Tag: Moderately well acquainted reader

Crash-out

Or D-Day – Disaster Day – minus 7

The original D-Day was salvation for Britain and Europe – even, in its way, for Germany.  This one seems less promising.

Not much to say anymore.   Cue the violins and watch the China moves.

Update at April 28 – Aside from the current delay in the crash-out – From Brexit to Belt and Road by Keith Johnson in FP – Britain’s turn to China for salvation

Read Ives Smith at Naked Capitalism – https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/03/brexit-opening-the-seals.html

She opens with

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?

– Revelations 5:1-2

I didn’t know, but this is where the Four Horsemen come from.  And it is the apocalypse.

Right following the Brexit vote in 2016, I thought Britain had voted itself out of being a major world economy.  Now it appears we will see if that was right.  China, of course, will be sympathetic to a now developing country that needs assistance. 

This can only be shuang yin – win-win for China.  Or maybe win-win-win.   Help the Chinese economy, better entre to the EU, more confounding of US policy. 

Shuang Yin Win-Win

 

Macroaggressions

From America Online – Several billionaires have recently criticized the wealth tax proposal of presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). And fellow lawmaker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has come to her aid.   AOC: ‘Y’all, the billionaires are asking for a safe space’

But perhaps the billionaires threatened with having to pay taxes almost like the rest of us have learned how to do political threats from their experience with China. 

China can threaten the NBA based on a single vague tweet from an otherwise obscure NBA general manager.  A China so afraid of a tweet is a China willing to transform a nonaggression into a macroaggression, and needs special care and handling from the world.  Perhaps CCP doesn’t get sufficient love from its family at home. 

China is clearly looking for a safe space in the world.  The Chinese mentality is that China is constantly under attack from the barbarians, whether it is xiongnu in the north two thousand years ago or the western barbarians whose sinister plans to destroy CCP and China were exposed in 2013 by Mr. Xi in Document No. 9. 

And maybe China has learned from the NBA – the best defense is a good offense. 

So China has created a safe space for itself by threatening multinational corporations everywhere, and by caving to the tantrum the multinationals have temporarily created a safe space in which to do business until the next unfortunate lower level employee tweet, or some corporate employee’s kid in Kansas draws a map in school showing Taiwan as an independent country. 

Now the companies and their owners are seeking a safe space from the horror of paying more in taxes in the US. 

CCP has a safe space.  The billionaires have a temporary safe space in China, and now seek a safe space from AOC in the US.  The US Congress – at least the Senate – has a safe space behind the orange haired baboon.

What would be a safe space for the rest of us, concerned not only about taxes but free expression?

Attached, a list – soon to be outdated – of multinationals which don’t remember first they came for the socialists.  From Lucas Niewenhuis at Supchina, All the International brands that have apologized to China.

The definitive list of international companies that have issued apologies to maintain their market access in China in recent years. Plus, a record of the even more widespread phenomenon of self-censorship for the Chinese market.

Read the whole list.  Fun and shame, at the same time.

PS – Remember that China creates a safe space for multinationals only temporarily.  Foreigners can be had in more sophisticated ways than blocking markets.  I wrote about this in IP Theft – No More Worries and Steve Dickinson at ChinaLawBlog follows up his prior posts with this below.  Anything encoded by a foreign company – patent information, employee information, market information, customers, clients, revenues – will be available – without asking – to CCP.  

China’s New Cryptography Law: Still No Place to Hide

….

So in the end, inviting foreign providers and users of cryptography is just a trap for the unwary. Once data crosses the Chinese border on a network, 100% of that data will be 100% available to the Chinese government and the CCP. Cryptography may work well to prevent access by the public, but all this data will be an open book to the PRC government.

This then raises major issues for U.S. and other country entities that are relying on end to end encryption in China as an exception to U.S. export control rules. Under China’s new system, end to end encryption will no longer exist in China and for this reason this exemption from U.S. export controls will no longer be effective. As the U.S. expands the scope of technology subject to export controls, the risks for foreign companies will become progressively more significant.

No place for a multinational to hide – at least in China. Safe space is always in the eyes of the aggrieved. 

News: IP theft – no more worries

Just a brief note –  the FBI has more than 1,100 China IP theft  cases pending against Chinese entities or individuals.  Not a typo – 1,100.

 For American companies not doing business in China – we should not say, no exposure to China – the FBI investigations may still be something of a bulwark against theft.  Although, one notes, most of the investigations and arrests are in arrears of the crime.

And back nearly a year ago, Mr. Xi promulgated a new IP theft policy which threatened Chinese businesses that steal.  The policy was announced within hours of a Xi-Trump meeting last December, and comprised a coordinated efforts across 38 Chinese government agencies with 38 different punishments.  The insincerity of this announcement, coming immediately upon the leaders’ meeting, was palpable.  If you want to believe, you may.  I wrote about this at the time in Everything new is old again. 

But with a new Chinese government policy, IP theft in China is no more.

Now comes the latest entry in China’s bid to become the first panopticon state – the cybersecurity law that permits government access to all information, IP or otherwise, stored on any server available to any foreign business operating in China.  China Law Blog has details – China’s New Cybersecurity System – There is NO Place to Hide.  From the blog post –

This result then leads to the key issue. Confidential information housed on any server located in China is subject to being viewed and copied by China’s Ministry of Public Security and that information then becomes open to access by the entire PRC government system. But the PRC government is the shareholder of the State Owned Entities (SOEs) which are the key industries in China. The PRC government also essentially controls the key private companies in China such as Huawei and ZTE and more recently Alibaba and Tencent and many others. See China is sending government officials into companies like Alibaba and Geely and China to place government officials inside 100 private companies, including Alibaba. The PRC government also either owns or controls China’s entire arms industry.

Simply put, the data the Ministry of Public Security obtains from foreign companies will be available to the key competitors of foreign businesses, to the Chinese government controlled and private R&D system, and to the Chinese arms industry and military.

The takeaway on this is that the fear of IP theft in China is no more.  What used to be considered theft, done by stealth, is now a legal process.  As Steve Dickinson from China Law Blog says, welcome to the new normal.   And anyway, remember – information wants to be free.

Deer in the headlights

Aggressive moves by the government have sensitized the world to Chinese export of skullduggery, lying, theft, and threats to foreigners in their own country by Chinese organizations in business and government. Infiltration of politics and government in Australia and New Zealand has become a recurring story. 

Unfortunately, such actions can bias some people against Chinese everywhere.  So – what to make of Gladys Liu?

Gladys Liu was elected to the Australian Parliament this year from Chisholm, a district in which 70% of the voting population was born in China.

It has been discovered that she was listed as a council member of two chapters of the Chinese Overseas Exchange Association, a CCP United Front organization, from 2003 to 2015.  She is also listed as an officer in a business organization which is also said to have United Front ties.

Ms. Liu cannot recall being a member of the organizations – in which she had membership for twelve years.  The purpose of United Front is to influence overseas Chinese and foreign political and business organizations.

It is possible that mainland organizations could use her name without her knowledge.  We have an incident earlier this year in which the former Prime Minister of New Zealand was quoted in China Daily without her knowledge – the interview was simply made up by the newspaper in China. 

The Liu case follows that of Pierre Yang, another Australian MP forced to resign in late 2018 when it was discovered he was a member of two United Front organizations – the Northeast China Federation and Association of Greater China.  And the case of Sam Dastyari, another MP forced to resign from a government position after disclosure of his possible collusion in stopping an Australian intelligence investigation of a Chinese businessman in Australia – a CCP member who had, incidentally, paid debts owed by Dastyari and made illegal campaign donations – $100,000 cash, in a plastic bag – to Dastyari’s political party.

For Ms. Liu, when questioned in a tv interview about her views on the South China Sea and on the character of Xi Jinping, her answers were less than forthcoming.  The interview is remarkable for its length – over 17 minutes – and for the evasiveness and failures of memory in Ms. Liu’s answers. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has expressed his support for Liu, who is a member of his party, and called criticism of Liu racially motivated. 

More detail on the story is at the Conversation, Why Gladys Liu must answer to parliament about alleged links to the Chinese government.

What is one to make of all this?  I certainly don’t know. That is the problem with being a bit paranoid – you don’t know if they are really after you or not.  No doubt more will come out on this story. 

Watch the interview.  For a politician, even one from a place that is a bit of a backwater, she sounds remarkably inept, seeming to choose words quite carefully.  It seems that people are watching her, and it is not just voters in Australia. 

Gladys Liu Interview

China censorship by extortion in London

Update at October 7, 2019 – The NBA self-censors for China

The NBA is a business – we know that.  But the NBA has been the professional league in which players and coaches have had the most freedom to speak their minds about issues of rights and morality.  Now, apparently, that freedom of speech stops at the Chinese border.  The New York Times has the story – NBA executive’s Hong Kong tweet starts firestorm in China.

Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted an expression of support for protesters in Hong Kong.  This upset the Chinese Basketball Association, and some Chinese fans, who see Hong Kongers as only hooligans and destroyers of Chinese harmony.  Morey’s tweet suggested that he “stands with Hong Kong.”  He has now apologized to the NBA’s largest international market.  The NBA has disavowed his comment, although it did suggest weakly that he had a right to say what he said.  Of course, the Chinese league commented with the old trope, that Morey had hurt the feelings of all Chinese people (who are basketball fans). 

The story is less that the NBA wilts in the face of Chinese outrage, but that the outrage is so unified, potentially deadly, and in accord with CCP desires. Plenty of other western businesses have set the pattern, whether on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, or Taiwan. The takeaway is that FBI director Christopher Wray is correct in his assessment of China as a “whole of society” threat. The ease with which we self-censor in the face of Chinese assessment that we have offended the whole of the Chinese people (how DO they make that determination?) is a threat to our own values in more than just business. In 2002, eminent China scholar Perry Link wrote of Chinese censorship as the “The Anaconda in the Chandelier” – everyone knows it is there, we can’t see it, and don’t know when it will strike. It is powerful, and causes us to behave differently. We fear all the more what we don’t know and can’t see. National inability to tolerate a single tweet by a relatively minor official of the NBA is itself a bargaining tactic to worry about. Who knows where it will strike next?

The original London theater story below.

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China censorship by extortion in London

There cannot be anyone who still thinks “peaceful rise” is a metaphor for China’s relations with the world. But the real fear is not what we see in the papers. The real fear is not China’s military, or trade power, or isolating Taiwan, or OBOR, or votes and influence at the UN and in other international bodies.  In a sense, not even IP theft, although that is the only current trade concern of real import. 

What the world should fear over the next ten or twenty years is export of business and government practices conducted via cheating, extortion, threats to innocent parties, arrests under false pretenses, no rule of law, no free press, prison torture, and police and government action with impunity. 

The latest example is threats to a theater performance in London.

The Guardian has the story –

From Beijing to Hampstead: how tale of HIV whistleblower rattled Chinese state

Now we have threats to the performing arts – a theater, in London. Via threats to the family and friends and daughter of the woman who is the subject of the play.  Chinese security officials are threatening the family in China of a former health bureau official who exposed coverup of an HIV and hepatitis scandal in China in 1992 and 1995. Apparently the loss of face for CCP over events of 27 years ago is still salient. 

Dr. Wang Shuping is not the author of the play, the director, an actor, and probably not an investor or audience member.  The play is about her story to expose the coverup of “epic proportions” – demands to falsify medical data and then physical destruction of her lab and samples of blood tainted with hepatitis and HIV from donors.  Wang is now an American citizen, a practicing nephrologist in Williamsburg, VA.

From Wang’s statement to the media –

On 22 August 2019, I received a phone call from a relative in America who told me that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of State Security have sent officers from Beijing to Zhoukou, my hometown, to investigate my colleagues and relatives … During the past ten years, officers from the PRC Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security have been to my hometown to interrogate my relatives and colleagues several times, trying to silence me.

 From the Guardian story –

The plot closely follows the battle Wang and her colleagues waged to uncover the truth. “I first reported the HCV [hepatitis] epidemic among blood donors to the Ministry of Health of PRC [People’s Republic of China] in 1992,” said Wang. “Three years later, I discovered and reported a serious HIV epidemic among the plasma donors to the Health Bureau of Zhoukou Region and the ministry of health of the PRC … Only after I reported my results to the central government in Beijing was any action taken. They requested that I falsify my information about the HIV epidemic situation among the plasma donors but I refused. To cover up the HIV epidemic situation, they broke up our clinical testing centre, hit me with a heavy stick and insulted me.”  Wang resisted pressure to close her laboratory, but the health bureau cut off the electricity and water supplies, forcing it to discard thousands of blood samples.

Officials have threatened the livelihoods of Wang’s friends and family in Beijing, and attempted to contact her daughter, to threaten her also.  The director of the play says they will do what Dr. Wang wishes – presumably, cancel the play if she feels the threats are extreme.  She wishes the play to go on, even with the threats to family and friends. 

Wang’s closing statement –

The only thing harder than standing up to the Communists and their security police is not giving in to pressure from friends and relatives who are threatened with their livelihoods all because you are speaking out. But even after all this time, I will still not be silenced, even though I am deeply sad that this intimidation is happening yet again. The King of Hell’s Palace will go ahead and I am really looking forward to seeing the production.

You know about kidnapping of foreign business people in China over business disputes.

You know about the hostage taking of three Canadians as political retaliation over the Huawei business. 

You know about threats at academic conferences and threats to individual foreign teachers, in their own country, of whom Beijing disapproves. 

You know about threats to Chinese students studying abroad, and their families in China.

You know about threats to the families of Chinese students studying in Hong Kong.

You know about threats to foreign businesses, such as Marriott and United and American and Delta airlines if they don’t cease calling the Republic of Taiwan the Republic of Taiwan.  

You know about the threat to put Cathay Pacific Airlines out of business unless they policed the activities of their own employees in not supporting the Hong Kong protests.

Business is not safe from threat.  Academics are not safe from threat in their home country.  Students are not safe from threat.  Now, theater is not safe from threat.  One is reminded of the Niemoeller quote –  “First came for the socialists, and I did nothing….”   Or Edmund Burke – “All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

 Dr. Wang’s personal story is available at ChinaChange here.  It is perhaps more detail than you want, but is a good example of how some Chinese exports will be expected to work if good people remain silent and do nothing.

Police extremism in the Hong Kong subway

Videos of police extremism in the Hong Kong subway

update at October 5 –  after months of protest and escalation, and some excessive violence by police and thugs against protesters, I am starting to admire the Hong Kong police a bit for their restraint.

That is certainly not the popular attitude among protesters and supporters in Hong Kong.  But the police are caught in situations more war-like than preserving-the-peace like. 

Video of destruction at subway stations  – there are many such videos from the last few months, but the extent of the damage is causing Hong Kong to shut down – more here and here. No one knows where this goes or at this point what the intent can be.  At some point, shutting down Hong Kong only plays into the hands of the government.  The mainland needs Hong Kong, that is true; but Hong Kongers need Hong Kong as well. 

 
In case you’ve not been watching.  No need for further comment on this. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yycXGXzqB6A
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4QL2rvmd3s
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emT93ipaHHc
 
 If you can get this from the New York Times, it is a chilling video of a student
protester talking about his actions.  He seems to treat the protests as an
extracurricular activity.  Not to doubt his sincerity, but he really could be killed
in this confrontation, and I doubt that has sunk in.  A bit like Tian’anmen or
Kent State.
 
we may die, we may be jailed
 
Update:  The anthem, written hastily but embraced by those in the streets, in Cantonese, pointedly not in Mandarin –
 

Glory to Hong Kong

 

Chinese Officials Threaten Mainland Parents of Student Attending Australian Protest

It is important to remember what we are dealing with.  Let’s review –

From the Sydney Morning Herald, August 7 – Chinese authorities approached the family of an international student who participated in high-profile protests at an Australian university and warned his parents of the potential consequences of political dissent.

It has been clear for years that the Chinese government monitors words and actions of mainland students overseas.  There are various means.  Most prominent is the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) which operates as a student-run organization on most university campuses throughout the world.  It is now common for students to record other Chinese students expressing negative feelings toward the mainland government or CCP.  Chinese government officials in the foreign country support such efforts.

A mainland student who attended one of the pro-Hong Kong protest rallies at the University of Queensland in Australia later received a call from his mother.  From the Herald –

But within days of the rally the student received a call from his mother in China to say the family had been approached by “a guest”.  His mother told him the authorities had issued a warning about engaging in “anti-China rhetoric” in Brisbane and warned him not to “join any events where people are gathered together”.  “As long as you do that, we can make sure you’re safe and we’re safe,” his mother told him.  

Chinese officials in Australia praised actions by mainland students to disrupt the protests –

China’s consul-general in Brisbane, Xu Jie, subsequently issued a statement praising “the spontaneous patriotic behaviour of Chinese students” at the university in response to “people with ulterior motives [who] conducted anti-Chinese separatist activities”.

Government threats to families in China, or threats to Chinese abroad, are a despicable practice.  But it has become standard operating practice in the last decade. 

Put this down alongside threats to Yang Shuping the 2017 University of Maryland valedictorian, who praised fresh air and freedom in the US compared with her experiences in Yunnan.  The  former president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) at the University of Maryland, told the CCP sponsored Global Times  – “Insulting the motherland to grab attention is intolerable. The university’s support to such critical speech is not only ill-considered, but also raises suspicion about other motives.”  The CSSA called on students from China to make videos promoting their hometowns with the scripted words “I have different views from Shuping Yang. I am proud of China.”  Yang received hundreds of negative or threatening social media posts. 

Or the action by the Chinese Education Ministry in 2010 to remove the University of Calgary from its list of approved universities, after Calgary awarded an honorary degree to the Dalai Lama.  That action threatened the ability of Chinese students at Calgary to have recognition of their degree in China.

And the experience of Chemi Lhamo, who by the nature of being Tibetan, and then earlier this year elected as student president at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus, was so threatened by Chinese vitriol, including death threats, that she needed university support;

And threats to Rukiye Turdush, Uighur activist, whose speech earlier this year at McMaster University in Ontario was disrupted in what some claim was activity promoted by the Chinese government.  University students clearly sought Chinese consulate advice on how to proceed with disruption.  Chinese officials in Canada applauded the threats from mainland Chinese students against Turdush;  

And Uighur university students throughout the world asked by the Chinese government to return home immediately, under hostage and harm threats to their parents and relatives in Xinjiang;

And physical destruction of the Lennon Wall at the University of Queensland on August 6.  From the Guardian – The University of Queensland has promised to take action after a pro-Hong Kong Lennon wall on its campus was torn down on Monday night by four masked men. The colourful protest wall – similar to those around Hong Kong and the rest of the world – had attracted hundreds of notes calling for democracy and solidarity with Hong Kong, and opposing the totalitarianism of the Chinese government. Two weeks ago pro-Beijing government protesters clashed violently with Hong Kong international students on the university’s Brisbane campus, punching and shoving.

Four masked men were seen destroying the wall.  Students have since put it up again. 

And, of course, the old standby –

Chinese rights lawyer Chen Jiangang-flees to US to escape persecution

In terms of (legal) human traffic, China still exports far more to the US than we export to China.  No sign of that changing anytime soon.  I reported on that at Let’s remember what we are dealing with.  

Let’s remember what we are dealing with …

News reporting is so uneven.  No mass shooting in the US is censored information in China – in fact, the news is prominently featured.   From China Xinhua News on Twitter –

China Xinhua News

@XHNews

 Shootings this weekend at a Texas Walmart and a bar in Ohio have left 30 people dead. Retail employees are taking to social media to say they’re terrified to go to work. Workers fear getting shot at their workplace

The Chinese government twitter account has several posts on the shootings, with video. 

At the same time, Xinhua completely missed this story – 

Chinese rights lawyer Chen Jiangang flees to US to escape “persecution” in China  

The South China Morning Post did report the story. 

Chen is a human rights lawyer who has been threatened and harassment before. He was representing Huang Yang, daughter in law of disgraced leader Zhou Yongkang.  Huang is an American citizen.  She has not been allowed to leave China over what is termed a rental disagreement, but it is not uncommon to punish relatives of disgraced CCP leaders without evidence of any wrongdoing. 

Huang explained that Wang Cun, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice, threatened Chen if he continued to represent her.  Chen was told that he would disappear if he continued to represent his client. 

Chen had been threatened before.  In April of this year, he was not allowed to leave China for a fellowship funded by the US government, citing national security concerns. 

In 2017, Chen’s entire family was put on an exit ban list, which has become a common means of targeting Chinese and foreigners who displease the government.

It is not clear how Chen and his family were able to get out.  News reports say that they traveled through several countries before finally arriving in the US.  China Aid, a non-profit reporting on human rights abuses in China, seems to have helped Chen and his family get out. 

Lawyer Chen Jiangang (second from left) and his family have fled China for the United States  Source: ChinaAid

China Aid, by the way, is a remarkable organization.  It seeks to expose persecution, torture, and imprisonment of Christians and human rights lawyers in China. 

Xinhua seems to have missed this story.   Perhaps international news is more compelling in this case.  

Shuang Yin Win-Win

Another update at July 24, 2019 – Boris Johnson became Prime Minister today.  From the South China Morning Post –


Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister-designate, said his government would be very “pro-China”, in an interview with a Hong Kong-based Chinese-language broadcaster shortly before he was chosen to succeed Theresa May on Tuesday…

Speaking to Phoenix TV, Johnson backed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s infrastructure-based Belt and Road Initiative and said his government would maintain an open market for Chinese investors in Britain.

Crash out is now scheduled for October 31 – Halloween in the US, when goblins arrive. 

Update at June, 2019 – the March, 2019 crash-out has been delayed, but that does not apply to earnest Britain-China cooperation – Sino-UK dialogue yields dozens of outcomes.

The 10th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue has just concluded in London.  China will help Britain in its soon-to-be developing country status by offering openings in financial and banking services, among many other programs to help British companies.  From the short article –

Christopher Bovis, a professor of international business law at the University of Hull, said this round of dialogue signified the importance of the future of Sino-UK trade relations, with an emphasis on large infrastructure projects and financial services.

“Both economic sectors will benefit enormously from Chinese investment in the UK, and China is expected to reciprocate with more market access to its evolving economy,” he said.

Funny, I didn’t hear much support from Britain for Hong Kong protesters in the recent extradition law conflict.

 ——–

______

Shuang Yin  Win-Win    February, 2019

Now that a crash-out Brexit seems all but assured, where will Britain turn for trade deals?  The kind of relationship that the British government wanted – like that of Canada or Norway with the EU – takes years to negotiate, under favorable circumstances.  There has been discussion for more than ten years that the special relationship between the US and Britain – forged from the mid-19th century and cemented between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill in World War II – is no longer so compelling.  The EU without Britain is still a huge and attractive market for US trade in both directions.

As of March 29, 2019 – in a bit more than a month – there will be hundreds of treaties and agreements to negotiate, suddenly, quickly, and in great detail.  Some agreements will probably get done – ability of British truck drivers to deliver goods through the Chunnel into EU turf, and ability of airplanes to take off from Heathrow bound for destinations in Europe using parts and crew that, without certification by the EU, would be not allowed.

But where can Britain turn for trade deals, quickly, without years of complicated negotiations?  What large trading partner is willing to set aside the details of complex agreements when mercantile interests, not to mention future geopolitical support, are at stake?  What large trading partner can act quickly, based on personal leadership from a president or prime minister or general secretary?

In October, 2015, a few months before the Brexit vote, Xi Jinping visited the UK, and  demonstrated his prescience –

“The UK has stated that it will be the Western country that is most open to China,” Xi told Reuters ahead of his first visit to the country as president.

“This is a visionary and strategic choice that fully meets Britain’s own long-term interest.”

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking on CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, said the visit would mark a “golden era” in the two countries’ relationship.


Among items looted from the Summer Palace in 1860 – a blue and gold cloisonné “chimera”—a mythic animal with a lion’s body and dragon’s head.  The Garden of Perfect Brightness – Visualizing Cultures, MIT    Could the chimera’s lion’s head be compatible with the British Lion?  


Source: Tracy Ducasse, creative commons license

Politically, China has always been willing to play a long game for economic access, political favor, and “special relationships.”   But in 2015, I don’t think Mr. Xi was expecting such a quick return on the investment in his state visit.

Even in 2015, Britain said little about China’s incursions into the South China Sea.  A bit unusual for the country that used to rule the waves, and administered Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and many more.  Britain has said little or nothing about Chinese cyberthreats or IP theft.  Britain was one of the first countries to join the Chinese counterpart to the IMF, the Asian Infastructure Investment Bank. 

In tourism, entertainment, and education, England has become a premier destination for Chinese. A 2015 story from CNN – London has become a favorite destination for young couples to take wedding photos and Chinese viewers are captivated in the millions by shows like “Sherlock Holmes” and “Downton Abbey” … Affluent Chinese parents are sending their children to British schools after some of the most notable names in British education have established campuses in China.

Since 2012, I have written quite a few recommendations for Chinese students to study for a master’s degree in England, at Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham, and Manchester.  Only one for a student wishing to study in the US.

China in England to date

China has a one-third interest in England’s first nuclear power plant in three decades, has substantial investments in the Heathrow and Manchester airports, two premier league soccer clubs, and in London’s tallest building.   The UK has been the top EU destination for foreign investment, and is China’s second largest trade partner in Europe.  Huawei is a top supplier to British Telecom, with apparently few qualms on the British side.  Huawei has told British lawmakers that it wants five years to correct identified problems that it denies having in any case.  Ok.   In May, 2016,  London was granted the right to do RMB trade closings  and Chinese government bonds can now be issued in London.   The RMB is now included in the IMF basket of currencies used for calculation of special drawing rights, which can be freely traded for currencies of member countries.  Some big Chinese banks, like China Construction Bank and the Bank of China, have adopted London as their European financial center, although that could easily change.  The nuclear plant deal at Hinkley Point will give two state owned Chinese companies a one-third stake in ownership, with Chinese involvement expected in two future nuclear plants, including a Chinese-designed reactor. 

China in England going forward

Better for China, and worse for negotiators in Britain, is that China will still want strong relations with the EU and will no longer see England as the easy backdoor to the rest of Europe.  In particular, British based banks and investment firms will be representing only Britain, not the rest of Europe.  With regard to the RMB clearinghouse function, Britain will provide access to a market of 65 million people rather than the EU 500 million people.

As the UK economy deteriorates, so will the value of Chinese investments in England, but so will the ability of Britain to strike hard bargains anywhere.  British companies in China have been optimistic about the fallout from Brexit.  But to the extent their concerns are with IP theft or cyberthreats, internet access, or unequal trade practices, they should not expect much support coming from London.  Britain will become a less expensive country in which to invest, British goods will become cheaper in China, but British companies selling in China will find a tougher road.  The British companies are not known for doing well in heavily competitive markets like China.  Supporters of democracy and free speech in Hong Kong should not expect any more moral support from Britain.

Britain will need trade deals quickly, China will not, and in such a balance England should expect to give a little more on political support for Chinese foreign policies and trade policies, despite the early reticence of Mrs. May to Chinese deals.  China will see a weak Britain, the former colonialist, opium supplier and burner of the Summer Palace (yuanmingyuan, Garden of Perfect Brightness) in 1860.  There will be artifacts from the looting of the Summer Palace that China will want returned, but there will be more important concessions demanded.  China will want Britain as a partner in establishing China as the global standard-setter in media relations, internet availability, business practices, finance, and foreign trade.  China might be able to get a good part of that agenda.

win-win

For China, the timing is perfect.  The US will need to consider carefully its special relationship with a Britain that has Huawei internet tools and supports Chinese trade and financial practices.  With Europe worried about the nearer threat from the east, in Russia, China may be able to strike better deals in the remaining EU as well. 

Even without a firm trade deal, China will be ready to help Britain as much as it is to China’s benefit.  Britain, after all, will be another developing economy in need of assistance, and win-win is always the Chinese mantra in such deals.  A win for China in England, perhaps a win for China in the EU, perhaps a win for China in the UN and other international forums.  In 2019 – 70 years after the creation of “new China” – we may see a new Britain as well. 

No Wechat conversation is safe. Anytime. Anywhere. What Chinese are (not) talking about (4)

Wechat is almost universal.  It is ubiquitous in China, and among the Chinese diaspora and their foreign friends and families.  Its functionality for social media, news, and buying things makes it a better choice than any combination of applications available in the west.  It is Twitter, Facebook, Googlemaps, Tinder and Apple Pay all rolled into one. And it is free.

Free does not mean without cost, of course, and in this case, the cost is the Chinese government being ready, willing, and able to monitor what you say, what you text, what you watch, what videos you post.  In China and outside.  If you think the long arm of Chinese government censorship doesn’t reach into the US – well, you would be wrong. 

SupChina cites a new report from Citizen Lab on WeChat censorship, surveillance, and filtering.  Citizen Lab is based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of  Toronto.  The lab studies government information controls, such as censorship surveillance and filtering, that affect the openness and security of the internet that pose threats to human rights.  Citizen Lab seems to be an extraordinarily sophisticated (to me, anyway) information provider for anyone interested in international government monitoring of individual communications.  Highly recommended.  Read the wiki.

The Citizen Lab report is (Can’t) Picture This2: An Analysis of Wechat’s Realtime Image Filtering in Chats. 

Two key findings on international scrutiny of chat images and texts –

WeChat implements realtime, automatic censorship of chat images based on text contained in images and on an image’s visual similarity to those on a blacklist

WeChat facilitates realtime filtering by maintaining a hash index populated by MD5 hashes of images sent by users of the chat platform

As the predominant form of personal communication in China, Wechat receives directives directly from the government as to what should be filtered.

Wechat Moments, Group Chat, and one-to-one communications are filtered differently.  Not surprisingly, filtering is heaviest for political, government, and social resistance topics.

Sometimes, the filtering does seem a bit much. A pdf of a student resume, sent to me in May of this year from China, was received in early July.  Three short videos of my son at swimming lessons, sent from China to Chicago, were blocked on July 19.  One doubts that the swimming pool could be understood as a state secret, but you never know. For the government, better safe than sorry in censorship.  Last year, I was talking about events in Xinjiang with government friends of mine.  They had fairly high-ranking jobs in a city police department, and I know they had access to information before it was disseminated to the public.  They knew nothing of events in Xinjiang.  That could have been feigned ignorance; but other Chinese colleagues suggested that no, my friends really did not know anything.  “Everything is fine in Xinjiang,” they told me.

An example from the Citizen Lab report –

 Figure 1: Top, a Canadian account sending an image memorializing Liu Xiaobo over 1-to-1 chat; bottom, the Chinese account does not receive it.

Stephen McDonnell, a BBC reporter in Beijing, describes being locked out of Wechat in China Social Media: WeChat and the Surveillance State.  As he describes it, life becomes almost unbearable without access.  He could not get a taxi, call friends or colleagues, contact sources for news stories, get airplane or train or movie tickets, make children’s school arrangements, or pay for almost anything.  He was locked out while in Hong Kong covering the recent protests.  He was allowed back in only when he provided his voice print and face print for WeChat.  Now, as he says, no doubt he has joined some list of suspicious individuals in the hands of goodness knows which Chinese government agencies.

For anyone with morbid curiosity, here is a friendly guide in English on installing and using WeChat.  Enjoy!