Philippines increases South China Sea patrols, EU hits Chinese EVs with tariffs, and G7 confronts China
+ international film festival kicks off in Shanghai
Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly update on the latest news and developments from the country.
Whether you are a businessperson, investor, government official, academic, media outlet, or general reader, if you want to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in and related to China, I encourage you to subscribe.
Let’s jump into it.
THROUGH THE LENS
IN FOCUS
I. Pentagon’s anti-vax propaganda
“I’m sure that there are lots of people who died from COVID who did not need to die from COVID,” she said.
To implement the anti-vax campaign, the Defense Department overrode strong objections from top U.S. diplomats in Southeast Asia at the time, Reuters found. Sources involved in its planning and execution say the Pentagon, which ran the program through the military’s psychological operations center in Tampa, Florida, disregarded the collateral impact that such propaganda may have on innocent Filipinos.
“We weren’t looking at this from a public health perspective,” said a senior military officer involved in the program. “We were looking at how we could drag China through the mud.”
Read: Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccines
II. "Training future authoritarians"
Many developing country leaders, having witnessed the Chinese “economic miracle” in which it developed at a remarkable pace after first opening its economy to the world in the late 1970s, take seriously China’s narrative about the benefits of a more authoritarian system and are willing to consider the calculated risk of experimenting with what Beijing is offering. Even as China’s economic growth has slowed significantly and its political system has grown more repressive under Xi, the number of countries welcoming Chinese governance lessons continues to grow, enhancing Beijing’s global influence. This has significant implications for the future of democracy, the protection of individual rights, and the nature of the global order.
Read: A Global South with Chinese characteristics
III. Small Acts of Journalism
China Central Television, or CCTV (央視), is often likened to “the BBC of China.” But the comparison is a very imperfect one. While both take public funding, one has its editorial independence guaranteed by a royal charter, while the other is an unabashed mouthpiece for the ruling Communist Party. Day to day, both are motivated by different answers to the question of what journalism ought to be: is it holding power to account, or serving power?
For all its imperfections, however, Vivien Marsh teases interesting observations from this comparison. In her book Seeking Truth in International TV News China, CGTN and the BBC, Marsh draws on three decades of experience as a BBC global news editor, reporter and writer, to think about what makes China’s English-language, international-facing news coverage different — and what that says about the political system it serves.
Read: Small Acts of Journalism
XINJIANG
U.S. Bans Imports From 3 Chinese Companies Over Ties to Forced Labor
The New York Times
The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday added three Chinese companies to a list of firms whose products can no longer be exported to the United States, as part of what it described as an escalating crackdown on companies that aid in forced labor programs in Xinjiang.
The companies include a seafood processor, Shandong Meijia Group, that an investigation by the Outlaw Ocean Project identified as a business employing laborers brought to eastern China from Xinjiang — a far-western region of China where the government has detained and surveilled large numbers of minorities, including Uyghurs.
Another firm, Xinjiang Shenhuo Coal and Electricity, is an aluminum processor whose metal can be found in cars, consumer electronics and other products, a U.S. official said. The third, Dongguan Oasis Shoes, brought Uyghurs and people from other persecuted groups to its footwear factory in Guangdong, the U.S. government said.
With those additions, 68 companies now appear on the so-called entity list of firms that the U.S. government says participate in forced labor programs, nearly double the number at the beginning of the year.
POLITICS & SOCIETY
China #MeToo activist Huang sentenced to five years
DW
A court in China sentenced prominent #MeToo activist Huang Xueqin to five years in prison, convicting her of state subversion, according to a group campaigning for her release and a copy of the court verdict.
Labor rights activist Wang Jianbing, who was also on trial with Huang, was sentenced to three years and six months by the Guangdong Intermediate People's Court.
Huang, an independent journalist, reportedly plans to appeal her sentence. It is not clear whether Wang would also appeal his sentence.
"[The sentence] was longer than we expected," a spokesperson for the campaign group Free Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing said on the condition of anonymity.
"I don't think it should have been this severe, and it is completely unnecessary. We support Huang Xueqin's intention to appeal," he told Reuters news agency.
HRIC Condemns the Unjust Sentencing of Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing
Huang Xueqin is a well-respected activist and journalist, known for her tireless advocacy on behalf of #MeToo victims. Before her arrest, she had already undergone a period of “enforced disappearance” due to her reporting on the 2019 protests in Hong Kong. Wang Jianbing, a well-known labor activist, has been involved in public interest work since his graduation in 2005 and is a tireless supporter of workers and people with disabilities, as well as the #MeToo movement. In a statement, Wang’s father said: “[Jianbing] has made so many contributions to society and has done charity work for so many years. He can’t possibly be a harm to society (他对社会做了这么多贡献,做了这么多年公益事业。他不可能对社会有什么危害的).” Although both Huang and Wang were already targets for political suppression due to their long-term involvement in activist work, their arrest in this case was triggered by their role in organizing a small weekly social gathering, which Wang started and hosted at his home.
3rd Plenum Pulse: What to Expect (2)
David Daokui Li says China's decision makers have finally come around to stimulating domestic consumption rather than investment, and for that Beijing will provide more welfare.
More Chinese Cities Offer Cash Handouts to Encourage Baby Boom
Caixin
More than 30 Chinese cities have provided subsidies and incentives to encourage mothers to have more children. Experts, however, say it isn’t enough to stop the country’s falling birth rate.
Hefei, capital of eastern China’s Anhui province, is the latest to offer cash handouts to encourage childbirth as China struggles with a sharp demographic shift.
Authorities in Hefei announced a one-time subsidy of 2,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan ($280 to $700) to families bearing two and three children. Hefei’s incentives are modest compared with Chinese localities offering between 3,000 yuan and 60,000 yuan.
But experts said local policies are not enough to change China’s declining birth rate. They called for national level policies with broader supports toward childbearing and education.
Even without a criminal conviction, Chinese hurt by minor stain on their record
SCMP
For decades, a footnote on a police clearance has been enough to deny many Chinese a range of opportunities, from education and public service exams, to employment and career advancement.
The clearance is called a “certificate of no criminal conviction” and confirms that the holder has not been found guilty of a criminal act.
It is needed for various administrative purposes but it can also contain a footnote of minor violations, such as traffic infringements, that can deal a fatal blow to any application.
Proposed changes to the Public Security Administration Punishment Law would clear that record for people under 18 years of age, expunging minor infractions, such as cheating on exams, disturbing bus drivers and releasing sky lanterns.
But experts say the changes now being considered by the national legislature, the National People’s Congress, need to go much further and clear the record of minor violations for all adults.
“Many people have been affected by the existence of these records, which can prevent them from obtaining jobs, getting married, or even starting a business,” Luo Xiang, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said in an interview with China News Weekly late last month.
The Chinese government is conducting the largest review of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law since 2012 and a second review will be submitted to NPC, and released for public comment this month.
China’s former anti-terrorism chief Liu Yuejin under investigation for corruption
SCMP
China’s first counterterrorism commissioner, Liu Yuejin, has been placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing drive targeting the security sector.
Liu, 65, who also served as assistant minister of public security, is suspected of “serious violations of party discipline and law” – the usual euphemism for corruption – according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s top graft-busting agency.
Liu, who stepped down from the anti-terror role in 2020, is the latest senior security official to fall following President Xi Jinping’s promise to “drive the blade inward”.
More Local Centers for Global Propaganda
China Media Project
The addition of external propaganda bases in Zhejiang and Tianjin over the past two weeks brings the total number at the provincial level to 23. These ICCs, also being launched at the city level, are meant to remake China’s approach to delivering its message externally.
Why China takes young Tibetans from their families
The Economist
An ever-larger majority of Tibetan youths attend state-run boarding schools at the primary and secondary level, and in extreme cases pre-schools. That is true whether they live in the harshly policed Tibet Autonomous Region, or in the parts of historical Tibet that the Communist Party carved off and handed to the neighbouring provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan (these are run as “Tibetan autonomous prefectures”). At least 78% of Tibetan pupils board, according to official data collected by the Tibet Action Institute, an overseas campaign group.
Lessons in these schools marginalise Tibetan culture. Over the past few years Mandarin Chinese has replaced Tibetan as the medium of instruction, with Tibetan taught only as a language, alongside English. All pre-schools, including in ethnic areas, have used Mandarin since 2021, to “seize the key period of language learning in early childhood”, as the education ministry puts it.
Authorities call boarding schools “very convenient” for Tibetan farmers’ and herders’ children who would otherwise face “long and arduous journeys to school”. Officials insist that parents freely choose whether children board. In Qinghai, a rugged place with Han Chinese, Tibetan, Hui Muslim and Mongolian populations, the provincial government declared in 2018 that “in principle” children should board only when necessary, that they should not board until the fourth grade (ie, age 11), and that in remote pastoral areas school policies should follow “the wishes of the masses”.
Tibetan exiles and activists challenge this narrative. They cite state-media reports boasting of motherly care given to four- and five-year-olds in Tibetan boarding schools. They describe parents being threatened with fines or with a denial of schooling later on if they do not send children to board. Many Tibetan families see Mandarin as a path to employment. But as recently as the early 2000s Qinghai officials pursued that goal in more humane ways. To reduce drop-out rates and raise exam scores they expanded bilingual education, hired Tibetan teachers and accredited schools run by monks. Not now. Private Tibetan schools have been closed and teachers sacked for teaching Tibetan beyond the curriculum. This has sparked parent protests, including near Tongren in 2020.
Censors Take Down Discussion of Last Mongolian-language College Entrance Exams
China Digital Times
The Douban comment was not inflammatory. In fact, it didn’t even betray an overt opinion. But for censors, it was too much. “A note for posterity: this will be Inner Mongolia’s last Mongolian-language gaokao,” it read. Censors took it down shortly after it was posted. In 2025, phased reforms to China’s college entrance exam will extend to Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Qinghai, Ningxia, and other provinces in 2025, ending minority language-medium exams in those places. On Weibo, there are barely any mentions of the end of the Mongolian-medium gaokao—an indication the subject is being artificially repressed.
Xi Jinping, the urban theorist
Xi has strong thoughts and criticism of the way cities went about development in the post Deng era—criticizing the lack of planning, rush for profit over livability, and neglect of urban culture and ecological preservation. Xi’s view on cities have been an important aspect of his effort to remake urban governance in China. Efforts to centralize urban governance are part of an overall centralizing turn to reduce the autonomy of cities across a variety of dimensions. Whether Xi will be able to preside over further reforms to urban governance, such as hukou reform, or actually getting cities to adopt more sustainable fiscal systems and provision of public services will be a test of whether Xi’s ideas about cities are put into practice.
Shanghai’s Last Newspaper Stand to Close by End of the Year
RADII
The decline of newspaper stands in Shanghai reflects broader trends across China. Wuhan, too, is bidding farewell to its last newsstand, owned by an elderly couple and located on 111 Taipei Road. A short documentary by a film student on their newsstand gained traction on Xiaohongshu, highlighting the cultural significance of these humble stalls and the people who run them.
Factors contributing to the demise of newspaper stands are manifold, with the shift towards digital reading habits playing a pivotal role. Between 2008 and 2020, over 20,000 stands were dismantled due to the waning popularity of print media. Additionally, many stand owners have converted their spaces into snack and beverage stalls to increase profits, prompting city administrators to intervene, citing violations of municipal regulations.
Scenes from China’s 2024 Dragon Boat Festival
The Atlantic
In recent days, people in cities and villages across China have been celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival. Locals and tourists gather to watch dragon-boat races, enjoy traditional food, and pray for good luck during this annual summer folk festival. Gathered below are recent images from festivals in Foshan, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Beijing, and more.
HONG KONG & MACAO
Remaining British judges urged to resign from Hong Kong’s top court
The Guardian
Pressure is increasing on the last remaining British judges who sit in Hong Kong’s top court to resign, after two senior justices stepped down last week because of the “political situation” in the former British colony.
Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins resigned as non-permanent overseas judges from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal on Thursday. Collins cited the “political situation in Hong Kong” in a brief statement about his departure.
[…]
On Monday, the last remaining Canadian judge, Beverley McLachlin, announced that she would be retiring from the Hong Kong court of final appeal at the end of July.
A spokesperson for Hong Kong’s judiciary said that its “operation will not be affected by any change in membership of the court”.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Hong Kong government said that there was “absolutely no truth” to claims that the courts were subject to political pressure.
A senior lawyer in Hong Kong said there was now a “two-tier system” in Hong Kong, with foreign judges and lawyers blocked from working on cases relating to national security.
Only judges nominated by the chief executive can sit on national security cases, but the list of nominees is not made public.
Opinion: The rule of law in Hong Kong is in grave danger
Financial Times
Intimidated or convinced by the darkening political mood, many judges have lost sight of their traditional role as defenders of the liberty of the subject, even when the law allows it. There are guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly in both the Basic Law and the National Security Law, but only lip-service is ever paid to them. The least sign of dissent is treated as a call for revolution. Hefty jail sentences are dished out to people publishing “disloyal” cartoon books for children, or singing pro-democracy songs, or organising silent vigils for the victims of Tiananmen Square.
Hong Kong, once a vibrant and politically diverse community is slowly becoming a totalitarian state. The rule of law is profoundly compromised in any area about which the government feels strongly.
I was an overseas judge of the Court of Final Appeal until my resignation last week. I remained on the court in the hope that the presence of overseas judges would help sustain the rule of law. I fear that this is no longer realistic. Others are less pessimistic. I hope that they are proved right.
Annual EU report illustrates continuous deterioration of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong
European Commission
The 2023 annual report illustrates in great detail the continuous erosion of the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong and the dismantling of the ‘one country two systems’ principle. The political opposition in Hong Kong has been effectively excluded from elections. The National Security Law continues to be used to stifle dissent, including abroad. These developments undermine trust in the rule of law in Hong Kong and affect Hong Kong’s standing as an international business hub.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to What's Happening in China to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.