CHINA

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Re: CHINA

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THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 AT 8:53 PM

Paul Plante says:

And as we continue to ponder this literal RELIGIOUS CULT OF DEMOCRACY that is being pushed on us by HIGH PRIEST Charley “Chuck” Schumer and his fellow Democrats with this talk of the “TEMPLE OF DEMOCRACY” in reference to the Capitol building, let’s go to a Newsweek article entitled “China Tells U.S. to Stop Peddling Its Values to the World After Afghanistan Failure” by John Feng on 2 September 2021 for a candid look at how the rest of the world, or at least China, looks at our DEMOCRAT PARTY CULT OF DEMOCRACY, as follows:

China told the United States to reflect on the words of Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Thursday and stop peddling American ideology and values to the rest of the world following the debacle of Afghanistan.

end quotes

And here it needs to be said that it is not WE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE who are peddling American ideology and values to the rest of the world!

That is those Democrat fools in Washington, D.C., which is not a part of the United States of America, and they are speaking only for themselves, because their values and ideology are not “American” at all, by any stretch of the imagination, which takes us back to the article as follows:

The Russian president said that U.S. attempts to “civilize” Afghan citizens by introducing American norms and standards into their politics and way of life ended in “sheer tragedies, sheer losses” for both sides and achieved a “zero result, if not negative.”

end quotes

And as much as people in this country like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton might hate the dude, can anyone argue with Putin in this case and say he is wrong?

Consider Guatemala, which we hear so much about today.

Does anyone remember that it was us back in the fifties who interfered in their internal affairs to maintain our hegemony in the Western Hemisphere in 1954 by removing its elected president, Jacobo Arbenz, on the premise that he was soft on communism, that on behalf of the business interests of the United Fruit Company, and set them on the path that has taken them to today and the refugee crisis at the southern border that neither Joe Biden nor his bumbling vice president Karmela Harris, who is maintaining a very low profile these days, are able to deal with?

Getting back to that article, it goes on as follows:

“President Putin’s view should provoke some reflection in the U.S.,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference in Beijing.

end quotes

There are a ton of things that should provoke some reflection in this country, but they won’t, because people in Washington. D.C. are so arrogant and puffed up with all their power that they believe intrinsically that what they do at any moment is, like Democrat Hussein Obama always used to say, and Karmela Harris says it now, it is the right thing to do, because people in Washington. D.C. are never wrong, about anything, so they have no need to reflect, other than on their own glory, which again takes us back to that article, to wit:

He repeated a recently popular line out of Beijing, suggesting the West’s description of democracy wasn’t the only working definition in the world.

end quotes

And how that will have the POPE OF THE CHURCH OF DEMOCRACY, Charley “Chuck” Schumer, howling and mewling and screaming – “that’s not so, that’s not so, our democracy, which is a pure and sacred democracy, is the only democracy there is or can be on the face of this earth!”

Getting back to the Chinese, we have:

Chinese leaders have sought to promote the country’s own version of democracy and human rights as an alternative.

“There isn’t one fixed form of democracy in the world,” said Wang.

“Every country is entitled to independently explore paths of development that suit their national conditions and realities.”

The example of Afghanistan, he added, shows that attempts to “transplant” and force a democratic model on others will only “create chaos and instability, ultimately resulting in failure.”

Wang said democracy: “Is not a patent held by select countries.”

“There is no ‘leader of democracy’ in the world, nor does any country have the right to lecture others on democracy,” he added.

The official described the concepts of “an alliance of democracies” and “democracy versus authoritarianism” as “hegemony in disguise.”

“We hope the U.S. earnestly reflects upon the lessons learned and stops peddling its own ideology and values to others,” he said.

http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-417036
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Re: CHINA

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REUTERS

"Evergrande debt troubles seem particular to China -U.S. Fed's Powell"


By Reuters Staff

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

(Reuters) -U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the debt problems of property developer Evergrande seem particular to China and that he did not see a parallel with the U.S. corporate sector.

A potential default by Evergrande, Asia’s biggest junk-bond issuer, drove a steep selloff on Wall Street and widened spreads on U.S. high-yield bonds on Monday, although markets have steadied since then.

“In terms of the implications for us, there’s not a lot of direct United States exposure."

"The big Chinese banks are not tremendously exposed, but you would worry it would affect global financial conditions through global confidence channels and that kind of thing,” Powell told reporters after the Fed’s policy meeting.

“But I wouldn’t draw a parallel to the United States corporate sector.”

He added that with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year, the Fed was concerned about a wave of defaults by highly leveraged companies, noting that did not materialize to a significant extent because of the U.S. CARES Act and action by the central bank.

Currently, corporate default rates are “very, very low,” he said.

As for Evergrande, Powell said China has very high debt for an emerging market economy and that its government put new strictures in place for highly leveraged companies.

Evergrande on Wednesday said it agreed to settle interest payments on a domestic bond, while the Chinese central bank injected cash into the banking system, temporarily soothing investors’ fears of imminent contagion that had pressured equities and other riskier assets at the start of the week.

Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Leslie Adler and Marguerita Choy

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed ... SL1N2QO2K3
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Re: CHINA

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REUTERS

"China's power crunch dwarfs Evergrande's troubles in investors' eyes"


By Samuel Shen and Alun John

September 28, 2021

SHANGHAI, Sept 28 (Reuters) - China's power supply crunch, that has shut factories across the country, may pose a much bigger threat to the economy than the debt crisis at Evergrande Group, prompting investors to shun industries vulnerable to power shortages such as steelmaking and construction.

China is facing a power squeeze from a shortage of coal supplies, tougher emissions standards and strong demand from manufacturers and industry that have triggered widespread curbs on usage.

Factories have stopped operations due to power shortages and government mandates to meet energy and carbon reduction goals.

Goldman Sachs and Nomura have revised down projections for Chinese economic growth this year as a result.

Shares in Chinese chemical producers, carmakers and shipping companies have tumbled, while renewable energy stocks have soared.

Investors believe the potential scale of the problems could dwarf the any fallout from liquidity troubles at property developer Evergrande, with liabilities of $305 billion, that roiled property stocks and bonds this month.

"The Evergrande crisis has been unfolding for quite some time, and I think the risks will be defused in a targeted way," said Yuan Yuwei, hedge fund manager at Water Wisdom Asset Management.

He said the electricity outages would break the supply-demand equilibrium, dealing a direct blow to consumption and the real economy.

"The fallout is more likely to be out of control," Yuan said.

Yuan's current investment stance is to bet on hydropower companies such as SDIC Power Holdings and Sichuan Chuantou Energy Co, while shorting steelmakers and coal-fired power makers.

OVER-REACTION

In contrast, some property shares, hit hard by the Evergrande crisis, have started to bounce back, as some investors bet the market has over-reacted.

"We have been underweight in developers, but have been gradually been buying into this weakness," said Rob Mumford, Hong Kong-based investment manager at GAM Investments.

"There are clearly distressed valuations for companies that are not in distress currently."

An index of Hong Kong-listed mainland China property stocks, added 6.4% on Tuesday, after hitting its lowest level in over four years last week, while an index of Shanghai listed real estate stocks also gained 3% on Tuesday.

The rally came after China's central bank vowed to protect consumers exposed to the housing market, without mentioning Evergrande in a statement posted to its website on Monday, and injected more cash into the banking system.

NO POWER REBOUND

However, so far at least, few investors have been tempted to go bargain-hunting among companies hit by the power shortage, fearing the situation could deteriorate further

An index tracking non-ferrous metal makers, such as copper and aluminium companies, is down 15% this month.

Shares in China's biggest steelmakers have plunged - for example, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co and Angang Steel are both down over 20% since their mid September recent highs.

The problems are widespread.

Twenty provinces have implemented power cuts since mid-August, including the manufacturing hubs of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, putting pressure on companies' earnings.

Production of steel, aluminium and cement, as well as infrastructure construction, would be immediately affected by the power cuts and supply restrictions, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a report published on Monday, adding the impact could ripple downstream to hit more sectors such as shipping and automobiles.

Yang Tingwu, vice general manager of hedge fund house Tongheng Investment said he now prefers companies with few factories, as China's curbs on energy and carbon emissions "is bad news for the overall economy in the near term."

Reporting by Samuel Shen and Alun John; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Jane Merriman

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chi ... 021-09-28/
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Re: CHINA

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REUTERS

"China's bond markets slump again as new Evergrande deadline passes"


By Andrew Galbraith, Marc Jones

OCTOBER 10, 2021

SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese property firms’ bonds were hit with another wrecking ball on Monday as Evergrande looked set to miss its third round of bond payments in as many weeks and rivals Modern Land and Sinic became the latest scrambling to delay deadlines.

High-yield Chinese bond markets were routed once again as fears about fast-spreading contagion in the $5 trillion sector, which drives a sizable chunk of the Chinese economy, continued to savage sentiment.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping is launching inspections of financial institutions to see if private firms like Evergrande had been too close to state-owned banks, investment firms and financial regulators.

Large lenders to Evergrande included financial conglomerate Citic, which is being scrutinized, the WSJ reported.

Citic was not immediately available for comment.

Weary investors had been holding out little hope that Evergrande would suddenly stump up Monday’s near $150 million of coupon payments, but the fact bondholders said they hadn’t received anything this time either just bolstered expectations for a full-scale default.

"The key for offshore holders is the next couple of weeks and whether any payment or communication will come from the company in relation to its first missed offshore coupon," wrote Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA, at forex trading firm OANDA www.oanda.com/us-en in a research note on Monday.

Erlam wrote that it was “highly unlikely” Evergrande would make the payment “considering how the last two deadlines have gone”.

A spokesperson for Evergrande did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Once China’s largest developer, the firm has more than $300 billion in liabilities that are now at risk.

The cash-strapped property developer’s troubles and contagion worries have sent shockwaves across global markets and the firm has already missed payments on dollar bonds, worth a combined $131 million, that were due on Sept. 23 and Sept. 29.

CST Group Limited, an investment holding company on Monday that it sold 10.5% China Evergrande Notes and 11.5% China Evergrande Notes for $815,000 and $702,000.

Other signs of stress included smaller developer Modern Land asking investors to push back by three months a $250 million bond payment due on Oct. 25 in part “to avoid any potential payment default.”

Sinic Holdings said it too was likely default next week as it didn’t have enough financial resources to make its remaining bond payments this year.

It has one at the start of next week, although that bond was already down 75%.

Modern Land’s April 2023 bond with a coupon of 9.8% plunged more than 25% to 32.25 cents on the day, according to financial data provider Duration Finance, while the company’s shares have lost a third of their value over the last month.

Kaisa Group, which was the first Chinese property developer to default back in 2015, also saw some of its bonds slump to well under half their face value.

R&F Properties and Greenland Holdings, which both have prestige projects in global cities like London, New York and Sydney, were also widely sold.

“It’s a disastrous day,” said Clarence Tam, fixed income portfolio manager at Avenue Asset Management in Hong Kong, highlighting how even some supposedly safer “investment grade” firms had now seen 20% wiped off their bonds.

“We think it’s driven by global fund outflow ...."

"Fundamentally, we are worried the mortgage management onshore hits the developers’ cash flow hard,” he added, referring to concerns people could stop putting deposits down on new homes.

Analysts at JPMorgan also highlighted how international investors were now demanding the highest ever premium to buy or hold ‘junk’-rated Chinese debt.

There is now a whopping 1,200 basis point difference between the bank’s closely-followed JACI China high yield index and a similar index of investment grade AA-rated local Chinese market bonds, known as “onshore” bonds.

“Evergrande’s contagion risk is now spreading across other issuers and sectors,” JPMorgan’s analysts said.

Another London based analyst who asked not to be named said: “Slowly and gradually we are seeing the rest of the Chinese property sector fall apart”.

SHAKY FOUNDATIONS

In equity markets, the Hang Seng Property and Construction sub-index fell 0.4% against a nearly 2% rise in the broader index.

Fantasia Group China Co, whose controlling shareholder is Fantasia Holdings, said on Monday it would adjust the trading mechanism of its Shanghai-traded bonds following credit downgrades by China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co.

Fantasia had appointed advisers on Friday after it shocked markets by missing a bond payment earlier in the week.

It saw its bonds dive from almost 100 cents on the dollar to just 20 cents, as just a couple of weeks earlier it had said its liquidity was fine.

“We believe policymakers have zero tolerance for systemic risk to emerge and are aiming to maintain a stable property market, and policy support could be forthcoming if the deterioration in property activity levels worsen,” said Kenneth Ho, head of Asia Credit Strategy at Goldman Sachs.

“That said, we also believe that policymakers do not want to over-stimulate, and their longer term goal is to deleverage the property sector.”

Harbin, the capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province, has become one of the first cities in China to announce measures to support property developers and their projects, which have been shaken by the Evergrande crisis.

Advisers to offshore bondholders said on Friday they not yet heard from Evergrande, and are also demanding more information about its plan to divest some businesses, worried a potential fire-sale could ultimately leave them with less.

Trading in shares of Evergrande, as well as its Evergrande Property Services Group unit, has been halted since Oct. 4 pending a major deal announcement.

Additional Reporting by Xiao Han and Clare Jim and Megan Davies and Niket Nishant; Editing by Mark Potter

https://www.reuters.com/article/china-e ... SL1N2R71H4
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Re: CHINA

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REUTERS

"China's economy stumbles on power crunch, property woes"


By Kevin Yao, Gabriel Crossley

OCTOBER 17, 2021

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s economy hit its slowest pace of growth in a year in the third quarter, hurt by power shortages and wobbles in the property sector, highlighting the challenge facing policymakers as they seek to prop up a faltering recovery while reining in the real estate sector.

Gross domestic product expanded 4.9% from a year ago, missing forecasts, as attempts by Beijing to curb lending to the property sector exacerbated the fallout from electricity shortages which sent factory output back to levels last seen in early 2020, when heavy COVID-19 curbs were in place.

The world’s second-largest economy had staged an impressive rebound from last year’s pandemic slump but the recovery has lost steam from the blistering 18.3% growth clocked in the first quarter.

Under President Xi Jinping, a drive to make structural changes that address long-term risks and distortions, which has involved crackdowns on the property sector and technology giants, as well as carbon emission cuts, has taken a toll.

Analysts at Barclays cut their fourth quarter forecast by 1.2 percentage points to 3.5% on the disappointing data.

Analysts at ANZ cut their forecast for China’s 2021 GDP growth to 8.0% from 8.3%.

Policymakers will now have to balance the impact of those structural changes with steps that will shield the economy and tame contagion risks from a debt crisis at major developer China Evergrande Group.

“In response to the ugly growth numbers we expect in coming months, we think policymakers will take more steps to shore up growth, including ensuring ample liquidity in the interbank market, accelerating infrastructure development and relaxing some aspects of overall credit and real estate policies,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics.

A Reuters poll of analysts had expected GDP to rise 5.2% in the third quarter.

The weak numbers sent the yuan and most Asian stock markets lower amid broader investor concerns about the world economic recovery.

In Europe, China-exposed luxury stocks including LVMH, Kering and Hermes fell about 3% each, also hurt by Xi’s call for the expansion of a consumption tax.

POLICY-DRIVEN

China, still an avowedly socialist country, has pledged to reduce inequality after years of breakneck growth but may have to tread cautiously to avoid derailing a private sector that has been a vital engine of growth and jobs, analysts say.

In an essay in the ruling Communist Party journal Qiushi last week, Xi called for progress on a long-awaited property tax that could help reduce wealth gaps.

New construction starts in September slumped for a sixth straight month, NBS data showed, the longest spate of monthly declines since 2015, as cash-strapped developers reined in investment and paused projects following tighter borrowing limits.

Meanwhile, the industrial sector has been hit by power rationing triggered by coal shortages, as well as environmental curbs on heavy polluters like steel plants and floods over the summer.


Overall industrial output rose just 3.1% in September from a year earlier, marking the slowest growth since March 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic.

Aluminium output declined for the fifth consecutive month and daily crude steel output hit the lowest level since 2018.

Bucking the negative trend, retail sales grew 4.4%, faster than forecasts and the 2.5% growth in August, and the surveyed nationwide jobless rate fell from 5.1% to 4.9%.

“Most of the (negative) factors are policy-driven... the economy is having a lot of pain points and these pain points are not going away soon because policies are here to stay, and therefore it will continue into 2022,” said Iris Pang, chief economist for Greater China at ING.

On a quarterly basis, growth eased to 0.2% in July-September from a downwardly revised 1.2% in the second quarter.

Premier Li Keqiang said last week that China has ample tools to cope with economic challenges despite slowing growth, and expressed confidence in hitting full-year development goals.

On Sunday, People’s Bank of China governor Yi Gang said the economy is expected to grow 8% this year.

Still, the central bank is expected to remain cautious about monetary easing due to worries about high debt and property risks.

Analysts polled by Reuters expect the People’s Bank of China to refrain from attempts to stimulate the economy by reducing the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve until the first quarter of 2022.

Reporting by Kevin Yao and Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Sam Holmes and Carmel Crimmins

https://www.reuters.com/article/china-e ... SKBN2H70KI
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Re: CHINA

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REUTERS

"Analysis: Biden's oil reserves bet mixes China outreach with appeal to U.S. voters"


By Timothy Gardner and Jarrett Renshaw

November 24, 2021

WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's move to release oil from strategic reserves in coordination with top oil consuming nations including China represents a unique bet that finding common ground with the United States' biggest economic rival can help lower fuel prices for Americans.

The rare moment of possible cooperation comes as inflation, and especially high gasoline prices, eat at Biden's popularity at home.

In China, high energy prices have led to power rationing, hurting industry and sparking concern about winter heating supplies.

It is a risky proposition.

Biden is trying to craft a more constructive relationship on climate change and trade out of complex ties between two nations with opposing political systems that are locked in an economic arms race.

The two countries have just emerged from a trade war in 2020.

"This is a new era of oil diplomacy for the U.S. to coordinate with India and China" said Daniel Yergin, an oil historian and the vice chairman of IHS Markit.

Cooperation with China is likely to stick to energy and environment.

"Climate and energy are in a separate category from all the tough issues that need to be dealt with between the two countries," Yergin said.

China has yet to detail when and what it would release from its strategic reserves, a day after the U.S. announced the coordinated release.

Oil markets have anticipated action from China, where officials have said they are working on a release to meet China's domestic demand.

The risk for Biden was clear on Wednesday, when Chinese state media declared Beijing had the "upper hand" in the oil reserve plan.

Japan and India, in contrast, were quick to detail their plans after the U.S. announcement.

The Biden administration's diplomatic inroads with China first surfaced in Glasgow, Scotland this month where the two countries hammered out a surprise deal on boosting action on climate change including reducing emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

"Glasgow showed that there is some level of common interest and diplomacy that can be successful between the United States and China," said Amy Myers Jaffee, a research professor at Tufts University and expert on global energy markets and climate.

Jaffee said both countries recognized the importance of a global climate agreement.

"I would say 'Ditto' on the oil market," Jaffee said.

Washington has stark differences with Beijing on trade issues and human rights concerns related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet and Taiwan.

Beijing has backtracked from agreements with the United States before, including an extensive trade deal with the Trump administration that was nixed at the last minute.

But the world's top two economies would benefit from energy cooperation given their need to keep fuel and power costs down for consumers and industry.

China has already released oil from reserves this year.

Beijing held the first ever release of oil from its reserve in September, which aimed to stabilize prices and deal with localized supply shortages.

Combined, the United States and China consume nearly 35 million barrels of oil a day, more than a third of global demand.

Even though the United States has become one of the world's largest oil producers, it is still the second-largest importer of crude, trailing only China.

As the top oil importers, their roles in international politics coincide to some degree and place them in an adversarial relationship with the leaders of OPEC and its allies: Saudi Arabia and Russia.

China now imports more than 10 million barrels of oil a day.

The United States imports about 6 million barrels per day, though in recent years it has sharply reduced its dependency on OPEC producers, with most of its imports now from Canada.

The broader group of countries that are working with the United States to release oil from their reserves - India, Japan and South Korea - rank third, fourth and fifth among global oil importers, respectively.

U.S. oil prices hit a seven-year high in late October driving inflation and hitting Biden's approval rating ahead of midterm elections next year.

With razor thin majorities in both chambers of Congress, Biden's fellow Democrats can ill afford to lose seats in 2022.


REPEAT DEAL TRICKY

Biden could take additional action in coordinating with other countries to maintain supply as the COVID-19 pandemic eases, the White House in a statement Tuesday.

Actually doing so may not be easy.

"Not only could U.S.-China tensions complicate further cooperation, but the U.S. stands apart from other strategic reserve holders in that its legislature has ordered the selling off of strategic stockpiles" to finance government programs, ClearView Energy Partners, a nonpartisan research group, said in a note to clients.

Some 18 million barrels of the U.S. release was simply a front-loading of required sales that were mandated by Congress in recent years.

There's a risk that consumer countries and producing countries could keep upping the ante with opposing announcements on global oil supplies, a prospect that would likely make oil prices even more volatile, or what Yergin calls a "bloc versus bloc," scenario.

But in the short term, the action by consuming countries is likely to put pressure on oil prices, Yergin said.

"This also comes at a time when the supply/demand balance is on a course to improve over the next few months, and this oil deal will add to that."

" What it means at least for now is you’ll hear a lot fewer predictions about $100 oil."

Reporting By Timothy Gardner and Jarrett Renshaw; additional reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault; Editing by David Gaffen, Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodi ... 021-11-23/
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Associated Press

"China's communists bash US democracy before Biden summit"


By KEN MORITSUGU, Associated Press

4 DECEMBER 2021

BEIJING (AP) — China's Communist Party took American democracy to task on Saturday, sharply criticizing a global democracy summit being hosted by President Joe Biden next week and extolling the virtues of its governing system.

Party officials questioned how a polarized country that botched its response to COVID-19 could lecture others, and said that efforts to force others to copy the Western democratic model are “doomed to fail.”


Tian Peiyan, the deputy director of the party's Policy Research Office, said the pandemic exposed defects in the American system.

He blamed the high COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. on political disputes and a divided government from the highest to the lowest levels.

“Such democracy brings not happiness but disaster to voters,” he said at a news conference to release a government report on what the Communist Party calls its form of democracy, which is firmly under party control.

Neither China nor Russia are among about 110 governments that have been invited to Biden's two-day virtual “Summit for Democracy,” which starts Thursday.


The participation of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China says should be under its rule, has further angered Beijing.

U.S.-China relations remain strained despite a virtual summit between Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month.

The U.S. president has repeatedly framed differences with China in his broader call for the U.S. and its allies to demonstrate that democracies can offer humanity a better path toward progress than autocracies.

The Communist Party has ruled China single-handedly since 1949.

It says that various views are reflected through consultative bodies and residence committees, but silences most public criticism with censorship and sometimes arrest.

The party argues that strong central leadership is needed to maintain stability in a sprawling country that has been riven by division and war over the centuries.

“In such a large country with 56 ethnic groups and more than 1.4 billion people, if there is no party leadership, ... and we uphold the so-called democracy of the West, it will be easy to mess things up and democracy will work the opposite way," Tian said.

The recent difficulties faced by some Western democracies have given Communist Party leaders more confidence in their system as they try to build China into a global power.

State media often cite the chaos of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol after the last presidential election.

The report issued Saturday said “today's world is facing challenges of excessive democracy.”

Chinese officials frequently accuse the U.S. and others of using democracy as a cover to try to suppress China's rise, a charge echoed at the news conference by Xu Lin, the vice minister of the party’s publicity department.

“The U.S. calls itself a ‘leader of democracy’ and organizes and manipulates the so-called Summit for Democracy," he said.

“In fact, it cracks down and hampers countries with different social systems and development models in the name of democracy."


Xu called it undemocratic for others to demand their form of democracy, saying they have a mixed track record themselves.

“Their domestic governance is messed up, but they point fingers at and criticize other democracies,” he said.

"Is this the democracy they advertised?”
___

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ch ... d=msedgntp
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Re: CHINA

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THE WASHINGTON POST

"China trolls Biden summit with Harry Potter jokes and claims to be a democracy"


Christian Shepherd

10 DECEMBER 2021

Does U.S.-style democracy “realize dreams or create nightmares?”

It appears to have turned evil like Voldemort, the dark wizard of the Harry Potter franchise.

Young President Biden must have eaten too much KFC and McDonald’s, leading to a belief that democracy is like a fast-food chain with the United States supplying the ingredients.


These are among the odd arguments and analogies deployed in recent days during a Chinese Communist Party propaganda blitz to claim that China is as much a democracy as the United States.

After China was excluded — along with Russia and other nations deemed autocratic — from Biden’s “Summit for Democracy” this week, Chinese state media, think tanks and officials have lined up to take potshots at the event.

But aside from mudslinging and off-color humor, the campaign also betrays Beijing’s desire to redefine international norms and present its controlling, one-party political system as not just legitimate but ideologically superior to liberal multiparty democracies.

A decade ago, China’s ambition to change the world’s political structures was less clear, but “now I think they genuinely do want to change the world on an ideological level,” said Charles Parton, an associate fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, a British think tank.

The former British diplomat added that the propaganda messages may appear ineffective to Western observers, but they will strike a chord with Beijing’s intended domestic audience and help Chinese leader Xi Jinping legitimize his monopoly on power.

“It’s saying to the Chinese people that ‘We are the best,’” Parton said.

“The summit is the trigger but more generally China is keen to diminish the ideological power of the U.S. because doing so increases its own.”

The party’s claim to embody a form of democracy is not new.

Being a “people’s democratic dictatorship” is written into the constitution of the People’s Republic.

But China’s recent defense of its democratic credentials has been unusually direct.

“It’s presented more confidently and much more definitively as a different kind of system and as a rejection of Western-style democracy,” said Mary Gallagher, director of the International Institute at the University of Michigan.

In recent years, the party has preferred to highlight its Marxist roots and talk about the unique nature of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and its “scientific” approach to governance.

Xi has repeatedly declared that liberal multiparty democracy will never work in China.

Even before Xi reasserted party control over Chinese society, calls for liberal democracy were never tolerated.

The party has repeatedly crushed demands for free and fair elections, whether during the military crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, jailing dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2009 or silencing critics in Hong Kong.

Global rankings of national democratic institutions regularly label China as an autocracy.

The V-Dem Institute, based at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, ranked China 174th out of 179 countries on its liberal democracy index in 2020.

(In the same year, the United States fell to 31st place from 20th in 2016 and 3rd in 2012.)

A white paper released over the weekend by the State Council Information Office, titled “China: Democracy That Works,” suggested that Xi’s recently coined “whole-process people’s democracy” was a legitimate inheritor of the ancient Greek ideal of citizen rule.

The document argues that what matters isn’t any particular process, such as direct leadership elections, but rather the outcome — meeting the people’s needs.

Among examples it listed as proof that China’s version of democracy works is “promoting political stability, unity and vitality” and halting the spread of the coronavirus.

One-party rule, rather than being a hindrance to democratization, is its guarantor.

“It is no easy job for a country as big as China to fully represent and address the concerns of its 1.4 billion people."

"It must have a robust and centralized leadership,” the paper stated.

The drier descriptions in official documents have been mixed with colorful commentaries from state media.

One by Xinhua News Agency likened the United States to Voldemort — and, by implication, the Chinese Communist Party to Harry Potter — to cast shade on U.S.-style democracy.

“Just like young Voldemort was a star of the wizarding world in his youth, American-style democracy’s early development was an innovation,” the article said.

“But just as Voldemort went down an evil path, so has American-style democracy over time gradually changed and decayed.”

The weakening of democratic norms in the United States has emboldened Beijing’s propagandists to be more determined to present the party as building a coherent and superior system of governance.


“The U.S. has long been an example — bad or good — that China pays close attention to,” said Gallagher of the University of Michigan.

“If the U.S. struggles in the next few national elections, that will be important in deciding how China moves forward with this re-articulation of its own political system.”

To deflect criticism in multilateral forums, Beijing has increasingly reappropriated contested ideas such as human rights and justified its actions by supplying alternative models.

China has defended the mass internment of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other mostly Muslim people in Xinjiang as a novel approach to “counterterrorism.”

It justifies roundups of human rights lawyers as strengthening China’s “rule of law” and invokes “national security” to crush pro-democratic protests in Hong Kong.

This tactic, which may appear like Orwellian doublespeak to critics, has allowed Beijing to make progress in weaponizing such rhetoric at the United Nations, where it often rebuffs liberal democracies’ concerns by collecting signatures, votes and statements from partner nations.

“What started as a limited, defensive argument has now morphed into a more assertive — you could say aggressive — position that makes sweeping claims about why the Chinese mode of governance is superior,” said Eva Pils, a scholar at King’s College London who studies Chinese law.

After China and Russia’s ambassadors to the United States jointly opposed the democracy summit as the product of a “Cold War mentality,” Pakistan, one of China’s closest diplomatic and military partners, announced on Wednesday that it would not take up an invitation to join.

The extent to which China wants to revise the existing international order is a live debate, but “I would read more recent moves as an indication that the goal is to build a countervailing sphere of influence,” rather than merely weaken liberal principles, Pils said.

Lyric Li in Seoul and Pei Lin Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ch ... d=msedgntp
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Re: CHINA

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THE WASHINGTON POST

"Blinken warns China to stop ‘aggressive actions’ in first trip to Southeast Asia"


John Hudson

14 DECEMBER 2021

JAKARTA, Indonesia —Secretary of State Antony Blinken used his first official visit to Southeast Asia to criticize China’s “aggressive actions” and encourage smaller countries in the Indo-Pacific to unite against Beijing’s assertiveness in the region.

Speaking at a university in the capital of Indonesia, Blinken said the Biden administration would work with allies and partners to defend the “rules-based order” against a rising China that he depicted as a threat to freedom of movement in the South China Sea, where an estimated $3 trillion of commerce flows every year.

“Claiming open seas as their own."

"Distorting open markets through subsidies to its state-run companies."

"Denying the exports or revoking deals for countries whose policies it does not agree with,” Blinken said.

“Countries across the region want this behavior to change — we do too.”

Blinken’s criticisms of China in a region where it holds strong political and economic ties resembled some of the broadsides leveled by former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, his predecessor in the Trump administration.

But Blinken sought to strike a softer tone, insisting that Washington is not forcing countries to choose between the two superpowers.

“Individual countries will be able to choose their own path and their own partners,” he said.

Blinken is using his three-country swing through Southeast Asia, which will include stops in Malaysia and Thailand, as a means for spelling out the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

Beijing has drawn criticism in the region for laying claim to much of the South China Sea, which is disputed by smaller countries in the region such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

China has also moved military hardware into the waters and dismissed a 2016 international tribunal decision that refuted its historical claim there.

U.S.-China relations have plummeted in recent years due to differences over Hong Kong, Taiwan, human rights and the coronavirus pandemic.

Blinken said the United States, which has more members of its military stationed in the Indo-Pacific than anywhere outside the contiguous United States, is committed to “peace and security” that is “vital to prosperity in the region.”

A key pillar of the Biden administration’s policy is to ensure the rights and freedoms of the people of the region, Blinken said.

But in promoting free and democratic governance, he was careful not to criticize corruption and anti-democratic practices of the countries on his tour, which he’s hoping to bring closer to Washington’s orbit.

During a news conference in Jakarta’s glitzy Fairmont hotel, Blinken was asked about whether he would give voice to anti-corruption and pro-democracy efforts in Thailand and Malaysia.

The top U.S. diplomat dodged the question, saying, “we’ll have an opportunity in both places to address questions particular to those places when we’re there.”


Despite Blinken’s disciplined focus on Asia, the stop in Indonesia also brought a reminder of Washington’s high-stakes standoff with Russia over its military buildup on the border with Ukraine.

When Blinken touched down in Jakarta on Monday, he shared the same tarmac as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s senior aide Nikolai Patrushev, whose plane parked nearby as he met separately with Indonesian officials.

“I noticed his plane on the runway next to ours when we landed,” said Blinken during the news conference.

“I can’t or won’t speak to why anyone else might be here or what they’re doing.”

Blinken, who did not meet with Patrushev during the stop, was asked if he missed a diplomatic opportunity to address a crisis that has consumed Washington.

He suggested that Washington first needed to consult with its partner Ukraine before serious discussions ensued with Moscow.

“We have a senior State Department official, Karen Donfried, who is now in Ukraine consulting with our Ukrainian partners,” he said.

“She’ll be going on to Moscow . . . to test” whether Moscow is serious about resolving the crisis in Ukraine, Blinken said.

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Re: CHINA

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REUTERS

"Foreign holdings of Treasuries hit record high in October - data"


By Gertrude Chavez-dreyfuss

December 15, 2021

NEW YORK, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries, led by Japan and China, rose to a record high for the month of October, data from the Treasury department showed on Wednesday.

Major foreign owners of Treasuries showed holdings of $7.648 trillion in October, an all-time peak, compared with $7.549 trillion the previous month.

The record number suggested continued appetite for U.S. government debt given uncertainty about global growth and inflation and amid low bond yields around the world, analysts said.

"U.S. yields were a little higher during the month and that may have attracted some of the buyers and made Treasuries look like a better investment," said Gennadiy Goldberg, senior rates strategist, at TD Securities in New York.

U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury yields started October with a yield of 1.4650%, rising nearly 10 basis points to 1.5609% by the end of that month.

Japan remained the largest non-U.S. holder of Treasuries with holdings in October of $1.320 trillion, a record peak, from $1.299 trillion the previous month.

China's holdings also increased to $1.065 trillion, from $1.047 trillion in September.

On a transaction basis, foreigners sold Treasuries in the month of October to the tune of $43.5 billion, the largest outflow since May.

But TD's Goldberg said this does not reflect the true picture in terms of foreign holdings of Treasuries because there is a bias toward transactions that does not account for steady holdings.

Data also showed U.S. corporate bonds had inflows for a third straight month with $11.995 billion in October, from $1.09 billion in September.

Foreign investors, meanwhile, sold $21.827 billion in U.S. equities in October, after also selling $10.951 billion the previous month.

Data also showed that U.S. residents reduced their holdings of long-term foreign securities, with net sales of $29.2 billion.

Overall, net foreign acquisitions of U.S. long-term and short-term securities, including banking flows, showed a net inflow of $143 billion in October, from an outflow of $27.3 billion in September.

Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and David Gregorio

https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-b ... 021-12-15/
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