Chinese Economy Now in Deep Peril

 

A man on a bicycle stands in front of an electronic board showing Shanghai stock index, Nikkei share price index, and Dow Jones Industrial Average outside a brokerage in Tokyo on Sept. 22, 2022. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

By Fan Yu

June 18, 2023 Updated: June 20, 2023

 

Commentary

At the beginning of the year, many economists had predicted that the COVID “great re-opening” of China would spur domestic spending and the consumer sector.

Following years of periodic lockdowns, the hope is that consumers would roar out of the gates to offset slowdowns in traditional growth areas such as manufacturing and real estate.

But after a brief first quarter of economic growth, the wheels have come off the Chinese economy.

The most recent economic data from May showed that metrics have all deteriorated across the board, from youth unemployment to retail sales, real estate prices, and capital investments, according to official data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

And if the official statistics are so bad, there’s reason to believe that the real economic picture may be even worse.

Weak consumer spending is especially worrisome as the traditional levers to spur growth have all stalled and there are few levers the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can pull. Retail sales, which ING Bank called “the only functioning engine of Chinese growth,” is floundering.

“And although the year-on-year growth rate of 12.7% looks impressive, this equates to a seasonally adjusted decrease in month-on-month sales and shows that the re-opening momentum is falling,” wrote Robert Carnell, ING’s head of research in Asia-Pacific, in a note to clients.

There are numerous causes of this, including consumer pessimism, unemployment, and an exodus of wealth.

Youth unemployment among the ages of 16-24 is at its highest level on record, sitting above 20 percent as of April 2023. This has caused social stability issues for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ruling regime. Older consumers have more cash, but have become more pessimistic about the future of the country and are pulling back their purse strings.

In addition, China is losing a lot of wealth due to migration. Around 13,500 dollar-millionaires are expected to leave China this year, after 10,800 such individuals (and their families) migrated out of China in 2022, according to data from consultant Henley & Partners. Those are the biggest wealth losses among any country in the world.

Top CCP officials have been so concerned about the nation’s economic situation that they are soliciting advice from business leaders on how to boost growth. At least six consultation sessions have been held in recent weeks with business leaders, according to Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter.

Among the topics discussed were how to stimulate the economy, how to boost private sector spending, and how to revitalize the real estate market. And among the suggestions proposed was to introduce more elements of a market-based economy rather than a planned economy—a hallmark of communism.

“Officials acknowledged China’s economy was facing a critical period and displayed an impetus to finding solutions they hadn’t seen before,” according to the Bloomberg report.

While these solution-finding sessions aren’t necessarily foreign to a Western audience, they are uncommon for the CCP and underscore the dire situation facing China’s economy.

The usual economic stimulus measures from CCP’s playbook are all on the table. These include interest-rate reductions, bank reserve requirement cuts, and loosening restrictions on real estate development.

The People’s Bank of China on June 13 lowered the short-term rates (standing lending facility, or SLF) by 10 basis points, or 0.1 percent to spur lending activities. And on June 15, it also cut the one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) by 10 basis points from 2.75 to 2.65 percent.

But those traditional methods of stimulus have a lesser effect today due to their widespread use over the prevailing two decades.

For example, the CCP has already encouraged bank lending so much that further loosening of regulatory reins would put its banking sector in peril. The property market, which already accounts for over 70 percent of China’s household wealth and 25 percent of its GDP, is already overallocated as a contributor to the economy. Those with the means to buy homes already have multiple homes, most of which are sitting empty. Further stimulus could encourage wild fluctuations in periods of distress and cause undue harm to household wealth and further hamper consumer spending.

After years of encouraging infrastructure spending, local and regional governments are out of cash and already facing defaults. There’s simply very little need for more highways, bridges, and tunnels in a country that has been overbuilding them to spur growth.

All of this makes the CCP’s full-year target of 5 percent GDP growth an impossible goal to meet.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-economy-now-in-deep-peril_5340527.html

Sanctions-hit Huawei demands royalties from Japanese companies

Chinese telecom giant seeks new revenue to offset sales decline

China's Huawei to trying to forge a path forward amid U.S. sanctions that have effectively cut access to American technology.

TAKAHIRO SHIBUYA, Nikkei senior staff writerJune 18, 2023 01:20 JST

 

TOKYO -- Huawei Technologies is seeking licensing fees from roughly 30 small to midsize Japanese companies for the use of patented technology, Nikkei has learned, signaling the sanctions-hit Chinese telecommunication giant's growing reliance on such revenue.

A source at Huawei's Japan unit revealed that "talks are currently underway with about 30 Japanese telecom-related companies." The telecom manufacturer is believed to be stepping up royalty collection in Southeast Asia as well.

It is highly unusual for a major manufacturer to directly negotiate with smaller clients regarding patent fees. Huawei is facing an increasingly tough business environment as U.S. sanctions stemming from data security concerns have made it difficult to sell products overseas.

Huawei is seeking fees from manufacturers and others that use components called wireless communication modules. Sources at several Japanese companies said businesses as small as just a few employees to startups with over 100 workers have received requests from Huawei.

Requested payment levels range from a fixed fee of 50 yen (35 cents) or less per unit to 0.1% or less of the price of the system.

"The level is on par with international standards," said Toshifumi Futamata, a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo.

Huawei holds a high share of so-called standard-essential patents that are crucial to using such wireless communications standards as 4G or Wi-Fi.

Equipment made by other companies compatible with those standards also use Huawei's patented technology. This means if Huawei demands it, many companies using related internet-connected devices will have to pay patent royalties.

Even Japanese companies that do not use Huawei products could incur unexpected expenses. Furthermore, many small and medium-sized companies are unfamiliar with patent negotiations, raising concerns about signing contracts with unfavorable terms.

"Depending on the content of the contracts, it could lead to data leaks for Japanese companies," Futamata warned. "They need to enlist lawyers and other experts for help to avoid signing disadvantageous contracts."

Contracts that include authorization to access the communication module's software pose risk of data leaks, Futamata added.

Negotiations over telecommunications technology patents are generally conducted between major equipment manufacturers. Such negotiations are time-consuming and selling their own products is far more profitable.

But Huawei's profit has plunged as U.S. sanctions have cut its access to American technology and goods. Without access to Google's Android, for example, it has struggled to sell devices overseas. Growing U.S.-China tensions have prompted Japanese companies to avoid adopting Huawei products.

As patent royalties are not subject to trade restrictions, this could be a source of stable income for Huawei.

Huawei has established an intellectual property strategy hub in Japan to oversee its IP business in the Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore, South Korea, India and Australia.

Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor agreed with Huawei by the end of 2022 to license standard essential patents related to 4G communications technology used for connected cars.

More Japanese companies could face payments demands from Huawei. Wireless communication modules using Huawei's patented technology are indispensable for connected Internet of Things (IoT) networks, according to Tokyo-based research company Seed Planning. The technology is being adopted in autonomous driving, automated factories, medicine, power and logistics.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Telecommunication/Sanctions-hit-Huawei-demands-royalties-from-Japanese-companies 

Security flaws found in Xiaomi phones’ trusted environment could have affected over 1 billion users

Photo Credit: 123RF.com

Team TC

12 Aug, 2022

Security researchers have found vulnerabilities in Xiaomi phones’ trusted environment, which could have affected more than a billion users. If left unpatched, they could have allowed attackers to steal private keys used to login into payment apps such as WeChat Pay, the researchers warned. 

The vulnerabilities were flagged by Cybersecurity firm Check Point Research (CPR), which said that Xiaomi acknowledged and fixed the security flaws after they were brought to its attention. 

Though CPR didn't disclose the name of the afflicted Xiaomi devices, it said that they were powered by MediaTek chips.

A trusted environment is an isolated space on a smartphone that is designed to run trusted apps with higher security and privacy demands. Most payment apps such as WeChat and Samsung Pay use this space to store tokenised information such as private keys and passwords. 

“We were able to hack into WeChat Pay and implemented a fully worked proof of concept,” Slava Makkaveev, a security researcher at CPR said in a statement. 

Makkaveev and his team, during their research, found that the vulnerabilities could have been exploited to attack the trusted code in two ways. In the first method, they installed a malicious application and used it to extract the private keys and send a fake payment packet to steal the money.

In the second method, they rooted the device to downgrade the trust environment and then ran a code to create a fake payment package without involving an application. 

“We discovered a set of vulnerabilities that could allow forging of payment packages or disabling the payment system directly, from an unprivileged Android application,” added Makkaveev. 

Makkaveev urged users to apply the latest updates and security patches released by the company. 

Though Makkaveev said that this is the first time Xiaomi's trusted applications are being reviewed for security issues, CPR has flagged vulnerabilities in Xiaomi devices in the past. For instance, in 2019, CPR found a vulnerability in a pre-installed security app called Guard Provider on Xiaomi smartphones. The network traffic of the app was found to be unsecured and vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks (MIMT).

https://www.techcircle.in/2022/08/12/security-flaws-found-in-xiaomi-phones-trusted-environment-could-have-affected-over-1-billion-users

Exclusive: Warning Over Chinese Mobile Giant Xiaomi Recording Millions Of People’s ‘Private’ Web And Phone Use

 

Apr 30, 2020,   09:25am EDT

Thomas Brewster

Forbes Staff

Senior writer at Forbes covering cybercrime, privacy and surveillance.

Commuters pass by Xiaomi Note 10 Pro smartphone advertisement at its flagship store in Hong Kong. ... [+]

BUDRUL CHUKRUT/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

“It’s a backdoor with phone functionality,” quips Gabi Cirlig about his new Xiaomi phone. He’s only half-joking.

Cirlig is speaking with Forbes after discovering that his Redmi Note 8 smartphone was watching much of what he was doing on the phone. That data was then being sent to remote servers hosted by another Chinese tech giant, Alibaba, which were ostensibly rented by Xiaomi. 

The seasoned cybersecurity researcher found a worrying amount of his behavior was being tracked, whilst various kinds of device data were also being harvested, leaving Cirlig spooked that his identity and his private life was being exposed to the Chinese company.

When he looked around the Web on the device’s default Xiaomi browser, it recorded all the websites he visited, including search engine queries whether with Google or the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo, and every item viewed on a news feed feature of the Xiaomi software. That tracking appeared to be happening even if he used the supposedly private “incognito” mode.

The device was also recording what folders he opened and to which screens he swiped, including the status bar and the settings page. All of the data was being packaged up and sent to remote servers in Singapore and Russia, though the Web domains they hosted were registered in Beijing.

Meanwhile, at Forbes’ request, cybersecurity researcher Andrew Tierney investigated further. He also found browsers shipped by Xiaomi on Google Play—Mi Browser Pro and the Mint Browser—were collecting the same data. Together, they have more than 15 million downloads, according to Google Play statistics.

Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.

Many more millions are likely to be affected by what Cirlig described as a serious privacy issue, though Xiaomi denied there was a problem. Valued at $50 billion, Xiaomi is one of the top four smartphone makers in the world by market share, behind Apple, Samsung and Huawei. Xiaomi’s big sell is cheap devices that have many of the same qualities as higher-end smartphones. But for customers, that low cost could come with a hefty price: their privacy.

Cirlig thinks that the problems affect many more models than the one he tested. He downloaded firmware for other Xiaomi phones—including the Xiaomi MI 10, Xiaomi Redmi K20 and Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 devices. He then confirmed they had the same browser code, leading him to suspect they had the same privacy issues.

And there appear to be issues with how Xiaomi is transferring the data to its servers. Though the Chinese company claimed the data was being encrypted when transferred in an attempt to protect user privacy, Cirlig found he was able to quickly see just what was being taken from his device by decoding a chunk of information that was hidden with a form of easily crackable encoding, known as base64. It took Cirlig just a few seconds to change the garbled data into readable chunks of information.

“My main concern for privacy is that the data sent to their servers can be very easily correlated with a specific user,” warned Cirlig.

Xiaomi’s response

In response to the findings, Xiaomi said, “The research claims are untrue,” and “Privacy and security is of top concern,” adding that it “strictly follows and is fully compliant with local laws and regulations on user data privacy matters.” But a spokesperson confirmed it was collecting browsing data, claiming the information was anonymized so wasn’t tied to any identity. They said that users had consented to such tracking. 

But, as pointed out by Cirlig and Tierney, it wasn’t just the website or Web search that was sent to the server. Xiaomi was also collecting data about the phone, including unique numbers for identifying the specific device and Android version. Cirlig said such “metadata” could “easily be correlated with an actual human behind the screen.”

Xiaomi’s spokesperson also denied that browsing data was being recorded under incognito mode. Both Cirlig and Tierney, however, found in their independent tests that their web habits were sent off to remote servers regardless of what mode the browser was set to, providing both photos and videos as proof.

When Forbes provided Xiaomi with a video made by Cirlig showing how his Google search for “porn” and a visit to the site PornHub were sent to remote servers, even when in incognito mode, the company spokesperson continued to deny that the information was being recorded. “This video shows the collection of anonymous browsing data, which is one of the most common solutions adopted by internet companies to improve the overall browser product experience through analyzing non-personally identifiable information,” they added.

Both Cirlig and Tierney said Xiaomi’s behavior was more invasive than other browsers like Google Chrome or Apple Safari. “It’s a lot worse than any of the mainstream browsers I have seen,” Tierney said. “Many of them take analytics, but it's about usage and crashing. Taking browser behavior, including URLs, without explicit consent and in private browsing mode, is about as bad as it gets.”

Cirlig also suspected that his app use was being monitored by Xiaomi, as every time he opened an app, a chunk of information would be sent to a remote server. Another researcher who’d tested Xiaomi devices, though was under an NDA to discuss the matter openly, said he’d seen the manufacturer’s phone collect such data. Xiaomi didn’t respond to questions on that issue.

‘Behavioral Analytics’

Xiaomi appears to have another reason for collecting the data: to better understand its users’ behavior. It’s using the services of a behavioral analytics company called Sensors Analytics. The Chinese startup, also known as Sensors Data, has raised $60 million since its founding in 2015, most recently taking $44 million in a round led by New York private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which also featured funding from Sequoia Capital China. As described in Pitchbook, a tracker of company funding, Sensors Analytics is a “provider of an in-depth user behavior analysis platform and professional consulting services.” Its tools help its clients in “exploring the hidden stories behind the indicators in exploring the key behaviors of different businesses.”

Both Cirlig and Tierney found their Xiaomi apps were sending data to domains that appeared to reference Sensors Analytics, including the repeated use of SA. When clicking on one of the domains, the page contained one sentence: “Sensors Analytics is ready to receive your data!”  There was an API called SensorDataAPI—an API (application programming interface) being the software that allows third parties access to app data. Xiaomi is also listed as a customer on Sensors Data’s website.

The founder and CEO of Sensors Data, Sang Wenfeng, has a long history in tracking users. At Chinese internet giant Baidu he built a big data platform for Baidu user logs, according to his company bio.

Xiaomi’s spokesperson confirmed the relationship with the startup: “While Sensors Analytics provides a data analysis solution for Xiaomi, the collected anonymous data are stored on Xiaomi's own servers and will not be shared with Sensors Analytics, or any other third-party companies.”

It’s the second time in two months that a huge Chinese tech company has been seen watching over users’ phone habits. A security app with a “private” browser made by Cheetah Mobile, a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, was seen collecting information on Web use, Wi-Fi access point names and more granular data like how a user scrolled on visited Web pages. Cheetah argued it needed to collect the information to protect users and improve their experience.

Late in his research, Cirlig also discovered that Xiaomi’s music player app on his phone was collecting information on his listening habits: what songs were played and when.

One message was clear to the researcher: when you’re listening, Xiaomi is listening, too.

UPDATE: Xiaomi posted a blog in which it delineated how and when it collects visited URLs visited by its users. Read it in full here.

The company reiterated that the data transferred from Xiaomi devices and browsers was anonymized and not attached to any identity.

On May 3, Xiaomi announced that in its next browser update, it’d allow customers to stop their visited websites being sent to the Chinese company’s servers.

The browsers will include “an option in incognito mode ... to switch on/off the aggregated data collection, in an effort to further strengthen the control we grant users over sharing their own data with Xiaomi. The software updates will be submitted to Google Play for approval within today.”

“We believe this functionality, in combination with our approach of maintaining aggregated data in non-identifiable form, goes beyond any legal requirements and demonstrates our company’s commitment to user privacy,” Xiaomi added.

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Thomas Brewster

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/04/30/exclusive-warning-over-chinese-mobile-giant-xiaomi-recording-millions-of-peoples-private-web-and-phone-use/?sh=7f94139a1b2a

Lithuanian cybersecurity agency warns against use of Chinese-made Xiaomi and Huawei phones over data privacy concerns

Xiaomi phones also carry the risk of possible restrictions on freedom of expression because apps receive updated lists of censored words and phrases and are capable of blocking them, according to investigations

The Associated Press September 22, 2021 22:17:23 IST

https://www.firstpost.com/world/lithuanian-cybersecurity-agency-warns-against-use-of-chinese-made-xiaomi-and-huawei-phones-over-data-privacy-concerns-9988301.html

Technician detects Wechat has set of special character files, Suspicious data monitoring

2023.06.08 02:47 ET

Recently, a network technician in Taiwan discovered that the popular Chinese application WeChat has set up encrypted log files on personal computers and may upload these data. Several WeChat users also said that WeChat occupies a lot of space on their computers and mobile phones and cannot be deleted.

WeChat has become one of the communication or payment tools for most Chinese and even users in other parts of the world. A Hao, a programmer with a master’s degree in the University of Science and Technology of China, a network researcher in Taiwan, recently showed in a video about WeChat’s 24-hour monitoring of user data. The video went viral in WeChat groups this week, triggering many netizens' security concerns about using WeChat to chat. 

Ahao said in the video that some users reported that WeChat took up 1 G of space on their computers. At first, Ahao thought it was nothing, but found that the problem was not simple. He explained: "This one G space turned out to be a bunch of encrypted log files, which greatly aroused my curiosity. Under normal circumstances, it is fine for the software to take up disk space to record some logs, but why is it encrypted? Look? The point is that this is my own computer, but you don’t let me see it, it’s really unreasonable. The most scary thing is that WeChat may have uploaded these files.”

User already deleted Wechat software but it still record computer activities in the background

Do not operate WeChat software but still record computer activities in the background

A Hao said that he used the same Apple laptop and testing tools as other technicians to open his computer's WeChat disk, but found a problem.

He said: "Because we want to see what files are read and written by WeChat in the background, we chose the file monitoring function. After opening, we selected the monitoring program, and then turned on the monitoring and recording function. During this period, our WeChat software can Keep silent in the background. After about five minutes, we stopped the monitoring and recording function. At this time, we can see the activity data of WeChat on the computer in the past five minutes in the panel below. This activity data mainly includes files. related operations."

The programmer Ah Hao said that after quickly filtering the keyword xloa, after opening the xloa file: "The displayed is a bunch of garbled characters, which have been encrypted. It seems that we have not operated WeChat just now, and it seems to have been silent in the background. Then Why are these log files still generated? After a long period of observation, this file will grow by about 30KB every three to eight minutes on my computer, and this feeling is really uncomfortable."

Ah Hao said that these encrypted data are updated every three to eight minutes. (Video screenshot/provided by Guting)

Ah Hao said that he would modify the relevant encrypted data stored in his computer so that the other party could not read it.

However, most users do not have Ah Hao's professional skills, nor can they judge whether their personal computers and mobile phones have been hacked. Mr. Cai, a WeChat user, told this station that WeChat takes up more space on his mobile phone and computer than other applications, and most users know about WeChat’s collection of users’ personal data, but they need to use it for convenience.

He said: "My mobile phone has more than 500 G of memory, and now WeChat accounts for more than 200 G. I delete WeChat every once in a while and reinstall it, but it doesn't work, and it will take up a lot of G soon. So this kind of monitoring is affirmative. , because now people mainly get information through WeChat. Now I occasionally post some pictures in Moments, and basically don’t talk at other times.”

Ah Hao said that these data are encrypted and exist in the form of "garbled characters", which can be checked at any time on WeChat, but he himself cannot understand them. (Video screenshot/provided by Guting)

WeChat users fear data surveillance

Public welfare activist He Peirong told this station that she once learned from a programmer that mobile phones using WeChat are often used as a database to store personal mobile phone activity information. She said: "I also found that WeChat takes up a lot of memory space and cannot be deleted on one mobile phone. After I discovered this problem, I have two spare mobile phones all year round. One mobile phone uses WeChat and domestic software; the other mobile phone is private. Use, with foreign APP installed."

According to Chinese official data, as of December last year, WeChat users reached about 1.3 billion. But there are many concerns about the security of WeChat, chief among them data surveillance. Earlier reports revealed that the WeChat company cooperated with the Chinese government in data surveillance and provided some sensitive information to government agencies, raising concerns about restrictions and surveillance on personal information and speech.

 

Reporter: Gu Ting Editors in charge: Chen Meihua, Xu Shuting, He Ping Web editor: Hong Wei

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/kejiaowen/gt-06082023024436.html 

How China Operates Covert 'Police Precincts' Around the Globe

June 15, 2023 9:11 AM

VOA Graphics

 

In April, the FBI arrested two men accused of operating a secret police station in New York City on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China. Similar covert operations have been reported in dozens of cities around the world. Human rights groups investigating these so-called precincts say they’re being used to go after Chinese dissidents living overseas. How do these outposts operate, what are the concerns, and what’s being done to stop them?

https://www.voanews.com/a/how-china-operates-covert-police-precincts-around-the-globe/7138474.html

Need cash? Go block a road! China’s rural elderly demand money from passing truck

The clip shows older rural residents asking for “tolls” on a highway in the northern province of Hebei.

By Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin
2023.06.16

On the road from the northern Chinese city of Tangshan to Malanzhuang township in Hebei province, trucks are being charged an unofficial toll by local residents along the route 

Faced with rising living costs and a tanking economy, residents of China’s rural areas turn to unofficial toll booths to supplement their incomes, according to a recent video clip uploaded to social media.

In a video clip filmed from a truck driving from the northern city of Tangshan to Malanzhuang township in the northern province of Hebei and posted by several Twitter users, the truck slows as a tall figure blocks a road, before an older man with a cell phone gestures briefly indicating the price to pass through the unofficial “toll booth.”

“What’s that?” the truck driver says. “Talk to me! One yuan?”

A woman then holds out a phone with a QR code on it, as the driver says: “So we take WeChat Pay here, do we?”

While Radio Free Asia was unable to verify the video independently, commentators said the phenomenon isn’t new, but has likely seen a resurgence amid growing economic hardship in the wake of the three-year restrictions of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy.

A long-distance truck driver on the route from Tangshan to Malanzhuang township in Hebei province says that he met more than a dozen farmers who stopped him along the way and asked for “road money” ranging from 1 to 10 yuan. Credit: RFA screenshot from video

Further along the same route, the truck pulls up again, to address an elderly woman in a burgundy blouse.

“What is it? Money you want?” the driver calls. The woman nods.

“How much? Five yuan?”

The process is repeated further down the highway, with two older women approaching his cab, waving cell phones and asking for payments of 10 yuan and 5 yuan respectively.

‘Things are going from order to disorder’

Jiangsu-based current affairs commentator and former migrant worker Zhang Jianping said unofficial “tolls” are more commonly found in central and western China, where people are generally poorer.

“These farmers only make 107 yuan a month ... What can you buy with 100 yuan?” Zhang said. “At the same time, retired officials get tens of thousands of yuan a month, while staying in hospital for an entire year, at a cost of several million.”

“Meanwhile, these farmers who’ve spent their lives knee-deep in the soil with their backs bent in the service of their country, what are they supposed to do?”

Last October, ruling Chinese Communist Party censors removed a film about the struggles of a poverty-stricken farming couple from streaming sites ahead of the party congress, prompting a public outcry on social media.

“Return to Dust,” a love story about a couple who marry and eke out a living for themselves from farming despite being rejected by their own communities, has a bleak ending that is out of keeping with government “public opinion” policy, which views media and cultural products as a tool to advance “positive stories” about China.

A scene from the Chinese rural romance film “Return to Dust.” Credit: Return to Dust

China declared in November 2020 that it had eliminated extreme poverty, claiming success for one of Xi’s key policy goals ahead of the party centenary the following year.

Yet as government-backed employment schemes have focused on getting younger people to seek jobs in cities, elderly people in rural areas have been left to eke a meager living from government subsidies, without the younger generation around to help, and without enough money for decent medical care.

Many are deciding such a life isn’t worth living any more.

New research published in July 2022 and cited by state news agency Xinhua showed that the suicide rate among elderly people in rural areas has risen fivefold over the last two decades

U.S.-based commentator Ma Ju said he first ran into unofficial toll booths in the 1990s, when China’s economic boom had just gotten started.

The fact that they are making a comeback suggests people’s incomes are falling again.

“People don’t have enough for their lives to be sustainable,” Ma said. “The income of officials at the lowest level is limited, and there isn't much effort to maintain social order.”

“This sort of thing will happen more and more in future,” he said. “Things are going from order to disorder.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Matt Reed.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/toll-roads-hebei-06162023163617.html

Banning Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from 5G networks 'justified', EU says

Visitors walk past a booth for Chinese technology firm Huawei at the PT Expo in Beijing, 2021   -  Copyright  AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File

By Lauren Chadwick  •  Updated: 16/06/2023 - 10:54

European Commissioner Thierry Breton said that more EU member states needed to implement the bloc's cybersecurity guidelines.

Banning Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE from the EU's 5G networks is "justified" and in line with EU guidelines, the European Commission said on Thursday.

Most EU states have been "too slow" to exclude "high-risk" 5G vendors, explained the EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, amid the release of a progress report on how EU states are implementing the bloc's cybersecurity recommendations.

He said the bloc had been able to reduce its dependencies in other critical sectors, such as energy, "in record time",  referring to the EU's efforts to reduce its reliance on Russian gas and oil.

"The situation with 5G should be no different. We cannot afford to maintain critical dependencies that could become a weapon against our interest," Breton said, adding that it was "too critical a vulnerability and too serious a risk to our common security."

EU must ban high-risk suppliers 'without delay'

Only 10 EU states have imposed restrictions on "high-risk suppliers", according to the EU progress report, while three member states are working on implementing national legislation on it.

Breton urged EU states to adopt legislation banning these high-risk telecom suppliers such as Huawei "without delay".

"While some Member States have made progress today’s report show that we are not yet where we need to be," said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's executive vice-president, in a press statement.

"The Commission is doing the necessary to ensure security in its own networks and funding instruments," she added.

Assessing the risk profile of suppliers and strengthening security requirements for mobile network operators are part of the guidelines on 5G cybersecurity that date back to 2020.

EU countries have agreed on the guidelines but must now implement them, Breton said.

The United States has been a vocal advocate of the national security dangers of Chinese telecom companies in 5G networks.

Former US defence secretary Mark Esper said at the 2020 Munich Security Conference that relying on Chinese 5G vendors "could render our partners’ critical systems vulnerable to disruption, manipulation, and espionage."

Last November, the US banned the sale and import of communications equipment from five Chinese companies including Huawei and ZTE.

Concerns about the threat Chinese companies pose to national security are in part due to China's 2017 National Intelligence Law.

It allows Xi Jinping's government to compel Chinese companies and their subsidiaries operating "domestically and abroad" to hand over data to the government if asked to do so, CNBC reported.

Huawei has countered, however, that lawyers and the Chinese government say the law would not compel them to do so.

https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/06/15/banning-chinese-companies-huawei-and-zte-from-5g-networks-justified-eu-says 

EU to Ban Huawei, ZTE from Internal Commission Networks

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-15/eu-to-ban-huawei-zte-from-internal-commission-networks#xj4y7vzkg

Breton urges more EU countries to ban Huawei, ZTE from networks

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/eu-countries-decision-ban-huawei-zte-networks-justified-eus-breton-says-2023-06-15/

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Banned protest anthem 'Glory to Hong Kong' pulled from global streaming services

 Spotify says the song -- which may be subject to a court injunction -- was taken down by its distributor.

By Hoi Man Wu for RFA Cantonese
2023.06.15

Pro-democracy demonstrators gather to sing songs and chant slogans during a singing rally of “Glory to Hong Kong” at a shopping mall in Yuen Long district in Hong Kong on Sept. 12, 2019

A banned Hong Kong protest anthem has disappeared from music streaming services around the world after the city's government applied for a court injunction banning its dissemination.

"Glory to Hong Kong," which has sparked a police investigation after organizers played it instead of China’s national anthem at recent overseas sports events, was regularly sung by crowds of unarmed protesters during the 2019 pro-democracy and anti-extradition movement.

It is still sung at rallies and protests by Hong Kongers in exile around the world, but has been targeted by an ongoing crackdown on public dissent and political opposition under a draconian national security law since 2020.

Last week, the Hong Kong government applied for a High Court injunction banning it from being disseminated in any way, prompting mass downloads of the song that propelled it to the top of local music charts.

The hearing has been postponed to July 21, yet many versions of the song have already been removed from Spotify, Apple's iTunes and other music platforms.

The song's creators said they were having "technical issues."

"Working on some technical issues not related to the streaming platform, sorry for the temporary impact," they said in a post on their Facebook page. "Thank you to all our listeners."

‘Live on in everyone’s hearts’

Comments under the announcement were sad but defiant.

"Really sad! It's been taken down from Apple Music regardless of country," wrote one user, while another said: "Even if it's banned, this song will live on in everyone's hearts. Go Hong Kong!"

Another added: "The most important thing is that you are safe."

Spotify said in an emailed statement to the Associated Press and Reuters that the song had been pulled by its distributor and not the platform itself, while Facebook, Instagram, and Apple Music did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The song calls for freedom and democracy rather than independence, but was nonetheless deemed in breach of the law due to its "separatist" intent, officials and police officers said at the start of the current crackdown on dissent.

The high court has set the hearing date for the injunction at July 21.

If granted, the injunction will ban "broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing [the song] in any way including on the internet," according to a police statement on the injunction.

Francis Fong, president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, said there are two possible reasons for the song's disappearance from music platforms.

"It could be that the creators are worried about violating the national security law, and it wouldn't be surprising if they removed it themselves," Fong said. "It's not the same as uploading to YouTube, where anyone can create an account and upload something."

"You can't just do that on iTunes, where you have to apply for an account so as to receive money, which means that [the authorities] have a way to track down whoever the author is," he said.

"If they feel that things could be getting dangerous, they could have removed it themselves."

Fong said many global platforms are also pretty responsive to government takedown requests, particularly relating to defamation, pornography and violent content, either with or without court orders.

"They will remove certain things if the police ask them to," he said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/hk-anthem-pulled-06152023170840.html