Month: October 2022

A Godfather of Chinese Nationalism Has Second Thoughts

Chin@Strategy

Wang Xiaodong once gave a speech declaring that “China’s forward march is unstoppable.” He published essays calling on China to build up its military. He co-wrote a book, bluntly titled “China Is Unhappy,” in which he said the country should aim to control more land and shape global politics. “We should lead this world,” he said. Now, Mr. Wang, a 66-year-old Beijing-based writer once called the standard-bearer of Chinese nationalism, has another message: That nationalism has gone too far. For years, it was Mr. Wang whom many Chinese dismissed as…

Pentagon’s Strategy Says China and Russia Pose More Dangerous Challenges

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WASHINGTON — Eight months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as China pushes to increase its nuclear, space and cyberforces, the Pentagon outlined a sweeping new strategy on Thursday that called for more robust deterrence at an increasingly tense moment in international security. The document, the National Defense Strategy, which also includes reviews of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and missile defenses, has been circulating for months in classified form on Capitol Hill. The last national defense strategy, published in 2018 by the Trump administration, was the first since the end…

China brushes off US request to resume military dialogues

Chin@Strategy

“If the US side wants to improve military communication between China and the US, then it should match words with deeds, demonstrate its sincerity, and earnestly respect China’s interests and major concerns, and remove the negative factors that impede the development of ties between the two militaries,” he said. Tan added that while China recognised the importance of maintaining military dialogues and ties with the US, it has “its principles and bottom lines”. 02:46 Mainland China launches largest military drill in the Taiwan Strait after Pelosi’s visit In retaliation to…

Police investigate claim of secret Chinese police stations in Canada

Chin@Strategy

Canada’s federal police force is investigating reports that clandestine Chinese “police stations” are operating in Toronto amid reports of a global network used to target overseas dissidents. The Royal Canada Mounted Police said it was investigating “reports of criminal activity in relation to the so-called ‘police’ stations” but did not specify the location of the sites. The police also warned that “foreign states may seek to intimidate or harm communities or individuals within Canada”. The revelations come days after the Dutch government said it was investigating two suspected stations. The…

Fear and anger inside the world’s largest iPhone factory as Foxconn workers vent about Covid-19 restrictions on social media

Chin@Strategy

The struggles experienced on the Foxconn campus, which has nearly 300,000 workers, reflect the challenge for the Chinese government as it seeks to meet economic targets while maintaining zero tolerance for any Covid outbreaks. While the company has been offering an additional daily allowance of 50 yuan (US$7) for workers who show up at work to ensure timely delivery of Apple’s new iPhone 14 series, employees have also been told to follow strict rules, including taking fixed routes in commuting between dormitories and their workplaces. Advertisement On the internet, workers…

China and America are barely speaking, though crises loom

Chin@Strategy

During Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, tempests buffeted relations between America and China. There was a trade war, backed by presidential tweets “hereby” ordering American businesses to leave China. There was also mutual finger-pointing over the origins of covid-19, including conspiracy theories, promoted by Chinese diplomats, that the virus began in an American military laboratory. In 2020 Mr Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, urged his country to see clearly its differences with the “bankrupt, totalitarian” ideology of the Communist Party, and to empower the Chinese people…

China’s problem with female representation is getting worse

Chin@Strategy

In the 1980s Chen Muhua was one of China’s few female leaders at the national level, holding positions such as deputy prime minister. Later, as chair of the All-China Women’s Federation, a Communist Party-led body, she expressed dissatisfaction with the number of women in government—and promised that reforms would bring new opportunities. They have not. So in his report to the party congress on October 16th, President Xi Jinping echoed Chen’s promises, saying he would select and cultivate female officials. He has not. When the party’s new leadership was revealed…

Xi Jinping has surrounded himself with loyalists

Chin@Strategy

Three times in the past decade, Xi Jinping has led the same ceremony in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. With six men in single file behind him, he has walked through golden doors into a cavernous room, waving at seated journalists. In a carefully choreographed manoeuvre, he has stopped mid-podium, letting three of his colleagues take up positions on either side of him—equidistant and equally wooden, their arms kept still by their sides except to clap. The latest such unveiling of the country’s most powerful men, held on October…

China Accused of Using Overseas Bases to Target Dissidents

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Advertisement China has reportedly established dozens of “overseas police stations” in nations around the world that activists fear could be used to track and harass dissidents as part of Beijing’s crackdown on corruption. Information about the outposts underscored concerns about the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s influence over its citizens abroad, sometimes in ways deemed illegal by other countries, as well as the undermining of democratic institutions and the theft of economic and political secrets by bodies affiliated with the one-party state. Spanish-based non-government group Safeguard Defenders published a report last…