The importance of narratives and the need to overcome ‘narrative traps

From the outset, Stahl emphasises the importance of narratives in the perception of China. Drawing on the work of Robert Shiller, he explains how narratives – a mixture of facts and emotions – can influence behaviour and political decisions, and how biased narratives can become harmful ‘thought viruses’. He warns against the polarisation of opinions, exacerbated by social networks, geopolitical tensions and technological transformations. The author urges us to look beyond simplistic visions of China as either a threat or an ideal partner, highlighting the complexity of Chinese society and the diversity of viewpoints even within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

A Chinese society in the throes of transformation

The book explores China’s transformation from a ‘workshop of the world’ to a centre of technology and innovation. Concrete examples such as the city of Shenzhen, Deng Xiaoping’s policy of openness, and the emergence of companies such as Huawei illustrate this evolution. Stahl describes a multi-faceted Chinese society, where elements of socialism and the market economy, ancestral traditions and modernity coexist. He also discusses the challenges facing the country, such as social inequality, the urban-rural divide and environmental problems.

The role of the Communist Party and the five-year plans

China’s political system is presented in all its complexity. While the CCP plays a central role, the author emphasises that the legitimacy of the government is measured not only by the way it comes to power (entry legitimacy), but also by its ability to produce satisfactory results for the population (exit legitimacy). The five-year plans are no longer a rigid planning of the economy, but a tool for coordinating public policies. The author mentions the country’s fiscal decentralisation, with local authorities managing a significant proportion of public spending.

China in the world: influence and ambitions

China has become a major player on the international stage, investing massively in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The New Silk Roads Initiative (OBOR) is presented as an ambitious geopolitical and economic project, aimed at linking China to the rest of the world through infrastructure. Stahl explains how China is seeking to develop its influence through the dissemination of its culture, cinema and values. He highlights the development of the Chinese internet under an ‘electronic wall’ which has encouraged the growth of national companies, but which has also been criticised as a censorship measure.

Economic, technological and social issues

The book explores the economic and technological challenges posed by China’s rise to power. The author highlights the country’s growing role in innovation, particularly in patents, space, 5G and the digital economy. He also examines the ‘dual circuit’ policies that aim to strengthen both the autonomy of the national economy and its participation in the global economy. Stahl also looks at environmental challenges and China’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. The state of the property market and the hukou system are also discussed, highlighting the inequalities and social tensions they engender.

Europe faces up to the challenges

Stahl calls on the European Union to define a new strategy vis-à-vis China, taking into account the complexity of relations and the geopolitical issues at stake. He stresses the need to defend effective multilateralism and the role of the United Nations in the management of international affairs. The author invites the EU to favour constructive dialogue with China, avoiding a confrontational approach and promoting cooperation on global challenges such as climate change. He stresses that the EU’s values, such as human dignity, peace and democracy, must guide its foreign policy.

A call for international cooperation

In conclusion, ‘China: Dangerous Rival or Cooperative Partner?’ is an invitation to reflection and action. The author calls for greater international cooperation to tackle global challenges such as climate change and underdevelopment. He warns against simplifications and ‘narrative traps’, and calls for a pragmatic and balanced approach to EU-China relations. The book makes a valuable contribution to the debate on the future of Sino-European relations, offering rigorous analysis and pertinent recommendations.

Gerhard Stahl’s book is an essential tool for anyone intending to understand the issues surrounding China and contribute to building a more balanced and cooperative world.

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The Confucius Institutes of VUB and ULB were founded in 2016 with the cooperation of the Chinese Ministry of Education. These institutions are presented as places of discovery and learning of the Chinese language and culture, and as a pole of exchange and meeting between China and Belgium. However, the State Security has always worried that it could also be a huge Trojan horse inside the two universities.

In fact, now the director of the site of the Flemish university is suspected of having used his network for espionage purposes, and of having recruited students and people from the business world for the Chinese secret service. The man denies the facts. The management of the ULB site has nothing to do with this case. Contacted however this Tuesday afternoon for a comment, it was unreachable.

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Taiwan’s national day was celebrated in Brussels by a reception at the International Press Centre of the Residence Palace, at which Ambassador Harry Tseng Hojen delivered the keynote address. He voiced concern about the vision for the future of Taiwan-China relations.

“China’s president XI Jinping is hell-bent on achieving what he sees as reunification with Taiwan. It’s clear this has become a deeply personal mission for him,” he said.

Beijing is still promoting the concept of “one country, two systems” as a model for Taiwan to be brought under the governance of the People’s Republic of China. But the test in Hong Kong of this mantra, adopted when the territory was handed back to China in 1997 is proving to be awkward. Beijing promised that it would not meddle with the way of life enjoyed by the people of Hong Kong for 50 years. This promise was enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and in the Basic Law of Hong Kong.

But when Taiwan looks across to the images in Hong Kong of streets packed with young protesters, standing against authoritarianism in the shape of the Hong Kong police, backed by China, it isn’t hard to understand why the people of Taiwan have no faith in the model of “one country, two systems”.

On the positive side Taiwan can boast stellar economic achievements. With a population of just over 23 million people, it generates the 22nd largest GDP in the world according to the IMF. It is the 13th most competitive economy in the world according to the IMD, and accounts for the world’s 5th largest foreign exchange reserves.

Taiwan works effectively and cordially with the European Union, in areas ranging from trade and technology to the environment and human rights. The country shares and upholds the core values of democracy, the rule of law, freedom of the press, the right of assembly and religious freedoms. These are values that Taiwan has worked incredibly hard to protect its way of life as a liberal democratic republic.

Ambassador Tseng delivered his address on the same day that Turkish armed forces invaded Kurdish controlled territory in Syria, drawing into sharp relief the reality that in today’s international politics military adventures by totalitarian governments can be triggered without warning. Xi Jinping the President of the People’s Republic of China has refused to rule out the use of military force to invade Taiwan. He will be watching carefully how the USA responds to the aggression by President Erdogan to cause turmoil in the Middle East. Here in Europe we should take care to ensure that through trade, diplomacy and international friendship the efforts over decades by the Republic of China in Taiwan to build a model democracy on their island home is protected and their way of life respected.

The post Taiwan’s Double Tenth appeared first on Brussels Express.

This documentary premiered last September 21 on TV5 Monde, and will continue to be broadcast in 43 Europe countries and, later on, four other continents will follow. While being broadcasted during 36 months, this documentary will reach an audience of 21 million people all over the world.

China changed deeply in recent years. At an incredible speed. The transition from a rural China to an urban and metropolitan one made possible the creation of a new landscape with an avant-garde architecture.

« What is fascinating in Anhui is to see that an urban and rural China coexist in perfect harmony, » explained António Buscardini, author of the documentary. « We discovered in Anhui multiple surprising links with France. For instance, the charming village of Tangmo. In fact, thanks to the support of the former French President, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Tangmo is the first place, outside Europe, to be integrated in the prestigious Gites de France network. »

To increase the number of European tourists is of great importance for the Chinese authorities. « Today, tourism has become one of the most important ways to enhance mutual understanding between Chinese and European citizens and thus promote Sino-European relations in the new era. In this framework, more and more Europeans decide to settle in China. A good example of that is the story of Philippe, a French expatriate, who lives in China for years, and he’s now the host of a well known series back in China, » said Zhang Ming, Ambassador of China to the European Union.

Note: In the framework of the first China-EU Sports Day, this documentary will be screened next Wednesday 25/09 at the Schuman square in Brussels, Belgium.

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For the last two months, large numbers of citizens have been exercising their fundamental right of assembly. However, there has recently been a rising number of unacceptable violent incidents, with risks of further violence and instability.

It is crucial that restraint be exercised, violence rejected, and urgent steps taken to de-escalate the situation.

Engagement in a process of broad-based and inclusive dialogue, involving all key stakeholders, is essential.

Fundamental freedoms, including the right of peaceful assembly, and Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, are enshrined in the Basic Law and in international agreements and must continue to be upheld.

The post Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on Hong Kong appeared first on Brussels Express.

In Belgium, the Center for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB) also opened an investigation, but has not identified any cybersecurity risks. Huawei has always denied the accusations. With these centers dedicated to cybersecurity, the Chinese phone companies seem to want to offer more transparency, according to Reuters.

ZTE is not on the US blacklist, despite criticism that the company is trading with Iran. The group was then banned from exporting to the United States and had to pay a $ 1 billion fine.

With this cybersecurity center, customers and regulators will be able to check the source code of network equipment and test cyber attacks. ZTE already has a similar center in Rome.

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But there was nothing idyllic about the nightmare of his vision. Whilst reading his works, I was aware then in the late 20th century of the obsession of the Chinese Communist Party with worship of their great leader Mao Tse-Tung, the suppression of religion, and compliant obedience to the state – I even owned a poster of Mao speaking to a group of worshipful peasant farmers wearing traditional Uyghur costumes – but I could never have imagined at that time that Orwell’s vision would become such a terrifying and horrific reality in today’s 21st century China.

He chose the year 1984 as a date which was far in the future at the time of writing. For the people of Xinjiang province in the far North West of China, their nightmare of totalitarian state control by the Chinese Communist Party started to escalate in 2016. Orwell may have predicted the wrong date, and he could not have forecast the rapid development of information technology to enable such manipulative behaviour by governments, but he well understood the timeless psychology of political evil to exploit scientific advantage.

Xinjiang is three times the size of France, with a population of about 21 million people, of whom half belong to the Uyghur ethnic minority. In a surveillance programme which appears to be intended to prevent radicalisation and potential terrorist activities by Muslims, since 2016 huge “Vocational Training Centres” have been built in the province to “re-educate” citizens who are arbitrarily arrested and detained if the state considers that they might be at risk of imminently committing an offence. Using data recognition gathered from closed circuit camera networks, and routine data capture about facts such as “Has the subject grown a beard?” or “Does the subject pray at home?” the state surveillance calculates and takes into account social points which are then tallied and used to assess the need for “re-education”.

Journalists such as Lily Kuo in the Guardian and James Millward in the New York Review of Books have written about the re-education camps since 2017, but outside China little is actually known about the camps and the number of inmates. According to Rune Steenberg of the University of Copenhagen between 2 and 3 million people have come in and out of the camps since their construction and expansion. At any one time it is thought that these enormous camps, covering millions of square metres, house more than one million inmates.

Whilst it is not clear what exactly is happening in the camps, it is a fact that the detainees are being routinely abused and their rights destroyed. But it is perhaps more important to focus on what is going on outside the camps, because the damage caused to families and to the social system is enormous. When a member of the community is arrested for detention and re-education, this means the loss of a bread winner for a family and an impact on religious structures which causes greater fragmentation of society and actually has the detrimental effect of leading to a stronger potential for radicalisation. This can only be an unintended consequence. The Chinese State appears to believe that it is fighting against terrorism, but its brutal actions against religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang amount to blatant ethnic cleansing.

Academics such as Vanessa Frangville of the Université Libre de Bruxelles are calling for international action against China for the crimes being committed against its own citizens. She is appealing to universities worldwide to suspend cooperation with the Ministry of Education in China, and to stop doing business as usual with Chinese institutions. She urges an international investigation into the numbers of camps in Xinjiang, a list of the victims interned, the state of their mental health, and a proper record of what has happened to missing persons who have not been accounted for in the province.

Considering the secrecy shrouding the manipulative state control of China’s far North West, and the concern of academia about the future impact of such policies on society, it comes as no surprise that in China’s deep south the intelligent residents of Hong Kong are protesting furiously to protect their civil rights. Huge demonstrations are taking place this week to try to stop the enactment of legislation that would facilitate the extradition of suspects from Hong Kong to China for the first time. They fear that this would be the thin end of the wedge in China’s increasing control over the “one country two systems” policy envisioned by the handover of Hong Kong by UK to China in 1997, and that the legislation would be exploited by China for use against political targets.

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In his remarks, Abraham Liu, Huawei’s Chief Representative to the EU Institutions, underlined two major points: Firstly, Huawei’s 5G has been co-developed by Europeans and is tailor-made for Europe’s needs and challenges. Secondly, the way Huawei is treated by the current US administration should worry everybody who cares for the respect of the rule-of-law.

“Huawei’s 5G solution is not just the best on the market. But it is to a large extent a European product; and it’s tailor-made for Europe’s needs. Huawei has been operating in Europe for nearly 20 years. We now have 12,200 employees in Europe, 70% hired locally. We are pleased that Europe is coming out with its coordinated approach to 5G. The European Union has proved its capacity of bringing European countries together to develop some of the most advanced and comprehensive laws like GDPR. Europe should continue to drive that agenda forward. The EU should make decisions for the benefit of Europe and its citizens”, said Abraham Liu.

“Huawei has been respecting all applicable laws and regulations. Now Huawei is becoming the victim of the bullying by the US administration. This is not just an attack against Huawei. It is an attack on the liberal, rules-based order. This is dangerous. Now it is happening to Huawei. Tomorrow it can happen to any other international company. Can we shut the eyes to such behaviour?” added Abraham Liu.

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Diplomats have been warned about some places in the European quarter in Brussels, including a restaurant and a famous cafe in the direct vicinity of the European Commission building and the EEAS.

The Chinese and Russian secret services are believed to work in Brussels, according to the German newspaper, especially in the embassies and commercial services of their country having a representation in the Belgian capital.

The details on agents from other non-European countries, such as the United States, are not mentioned in the report.

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