Chinese orgs love signing MOUs
The CCP - or, better, the China Scholarship Council (CSC) under the rule of the CCP - forces Chinese students and researchers to sign ‘loyalty pleadges’ before giong abroad saying they “shall consciously safeguard the honor of the motherland, (and) obey the guidance and management of embassies (consulates) abroad.” The restrictive scholarship contract requires them to report back to the Chinese embassy on a regular basis, and anyone who violates these conditions is subject to disciplinary action.
In one investigation,
Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow working on China at the German Marshall Fund, sees the CSC contract as a demonstration of the Chinese Communist Party’s “mania for control.”
“People are actively encouraged to intervene if anything happens that might not be in the country’s interest,” Ohlberg said.
Harming China’s interests is in fact considered the worst possible breach of the contract.
“It’s even listed ahead of possible involvement in crimes, so effectively even ahead of murder,” she noted. “China is making its priorities very clear here.”
[…] Kai Gehring, the chair of German parliament’s Committee for Education and Research, says the CSC contracts are “not compatible” with Germany’s Basic Law, which guarantees academic freedom.
In Sweden, for example, universities have already cancelled the collaboration with the CSC over this practice.
There is ample evidence that China uses scientific collaboration with private companies as well as universities and research organizations for spying. You’ll find many independent reports on that as well as of the CCP’s intimidation practices of Chinese students who don’t comply with the party line, e.g., in Australia and elsewhere. It’s easy to find reliable sources on the (Western) web.
That’s right. Just pasted the original content without recognizing it, my fault. Just added it now in the body.
The report is based upon 1,691 files from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) …
Yeah, and sometimes the ‘Western’ media is, in fact, Chinese:
NewsBreak: Most downloaded US news app has Chinese roots and ‘writes fiction’ using AI
It says a fine or ‘up to 10 years in prison’.
Yes, and let us not forget China’s access to the Arctic for its Polar Silk Road.
I have long been blocked there :-)
Last year, researchers at AidData, the World Bank, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany found that Beijing has dramatically expanded emergency rescue lending to sovereign borrowers in financial distress —or outright default- when the China’s Belt and Road Investments have failed.
Essentially, however, China has been bailing out its own banks, the study found. You can download the study here.
TLDR:
China had undertaken 128 rescue loan operations across 22 debtor countries worth $240 billion [by March 2023 when the study was published]. These include many so-called “rollovers,” in which the same short-term loans are extended again and again to refinance maturing debts.
Less than 5 percent of Beijing’s overseas lending portfolio supported borrower countries in distress in 2010, but that figure soared to 60 percent by 2022. Therefore, China’s new funding schemes pivoted away from infrastructure project lending to ramping up liquidity support operations. Nearly 80% of its emergency rescue lending was issued between 2016 and 2021.
China does not offer bailouts to all BRI borrowers: low-income countries are typically offered a debt restructuring that involves a grace period or final repayment date extension but no new money, while middle-income countries tend to receive new money to avoid default. The reason is that these middle-income countries represent 80% or more than $500 billion of China’s total overseas lending, thus posing major balance sheet risks, so Chinese banks have incentives to keep them afloat via bailouts.
Borrowing from Beijing in emergency situations comes at a high price. Rescue loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) carries a 2% interest rate, while the average interest rate attached to a Chinese rescue loan is 5% in comparable situations.
It’s a bad life in China as a journalist unless you parrot the Chinese communist party’s propaganda. “China is the world’s largest jailer of journalists, with more than 100 currently detained," as the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced last week when they released 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
China ranked 172nd among 180 countries and regions. Compared with Chiba’s 2023 ranking of 179th—second last place—China’s ranking has increased only because of the deterioration of situations in other countries, such as in the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, rather than any improvement in China.
RSF’s report also said that “in addition to detaining more journalists than any other country in the world,” the Chinese communist regime “continues to exercise strict control over information channels, implementing censorship and surveillance policies to regulate online content and restrict the spread of information deemed to be sensitive or contrary to the party line.”
There’s also a website dedicated to the film for those interested: https://total-trust.org
French lawmakers officially recognise China’s treatment of Uyghurs as ‘genocide’ — (2022)
France’s parliament on Thursday denounced a “genocide” by China against its Uyghur Muslim population […] The non-binding resolution, adopted with 169 votes in favour and just one against […] reads that the National Assembly “officially recognises the violence perpetrated by the People’s Republic of China against the Uyghurs as constituting crimes against humanity and genocide”.
It also calls on the French government to undertake “the necessary measures within the international community and in its foreign policy towards the People’s Republic of China” to protect the minority group in the Xinjiang region.
I have been observing this two for some time. I don’t know what it is specifically here, but generally it might often be some whataboutism by some tankies I guess.
An example how the Chinese government is using espionage in its own country.
10 ‘spy’ cases China’s Ministry of State Security wants you to know about
In most of the world 15 April goes unnoticed. But in China, 15 April is Chinese National Security Education Day.
To mark the occasion, China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) posted a half-hour video on their official WeChat channel titled “Innovation Leads · Forging the Sword of National Security”. WeChat is China’s dominant social media app. Chinese and foreign media also covered the program’s release.
Here is an alternative link to the video posted in the article: https://invidious.protokolla.fi/watch?v=z8qdFHT9t3k
There is another article containing more images:
Australian PM seeks closer ties with Vietnam as hedge against China
Australia is poised to join a small group of countries holding the highest level of diplomatic ties with Vietnam, as Anthony Albanese looks to build connections with key South-East Asian nations as a hedge against China.
[…] China’s foreign ministry and state-run media pushed against Australia and the Philippines deepening maritime security co-operation, after President Ferdinand Marcos jnr’s address to the Australian parliament.
The President of Renew Europe, Valérie Hayer, has written to President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, calling for the launch of an immediate and transparent investigation, in cooperation with national authorities, to uncover the scale of the influence operation conducted by Russia within the European Parliament and allegations of potential corruption. Disciplinary action must be swiftly taken against any MEPs or candidates involved.
[…]
‘European voters need to know if their MEPs or candidates in the upcoming elections are working with the support of Russia or its proxies. Democracy in Europe must be defended from external threats at all costs,’ [Ms. Hayer wrote.]
From Chinese students in Germany, a technology promise to the motherland - (2014)
Illustrating the grip the Communist party and government try to maintain on overseas Chinese students, researchers and business people, an exchange of letters between President Xi Jinping and Chinese students in Germany has produced passionate promises from the students to serve the motherland - and deliver advanced technology backed to China, the state news media reported.
[…]
To at least one Western intelligence official, the exchange was a textbook exercise in ensuring a steady flow of science and technology back to China from educational institutions and companies in the West.
[Edit typo.]
I posted this elsewhere already, but it also fits here goven many of the posts in this thread: It is not just about data/privacy concerns (which are underestimated imo, as China pursues an own agenda with collecting your data through Chinese tech) and ‘unfair’ subsidies, but about gross human rights violations.
In short, some parts of the cheap Chinese cars are made in concentration camps where people are forced to work under catastrophic conditions.