De Chinese Wouden, woensdag 4 september: Chinese beïnvloeding en spionage
Vandaag hebben we een veelzeggende collectie verhalen over Chinese beïnvloeding en spionage. Samen geven ze een mooi overzicht van het spectrum waar we mee te maken hebben.
Het grootse verhaal is de aanklacht in de Verenigde Staten tegen een voormalige hoge assistent van de gouverneurs van de staat New York. Linda Sun zou veel geld gekregen hebben van China en in ruil daarvoor ontmoetingen met Taiwanezen hebben tegengehouden, teksten over Oeigoeren uit toespraken geweerd en vervalste uitnodigingsbrieven voor visa van Chinese functionarissen hebben geleverd. Dit is een goed voorbeeld van het rekruteren van onopvallende personen op invloedrijke posities naast belangrijke figuren. Deze operaties kunnen veel schade aanrichten, maar zijn lastig.
Veel succesvoller en moeilijker te bestrijden blijkt de Chinese controle over Chinese gemeenschappen in het buitenland. The Washington Post heeft een lang onderzoeksverhaal over de gewelddadigheden rondom het bezoek van Xi Jinping aan de APEC-top in San Francisco vorig jaar. Het blijk dat Chinese diplomaten ter plekke diasporagroepen met Verenigd Front-banden aanstuurden bij het mishandelen en blokkeren van demonstranten.
Meer op afstand is de digitale desinformatie. Onderzoek laat zien dat Peking zich wel degelijk mengt in de Amerikaanse presidentsverkiezingen. China kiest echter geen partij. In plaats daarvan probeert de aangetroffen operatie tweespalt en apathie te creëren door het vertrouwen van mensen te ondermijnen.
Ik heb ook een stukje toegevoegd over de Chinese herdenkingen van de Flying Tiger – de Amerikaanse piloten die de Republiek China bijstonden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Dat lijkt misschien wat vreemd, maar het past in de Verenigd Front-strategie. Herdenken is natuurlijk mooi. Maar: let op hoe ze veteranen en familieleden reisjes aanbieden en ze vervolgens citeren als ze zeggen dat China en de VS nog altijd zouden moeten samenwerking. Dit is een typisch geval van om de regering heen direct het volk aanspreken om Chinese diplomatieke belangen na te streven.
De Nieuw-Zeelandse dienst komt met een rapport waarin de meer klassieke spionage aan bod komt, hoewel ook daar de inmenging in de gemeenschap aan bod komt.
Nederland en Europa 🇳🇱🇪🇺
Nederlands kabinet wil meer bedrijfsovernames toetsen op risico’s nationale veiligheid – FD: „schrijft daarin dat het kabinet nieuwe technologieën onder bereik wil brengen van de Wet veiligheidstoets investeringen, fusies en overnames (Vifo).” 🇳🇱
In China op zoek naar de herkomst van levensgevaarlijke drug nitazenen – Nieuwsuur: „In Nederland is voor het eerst een grote hoeveelheid van de extreem sterke pijnstiller aangetroffen. Een minieme hoeveelheid van de drug kan al dodelijk zijn. In Europa duikt het middel de afgelopen jaren steeds vaker op.” 🇳🇱
De Chinese onwil om serieus werk te maken van het stoppen van de dodelijke stroom van fentanyl uit China naar de Verenigde Staten is een belangrijke stoorzender in de betrekkingen tussen Washington en Peking.
Eurocommissaris Hoekstra: „Europa heeft een Chinaprobleem” – FD: „De Eurocommissaris voor klimaatzaken sprak van een onhoudbare situatie, waartegen Brussel in actie moet komen.” 🇪🇺
Top London university urged to open up about China center funding – Nikkei Asia: ‘after the publication of a report showed that a single Hong Kong donor is funding an influential China studies institute under King’s College London’ ‘Lau China Institute’ 🇬🇧
Russia’s Putin says his young family members speak fluent Mandarin Chinese – Reuters 🇷🇺
China beïnvloeding
Former senior aide to New York governors Hochul and Cuomo is charged as Chinese agent – The New York Times: ‘The indictment outlined several instances where Ms. Sun interceded to eliminate references to Taiwan from various state communications, or quashed potential meetings between Taiwanese officials and state leaders, including Ms. Hochul.’
‘Prosecutors also accused Ms. Sun of providing unauthorized invitation letters from the governor’s office to make it easier for Chinese government officials to travel to the United States and meet with state officials in New York.’ 🇺🇸
Former aide to 2 New York governors is charged with being an agent of the Chinese government – AP: ‘After Chinese officials requested a Lunar New Year video from the governor, Sun said Hochul could probably do it and asked for “talking points of things you want her to mention.”’ ‘the speechwriter insisted on mentioning the “Uyghur situation” in China. She promised that she wouldn’t let that happen’ 🇺🇸
Former High-Ranking New York State Government Employee Charged with Acting as an Undisclosed Agent of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party – United States Attorney’s Office EDNY 🇺🇸
How China extended its repression into an American city – The Washington Post: ‘Chinese diplomats and pro-China diaspora groups based in the United States organized demonstrations in San Francisco that harassed and silenced protesters opposed to Beijing’s policies, including through violence, during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the city in November, a six-month investigation by The Washington Post shows.’
‘Videos show at least four Chinese diplomats from the consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco among the crowd of pro-CCP protesters, sometimes directly interacting with aggressive actors over four days of protests from Nov. 14-17. Some Chinese diaspora group leaders with ties to the Chinese state participated in some of the violence, the videos show.’ 🇺🇸
Het blijft raar dat met zoveel videobewijs de politie in San Francisco nog altijd niemand heeft gearresteerd. Hoe lang gaat het FBI-onderzoek nog duren?
US voters targeted by Chinese influence online, researchers say – Reuters: ‘denigrating U.S. politicians and pushing divisive messages ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election’ 🇺🇸
China unveils list of 2,590 American anti-Japanese aviation martyrs during WWII – Xinhua: ‘So far, approximately 500 Flying Tigers veterans and hundreds of their family members have visited China, promoting the spirit and fostering an enduring friendship between the Chinese and American people.’ 🇺🇸
New Zealand spy report calls out China for interference – AFP: ‘In particular, Beijing was accused of using front organisations to connect with local groups to replace authentic and diverse community views with those approved by the ruling party.’ 🇳🇿
Hacking Minds and Machines: Foreign interference in the digital era – EUISS 🇪🇺
Handel 🚗🇪🇺
Windsector vreest ‘oneerlijke concurrentie’ uit China – FD 🇪🇺
Volkswagen turns on Germany as China targets Europe’s EV blunders – Bloomberg: ‘Volkswagen AG is considering factory closures in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history’ 🇩🇪🇧🇪🇪🇺
German firms buck R&D trend in China, seek ecosystem partners to gain edge – SCMP: ‘a trend towards localising R&D and enhancing product competitiveness in a push to expand customer bases’ 🇩🇪
Don’t expect Britain to copy EU and American tariffs on Chinese cars – POLITICO Europe 🇬🇧
China to launch anti-dumping probe into Canadian canola exports – FT: ‘hit out at Ottawa’s decision last week to raise tariffs on Chinese steel and electric vehicles.’ 🇨🇦
Chinese electric carmaker BYD 比亚迪 denies pause on Mexico plant plans – Reuters 🇲🇽
Chinese investment in Brazil’s EV and electricity sector soars, says report – SCMP 🇧🇷
Chinese steel exports to reach eight-year high – FT: ‘A fall in domestic demand in China, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of global steel production, has led producers to export more material’
Tech War 💽🇺🇸
Turkey is working toward teaming up with China to process a deposit of rare earth elements – Bloomberg 🇹🇷
China has threatened retaliation if Japan aligns with US-led curbs and further restricts chip sales to the country – Bloomberg: ‘in recent meetings with their Japanese counterparts’ 🇯🇵
Huawei 华为’s buggy software hampers China’s efforts to replace Nvidia in AI – FT: ‘multiple industry insiders, including an AI engineer at a partner company, said the chips still lagged far behind Nvidia’s for the initial training of models.’
China buys more chip tools than South Korea, Taiwan, and US combined – Nikkei Asia: ‘China is also expected to be the biggest investor in constructing new chip factories’
Op een gegeven moment zal ook in de halfgeleiderindustrie druk ontstaan op Brussel om een onderzoek naar Chinese staatssteun in te stellen – net als bij de elektrische auto’s en scanners.
Global supply chains can’t skirt China rare earths crackdown – FT Lex: ‘The export restrictions have yet to go into effect. But antimony prices have already hit a record high.’
Taiwan top chipmakers plan to localise neon gas supply by 2025 – Nikkei Asia
Taiwanese firms form tech silicon photonics alliance – Focus Taiwan
TSMC 台積電 aims to ready next-gen silicon photonics for AI in 5 years – Nikkei Asia
Ex-TSMC chairman Mark Liu 劉德音 warns of ‘pro-China’, ‘pro-US’ labels in policy debates – Focus Taiwan
Kantelpunt 🌏⏱️
How China’s coastguard is ‘trying to occupy the ocean’ – FT: ‘Traditionally, the job of protecting sovereign rights against foreign infringement falls mainly to navies, while coastguards’ core task is law enforcement within clearly defined legal boundaries. But since China put its coastguard under military command in 2018, it has merged these duties. Beijing’s expansive and vague maritime claims make the coastguard’s role even more ambiguous.’
‘China also ignores immunity for government and military vessels under international law.’
Europe must rely less on Chinese technology, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen says – FT: ‘show it has learned its lessons about relying too much on a single supplier, as it did previously with Russian oil and gas’ 🇩🇰🇪🇺
Turkije is klaar met EU-kritiek en wil meer samenwerken met Rusland en China – Trouw 🇹🇷
Turkije wacht niet meer op EU-lidmaatschap, wil aansluiting BRICS – BNR 🇹🇷
Turkey has formally asked to join the BRICS group of emerging-market nations – Bloomberg: ‘The view of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration is that the geopolitical center of gravity is shifting away from developed economies, according to the people’ 🇹🇷
African leaders look to China for project funds and trade deals at Beijing summit – SCMP: ‘host Beijing is likely to use the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit to seek African support and strengthen ties amid its growing geopolitical rivalry with the United States and Europe’
On eve of FOCAC summit, China urges closer Africa ties to counter ‘surging hegemonism’ – SCMP: ‘On the same day, China and South Africa urged greater representation of developing countries in the UN Security Council’
Angola weighs rival China and European financing bids to transform economy – Reuters 🇦🇴
Overige
China buitenland en defensie
‘Dark’ tanker crash exposes dangers of China’s thirst for cheap sanctioned oil – The Washington Post: ‘To bypass Western financial systems and shipping services, China relies on a fleet of aging, substandard tankers that operate illicitly and increasingly threaten the safety of international sea lanes, analysts say.’
Chinese shipyards face quality control concerns over LNG vessels – FT: ‘The trend highlights shipowners’ growing dependence on Chinese shipyards, despite their limited experience in building LNG vessels.’
China warns Malaysia to immediately cease activities in oil-rich waters off Sarawak, says report – MalaysiaNow: ‘despite softer diplomatic tones from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in an attempt to soothe its giant neighbour’ 🇲🇾
Why the loyalty check?: Chinese-Filipinos fear prejudice fuelled by Alice Guo case, South China Sea row – The Straits Times 🇵🇭
China insists survey ship’s passage close to Japanese island was ‘completely legal’ – SCMP: ‘Tokyo has lodged a protest over the incident in the Tokara Strait, which happened days after a Chinese military jet entered its airspace’ 🇯🇵
Concerns raised over Australians doing research on ethnic minorities in China – The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘This masthead can also reveal another Australian team worked on ways of measuring ethnic identity at a boarding school program for Uyghurs.’ 🇦🇺
China’s PLA found ‘shooting at drone swarms challenging’ in recent air defence drills – SCMP
China economie
China home presales sink to 18-year low amid unfinished properties – Nikkei Asia
China’s regulators move to ‘eliminate’ money worship, undesirable trends in financial sector – SCMP: ‘2024 financial education promotion month’
Chinese tycoons are using stock to borrow from private lenders as bank liquidity dries up – SCMP
Chinese state shipbuilders plan merger with eye on ‘strong military’ – Nikkei Asia: ‘The two companies ultimately belong to the same state-owned conglomerate, China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC).’
China binnenland
China sluit kritische kunstenaar op om spotkunst over Mao – RTL Nieuws
Artist known for work critiquing Cultural Revolution arrested in China – The Guardian: ‘the Sanhe public security bureau told Gao Zhen’s wife the next day that her husband was suspected of slandering China’s heroes and martyrs’
‘The works predate the law against insulting heroes and martyrs’
Ramp na ramp in China, bewoners voelen zich machteloos – AD
Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 2018 speech was call to action against hostile foreign forces ‘westernising’ Chinese youth – SCMP: ‘releasing excerpts of a speech Chinese President Xi Jinping made six years ago.’
‘“Today’s young people have lived in peace for too long, they have not experienced the pain of a nation struggling between life and death, have not been tested through blood and fire, and have not taken part in difficult battles,” he said. “If we do not guide them and educate them, it is difficult for them to hold the correct ideals and they might even go astray.”’
Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 navigates tensions with Dèng Xiǎopíng 邓小平’s legacy over centralising political power – The Straits Times: ‘a major speech on Deng’s life and contributions to China and the CPC at a symposium to commemorate the late patriarch’s 120th birth anniversary’
August 2024: Bills Shelved, Legislative Session Delayed –
: ‘Last month was the first August in 40 years in which the NPCSC did not meet1—its regular August session has been postponed to next week (September 10–13).’How China’s internet police went from targeting bloggers to their followers – The Guardian
Beijing’s security ministry says Chinese jailed for delivering railway data to foreigners – SCMP
China school bus crashes into crowd, kills 11 including students – AFP
China’s Xinjiang vows to increase support for firms under US ‘forced labour’ sanctions – SCMP
Hong Kong
A ‘patriotic education’: Hong Kong schools begin rollout of Xi Jinping Thought – The Guardian: ‘The teachings on the ideology of China’s leader are encased in a new subject now mandatory for secondary students, Citizenship, Economics and Society, first announced in 2022.’
1 in 4 Hong Kong secondary school students suffer from moderate to severe depression, NGO finds – HKFP
Taiwan buitenland en defensie
Pacific Islands Forum says administrative error to blame for Taiwan reference in communique that angered China – ABC News: ‘the secretariat took down the communique because it was not the final version of the document which leaders had agreed on.’
If China wants Taiwan it should also take back land from Russia, President Lai says – Reuters: ‘Lai said that what China really wants to do with its designs on Taiwan is to change the rules-based international order.’ 🇨🇳
China resumes pomelo imports from Taiwan, with caveats – Taipei Times: ‘“The statement from the TAO, which specifically mentioned Fu [Kun-chi] and Hualien, shows that Beijing wants to highlight the KMT’s role in boosting cross-strait relations. […]”’ 🇨🇳
Hundreds of Taiwanese ‘disappear’ in China over past 10 years – RFA: ‘Figures compiled by the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and several other non-government groups showed that 857 Taiwan nationals have been “forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily arrested” in China’ 🇨🇳
KMT ex-officer Tsang You-hsia 臧幼俠 under fire for China visit – Taipei Times: ‘might have broken the law when they allegedly stood for and sang the Chinese national anthem’ 🇨🇳
Taiwan’s foreign ministry to focus on clarifying UNGA Resolution 2758 – Taipei Times
DPP Secretary-General Lin Yu-chang 林右昌 addresses overseas Taiwanese group in New York – Focus Taiwan 🇺🇸
Taiwan signs drone development MOU with Arizona – Focus Taiwan 🇺🇸
Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim 蕭美琴 (DPP) urges public-private partnership at Legislature’s All-Out Defence Committee launch – Focus Taiwan
Military staff reductions worrisome: researcher – Taipei Times
Taiwan binnenland en economie
Donovan’s Deep Dives: ‘Day Zero’ ‘secret’ meeting and phantom taxis – Courtney Donovan Smith for Taipei Times: ‘It is truly staggering that every single day for weeks has been chockablock with disastrously bad news for Ko and the TPP.’
De TPP wil nu het budget bevriezen van de Control Yuan, die momenteel de campagne-uitgaven aan het onderzoeken is. De partij heeft pech dat het niet de steun van een heel kamp achter zich heeft – zowel de media uit het groene kamp van de DPP als die uit het blauwe kamp van de KMT vermaken zich met de rotzooi waarin de bezwetende Ko zich nu bevindt.
DPP, KMT, and TPP outline priorities for upcoming legislative session – Focus Taiwan