Author: mgreves

By Twyla Zhang

In October 2020, Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a nonprofit organization that globally promotes better standards in cotton farming and practices, released a statement and announced that they found forced labor in the Xinjiang region from a report. Many international major brands are members of the BCI organization. In March 2021, many international brands responded to this statement. The fast-fashion clothing company H&M published a statement: due to the forced labor in the supply chain of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), the company decided to terminate the business relationship. Then, Nike, Uniqlo, and other major brands also issued statements and pledged that they refused to use Xinjiang cotton and asked their suppliers to not use it. 

As a result, a widespread boycott movement has emerged in China: many official accounts and Chinese online users refused to consume the clothes or shoes from these brands, and H&M products were dropped from major e-commerce platforms. Many influential social media accounts encouraged the young people to join the boycott and support Xinjiang cotton, including People’s Daily whose post was shared over 39 million times. The hashtag “support Xinjiang” acquired more than 8 billion views on Weibo. Celebrities stopped cooperation deals with brands that were accused of forced labor in Xinjiang. Under the official accounts of these companies, online users commented to ask the companies to apologize. Moreover, if anyone who wore clothes or shoes with Nike, H&M, or other brands’ logo appeared in a video, the logo would be blurred by a mosaic. Some consumers even burned Nikes and posted videos online. Others filmed vlogs about their travel to Xinjiang and tried to prove that all the cotton farms were cultivated by automatic machines, and workers there had profitable salaries. 

There are several reasons behind this popular boycott movement. First, the general public believed that there was no forced labor at all, as the automatic machines were applied to farming cotton several years ago, which greatly improved efficiency and lowered costs. For example, the mechanized application rate will reach 98 percent in Mansa country this year. Then, many Chinese authoritative media, such as Global Times, posted videos, interviews, and evidence to reveal the real, prosperous side of the Xinjiang region. For example, Xinjiang’s annual cotton output is about 5.7 million tons. More than 50 percent of farmers grow cotton, and cotton income accounts for more than 80 percent of total agricultural income. Cotton production in Xinjiang ensured and improved the livelihood of the local cotton farmers, cotton textile workers, and their family members. The so-called forced labor was completely fabricated by Western politicians, like Donald Trump who banned Xinjiang cotton last year, to attack China and impose restrictions on Chinese companies. These behaviors violated international trade rules and undermined the global industrial and supply chains. At the end of March, in a statement posted on the WeChat account, the BCI Shanghai office claimed that they did not find any case of “forced labor” in Xinjiang. Later, BCI removed its statement on Xinjiang cotton released in October 2020.

On the other hand, many western media had different opinions on this event. According to the Twitter of The Economist’s China affairs editor Gady Epstein, the BIC official claimed that “they took down the statement in response to DDoS attacks and would eventually ‘repost relevant information.’” Moreover, in many western media’s posts, the United Nations claimed that 1 million Turkic-speaking Muslim Uygur have been in re-education centers, tortured, and forced labor. China kept denying the claim and explained that the purpose of the policy was to “fight terrorism, alleviate poverty and raise people’s standard of living through job training.” In addition, one article from The Diplomat stated that deletion of the comments that oppose the main voice distorted the public opinion on the Xinjiang issue. Chinese censors also played a role in this widespread boycott movement. Any comment or discussion that counter the official opinion, such as “Support Xinjiang people,” disappeared from the main social media platforms. State media, diplomats greatly promoted the campaign, and people started to attack the lead author of a report on Uyghur forced labor. As a result of potential manipulation, aggressive nationalist sentiment was added on Chinese citizens and made them ignore the human rights issues. Other media analyzed the effect of this from a business perspective. Anta Sports, China’s largest sportswear company announced to quit BCI, whereas Amer Sports, a Finnish sporting company that Anta acquired two years ago claimed to remain a member of BCI and follow its policies. Despite ownership, many Chinese companies that owned foreign companies have not been heavily involved in the foreign companies’ operations and decision-making. In a case like Xinjiang cotton, it could be risky to have two values within the same company. 

In conclusion, in modern society, the convenient Internet and social media did not eliminate the distance between people from different countries or backgrounds, but they seemed to further separate people apart to the extreme polar side. 

Sources: 

1. https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2021/04/18/xinjiang-cotton-bci-attacked-for-removing-statement-on-forced-labour. 
2. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-15/BCI-removes-Xinjiang-cotton-statement-from-website-Ztwqx4ebwA/index.html
3. https://thediplomat.com/2021/04/the-ccp-hand-behind-chinas-xinjiang-cotton-backlash/. 
4. https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/china/better-cotton-initiative-statement-on-xinjiang-disappears-from-website. 
5. https://t.ynet.cn/baijia/30559015.html. 
6. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/investors-human-rights-groups-call-on-us-to-enact-a-regional-ban-on-cotton-imports-from-xinjiang-based-on-evidence-of-forced-labour/. 
7. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SRoBNOYDCZWZNNChfb18fA 
8. http://news.cctv.com/2021/04/15/ARTIktNGIdwUnMyvUPLbgIMz210415.shtml. 
9. http://m.news.cctv.com/2021/04/30/ARTIsOBBzgSG59XtN1QjsY9I210430.shtml. 
10. https://www.meipian.cn/tb3vu0i?from=timeline.

By Leo Deng

On February 1st, 2021, news from the corner of Southeast Asia shocked the world. Myanmar, a state that had just gained its status as a democracy 10 years ago, was thrown into autocracy again. The de facto civil leader Aung San Suu Kyi was said to be deposed by the generals. Residents of Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, and Yangon, its largest city, woke on February 1st to find soldiers in the streets and martial music blaring from their radios. Representatives of the National League for Democracy(NLD) were being put under house arrest overnight.

Though the event may be striking for many westerners, the path toward democracy has always been painstaking and unsteady in Myanmar, a country long being rigged by junta rulers. When Myanmar first gained its independence from the British Raj in 1948, it was immediately subject to constant rebellions, ranging from Communist uprisings to Chinese Nationalist incursions. It was no wonder that the army, known as Tatmadaw, established itself as the supreme ruler of the country. Tatmadaw continued to stay in power for the rest of the century, after crushing an elected government in 1962. However capable the generals were of staying in power, their decades-long governance resulted only in economic catastrophe. Political and economic isolation coupled with the disastrous program of Burmese Way to Socialism brought the country a place in the United Nations’ list of Least Developed Countries(LDCs). 

Given the junta’s appalling record of governance, there was reason for optimism when in 2011, the generals relinquished their grip on the nation by making way for a civil government. The exact motives behind the decision could be difficult to ascertain, but the main reason was that they believed they could do it without losing power. The 2008 constitution of Myanmar, still in effect today, was a carefully assembled one to fit the interests of the military. In this new constitution of a “discipline-flourishing democracy”, the commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw would appoint the minister of defense as well as the interior and border control. This gives the army de facto control of the national security apparatus. Moreover, 25% of parliament’s seats are to be reserved for the army, and any changes to the constitution need approval from more than 75% of the parliament. Thus the generals could wield their veto power over any unsatisfactory amendments. 

With the puppet constitution in place, the army finally agreed to a general election. The 2015 Myanmar General Election was widely hailed as the fairest, most transparent election seen in the country in decades. NLD, led by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory over Union Solidarity and Development Party(USDP), the army’s proxy party.

The fact that Ms. Aung did not use her new-gained power and reputation very well surely gave the generals consolation. With 25% of the seats in parliament occupied by his loyal officers, Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing hoped that an improved showing of USDP could bring him into office in the 2020 General Election. It didn’t go as planned. The 2020 Election saw USDP win only 33 of the 476 available seats, while NLD won 396. And just as they did after the 2015 Election, the generals alleged voter fraud. With the election commission issuing its rejection of such claims, the military staged a coup on Feb 1st, resulting in the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders. 

These actions by Tatmadaw, however it may seem, are justified on constitutional grounds. According to the 2008 constitution, the military can take control of the country in situations that could lead to the “disintegration of the Union and the loss of sovereign power.” Min Aung Hlaing and his officers argued that election fraud fit that description. They also pledged for another general election one year later.

Protests have been widespread since February, with hundreds of deaths. On March 20th, despite the imposition of martial law in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, protests persisted. However, whether the generals will keep their words remains unclear, so does the future of this country. 

Sources:

https://www.economist.com/asia/2021/03/20/economic-pressure-is-unlikely-to-force-myanmars-junta-to-retreat

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021/02/06/myanmars-coup-turns-the-clock-back-a-decade

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-02-01/myanmars-coup-was-chronicle-foretold

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/myanmar-history-coup-military-rule-ethnic-conflict-rohingya

By Twyla Zhang

On July 30, 2020, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held a meeting to discuss and decide the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development. On March 11, 2021, the resolution on the 14th Five-Year Plan and the Outline of the Vision Goals for the Year 2035 got adopted. Simply speaking, this is the detailed plan and goals that China formulated and will try to achieve from 2021 to 2035. The overall outline is divided into 19 chapters and addresses almost every aspect of its development, such as technology innovation, digital industrialization, sustainable environment development, promotion of infrastructure, etc.

Within the 20 leading indicators of economic and social development from 2020 to 2025, the five indexes with the most significant changes in value are: 

(1) The number of babies under three years old for every thousand people will increase from 1.8 to 4.5. 

(2) The number of high-quality invention patents per 10,000 population will increase from 6.3 to 12. 

(3) The ratio of the increased value of core industries in the digital economy in GDP will increase from 7.8% to 10%. 

(4) Carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP will reduce by 18 percent.

(5) Energy consumption per unit of GDP will reduce by 13.5 percent. 

From these five indicators, it is clear that the three main fundamental variables and driving forces in the 5-years-plan are populations, technology, and a sustainable environment. 

In terms of the limited space and length, this article will introduce the main focus in the outline of technological development. First, China will focus on seven sections of technology, such as the new generation of artificial intelligence, quantum information, brain science, etc. Second, the emerging industries that correspond to these seven technologies will need to develop, including biotechnology, new energy resources, new information technology, etc. Another main focus in this section is to promote the manufacturing industry in eight aspects. Moreover, the deeper integration of digital technology and the real economy will also become the main goal for China to achieve. All of these promotions and developments will create many job opportunities for the younger generation.  

Besides technology, the population aging resulted from the decreased population is also the main problem to address. In 2016, the newly-born population was about 17.9 million, but in 2019, it decreased to about 15 million. With this trend, in 2050, approximately 30 percent of the population will be older people over the age of 65 years. In this outline, the Chinese government plans to share some pressure and cost of raising children by building large-scale community service infrastructure in 150 cities and exploring the transformation of the city’s public resources for children’s outdoor activities. As for the older people, the government also plans to establish a support system and network to promote their quality of life, such as providing free day-care service in communities, adding anti-skid devices and so on.   

Lastly, the outline also includes detailed plans to develop the metropolitan area network that consisted of nearby cities and build more high-speed rails to connect cities within the network, promoting efficiency and lowering the cost. Also, the outline specifies the general direction of agriculture development and new energy resources, such as wind electricity. Besides the aspects mentioned above, the the14th Five-Year Plan and the Outline of the Vision Goals for the Year 2035 also include detailed development plans of medical resources, economic, education, legislation, culture, security, national defense, and so on. From the plan, it is clear that China is trying to construct a more green and sustainable economic development. At the same time, it also shows that China has also an ambitious and comprehensive goal for the country’s future development.

Sources: 

1. https://www.china-briefing.com/news/what-to-expect-in-chinas-14th-five-year-plan-decoding-the-fifth-plenum-communique/
2. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11684
3. https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-quest-self-reliance-fourteenth-five-year-plan
4. https://new.qq.com/omn/20210315/20210315A0ANI400.html
5. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_11724487
6. https://b23.tv/74IZJj

Picture: 

1. https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/chinas-14th-five-year-plan-climate-and-energy/

By Leo Deng

The pandemic has only gotten worse since its initial outbreak in Wuhan more than 9 months ago. While cases continue to surge, governments around the world are still grappling with the virus. Different approaches to the pandemic were made by administrations in accordance with respective national traditions, political systems, and many other factors. Some have fared well, while others have not. 

China has come out on top so far. Though some cover-up attempts were made by the regional authority in early January of 2020, Beijing has since then taken actions with decisiveness and speed. Total lockdowns and massive testings resulted in a remarkable tale of Chinese success. China had sustained its recovery through multiple regional outbreaks in the past several months: In Beijing, Urumqi, and Qingdao. Though faring well, the Chinese approach has drawn little devotees abroad. Its success requires both an all-mighty central authority and the will of cooperation from the mass public. These are harsh prerequisites for either the best democracies and worst dictators. In the light of near-zero domestic cases in the past several months, it is thus understandable that the Chinese economy has recovered quickly and China’s central bank has little incentive to offer extra liquidity. The International Monetary Fund has placed its forecast for China’s Real GDP growth at 1.9% this year, a world-beating rate.

Europe is still grappling. Since late-March, some of the biggest European economies have entered into lockdown. French cinemas and nightclubs had ordered closure until June. In this period of three months, the European authorities had made restrictions on its citizens to an inconceivable extent for Western democracies. This does not mean, however, that these governments have made workable plans to make their economies more adaptable to external threats. When second-wave cases started to surge in August, these countries were ill-prepared for yet another round of tough restrictions. The result was a record of 32427 new cases in a single day in France. The European economy will contract by 8.3%, as the European Commission predicted recently.

South Korea has offered a bright path toward controlling the pandemic. By the end of February of 2020, South Korea had more Coronavirus cases than anywhere other than China. Today it has fewer than 100 cases reported per day. Soon after it was discovered that the Shincheonji Church was the site of a superspreader event, the Korean authority ordered all worshippers to self-isolate. Patients with the worst symptoms were sent to hospitals while those with milder ones entered quarantine units. By early May, South Korea recorded zero domestic cases. A minor surge took place in August, but unlike Europe, the Koreans handled it successfully. By September the number of cases reported per day dropped close to 100. The Korean economy emerged from the crisis strong: According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD), South Korea is looking at only a mere 1% contraction.

Things are more complicated in the U.S. While cases continue to surge, the American economy has been doing better than its European counterparts. Its economy has adapted better amid the chaos. As the labour market adjusts, new jobs are being created.  The Democratic Party maintained its majority in the House and won the majority in the Senate, so a stimulus bill is likely to come into effect.  However, America’s reputation will surely suffer tremendously abroad, as a result of both Trump’s presidency and institutional failures. 

The repercussions of the pandemic will likely to be felt for decades to come. Sino-Western split will surely accelerate. Just as the pandemic helps spread distrust of China in Europe and America, it also convinces the majority of Chinese that the West is in irreversible decline. This split and mutual enmity can be extremely harmful and dangerous to the world. Governments’ role in societies will be permanently expanded as it assumes unprecedented control over its citizens, a role which likely will not be relinquished even after the crisis. However, the most imminent task for most countries remains to tame the virus and save lives. 

Sources

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/10/08/the-pandemic-has-caused-the-worlds-economies-to-diverge

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/16/future-government-powers-coronavirus-pandemic/

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/0How the Coronavirus Pandemic Will Permanently Expand Government Powers9/16/coronavirus-covid-economic-impact-recession-south-korea-success/

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_1269#:~:text=The%20EU%20economy%20is%20forecast,whole%20in%20the%20Spring%20Forecast.

By Twyla Zhang

Since the era of big data came, with digital technology, our daily lives are much more convenient, but this happens at the expense of our privacy. During the pandemic period, people’s privacy has become an issue again. 

On December 8th, Chengdu, the capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, reported four new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one asymptomatic infected person. Once the first case was confirmed, all the five surrounding regions were under control and started a new round of testing. Since December 8th the neighborhood where the first case and surrounding ones were found upgraded to a medium risk area. However, despite such strict and rapid prevention measures, the virus continued to spread. Until 6 pm on 12th, a total of 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases and two asymptomatic infected cases had been reported in Chengdu. A total of 2.17 million people have been tested, and 12 have tested positive. Nearby residents were asked to self-quarantine. 

Intended to remind people to do testing if they have gone to these places and pay attention to avoidance, the government published the scope of activities of those diagnosed with COVID within the past fourteen days. Among infected people, one girl’s trace attracted significant attention from the public, as she went to several bars, movie theaters, shopping malls, and other public places. Thousands of people left negative comments and attacked her. Moreover, some extreme people even dug up and spread the girl’s ID number, home address, pictures, and other private information online. This is not the first time that such an incident has happened. Several months ago, when Beijing had another pandemic outbreak, all the private information of the first infected people were disclosed and published online by some people, including his work place, his love story and so on.

Repeated information disclosure should ring an alarm for anyone who benefited from the big data—-everyone’s privacy might become commercialized. The fact that Facebook has been questioned in the US and worldwide in 2018 was the first time to raise global attention on the prevention of personal information leakage. While Congress was arguing and investigating whether Russia interfered in or interfered with the US election, Facebook has been revealed to have leaked the personal information of 87 million users to a British company. Facebook claimed the user information was obtained “improperly” by a third party. Facebook co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, appeared in person, apologized, and pledged to avoid such incidents in the future. However, this promise has not been kept. Countless news about Facebook information leakage has been reported in recent years. For example, in 2019, more than 400 million Facebook user phone numbers were exposed. Although national laws worldwide prohibit selling personal information, due to current business models and brutal industrial competition, network enterprises, including e-commerce giants, secretly make money by mining and selling user information. The more privacy in the hands of users, the bigger the market and the higher the profits. One Chinese blogger has experimented: in a black market selling privacy, with about 75 dollars, anyone could acquire a stranger’s name and ID number. The higher the price you pay, the more private information you could obtain, including families’ ID number, current location, hotel booking information, and so on. 

It is a common understanding that privacy is a fundamental right of citizens. Privacy is a personal freedom taken for granted in modern society. Protection of privacy is to protect human dignity and the only world in which we live. However, as new information technology develops rapidly, and the “Skynet” of information technology is placed, privacy seems to be public.

Source: 

1. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_-53U4QTjnhEvX2kcTmPWg
2. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/y-BU4vvAIzGMis2q8weZOw
3. https://dy.163.com/article/FTP9J3LV053569U2.html
4. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_10345970
5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/09/05/facebook-security-snafu-exposes-419-million-user-phone-numbers/?sh=2ab563da1ab7
6. https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-breaches-and-attacks/compliance/facebook-data-leak-270-million-users/#:~:text=Facebook%20has%20left%20sensitive%20data%20exposed%20a%20number%20of%20times%20before.&text=In%20September%2C%202018%2C%20Facebook%20said,than%20a%20half%20million%20accounts.