crimes in China, while a campaign to encourage Chinese women to date Chinese men, under the hashtag "China girl", had 240 million views as of Thursday afternoon... The law -- open to suggestions from the public until March 27 -- proposes allowing foreigners' dependants to apply simultaneously for permanent residency, as well as relaxing education and salary requirements. State media said less than one percent of foreigners in China have permanent residency. The draft bill comes at a time when China is seeking to expand its global influence and attract foreign exchange and investment... there have been points of tension, including a crackdown on illegal immigrants in commercial hub Guangzhou's "Little Africa" which left many complaining of hard treatment from authorities. There are also long-standing anxieties about perceived preferential treatment for foreigners in China, especially international students. "For a long time, some foreigners in China have secretly received 'superior treatment' as citizens," wrote Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalistic Global Times. Last July, Shandong University apologised after a backlash over a policy that introduced foreign students to local students of the opposite sex. Heather Li, a China-Africa business consultant, said she was "really shocked" by the extent of the online racism. She used to tell her African friends that many Chinese people were friendly and curious about their culture, despite their occasional encounters with prejudice."
From 2020
WeChat users are writing apology letters to get their banned accounts on Tencent’s super app back - "The Tencent app is so essential to life in China that banned users will go to great lengths to be reinstated... In June, a Chinese student in California mentioned a taboo topic on WeChat: the government’s bloody 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters. Hours later, his account was banned from WeChat, cutting him off from family and friends back home... “I promise not to post anything in violation of laws and regulations to safeguard social stability and Tencent’s businesses,” Eric recalled writing in the 500-character letter, which he threw into a trash can later. “Thanks Tencent for providing us with such a good communication platform.” Eric told Rest of World he did not believe any of what he had written in the note. But he did it because WeChat had ordered him to handwrite a letter admitting his guilt, along with a photo of him holding his Chinese national ID card, before it would return the account to him... Handwritten letters of apology aren’t exactly new. Parents and teachers often ask children to write that they’re sorry; even the police in China have been known to ask alleged criminals to pledge in a letter that they won’t repeat their past mistakes. But their use by digital platforms, including WeChat and microblogging site Weibo, has underscored the power these social media monopolies wield over ordinary citizens, as their products penetrate into all aspects of everyday life in the country... Xian Jingjing, a 21-year-old tech worker in the southwestern province of Sichuan, told Rest of World she was banned from WeChat in October 2021, after someone hacked into her account and posted spam messages from it. With the payment services disabled, Xian, then a university student, could not even go grocery shopping by herself... WeChat’s dominance in everyday life means users have little choice but to comply with whatever it asks for. “WeChat has become such an integral part of Chinese users’ life, not only for Chinese living in China, but also for a lot of overseas students and Chinese diaspora,” Ruan said. “If you have the account banned, then it’s like taking away a big part of your identity.”"
