The China Thread

[Grey Fox]

Why would he care? He's Han Chinese. The winning race.

[Monoriu]

Why would he care? He's Han Chinese. The winning race.

Obviously white is the winning race

[Grey Fox]

I disagree. China is winning.

[The Brain]

They certainly have more tiger blood.

[Tamas]

I disagree. China is winning.

Yeah right.

[Eddie Teach]

Mono thinks it's 1920.

[Syt]

John Oliver on China and the Uighurs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17oCQakzIl8

[The Larch]

China insists Genghis Khan exhibit not use words 'Genghis Khan'
Museum in Nantes pulls show after intervention by Beijing, which comes as Communist party hardens discrimination against ethnic Mongols

A French museum has postponed an exhibit about the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan citing interference by the Chinese government, which it accuses of trying to rewrite history.

The Château des ducs de Bretagne history museum in the western city of Nantes said it was putting the show about the fearsome 13th century leader on hold for over three years.

The museum's director, Bertrand Guillet, said: "We made the decision to stop this production in the name of the human, scientific and ethical values that we defend."

It said the Chinese authorities demanded that certain words, including "Genghis Khan," "Empire" and "Mongol" be taken out of the show. Subsequently they asked for power over exhibition brochures, legends and maps.

The spat comes as the Chinese government has hardened its discrimination against ethnic Mongols, many of whom live in the northern province of Inner Mongolia.

The exhibit was planned in collaboration with the Inner Mongolia Museum in Hohhot, China. But tensions arose, the Nantes museum said, when the Chinese Bureau of Cultural Heritage pressured the museum for changes to the original plan, "including notably elements of biased rewriting of Mongol culture in favour of a new national narrative".

The museum branded it "censorship" and said it underlined a "hardening ... of the position of the Chinese government against the Mongolian minority".

The Chinese consulate in Paris did not immediately return calls for comment.

[Valmy]

Huh. Never thought I would ever find myself siding with Genghis Khan against China.

[Josquius]

I wonder if the CCP knows its days are numbered and is playing the long game. Making it so when China is in a place to collapse again, there are no fringe nationalities to secede.

[Sheilbh]

So lots of officials in Taiwan have recently been saying lots of very friendly things about India and Indian culture - it feels like something's up

[Sheilbh]

The escalation of Chinese issues with Australia is really incredible and probably a warning for other countries:

China fires back at Morrison, doubles down on war crimes accusation
By Eryk Bagshaw and Anthony Galloway
Updated November 30, 2020 — 6.53pmfirst published at 5.39pm

China's Foreign Ministry has said Australia should be ashamed of its war crimes in Afghanistan after Prime Minister Scott Morrison demanded an apology over an inflammatory social media post from an official Chinese account.

Twitter was on Monday scrambling to assess whether a doctored image shared by a deputy director in China's Foreign Ministry had violated its terms of service after Mr Morrison called a press conference to demand the post be taken down, labelling it "repugnant" and "truly offensive".

The image purported to show a special forces soldier slitting the throat of an Afghan child with its head wrapped in an Australian flag as it cradled a lamb.

More than four hours after Mr Morrison's request for the image to be taken down, the social media giant had yet to respond. It has censored multiple replies to the image for violating its Twitter rules but not the original post itself.

Twitter has not responded to requests for comment. The Morrison government is preparing to escalate its response to the company's San Francisco headquarters on Tuesday if its demands are not met.

The post came three days after China hit Australia's $45 billion wine industry with a tariff of more than 200 per cent, in a major escalation of Beijing's trade strikes on billions of dollars worth of Australian exports.

In his strongest comments on any Chinese government action since he became Prime Minister, a visibly angry Mr Morrison said the Chinese government should be "totally ashamed of the post", accused the Communist Party of being immature and said he hoped this "awful event may lead to a reset" in the relationship.


Lijian Zhao's tweet.Credit:Twitter/@zlj517

"It diminishes them in the world's eyes," he said. "It is an absolutely outrageous and disgusting slur. Australia is seeking an apology from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we are seeking it be removed from Twitter."

In a swipe at Australia's human rights record after the release of the Brereton inquiry report into alleged war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman and information department deputy director Zhao Lijian called for Australia to be held accountable.

"These reports point to the hypocrisy of some Western countries who like to consider themselves as guardians of human rights and freedom," Mr Zhao said last week. The comments were later supported and repeated by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

China's Foreign Ministry on Monday evening fired back at Mr Morrison, claiming Australia should be "ashamed" of its record in Afghanistan.

"The Australian side is reacting so strongly to my colleague's Twitter," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "Does that mean that they think the coldblooded murder of Afghans is justified? The Australian government should feel ashamed of this; they owe an explanation to the world and they should solemnly pledge such crimes will not be repeated."

Mr Morrison said the government-initiated Brereton report showed that Australia had honest and transparent processes for war crimes to be investigated. "That is what a free, democratic, liberal country does," he said.

The report found up to 39 Afghans had been murdered by Australian soldiers.

China has detained up to 1 million Muslim Uighurs in re-education camps in Xinjiang and been criticised for its crackdown in Hong Kong. New national security laws imposed by Beijing on the former British colony in April punish dissent with sentences of up to life in prison.

Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong offered bipartisan support to Mr Morrison's comments.

"This is not the behaviour of a responsible, mature international power," she said. "These tactics will be met with unified condemnation in the Australian community."

The escalation is the latest instalment of China's attempt to target Australia's human rights record as it simultaneously ramps up trade pressure.

Ahead of the release of the Brereton inquiry on November 19, the Chinese embassy had flagged with Nine News, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that it would use multilateral forums to pursue Australia's record on Indigenous affairs and aged care. The threats were made at the same time as embassy officials warned the government to change course as they delivered a list of 14 grievances with Australia across the national security, diplomacy and business sectors.

Department of Foreign Affairs secretary Frances Adamson called China's ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, on Monday to express Australia's deep disappointment with the post, but Mr Cheng has yet to be formally summoned by the government.

The doctored image was created by Wuheqilin, a self-styled Chinese "wolf warrior" artist, who came to prominence for his pro-Beijing illustrations during the Hong Kong protests last year. After the furious reaction from Australia, Mr Zhao pinned the tweet to the top of his social media feed, so it is the first post people searching his account see.

Herve Lemahieu, director of the power and diplomacy program at the Lowy Institute, said Mr Morrison should not have responded to the "smear" and "low blow" from a relatively junior Chinese official on Twitter.

He said Australia's response was "overly emotive and defensive" and played right into China's hands.

"We shouldn't deploy our top asset - head of government - to respond to a propaganda post from some junior level official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry. These guys seek attention and we have given it to them," Mr Lemahieu said.

"I would describe it as a smear and a sub-tweet, and I didn't think it merited a response from the Prime Minister. It's beneath the Prime Minister to have to react to that."

Mr Lemahieu said he believed the tweet was used as "bait to lure a response", and also to switch the debate from China's "blatant violation of the economic rules-based order" by imposing unfair tariffs on Australia.

"That [the tariffs] is the big story, and to me it looks like they are trying to switch the subjects and make Australia look like the villain. We shouldn't have fallen for it," he said.

"It is not a coincidence the Russians got involved as well. I wouldn't have been surprised if they coordinated their efforts in the last few days in terms of seizing on what they think is a soft target."

Michael Shoebridge, director of Australian Strategic Policy Institute's defence and national security program, said social media post "shows again why Chinese soft power is collapsing internationally".

"The Afghan war crimes inquiry and the Australian government moves to hold itself and Australian soldiers to account are in stark contrast to the Chinese government's denials and cover-ups about its abuses in Xinjiang and its repression in Hong Kong," Mr Shoebridge said.

"The world knows about the alleged unlawful killings of 39 Afghans because of a forensic inquiry conducted by Australia authorities, with a 480-page report released publicly.

"In contrast, the world knows about the over one million Uighurs in detention camps in China because of the accounts of escapees, because of leaked Chinese government documents, and analysis of satellite imagery."

Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge called Chinese-Australian community leaders to speak out about the tweet, saying it was "important to remember that the Chinese Communist Party's views are theirs alone".

"I don't believe this post reflects the views of the 1.2 million Australians of Chinese heritage who have chosen to call our great nation home," Mr Tudge said.

Eryk Bagshaw
Eryk Bagshaw is the China correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Due to travel restrictions, he is currently based in Canberra.
Anthony Galloway
Anthony is foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

[Tamas]

A lot of people around the world wanted US supremacy to end. Well, they are getting the world they wanted.

[Sheilbh]

Fat Pang is back on the current Australia-China issues - and I totally agree with him:

Australia's allies need to help it stand up to China or risk being 'picked off' too, former Hong Kong governor warns
Chris Patten says Communist party 'trying to hammer Australia' with trade actions in order to set an example for other countries
Daniel Hurst in Canberra and Helen Davidson in Taipei
Tue 8 Dec 2020 01.53 GMT
First published on Mon 7 Dec 2020 23.23 GMT

Australia needs help from governments around the world to resist "the most extreme example of coercive, commercial" pressure from China, otherwise those countries will be "picked off" in the same way, the last British governor of Hong Kong has said.

Chris Patten, the governor from 1992 to until the handover to China in 1997, also told the Guardian he was "extremely sad" about the crackdown in Hong Kong this year and believed it reflected a change in character of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) under Xi Jinping's leadership.

Patten, who is the Lord Patten of Barnes in the House of Lords in the UK, argued the CCP was trying to "make an example of Australia" by taking a range of trade actions against Australian export sectors during the course of the year – including Australian wine, which is being hit with "anti-dumping" tariffs of up to 200%. Chinese authorities suspended imports from a sixth Australian beef processing company on Monday night.

"I think what has happened to Australia is a powerful argument for all of us for a change [in] working together to actually call China out and stand up to China," Patten said in an interview.

"Now, people say, 'Oh, we don't want a cold war with China'. Of course we don't want a cold war with China. But China is fighting us. China hates our value system. And the question is whether we actually stand up for the sort of societies we are or whether we let China undermine it."

Patten's call for a coalition of like-minded governments was echoed by Taiwan's foreign minister, Joseph Wu, who advised Australia to gather international support to resist the "tremendous pressure" China was putting it under.

"Fighting alone is not the way to deal with it," Wu told the Guardian in an interview.

The already strained relationship between Australia and China hit a new low last week with Scott Morrison demanding an apology after a Chinese foreign ministry official tweeted a digitally created image that appeared to show an Australian soldier cutting the throat of a child in Afghanistan.

China rebuffed the Australian prime minister's demand, but a number of countries including the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, New Zealand – along with the European Union – offered public statements condemning the tweet. Japan's embassy also reaffirmed trade should not be used as a political tool.

The Canadian government said on Tuesday it was collaborating with Australia "very closely" on issues related to China and it was "shocked to see the fabricated image posted by a Chinese government official".

Christelle Chartrand, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, told the Guardian: "The dissemination of such inflammatory material and disinformation is beneath the standards of proper diplomatic conduct".

While Beijing maintains it is up to the Morrison government to foster a better atmosphere for dialogue, and that Australian politicians and media need to abandon what it calls a "cold war mentality", Patten said he believed the Chinese government was "trying to hammer Australia" in order to set an example for other countries.

Beijing's aim, Patten said, was to demonstrate what would happen to countries if they insisted on having a proper investigation into how the Covid-19 pandemic began, or if they blocked Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from their 5G networks, or if they stood up to United Front activists, or if they questioned the CCP's narratives about its role in the world.

He said other countries should pursue partnerships with China on sensible terms, but be prepared to call the CCP out when it behaved as it was currently doing to Australia – taking action against billions of dollars in exports including barley, wine, red meat and coal, which Beijing has argued is being taken on technical grounds.

Patten said democracies and other concerned countries should work together – including through the World Trade Organization – to bring the Chinese government's behaviour "to the attention of the global community and to make China pay for it".

"Otherwise, other countries will be picked off in the way that Australia has been by this loutish behaviour by China," Patten said.

"What is happening in Australia is important for us in Europe if we want to defend our own rule of law and our own values as open societies and democracies."

Patten emphasised his argument was not with the Chinese people, but "with the Communist party and Xi Jinping's regime".

He said he did not believe the CCP could be trusted, as demonstrated by events in Hong Kong where "basically the Communist party has put the city in handcuffs" through the imposition of a new national security law and the disqualification of pro-democracy lawmakers.

Despite the value of trade with China – the world's second-biggest economy – Patten said countries like Australia and the UK "may have to occasionally lose some economic gain here or there in order to stand up for ourselves, but unless we do, the Chinese will continue to drive a harder and harder and rougher bargain".

"We can't let the wolf warriors, as they're called, to actually win because it will be a less secure world, it'll be a less prosperous world, and will have sacrificed some of the things that really matter to us along the road," he said.

Patten said Australia's transparent investigation into alleged war crimes by its special forces in Afghanistan was the type of action that was unimaginable in China. "Are they are they going to have an investigation into the murders around Tiananmen Square in 1989? Of course they're not," Patten said.

Wu, Taiwan's foreign minister, told the Guardian: "In order for the Australian government to be able to deal with the pressure from China in a more effective manner, my true recommendation, from my heart, is that like-minded partners need to come in and work together with Australia so that Australia will feel not alone in dealing with the situation," Wu said.

Wu suggested other countries could step in to fill the gaps left by China's bans and sanctions on Australian products, and said Taiwan would try to provide support also. Asked what that looked like, Wu said Taiwan's government needed to discuss with Australia what Australia felt would be beneficial.

Wu also advised Australia to follow Taiwan's lead in establishing anti-disinformation and media literacy campaigns to counter false information from Beijing.

He said Taiwan greatly appreciated Australia's vocal support for the World Health Organization to allow Taiwan to regain observer status – something that Beijing had used its global influence to prevent happening for several years.

[KRonn]

Good article Sheilbh. I've heard of this recently also. Australia has been trying to hold China accountable, along with other nations and China has been threatening and trying to intimidate the Aussies now. Lots of propaganda out of China against Australia. Lots of propaganda in the US from China.

Today it was reported the FBI found that CA Rep Swalwell had a female Chinese spy working for him, along with other accomplices she was able to find jobs for in the US government.  This spy left the country. CA Senator Feinstein had a Chinese spy working for her for about 20 years, finally outed by the FBI a year or two ago. Over the past year or so there been a number of Chinese and Americans arrested who have been covertly working for the Chinese government in illicit actions. There's a recent video of a Chinese official bragging how they have their people infiltrated throughout the US and in government.