De Chinese Wouden, vrijdag 12 mei: Han Zheng in Nederland, Europees Chinabeleid in de oven
Er is zoveel te lezen, dat ik jullie maar gelijk doorstuur naar de koppen. Han Zheng in Nederland, Qin Gang in Europa, Wang Yi trof Blinken in Wenen, onrust over China binnen State, gelekt voorstel Chinabeleid van EDEO voor Stockholm dit weekend. Maak je borst maar nat.
Diplomatiek lenteoffensief 🇪🇺🇨🇳
Bezoek Chinese vicepresident Hán Zhèng 韩正 aan Nederland „onderdeel van charmeoffensief” – NOS 🇳🇱
Koning ontvangt Chinese vicepresident Hán Zhèng 韩正 op Paleis Huis ten Bosch – NU.nl 🇳🇱
D66 verbaasd over bezoek Chinese vicepresident Hán Zhèng 韩正: „Verantwoordelijk voor verschrikkingen” – BNR
France insists on China using its role for peace in Ukraine – AFP 🇫🇷
Qín Gāng 秦刚 calls for China and France to work together to ‘tackle global challenges’ – SCMP: ‘“China-EU relations should neither target, be attached to, nor be limited by a third party,” he added.’ 🇫🇷
China ready to enhance cooperation and share opportunities with France, says foreign minister – Xinhua 🇫🇷
China-Germany dialogue and cooperation to benefit world, foreign minister tells Scholz – Xinhua 🇩🇪
Begenadigd spreker die het van woordvoerder tot minister van Buitenlandse Zaken van China schopte – de Volkskrant profileert Qin Gang.
Editorial: Europe will be less confused and entangled if it listens to what China says – The Global Times: ‘Some Europeans already have deep misunderstandings and misconceptions about China, and they are further influenced by the toxic public opinion in the US and the West today’
Nederland en Europa 🇳🇱🇪🇺
💡 China will den Investmentdeal mit der EU retten – und trifft auf Widerstand – Handelsblatt: „Nach Handelsblatt-Informationen bietet Peking an, Sanktionen zurückzunehmen – in der Hoffnung, das Investitionsabkommen CAI mit Europa wiederzubeleben.“ 🇪🇺
Nog een verdere stap in de pogingen van Peking om het Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) weer nieuw leven in de blazen. Maar Von der Leyen zei al dat hij sowieso opnieuw bekeken zou moeten worden in het licht van de veranderde omstandigheden.
💡 EU moves to recalibrate China strategy with ‘clear-eyed but not confrontational’ approach – SCMP: ‘It suggested cosmetic changes to the EU’s China strategy rather than a wholesale overhaul. New emphasis is placed on hot-button issues like Ukraine and Taiwan, while economic realism has replaced the erstwhile expectation that Beijing might be willing to reform its market to suit European businesses.’ 🇪🇺
The EU needs to work with allies to reduce the risks from China’s rise as a global power, but shouldn’t be drawn into a zero-sum contest between Washington and Beijing, according to a new draft paper by the bloc’s foreign policy chief – Bloomberg 🇪🇺
Keep talking to China, European External Action Service draft document tells EU capitals – POLITICO Europe: and ‘wants member countries to “be prepared” for a potentially critical escalation in the crisis over Taiwan’ ‘speed up plans for “de-risking” and reducing overdependence on China.’ 🇪🇺
Ik heb de sensationalistische kop van POLITICO herschreven.
Germany warns EU on hitting China with Russia sanctions, according to sources – Reuters: ‘The bloc’s executive proposed blacklisting several Chinese companies and introducing a new mechanism that would open the way to a possible restriction of EU exports in the future to countries that flout sanctions. That latter part raised concern with Germany, according to the sources.’ 🇪🇺🇩🇪
Chinese commerce ministry urges EU ‘not to set bad precedent’ after reported EU plans to sanction Chinese firms for alleged cooperation with Russia – The Global Times 🇪🇺
Ambassador Fù Cōng 傅聪 says trust needed in China-EU ties – China Daily: ‘said that he is glad to hear EU leaders saying that decoupling is neither feasible nor desirable’ 🇪🇺
Habeck will China-Geschäfte deutscher Unternehmen kontrollieren – Handelsblatt 🇩🇪
Botschaftssprecher zur Anfrage bezüglich der Medienberichte über die Einführung eines “Outbound-Investment-Screening”-Instruments von Deutschland gegenüber China – Botschaft der Volksrepublik China in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: „Eine als “De-Risking” deklarierte Entsinisierung wäre in Wirklichkeit eine Abwendung von Chancen, Kooperationen, Stabilität und Entwicklung.“ 🇩🇪
Premier Giorgia Meloni wil met Italië vertrekken uit de Nieuwe Zijderoute van China – NRC 🇮🇹
Liz Truss’s plan to visit Taiwan called ‘worst kind of Instagram diplomacy’ – The Guardian 🇬🇧
VS-China 🇺🇸🇨🇳
In key meeting in Vienna, top Biden aide Jake Sullivan tells China’s top diplomat Wáng Yì 王毅 that US wants to ‘move beyond’ spy balloon – AP
Senior Chinese and US officials talk on bilateral ties – Xinhua: ‘had candid, in-depth, substantive and constructive discussions on bilateral ties’
Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with Chinese Communist Party Politburo Member and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi – The White House: ‘The two sides had candid, substantive, and constructive discussions on key issues’
💡 Why the US delayed China sanctions after shooting down a spy balloon – Reuters: ‘held back human rights-related sanctions, export controls and other sensitive actions to try to limit damage to the U.S.-China relationship’ ‘One Chinese official confirmed to Reuters that a renewed Blinken visit would be more likely if the U.S. accommodated Beijing’s wish to shelve the issue, adding that China had conveyed it did not want the FBI to release details of its investigation into the downed balloon.’
The Biden administration is trying to make it hard for China to say no to engagement by seeking a flurry of meetings and phone calls – Bloomberg: ‘also meant to appease allied nations in Asia and Europe that are anxious the US isn’t doing enough to ease tension that some fear could lead to open conflict.’
Bill Bishop zegt in dat hij in de lekken moraalproblemen en onvrede in State met de toegevelijkere houding t.o.v. China leest.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin’s Regular Press Conference on May 10, 2023 – Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China: ‘The US widely collects and uses genomic information. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon has formulated R&D plans for hitting opponents with genetically engineered weapons. Those involved disclosed that the genomic data of Asian Chinese, European Aryans and Middle Eastern Arabs are all being collected by the US military. According to the website of Russia-based RT, the US Air Education and Training Command (AETC) once issued a tender seeking to acquire samples of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and synovial fluid from Russians. It’s pretty clear who exactly is using genomic information for secret purposes.’
Reageren op een vraag over Xinjiang met idiote samenzweringstheorieën over DNA-gestuurde wapens en dat vervolgens trots op Twitter zetten…
Tech War 💽💥
Gemeente Altena doet TikTok per direct in de ban – AD 🇳🇱
G7 nations want to send a tough message on China’s economic practices but are struggling to sign off on any tangible measures, sources say – Bloomberg: ‘the US and Europe do show signs of moving closer to each other on their China policies.’
US urges ‘co-ordinated action’ by G7 against China’s use of economic coercion – FT: ‘A senior EU official involved with the drafting of the communiqué told the FT that they were confident of agreeing “joint language” regarding scrutiny of outbound investments, but not “a shared mechanism” with the US.’ 🇪🇺
‘De-Americanise’: How China is remaking its chip business – The New York Times
Kantelpunt 🌏⏱️
Vast China-Russia resources trade shifts to yuan from dollars in Ukraine fallout – Reuters
Weekend
Longreads en achtergrond
Boekrecensie: Een zeldzaam ooggetuigenverslag van de repressie in Tibet – NRC: „,De Nederlandse ambassadeur in Hongkong weigert mij te ontvangen, omdat ‘we niets mogen doen wat onze handelsbetrekkingen met China in gevaar kan brengen. Ook Maxime Verhagen komt er in haar boek niet goed vanaf”
China v America: how Xi Jinping plans to narrow the military gap – The Economist
Why China doesn’t have a property tax – The New York Times: ‘Cities rely instead on selling long-term leases to real estate developers. Revenue from these land sales has plunged in the past year.’
How China’s Echo Chamber Threatens Taiwan: Xi Jinping Has Unleashed Hawkish Forces He Can’t Control – Tong Zhao for Foreign Affairs: ‘Washington and its partners are doing themselves a disservice by assuming that China’s leadership has a coherent strategy on Taiwan, or that Xi’s thinking is the key factor in whether Beijing goes to war. Rather than focusing narrowly on the Chinese president’s current plans, they should think more broadly about the dynamics that reinforce the Chinese public and leadership’s belief that a decisive move on Taiwan may be necessary to defend China’s territorial integrity and break Western containment.’
Als je het pessimisme deelt van dit stuk, dan is – naast pogingen die destructieve feedbackloop te doorbreken – agressiever beleid om Taiwans positie op de korte termijn te versterken gerechtvaardigd. Maar dan riskeer je wel tegelijkertijd die feebackloop te voeden. Maar als het pessimisme gerechtvaardigd is en je niets doet…
Taiwan’s wind industry braves cross-Strait risks in clean energy boom – Reuters
Podcasts
Sinocism Podcast: Tu Le of Sino Auto Insights on the rise of the China vehicle industry – Sinocism 🍎🤖
De enorme verschuivingen in de autoindustrie nu China zo dominant is op het gebied van elektrische auto’s gaan grote gevolgen hebben voor de Europese industrie, Duitsland in het bijzonder.
China’s Role in Developing Country Debt Restructuring – China Global’s Bonnie S. Glaser talks to Jeremy Mark 🍎🤖
How information flows impact decision making – Pekingology interviews Tyler Jost. 🍎🤖
Overige
China buitenland en defensie
Mogelijk regeringsbezoek aan China in voorbereiding – Suriname Herald
China economie
China’s slow consumer inflation and deepening factory gate deflation to test policy – Reuters
China’s top foundry SMIC says profits halved in first quarter, with ‘no sign’ of a full market recovery yet – SCMP
Investors’ route to post-covid China is via Europe – Reuters 🇪🇺
China’s state firms pay more as public-private wage gap hits record 89% – Nikkei Asia
China binnenland
💡 Op basis van China’s nieuwe spionagewet zou je eigenlijk ‘elke burger moeten arresteren’ – NRC interviewt Jeremy Daum: „Als je ook je gemiddelde universiteitsstudent die op uitstapje gaat naar Europa vertelt over het risico dat buitenlanders staatsgeheimen van je willen, dan wordt het wel erg bont.”
China hands eight-year jail term to activist Guō Fēixióng 郭飞雄 at trial barred to diplomats – Reuters: ‘His latest detention, in 2022, came a year after he was stopped from leaving the country to visit his dying wife in the United States’
Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 visits city of Cangzhou in north China's Hebei Province – Xinhua
Voor iedereen die graag smacht naar mooie plaatjes van Xi in graanvelden.
Extinguishing a #MeToo scandal at Zhengzhou University – China Media Project
Hong Kong
Hong Kong security chief hits back at press group over suspension of newspaper comic strip – HKFP
Taiwan buitenland en defensie
KMT vice chair Sean Lien 連勝文 [Lián Shèngwén] travels to mainland China to visit ancestor’s grave – SCMP
宋涛会见中国国民党副主席连胜文 – 中国台湾网
Net als Ma Ying-jeou, die ook voor grafbezoek zei te komen, treft partij-adel maar verkiezingsverliezer Lien alsnog Taiwan Affairs Office-directeur Song Tao, in Xi'an.
2023年对台工作会议在京召开 王沪宁出席并讲话 – 新华网
Taiwan’s representative is urging the US not to abandon Ukraine – Josh Rogin for The Washington Post
Taiwan and Canada sign MOU on health – Taipei Times
Collapsing buildings, incoming missiles: Taiwan rehearses a Chinese assault on its cities – The Guardian
Taiwan to suspend free trade agreement with El Salvador – Focus Taiwan
[Chinese-nationalist Taiwanese] man indicted on 98 charges including hate crimes for 2022 shooting at Taiwanese church in California – AP
De Taiwanees-Amerikaanse kerken speelden een belangrijke rol in de onafhankelijkheids- en democratiseringsbewegingen tijdens de KMT-dictatuur op Taiwan.
Taiwan binnenland en economie
獨/談副手?談合作?郭台銘10日晚夜會柯文哲 – 聯合報
Volgens pro-KMT krant UDN trof afgelopen woensdagavond Terry Gou de voorzitter en presidentskandidaat van derde partij TPP Ko Wen-je. Volgende week wijst de KMT haar presidentskandidaat aan, waarbij het waarschijnlijk gaat tussen de oprichter van de Apple-leverancier berucht van de anti-zelfmoordnetten Foxconn Terry Gou en burgemeester van New Taipei Hou You-yi. Hou schijnt betere kansen te hebben, maar wordt als Taiwanees niet vertrouwd door de elite-Vastelanders van de KMT.
China Watcher: Taiwan presidential hopeful — Hong Kong sanctions — Belgrade memories – POLITICO Europe interviewt TPP-presidentskandidaat Ko Wen-je: ‘I am the only person in Taiwan who can end the ideological disputes over unification and independence.’ ‘Taiwan’s relationship with mainland China is similar to the past relationship between the United States and England.’
Taiwan’s Gold Card: Solution to systemic woes? – Taipei Times