firegazing – some thoughts on business, economics, and politics in Asia and the world

U.S. puts back ‘no support of Taiwan independence’ statement on fact sheet
(Focus Taiwan – CNA, 06/03/22, Stacy Hsu and Shih Hsiu-chuan)

China Fighter Pilots Raised Middle Finger at Canada Air Force Crew—Report
(Newsweek, 06/02/22, John Feng)

From Zero-COVID to Stabilising the Economy
(neican.org, 06/01/22, Adam Ni)

Links (May 2022)

Why China Is Miles Ahead in a Pacific Race for Influence
(New York Times, 05/31/22, Damien Cave)

Heartbreak, Disinformation, and New Punitive Measures in the Wake of Xinjiang Police Files Release
(China Digital Times, 05/27/22, Oliver Young)

The Symbol of a New, Darker Hong Kong
(The Atlantic, 05/25/22, Timothy McLaughlin)

Hong Kong Catholic cardinal criticises China deal after national security arrest
(Reuters, 05/24/22, Jessie Pang and Greg Torode)

U.S. Speeds Up Reshaping of Taiwan’s Defenses to Deter China
(New York Times, 05/24/22, Edward Wong and Eric Schmitt)

Alleged leaked audio reveals Chinese commanders planning mobilization for war with Taiwan
(Taiwan News, 05/24/22, Keoni Everington)

Biden Pledges to Defend Taiwan if It Faces a Chinese Attack
(New York Times, 05/23/22, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Peter Baker)

The Topsy-Turvy End of Zero COVID in Taiwan
(New Yorker, 05/23/22, Clarissa Wei)

Foreign investors are fleeing China
(Economist, 05/22/22, updated 05/27/22)

Canada Kicks Out Huawei, U.S. Weighs Further Sanctions on Hikvision, China Invests in Undermining Sanctions
(China Digital Times, 05/20/22, Oliver Young)

China’s Economic Headwinds
(neican.org/ 05/19/22, Brian Wong)

Sri Lanka’s Meltdown Puts China’s Strategic Influence in Jeopardy
(The Diplomat, 05/18/22, Mohamed Zeeshan)

Leaked Database Reveals Intensity of Imprisonment in Xinjiang; Rights Groups Skeptical of UN Visit
(China Digital Times, 05/17/22, Oliver Young)

What We Know About the California Church Shooter
(Vice, 05/17/22, Rachel Cheung)

‘We are the last generation’: China’s harsh lockdowns could exacerbate population crisis
(CNN, 05/16/22, Nectar Gan)

Hong Kong has been transformed into a police state
(Daily Compass, 05/14/22, Charles Maung Bo)

China is in a tough spot
(GZERO Media, 05/12/22, Willis Sparks)

Hong Kong: Statement on the Arrests of 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund Trustees
(CECC, 05/11/22)

Former VP Lu suggests Taiwan-China federation
(Taipei Times, 05/08/22, Jason Pan)

Hong Kong Reaches a Grim Milestone: 1,000 Political Prisoners
(Hong Kong Democracy Council – HKDC, May 2022)

Links (April 2022)

HSBC faces pressure to split after push from one of its largest shareholders
(The Guardian, 04/29/22, Jasper Jolly)

Singaporean wins $100k prize in challenge to build AI models that detect deepfakes
(The Straits Times, 04/29/22, Rei Kurohi)

Denial of bail is silencing Hong Kong’s democrats
(BBC News, 04/28/22, Michael Bristow)

U.S. turns the screws on Solomon Islands to counter China
(POLITICO, 04/28/22, Phelim Kine)

The Only Five Paths China’s Economy Can Follow
(Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 04/27/22, Michael Pettis)

Half of Taiwanese don’t believe U.S. would send troops if China invades
(Nikkei Asia, 04/27/22, Hideaki Ryugen)

Russia’s war on Ukraine makes China’s attack on Taiwan more likely
(The Hill, 04/26/22, Joseph Bosco)

Xi Puts Ideology Before Economy With Market-Busting Lockdowns
(Bloomberg, 04/25/22)

A Four-part Series on the Fall of Xi’s China – Courtney Donovan Smith
(Taiwan News, Courtney Donovan Smith)

HK working to block Taiwan in WTO: US report
(Taipei Times, 04/02/22)

Changing attitudes to idea of non-Chinese prime minister or president, CNA-IPS study finds
(Channel News Asia – CNA, 04/02/22, Vanessa Lim)

Verdict Deferred in Australian Journalist Cheng Lei’s Espionage Trial
(China Digital Times, 04/01/22, Oliver Young)

China extends Shanghai coronavirus lockdown as frustration mounts over strict “zero-COVID” policy
(CBS News, 04/01/22)

Links (March 2022)

Chinese Communist party expels former justice minister in latest purge
(The Guardian, 03/31/22, Vincent Ni)

China’s Crackdown on Hong Kong Democracy Intensified, U.S. Says
(Bloomberg, 03/31/22, David Wainer)

Senior British Judges Resign from Hong Kong’s Highest Court, Citing Erosion of Freedoms
(China Digital Times, 03/31/22, Oliver Young)

The brazen, alarming scale of China’s efforts to silence dissidents abroad
(Washington Post, 03/28/22, Mark L. Clifford)

Solomon Islands and China Seek to Deepen Security Partnership, Unnerving Neighbors
(China Digital Times, 03/25/22, Oliver Young)

U.S. Struggles to Find Balanced Approach Against CCP’s Transnational Repression
(China Digital Times, 03/24/22, Oliver Young)

Taiwan Losing Faith in U.S. Rescue if China Invades—Poll
(Newsweek, 03/23/22, John Feng)

Chinese military says U.S. destroyer’s passage through Taiwan Strait ‘provocative’
(Reuters, 03/19/22, Ryan Woo)

The Sunflower Legacy on Taiwan’s Party System
(Taiwan Insight – U. of Nottingham, 03/18/22, Dafydd Fell)

This was supposed to be Xi Jinping’s big year. Instead, he’s dealing with Covid and war
(CNN, 03/16/22, Simone McCarthy)

Rollback of Xi Jinping’s Economic Campaign Exposes Cracks in His Power
(WSJ, 03/15/22, Lingling Wei)

America returns to containment to deal with Russia and China
(Economist, 03/14/22)

China orders 51 million into lockdown as COVID surges
(ABC News, 03/14/22, Britt Clennett and Karson Yiu)

Premier Li Keqiang Confirms He Will Step Down From Role At End of Term
(China Digital Times, 03/14/22, Joseph Brouwer)

Was China Betting on Russian Defeat All Along?
(Geopolitical Monitor, 03/13/22, Csaba Barnabas Horvath)

Hong Kong leader Lam says city not yet past COVID peak
(Reuters, 03/12/22, James Pomfret and Hong Kong Bureau)

CCP Plays Matchmaker To Stave Off Demographic Crisis
(China Digital Times, 03/08/22, Oliver Young)

‘No Wavering’: After Turning to Putin, Xi Faces Hard Wartime Choices for China
(NYT, 03/07/22, Chris Buckley and Steven Lee Myers)

Putin’s War Is Xi’s Worst Nightmare
(Foreign Policy, 03/04/22, Craig Singleton)

China Is Not Russia. Taiwan Is Not Ukraine.
(United States Institute of Peace, 03/04/22, Andrew Scobell and Lucy Stevenson-Yang)

Invasions Are Not Contagious
(Foreign Affairs, 03/03/22, Oriana Skylar Mastro)

Links (February 2022)

China parliament to choose stimulus over reforms as economy slows
(Reuters, 02/28/22, Kevin Yao)

Biden sends former top defense officials to Taiwan in show of support
(Reuters, 02/28/2022, Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom)

Singapore strongly condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: PM Lee
(Straits Times, 02/28/2022, Hariz Baharudin)

Singapore to impose sanctions on Russia, including bank transactions
(Reuters, 02/28/2022, Aradhana Aravindan)

PAP’s Christopher de Souza to 4G leaders: Please apply your minds to succession planning
(Straits Times, 02/28/2022, Linette Lai)

HK’s population fell by 23,600 last year: officials
(RTHK, 02/28/2022)

Taiwan says chip companies complying with Russia export controls
(Reuters, 02/27/2022, Ben Blanchard)

Total stoppage in production and shipment of Russian Elbrus and Baikal
(techartica.com, 02/27/2022)

China’s SWIFT alternative may undercut US sanctions
(Asia Times, 02/25/2022, David P Goldman)

China Is About to Regulate AI—and the World Is Watching
(Wired, 02/22/2022, Jennifer Conrad and Will Knight)

China Crackdown Risk Roars Back in Probe of Jack Ma’s Empire
(Bloomberg, 02/22/2022, Coco Liu, Zheping Huang, and Vlad Savov)

Op-Ed: How Nixon’s fabled trip to China, 50 years ago this week, led to today’s Taiwan crisis
(Los Angeles Times, 02/21/22, James Mann)

CCP Gestures Towards Women’s Rights to Sweeten Pro-natalist Shift
(China Digital Times, 02/18/2022, Oliver Young)

Citi moves senior equities staff out of Hong Kong to Singapore and elsewhere amid Covid-19 woes
(Bloomberg via Straits Times, 02/17/2022)

Guangdong sending help to HK to fight Covid
(RTHK, 02/17/2022)

For two years, Hong Kong held off the pandemic. Then, everything fell apart
(Washington Post, 02/16/2022, Shibani Mahtani and Theodora Yu)

Hong Kong faces its worst outbreak of the pandemic even as it sticks with ‘zero-COVID’ strategy
(AP via PBS, 02/16/2022)

Vaccine maker Moderna to establish subsidiary in Taiwan
(CNA – Focus Taiwan, 02/16/2022, Christie Chen)

U.S. Sees China Watching Ukraine Crisis as Proxy for Taiwan
(Bloomberg, 02/11/2022, Peter Martin)

Mystery Plane Tests ‘Loophole’ in Taiwan’s Defenses
(WSJ, 02/11/2022, Joyu Wang)

Vatican scoffs at Taiwan, Hong Kong pullout rumors
(ucanews.com, 02/11/22, Christopher Joseph)

Singapore’s Energy Dilemma a Small-Nation Warning
(Bloomberg, 02/10/2022, Ann Koh)

Taiwan is making new friends in Europe. China isn’t happy about it
(euronews.com, 02/02/22, David Hutt)

Who Will Make It Onto China’s Top Leadership Body?

link to an article in The Diplomat on the potential composition of China’s Politburo Standing Committee after this year’s 20th Party Congress.

Who Will Make It Onto China’s Top Leadership Body?

Links (January 2022)

Hong Kong leader delays filling post, raising questions about judiciary’s independence
(Reuters, 01/31/22, Greg Torode)

Living by the Code: In China, Covid-Era Controls May Outlast the Virus
(NYT, 01/30/22, Chris Buckley, Vivian Wang and Keith Bradsher)

Australian PM Fumbles WeChat Account in Election Season
(China Digital Times, 01/28/22, Oliver Young)

Xi Jinping’s iron grip on power brings new form of corruption, China experts tell US congressional advisory panel
(SCMP via Yahoo Finance, 01/28/22, Jacob Fromer)

Low-carbon ambitions must not interfere with ‘normal life’, says Xi Jinping
(The Guardian, 01/26/22, Vincent Ni)

Taiwan’s president: ‘the way of Tsai’ part I, the KMT side of Tsai
(Taiwan News, 01/26/22, Courtney Donovan Smith – 石東文)

Laws to be amended to combat spying: Chris Tang
(RTHK, 01/26/22)

China flies 39 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense zone in a day
(AFP via CBS News, 01/24/22)

Lithuania needs much more than removing ‘Taiwan’ from office name to mend ties with China
(Global Times, 01/22/22, Zhang Tengjun)

‘My hell in Beijing’s sterilisation camp’: Uighur Muslim incarcerated for three years at a ‘re-education’ jail relives chilling ordeal
(Daily Mail, 01/22/22, Gulbahar Haitiwaji)

UK Intelligence Agency Targets China’s United Front
(The Diplomat, 01/22/22, Duncan Bartlett)

Sink or swim: Australia, Taiwan face deep sub dilemmas
(Asia Times, 01/22/22, Gabriel Honrada)

Chinese Government Has Coerced 10,000 “Fugitives” Back to China
(China Digital Times, 01/20/22, Oliver Young)

Taiwan’s TSMC looks to maintain lead over Samsung with $44 billion CAPEX
(Taiwan News, 01/18/22, Eric Chang)

Changes in Leadership Emphasize Antiterrorism Approach in Hong Kong
(China Digital Times, 01/11/22, Oliver Young)

With beer, rum and chocolate, Taiwan rallies behind Lithuania in spat with China
(Washington Post, 01/06/22, Lily Kuo)

US, Germany support Lithuania in spat with China over Taiwan
(AP, 01/05/22)

Links (December 2021)

How Chinese Police Track Critics on Twitter and Facebook
(New York Times, 12/31/21 – updated 1/1/22 , Muyi Xiao and Paul Mozur)

Cost of living likely a major pressure point in 2022, says WP’s Pritam Singh
(Straits Times, 12/31/21, Goh Yan Han)

How democracy was dismantled in Hong Kong in 2021
(The Mainichi, 12/30/21)

Stand News’ Headquarters Raided, Executives Arrested, Computers Seized
(China Digital Times, 12/30/21, Joseph Brouwer)

In-depth report details Apple’s shift to Chinese suppliers to ‘cut costs and curry favor with Beijing’
(9to5mac.com, 12/30/21, Chance Miller)

How Apple Grew Closer to China By Turning ‘Little Foxconn’ Into a National Champion
(theinformation.com, 12/30/21, Wayne Ma)

After Diplomatic Switch, Nicaragua Seizes Taiwan’s Embassy and Hands It Over to China
(China Digital Times, 12/29/21, Oliver Young)

The long shadow of the Chinese Communist Party
(The New Statesman, 12/23/21, Yupina Ng)

Peng Shuai Interview Leaves Much Unanswered
(China Digital Times, 12/21/21, Joseph Brouwer)

Record Low Turnout for Hong Kong’s “Patriots Only” Election in Rebuke to Beijing
(China Digital Times, 12/21/21, Oliver Young)

Foreign banks to cast votes in Hong Kong’s ‘patriots only’ election, as citizens’ voting power shrinks
(HKFP, 12/18/21, Hillary Leung)

Four referendum questions fail to pass on low turnout
(Focus Taiwan, 12/18/21, Teng Pei-ju)

Taiwan resumes military cooperation with Singapore
(Taiwan News, 12/17/21, Kelvin Chen)

AMD Becomes TSMC’s Third Largest Customer
(tomshardware.com, 12/16/21, Anton Shilov)

Beijing criticises UK for creating ‘second-class citizens’ with Hong Kong visa scheme
(The Guardian, 12/15/21, Rhoda Kwan)

Nicaragua ends relations with Taiwan in diplomatic victory for China
(CNN, 12/10/21, Karol Suarez, Isa Soares and Ben Westcott)

In struggle between autocracy and democracy, Biden chooses Taiwan for his team
(LA Times, 12/08/21, Chris Megerian)

How China Uses Economic Coercion to Silence Critics and Achieve its Political Aims Globally
(CECC, 12/07/21)

‘We could sniff out opium dens on our own’: Retired CNB officers on their job in the 1970s
(Straits Times, 12/05/21, Zaihan Mohamed Yusof)

Caught between politics and the pandemic, a few kilometres from China, Taiwan’s Kinmen island rethinks its economy
(HKFP, 12/05/21, Alice Herait and William Han)

Links (November 2021)

Protests Engulf Solomon Islands and Chinese Businesses Amid Geopolitical Rivalries
(China Digital Times, 11/30/2021, Oliver Young)

Leaked papers link Xinjiang crackdown with China leadership
(The Guardian, 11/29/21, Patrick Wintour)

Laundering Cotton: How Xinjiang Cotton is Obscured in International Supply Chains
(Sheffield Hallam University – Helena Kennedy Centre for Intenational Justice, November 2021, Laura T. Murphy, et al.)

Chinese province targets journalists, foreign students with planned new surveillance system
(Reuters, 11/29/21, Beijing Newsroom)

U.S. lawmakers defy China by meeting with officials in Taiwan
(NBC News, 11/25/2021, Jonathan Allen)

Australia deploys forces to Solomon Islands as protesters burn Chinatown, Parliament
(Washington Post, 11/25/2021, Michael E. Miller)

U.S. invites Taiwan to its democracy summit; China angered
(Reuters, 11/24/2021, Humeyra Pamuk)

Hijacking The Mainstream—CCP Influence Agencies in Italian Parliamentary and Local Politics
(Sinopsis, 11/20/2021, Livia Codarin, Laura Harth, and Jichang Lulu)

Speculation island: Why are Taiwan’s housing prices soaring?
(CommonWealth Magazine, 11/19/21, Kwangyin Liu, Teng Kai-yuan, and Chen-kang Kang)

US condemned over NSL report
(RTHK, 11/18/21)

2021 Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
(U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, November 2021)

So long, Hong Kong: Asia’s business hub loses its luster
(Nikkei Asia, 11/17/21, Pak Yiu)

Chinese Feminists and Global Tennis Stars Ask, “Where Is Peng Shuai?”
(China Digital Times, 11/15/21, Joseph Brouwer)

First they came for the Hong Kong protesters. Then they came for their lawyers.
(Washington Post, 11/03/21, Editorial Board)

Taiwan’s leaders need to coalesce around a defense concept
(Brookings Institute, 11/01/21, Ryan Hass)

Links (October 2021)

The strongest weapon in Xi Jinping’s common prosperity armoury is a property tax
(Quartz, 10/29/21, Jane Li)

Legal aid reform: Critics fear right to choose lawyer will be undermined but Hong Kong gov’t advisor says plan will be ‘fairer’
(HKFP, 10/25/21, Selina Cheng)

Taiwan: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
(HBO, 10/24/21, John Oliver)

Why Lithuania Holds the Key to TSMC’s Future
(TechTaiwan, 10/21/21, Misha Lu)

Smuggling Australian rock lobsters into China a national security threat, Hong Kong customs chief says
(AFP via The Guardian, 10/21/21)

Inside TSMC, the Taiwanese chipmaking giant that’s building a new plant in Phoenix
(CNBC, 10/16/21, Katie Schoolov)

Chinese State-Backed Disinformation on Covid-19 Origins Dominates Search Engine Results
(China Digital Times, 10/08/21, Oliver Young)

Harvard Beijing Academy’s Move to Taipei
(The Crimson, 10/07/21, Io Y. Gilman and Isabel Wu)

New Accounts Describe Torture, Forced Labor Facing Xinjiang Detainees
(China Digital Times, 10/07/21, Oliver Young)