CHINA – POLITICS

1. The 25^th anniversary of June Fourth

   a. Beijing regarded this year’s June Fourth as the time of the highest sensitivity. As Tiananmen Square itself was closely policed and gatherings to commemorate the June 4 crackdown were forbidden within Mainland China, record numbers gathered in Hong Kong for the annual vigil at Victoria Park. Organizers have put the total at 180,000 people, the largest gathering since 1989. Like previous years, many mainlanders also flocked to Victoria Park to commemorate the crackdown. Chinese rights lawyer Teng Biao gave a moving speech on stage during the vigil, calling for both Occupy Central and Occupy Tiananmen.

   b. A younger demographic is also observed at the vigil: “in recent years, the gathering had been dominated by people age 40 or older who remembered coverage of the night of the crackdown and who sometimes brought their children. That demographic profile appeared to have been upended this year, as people in their 20s and 30s predominated. An announcer on the stage asked all those attending the vigil for the first time to raise their hands, and many sprung up.”
   Another candle light vigil was held in Tsim Sha Tsui by the “nativist) (bentupai 本土派), jointly held by pan-democratic lawmaker Wong Yuk-man’s Proletariat Political Institute and online media platform Passion Times. The groups criticized Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China of “monopolizing” June 4^th and vowed to offer an alternative for Hong Kong people. Organizers claimed 7,000.

   c. In mainland China, despite vigilant monitoring of the Internet, some “sideways expressions” (擦邊球) still made their way. On June 3, Tencent Entertainment posted an article titled “6/4 Thematic Projection: Amnesiacs, With What Can We Save You!” (6·4主题放映：失忆症患者，拿什么拯救你！). The article reviews the use of amnesia as a dramatic device in seven films. It has been deleted from Tencent, but can still be read on taiwan.cn.

   d. Scores of participants and witnesses to the protests in China have tried to keep their memories alive by recording their accounts and impressions of 1989. The SCMP online team has created a multi-layered, multimedia feature which features the voices of some of those who participated in the protests. China Digital Times has created a Tiananmen 25 years tag page to collect all relevant articles.

   e. The passing of Tiananmen anniversary has brought apparent resolution to the cases of those detained ahead of it: scholar Xu Youyu, activist Hu Shigen, dissident writer Liu Di and, later, film critic Hao Jian have been released on bail. Last Friday, Beijing police formally arrested prominent rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, on suspicion of causing disturbance and illegally obtaining personal information.

   1. Telegraph: “William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International, said many observers believed Beijing was pursuing Mr Pu precisely because he was a moderate voice rather than a “true radical”.”
   2. Notes of Zhang Sizhi, Pu Zhiqiang’s lawywer, on visiting Pu in prison
   3. Some ties Pu’s indictment to his role in helping journalists investigate Zhou Yongkang’s personal wealth: 北京警方办案人员传唤多位曾做过周永康家族资产调查报道的记者时，不仅仔细盘问消息源，甚至还有警员严厉呵斥记者，斥其“周家的个人信息，也是你们可以调查的？”浦志强和屈振红曾先后出任《财经》杂志的法律顾问，一般认为，协助包括记者在内的委托人调取本属于公共记录的企业注册信息，本是律师正常执业行为的一部分。但由于浦志强2011年12月曾公开抨击周永康及维稳模式。2013年2月6日，他再透过新浪、腾讯和搜狐三大博客实名举报周永康祸国殃民、荼毒天下，“实民贼也”。而此后他和屈又疑似有协助媒体查阅周家财务数据的行为，浦志强可能有意无意中被卷入了高层政治搏杀。有分析者认为，浦志强既有可能被倒周者认为是抢了风头，也可能被周党羽作为泄愤报复的目标。
   4. Ai Weiwei starts web craze with mysterious ‘leg-gun’ pose, which Ai calls 尋性姿勢 . This seems to be an act of protest against the government’s frequent use of “causing disturbance” (尋釁滋事) to charge activists.

f. Another detainee, Chinese-born and Beijing-based Australian artist Guo Jian, has been accused of fraudulently obtaining a work visa, and will be removed from China later this month following 15 days in administrative detention. Guo had crowned with 160kg of minced pork as a private commemoration of the anniversary, appeared to have been smashed to pieces by police. See FT’s interview with Guo Jian. At The Washington Post last week, William Wan discussed the presence of Tiananmen in Chinese art, with perspectives ranging from those who see confronting it as the fulfillment of a profound duty, to others who dismiss such work as “all stunts, phony posturing.

2. 5% of Active WeChat Accounts Shut Down for Prostitution Ties

   1. Amid an ongoing government campaign to increase central “Internet management” capabilities, a crackdown on the popular messaging application WeChat was recently revitalized, and central authorities also launched a new online pornography sweep. TIME reports that WeChat’s holding company Tencent has announced the shutdown of 20 million WeChat accounts for links to prostitution—a notable proportion of the service’s user base. Late last month, Beijing announced that Internet companies who did not take initiative to root out “rumors and information related to violence, terrorism, and pornography” would be held directly responsible.
   2. Lily Kuo notes that this online prostitution crackdown—occurring in a country where the sale of sex, while illegal, is largely accepted—may be another central government move to gather control over the unruly hinterlands of cyberspace.
   3. CDT provides the background: In a speech on “ideological work” last August, Xi Jinping identified the Internet as the “main battlefield in the struggle for public opinion” (互联网已经成为舆论斗争的主战场). Since then, his administration has put much effort into cracking down on social media. After the once lively digital commons of Sina’s Weibo microblogging platform began to languish, the focus turned towards managing the relatively private conversations taking place on WeChat, where popular accounts—many of which associated with independent news media—were shut down in March.

3. China’s Christians fend off church demolition crew amid latest Communist Party crackdown on faith, the Telegraph reported.

   1. “Demolition workers were forced to abandon attempts to strip a cross from a church” in Wenzhou, “a city known as ‘China’s Jerusalem’ after angry Christians forced their way through a blockade of armed guards”. “The failed cross removal is the latest development in a government-led demolition campaign in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Activists believe the initiative is a deliberate Communist Party attempt to rein in the explosive growth of Christianity, China’s fastest growing religion…”
   2. The campaign is designed to bring “excessive religious sites” and “overly popular” religious activities under control, according to an internal government document obtained by the New York Times last month. More than 60 churches have suffered some kind of intervention since the start of this year, according to a list compiled last month by Asia News, a Catholic news agency.
      1. The nine-page provincial policy statement says the government aims to regulate “excessive religious sites” and “overly popular” religious activities, but it specifies only one religion, Christianity, and one symbol, crosses. “The priority is to remove crosses at religious activity sites on both sides of expressways, national highways and provincial highways. Over time and in batches, bring down the crosses from the rooftops to the facade of the buildings.”
   3. But “authorities claim the so-called “Three Rectifications and One Demolition” campaign is targeting all illegal buildings and not just churches.”
   4. Meanwhile, Chinese officials arrested six members of the fringe doomsday group Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning (东方闪电), after they killed a woman at a Shandong McDonald’s franchise while on a recruitment drive last month. The central government responded by launching a crackdown on “evil cults”—a term which has in the past been used by the government mostly in reference to Falun Gong practitioners. The South China Morning Post reports that over 1,500 alleged cult members have been detained in China over the past two years—hundreds since the McDonald’s attack last month.
      1. Nanfang Zhoumo visits the hinterland of Eastern Lightening in Henan
   5. Amid the crackdown, China’s state media has been closely covering the dangers of fringe cults like the Church of Almighty God, tying the group to “numerous robberies and assaults” over a decade ago, and showing the extent of the group’s reach (see Chinese coverage of the Almighty God cult “permeating” Xinjiang and using social media to organize meetings). State media has also warned of the “immediate demand to strike against evil cults,” [Chinese], and published a list of the 14 officially recognized “evil cults” [Chinese].
   6. The New York Times reports that some leaders from mainstream Christian groups are nervous that anti-cult sentiment stoked by state media may soil the image of orthodox Christianity.

4. Wen Jiabao’s Family Behind Cambridge Professorship

   a. The Telegraph has uncovered evidence that a charity which established an endowed professorship in Chinese development studies at Cambridge University is run by Wen Ruchun, the daughter of former Premier Wen Jiabao. In 2012, when the donation of £3.7 million was announced, Chinese censors deleted information about the controversy when critics expressed concern that Beijing was buying influence at Cambridge. However, Cambridge said it had scrutinised the donation and concluded that there was “no link between this private foundation and the Chinese government”. According to the Telegraph report, the Chong Hua foundation is registered to a trust in Bermuda. In January, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed the results of a two-year investigation which showed that 21,000 people from China and Hong Kong, including several family members of the top leadership, utilize offshore companies to invest large amounts of money.

   1. Also in the Telegraph, Peter Foster has written “Ten questions Cambridge University must now answer over the Chong Hua donation.”

CHINA – DIPLOMACY

1. Second PLA Unit Implicated in Online Spying

   1. After the U.S. Justice Department pressed charges against five PLA officers for crimes related to economic espionage last month, California-based “computer forensics” firm CrowdStrike has released a report implicating a second unit of the Chinese military in hacking to obtain trade and military secrets.
      
      61486. NYT: The report ties attacks against dozens of public and private sector organizations back to a group of Shanghai-based hackers. The National Security Agency and its partners have identified the hackers as Unit 61486. Unit 61486, researchers say, in some instances shared computing resources and communicated with members of Unit 61398, the P.L.A. unit whose members were the focus of last month’s indictments.
   2. As was the case after charges were levied last month, China’s Foreign Ministry has denied the new allegations, and drawn attention to the U.S. sponsored surveillance programs revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. This becomes the latest instance of back-and-forth between Washington and Beijing over state-sponsored espionage. Washington’s initial allegations stem from a distinction between gathering intelligence for economic advantage, which the DOJ alleges the PLA is involved in, and gathering information for security, in which the NSA no doubt engages. Beijing does not place as much importance in this distinction as does Washington.
   3. Just after the U.S. Justice Department announced charges against the five alleged members of PLA Unit 61398, it was reported that Beijing had banned Windows 8 from all government computers. Last week, CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, aired a report claiming that the operating system allowed Microsoft to harvest data on Chinese society “more precise and up-to-date that collected by our National Bureau of Statistics,” and alleging that the tech company had worked with Washington on data gathering.
   4. Wall Street Journal puts the Windows 8 ban into the broader context of U.S.-China sparring over cyberespionage, Beijng’s desire to lessen reliance on foreign tech products, and the heavy use of pirated software products in China

2. Li Keqiang granted meeting with Queen Elizabeth during British visit

   1. Premier Li Keqiang will meet Queen Elizabeth when he visits Britain next week, an unusual meeting that observers say shows how aware China has become of its world status.
   2. An earlier report in The Times said the trip would be in jeopardy unless the royal meeting was on the agenda: “The Queen has become a pawn in a secret diplomatic showdown between London and Beijing as China’s prime minister prepares for a critical visit to Britain next week. Despite assurances by British diplomats that the latter stages of negotiations around Li Keqiang’s trip had been “unusually friendly”, The Times has learnt that talks have been anything but straightforward and involved a direct threat of cancellation.”
   3. Analysts agreed the encounter suggested a significant agreement between the two countries. The two countries are expected to discuss on matters covering finance, trade, investment, energy and cultural exchanges.

HONG KONG – POLITICS

1. Beijing vowed to assert “total control” over Hong Kong in white paper

   1. In an unprecedented 20,000-word white paper entitled “The Practice of One Country Two Systems in HKSAR” (「一國兩制」在香港特別行政區的實踐) published by the State Council on June 10, Beijing asserted that the central government holds « comprehensive jurisdiction » (全面管治權) over Hong Kong and is the source of its autonomy. According to the paper, “the high degree of autonomy enjoyed by Hong Kong is subject to the central government’s authorization. There is no such thing called ‘residual power’ for the special administrative region« . It also issues stern warning over interference by ‘outside forces’. The Hong Kong government “welcomed” the white paper as Chief Executive CY Leung said it is in line with the Basic Law, while urging everyone in Hong Kong to read it carefully. China’s Vice-President Li Yuanchao said in an interview that the document embodied the thinking of the central government.
      1. SCMP pointed out that although similar views have been made by mainland officials before, “the timing and the way the document was released show Beijing is determined to put its foot down over Hong Kong’s political development…The paper, released in seven languages through Xinhua, came 10 days before Occupy Central activists calling for greater democracy hold an unofficial referendum on options for the 2017 election of the chief executive.”
      2. WSJ considers the possibility of the Chinese government intervening into Hong Kong’s stock market: “The paper also cites trade volume and overseas direct investment statistics to stress just how intermeshed the Hong Kong and mainland economies are. It never goes so far as to say the Chinese government could intervene in Hong Kong’s financial markets, but the mere mention of the city’s financial system indicates the Chinese government wants the city to know who’s ultimately in control…It’s impossible to know if China will ultimately employ a heavier hand in Hong Kong’s financial markets, but the very suggestion of it should be cause for concern.”
   2. Full text in English is available
   3. A day after its publication, the Hong Kong Bar Association delivered a stern rebuke, criticizing its placing of judges in same category as « Hong Kong’s administrators » as “erroneous” and pledging to defend judicial independence. The association also cited its own remarks, made in 2008 when it was chaired by Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, which read: « The judiciary in Hong Kong has always been, and under the Basic Law it shall remain, separate and independent from the executive and the legislature ». “It is also rare that parts of the response appeared in CAPITAL and BOLD One part even mentioned RESPECT FOR THE RULE OF LAW (AS UNDERSTOOD IN HONG KONG AND THE COMMUNITY OF CIVILIZED NATIONS).
      1. Rimsky Yuen disagreed with the association, saying that « people need not be overly sensitive or read too much into certain wordings. I hope people will read the entire white paper in a positive attitude and not from the view of a conspiracy theory. »
   4. Other commentaries on the white paper
      1. Economist: “The bluntness of the Chinese government report has led some to suspect that leaders in Beijing are deliberately provoking dissent in order to justify a crackdown. Zhou Nan, a former head of the party’s liaison office in Hong Kong, has called the Occupy Central movement “illegal” and said the People’s Liberation Army could intervene if the planned protests escalated into riots. Foreign communities in the territory have also expressed concern, with some chambers of commerce taking out adverts in local Hong Kong newspapers urging the Occupy Central protesters to back down. That seems unlikely, and the city looks set for a long, hot summer of political dispute and angry protest.”
      2. The New York Times puts the white paper in the context of an upcoming referendum: “Occupy Central will hold a citywide unofficial vote from June 20 to 22 to rally public support for its protest plans. A more radical group of activists has pledged to occupy the city’s Legislative Council if the government devises a reform proposal that restricts who can be nominated as Hong Kong’s leader.”
   5. Following pressure from the Chinese government, HSBC and Standard Chartered have stopped advertising with Apple Daily, a popular Hong Kong newspaper known for its critical coverage of Beijing. The advertising pullout is seen as the latest effort by the Chinese government to tighten its media influence in Hong Kong. The New York Times spoke with Next Media Limited about the political motivation behind the banks’ decision: Mark Simon, commercial director of Apple Daily, “said a representative from HSBC told him that the decision to stop advertising came after the deputy director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, Yang Jian, told the bank to end its advertising relationship.”
      1. See also NYT’s interview with former chief secretary Anson Chan
   6. In response to NYT’s coverage of the advertising pullout and the “white paper” firestorm in Hong Kong, Bob Lee at China Daily accused the American newspaper for running “groundless” articles as a part of a “hidden agenda” to “lambaste Hong Kong’s political development.”: “Based on my observations, NYT’s densely packed editorials, opinion pieces and coverage are timed to coincide with Hong Kong’s political reforms. It is eager to take sides with the city’s opposition camp, especially during sensitive times in June when “Occupy Central” organizers are to hold a city-wide unofficial vote for “ultimate universal suffrage proposal” and a more radical group of activists has pledged to occupy the Legislative Council if the SAR government produces a reform package they don’t like.”
   7. Other foreign business communities also supported Beijing with some chambers of commerce urging protesters to back down: “The Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, as well as the chambers of commerce from Canada, Italy, India, and Bahrain–whose members include executives from Air India, Infosys, and the Royal Bank of Canada—have asked the demonstrators to call off their protest and argue their case through other “channels available.” In October, eight Hong Kong and mainland Chinese business groups issued a statement condemning the planned protest, saying it could harm Hong Kong-China relations. And according to Hong Kong’s chief executive, some financial and professional services firms are planning to sue the protesters for any damage caused during the demonstration.”
   8. The People’s Liberation Army headquarters in Hong Kong now displays its name in giant neon characters at night, and now also the character wu (武), meaning military, in what some see as a show of Beijing’s power.