China News 11 June 2020
International
Zoom disables accounts of former Tiananmen Square student leader “to comply with local law”. Chinese dissidents in the US had accounts cancelled just ahead of a video call commemorating the 1989 massacre, which included people in China. Last month, the government stopped Zoom from allowing individual users to sign up in China. Zoom later suggested that the Tiananmen commemoration had violated local laws, saying that “We strive to limit actions taken to those necessary to comply with local law . . . We regret that a few recent meetings with participants both inside and outside of China were negatively impacted.” Guardian, FT, Axios, WSJ, Washington Post, 11 June
Arm losing control over Chinese joint venture. UK chip designer Arm has tried to sack the CEO of its joint venture in China over misconduct, but the affiliate has refused. The FT reports that “The boardroom fight has placed a fresh spotlight on Arm’s business in China, which has been dogged by concerns of technology transfer after the UK group sold a 51 per cent interest in its Chinese subsidiary to a consortium of local financial investors.” Alex Capri, a research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation said: “Arm is a U.K.-based company but they have a huge amount of activities in the U.S. and in the U.S. ecosystem. What could make this really messy is that the US could start to put pressure on Arm to cut off its Chinese entity.” Technode notes that the affair echoes issues with Imagination Technologies earlier this year. Telegraph, FT, Caixin, Technode, 11 June, Bloomberg, 9 June
Hong Kong:
“There’s no such thing as police brutality in Hong Kong”. Interviewed in English on Deutsche Welle, the leader of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing “New People's Party” Ye Liu Shuyi said that there was no police brutality. Challenged about police shooting an unarmed man in the stomach she argued that “an unarmed man can still be dangerous”. She said “our motherland has nothing but good intentions towards Hong Kong.” DW Chinese, 11 June & clip
Police fire pepper balls and arrest more than 50 as pro-democrats mark anniversary of last year’s protests. HKFP, 10 June
UK Foreign Secretary calls on Beijing to pull back. Dominic Raab made the call in the UK’s regular sixth-monthly report the Hong Kong. The Law Society, the professional body for some 10,000 lawyers in Hong Kong, also issued a statement to call for Beijing to exercise restraint. In the Commons Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael welcomed the report, but called on the UK government to go further. SCMP, 11 June & FCO report
RTHK told to “embrace” security law. The move comes after a satire show was axed. RTHK, 10 June
Punish Hong Kong pupils who chant slogans, sing political songs or form human chains, education chief tells principals. HKFP, 10 June
China Offers Shots to Workers Going Abroad Amid Vaccine Race. China is offering employees of some large state-run companies the option of being inoculated with two coronavirus vaccines currently in development, illustrating how quickly authorities are moving to test the viability of the shots. Bloomberg, 10 June
It’s time to end China’s ‘United Front’ operations inside the United States. Washington Post, 10 June
US Sends Aircraft Carriers as China Makes Waves in the Pacific. USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz deployed under a new ‘bubble of health’ plan to prevent coronavirus outbreaks. WSJ, 10 June
Economy/Tech
A quiet panic is growing in US boardrooms over Huawei ban. Bloomberg reports on the looming 13 August deadline to comply with Section 889 of the National Defence Authorisation Act, which requires companies to certify that their entire global supply chain is devoid of equipment from Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision and other Chinese surveillance companies. Bloomberg, 11 June
The U.S. Tech War With China Is About to Get Messier. US companies are close to a deadline that requires them to certify that their entire global supply chain — not just the part of the business that sells to the US government — is devoid of gear from Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision and other targeted Chinese tech firms. Bloomberg, 10 June
TikTok Faces Scrutiny From EU Watchdogs Over Privacy Practices. Bloomberg, 10 June
TikTok trying to detatch from China? PingWest, 7 June
Google removes TikTok clone Zynn from Play Store after reports of plagiarism. The Verge, 10 June
COMAC boosted by big domestic orders. Global Times, 11 June
US offers to build UK's 5G and nuclear stations. Telegraph, 11 June
Longer reads and opinion
The Death of Engagement - Orville Schell, The Wire China, 7 June
Britain’s ties with China are set for a sea change. The FT backs a new approach but says the UK should not change previous Huawei decision. FT, 11 July
China's threat to walk away from Hinkley is a blessing for Britain - Ambrose Evans Pritchard, Telegraph, 11 July
David Pilling: Cold war with China is the wrong way to define US policy in Africa. FT, 10 June
The mystery document holding up China’s sale of Anbang hotels. FT, 11 June
Shuna O'Dwyer: A chill descends on Chinese scholars in Japan. The Japan Times, 10 June
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