The two sessions, US to probe security risks, and state security law to include 'work secrets'
The two sessions, US to probe security risks, and state security law to include 'work secrets'
+ US allows China to boost passenger flights
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THROUGH THE LENS
XINJIANG
Xinjiang Abuses Show Need for Robust EU Forced Labor Law
Human Rights Watch
Over the past year, Human Rights Watch has investigated forced labor in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China where Chinese government labor transfer programs coerce Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims away from their homes and into jobs in factories and warehouses. Uncovering the products and materials linked to forced labor, from the aluminum in cars to the polysilicon in solar panels, that enter undetected into global supply chains is extremely challenging.
The difficulties around this work underscore why a new European Union law banning imports and exports linked to forced labor needs specific measures to tackle state-imposed forced labor.
POLITICS & SOCIETY
The ‘two sessions’: what to watch for during China’s biggest political event of the year
SCMP
At a time of economic headwinds and political uncertainty, the focus this year is expected to be on how Beijing interprets and plans to address issues like the rapidly ageing population and deflationary risks.
It begins on Monday, when more than 2,000 members of the CPPCC – the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – will gather in Beijing to hear the annual work report of the advisory body.
The first day of the legislative session on Tuesday will get more attention, when Premier Li Qiang will deliver his maiden government work report in front of nearly 3,000 National People’s Congress deputies.
Li will outline how the economy has performed in the past year, including the closely watched GDP growth rate, and set out the new growth target, policy agenda and budgets for the year ahead.
In the days that follow – it is not yet known how long the meetings will run for – the work report, budget and other bills in the legislative session will be deliberated and generally rubber-stamped.
Other events to watch will be the foreign minister’s press conference, President Xi Jinping’s speech to wrap up the event, and the premier’s news briefing after the closing ceremony.
What to Watch at China’s Two Sessions in 2024
Asia Society
China watchers will be paying special attention to this Two Sessions because General Secretary Xi Jinping has yet to call a Third Plenum of the Party’s Central Committee, which traditionally approves economic reforms, and Premier Li Qiang will deliver his first government work report. This article analyzes four categories of watchpoints […]
Ousted Defense Minister Li Shangfu Removed from Top Military Body
Caixin
China's former Defense Minister, Li Shangfu, has been removed from the country’s top military decision-making body, marking the latest development since his dismissal from office last October.
Li’s name has been scrubbed from the list of top leaders in the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission (CMC) published on the Defense Ministry’s official website.
Presided over by President Xi Jinping, the party’s CMC is China’s top military command body and mirrors the composition of the state’s CMC in China’s parallel party-government structure. Its membership is decided by the Central Committee.
China’s former foreign minister Qin Gang steps down as a lawmaker
NBC News
China’s former foreign minister, Qin Gang, who has been missing from public view since June, has resigned from the national legislature, state media reported Tuesday.
Qin was dismissed as foreign minister in July, in one of China’s biggest political surprises in years.
China broadens law on state secrets to include ‘work secrets’
Al Jazeera
Chinese lawmakers have expanded Beijing’s state secrets law for the first time since 2010, widening the scope of restricted sensitive information to “work secrets”, according to state media.
China’s top legislative body passed the revised Law on Guarding State Secrets on Tuesday and it will take effect from May 1, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Analysts say the expanded law is further evidence of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s increased focus on national security. This has already led to a wide-ranging update to Beijing’s anti-espionage law last April, which some countries fear could be used to punish regular business activities.
Raids last year by Chinese police on several management consultancies, including Mintz Group and Bain & Co, have raised concerns among the foreign business community in China. A Japanese pharmaceutical executive has also been detained in Beijing on espionage allegations since last March.
The increasing challenge of obtaining information from Xi's China
MERICS
This report focuses on China’s securitization of online information from two angles: the decreasing transparency of China’s government in general and, more specifically, restrictions targeting foreign access. On the one hand, authorities are gradually reducing the amount of information they release to the public—especially affecting domains subject to intensified geopolitical competition like technology policy. Making government action more opaque, the decline in transparency affects Chinese citizens and foreign observers equally. On the other hand, the government is rolling out both regulatory and technical means to block access to potentially sensitive information from abroad. As a result, in the immediate future, stakeholders will have to face global challenges with less information to guide them.
Two Chinese bloggers in exile warn that police are interrogating their followers
AP
Two prominent Chinese bloggers in exile said police were investigating their millions of followers on international social media platforms, in an escalation of Beijing’s attempts to clamp down on critical speech even outside of the country’s borders.
Former state broadcaster CCTV journalist Wang Zhi’an and artist-turned-dissident Li Ying, both Chinese citizens known for posting uncensored Chinese news, said in separate posts Sunday that police were interrogating people who followed them on social media, and urged followers to take precautions such as unfollowing their accounts, changing their usernames, avoiding Chinese-made phones and preparing to be questioned.
FCCC statement on harassment of reporters in Chengdu
Foreign Correspondents' Club of China
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China is extremely disturbed by the treatment of Dutch journalists during a recent reporting trip in Chengdu. This incident comes amid widespread reports from FCCC members of increasing harassment and obstruction across China, as they try to fulfil their legally-protected role to report on the country.
Video from Dutch broadcaster NOS shows their correspondent being shoved to the ground and his bag taken from him by a man who later identified himself as a police officer, while the journalists were attempting to cover a demonstration outside a bank.
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