Suggested Readings: October 1-8, 2018

作者：Robert A. Kapp  来源：US-China Perception Monitor

October 1-8

PRC Domestic

http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003024/chinas-national-day-travel-in-millions%2C-billions%2C-and-trillions Delightful granular vignettes from the gigantic movement of people during “Golden Week” following China’s October 1 National Day holiday.

https://www.ft.com/content/cd997246-c57b-11e8-bc21-54264d1c4647?emailId=5bb7890e749ad30004b93847&segmentId=2e4343f6-b08f-9184-785d-0a53b99d57bf  Marvelous long FT article on Shakespeare in today’s China.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2166744/chinese-actress-fan-bingbing-fined-us70-million-tax-offences  A fine read, especially for weary American news junkies.  China’s utterly famous, fantastically rich film and TV star Fan Bingbing emerges from “Residential Surveillance at an Undisclosed Place,” wherein the tax authorities had held her, blubs a patriotic mea culpa/affirmation of loyalty, and faces fines and taxes equivalent to US$ 129 million, but no jail time if she pays up on time.  In spite of the lurid subject matter, this is a very informative article.

https://tinyurl.com/yauj9nxx  A major downward development in HK: Financial Times senior journalist denied visa by Hong Kong authorities after chairing an open Foreign Correspondents Club forum with a HK political figure anathemized by Beijing.  Further signs of the fraying of “One Country Two Systems.”

https://www.weekinchina.com/2018/10/an-expensive-arrangement/?dm  Deeply entrenched traditions at stake: trying to regulate “bride prices” in rural China at a time when males significantly outnumber females. 

PRC Global

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/01/chinas-global-propaganda-is-aimed-at-bosses-not-foreigners/ A Western journalist formally employed at Global Times offer this gimlet-eyed view of the world of CGTN, China Global Television Network, one of whose reporters became the center of an ugly (and now international) incident in Birmingham, England a few days ago.  The incident is briefly described in this piece.  Needless to say, PRC perceptions of all this differ from the author’s.

https://www.asiaglobalonline.hku.hk/tepid-reaction-to-china-financial-market-opening/ Blunt talk on why China’s lifting of equity restrictions on foreign investments in PRC financial institutions has been met with such a tepid response.

https://www.weekinchina.com/2018/10/threes-a-crowd/  Complex security relations among the PRC, Russia, and the United States.  Short and lucid.

https://tinyurl.com/yb2z2jv8  Meng Hongwei, the head of the global crime-hunter organization Interpol and Vice Minister of Public Security in China, lands in Beijing, disappears, and sends his wife an ominous chat message with the image of a dagger.  Then the PRC authorities announce that he is in custody for bribery.

U.S.-PRC

https://www.hudson.org/events/1610-vice-president-mike-pence-s-remarks-on-the-administration-s-policy-towards-china102018 Vice President Pence’s much-ballyooed China speech to the Administration’s favorite think tank on China, reciting every recent charge and revelation of Chinese malign behavior, but at a level of generality that precluded any identification of sources.  Widely viewed in the US as announcing a fundamental turn to a more comprehensive adversarial approach to China.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-deeper-meaning-of-pences-china-broadside-1539010010?cx_testId=0&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s  Background to Pence’s full-spectrum denunciation of the PRC.

https://tinyurl.com/y75whpmf  Public snarling between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US SecState Mike Pompeo, after a week of rising animosities.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/10/05/why-its-time-to-end-the-tit-for-tat-tariffs-in-the-u-s-china-trade-war/ A valiant attempt at calling for the ending of the tit-for-tat tariff war now raging between China and the U.S., on grounds of national interest for both sides.

https://www.ft.com/content/fc413158-c5f1-11e8-82bf-ab93d0a9b321?segmentId=6132a895-e068-7ddc-4cec-a1abfa5c8378 An astounding report on a debate at the apex of American political power as to whether to ban ALL PRC students from studying in the U.S.

https://jamiemetzl.com/censored-in-china/  One well-placed American’s account of ominously shabby treatment at a conference to which he was invited as a respected guest speaker.  The cascade of ill will appears to be strengthening, though perhaps it is partly a matter of more frequent reporting of incidents like this.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/2166849/us-chinese-warships-within-metres-collision-south-china-sea  One of many reports on an extremely close encounter between Chinese and American warships in the South China Sea, with a photo showing how close the two vessels had come.

https://www.ft.com/content/c655edbe-c8c5-11e8-ba8f-ee390057b8c9  Another dimension of the rapidly spreading US alarm over China: Trump’s China attack dog Peter Navarrao points to U.S. military supply chain vulnerabilities.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2166465/us-china-trade-war-fails-dampen-cooperation-between-states-and  An article with something of a mixed message, on the continuation of profitable business engagement with China at the sub-national (i.e., state and local) level.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-pivots-to-china-with-nafta-deal-in-hand-1538431208  With a new US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement in hand, this report suggests that the Trump administration will turn its attention to a fundamental assault on China, with the aim of ending the international “supply chain” system in which the PRC for the past three decades has played a crucial part. 

https://tinyurl.com/ycywjdmo  A giant Bloomberg report on an alleged super-high-tech Chinese assault on the integrity of servers used by all manner of US customers, including such corporate giants as Apple and Amazon.  Great techno-narrative, no identification of sources.  NOTE: BE SURE TO READ FOLLOW-UP REPORT AT https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-amazon-apple-supermicro-and-beijing-respond A comprehensible technical analysis of the Bloomberg bombshell, with alarming conclusions, is at https://www.lawfareblog.com/china-supermicro-hack-about-bloomberg-report  .

https://tinyurl.com/y8lnhxuo  From Brookings, an article on whether, and how, the PRC attempts to influence U.S. politics.

https://tinyurl.com/y8lnhxuo  Again from Brookings, a soberly-crafted piece on Chinese “influence operations” in the U.S., which are now at the center of a raging firestorm.  Acknowledges and identifies some of the ways in which the PRC attempts to affect American opinion about China and China-related issues.  Notes recent Congressional measures to combat those attempts.  Cautions against going to excess.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stay-away-china-white-house-top-economist-tells-us-businesses-144248286.html  Extraordinary, almost unbelievable.  The Chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors advises US businesses to “stay away from China.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/05/trump-china-policy-counterproductive  A lonely American voice, publishing in a British newspaper, calls for America not to lose its head over China.

来源时间：2019/6/10   发布时间：2018/10/8

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