CRG Weekly: Belt and Road event, 'fervent Sinophile' and Xi celebrates poverty alleviation
News from the CRG
Next event: What will the Belt and Road look like in 2030? Join us on Thursday 11 March at 5pm for a session on the evolution of China’s expansive foreign policy ambitions with Jonathan Hillman, Meia Nouwens and Eyck Freymann, moderated by Tom Tugendhat MP. Register here.
New resource: Everything we do is public and free-to-access. We’re beginning to publish some of the resources and data we’ve been collating over the past few months on our website. First up, two new reading lists, including where to start to understand UK-China relations. We also publish transcripts of events.
The week in review
We got an intriguing glimpse into the UK government’s position on China with a report in The Guardian that Prime Minister Boris Johnson called himself ‘fervently Sinophile’ at a Downing Street roundtable last month. The article also suggests that Johnson will seek to revive the Economic and Financial Dialogue and the Joint Trade and Economic Commission, two bilateral economic dialogues that had been suspended after the introduction of the National Security Law in Hong Kong.
The Prime Minister’s remarks, which broke over the weekend, prefigured the latest instalment of parliamentary pingpong over the genocide amendment. The amendment’s most recent iteration proposes that a panel of five judicial experts determine whether a prospective trade partner is committing genocide. It will return to the Commons in the next couple of weeks - after passing in the Lords by 367-214. A critical argument for the government throughout has been that the rebel amendment will have no bearing on the situation in Xinjiang because the government has no intention of agreeing a trade deal with China, an assertion that may face further scrutiny in light of reports of a re-established UK-China economic dialogue.
The PM also took the chance during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday to downplay Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey’s suggestion that Great Britain boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics. The British Olympic Association said it ‘fully supported’ the Prime Minister’s position. Johnson added that the UK was ‘leading international action in the UN to hold China to account.’ On Monday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab publicly called for ‘urgent and unfettered access’ to be given to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate human rights abuses in Xinjiang as the UN Human Rights Council opened its 44th session. Raab also lent his voice to a joint statement following a meeting of foreign ministers from the UK, US, France and Germany, committing to ‘closely coordinate to address the global challenges posed by China.’
It was a week, therefore, which looked a lot like the government putting Boris Johnson’s foreign policy approach into practice, as set out in his speech to the Munich Security Council last Friday. He acknowledged that ‘a new world is rising up around us, patterns of trade and commerce are changing, the global centre of gravity is moving eastwards’... but also that ‘I hope the UK has shown by our actions that we will defend our values as well as our interests…We have consistently spoken out against China’s repression of the Uighur people in Xinjiang province - and we will continue to do so.’
Over in China, it has been an important week for Xi’s influence. A prominent public ceremony celebrated the success of China’s poverty alleviation campaign, for which Xi has claimed personal responsibility. A 22,000 word article in the People’s Daily detailed every moment of the anti-poverty campaign, and Xi made a self-congratulatory hour-long speech. In the CCP’s centenary year, it is a symbolically important moment for the elevation of Xi into one of the CCP’s great leaders. Focus now turns to the ‘two sessions’ next week - the main annual political gathering, where the NPC will approve China’s 14th Five-Year Plan.
In brief
US President Joe Biden will sign an executive order to accelerate efforts to create a China-free tech supply chain as experts advise urgency in the tech war. But China publicly heralded cooperation on new technologies and rare earths; it also renewed calls for the US to ‘right wrongs’ and lift sanctions.
The head of Hong Kong’s Bar Association warned that proposed reforms to the city’s judiciary spelled ‘the end of the present legal system.’ A Bill to be tabled in March will require an oath of loyalty to Beijing, with other changes curbing the influence of pro-democracy politicians expected.
The EU will, like the US, seek to reduce its chip dependency as part of a new and more assertive foreign policy aligning with Washington. It is also weighing up responses to proposed measures in Hong Kong including ending its extradition treaty with China.
Canada and the Netherlands’ parliaments both voted to label China’s treatment of the Uyghurs genocide as reports on malnutrition and a rapidly decreasing birth rate emerged. The US State Department, however, found that there was insufficient evidence for a determination.
Talks recommenced between China and India over its disputed border, including a 75-minute phone call between foreign ministers for the first time in 5 months. 45 Chinese investments into India will be cleared as tensions subside, promising to cement China’s position as India’s top trade partner.
Weekend reads
Ahead of the CRG event on 11 March, the WSJ takes a deep dive into the influence that China’s vaccine delivery mission is building up across the developing world, while Chatham House argues that vaccine diplomacy represents far more than simply geopolitical rivalry.
Deep State, Inc.: The Wire analyses the mechanisms of how the Chinese state uses companies as vectors for overseas involvement through the prism of a botched deal involving China Sam Enterprise Group.
What China thinks of the UK: Sam Olsen in What China Wants considers why China thinks so favourably of the UK and the relationship between understanding and admiration across the two countries.
I helped build ByteDance’s censorship machine: an inside track on the Chinese media giant from the perspective of a former employee in Protocol.
How Xi Jinping Is Reshaping China and What It Means for the West: the WSJ summarises essential findings about the nature of Xi’s presidency and how the China landscape has changed at his hands.
Research snippets
The UK’s Commons Defence Committee held a hearing on China’s military ambitions, with Alessio Patalano, Meia Nouwens and Charles Parton (transcript).
China’s Political Discourse in 2020, published in Sinocism by the China Media Project, analyses China’s politics through media trends within the PRC. Key findings include a distinctive lack of discussion on Li Wenliang, the Wuhan ophthalmologist who was vocal in raising early awareness of COVID-19, and a resurgence of Xi Jinping Thought later in the year after a dip at the pandemic’s peak.
The Carter Centre’s ‘Finding Firmer Ground’ report considers the value of historical cooperation between the US and China and offers a route for non-governmental bodies and wider civil society to develop the means of cultural engagement and understanding en route to restored relations.
A Macro Polo piece entitled ‘Remaking “Made in China”: Beijing’s Industrial Internet Ambitions’ weighs up a policy shift within China to reconfigure its manufacturing sector using the ‘industrial internet’ - advances in software, data and technology that will enhance industry - and considers its future application.