• China seeks to stifle public grief for former premier Li Keqiang
• China military says Philippine boat “illegally entered“ waters near Scarborough Shoal
• He Lifeng: China“s economy tsar made director of key Party commission
• Exclusive: US military bulk buys Japanese seafood to counter China ban
• China and Russia cast U.S. as agent of global instability at military forum
• China, US should have “objective“ understanding of strategic intention - Chinese foreign ministry
• Exclusive: US military begins Japan seafood purchases to counter China ban
• US vows to support ‘free media’ in Pacific as concern over China influence grows
• China and Russia take aim at US at Chinese military forum

China seeks to stifle public grief for former premier Li Keqiang

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/china-seeks-to-stifle-public-grief-for-former-premier-li-keqiang

Public tributes to China’s former premier Li Keqiang, who died on Friday, are being strictly controlled as the government seeks to prevent a mass outpouring of grief that could lead to social unrest.

Li suffered a sudden heart attack in Shanghai and died in the early hours of Friday, according to Xinhua news agency.

There have been public displays of grief, particularly in his home city of Hefei, in Anhui province, where hundreds of mourners laid flowers for one of their most significant sons.

Social media is awash with tributes to Li, who was once seen as a force for economic liberalisation in the highest echelons of the Chinese Communist party (CCP). But discussion online has been strictly censored to ensure that Li’s legacy adheres to the official narrative and does not mention talking points about political or economic reform.

A leaked memo, published by China Digital Times, shows that media outlets have been instructed to “pay particular attention to overly effusive comments” regarding Li’s death.

Many of the comments that referenced Li’s reputation as an economic reformer were deleted. One comment that was censored from Weibo cited a Li quote from his first year as premier: “Whatever the market can handle, let the market do more of.”

Despite being China’s premier for a decade, it is not clear whether Li will receive an official memorial in addition to regular funeral arrangements. At the regular foreign ministry press briefing on Friday, spokesperson Mao Ning declined to elaborate on any plans.

Students, seen by CCP elites as the most volatile demographic when it comes to protests, are being instructed to refrain from pubic displays that go beyond the official lines. Screenshots circulating on social media show a message from the Youth League Committee at Hainan University instructing students to “at most” share Li’s official obituary. The notice said that any online or offline gatherings were “strictly prohibited”, according to a report in Taiwanese media.

Another notice posted to students at the Guiyang Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics asked them not to make any comments about the “political situation” and to refrain from any public gatherings.

When Li became premier in 2013, he was seen as someone who would embrace private enterprise and allow the free market to flourish. But he was gradually sidelined by Xi Jinping, China’s leader, who has reasserted the CCP’s grip on all parts of the economy. To many, Li now represents the path not taken by China’s increasingly authoritarian government.

The CCP is particularly fearful about reaction to deaths of senior officials or public figures. The deaths of former premier Zhou Enlai in 1976 and Hu Yaobang, a former CCP general secretary, in 1989, prompted widespread outpourings of grief that morphed into protests.

More recently, the deaths of Covid whistleblower Li Wenliang in 2020 and people in an apartment fire in Xinjiang in 2022 triggered expressions of public grief – with the latter becoming the “white paper” protests that spread across several cities at the end of last year. The CCP leaders are “haunted” by these memories, said Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor of Chinese history at the University of California, Irvine.

Many people have flocked to the Weibo page of Li Wenliang to pay their tributes to the more recently departed Li Keqiang. “Today, it seems another truth-teller with the surname Li has departed,” wrote one, in a post archived by China Digital Times.

Li Yuan, a columnist for the New York Times, described the public grief as “the most significant outpouring of emotion since the white paper movement”.

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Wasserstrom added: “There is definitely a lot of discontent in some quarters about Xi Jinping and little room to express it without taking a big risk … Expressing regret for Li’s death provides an opportunity for doing this in at least a veiled way.”

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute, also said that “remembering Li fondly is a veiled articulation of unhappiness about Xi”.

With that in mind, Tsang said that there was “no chance” that Xi would allow “anything but a small family affair” for Li.

Additional research by Chi Hui Lin

China military says Philippine boat “illegally entered“ waters near Scarborough Shoal

https://reuters.com/article/southchinasea-philippines-china/china-military-says-philippine-boat-illegally-entered-waters-near-scarborough-shoal-idUSKBN31U0VU

China's military said on Monday that a Philippine vessel "illegally entered" waters near Scarborough Shoal without authorisation and it urged the Philippines to immediately stop its provocations.

China and the Philippines have had several confrontations in disputed waters in the South China Sea, recently trading accusations about a collision between a Chinese coastguard vessel and a boat from the Philippines.

"We are urging the Philippine side to immediately stop its infringement and provocations, and earnestly avoid further escalation," said senior colonel Tian Junli, a spokesperson for the People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Command.

The Scarborough Shoal is claimed by China, the Philippines and Taiwan.

"The Philippine side's actions have seriously violated China's sovereignty and international law and basic norms governing international relations, and are prone to misunderstanding and miscalculation," Tian said.

He said China followed, monitored, warned and blocked the ship in accordance with the law.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

This has caused escalating maritime friction and territorial disputes.

He Lifeng: China“s economy tsar made director of key Party commission

https://reuters.com/article/china-economy-appointment/he-lifeng-chinas-economy-tsar-made-director-of-key-party-commission-idUSKBN31U0L0

China's Vice Premier He Lifeng has been appointed director of the ruling Communist Party's commission covering economic policy, the financial sector and trade ties with Washington, strengthening his status as the country's economic overlord.

He, who had previously headed the state planning agency, became one of China's four vice premiers in March when he replaced Liu He, who retired.

He has now also replaced Liu as director of the office of the Central Finance and Economic Affairs Commission, a party body headed by President Xi Jinping.

State media for the first time referred to He by his latest title in a readout of his meeting with a visiting French official on Sunday.

Though regarded as a confidant of President Xi, He's ascent has surprised some analysts, who had expected Premier Li Qiang, former Shanghai party secretary, to take a bigger role in economic affairs.

Since taking over the economic portfolio, He has met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, and last week accompanied Xi on his first known visit to China's central bank.

"He Lifeng is in the post to execute Xi's ideas but not to question him, as Liu He could," said an advisor who had sometimes sat in on briefings with both He and Liu, and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The advisor also confirmed He does not speak English, unlike Liu, who studied economics at Harvard and was popular among U.S. officials because they could more easily converse with him.

Analysts also expect He will be named head of a new and even higher ranking party economic watchdog, once Xi revives the Central Financial Work Commission, which was was disbanded in 2003, having been set up in 1998 to build a role for the party within the central bank and financial regulators.

The world's second-largest economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter, though it is suffering from a domestic property crisis, high youth unemployment, depressed private sector confidence, and a slowdown in global growth.

Policymakers have unveiled a raft of measures in recent weeks, but their ability to spur growth is constrained by fears over debt risks and a fragile yuan.

He could emerge as head of the resurrected Central Financial Work Commission, when state leaders, regulators and top bankers gather for a quinquennial, closed-door national financial work conference.

That meeting, which could set medium-term priorities for the broad financial industry, will take place in Beijing this week, Bloomberg News reported.

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Exclusive: US military bulk buys Japanese seafood to counter China ban

https://reuters.com/article/japan-fukushima-usa-scallops/exclusive-us-military-bulk-buys-japanese-seafood-to-counter-china-ban-idUSKBN31U09V

The United States has started bulk buying Japanese seafood to supply its military there in response to China's ban on such products imposed after Tokyo released treated water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

Unveiling the initiative in a Reuters interview on Monday, U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Washington should also look more broadly into how it could help offset China's ban that he said was part of its "economic wars".

China, which had been the biggest buyer of Japanese seafood, says its ban is due to food safety fears.

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog vouched for the safety of the water release that began in August from the plant wrecked by a 2011 tsunami. G7 trade ministers on Sunday called for the immediate repeal of bans on Japanese food.

"It's going to be a long-term contract between the U.S. armed forces and the fisheries and co-ops here in Japan," Emanuel said.

"The best way we have proven in all the instances to kind of wear out China's economic coercion is come to the aid and assistance of the targeted country or industry," he said.

Asked about Emanuel's comments at a press conference on Monday, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said: "the responsibility of diplomats is to promote friendship between countries rather than smearing other countries and stirring up trouble".

The first purchase of seafood by the U.S. under the scheme involves just shy of a metric ton of scallops, a tiny fraction of more than 100,000 tons of scallops that Japan exported to mainland China last year.

Emanuel said the purchases - which will feed soldiers in messes and aboard vessels as well as being sold in shops and restaurants on military bases - will increase over time to all types of seafood. The U.S. military had not previously bought local seafood in Japan, he said.

The U.S. could also look at its overall fish imports from Japan and China, he said. The U.S. is also in talks with Japanese authorities to help direct locally-caught scallops to U.S.-registered processors.

Emanuel, who was former U.S. President Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, has in recent months made a series of blunt statements on China, taking aim at various issues including its economic policies, opaque decision-making and treatment of foreign firms.

That has come as top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have visited Beijing in an effort to draw a line under strained ties.

Asked if he considered himself hawkish on China, Emanuel rejected the term and said he was a "realist".

"I don't consider it hawkish but just consider it realist and honest. Maybe the honesty is painful, but it's honest," he said.

"I'm all for stability, understanding. That doesn't mean you're not honest. They're not contradictory. One of the ways you establish stability, is that you're able to be honest with each other."

He said China faced major economic challenges exacerbated by a leadership intent on turning their backs on international systems.

"The kind of loser in this is the youth of China. You now have a situation where 30% of the Chinese youth, one out of three, are unemployed. You have major cities with unfinished housing ... you have major municipalities not able to pay city workers. Why? Because China made a political decision to turn their back on a system in which they were benefiting."

The most recent official youth unemployment data from China, published in July before Beijing said it was suspending publication of the numbers, showed it jumping to a record high of 21.3%.

Emanuel said he was also keeping an eye on how China's leadership responds to the recent death of former Premier Li Keqiang, a reformist who was sidelined by President Xi Jinping.

"What's ... interesting to me, that I think is telltale, is how they will be treating his funeral and how they'll be treating comments about him," he said.

"I do think that there's kind of a section of China that sees what kind of policies he was pursuing as kind of the best of China. But that's up for China to decide."

Related Galleries:

China and Russia cast U.S. as agent of global instability at military forum

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/30/xiangshan-forum-china-russia/2023-10-30T06:03:10.422Z

Chinese and Russian military chiefs on Monday criticized the United States as an agent of global instability at a Beijing military forum, where Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also threatened grave consequences over Western involvement in the war in Ukraine.

“The Western line of steady escalation of the conflict with Russia carries the threat of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences,” he said, according to Russia’s state-run Tass news agency.

Shoigu made the remarks at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, China’s annual international military summit, where the country’s second-ranked military official, Zhang Youxia, also issued oblique criticisms of the United States — while simultaneously leaving the way open to improve military ties with Washington.

Chinese defense minister removed after just seven months in latest purge

“Some countries deliberately create turbulence and interfere in other countries’ internal affairs,” said Zhang, the vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, in his keynote address, referring to the United States.

But in another part of his speech, Zhang said: “We will deepen strategic cooperation and coordination with Russia, and are willing to, on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, develop military ties with the U.S.”

The Beijing forum, which state media reported brought together delegations from more than 100 countries, provided a venue for “a second battlefield for Russia and the United States,” said Wan Qingsong, associate professor at the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai. “The purpose is to use such a platform to win over public opinion in countries in the Global South and prevent changes that are particularly detrimental to Russia.”

The forum is typically hosted by China’s defense minister — but kicked off on Sunday without one, as the most recent occupant of the role, Li Shangfu, was sacked last week without explanation following a nearly two-month absence — the latest in a string of high level purges of Chinese defense officials. Li has yet to be replaced.

Li has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 over Beijing’s purchases of Russian defense equipment and did not meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at a defense forum the two both attended in Singapore in May.

Though Austin was reportedly invited to this week’s forum in Beijing, the event was instead attended by Cynthia Xanthi Carras, China country director in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense.

In his address in Beijing, Zhang echoed China’s powerful leader Xi Jinping’s efforts to portray China as global peacemaker in direct contrast to the United States and its allies.

But Zhang and other Chinese military officials stood firm that the issue of Taiwan, which Beijing claims is part of its territory, was not up for discussion.

Taiwan was a “core interest” for China, said Zhang, warning that countries should not “deliberately provoke other countries on sensitive issues.”

Lieutenant General He Lei warned on Sunday that if China were to use force against Taiwan, it would be “a war of reunification, legitimacy and justice,” said state media tabloid the Global Times.

Pei-Lin Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.

China, US should have “objective“ understanding of strategic intention - Chinese foreign ministry

https://reuters.com/article/china-usa-diplomacy/china-us-should-have-objective-understanding-of-strategic-intention-chinese-foreign-ministry-idUSKBN31U0EC

China and the United States should have an objective understanding of each other's strategic intention and take the correct view of competitive factors in future exchanges, China's foreign ministry said on Monday.

Wang Wenbin, a ministry spokesperson, was speaking at a regular press briefing when asked about China's top diplomat Wang Yi saying the road to a meeting between the countries' leaders in San Francisco would not be smooth.

China's foreign minister met U.S. President Joe Biden and his top aides in Washington in recent days, agreeing to work together toward the expected bilateral meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit.

"Wang Yi pointed out that looking back on the tortuous course of Sino-U.S. relations since beginning of this year, the experience is worth summarising and the lessons need to be learned," ministry spokesperson Wang said.

In highlighting the talks, the ministry spokesperson said China's top diplomat stressed that the most important thing is to abide by the consensus of the two heads of state, to stabilise bilateral relations between China and the United States, and to maintain open channels of communication.

China and the United States have also agreed to hold consultations on maritime affairs as well as arms control and non-proliferation in the coming days, the spokesperson said.

Exclusive: US military begins Japan seafood purchases to counter China ban

https://reuters.com/article/japan-fukushima-usa-scallops/exclusive-us-military-begins-japan-seafood-purchases-to-counter-china-ban-idUSKBN31U09V

The United States has for the first time begun buying Japanese seafood to supply its military there, a response to China's ban on such products imposed after Tokyo released treated water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

Unveiling the initiative in a Reuters interview on Monday, U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Washington should also look more broadly into how it could help offset China's ban that he said was part of its "economic wars".

China, which had been the biggest buyer of Japanese seafood, says its ban is due to food safety fears.

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog vouched for the safety of the water release that began in August from the plant wrecked by a 2011 tsunami. G7 trade ministers on Sunday called for the immediate repeal of bans on Japanese food.

"It's going to be a long-term contract between the U.S. armed forces and the fisheries and co-ops here in Japan," Emanuel said.

"The best way we have proven in all the instances to kind of wear out China's economic coercion is come to the aid and assistance of the targeted country or industry," he said.

The first purchase involves just shy of a metric ton of scallops, a tiny fraction of more than 100,000 tons of scallops that Japan exported to mainland China last year.

Emanuel said the purchases - which will feed soldiers in messes and aboard vessels as well as being sold in shops and restaurants on military bases - will increase over time to all types of seafood. The U.S. military had not previously bought local seafood in Japan, he said.

The U.S. could also look at its overall fish imports from Japan and China, he said. The U.S. is also in talks with Japanese authorities to help direct locally caught scallops to U.S.-registered processors.

Emanuel, who was former U.S. President Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, has in recent months made a series of blunt statements on China, taking aim at various issues including its economic policies, opaque decision-making and treatment of foreign firms.

That has come as top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have visited Beijing in an effort to draw a line under strained ties.

Asked if he considered himself hawkish on China, Emanuel rejected the term and said he was a "realist".

"I don't consider it hawkish but just consider it realist and honest. Maybe the honesty is painful, but it's honest," he said.

"I'm all for stability, understanding. That doesn't mean you're not honest. They're not contradictory. One of the ways you establish stability, is that you're able to be honest with each other."

He said China faced major economic challenges exacerbated by a leadership intent on turning their backs on international systems.

"The kind of loser in this is the youth of China. You now have a situation where 30% of the Chinese youth, one out of three, are unemployed. You have major cities with unfinished housing ... you have major municipalities not able to pay city workers. Why? Because China made a political decision to turn their back on a system in which they were benefiting."

The most recent official youth unemployment data from China, published in July before Beijing said it was suspending publication of the numbers, showed it jumping to a record high of 21.3%.

Emanuel said he was also keeping a close watch on how China's leadership responds to the recent death of former Premier Li Keqiang, a reformist who was sidelined by President Xi Jinping.

"What's ... interesting to me, that I think is telltale, is how they will be treating his funeral and how they'll be treating comments about him," he said.

"I do think that there's kind of a section of China that sees what kind of policies he was pursuing as kind of the best of China. But that's up for China to decide."

US vows to support ‘free media’ in Pacific as concern over China influence grows

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/us-china-conflict-pacific-free-media

Regional media has emerged as a new front in the contest between the US and China in the Pacific, as Washington said it will support “free media” while warning of the dangers of Beijing’s efforts to manipulate information around the world.

During a visit to countries in the Indo-Pacific in October, the US under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Elizabeth Allen, said Washington was “prioritising the support of independent media” across the region.

Speaking to the Guardian in Sydney, Allen said the support would take “different forms’’ and the US would look to partner with media sectors in the Pacific.

“As part of advocating for a free and open Indo-Pacific, we are going to advocate for free media across the region,” she said, adding independent media is “critical to any democracy”.

“We’re certainly looking to partner with media sectors across the region, and giving them more support,” Allen said.

Her comments come amid a wider battle for influence between Washington and Beijing in the Pacific. The US has been criticised for being largely absent as a partner in the Pacific for decades, but in recent years it has significantly stepped up its presence, scrambling to open embassies and conducting high-level visits in the region.

The US already provides access to wire services such as Associated Press to newsrooms in several Pacific countries. Allen said the US would continue to look for opportunities to encourage independent journalism, which may include “how to create access outlets like AP, AFP wire services … to make sure that they’re getting access to objective editorially sound information.”

Allen’s visit follows rising anxiety about China’s ambitions in the Pacific. In 2022, Beijing rattled Western countries by securing a security pact with Solomon Islands. In May, the US struck a defence cooperation deal with Papua New Guinea, a country just north of Australia seen as strategically significant.

US president Joe Biden hosted Pacific leaders at a summit in Washington in September, pledging more aid to the region. Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare, now closely aligned with China, skipped the talks and said the US must change its strategy when it came to meeting Pacific leaders and stop “lecturing” them. China’s president Xi Jinping has argued his country’s outreach to Pacific countries is based on respect for those nations’ “sovereignty and independence”.

Shailendra Singh, head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific, said the media was “central to the big power contest in the region.”

“All the countries jostling for influence are wooing the media, one way or another to win Pacific citizens’ hearts and minds because this can influence government decisions, at least to some extent,” Singh said.

Earlier this year several newspapers in Solomon Islands were accused of compromising their independence in return for resources from China.

“China is certainly very active,” Singh said, while Canberra and Washington have been “a bit slower coming to the party.”

During Allen’s visit, which included stops in Fiji and Vanuatu, the under secretary launched the Pacific hub for the Digital Communications Network (DCN). The DCN, an NGO supported by the US state department, is described as a collaborative platform to “address challenges to democracy and the information space.”

“We are focused on free media and the information space as evidenced by the Digital Communications Network,” Allen said.

She said misinformation and disinformation was a “global problem.”

“There’s no country that’s immune to it, including the United States.”

While not naming specific countries that had sought to manipulate information or influence media in the Pacific region, Allen noted a recent report published by the US state department on how China is influencing the information environment around the world.

The report outlined tactics used by Beijing to manipulate information. It states that China “employs a variety of deceptive and coercive methods as it attempts to influence the international information environment” including propaganda, disinformation, and censorship.

Singh said the small media systems of the Pacific face many challenges, which include lagging in emerging technologies, as well as being vulnerable to disinformation and manipulation.

“The US certainly has a role supporting free media in the Pacific to counter illiberalism and shore up democracy,” he said.

China and Russia take aim at US at Chinese military forum

https://reuters.com/article/china-defence-forum/china-and-russia-take-aim-at-us-at-chinese-military-forum-idUSKBN31U02S

Chinese and Russian military chiefs targeted the United States for criticism at a security forum in Beijing on Monday, even as China's second-most-senior military commander vowed to boost defence ties with Washington.

The Beijing Xiangshan Forum, China's biggest annual show of military diplomacy, began Sunday without the country's defence minister, who typically hosts the event, but included a U.S. delegation amid roiling regional tensions.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu warned the West that its involvement in the Ukraine war created grave danger.

"The Western line of steady escalation of the conflict with Russia carries the threat of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences," Russia's TASS state news agency cited Shoigu as saying at the forum.

Shoigu also said the West intends to inflict "strategic defeat" on Russia in a "hybrid war", and praised the model of Russia-China relations as "exemplary", Russian state media reported.

Zhang Youxia, vice chairman under President Xi Jinping on China's Central Military Commission, delivered veiled criticism of the United States and its allies, accusing "some countries" of trying to undermine the government.

"Some countries deliberately create turbulence and interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and instigate colour revolutions," Zhang said in his keynote address, using the term the Chinese government uses to describe attempts to overthrow Communist Party rule.

"Countries should not deliberately provoke other countries on major and sensitive issues," he said, adding that Taiwan is a core interest of China.

But in other parts of his speech, Zhang stressed the need for improved military ties with the United States.

"We will deepen strategic cooperation and coordination with Russia and are willing to, on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, develop military ties with the U.S.," Zhang said in an address being closely watched by military attaches and diplomats amid tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

China's defence minister delivered the keynote speech in previous years.

China and the U.S. have had no high-level military-to-military communications since the Washington-sanctioned former Chinese defence minister, Li Shangfu, was appointed in March.

Li was sacked last week without explanation, and China did not name a replacement. Reuters reported last month that Li, who has been missing for two months, was being investigated over corruption.

The U.S. defence department has sent a delegation led by Cynthia Xanthi Carras, China country director in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense.

It is not yet known whether the U.S. team will meet separately with Chinese military officials.

The participation of the U.S. delegation comes as the United States and China ramp up exchanges ahead of an expected summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.

Last week, China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, met with Biden for an hour in talks the White House described as a "good opportunity" to keep open lines of communication between the two geopolitical rivals.

Many Western countries have either shunned the forum or are only sending small and low-level delegations, preferring instead to discuss international security issues at the Shangri-La Dialogue, held annually in Singapore.

Together with the commission's third-ranked official, He Weidong, Zhang held bilateral meetings with defence ministers from Laos, Mongolia, Belarus, East Timor and Myanmar, according to state media.

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