China Played Trump Like a Chump (Again)

Convicted felon Donald Trump has been trying to claim victory in his ongoing trade tantrum with China, but look past the bravado and it’s clear that Chinese Premier Xi Jinping played the president—again. Even worse, it looks like Trump just surrendered some of the United States’ most advanced technology to our largest adversary for a literal hill of beans.

Trump’s new Chinese trade deal would see the U.S. selling its most advanced Blackwell artificial intelligence chips to China in exchange for a Chinese commitment to resume the country’s purchases of American soybeans, which ground to a halt during the latest trade unrest. Cybersecurity experts and U.S. business leaders now warn that giving China easy access to AI technology will make it even harder for American companies to compete in global markets while making it easier for Chinese operatives to compromise national security.  “The defining fight of the 21st century will be who controls artificial intelligence,” Delaware Sen. Chris Coons told CNN. “It would be a tragic mistake for President Trump, in order to get some soybean orders out of China, to sell them these critical cutting-edge AI chips.” 

Trump’s short-sighted soybean deal is just the most visible part of a trade deal that appears to benefit China on nearly every front. As The New York Times notes, Xi’s scheme to block American access to Chinese rare earth metals worked perfectly, bringing U.S. negotiators to the table without China actually needing to offer anything new. Xi’s team effectively offered Trump the chance to return to a deal the two nations already had in place, while American negotiators offered up a host of new concessions that will allow Xi to expand China’s growing tech dominance.

In addition to giving China access to the world’s most advanced AI chips, Trump also announced he would cut his more recent 20% tariff on Chinese goods by half, while also agreeing to remove export limits on key Chinese products. Those penalties were put in place earlier this year in an effort to stop the flow of fentanyl from Chinese ports, a fight Trump is now abandoning after only a few short months. It was a stinging defeat for a president who absolutely hates losing. 

The changing power dynamic was visible in Trump’s new and weaker language about Chinese fentanyl. Just months after threatening to shut down all trade with China unless they immediately halted the flow of fentanyl, Trump now seemed to acknowledge that it was China—not the United States—setting the terms of the negotiation.  “I believe that they’re going to help us with the fentanyl situation,” Trump told reporters. “They’re going to be doing what they can do.”

Trump’s sudden backtracking on everything from technology security to drug trafficking stunned Jeremy Mark, a nonresident senior fellow at the nonpartisan Atlantic Council.   “However the White House chooses to portray the agreement in the coming weeks, there is no avoiding the fact that Beijing has tremendous advantages in the ongoing negotiations,” Mark recently wrote.

So why did Trump fold so quickly on an issue as important to American national security as controlling the flow of highly advanced AI technology to foreign powers? One word: Nvidia. 

Watch Out-- China is Kicking Butt in Robotics

In recent weeks, many in the U.S. have been wondering if this century will be China’s. Podcaster Derek Thompson put it well: “Some people are still stuck in a mode of thinking about China as being a place that just makes things of little value and significance. But 'Made in China' means something different now."

China builds more than any other country; it produces 20 times more cement and 13 times more steel than the United States. The Asian giant is leading in key technologies for the future: it manufactures 66% of the world’s electric vehicles, 75% of batteries, and 90% of solar panels. And it is at the forefront of robotics.

New installations of industrial robots in 2022 (thousands) Source: International Federation of Robotics

 

In 2012, China installed around 25,000 industrial robots per year, on par with Germany, Japan, and the United States. What about 10 years later? Now China installs 10 times more robots than any of those countries individually. The leap is spectacular. 

China Cracking Down on Halloween in Shanghai

A heavy police response has stifled Halloween celebrations in Shanghai, in what many have viewed as an attempt by authorities to crack down on freedom of expression.  Witnesses have said they saw police dispersing crowds of costumed revellers on the streets of Shanghai, while photos of apparent arrests have spread on social media.

While there has been no official notice prohibiting Halloween celebrations, rumors of a possible crackdown began circulating online earlier this month.  Earlier this month, some business owners who run coffeeshops, bookshops and bars in Shanghai received government notices discouraging Halloween events.  It comes a year after Halloween revellers in Shanghai went viral for donning costumes poking fun at the Chinese government and its policies. Pictures from last year's Halloween event showed people dressing up as a giant surveillance camera, Covid testers, and a censored Weibo post.

This year, footage posted to social media showed people dressed in seemingly uncontroversial costumes, including those of comic book characters such as Batman and Deadpool, being escorted into the back of police vans. Some party-goers said online they were forced to remove make-up.  But it remains unclear what types of costumes police were targeting, as many other revellers were left alone.

Over the weekend, police were seen dispersing revellers from the city's Zhongshan Park.  A Shanghai resident said the number of police officers taking down the details of people dressed in costumes appeared to exceed the number of revellers themselves.  "Shanghai is not supposed to be like this," the person said. "It has always been very tolerant."

 

Chinese Drug Cheating Poses a Threat to Paris Olympics

Chinese drug cheats and officials willing to turn a blind eye threaten to make the Paris 2024 Olympics a “train wreck,” the top U.S. anti-doping regulator said. Travis Tygart’s remarks cast another shadow over Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s ongoing visit to France where he is meeting President Emmanuel Macron, less than three months before the Olympics begin.

Last month, The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD published a bombshell investigation revealing 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for prohibited drugs before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but were still permitted to take part in the Games, with several winning medals.  The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the global drugs regulator for sport, accepted an explanation from Beijing’s domestic watchdog, CHINADA, pinning the swimmers’ failed tests on a contaminated hotel kitchen where the banned drug trimetazidine, known as TMZ, was present.

Clean athletes and top figures fighting for drug-free sport are incensed at the revelations about the Chinese athletes at the Tokyo Games. Few more so than Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency.   “Because of the cover-up that happened by China, and WADA allowing it, now that it’s come to light it’s going to be a train wreck waiting to happen going into Paris,” Tygart said during an exclusive interview with POLITICO.

 

If Being in Debt in China Isn't Bad Enough, the Government Kicks You While You're Down

Qin Huangsheng once imagined a better life in the city when she left her home village to become a factory worker at age 16.  Now, in her early 40s, she has $40,000 in personal debt and a base salary of $400 a month. Debt collectors are hounding her. She is blocked from buying tickets on China's high-speed rail, just one of the penalties the government is increasingly imposing on people who don't pay their bills.

People across China are being weighed down by their debts and a system that penalizes them for not paying the money back. Beijing is cracking down on delinquent debtors by seizing their salaries or restricting them from getting government jobs, as well as curbing their access to high-speed trains and air travel. Many are forbidden from buying expensive insurance policies and told they aren't allowed to go on vacation or stay in nice hotels. Authorities can detain them if they don't comply.

The number of people on a publicly available government delinquency blacklist has jumped by nearly 50% since late 2019 to 8.3 million today. Courts can put people on the blacklist when they don't fulfill judgments against them to pay money back or are deemed to be not cooperating with legal proceedings.

 

A black market has emerged to serve people on the blacklist. In one case, Shanghai authorities busted a ring of scalpers who were booking high-speed rail tickets on behalf of debtors who were barred from doing so themselves. In early 2021, authorities tracked down a debtor who had been using the service and took him into custody, according to a local court.

 

China's Xi at War With His Military

China's President Xi is "trying to gain control of the military, and I think that he is thinking that he needs officers who are prepared to actually fight," said Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of "China Is Going to War."   "There is a sense that many of China's general officers don't want to fight," according to Chang. "And so we really have a force led by an officer corps that is ambivalent about going to war."

Since taking power in 2012, Xi has overhauled China's military by cutting deep into its personnel, seeking to improve military-civilian cooperation, and reshaping its structure, among other reforms.  His efforts reached a crescendo on December 29, 2023, when Xi dismissed nine senior officers in one stroke.

Since then, reports and US intelligence have suggested the decisions were to root out corruption — a motive often cited when Chinese officials are abruptly dismissed.  However, to Chang, this theory misses the point.  "Because if that were the case, all of them would be sacked," he said.

For him, Xi is likely purging officers who are reluctant to go to war.  He cited Chinese Air Force General Liu Yazhou, who cautioned against an invasion of Taiwan and received a suspended death sentence in February 2022, per the AsiaNews agency.  BI also spoke to Joel Wuthnow, a senior research fellow in the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the National Defense University in Washington, DC.  He argued that rooting out corruption and readying China for war were aligned goals.

China has been engaged in low-level hostilities with many of its near neighbors.  There is India in the disputed Himalayas, Japan in the East China Sea, the Philippines in the South China Sea, and Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.   China's incursions in Taiwan's air-defense zone over the last five years have prompted some US Navy and Air Force officials and military observers to predict that China would invade Taiwan in the next few years.

Xi has also been ramping up war-like rhetoric.  In his New Year's address, Xi said China "will surely be reunified, and all Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," according to the official translation of his speech.  Xi drove the message home in a recent face-to-face meeting with Biden, NBC News reported. The network said Xi told Biden at the APEC summit in San Francisco in November 2023 that China intended to take control of Taiwan.  It continued previous interactions on those lines — in November 2021, Xi warned Biden that his administration was "playing with fire" and urged Biden not to encourage Taiwanese independence, calling it "dangerous."

 

So That's Why It Tastes Like Piss

Chinese authorities are investigating after a viral video appeared to show a worker from Tsingtao urinating into a tank, believed to contain ingredients for its popular beer. The clip has received tens of millions of views on social media.

The company said it alerted police immediately after the video came to its attention, adding that the batch of ingredients had been sealed. Tsingtao is one of China's top beer producers and its biggest exporter.

In the clip, a worker, dressed in uniform with a helmet on, can be seen climbing over a high wall and into the container before urinating inside it. The location tag of the clip reads "Tsingtao beer No.3 factory."

Business outlet "National Business Daily" later cited an internal source as saying both the person who took the video and the person appearing in it were not direct employees of the company.  In a statement published on Friday, the bureau of market supervision and administration of Pingdu City, where the factory is located, said they immediately set up a team and conducted an on-site investigation.

Chinese social media has been shocked by the clip, as the brand is hugely well-known both at home and abroad.  "A piss that will ruin a lot of money, this worker has done some real damage here," a top-liked comment on X-like platform Weibo reads. "Good thing I don't drink beer - but it's unimaginable if this brand is finished because of this," one user said.   "Is this the first time though?" another comment reads.

 

China Censors Still Freaking Out Over Tiananmen Square

A photo of two Chinese female athletes that made an inadvertent reference to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has been censored on Chinese social media.  The race numbers for Lin Yuwei and Wu Yanni form '64' - a common allusion to the incident which happened on June 4.

Discussions of the incident remain taboo in China, with authorities routinely scrubbing any mention of the topic from the internet. In 1989, troops shot dead hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.  It remains unclear how many people actually died that day, but human rights groups' estimates range from several hundred to several thousand killed.

The athletes had embraced each other after a 100 meter hurdles race at the Asian Games in which Lin won gold. She was wearing her lane number 6 next to Wu's lane number 4 in the now-banned photo. Users had posted on Weibo, one of China's biggest social media platforms, congratulating Lin. However, posts which included the photo were replaced with grey squares. However, the photo does not appear to have been completely scrubbed off the internet, with some Chinese news articles still showing a photo of the two athletes.

Discussion of the events that took place in Tiananmen Square is highly sensitive in China - with generations of younger Chinese growing up with little to no knowledge about the Tiananmen Square massacre. Posts relating to the massacres are regularly removed from the internet, tightly controlled by the government.

Last year, a popular Chinese influencer's livestream, which took place on the eve of the 33rd anniversary of the massacre, ended abruptly after he showed his audience a vanilla log cake which resembled a tank - a reference to a iconic image of one so-called Tank Man, which shows a civilian with shopping bags standing in front of a queue of tanks, attempting to block them.

 

In China, Comparing a Dog to the Military is No Laughing Matter

A Chinese comedy troupe has been slapped with a $2.2M penalty over a joke about the military that incorporated a slogan used by President Xi Jinping.  The quip, which likened the behavior of a comedian's dogs to military conduct, irked authorities.   They said Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media Company and comic Li Haoshi had "humiliated the people's army".  The company accepted the penalty and terminated Li's contract.

The offending remark was made during a stand-up performance in Beijing on Saturday, when Li alluded to two canines he had adopted which were chasing a squirrel. "Other dogs you see would make you think they are adorable. These two dogs only reminded me of... 'Fight to win, forge exemplary conduct'," said Li, whose stage name is House.  The punchline was taken from a  slogan that President Xi unveiled in 2013 as a goal for the Chinese military.

In an audio recording of the performance shared on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo, audience members can be heard laughing at the joke.  But it was much less welcome on the internet, after a member of the audience complained about it. Beijing authorities said they launched an investigation on Tuesday.  They then confiscated $188K of what was deemed to be illegal income, and fined the company another $1.9M, according to Xinhua.  The audio went viral, with some nationalists saying they were deeply offended and state media also piling on. But others questioned if the reactions were over the top.  "I am patriotic and really don't like others to humiliate our country... But I really don't like this atmosphere where every word about politics is sensitive," reads a post liked 1,200 times.

Shanghai Xiaoguo's activities in the Chinese capital have also been indefinitely suspended.  "We will never allow any company or individual use the Chinese capital as a stage to wantonly slander the glorious image of the PLA [People's Liberation Army]," said the Beijing arm of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism Bureau.

Li apologized to his more than 136,000 Weibo followers. "I feel deeply shamed and regretful. I will take responsibility, stop all activities, deeply reflect, learn again."  His Weibo account has since been suspended.

The incident sheds light on the challenging climate for Chinese comedians, who have been targeted by authorities and netizens alike.  In late 2020, female stand-up comedian Yang Li was accused of "sexism" and "man hating" after making jokes about men. A group claiming to defend men's rights also called on netizens to report her to China's media regulator.

China Arresting Mourners of Queen Elizabeth

A Hong Kong man who went to the British consulate on Monday night to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, among scores of mourners, has been detained.  Local reports say the 43-year-old man played several songs on his harmonica, including one linked to 2019 protests, as well as the British national anthem.

He was detained under the colonial-era sedition law, police said. This law had until recently been rarely used by prosecutors.  But the past few months have seen an increasing number of people charged under this law, including five speech therapists who were found guilty earlier this month of publishing "seditious" children's books.

Footage shared widely on social media shows the man standing outside the consulate playing "Glory to Hong Kong", the unofficial anthem of protesters during 2019 pro-democracy protests, on his harmonica.  A large crowd, which had gathered to watch an online live broadcast of the later Queen's state funeral in the UK, is seen singing along to the tune.  The song's lyrics make reference to the "tears on our land", and also mention "democracy and liberty".  Police said the man had been detained on suspicion of carrying out an "act with seditious intent".

Over the past week, Hong Kong residents have been lining up for hours to pay their respects to the Queen, in what has been perhaps the biggest display of affection for the late monarch seen outside the UK. The city, formerly a British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Under the terms of the handover, China agreed to govern Hong Kong under the principle of "one country, two systems", where the city would enjoy "a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defense affairs" for the next 50 years.  But a crackdown on protests, Beijing's imposition of its national security law and only allowing "patriots" to govern are seen by many as reneging on that promise.

 

The Politics of a Monarch's Death

The first sign of troubled political waters arose yesterday as foreign leaders began arriving to pay respects to the former head of state.   There came reports that a Chinese government delegation was banned from attending the lying-in-state of Queen Elizabeth II.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is understood to have refused a request for access over Chinese sanctions against five MPs and two peers.  A spokeswoman for China, Mao Ning, said he  had not seen reports about the Westminster Hall ban, which first emerged on the Politico website.

Last year, China imposed travel bans and asset freezes on nine Britons - including seven parliamentarians - for accusing Beijing of mistreating Uyghur Muslims.  That led to China's ambassador to the UK being banned from Parliament - a move which then extended to a delegation that wanted to pay their respects at Queen Elizabeth's lying-in-state. 

After several hours of negotiations and discussion, the UK Parliament announced that the Chinese delegation would be welcome to attend the Queen's lying-in-state.  This was despite some MPs saying they were earlier assured by the Commons Speaker that a Chinese delegation would not be welcome in Westminster Hall.  China's ambassador to the UK continued to be barred from Westminster Hall over Chinese sanctions on five MPs and two peers-- but it would not be extended to the other officials.

However, politics continued to reign over arrangements on who would be attending the actual funeral itself.   According to convention, all countries with which the UK has diplomatic relations would normally be invited to state funerals.  Accordingly, Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Russia and Belarus were not been invited - whilst Iran, North Korea and Nicaragua were asked to only send a senior diplomat.

China's President Xi Jinping is on the guest list for the funeral ceremony but is not thought likely to attend.  A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said that no decision had been made on whether they will be sending a delegation to the funeral, although press reports have suggested China's vice president will attend.

It is widely believe that President Joe Biden chose not to bring a U.S. delegation to the funeral specifically to avoid the possibility that Donald Trump would join the delegation (along with other former U.S. presidents).  It is a poorly kept secret that the Royal family detest Trump due to his disastrous time in office and the numerous mishaps, gaffes and insults during his visits in 2018 and 2019.

Then came the reports late Saturday that Britain's invitation to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed Bin Salman, to attend the Queen's funeral had sparked a storm of protest from human rights campaigners.

A declassified CIA report concluded that the crown prince had authorized the murder and dismemberment of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.   But this morning, news came out that MBS was no longer expected to attend the Queen's funeral, according to a UK Foreign Office source.  The source, quoted by Reuters, said the change was made by the Saudis.  Prince Turki al-Faisal, another senior Saudi royal, is expected to attend the funeral instead.

 

Chinese Authorities Using Mandatory Health App to Manipulate Citizens

Angry bank customers who traveled to a city in central China to retrieve their savings from troubled rural banks were blocked by Chinese authorities through the covert use of a health app on their cellphone.

The Chinese government requires all residents to have the health app, which displays a code indicating their health status, including possible exposure to COVID-19. A green code is required to use public transportation and to enter locations such as offices, restaurants and malls.  Depositors at the banks in central Henan province had their health codes mysteriously flipped to red in order to stop them.

The incident has started a national debate on how a tool designed for public health was appropriated by political forces to tamp down controversy.

The issue started in April, when customers of six rural banks in Henan and Anhui provinces found they could not access online banking services. They tried to contact the banks and access their funds, but didn’t get replies.

Thousands of people then began trying to withdraw their savings after media reports that the head of the banks’ parent company was on the run. The majority shareholder of several of the banks, Sun Zhenfu, was wanted by authorities for “serious financial crimes,” according to the official media outlet The Paper.  Authorities likely feared a bank run, which is not uncommon with smaller banks in China that tend to be less stable than their larger, institutional counterparts.

Unable to resolve the issue online, customers traveled to the provincial capital of Zhengzhou in order to demand government action at the Henan province office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. But after arriving in the city, they found they couldn’t go very far.

In a since-deleted account on the social media app WeChat, a woman surnamed Ai said shortly after she checked into a hotel in Zhengzhou, she was questioned by a group of police who asked her why she was there. She replied that she wished to withdraw money from the bank. Shortly after, she found her health code had turned red even though she had a negative COVID-19 test result in the previous 48 hours.  She was immediately taken to a quarantine hotel by a pandemic prevention worker.

Sixth Tone interviewed over a dozen people who said their health codes unexpectedly turned red after they scanned a QR code upon arrival in the city.  In China, places like train stations and grocery stores have QR codes to scan at their entrances, logging people’s presence for contact tracing during the pandemic. When people are deemed to be at risk for COVID-19, their codes are turned different colors that indicate restrictions such as mandatory quarantines.  With a red health code, it’s impossible to go to any public venues, or even to board a train.

One bank customer, who gave her last name as Liu, said she saw that many people were reporting their health codes had turned red immediately after arriving in Zhengzhou.  Liu, who did not go to Zhengzhou herself, said she tested the code change after others reported it in their shared group chat. While at home far away from the capital, Liu scanned the QR code from a photo someone had shared on social media, Liu's health code also turned red (despite never having left her home).

Another bank customer said that he got a red code after scanning in at the train station in Zhengzhou and was taken into police custody. A few hours after police officers made him leave Zhengzhou, his health code turned green.

Jiakedao, a social media account run by the main Communist Party newspaper, criticized the Henan authorities, saying  “Let’s be frank, no matter which department or individual instigated it, arbitrarily using the epidemic prevention and control measures for ‘social governance’ or ‘stability maintenance’ should be strictly held accountable."

 

Chinese Students Keep Memory of Tiananman Massacre Alive

Students at a Hong Kong university hid tiny figurines of a "democracy goddess" around campus in the lead-up to yesterday's anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.  The anonymous acts defy the authorities' increasing crackdown on public recognition of the highly sensitive incident.

The figurines created by students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) are a copy of the "Goddess of Democracy" statue which was pulled down by university officials last December.  The statue had been a fixture on the campus for 11 years, and was modeled after the original democracy symbol paraded by students at Tiananmen Square in 1989 before they were killed by soldiers.  It was removed last year as other universities tore down Tiananmen Square tributes including the "Pillar of Shame" memorial at Hong Kong University.

"This is a kind of a rebellion. The university 'stole' the statue from its students so we've decided to make our own versions on it and put it back," one of the protest organizers told Hong Kong Free Press, a local outlet.  Protesters printed tiny 3D replicas of the statue, and concealed them on campus for other students to find. Attached are notes urging the finder to "bring her home, and do not forget the meaning behind it!  Manneoi was born to remember the Chinese martyrs so we picked the days before June 4,"  using the Cantonese name for the "Goddess of Democracy".

They said they were told by other students to "be careful" but they felt "OK" regarding their treasure hunt: "It's not a public assembly or protest.  It is sad for us to consider the risks as assembly should be our basic human right."

The organizer said they wanted people who found the statues to "guard our memories" and "don't be so depressed because there are still people who haven't given up".  But in the end, organizers ended the activity as they were "afraid the university would interrupt our event".  They said they had received word that university staff were monitoring students taking part in the hunt.

Until recently, Hong Kong was one of the few Chinese territories which commemorated the June 4 1989 event.  Public vigils were held each year. However Beijing has now effectively banned the city's annual gathering and shut down Hong Kong's Tiananmen museum.

Police in Hong Kong closed off large parts of Victoria Park, which in the past was the site of large candlelit vigils marking the anniversary of the massacre.  Officials warned that any unauthorized assembly could see demonstrators facing prison sentences.

These actions were seen by activists as part of China's broader agenda to snuff out political dissent in Hong Kong.  The United States called the ban on gatherings "an attempt to suppress the memories of that day".  "To the people of China and to those who continue to stand against injustice and seek freedom, we will not forget June 4," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. 

The Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing became the focus for national demonstrations calling for greater political freedoms in 1989. Thousands of people - mainly students - camped for weeks in the square before the military moved in on June 4 and opened fire.  It is estimated that has many as 10,000 may have r estimates have ranged from hundreds to as many as 10,000.

China's erasure of public displays of June Fourth - as the Tiananmen anniversary is popularly known in Chinese - has become near total in Hong Kong since Beijing enacted a national security law on the island in 2020.  In the past year, local police prosecuted at least 26 pro-democracy activists for trying to commemorate June Fourth. They include Joshua Wong, media baron Jimmy Lai and former lawmakers Leung Kwok-hung, Cyd Ho, and Andrew Wan.  They were all found guilty for attending or "inciting" others to participate in a vigil honouring the massacre victims in 2020, with some facing jail terms of up to 14 months.

In January this year, a Hong Kong court also sentenced activist Chow Hang-tung to 15 months in prison for her role leading to the banned 2021 vigil.  Chow had already been served a 12-month sentence for her role in the previous year's vigil.

 

Desparation in Shanghai as China Enforces Brutal Lock Down

For weeks, Shanghai's 25 million-strong population has been shut in their homes while officials try to contain the city's worst COVID surge to date. Authorities battling Shanghai's latest outbreak initially began installing fences to restrict the population's movement.  In the early days of the lock down, there were reports that hundreds were forcibly evacuated from their homes to allow for buildings to be disinfected. In the worst hit areas, even residents who tested negative were forced to move out temporarily.

But in the weeks following, green barriers began appearing without warning outside buildings where those inside were forbidden from leaving.  Images of workers in white hazmat suits sealing entrances to the city's housing blocks and closing off streets with green fencing have spread on Chinese social media. Many of the fences, which are around two-meters tall, were installed around buildings designated as "sealed areas" where at least one person has tested positive for Covid-19.  Everyone living inside a "sealed area" was forbidden from setting foot outside their homes whether or not they have the virus.  Many have been struggling to access food supplies, and forced to wait for government drop-offs of vegetables, meat and eggs.

One resident, who asked not to be identified, said that the main gate to his compound was chained up three weeks ago after he believes one of his neighbors tested positive for the virus.  "No one can get out," he said. "I feel helpless. You don't know when the lock down is going to end.  If your area gets fenced off, what if a fire breaks out? I don't think anyone in their right mind can seal people's homes," he said.

While some city officials have been installing fences, others have been busy trying to block a popular video highlighting the impact of the city's lock down on its residents.  The six-minute montage features unverified audio clips of the local population criticizing inadequate food supplies and complaining about medical conditions.  "We haven't eaten for days now," one person can be heard pleading in the video.

In other viral videos, residents can be heard screaming from their apartments, while a drone can be seen issuing warnings about COVID-19 restrictions as the country sticks to its strict zero-COVID policy amid an increase of infections.  A video circulating on Twitter shows high-rise buildings in Shanghai at night, with people heard yelling from their windows.  A separate video shows a drone flying over the city, issuing a warning for city residents to follow COVID restrictions. "Shanghai residents go to their balconies to sing & protest lack of supplies. A drone appears: 'Please comply w covid restrictions. Control your soul's desire for freedom. Do not open the window or sing,' Alice Su, a journalist for The Economist, wrote on Twitter.

Newer measures include placing electronic door alarms on the outside of apartment doors to prevent those infected from leaving, in addition to evacuating people to disinfect their homes.  CNN's David Culver (who has filed a report while living in Shanghai) says he’s prepared a box of essentials for his dog, Chairman. If Culver is whisked away to isolate somewhere, he hopes that someone will come by and care for his pet — but there’s no guarantee. The dog may end up starving in the apartment. Or worse.  Culver is reporting that government personnel are scattered across Shanghai and keeping an eye on residents’ comings-and-goings.  Authorities have now transitioned to sealing doors closed with paper-- and if residents leave when they're not supposed to, officials will know at a glance by the broken seal.

 As Shanghai's COVID-19 lock down misery dragged into its fifth week, there are fears that the Chinese capital could be destined for a similar fate. In Beijing, all 3.45 million people living or working in Chaoyang district were ordered to be tested three times a week, as authorities warned that the virus had crept into the city largely undetected during the previous week, with a few dozen cases reported.  Fearing they were about to taste the misery suffered in Shanghai, many people in the capital began stockpiling food, toilet paper and other basic goods.

 

Cheater Olympics is Over

The fake Olympics are now behind us.   That's right-- the Beijing games didn't have any of the real stuff and was the first to use 100% artificial snow.  And the cheating started even before the games began.  Russia wasn't even supposed to be there, after they were caught blatantly using performance enhancing drugs in a government sponsored doping program. In the last 15 years alone, Russia has been stripped of over 50 Olympic medals due to drug testing.  But China is a friend to Putin, so naturally they would figure out a way to have Russia present-- going so far as to highlight Putin at the opening ceremony.

During the games, Russia continued its cheating ways, resulting in U.S. figure skaters being cheated out of their medal ceremony.  Russia's Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned substance, but was allowed to compete anyway.  As a result, the Chinese Olympic authorities refused to conduct a medal ceremony in team figure skating, which meant the U.S. figure skating team went home empty-handed.

During the games, Finnish skier Katri Lylynpera posted a number of photos and videos from the athletes village showing water pouring down from the ceiling and through lighting fixtures, creating puddles on the floor.  She was ordered by Chinese officials to delete the posts.

It was widely reported that the Uyghur athlete that China used for propaganda purposes to carry the Chinese flag was quickly shunted out of view after the opening ceremony.  20-year-old Dilnigar Ilhamjan was later given a perfunctory chance to compete in the skiathlon, but was then excluded from the women’s 4 x 5 km relay team. The athlete who replaced her actually had worse results earlier in the week. China ended up finishing 10th in the 18-team race.

At a press conference during the games, Chinese women’s hockey goalie Kim Newell was prevented from speaking English.  Newell, who was born in Canada and lives in Vancouver, was asked if she could answer a few questions in English. And according to Reuters, an aide next to Newell interrupted and said, “She’s not allowed to speak English."

In the Men's 1000 meter speed skating semi-final, South Korea's Hwang Dae-Heon was disqualified for an “illegal late pass causing contact” after winning his race which gave Ren Ziwei of China the ultimate win. Then in the final, Hungary's Liu Shaolin was also disqualified after winning-- giving the gold to (you guessed it) China's Ren Ziwei.  Many observers commented that Ziwei probably should have been disqualified as well due to grabbing his opponent. 

Nils van der Poel, a 25-year-old Swedish speedskater who won two gold medals, summed things up appropriately after he returned home  to Sweden.  "The Olympics is a fantastic sporting event where you unite the world and nations meet," he said.  "But so did Hitler before invading Poland, and so did Russia before invading Ukraine.  I think it is extremely irresponsible to give it to a country that violates human rights as blatantly as the Chinese regime is doing."

Chinese "Squid Games" Mired in Controversy From the Start

People are incredulous and outraged about the controversial $3.4 billion Olympic games that begin today. The first unbelievable thing is the absence of the one element central to any Winter Olympics:  snow. 

Olympic organizers should have known this would be a problem.  Between January and March of last year, the competition venue at the National Alpine Ski Centre in Yanqing (50 miles NW of Beijing) had less than one inch of snow cm of snow-- less than London or Madrid.

And pictures of the venues tell their own story. The new national ski-jumping center is certainly impressive – but sits incongruously in a barren landscape of dirty brown hills. It's hardly alpine.  As for the snowboarding slope, it has been built in the heart of the city's concrete-clad industrial area, overlooked by the massive former cooling towers of an old steel mill.

Dubious decisions by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in awarding the Games are nothing new.  For the 2014 Games in the subtropical Russian resort of Sochi, 80 per cent of the snow was fake.  But Yanqing, which hosts the alpine skiing, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton, will take the phony white stuff to new extremes. Using 49 million gallons of water, 300 snow guns will blanket the competition surfaces – despite the regular water shortages that China's parched capital suffers.

Chinese authorities have detained two prominent human-rights activists in the lead up to the games-- quietly intensifying a crackdown on dissent weeks before the country hosts the most politicized Winter Olympics in recent memory.  Free speech advocate Yang Maodong was formally detained in the southern city of Guangzhou on suspicion of inciting subversion, just two days after his wife died of cancer in the U.S.  Yang, who writes under the pen name Guo Feixiong, has been blocked from leaving China for the past year.  Authorities rejected his pleas (and entreaties from friends and family) that he be allowed to be with his wife in her final months.  Friends said they had lost contact with the 55-year-old Yang in early December, though it was only until January 12 that police officially confirmed his detention by the state.  According to Yang's sister, the police have been vague about the reason for his detention. 

Xie Yang, a 49-year-old lawyer who has taken up politically sensitive cases related to religion and land rights, was detained on January 11 also on subversion charges, and is being held in the southern city of Changsha, according to his family. Yang has been in police custody on and off since 2013. While in detention five years ago, he gave an explosive account of being tortured, beaten and threatened by interrogators.   "You can imagine authorities all over the country are tightening control preemptively to strike out an potential dissent and criticism," said Renee Xia, a senior researcher with Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a Washaington, DC-based group.

Chinese authorities also pressured dissidents and activists ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics.  Under President Xi Jinping, China has grown less tolerant of dissent, tightening controls over the media and the internet while pursuing a campaign of forced assimilation against ethnic minorities in remote regions of the country.  And of course, all of this is happening during the slow-motion erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong.

Human Rights Watch says China wants to 'sportswash' its human-rights record.  A spokesman said: "These Winter Games reflect President Xi Jinping's efforts to burnish China's image on the world stage and distract attention from the Chinese government's assault on human rights, targeting independent civil society, erasing press freedom and expanding high- tech surveillance."

Beijing Olympics are being operated in closed, heavily censored environment. Those outside can’t enter. Those inside can’t leave, and can only catch glimpses of the country from bus windows.  Chinese staff working the Games wear white hazmat suits that make it difficult to see the person inside, lending to dystopian atmosphere that many are comparing to the Korean TV show Squid Game. The ill-fated games were plagued by controversy from the very start, however . . . 

China Steps Up Suppression of Tianenmen Commemorations

One of the last public memorials in Hong Kong to those killed in the Tiananmen protests has been covered up.  The calligraphy-- painted on the pavement of a bridge-- paid tribute to the pro-democracy protesters killed by Chinese authorities in Beijing in 1989.

It was covered with metal by the University of Hong Kong, which called the work routine maintenance.  But its removal comes as Beijing has increasingly been cracking down on political dissent in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong used to be one of few places in China that allowed public commemoration of the Tiananmen protests - a highly sensitive topic in the country.  The Tiananmen Square massacre came amid large-scale demonstrations calling for greater political freedoms.  At the height of the protests, about one million people assembled in the Square, but in June 1989 the military moved in and troops opened fire.  The Chinese government claim that 200 civilians and several dozen security personnel died - but it is widely accepted that thousands died, with several thousand more wounded.

The image that China wants people to forget

 

Since China began tightening its grip over Hong Kong, it has cleared the city of criticism of the ruling Communist party.  Last month, a famous statue at the University of Hong Kong - the Pillar of Shame - was removed. The following day, two more universities in the city took down monuments.

The latest memorial to be taken down is calligraphy painted on a pavement on Swire Bridge outside a university dormitory.  The slogan celebrated martyrs it said were slaughtered in cold blood, and every year students would repaint it in an act of remembrance. But construction workers were seen covering up the words.  The university gave no explanation, merely saying it had carried out routine maintenance. 

Earlier this month, a pro-democracy Hong Kong activist was jailed for organizing a vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen Square crackdown.  Hong Kong authorities have banned the vigil for the past two years, citing Covid restrictions - though it is widely believed that local officials have bowed to pressure from Beijing in advance of the Winter Olympics.

 

China Has Released Canadians Held on Trumped-up Espionage Charges

A Chinese tech executive wanted on fraud charges in the U.S. was coincidentally released by Canada mere hours after China freed two Canadians who were being held on bogus espionage charges.  In September, Huawei's Meng Wanzhou arrived in Shenzhen, hours after two Canadians held three years  by China had been allowed to return home.

China had accused Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig of espionage, but denied detaining them was in retaliation for Meng's arrest by Canadian authorities.   Meng had previously confessed to lying to U.S. investigators about Huawei's business dealings in Iran.  She has been under house arrest in Canada while fighting extradition to the United States.  She was initially arrested in the Vancouver airport on December 1, 2018.

Within a week of Meng's arrest, China retaliated by arresting Spavor and Kovrig on "espionage" charges.  Spavor is a founding member of an organization that facilitates international business and cultural ties with North Korea.  Kovrig is a former diplomat employed by International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.  Spavor and Kovrig have maintained their innocence throughout, and they have been widely seen as being used by China as political bargaining chips.

China had earlier insisted that her case was not related to the sudden arrest of Spavor and Kovrig-- but China's decision to free them after Meng's release shows that pretense has been abandoned.   The Canadian judge overseeing Meng's case ordered her release after she reached a deal with U.S. prosecutors over fraud charges against her.  Meng still faces fraud charges on allegations that she misled banks into processing transactions for Huawei that broke U.S. sanctions against Iran. As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, Meng also admitted to misleading HSBC about Huawei's relationship with Skycom, a Hong-Kong based company that operated in Iran.

Meng is the elder daughter of Ren Zhengfei, who set up Huawei in 1987. He also served in the Chinese army for nine years, until 1983, and is a member of the Chinese Communist Party.  Huawei itself is now the largest telecom equipment maker in the world.  It has faced accusations that Chinese authorities could use its equipment for espionage.  In 2019, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Huawei and placed it on an export blacklist, cutting it off from key technologies.  The UK, Sweden, Australia and Japan have also banned Huawei, while other countries including France and India have adopted measures stopping short of an outright ban.

 

China Censors Sexual Assault Allegations Against Ally of President Xi Jinping

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has publicly accused a retired Communist official of sexual assault. In a post on Chinese social media site Weibo, Peng said former Vice Premier, Zhang Gaoli, had "forced" her to have sexual relations with him.  It is the first time such an allegation has been made against one of China's senior political leaders.  Zhang, 75, served as China's Vice Premier between 2013 and 2018 and was a close ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Zhang has not responded to her claims. The post has since been scrubbed from China's internet by the government.  Searches for Peng - a former number one ranked tennis doubles player - also appear to have been restricted. In her tennis career, Peng has won two Grand Slam women's doubles trophies, the first at Wimbledon in 2013 and the second at the Roland Garros tournament in 2014, both alongside Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei.

"I know that someone of your eminence, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, you'll say that you're not afraid", Ms Peng wrote in her post, "but even if it's just striking a stone with a pebble, or a moth attacking a flame and courting self destruction, I will tell the truth about you."  She said he had first coerced her after she visited his home to play tennis. "That afternoon I didn't give my consent and couldn't stop crying," she wrote. "You brought me to your house and forced me and you to have relations".

Peng, 35, acknowledged that she would not be able to provide proof to back up her claims.  "I have no evidence, and it has been impossible to leave any evidence... You were always afraid that I would bring something like a tape recorder, to record evidence or something... There is no audio record, no video record, only my distorted but very real experience."

The tennis star's social media post is the latest development in a series of high profile MeToo cases in China. A popular TV host, Zhou Xiaoxuan, came forward with her claims against another TV personality, Zhu Jun in an online essay in 2018.  The piece went viral and prompted many others to come forward with their own experiences of sexual harassment. Zhu has denied all the claims.  Though Zhou launched legal action against Zhu, the case was dismissed in September.  Chinese courts rarely grant hearings to such cases, and the country only very recently passed legislation that clearly defined sexual harassment. 

 

 

China Now Building a Worldwide Genetic Database

 Chinese firms are collecting genetic data from around the world, part of an effort by the Chinese government and companies to develop the world’s largest bio-database, American intelligence officials reported.

The American private sector has long been in the cross hairs of China and other countries trying to steal American technology and intellectual property. Other countries like Russia also remain a threat, but the economic might of China makes it the biggest threat.

Officials are now also stressing the intersection of technology and genetic and biological research as an area of competition and espionage. Edward You, who is the national counterintelligence officer for emerging and disruptive technologies, said the Chinese government is collecting medical, health and genetic data around the world. The country that builds the best database of information will have an edge on developing cures for future pandemics, and China already has an advantage, he said.

Beijing has a track record of misusing genetic data, the counterintelligence center said, citing a 2019 New York Times report on how China uses genetic tests to track members of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority group.

Citing a Reuters report, Mr. You said a Chinese company, BGI, had developed a neonatal genetic test with the Chinese military that had enabled it to collect information from millions of people around the world. The firm gained a foothold in the United States in 2013, when it purchased an American genomics firm.

The counterintelligence center also highlighted investments by WuXi, which bought a Pfizer manufacturing plant in China, announced a production facility in Massachusetts and made an investment in 2015 in 23andMe, the consumer genetics company.

“They are developing the world’s largest bio database,” Mr. You said of the Chinese government efforts. “Once they have access to your genetic data, it’s not something you can change like a pin code.”

23andMe said that fears of China stealing its data are misplaced.  WuXi has a less than 1 percent investment in 23andMe and has never received any customer data, Jacquie Cooke Haggarty, the company’s deputy general counsel, said in a statement. No data has ever been shared with a Chinese-owned company and no investor has access to the data, she said. “All of our testing is performed and has always been performed in U.S.-based laboratories,” she said.