China Communications Intelligence | Daily

China Communications Intelligence today:

1. China's new ambassador to the United States arrives

2. China offers the Taliban a warm Tianjin welcome while urging peace talks

3. Cold War tactic to better understand China's intentions seeks funding

4. The propaganda war during the Sherman visit

5. China's techlash gains steam - Global capitalists are spooked

China's new ambassador to the United States arrives.

Qin Gang, China's new ambassador to the United States, arrived in Washington on Wednesday.

Known for his bold tone as a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, he delivered sizzling one-liners. He pioneered a more brash communication style during pressers from the Chinese foreign ministry's stage.

But as ambassador, will he pivot to a more diplomatic tone in DC?

Unlikely.

As Chris Buckley of the New York Times reports, Qin has a record of vigorously contesting Western criticism. His appointment suggests that Beijing is steeling for extended tensions with Washington.

Qin rose from working for a foreign news agency to becoming a trusted aide to Xi Jinping.

Qin will most likely convey to Washington that Xi expects China to be treated as a great power, reflecting confidence that stems in part from China's success in controlling the coronavirus epidemic and a growing economy.

Unlike nearly all of China's ambassadors to Washington since the 1980s, Qin - who will be the 13th person to hold this post - has never specialized in dealing with the United States, nor has he been posted here previously.

"For the last 20 years, you've had a string of America experts posted to Washington. Somebody whose career has been staked more on upholding the dignity and equal treatment of Chinese senior leaders will come to the job potentially with a different mindset." -- Drew Thompson, professor at the National University of Singapore.

You can see his Ministry of Foreign Affairs profile - here.

China offers the Taliban a warm Tianjin welcome while urging peace talks

Worried about the war in Afghanistan, China has stepped up diplomatic efforts with the government and the group to encourage a political settlement after the US withdrawal.

China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, called the Taliban "a pivotal military and political force" but urged their leaders "to hold high the banner of peace talks," according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

Chinese officials have met with Taliban envoys before, including a meeting in Beijing in 2019, but not at such a high level and in such a public way. This meeting underscores how much the former rulers of the country, who were toppled by the United States 20 years ago after the Sept. 11 attacks, have succeeded in reshaping how international powers deal with them.

Cold War tactic to better understand China's intentions seeks funding

A bipartisan bill was introduced that aims to improve the understanding of China and potentially other strategic rivals of the United States.

The House bill introduced by Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Bill Keating (D-MA) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) would provide for the establishment of a federally funded Open Translation and Analysis Center (OTAC) focused on China.

The legislation follows the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), which provided translation and analysis of the Soviet bloc and other foreign government media during the Cold War.

Referring to the acronyms of the People's Republic of China and its ruling Communist Party and armed forces, the OTAC would "systematically translate PRC/CCP/PLA speeches, documents, reports, strategies, news articles, commentaries, journal articles, procurement contracts into English and publish them freely online."

The propaganda war during the Sherman visit

China's online media began issuing the first news bulletins Monday morning covering the remarks made by Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng as he met with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in Tianjin.

Usually, the first take on US-China relations -- the most critical relationship for Beijing -- comes from state-run outlets such as Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television. Having the bulletins come from online news media was unconventional.

Though the Xie-Sherman meeting was private, Beijing waged a fierce propaganda war behind the scenes in a calculated and complex manner, utilizing online media.

The episode demonstrates that China is diversifying its ways to propagate foreign and security policies.

China's techlash gains steam - Global capitalists are spooked

First, it was fintech.

Then Alibaba and Tencent were targeted by Chinese trustbusters.

This month regulators banned Didi Global's ride-hailing app over data transgressions.

And now, ed-tech companies were told they could no longer profit or use offshore vehicles to trade their shares abroad.

These actions reflect the Chinese government's "overriding concern" that it has less control over its internet - a sector that has been underregulated for years.

Who will be next?

Look for video gaming, internet-connected cars, and online health care.

Presently only Chinese-based companies have been the targets of such heavy-handed regulation. Still, as always, Western multinational companies are wise to modify behavior to meet local Chinese law and cultural direction.

These types of actions are capitalism with Chinese characters.

China Communications Intelligence is actionable insights + global political trends for senior corporate communications executives.

China Communications Intelligence | Daily

China Communications Intelligence today:

1. 'We will not flinch': Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Taiwan

2. House lawmakers push for diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

3. US multinational sponsors of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics grilled on Capitol Hill

4. Wall Street gets a Chinese education

5. Slow start for China's emissions trading scheme

'We will not flinch': Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promises the US will continue to bolster Taiwan's self-defense: Speaking in Singapore at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the defense secretary chided Beijing for "aggression...coercion...genocide" but said he wants a "constructive, stable relationship with China."

The United States is trying to balance a relationship with China, where the Middle Kingdom is both a peer competitor and a potential threat.

Today, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin continues his tour of Southeast Asia with further stops in Vietnam and the Philippines.

Once again, Team Biden showing the importance of allies and the Indo-Pacific.

House lawmakers push for diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in China: The lawmakers want no US diplomats to attend the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics over alleged human rights abuses.

A proposed amendment to the annual State Department funding bill, under consideration by the House Appropriations Committee, if approved, would bar the State Department from allocating any funds to be used to transport United States officers or officials to the Winter Games.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) proposed the amendment with Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) co-sponsor.

The 2022 Winter Olympics will start in 191 days on February 4, 2020.i

Antipathy toward China is overwhelming on Capitol Hill and shows no signs of slowing anytime soon.

Biden's hard-line stance on China has widespread support from both sides of the aisle.

US multinational sponsors of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics grilled on Capitol Hill: Executives from Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Intel, Procter & Gamble, and Visa appeared and answered questioned by members of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China regarding their company's sponsorship of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Members of the committee repeatedly expressed frustration at what they see as a multinational corporate willingness to turn a blind eye to what some have termed "genocide" involving Uygurs in Xinjiang.

"Every single one of you refused to say a single word by all appearances that will cost you one bit of market share inside of mainland China," said Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas.

"This is the most pathetic, disgraceful hearing in which I've participated in eight years. Obviously, every one of you … were sent here with orders not to say anything that could offend the Chinese Communist Party."

This aggressive messaging on Capitol Hill comes as human rights concerns and calls to boycott the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics grow in the United States and across Europe as well.

Regardless of an official boycott takes place, endless questions about China's worthiness to host the 2022 Winter Olympics will be present for the next six months.

Wall Street gets a Chinese education: The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal opines: "The big surprise from this week's slump in Chinese company stocks is that people are claiming to be surprised. Xi Jinping has made plain for years that he intends to bring ever greater swathes of China's private economy under the state's control. Guess what, Wall Street: He meant it."

The actionable insight here: After spending years emulating Silicon Valley, China, the world's second-biggest economy, is now officially going its own way.

"At the heart of the crackdown is an effort to strengthen ideological control," said one former government official to the Financial Times who now works for a large technology company.

The immediate triggers for Xi's ed-tech move were related to growing concerns about longstanding social pressures, such as mounting education expenses for parents and falling birth rates.

The series of crackdowns has a simple message to teach the market a lesson about who is ultimately in charge in China, the Chinese Communist Party, with a mandate to seek stability at all costs.

Also, one trillion dollars of market value is now off the books this month.

Slow start for China's emissions trading scheme: The carbon emission trading formally started on July 16, with an opening price of 48 yuan ($7.4) per tonne of CO2.

Despite only including the power sector in its initial phase this year, it is already the world's largest Emissions Trading System (ETS), overtaking the European Union's ETS and covering 12% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Feedback from climate campaigners is that the scheme isn't ambitious enough to move the dial on China's emissions goals, including its target for going net-zero in 2060.

The current scheme involves only about 2,200 coal- and gas-fired energy plants.

According to the Rhodium Group, China is currently the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for more than a quarter of the global total in 2019.

China Communications Intelligence is actionable insights + global political trends for senior corporate communications executives.

China Communications Intelligence | Daily

China Communications Intelligence today:

1. China stocks tumble in 'panic selling' amid broad crackdown

2. US + China leave room to talk after contentious meeting

3. US calls on China to be responsible power

4. Huawei hires Democratic super-lobbyist Tony Podesta

5. VP Harris planning to visit Vietnam + Singapore

China stocks tumble in 'panic selling' amid broad crackdown: Bloomberg reports a selloff in Chinese private education companies sent shockwaves through the equity market Monday, as investors scrambled to price in the growing risks from an intensifying crackdown by Beijing on some of the nation's industries.

+ "I see panic selling in the market now as investors are pricing in a possibility that Beijing will tighten regulation on all sectors that have seen robust growth in recent years," said Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific Yamaichi. "I don't think investors can do any bottom fishing at this point. We don't know where the bottom is."

What we got here is a beautiful example of capitalism with Chinese characteristics.

Worrisome for global markets and global business is that it is unclear what Chairman Xi's end game is with all this economic tinkering.

US + China leave room to talk after contentious meeting: Bloomberg reports Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told visiting Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman during a meeting Monday that the relationship was "in a stalemate and faces serious difficulties." Xie presented the No. 2 American diplomat with two lists of demands he portrayed as necessary to stabilize ties, including "US wrongdoings that must stop" and "key individual cases that China has concerns with," according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Even with all this tension, the US and China left open the possibility of a summit between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Rome.

The next G20 meeting will take place in Rome on October 30-31, 2021.

US calls on China to be responsible power: Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, speaking in an interview with the Associated Press after talks Monday with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, said the US welcomes vigorous economic competition with China but does not want it to veer into conflict.

Sherman's comments to the Associated Press are in line with a tweet Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) posted last week stating that "the world must wake up to the threat China poses to global order."

Such desire from the United States to have China act as a responsible power is not new.

In 2005, Robert Zoellick, then US Deputy Secretary of State, argued that China should "become a responsible stakeholder" in the international system.

Huawei hires Democratic super-lobbyist Tony Podesta: The WSJ reports the hiring comes amid renewed DC lobbying push by the company that was a target of the Trump administration.

Podesta's resurfacing in the lobbying world comes as Democrats once again control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

He has long relationships with President Biden and some top White House aides, including senior counselor Steve Ricchetti. His brother, John Podesta, is chairman of the liberal Center for American Progress and is close with the administration.

Huawei spent $1 million on lobbying in the second quarter of 2021, up from $180,000 in the previous quarter.

In addition to Podesta, the company's new lobbyists include former congressman Lee Terry (R-NE), one of close to a dozen ex-lawmakers lobbying for Chinese tech giants. As a member of Congress, Terry was part of a bipartisan working group that examined supply chain issues.

Huawei has hired and retained top political advocates for years and from both sides of the aisle, all with little success or impact.

Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to visit Vietnam and Singapore later this summer.

Once again, Team Biden showing the importance of allies and the Indo-Pacific.

Details of the trip are not final yet.

China Communications Intelligence is actionable insights + global political trends for senior corporate communications executives.