Digest: May 18-25, 2021

Issue: 2021/13

Neican Digest aggregates new China-related publications.

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Issue: 2021/13

• Date range: May 18-25, 2021

• Sources scanned: 86

• Content: 227 publications from 54 sources

• Download raw data (.csv)

Recommended readings:

1. What the West Gets Wrong About China (Rana Mitter and Elsbeth Johnson)

   Many people have wrongly assumed that political freedom would follow new economic freedoms in China and that its economic growth would have to be built on the same foundations as in the West…those assumptions are rooted in three essentially false beliefs about modern China: (1) Economics and democracy are two sides of the same coin; (2) authoritarian political systems can’t be legitimate; and (3) the Chinese live, work, and invest like Westerners. But at every point since 1949 the Chinese Communist Party—central to the institutions, society, and daily experiences that shape all Chinese people—has stressed the importance of Chinese history and of Marxist-Leninist doctrine. Until Western companies and politicians understand this and revise their views, they will continue to get China wrong.

2. We’re Not Ready for the Next Pandemic (Yangyang Cheng):

   While the party under Xi Jinping has tightened central control, power within the bureaucracy remains fragmented. A lack of transparency, rather than serving a uniform agenda, is often the result of conflicting interests. Recognizing this intricacy is the first step in addressing underlying issues, so the same mistakes are not repeated in the next pandemic.

3. What should Australia do about its foreign interference and espionage laws? (Melissa Conley Tyler and Julian Dusting):

   the challenge for countries like Australia is how to protect democratic institutions in ways consistent with national interests and values, distinguishing between foreign interference and mere influence by designing suitable instruments of policy in response. Some parts of the legislation achieve this: for example, the new offence of engaging in violence, intimidation or threats that interferes with political rights and duties in Australia. The problem is that the legislation is not sufficiently focused and fails to distinguish between foreign interference and mere influence.

   Australia has other options to strengthen its democracy, including against foreign powers. These range from real-time reporting of political donations and strengthened anti-corruption bodies to cultivating a more diverse media landscape. Overall, as Linda Jaivin puts it, the best way to deal with PRC autocracy cannot be to move in a similar direction.

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China Story:

• Do Belt and Road projects provide local benefits?

China Heritage:

• Other People’s Thoughts, XXIII

China Media Project:

• Unnatural Causes

• CGTN Apologizes for Premature Report of Scientist’s Death

• Sweeping Up the Government’s Social Media Mess

• Seeking Total Cyber Control

China Brief:

• Low Fertility Trap Fears Cloud China’s Release of 2020 Census Data

• Xi Jinping Stresses His Historical Preeminence in Preparation for the CCP Centenary

• China's Bid to Dominate Electrical Connectivity in Latin America

• Sustaining China’s Sovereignty Claims: The PLA’s Embrace of Unmanned Logistics

• Sino-Australian Relations and the Bumpy Road to the G7 Summit

Project Syndicate:

• What Explains America’s Antagonism Toward China?

• Sex and the Chinese Economy

The Atlantic:

• The Electric-Car Lesson That China Is Serving Up for America

The Economist:

• Why wealthy Chinese families recruit poor graduates as sons-in-law

• How disgruntled Chinese people talk about you-know-who

• Chinese parents are keen on a more Confucian education

Monkey Cage:

• South Korea rebuffed Trump. Here’s why it might cooperate with Biden.

Australian Financial Review:

• Carping about Port of Darwin sends anti-investment message

• Morrison is repeating Menzies’ Suez Crisis folly

Lowy Interpreter:

• Australia-China relations: More hurdles ahead

• Economic diplomacy: Budgeting for China and the price that matters

• A rare test of China diplomacy

East Asia Forum:

• Japan walks on a tightrope with its China policy

• Manila embraces the United States despite Duterte’s neglect

Pearls and Irritations:

• The rejected murder suspect and the Taiwan Government’s lack of interest in the Rule of Law.

• Combatting Australia’s anti-China rhetoric

• Max Suich, China and the greatest example of our diplomatic self harm

• Australian engagement with the PRC: universities need more, not less

• How to understand China: which books to read?

• Darkness in a propagandised state risks war with China.

The Strategist:

• Australia’s dangerously inadequate Taiwan policy debate

• How China’s military–civil fusion policy ties into its push for world-class universities

ChinaFile:

• How Should the U.S. Respond to China’s Military-Civil Fusion Strategy?

• A Letter to My Editors and to China’s Censors

Sixth Tone:

• Reenacting Her Mother’s Final Days, a Director Found Solace

• China’s Thousands of Small Dams Struggle to Stay Afloat

• To China’s Elderly, Apps Present Hurdles, Not Help

• The Big Problems Facing China’s Small Fisheries

• Tracing Shanghai’s Red History

• The Problem With China’s English-Only Schools

• A Brief History of Chinese Vaccination Campaigns

• Training Our Tongues to Forget

• Have Allergy Issues? Blame Bad Urban Planning.

• As China Pursues a Green Future, Bitcoin Miners Feel the Squeeze

China Digital Times:

• Beijing Mourns “Father of Hybrid Rice” Yuan Longping as it Censors Critical Remarks

• E.U. Puts Investment Deal with China On Hold as Beijing Refuses to Back Down on Sanctions

• Translation: How One Man Goes on Living After His Daughter Jumped to Her Death

• U.K.’s China Influencers Debate Sino-British Relationship

• Beijing Uses Global Lead on Vaccinations for Diplomatic Leverage

• NüVoices Podcast: Censorship and Resistance, with Sophie Beach

• Netizen Voices: “Divorces Haven’t Decreased, Just Been Postponed.”

• Despite Rhetoric, Apple Compromises on Data Security, Human Rights in China

Quartz:

• Taiwan’s Covid-19 crisis adds gravity to its plea for a bigger role at the WHO

• China’s vaccine outreach in Africa is falling short of Beijing’s pledges

• Facebook is trying to emulate China’s e-commerce model

• Covid-19 has led to a surge in Chinese exports of oxygen concentrators

• What the UK can teach the world about engaging with China

• Steve Tsang, the Hong Kong academic calling for dialogue with China

• Charles Parton, the ex-diplomat “fascinated” by China’s Communist Party

• Isabel Hilton, the journalist engaging China on climate change

• Kerry Brown, the academic defending the Chinese perspective

• Glossary: The jargon, acronyms, and historical terms that frame the UK-China relationship

Inside Story:

• Beijing blackout

• At a hinge point in history

• Becoming Taiwanese

Politico China Watcher:

• Beijing’s looming Olympic debacle

Politico China Direct:

• Borrell’s Asia trip — Frozen deal — EU vs Confucius

Protocol | China:

• China’s Big Tech mega-fines

The Wire China:

• Sex and the Chinese Economy

• Roger Garside on Strategy, Sanctions and the “China Coup”

• A Year of Little Merging

• What Explains America’s Antagonism Toward China?

• Whose News?

• Extra! Extra!

SupChina:

• Yuan Longping, China’s father of hybrid rice, dies aged 90

• The bestselling author who encouraged children to be themselves

• 21 dead in Gansu ultramarathon due to extreme weather

• Beijing rolls out tuition guidelines for after-school tutoring sector

• Closed-door trial for Australian-Chinese writer Yang Hengjun on vague espionage charges

• The internet rejoices: Chinese actress celebrates romantic holiday by announcing divorce from terrible husband

• Two Hong Kong protest documentaries applauded at South Korean film festival

• European Parliament freezes China investment deal over Beijing’s ‘baseless and arbitrary’ Xinjiang counter-sanctions

• The two Chinese government moves that spooked the bitcoin market

• Mysterious vibrations lead to evacuation of Shenzhen skyscraper, prompting speculation about substandard construction

• Chinese automaker Chang’an Ford apologizes for raunchy ad

• Huarong was born from one global crisis. Will it survive the next?

• The death of Jiang Qing, a.k.a., Madame Mao

• China domestic vaccination campaign roars ahead, now at four times peak U.S. daily rate

• Ant’s road to redemption: How the fintech giant can save itself

• Beijing Lights: ‘The music felt ever so more beautiful’

Congressional Research Service:

• LSB10601| The Law of Foreign Missions and Media in U.S.-China Relations

• IF10982| China’s Engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean

Center for Strategic and International Studies:

• New Senate China Bill Needs a Credible Latin American Dimension

MERICS:

• In China, returns on investment are often returns on political decisions

• Red Planet: Mars landing marks major milestone for China’s space program

• Steel and aluminum - Huawei ban in Sweden - Transparency concerns in Hungary

• China bets on open-source technologies to boost domestic innovation

U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission:

• China in Latin America and the Caribbean

Brookings Institution:

• A grand strategy of resolute restraint

• The best defense? An alternative to all-out war or nothing

Chatham House:

• Bitcoin’s carbon footprint could crush its potential

Rhodium Group:

• Two-Way Street – US-China Investment Trends – 2021 Update

Observer Research Foundation:

• Can China, Pakistan, and India cooperate in Afghanistan?

• China shoots itself in the foot on EU-US relations

• European Parliament rejects CAI — with a clever fine print

• China: The emerging demographic abyss

• India Draws a Line in the 5G Sand

• Political and economic meaning of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)

The Conversation:

• China finances most coal plants built today – it’s a climate problem and why US-China talks are essential

• A Chinese hacking competition may have given Beijing new ways to spy on the Uyghurs

• Teaching Chinese politics in Australia: polarised views leave academics between a rock and a hard place

The Diplomat:

• How China Is Losing Europe

• Official Hints at Challenges for Chinese Businesses in Uzbekistan

• Can China’s Israel-Palestine Peace Plan Work?

• Assessing 70 Years of China’s PLA Air Force

• Agency, Bargaining Power, and African Leadership Visits to China

• Managing the Military Problem of Space: The Case of China, Part 2

• Managing the Military Problem of Space: The Case of China, Part 1

• Is China’s Belt and Road Initiative a Threat to the US?

• What Are China and Russia Saying About the Israel-Palestine Conflict?

• China and the US: Who Has More Influence in Vietnam?

• China’s Tianwen-1 Lands Rover on Mars

• China Delays Mission While NASA Congratulates on Mars Images

• A New Database Reveals China’s ‘Secret’ Loans? Think Again.

• China’s J-15 Carrierborne Fighter: Sizing up the Competition

• Putin, Xi Launch Nuclear Power Projects in Show of Warming Ties

• China Deepens Fintech Dominance With New Digital Currency

• China’s Tightening of IPO Regulations Could Push More Companies Toward Overseas Listings

• The BRI in EU-China Relations: Geostrategic Stakes

• Chinese Academics Are Still Bullish on China-UK Relations

• Do China and Vietnam Have Similar Alliance Policies?

• China Urges US to Play Constructive Role in Gaza Diplomacy

• China’s Warning to Bangladesh on the Quad

• Taiwan’s COVID-19 Spike Threatens to Unravel Its Success Story

• Prospects and Challenges for Japan-Taiwan Security Cooperation

• Saving Taiwan’s COVID-19 Success Story

• Taiwan Ordered to Address Forced Labor on Its Fishing Vessels

Foreign Policy:

• Biden Is Continuing the Trump Administration’s Revised Stance on Tibet

• Far-Right Delusions About China Miss the Real Problems

• Still Waiting for a Serious Debate on Taiwan

ThinkChina:

• China's peaceful rise has to start in Hong Kong 

• Uniquely New Zealand: How NZ maintains integrity amid great power rivalry

• Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong: If America and China clash, everything will be lost

• Indian academic: The Quad and ASEAN can find solutions together

• Can America beat China with Biden’s US$6 trillion stimulus plans?

• Strategic Competition Act: The US targeting China through Cold War politics?

• Can China keep its climate change promises?

• The end of 'Papa Ma Yun' and his Hupan University

• Japanese academic: China’s industrial policy is not just about protectionism

• China's changing diet: Should the world be alarmed?

• Faced with a shortage of water, electricity and vaccines, can Taiwan still deliver the chips?

• Mobile gaming: The cash cow of China’s mobile phone industry

• Singapore a popular base for China tech firms

• Huawei senior executive: Trust matters in the post-pandemic digital age

• China mourns scientist Yuan Longping, the ‘father of hybrid rice’

• Chinese economics professor: My grandmother and the kind, gentle souls of rural China

What's on Weibo:

• The Gansu Marathon Tragedy: Chinese Netizens Are Looking for Answers

• Chinese Fashion First: Consumer Nationalism and ‘China Chic’

• China’s COVID-19 Vaccine Freebies: Get One Vaccine, Get Milk & Eggs for Free!

Chinese Storytellers:

• When ‘Domestic’ Means American

Chaoyang Trap House:

• S01 Episode 6: Being Cute in WeChat’s "Moodboard Industrial Complex"

ChinaTalk:

• Endless Frontier Neutered!

• The CCP's Eternal "Politics of Simpletons" + Tweets of The Week on Kung Fu Panda, Mongols, …

Pekingnology:

• Fmr Central Bank Governor Zhou on Digital Currency & Electronic Payment (DC/EP)

• Forced labor conventions; Jack Ma's business school; gig workers; saving water; burden redu…

• An offline event with a group of foreign diplomats on Huawei

Beijing Channel:

• China’s global media strategy: Xuanchuan ≠ Propaganda

Tracking People's Daily:

• Xi's Diplomacy, Zhao Kezhi on Defending 'the Core', Rekindling the Lei Feng Spirit, & the CCP Rule as 'Historical Inevitability'

• Red Genes & Footprints in Hunan & Yang Jiechi heads to Russia

• Gangs & 'Evil' Forces, Tibet White Paper, Employment Pressure, China-Pak Ties a 'Precious Treasure,' & 'Little Red Preachers' of the Long March

• Tightening on Commodities - Xi & Putin on Nuclear Energy - Wang Yang & You Quan on Ethnic Work - Israel-Palestine Tensions

• IP Governance - Ecological Civilisation - Gutian Conference - US Gun Control Failures

• April Economic Data, Cracking down on 'Evil Forces' at Grassroots, Wang Yi talks to Afghan FM & China's Social Scientists on Xi Thought as 21st Century Marxism

The India China Newsletter:

• India, China, and a tale of two vaccination programs, and rewriting Party history

Eye on China:

• Covid Conspiracies & Narrative - Xi's Red Footprints - Tibet White Paper - EU Deal on Ice - Xi's $3 bn Pledge - Employment Pressure - Blinken-Lavrov Talks - Competing on Values

Takshashila PLA Insight:

• China-India Brief; China in the Space (Mars and Moon); SCS; Taiwan; Tibet Elections and White Paper;  PLAN in 2035; PLA's Pandemic Diplomacy; HQ-9

Beijing to Britain:

• Chinese Embassy, WTO, Steel

China Dialogue:

• China’s national ETS needs high-level political support to succeed

• The China fir and the Plantation Age

Lausan:

• The mainland Chinese left in the shadow of Hong Kong’s democracy movement

Hong Kong Free Press:

• How China is sweeping up its own social media mess

• Leader Carrie Lam must not let the memory of the Tiananmen Massacre die in Hong Kong on her watch

Taiwan Insight:

• Taiwan Deserves Its Rightful Place Under the Sun

• The Public Nature of Civil Disobedience: Lessons from the Sunflower and Umbrella Movement

• Speaking on Behalf of the State: The Women on the Radio and behind the Loudspeakers during the Cold War

中国：历史与未来:

• 中国“一孩化”生育政策的来由及其失败

爱思想:

• 对抗还是让步？

• 从古琉球史说到国境内外与海洋亚洲

• 至高无上的辩证法

• 中国共产党与中国现代化

• 村干部是不是干部？

• 说不尽的赵朴初

• 后新冠疫情时代美国大学的走向

• 现行国际秩序演变的方向与中国的选择

• 漫谈棋道——文化意义上的围棋之道

• 我所认识的周海婴先生

• 资本主义农业还是现代小农经济？——中国克服“三农问题”的发展道路

• 数字经济发展与数字中国建设

• “封建遗存”的近代境遇

• 反腐倡廉的中国答案

• 菲律宾政治集团在南海问题上的共识、分歧及成因

• 张文宗、张磊:特朗普政府掏空一个中国政策的危害

• 从五千年文明史角度解读中国

• 什么才是好的学术书——从学术史角度的观察

• 数字人文与中国历史研究

• 田野政治学的核心概念建构

中央党史和文献研究院

• 《周恩来年谱》，党史学习的生动教材

• 天翻地覆慨而慷：中国共产党的100年

• 在党的历史经验中把握历史规律

• 历史和人民的正确选择

• 中国革命建设改革的强大思想武器

• 推动构建中国特色哲学社会科学行稳致远

• 马克思主义大历史观初探

• 谱写加快构建中国特色哲学社会科学新篇章（深入学习贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主…

• 中国革命在毛泽东思想指引下取得胜利

• 习近平法治思想的形成基础、内在逻辑和辩证品格

• 党的百年群众路线的丰富意蕴、历史生成、基本经验考察

• 中国共产党与中国现代化

习近平系列重要讲话数据库

• 完善科技成果评价机制深化医疗服务价格改革 减轻义务教育阶段学生作业负担和校外培训负担

• 习近平同巴基斯坦总统阿尔维互致贺电

• 携手共建人类卫生健康共同体

• 习近平同巴基斯坦总统阿尔维就中巴建交70周年互致贺电 李克强同巴基斯坦总理伊姆兰互致贺电

• 习近平将出席全球健康峰会

END OF DIGEST