De Chinese Wouden, maandag 23 december: kerst
Het nieuws is relatief rustig met de feestdagen in aantocht. Alleen in Taiwan gaat de onrust nog verder. De oppositie heeft zijn meerderheid in het parlement gebruikt om drie controversiële wetsvoorstellen aan te nemen. Dit is een escalatie van spanningen met de regerende DPP en het maatschappelijk middenveld. De onrust is nog niet afgelopen in Taipei.
Ook in de Verenigde Staten pruttelt het nieuws nog door. De inauguratie van Trump komt steeds dichterbij en de voorbereidingen gaan door. China-kritische wetgeving is al verdwenen. De aanname dat onder Trump de haviken de scepter zouden zwaaien is steeds minder zeker. Trump zegt al dat TikTok niet gelijk weg hoeft – hij had er namelijk zoveel views op. Het grote aantal miljardairs in Trump II en Trumps eigen liefde voor deals bieden Peking kansen temidden van de risico’s. We gaan een achtbaan tegemoet in het nieuwe jaar.
Deze week is er op woensdag eerste kerstdag geen nieuwsbrief. Vrijdag ben ik weer terug. Vrolijke kerst!
Nederland en Europa 🇳🇱🇪🇺
NPR investigation of a Chinese celebrity dissident Wáng Jìngyú 王靖渝 leads news organisations to retract stories – NPR: ‘People who study journalism said they can’t recall so many news organizations retracting or amending stories because of questions about the reliability of a single source.’
‘Other news organizations who covered Wang have stood by their stories. RTL Nieuws says NPR’s findings did not undermine the results of their investigation into Wang’s claims of harassing calls from a Chinese police station. […] But de Regt said subsequent reporting on Wang’s additional claims persuaded reporters that he was unreliable.’
Chinees schip dat mogelijk betrokken was bij kabelbreuken in Oostzee vertrokken – NU.nl 🇸🇪🇩🇰
Swedish public prosecutor denied boarding of Yi Peng 3 – Sweden Herald: ‘Swedish police officers and accident investigators have, however, been allowed on board.’ 🇸🇪
Sweden criticises China for refusing full access to vessel suspected of Baltic Sea cable sabotage – FT: ‘People close to the probe said the boarding of the vessel on Thursday had shown there was little doubt it was involved in the incident.’ 🇸🇪
De aanwijzingen lijken te suggereren dat Rusland probeerde de Chinese boot over te halen tot de sabotage. Dit Chinese gedrag doet echter wel vermoeden dat Peking probeert om met minimale concessies onderzoek naar de ware toedracht probeert te frustreren.
Opinion: China’s new economic development offers fresh opportunities for China-EU cooperation – Ambassador Cai Run, Head, Chinese Mission to the European Union for Euronews: ‘China is ready to share development opportunities with Europe and the wider world.’ 🇪🇺
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s pursuit of closer ties with China has raised private questions from Donald Trump’s incoming administration, European diplomats, and even some senior British officials – Bloomberg: ‘Starmer is eager to tap the world’s second-largest economy’ 🇬🇧
Kritiek op deze en andere bezorgde berichtgeving van de afgelopen dagen over de China-plannen van de Labour-regering stelt dat men (i) teveel vertrouwt op politieke redacteuren i.p.v. buitenlandexperts, waardoor de rol van binnenlandse controverse groter wordt en dat (ii) andere Europese landen meer doen met China. Ik kan daar deels in meekomen (en gesjeesde partijbonzen als Ian Duncan Smith zijn, zacht gezegd, inhoudelijk zwak), maar het is niet alsof Scholz en Macron niet bekritiseerd worden op hun omgang met Peking en de perceptie van Londen elders is relevant gezien het feit dat het VK in zowel Washington als Brussel een vragende partij is.
UK finance minister to revive regular economic talks with China in January trip, sources says – Reuters 🇬🇧
China and [people from] Italy reiterate commitment to deeper collaboration and mutual prosperity – Xinhua: ‘during a launch ceremony of the 2024 Development Report on Chinese Enterprises in Italy.’ ‘in Milan, the capital of the Lombardy Region’ 🇮🇹
Taiwan’s economics minister Kuo Jyh-huei 郭智輝 pushes for industrial cooperation with Germany and Czechia – Focus Taiwan: ‘witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) pledging to set up industrial clusters and promote business opportunities’ 🇨🇿🇩🇪
Chinese foreign minister Wáng Yì 王毅 holds talks with Serbian counterpart – Xinhua: ‘China will continue to firmly support Serbia in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity’ 🇷🇸
Handel 🚗⚡️
Hoe Europa concurrerender kan worden zonder naar de ratsmodee te gaan – Daan van Lent en Egbert Kalse in NRC 🇪🇺
Opinie: Wil de EU vooruit, dan is nationale controle een fictie – Catherine de Vries in FD 🇪🇺
Eigen klimaatplannen? Europa wordt steeds meer een speelbal van China en de VS – Trouw 🇪🇺
Slovak battery maker InoBat raises 100 mln euros in latest funding round – Reuters: ‘backed by its Chinese partner, battery cell maker Gotion High Tech’ 🇸🇰
China’s Nio 蔚来 says new Firefly EV to go on sale in Europe in H1 2025 – Reuters 🇪🇺
Tech War 💽💥
US plans to blacklist company that ordered TSMC 台積電 chip found in Huawei 华为 processor, Sophgo 算能, source says – Reuters 🇺🇸
Trump says it could be worth keeping ByteDance 字节跳动’s TikTok in US for a little while – Reuters: ‘saying he had received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.’ 🇺🇸
Teen’s murder drives Albania to ban ByteDance 字节跳动’s TikTok for a year – POLITICO Europe 🇦🇱
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says investment, more than export controls, will keep the US ahead of China – WSJ 🇺🇸
Volgens mij was dit al een bekend verschil van inzicht tussen de departementen in de VS.
Jake Sullivan: ‘America’s competitors and adversaries are weaker’ – POLITICO 🇺🇸
Australia’s Lynas nears start of heavy rare-earth processing amid China shift – Nikkei Asia 🇦🇺
Taiwan wants to build the West’s army of drones – POLITICO Europe: ‘Next year’s Chinese export controls mark a further escalation in Beijing's fight with Washington over who controls critical technology supply chains’ ‘In 2022, the Taipei government launched a Drone National Team’
Large UAV testing facility planned in Taiwan’s Chiayi County – Taipei Times: ‘to help establish its drone supply chain with a greater share of the global market’
Onrust Taiwan 🗳️👊🏻
DPP pushed out of legislature by KMT after nightlong occupation against recall act changes – New Bloom: ‘KMT legislators were successful in breaking into the legislature shortly around 9 AM. Afterward, both parties tussled’ ‘By 10:45 AM, DPP legislators were dragged out, and the KMT had taken the speaker’s podium.’
‘Bluebird movement’ protest groups fail to access legislature – Taipei Times: ‘Smaller protests were also held in Taichung and Kaohsiung’
KMT-TPP amendments raising bar for Constitutional Court rulings clear Legislature – Focus Taiwan: ‘also included additional provisions put forth on the legislative floor only on Friday’
‘One such provision stipulates that an unconstitutional ruling by the court — which would affect existing laws — be backed by at least nine justices.’ ‘The Constitutional Court normally has 15 justices but currently only has eight because the eight-year terms of seven of the justices ended Oct. 31.’ ‘confirmation hearings were stalled until Dec. 2 by KMT and TPP lawmakers’
Legislature approves KMT amendment to tighten recall petition requirements – Focus Taiwan: ‘More controversial revisions proposed by the KMT, however, including the requirement that the number of votes in favor of ousting an elected official would have to exceed the votes the official got when originally elected for the recall to pass, were not addressed Friday.’
KMT’s controversial revenue bill passed by legislature – Taipei Times: ‘The amendments [return to] the previous 60 to 40 percent allocation ratio [of total revenue for respectively central and local governments, from the previous 75 to 25].’
Taiwan’s Cabinet to take countermeasures after contentious amendments passed – Focus Taiwan: ‘President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) also weighed in, noting that the measures would “deprive” citizens of their right to petition for a recall of elected officials, impose “unreasonable thresholds” for Constitutional Court rulings, and risk “endangering national security” by potentially forcing the government to cut back on defense spending.’
Taiwan political drama erupts over top court’s fate in last days of 2024 – Nikkei Asia: ‘In a statement condemning the changes, the Taipei Bar Association argued that “the deliberate attempt to undermine the Constitutional Court” is without a doubt “unconstitutional.”’
Kantelpunt 🌏⏱️
Donald Trump’s transition team seeks to pull US out of WHO ‘on day one’ – FT: ‘warned that if the US left the WHO, European countries were unlikely to step up funding and China might try to wield more influence.’ 🇺🇸🇺🇳
Onder Trump I trok de VS zich ook al terug uit allerlei internationale organisaties, vanwege de grote invloed van China en andere niet-Westerse landen, die daardoor alleen maar toenam.
Opnieuw opent Trump de aanval op Panama: hij dreigt kanaal ‘terug te pakken’ vanwege toenadering tot China – de Volkskrant 🇺🇸🇵🇦
Opinion: How China can hasten the break-up of the US-Japan-South Korea partnership – Cao Xin and Cao Zhong for SCMP: ‘Proactive measures can accelerate the dissolution of the US-Japan-South Korea partnership.’ 🇺🇸🇯🇵🇰🇷
De auteurs hebben een nogal simplistische voorstelling van de binnenlandse trends in Japan en Zuid-Korea, maar zijn wel een goed voorbeeld van hoe insiders in Peking de regio zien.
Trump discussed China-Taiwan situation in meeting with Abe Shinzo’s widow Abe Akie 安倍 昭恵, described calling for immediate end to war in Zelenskyy talks – The Yomiuri Shimbun: ‘It has become known that Trump handwrote the word “PEACE” in a book of photos he gave Abe as a present for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.’ 🇯🇵
‘Genuinely popular’: how Africa’s positive opinion of China goes beyond the elite – SCMP: ‘positive views of China outweighed the negative by about three to one among the nearly 300 people surveyed across sub-Saharan Africa.’
Chinese classicists battle to save Greek and Roman works from online conspiracy theories – SCMP: ‘Some noted [Chinese] nationalist intellectuals helping to amplify conspiracy theories, with some even questioning whether Aristotle and his surviving works were real.’
Overige
China buitenland en defensie
Top Democrat accuses Elon Musk of tanking US spending bill over China restrictions – The Hill: ‘DeLauro cited Tesla’s operations in China as a reason for Musk to derail a bill containing limits on investments in the country’ 🇺🇸
Chinese national charged in California after aiding local candidate, prosecutors say – The New York Times: ‘Officials say that the Chinese government is reaching into smaller local elections as a long-term investment’ 🇺🇸
Seven Chinese nationals tried to illegally enter Guam as US tested missile, authorities say – Reuters: ‘were found “in the vicinity of a military installation”. Guam has many such installations’ ‘arrived on the same boat from Saipan’ 🇺🇸
China’s foreign ministry urges US to stop illegally occupying Cuba’s territory – Xinhua: ‘close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and pull out of the base at Guantanamo as soon as possible’ 🇺🇸
Toen Peking nog met Washington samenwerkte aan het begin van de Great War on Terror, hebben de VS Chinese functionarissen naar Guantanamo Bay laten komen om daar vastzittende Oeigoeren te ondervragen.
Canadese mensenrechtenactivisten mogen China niet meer in – NRC 🇨🇦
China sanctions Canadian institutions active on Uyghurs and Tibet – CBC News: ‘the targets include Canada’s Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada-Tibet Committee’ 🇨🇦
China issues decision on countermeasures on Canadian institutions and personnel – Xinhua: ‘In accordance with Articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 15 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Countering Foreign Sanctions’ 🇨🇦
China coast guard says it ‘drove away’ Philippine aircraft over Scarborough Shoal – Reuters 🇵🇭
Cambodia to grant Japan visitation rights to China-linked Ream Naval Base – Reuters: ‘Chinese military vessels have been rotating through Ream since a Beijing-funded upgrade started in June 2022.’ 🇰🇭🇯🇵
China contemplates allowing seafood imports from Japan – Nikkei Asia: ‘having apparently concluded that water samples from the sea near the Fukushima nuclear plant are safe, Nikkei has learned.’ 🇯🇵
China and Vietnam tighten ties in a ‘3+3’ strategic pivot – SCMP: ‘diplomacy, defence and public security’ 🇻🇳
Het Chinese politieministerie heet in het Engels het Ministry of Public Security. Het is niet voor het eerst dat analisten observeren dat – waar de VS ‘externe’ veiligheid bieden d.m.v. bijv. militaire steun – Peking erg goed is in ‘interne veiligheid’, d.w.z. bijv. surveillance en politiewerk. Communistisch Vietnam heeft hier ook behoefte aan.
Toch zijn de Chinese analisten en SCMP wel karakteristiek overenthousiast over wat voor diplomatieke betekenis dit heeft – natuurlijk blijft Vietnam balanceren.
Timor-Leste and China agree to strengthen bilateral cooperation – Xinhua: ‘Timor-Leste firmly adheres to the one-China principle and believes that the South China Sea issue should be peacefully resolved by the parties concerned through bilateral negotiations.’ 🇹🇱
Timor-Leste is op weg om het elfde lid te worden van ASEAN.
China Focus: China and ASEAN boost vocational education for regional development – Xinhua
China and Pakistan wrap up nearly three weeks of counterterror drills amid concerns over attacks – SCMP 🇵🇰
17 Chinese nationals accused of running illegal gold mine in Congo – SCMP 🇨🇩
China’s advanced Z-20 helicopter model spotted on coastguard ship in ‘second navy’ boost – SCMP
China economie
China’s short-term bond yields fall below 1% for first time since 2009 – FT: ‘levels last seen during the global financial crisis’
China’s tax agency cracks down on influencers and online merchants amid shrinking revenue – SCMP
Chinese Premier Lǐ Qiáng 李强 makes new overtures to foreign firms, pledging more access and services – SCMP: ‘The commitments were part of a three-day trip that took in the cities of Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Jiaxing, and ended on Friday.’
In Depth: China arms itself with stronger law to fight money laundering – Caixin Global
Xinjiang’s foreign trade hits record 403 bln yuan [€53bn] – Xinhua
China binnenland
China’s defence minister Dǒng Jūn 董军 on first overseas trip since Beijing denied he was investigated – SCMP: ‘in Hanoi to attend that day’s celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army.’
China is investigating senior military official Miáo Huá 苗华. Will it affect the PLA? – SCMP: ‘raising concerns about the reform and battle readiness of the armed forces.’
Xí Jìnpíng 习近平’s anti-corruption campaign nets record number of ‘tigers’ in 2024 – SCMP: ‘That marks a jump of nearly 25 per cent from 2023’
China’s oil consumption to peak by 2027, says state refining giant Sinopec 中石化 – Reuters
Chinese lawmakers hear reports at NPC standing committee session – Xinhua
Migration from China’s countryside to cities to be a key factor in resource allocation – SCMP
China says its astronauts complete record-breaking spacewalk – Reuters
Hong Kong en Macao
Xinhua Headlines: Xi stresses adherence to ‘one country, two systems’ as Macao SAR celebrates silver jubilee – Xinhua: ‘The concept of “one country, two systems” was first proposed by late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s to reunify the country, initially with Taiwan in mind’
‘“Macao plus Hengqin” is becoming a new model for enriching the practice of “one country, two systems” and a new high ground for advancing the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Xi said.’
Taiwan buitenland en defensie
Taiwan has a plan for Trump’s inauguration – POLITICO National Security Daily: ‘Taiwan’s government is dispatching a large delegation to Washington for the inauguration next month, led by Taiwan’s legislative speaker and opposition KMT politician, Han Kuo-yu’ 🇺🇸
US approves US$295 million arms sales to Taiwan – Focus Taiwan: ‘upgraded tactical data link systems and gun mounts for ships’ 🇺🇸
Paraguay probing suspicious vehicle registered to Huawei 华为 seen near Taiwan envoy’s house – Focus Taiwan: ‘the reports mentioned that a man inside the vehicle not only proceeded to snap photos of Han’s residence, but he also pointed an item’ 🇵🇾🇨🇳
Young Taiwanese people less likely to support laws against Chinese ‘united front’ activity – Taipei Times: ‘Only 37.9 percent of people aged 20 to 24 believe that laws should be amended to prevent Taiwanese influencers from collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’ 🇨🇳
Chinese hackers attack Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan almost 1 million times per month – Taipei Times 🇨🇳
Taiwan binnenland en economie
Court agrees to let gagged Ko Wen-je 柯文哲 send letter to TPP resigning as chair – Focus Taiwan
Protest takes place to mark international migrants day – New Bloom