Keeping an eye on Communist, Totalitarian China, and its influence both globally, and we as Canadians. I have come to the opinion that we are rarely privy to truth regarding the real goal, the agenda of China, it's ambitions for Canada [including special focus on the UK, US & Australia]. No more can we trust the legacy media as there appears to be increasing censorship applied to the topic of communist China. I ask why. Here is what I find.
Nancy Pelosi begins Asia trip but does not mention Taiwan
Reports that House speaker could visit Taiwan have riled China; analysts say she may yet do so in unofficial capacity
Nancy Pelosi would be the highest-ranked US official to go to Taiwan since 1997, if she visits.
The US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has begun a tour of Asia but questions remain over whether it will include a stop in Taiwan.
In a press release on Sunday, Pelosi said a delegation would travel to the Indo-Pacific “to reaffirm America’s strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region”.
The delegation left Hawaii on Sunday and there will be stops in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. Pelosi said they would hold “high-level meetings” in those countries to discuss the advancement of “shared interests and values” including peace and security. The press release did not mention Taiwan.
Pelosi arrived in Singapore late on Sunday night, according to flight tracking data. She is in the city-state for a two-day visit, according to broadcaster CNA, citing the country’s foreign ministry. The American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore was scheduled to host a reception with her on Monday afternoon, its website said.
Pelosi was supposed to visit Taiwan in April but the trip was postponed after she contracted Covid-19. Recent reports suggesting Pelosi intended to visit in August have angered Beijing and prompted threats of military countermeasures. Some analysts have said it is one of the most dangerous moments in cross-strait relations in decades.
China considers Taiwan to be a breakaway province destined for reunification, and strongly objects to all acts that appear to support Taiwan as an independent sovereign state. In a phone call lasting more than two hours, China’s president, Xi Jinping, warned Joe Biden over what he considers China’s “territorial integrity”. “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” Xi said.
The US does not have official ties with Taiwan but maintains friendly relations and is legally obliged to provide weapons for self-defence.
Taiwan’s government will not comment on a Pelosi visit as it balances its wish to maintain the safety of the status quo while also growing its relations with the US.
Taiwan’s population has lived under the threat of China for decades, and while recent events such as the Ukraine war have heightened concerns and prompted increased military and civilian preparations, there has been little sign of major worries specifically surrounding Pelosi’s visit.
Among Taiwanese analysts and officials there is some belief that Pelosi must visit now to avoid appearing cowed by Beijing’s strong language.
Amanda Hsiao, a senior China analyst with the Crisis Group, a thinktank, said on Friday that China was unlikely to directly target US military assets or risk a military confrontation. However, she noted that China had greatly increased military activity in recent years, including frequently sending squadrons of warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ).
“Beijing will have to select a response that visibly rises above the already high baseline of activity,” Hsiao said.
On Saturday China conducted previously unannounced live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait, at the narrowest point between China and Taiwan’s main island.
Numerous US political delegations have made unofficial visits to Taiwan in recent years, showing support for the democratic island amid increasing pressure from China. Pelosi would be the highest-ranked US official to go there since 1997 when the then speaker, Newt Gingrich, visited.
Biden, who does not control the actions of the speaker as Congress is a co-equal branch of government, told media that the military did not think it was a good idea.
Drew Thompson, a former US defence department official, said the lack of a Taiwan mention in the press release did not necessarily mean the delegation would not stop by in an unofficial capacity. On Twitter, Thompson said he believed China would be satisfied with the exclusion of Taiwan on the formal itinerary, even if the delegation visited.
“This is an accommodation to Beijing’s concern but far from a capitulation. China’s interest in keeping Taiwan off the formal agenda and listed with sovereign states is respected,” he said.
Thompson speculated that the most likely outcome would be increased sorties into the ADIZ or reconnaissance flights around the island, but the firing of missiles or crossings of the median line between China and Taiwan were now unlikely.
Chinese team disqualified for ‘extensive cheating’ at Military World Games
CNN —
A Chinese team has been kicked out of its own Military World Games after other countries alerted judges to “extensive cheating” by the hosts.
Originally the Chinese athletes had taken the first, second and fourth places in the women’s middle-distance orienteering competition, as well as second place in the men’s, during the race on Sunday, according to a statement by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).
But after a complaint by six European countries, including Russia and France, judges discovered that Chinese runners had been assisted by local spectators. This included onlookers placing markings and preparing special paths in the terrain for Chinese athletes, which only those competitors were aware of.
The Chinese team was banned from taking part in the long-distance orienteering competition, according to the IOF.
“The IOF takes the actions of the Chinese team very seriously,” IOF Secretary General Tom Hollowell said in a statement, adding that the organization was “investigating if any further actions need to be taken to guarantee the fairness of competition at the upcoming World Cup final in Guangzhou, China from October 25.”
Like the Olympics, the Military World Games are held every four years. The inaugural competition was held in Rome in 1995 and this is China’s first time hosting the event, which will continue until October 30.
More than 9,000 athletes from 109 countries are expected to take part in the Wuhan games, according to local organizers.
Biden Talks To Xi...the outcome, WHY NOTHING [zzzzz] Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan flight in jeopardy by Chinese military
Foolish Biden plays with fire as dopey Pelosi trundles off to Taiwan; meanwhile China plugs even more Fentanyl into the US and Canada. Hours of talking and nothing!
White House Refuses to Address China-Based Threat To Shoot Down Pelosi’s Plane
July 30, 2022
Flickr/Getty Images
OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The White House is being thoroughly criticized for refusing to directly address a call by a Chinese state media figure to shoot down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane as well as any escorting U.S. fighters if she tries to visit Taiwan during her current Asia trip.
On Friday, a commentator for the Chinese government-controlled state media “Global Times” made the threatening remarks on Twitter, writing, “If US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s plane into Taiwan, it is invasion. The PLA has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi’s plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction. If ineffective, then shoot them down.”
The tweet was from Hu Xijin, editor of the outlet and former Chinese army officer and member of the ruling Communist Party. It has since been removed by Twitter for violating the platform’s rules.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the threat on Friday and gave an extremely tame response.
“An official who is associated with Chinese State media is suggesting that if Speaker Pelosi tries to go to Taiwan that her plane could be shot down,” Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy said. “Does the president have a response to that?”
“I know you’re asking specifically about the rhetoric that we’re hearing from China. But as it relates to the speaker’s travels, it’s something that we’re just not going to speak to. Right now, that’s a hypothetical. We’re just not going to speak on her schedule,” Jean-Pierre responded. “As we have said multiple times, we give advice and guidance to any members of Congress where they travel … But again, I’m not going to speak to a hypothetical.”
The unusually tame response to an official threat against the life of a high-ranking elected American official was ripped on social media.
“Unbelievable: Karine Jean-Pierre says the White House won’t respond to Chinese state media threats to shoot down Nancy Pelosi’s plane should she visit Taiwan. ‘We’re just not going to speak on her schedule.’ Abject, embarrassing weakness,” wrote Heritage Foundation communications director John Cooper in a tweet containing a clip of Jean-Pierre’s response.
“Low as my opinion of the Biden White House is, I’d have expected their response to a question about a hostile foreign power SHOOTING NANCY PELOSI’S PLANE OUT OF THE SKY to be something stronger than ‘if she dies, she dies,’” National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin added. “They failed at Americaning.”
“There are no words to express how shamefully the Biden White House has caved, catered and capitulated to China,” Stephen Miller, former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, tweeted. “The damage to our power and prestige is colossal.”
“Uh, sweetheart, you don’t have to speak to her schedule. You can and should speak to the outlandish threats by #China,” Michael D. Brown, former under secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted. “You don’t even comprehend what you’re saying. You only know what’s in your notes. China knows that, too. And your boss, @POTUS , he’s in the bag for China.”
Matt Gorman, the vice president at the political action group Targeted Victory, also ripped Democrats for not coming to the Speaker’s defense over the threat.
“Wild that Republicans are pretty much the only ones coming out defending Pelosi on this,” he wrote. “Dems are standing around with their hands in their pockets, shrugging.”
Last week, Hu issued another warning.
“Chinese mainland will not confirm in advance how to counter Pelosi’s provocation either,” He wrote. “But the US and Taiwan authorities will definitely pay a high price for her visit. This will be ultimately a military game, a good show full of suspense.”
True to form, China staged live-fire naval exercises off the country’s coast on Saturday, no doubt a show of force as much as a diplomatic response to the potential visit.
The drills were held close to the Pingtan islands off Fujian province, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Ships were warned to avoid the area by the Maritime Safety Administration, the Daily Mail added.
When Pelosi left there was a callsign.
Pelosi's Plane last sent it's signal hours ago when it was in Hawaii.
Then the plane went dark.
It is now unable to be tracked on Civilian radar.
The plane apparently hasn't moved from there since then or it has been taken down From civilian radar due to security reasons.
White House Refuses to Address China-Based Threat To Shoot Down Pelosi’s Plane
The White House is being thoroughly criticized for refusing to directly address a call by a Chinese state media figure to shoot down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane as well as any escorting U.S. fighters if she tries to visit Taiwan during her current Asia trip.
On Friday, a commentator for the Chinese government-controlled state media “Global Times” made the threatening remarks on Twitter, writing, “If US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s plane into Taiwan, it is invasion. The PLA has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi’s plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction. If ineffective, then shoot them down.”
Chinese investors hold vast amounts of infrastructure, land and water inAustralia
Chinese investors abandon Australia
Chinese investors are fast abandoning Australia as a frosty bilateral relationship dampens trade, with a report showing Chinese investment in Australia nosedived by almost 70 per cent last year to the lowest level since 2007.
Key points:
Chinese firms are turning away from investing in Australia in favour of Europe and South America
But they still hold vast land, water, energy and mining assets
Experts say while there Chinese-Australian tensions are easing, investors are not returning anytime soon
A reportby KPMG and The University of Sydney found Chinese firms laid out $778 million in Australia in 2021, compared to $2.5 billion in 2020.
accumulated data shows Chinese companies invested a total of $US110.1 billion in Australia between 2007 and 2021.(Supplied)At its peak in 2008, when Beijing desperately needed natural resources to boost the economy, investors from China splurged about $US16.2 billion ($19.1bn based on 2008 exchange rate) in Australia, which was 24 times more than last year.
The number of deals last year almost halved to 11, from 20 in 2020. Four transactions — related to acquiring iron ore and lithium mines — accounted for most of the total Chinese investment inflows last year.
Since 2017, Chinese investment in Australia has been plummeting, but last year's results have shocked experts who have been monitoring the trend.
"The decline really has now gone to a level where there is literally none or very little investment coming from China," Hans Hendrischke, report co-author and professor in Chinese business and management from the University of Sydney, told ABC News.
"We are surprised in a sense that it's dropping so fast."
While there has been a diplomatic breakthrough and a significant shift in tone towards China from the new government, experts say it might take some time for Chinese investors to return.
Why the big fall?
In recent years, Chinese investors have been facing the double whammy of a domestic clampdown on capital export and stricter screening from Australian regulators.
In 2016, Beijing started to impose restrictions on capital outflows due to concerns over excessive debt, inappropriate investment and capital flight.
TThe lease of the Darwin Port is a prominent Chinese investment deal.
At the same time, Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board's (FIRB) tougher application process subdued interest from potential Chinese buyers.
Professor Hendrischke said the current geopolitical climate was another obstacle.
"US, very strongly, and Europe, [including] the UK, Germany and France, are screening Chinese investment now for any potential conflicts that they could have with Chinese controls over certain assets [and] Australia is part of that," he said.
"The relationship between Australia and China is not a very good one at the moment and diplomatic contacts are interrupted. That does not allow us to go ahead or even approve more investment."
Hans Hendrischke says Chinese investment will pick up when there is more commercial certainty.(ABC News: John Gunn)
An example is Chinese-owned tech giant Huawei. The Turnbull government banned it from taking part in the rollout of 5G mobile infrastructure due to national security concerns.
Despite the highly politicised atmosphere, Wei Li, a lecturer in international business at the University of Sydney, said Chinese investors were holding on to their Australian assets.
Wei Li says Chinese investors are "cautious".
"I don't see a major trend of Chinese companies withdrawing their investment in Australia yet," Dr Li said.
"The main sentiment is to wait and see. For a lot of Chinese companies, Australia is their first overseas country that they have ever invested [in]. There's a lot of commitment."
How much does China own?
Traditionally, Chinese firms view Australia as a "test market". They get a "Western experience" by investing in Australia and then expand to other similar economies.
Analysts argue the huge loss of foreign funding from China means Australian companies may miss out on future opportunities, including access to the Chinese domestic market.
Between 2007 and 2021, China's state-owned enterprises and private companies poured a total of $158 billion into Australia, including by investing or acquiring mining and energy companies, infrastructure, wind turbine farms and a dairy processor.
TTasmanian baby formula producer Bellamy's was bought by China's dairy giant Mengniu in 2019.
Last year, Clive Palmer's Balmoral Iron was bought by CITIC for $187 million, according to the report.
In terms of infrastructure, Chinese company Landbridge Group secured a 99-year lease of Darwin Port for over $500 million in 2015, and a Chinese-backed consortium successfully bid $1.75 billion for a 98-year lease of the world's biggest coal port, the Port of Newcastle, in 2014.
However, both deals drew criticism from politicians and national security experts.
According to 2021 government reports on foreign ownership of agricultural land and water, Chinese companies were also big stakeholders in those areas.
Currently, 14.1 per cent of Australia's agricultural land is foreign owned, and China is the largest foreign owner (2.3 per cent).
China is also the third-largest stakeholder of Australian water behind Canada and the US, owning 604 gigalitres or 1.5 per cent of the total Australian water entitlement.
About 11 per cent of the Australian water is foreign owned.
Strategic shift amid geopolitical tensions
Under the "going out" strategy, initiated by the Chinese government at the turn of this century, Chinese firms were encouraged to invest aboard.
The aim was to secure natural resources and intellectual property to support the growth of the economy.
Gerard Burg says there has been a shift in the direction of China's foreign investment.
"Over the last decade or so, China has really become one of the world's largest foreign investors," according to Gerard Burg, senior economist at National Australia Bank.
"This was a conscious decision. Initially, it was very heavily resource intensive. A lot of investment in countries like Australia was seeking access to things like iron ore and coal.
"But more recently, it has moved away from those sort of investment targets, more towards things like technology."
Professor Hendrischke agreed, saying that after the mining boom, when state-led Chinese firms acquired enough assets, they shifted towards health care, agribusiness and renewable energy.
But more recently, as the geopolitical competition between China and the US flared, investment interest in Australia shifted from bigger acquisitions to safe assets.
IiInvestment in agribusiness has been falling for years.
About one-third of total investment over the past two years was held in commercial real estate.
"There is a degree of insecurity and uncertainty," Professor Hendrischke said.
"How the relationship between the US and China plays out over the long term will have an impact on Australia."
The report also found Chinese companies were flocking to Europe and countries associated with the Belt and Road Initiative. Last year, Chinese investment in Europe grew by one-quarter.
"Just as we've been debating how to diversify away from China here in Australia, China has already started diversifying away from Australia in this regard," Pichamon Yeophantong, a senior lecturer at UNSW Canberra, said.
Pichamon Yeophantong says Chinese companies have been increasingly shifting their interest to other, more attractive markets.
Concerns over data accuracy
Despite the pandemic, China has continued to invest abroad at a steady pace.
According to China's Ministry of Commerce, outbound direct investment from China rose by 9.2 per cent to $208 billion.
In 2020, while investment globally was falling, China's government claimed to be the world's largest investor, with total spending of $220.5 billion.
Economists have noticed big discrepancies between official and unofficial measures, such as the American Enterprise Institute’s China Global Investment Tracker.
There is a wide gap between the official and unofficial figures during the pandemic.(Supplied)
"There is some uncertainty around the accuracy of this data," Mr Burg said.
"The key destinations for China's private investment, according to that official data, have been Hong Kong, as well as two notable tax havens, the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands.
"One possibility is that the investors are trying to mask the origin of investment funds. By going through the tax havens, they can wash away the concerns in other countries about Chinese investment.
"Or it's the possibility that Chinese firms and high-net-worth individuals maybe try to get their capital out of China. That would be a major negative for China's long-term growth prospects, particularly concerns around its financial sector."
President Xi Jinping's "common prosperity" policies have sparked fears of wealth redistribution in recent years, especially in the tech and financial sectors.
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Why is China cracking down on its billionaires?
Mr Burg noted that Australian data showed the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands were the sources of the ninth-largest and 20th-largest stock of foreign direct investment in 2020, while Hong Kong ranked 11th overall.
Data shows various tax havens have a significant share of the stock.(Supplied)
Why is China accused of 'debt trapping' poor nations?
China's official data also shows Chinese investment in countries affiliated with the Belt and Road Initiative increased by 14 per cent to $28.6 billion last year.
It has also been widely viewed as a tool for Beijing to exercise soft power.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
CChina seeks global dominance with its One Belt One Road Initiative.
But the lack of transparency in Chinese loans terms and the alarming debt levels among poor nations have sparked speculation about "debt-trap diplomacy".
The theory is when a country defaults or keeps borrowing more to repay its loans, Beijing will have some leverage in demanding concessions or other advantages in exchange for debt relief.
C Carmen Altenkirch is an emerging markets sovereign analyst at Aviva Investors.(Supplied)
"China's share of outstanding external debt to emerging market countries has increased sharply over the past decade," Carmen Altenkirch, from asset management company Aviva Investors, said.
"This reflected a desire on the part of some emerging market governments to access capital for infrastructure investment, and a willingness on the part of Chinese entities to lend.
"China is one of the largest creditors to emerging market countries at a time when debt is, or is quickly becoming, unsustainable for many."
However, Ms Altenkirch said there was no evidence Chinese authorities had actively tried to put certain countries into too much debt.
China's former central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, rejected suggestions his country was using debt-trap diplomacy, saying debtor countries demanded Chinese lending and it provided long-term economic benefits.
"There is a certain degree of difficulty in this process, and it must be carefully considered and designed to find a way to alleviate the debt problems of the countries along the Belt and Road, while avoiding suggestions that there are bad motives," he said at an economic forum in April.
