striver44
BANNED
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2016
- Messages
- 4,832
- Reaction score
- -16
- Country
- Location
Bloomberg News
December 30, 2020, 5:00 AM ESTUpdated on December 30, 2020, 6:00 PM EST
In Xi Jinping’s China, nearly everything is becoming a national security issue.
This month Xi called on Communist Party officials in the 25-member Politburo to build a “holistic national security architecture” that would extend to “all aspects of the work of the party and the country.” He listed 10 components, including “safeguarding” China’s one-party political system and focusing more on “forestalling and defusing national security risks.”
Members of the People’s Liberation Army honor guards walk past a banner depicting Xi Jinping in Beijing in May.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg.
Also speaking at the Dec. 12 meeting was Yuan Peng, who heads a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security -- China’s main intelligence agency. In a June article, he outlined a new post-pandemic global order with the U.S. and EU on the decline and the world facing an imminent economic depression, in which he also touted the benefits of China’s tech-driven mass surveillance model over that of Western democracies.
“The impact of Covid-19 is no less than a world war,” Yuan wrote, emphasizing the need to ensure national security is prioritized in China’s development plans to guard against external attacks. In particular, he argued, “the struggle and competition for high technology, like the Cold War arms race, will be a central issue in international politics in the coming period.”
Yuan’s presence at the meeting shows the extent to which the party is preparing for the worst in its strategic battle with the U.S. even after President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month. The Trump administration has been relentless in targeting Beijing during its last few weeks, moving to restrict sales of key technology to dozens of companies including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China’s largest chipmaker.
“The party is increasingly concerned about foreign threats looking to destabilize its rule,” consultancy Trivium China said in a note on the Politburo meeting. “This fear will inform not just national security policy making, but all policy making, in the coming years.”
The party’s proposed five-year plan in October included a focus on security issues for the first time, and the directives are already having an impact. This month, China said it would implement a new national security review on foreign investments in a broad range of sectors, from development of energy and agricultural resources to critical infrastructure and internet technology.
The move was met with criticism by the European Union Chamber of Commerce’s chapter in Shanghai, China’s main financial center, which said the measures “are inconsistent with China’s stated goals of further opening-up.” China’s National Development and Reform Commission had defended the new rules, saying they were “not protectionist” in a Q&A posted on its website.
“Only by tightening controls to prevent and control security risks can we lay the foundations for a new round of opening up,” the government agency said.
Seen as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, Xi is entering a crucial period in his rule: a once-every-five-year leadership shuffle in 2022 could see him hold on to the presidency for a third term. In the past, the run-up to those events have seen infighting among potential rivals for power that occasionally have spilled into public view, a rarity in China’s opaque political system.
“Our party was born in times of domestic and external problems and national crisis,” Xi told the Politburo meeting. “We have an indelible understanding about the significance of national security.”
Xi Jinping, left, is applauded by senior members of the government at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in October.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
While all countries have national security concerns, China’s need to maintain one-party rule takes precedence over everything else. That means people whose rights would be protected in pluralistic societies are considered a national security threat in China, from Muslims in Xinjiang and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong to journalists reporting on Covid-19 and Communist Party members who question the official narrative.
Shortly after Xi took control of the Communist Party in 2012, he created a National Security Commission to consolidate what was previously a very fragmented bureaucracy. He also expanded the national security law to cover everything from cybersecurity, food and religion to outer space and the depths of the oceans.
In June his government imposed a sweeping new national security law in Hong Kong that has been mostly used to prosecute pro-democracy activists for political statements. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, only one of 40 people arrested so far by the Hong Kong police’s new national security unit was accused of violence.
‘Picking Quarrels’
Just what constitutes a national security offense is often unclear in China’s opaque judicial system. Authorities haven’t released more details on the case of Haze Fan, a member of Bloomberg News’s bureau in Beijing, who was detained this month on suspicion of endangering China’s national security. Fan’s case emerged the same week as the two-year anniversary of China’s detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who’ve also been indicted on national security related charges.
Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian citizen who worked as a journalist with government-run broadcaster CGTN, has been held since August on national security concerns. Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer who posted reports about the early response to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, was convicted this week of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and sentenced to four years in prison.
Xi has also moved to rein in other perceived threats to China’s stability, with regulators increasing scrutiny of tech giants like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Ant Group Co. Alibaba and its three largest rivals -- Tencent Holdings Ltd., food delivery giant Meituan and JD.com Inc. -- shed nearly $200 billion in Hong Kong immediately after regulators revealed an investigation into alleged monopolistic practices at billionaire Jack Ma’s signature company.
Xi’s crackdown on opposition voices goes beyond measures taken by his father’s generation, which valued “differences in views” as beneficial for the long-term stability of the Communist Party, and are rooted in fears that China may one day break up like the Soviet Union, according to Jerome Cohen, the founder of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute of the New York University School of Law.
“Xi Jinping has made matters even worse for dissent,” said Cohen, who has taught Chinese law since 1960. “China has so many internal challenges and its people are so individualistic that, he believes, to allow freedoms of expression is to court serious opposition or even chaos.”
— With assistance by Colum Murphy, and Iain Marlow
December 30, 2020, 5:00 AM ESTUpdated on December 30, 2020, 6:00 PM EST
- ‘The impact of Covid-19 is no less than a world war’
- Communist Party preparing for the worst as Biden takes over
In Xi Jinping’s China, nearly everything is becoming a national security issue.
This month Xi called on Communist Party officials in the 25-member Politburo to build a “holistic national security architecture” that would extend to “all aspects of the work of the party and the country.” He listed 10 components, including “safeguarding” China’s one-party political system and focusing more on “forestalling and defusing national security risks.”
Members of the People’s Liberation Army honor guards walk past a banner depicting Xi Jinping in Beijing in May.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg.
Also speaking at the Dec. 12 meeting was Yuan Peng, who heads a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security -- China’s main intelligence agency. In a June article, he outlined a new post-pandemic global order with the U.S. and EU on the decline and the world facing an imminent economic depression, in which he also touted the benefits of China’s tech-driven mass surveillance model over that of Western democracies.
“The impact of Covid-19 is no less than a world war,” Yuan wrote, emphasizing the need to ensure national security is prioritized in China’s development plans to guard against external attacks. In particular, he argued, “the struggle and competition for high technology, like the Cold War arms race, will be a central issue in international politics in the coming period.”
Yuan’s presence at the meeting shows the extent to which the party is preparing for the worst in its strategic battle with the U.S. even after President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month. The Trump administration has been relentless in targeting Beijing during its last few weeks, moving to restrict sales of key technology to dozens of companies including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China’s largest chipmaker.
“The party is increasingly concerned about foreign threats looking to destabilize its rule,” consultancy Trivium China said in a note on the Politburo meeting. “This fear will inform not just national security policy making, but all policy making, in the coming years.”
The party’s proposed five-year plan in October included a focus on security issues for the first time, and the directives are already having an impact. This month, China said it would implement a new national security review on foreign investments in a broad range of sectors, from development of energy and agricultural resources to critical infrastructure and internet technology.
The move was met with criticism by the European Union Chamber of Commerce’s chapter in Shanghai, China’s main financial center, which said the measures “are inconsistent with China’s stated goals of further opening-up.” China’s National Development and Reform Commission had defended the new rules, saying they were “not protectionist” in a Q&A posted on its website.
“Only by tightening controls to prevent and control security risks can we lay the foundations for a new round of opening up,” the government agency said.
Seen as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, Xi is entering a crucial period in his rule: a once-every-five-year leadership shuffle in 2022 could see him hold on to the presidency for a third term. In the past, the run-up to those events have seen infighting among potential rivals for power that occasionally have spilled into public view, a rarity in China’s opaque political system.
“Our party was born in times of domestic and external problems and national crisis,” Xi told the Politburo meeting. “We have an indelible understanding about the significance of national security.”
Xi Jinping, left, is applauded by senior members of the government at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in October.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
While all countries have national security concerns, China’s need to maintain one-party rule takes precedence over everything else. That means people whose rights would be protected in pluralistic societies are considered a national security threat in China, from Muslims in Xinjiang and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong to journalists reporting on Covid-19 and Communist Party members who question the official narrative.
Shortly after Xi took control of the Communist Party in 2012, he created a National Security Commission to consolidate what was previously a very fragmented bureaucracy. He also expanded the national security law to cover everything from cybersecurity, food and religion to outer space and the depths of the oceans.
In June his government imposed a sweeping new national security law in Hong Kong that has been mostly used to prosecute pro-democracy activists for political statements. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, only one of 40 people arrested so far by the Hong Kong police’s new national security unit was accused of violence.
‘Picking Quarrels’
Just what constitutes a national security offense is often unclear in China’s opaque judicial system. Authorities haven’t released more details on the case of Haze Fan, a member of Bloomberg News’s bureau in Beijing, who was detained this month on suspicion of endangering China’s national security. Fan’s case emerged the same week as the two-year anniversary of China’s detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who’ve also been indicted on national security related charges.
Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian citizen who worked as a journalist with government-run broadcaster CGTN, has been held since August on national security concerns. Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer who posted reports about the early response to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, was convicted this week of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and sentenced to four years in prison.
Xi has also moved to rein in other perceived threats to China’s stability, with regulators increasing scrutiny of tech giants like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Ant Group Co. Alibaba and its three largest rivals -- Tencent Holdings Ltd., food delivery giant Meituan and JD.com Inc. -- shed nearly $200 billion in Hong Kong immediately after regulators revealed an investigation into alleged monopolistic practices at billionaire Jack Ma’s signature company.
Xi’s crackdown on opposition voices goes beyond measures taken by his father’s generation, which valued “differences in views” as beneficial for the long-term stability of the Communist Party, and are rooted in fears that China may one day break up like the Soviet Union, according to Jerome Cohen, the founder of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute of the New York University School of Law.
“Xi Jinping has made matters even worse for dissent,” said Cohen, who has taught Chinese law since 1960. “China has so many internal challenges and its people are so individualistic that, he believes, to allow freedoms of expression is to court serious opposition or even chaos.”
— With assistance by Colum Murphy, and Iain Marlow
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
www.google.com
