China News 18 June 2020
International
Huawei is a national security threat, warns ex-Google boss. Eric Schmidt claimed there was 'no question' Huawei engaged in practices that threatened Western powers. “There’s no question that information from Huawei routers has ultimately ended up in hands that would appear to be the state,” Mr Schmidt said in a BBC interview. He likened Huawei to spy organisations such as GCHQ, describing their operations as a form of “signals intelligence” that work on behalf of the state. He called on western firms to build more advanced technologies to compete with the Chinese telecoms giant. Telegraph, 18 June
Beijing building vast DNA database of all males. Police in China are collecting DNA samples from men and boys from across the country to build a genetic database of of its roughly 700 million males, giving the authorities a powerful new tool for their emerging high-tech surveillance state. NY Times, 17 June and ASPI, Genomic Surveillance report
John Bolton says Trump pleaded with China to help win the 2020 election and backed Xinjiang crackdown. In one instance, Trump and President Xi Jinping were discussing hostility to China in the US. “Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win,” Bolton writes. “He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.” Bolton says that when Xi defended China’s internment of Uighur Muslims in detention camps. “According to our interpreter,” Bolton writes, “Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do.”
He said Mr Trump weakened penalties on ZTE, a Chinese telecoms company, and offered to halt the prosecution of Huawei to help get a trade deal that he believed would help him win re-election. Trump also refused to issue a statement commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. “That was 15 years ago,” he told Bolton (it was the 30th anniversary). “Who cares about it? I’m trying to make a deal. I don’t want anything.” FT, Guardian, 17 June
G7 make statement on Hong Kong: “China’s decision is not in conformity with the Hong Kong Basic Law and its international commitments under the principles of the legally binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration. The proposed national security law would risk seriously undermining the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and the territory’s high degree of autonomy.” Statement, 17 June
US Telecom Committee recommends approval of Taiwan and Philippines sections of trans-Pacific cable, but denies Hong Kong section because of China's increasing control there. BBC, 18 June
Brutal details emerge of deadly China-India border clash. Details of the clash that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead near the Chinese border have begun to trickle out, revealing that soldiers used improvised weapons, including batons wrapped in barbed wire, during the high-altitude brawl. The Times of India says: “It could be a warning to India not to join the diplomatic chorus, absolutely legitimate, for an independent investigation of coronavirus’s origins. By getting New Delhi to kowtow to its diplomatic positions, Beijing would also be sending a strong signal to other neighbouring countries about who holds the whip hand in Asia, and get them to fall in line.” FT, Times of India, 17 June
How India and China’s deadliest clash in decades came about. SCMP, 17 June
China to Waive Some African Loan Payments Due This Year. President Xi said China will waive some African nations’ debt and is willing to provide further support including loan-maturity extensions to free up funds needed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic during a video conference with African leaders. Bloomberg, Xinhua 17 June
Hong Kong and other disagreements dominate US-China Hawaii meeting. SCMP, 18 June
Beijing criticises Copenhagen Democracy Summit. Global Times, 17 June
Beijing funding pro-China summer camps in the Philippines. Yunnan-Net, 16 June
Economy/Tech
TikTok users posts appear to get up-rated if they gush about China. WSJ, 17 June, and Quartz, 28 May
EU chides China and others for IP breaches — again. FT, Report, 18 June
EU Seeks to Counter Chinese Trade Threat With M&A Curbs. In a bid to rein in Beijing’s trade ambitions on the continent, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager unveiled plans on Wednesday to bolster local industries in fighting back against M&A and unfair competition from rivals subsidised by foreign states. Bloomberg, 17 June, FT, 18 June
China Asks Banks to Forgo $211 Billion to Help Boost Economy. Beijing is recapitalising small banks with $28 billion to deal with bad debts, while setting limits on bank profits. Caixin, 17 June * Bloomberg, June 18
Chinese AI researchers based overseas sweep top awards. The Best Paper award went to a study led by Shangzhe Wu, a Chinese PhD student at Oxford University. SCMP, 18 June
China-India Clashes May Spur Companies to Rework Supply Pacts. Bloomberg, 17 June
Longer reads & opinion
Debt relief with Chinese characteristics. “As China is poised to become the world’s largest creditor, concerns about debt sustainability have grown. Yet considerable confusion exists over what is likely to happen when a government runs into trouble repaying its Chinese loans… While rescheduling by increasing the repayment period is common, changes in interest rates, reductions in principal (“haircuts”), or refinancing are not.” Johns Hopkins China-Africa Project, 17 June
Yum China: winging it. FT, 17 June
Shuli Ren: You Think Huawei Has Problems? So Does China’s Other Tech Giant. Bloomberg, 17 June
China’s Media Influence Has Gone Global. So Has the Pushback. The Diplomat, 17 June
Resetting Canada's approach to China. MacDonaldLaurier, 18 June
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