De Chinese Wouden, vrijdag 15 maart: Twee Zittingen, TikTok
Afgelopen week was ik niet helemaal fit terwijl ik genoeg te doen had, dus ik moest een nieuwsbrief overslaan. Excuses!
Nederland en Europa 🇳🇱🇪🇺
Advocacy Lab Content: Belt and Road cooperation: A smart ‘de-risking’ option for Europe – Ambassador Fu Cong for Euractiv (Supporters: Mission of Chinese to the European Union): ‘Contrary to recent claims by some Western media that the Red Sea crisis is fundamentally detrimental to the BRI’s goal of Asia-Europe connectivity, the China-Europe Railway Express has proved its unique role and shown that Belt and Road cooperation is both necessary and forward-looking.’ 🇪🇺
Hoeveel van het door ambassadeur Fu geprezen volume van de ‘China-Europe Railway Express’ gaat naar Rusland?
EU snubs dying solar manufacturers as China poised to swallow market – POLITICO Europe 🇪🇺
US solar manufacturers in ‘dire situation’ as imports soar – FT 🇺🇸
AliExpress 全球速卖通 targeted in EU probe over possibly illegal online products – Reuters
Commission opens formal proceedings against AliExpress 全球速卖通 under the Digital Services Act – European Commission 🇪🇺
Top Ukraine official Andriy Yermak speaks with China’s ambassador about peace summit plans – SCMP 🇺🇦
Lai urges US to ensure regional security – Taipei Times: ‘Czech Governmental Envoy for the Reconstruction of Ukraine Tomáš Kopečný is to visit Taiwan next week to discuss joint efforts in aiding Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.’ 🇨🇿🇺🇦
Hongarije laat Chinese politiepatrouilles toe en zet daarmee achterdeur naar Europa open – VRT NWS 🇭🇺
Hongarije zet de deur open voor Chinese politiepatrouilles in de straten van een EU-land – Trouw 🇭🇺
‘Thank you @jpaternotte for underscoring the importance of supporting Taiwan🇹🇼!’ – Taiwan in NL, Twitter 🇳🇱
Montenegrin daily rejects Chinese embassy demand to take down interview with Taiwanese representative – Taipei Times 🇲🇪
Twee Zittingen 两会
Het Volkscongres in Beijing kent geen verrassingen: „Wat president Xi Jinping wil, is de leidraad” – de Volkskrant
China releases full text of NPC Standing Committee work report – Xinhua
Xinhua Headlines-Profile: Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 the reformer – Xinhua: ‘Xi is regarded as another outstanding reformer in the country after Deng Xiaoping.’
China’s parliament wraps with a dominant Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 and new push for tech supremacy – The Straits Times
China’s choreographed political meet carries message of control – Reuters
China NPC takeaways: Five ‘no’s’ from the legislative ‘Two Sessions’ – Nikkei Asia
Xi Jinping didn’t speak at China’s Two Sessions, but it’s clear who is in charge – The Guardian
China may be facing too many economic obstacles to hit its ambitious growth target for 2024 – The Guardian
TikTok 📱👶🏻
TikTok sell or ban bill passes US House despite Trump opposition – Nikkei Asia: ‘If the Senate passes the bill after review, it then goes to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law. Biden has vowed to sign the bill if it passes.’
China urges US to stop suppression of TikTok – Xinhua
‘Freedom of Speech’ in the United States: Truth and Facts – Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China: ‘US government has been cracking down on TikTok.’
Former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is putting together an investor group to buy TikTok – CNBC: ‘Mnuchin served as Treasury secretary under former President Donald Trump. That administration also took an antagonistic stance toward TikTok, which ultimately resulted in ByteDance striking a data partnership with Oracle.’
TikTok’s security threats go beyond the scope of House legislation – The New York Times: ‘the security threat posed by TikTok has far less to do with who owns it than it does with who writes the code and algorithms that make TikTok tick.’
Time for TikTok to cut its ties to China – The Economist: ‘TikTok admits that it once blocked videos on subjects like the Tiananmen Square massacre, but insists things are different now.’ ‘A drip of scandals, such as ByteDance’s admission that its employees snooped on American journalists’ TikTok habits, has hardly helped.’
The Chinese government is using [accounts on] TikTok to meddle in elections, ODNI says – POLITICO: ‘Other social media companies, including Meta, have also reported that foreign adversaries like China are using their platforms for influence campaigns.’
International Security and Estonia 2024 – Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service: ‘Essentially, using TikTok means assisting a company with ties to an authoritarian state, which aims to reshape Western security architecture, in developing artificial intelligence.’
TikTok ban bill spotlights open secret: app loses money – The Information
Executives of TikTok thought they had fended off attacks. Behind the scenes, lawmakers and Biden officials were working to force its ban or sale – WSJ
US senator urges Microsoft to pull censored search engine Bing out of China – Bloomberg
Tech War 💽💥
Waarom Duitsland geen auto-oorlog wil met China – De Standaard 🇩🇪
Mercedes-Benz boss urges Brussels to cut tariffs on Chinese EVs – FT 🇩🇪
Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony plans to set up regional R&D center in Luxembourg – CnEVPost 🇱🇺
SAIC 上汽’s MG to open second Europe parts centre by the summer – Reuters 🇫🇷
Chinese premier stresses deep integration of sci-tech and industrial innovation – Xinhua: ‘inspection at an operation center of the city's high-level autopilot demonstration zone’
Zombie car factories on the rise in China as buyers opt for EVs – FT
Malaysia: the surprise winner from US-China chip wars – FT 🇲🇾
Kantelpunt 🌏⏱️
Xinhua Commentary: What drives the growth of China’s soft power – Xinhua
US says to open Vanuatu embassy ‘imminently’, warns of China deals – Reuters 🇻🇺
Weekend 🏖️📚
Achtergrond en longreads
Dutch collaboration with PhD students sponsored by the China Scholarship Council – Ingrid d’Hooghe and Xiaoxue Martin for Clingendael 🇳🇱
Xinjiang authorities are retroactively applying laws to prosecute religious leaders as criminals – Darren Byler for ChinaFile and Foreign Policy
Taiwan in Time: Did a US captain’s wife become a Dutch princess worshipped at Wanyinggong Temple? – Taipei Times 🇳🇱
Taking stock of Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文’s Taiwan transitional justice efforts – Courtney Donovan Smith
Lai Chinge-te 賴清德 will do little to advance Taiwan’s transitional justice – Courtney Donovan Smith
Podcasts
TikTok Ban: Is Congress for real? – China Talk 🍎 🤖
Overige
China buitenland en defensie
Exclusive: Trump launched CIA covert influence operation against China – Reuters: ‘a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government’ 🇺🇸
China, Russia, and Iran hold 5-day military exercise near Gulf of Oman as Red Sea attacks rise – SCMP 🇷🇺🇮🇷
China’s defence ministry says it held eight military staff dialogue with NATO – Reuters: ‘The last round, opens new tab of such talks was in February last year at NATO headquarters in Brussels.’
‘Watch yourself’, Beijing warns South Korea after remarks on South China Sea clashes – SCMP: ‘Seoul was “deeply concerned about the dangerous situation” and “use of water cannons against the Philippine vessels in the South China Sea”.’ 🇰🇷
Philippines says China’s maritime-related proposals run contrary to its interests – Reuters 🇵🇭
Another Chinese research vessel spotted off India, fuelling unease – Reuters 🇮🇳
Singapore steps up scrutiny of China wealth after money laundering case – Nikkei Asia: ‘“With an upcoming election, the priority of Singapore is not to take in more family offices but to address the wealth gap following a huge inflow of money that pushed up real estate prices,” a private banker said.’ 🇸🇬
China has released an interim proposal to lift the punitive tariffs imposed on Australian wine – Bloomberg 🇦🇺
China’s top diplomat Wáng Yì 王毅 to visit Australia and New Zealand, says foreign ministry – Reuter 🇦🇺🇳🇿
Why have thousands of Chinese workers left Africa over the past decade? – SCMP: ‘the number of Chinese workers in Africa has dropped significantly, mainly as a result of funding for infrastructure projects drying up’
China goes big on Laos power projects, boosting Southeast Asian sway – Nikkei Asia 🇱🇦
Een groot probleem voor de andere landen aan de Mekong.
US steel unions urge Joe Biden to open probe into Chinese shipbuilding – FT 🇺🇸
India slams China’s objection to Modi's Arunachal Pradesh visit – Nikkei Aisa 🇮🇳
China economie
Consumer prices in China rise for first time in 6 months, bucking deflation trend – AFP: ‘the consumer price index rose 0.7 percent last month, according to Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)’
China unveils plan on equipment renewal and trading-in of consumer goods – Xinhua
China’s treatment of local debt ‘ulcer’ threatens growth target – FT: ‘analysts say the austerity drive may make it even more difficult to achieve the ambitious 5 per cent target for annual growth’
Maar aanpakken overmatige investeringen in infrastructuur is belangrijke structurele verbetering.
China commercial property woes trigger surge in distressed sales – Nikkei Asia
China’s Country Garden 碧桂园 misses yuan bond payment in latest setback – Nikkei Asia
Chinese regulators ask large banks to step up support for Vanke 万科 – Reuters
China binnenland
Chinese Premier Lǐ Qiáng 李强 to skip meeting with global CEOs at key business summit China Development Forum – Reuters: ‘traditionally serves as an opportunity for global CEOs and Chinese policymakers to meet and discuss foreign investment.’
‘The decision follows a surprise move last week to scrap the premier's news conference at the end of the annual session of parliament’
Chinese state media body condemns police harassment of state media reporters at site of deadly blast – The Guardian
Chinese overheid zit in haar maag met doorgeslagen nationalistische bloggers – de Volkskrant
China’s nationalists put water firm Nongfu Spring 农夫山泉 under fire, dousing private sector’s flickering confidence – SCMP
Mò Yán 莫言, China’s only nobel-winning author, targeted in patriotic lawsuit – The Diplomat
China’s military disqualifies procurement company for ‘serious risks’ of leaked secrets – SCMP
China’s police pledge to build ‘new quality combat capacity’ with tech aimed at preventing risks – SCMP
Hong Kong
Limiting national security detainees’ access to lawyers would depend on police investigations, Hong Kong official says – HKFP
Article 23: Hong Kong seeks to tighten ‘absconder’ measures, and empower leader to draft new laws – HKFP
Taiwan buitenland en defensie
Taiwan’s vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim 蕭美琴 (DPP) on ‘personal trip’ to US; China objects – Reuters: ‘A Taiwanese official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters Hsiao arrived in the United States this week and will spend the next few days there on a low-profile “personal trip” that includes packing up her personal belongings.’ 🇺🇸
KMT vice chair Andrew Hsia 夏立言 departs for week-long China visit – Focus Taiwan: ‘a week-long, four-city trip to China, where he will meet Taiwanese business people there and wish them a happy new year.’ 🇨🇳
DPP slams KMT vice chair Andrew Hsia 夏立言’s China visit – Taipei Times
China trying to ‘normalise’ military drills near Taiwan, says island’s top security official – Reuters: ‘told parliament on Monday that China runs “joint combat readiness patrols” near the democratic island every 7-10 days on average’ 🇨🇳
No risk of war before new Taiwan president Lai Ching-te 賴清德 (DPP) takes office but Beijing to keep up coercion drive, island’s [security] chief says – SCMP 🇨🇳
US’ China policy likely to continue whoever wins presidency, says NSB director-general Tsai Ming-yen 蔡明彥 – Focus Taiwan 🇺🇸
Taiwan and China launch rescue bid after boat capsizes near sensitive islands – Reuters: ‘Coast guard chief Chou Mei-wu told a parliamentary committee the boats were sent after Chinese authorities sought help, adding that such requests were common, with 119 people rescued in such efforts over the past three years or so.’
Taiwan has ‘absolute air superiority’ over China in own airspace, says deputy defence minister Po Horng-huei 柏鴻輝 – Focus Taiwan: ‘a previously leaked Pentagon document questioned such an assertion.’ 🇨🇳
Presence of US Army Special Forces on outlying islands confirmed – Focus Taiwan: ‘said their presence was part of an exchange and was meant to be a “learning opportunity” for Taiwan’s armed forces.’ 🇺🇸
Biden White House seeks US$100 million to boost Taiwan’s cross-Strait deterrence – SCMP 🇺🇸
Ocean Affairs Council minister apologises for coast guard evidence collection lapse in Kinmen boat deaths – Focus Taiwan
Taiwan’s Haiti embassy has no immediate plan to evacuate nationals, foreign ministry says – Focus Taiwan 🇭🇹
Japanese lawmakers call for closer Taiwan ties – Taipei Times 🇯🇵
Taiwan binnenland en economie
No plans for absentee voting for elections in Taiwan, premier says – Focus Taiwan
Supreme Court overturns Bunun man’s illegal hunting convictions – Focus Taiwan
Committee passes resolution to probe Mirror News license – Taipei Times
Taiwan’s tainted chili powder problem in detail – Focus Taiwan
應選29席 參選僅27人 國民黨改選中常委「人人有獎」 – 自由時報
獲賴支持朝野對話!與柯文哲共吃牛肉麵 蔡英文:盼與朱立倫會面 – 自由時報
蔡邀朱見面 國民黨:善意來得太晚也太遲 – 自由時報