CiCM 8th September 2023

NEWS IN CHINA

Ministry of Commerce responds to Japan’s submission to the WTO regarding recent import ban: He Yadong, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reemphasized at a press conference that China’s move to ban Japanese imports is in accordance with its domestic trade measures, Chinese laws, and overall World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations. This response is following Japan’s recent submission of a written document to WTO stating the import ban measure deployed by the Chinese state were “totally unacceptable.” The ban deployed last month by the Chinese government was on all aquatic Japanese imports into the country in response to the Fukushima incident to protect the health of Chinese consumers. The incident where the Japanese Government last month allowed the release of nuclear water discharge into the sea despite repeated concerns raised globally. China reiterated that it supports the multilateral trading systems, and raised repeated concerns of Japan’s trade policy in relevant WTO meetings as well and thus, acted in accordance with WTO rules. The Chinese side has repeated that it believes Japan must reflect and stop passing on the risk of nuclear pollution to the world and immediately correct its wrongdoing even to respond to the collective concerns of the international community.

Premier Li Qinag held talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo: The two met on the morning of September 8th at Jakarta with President Widodo hosting a grand welcome ceremony for Li at the Presidential Palace Square. Both sides signed various bilateral cooperation agreements in trade and investment, agriculture and fishery, infrastructure, digital economy, new energy, tourism, medical and health as well as to promote strategic cooperation projects such as "two countries, two parks" and safeguard regional peace and prosperity. China has agreed to work with Indonesia to help build new capital in Nusantara and prepare for the official operation of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway. Additionally, collaboration on projects such as the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Corridor" and the "Two Countries, Two Parks" project, a new flagship project under the "Belt and Road" cooperation was also discussed. Implementation of the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" was also emphasized to expand the import of Indonesian bulk commodities and high-quality agricultural and fishery products, and encourage Chinese enterprises to invest in Indonesia. Lastly, the two sides have agreed to work on global initiatives started by China in areas of development and security at bilateral, regional and multilateral level.

Several Tax reform policies announced by the Vice Minister of Finance: Wang Dongwei, Vice Minister of Finance highlighted at the regular policy briefing of the State Council the focus on optimizing and improving tax and fee reduction to increase income and expand consumption with new policy reforms. The first reform, was to increase the three special surcharges for individual income tax on infant care for children under 3 years old, children's education, and elderly care. Specifically, the deduction standards for infant care and children education under 3 years old has increased from 1000 yuan per month to 2.000 yuan. For the elderly, it has been increased from 2,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan per month. The second reform introduced is to calculate tax separately for annual one-time bonus. The third is personal income tax rebates for buying houses to help reduce tax burden and enhance consumption capacity of residents. Wang Dongwei emphasized that the three special additional deduction standards raise will reduce taxpayer burden in the future especially for middle-income groups.

Ministry of Science responds to netizen suggestions on a free national science database: The Ministry of Science and Technology’s website published its response to a netizens’ suggestions to establish a national scientific and technological literature database and make it free of charge to promote exchange and progress. In response, the Ministry highlighted numerous existent scientific and technological literature that have domestic and foreign works as well as aimed to be used by scientific researchers and the public. The establishment of the National Science and Technology Library and Documentation Center, a collaborative project of various Ministries like Finance, Agriculture, Health and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Institutions like the Research Institute, China Chemical Industry Information Center, Institute of Agricultural Information of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences among many forms a joint system of scientific and technological documents on range of disciplines like science, engineering, agriculture, medicine. It also provides inclusive domestic and foreign literature, becoming the largest scientific information guarantee organization in China. Document retrieval, browsing, downloading or full-text acquisition are provided free of charge or only a small cost is charged. Lastly, it also highlighted the progress of building a national scientific research paper storage platform and a national preprint service, integrating resources of multiple domestic preprint platforms for researchers.

Chinese Brands top 1 trillion dollars in value for the third straight year: According to a report released by the international market research firm top ,Kantar, the brand values of 100 leading Chinese brands topped 1 trillion dollars for the third year straight this year. The total value of these brands stood at 1.01 trillion dollars this year. Tencent was at the top of the list with a brand value of about 144.11 billion dollars. Alibaba and liquor producer Kweichow Moutai ranked second and third, respectively having values of 90.19 billion dollars and 88.43 billion dollars respectively. Alcohol, apparel and automobile sector brands contributed the most to the value of these brands, especially apparel which saw a 327 percent year-on-year growth rate in brand value over the past year.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER IN CHINA

Debates on China’s draft law regarding ban on ‘Harmful’ clothes: A draft amendment to China’s Public Security Administration Punishments Law has caused controversy for proposing a ban on clothes that “hurt national feelings”. Specifically on clothing or symbols that are deemed “harmful” to the “spirit of the nation” could become illegal. Offenders may face up to 15 days of detention and a fine of 5,000 yuan ($680). The addition to the article is part of a section about disrupting public order and considering the Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law which was adopted to strengthen the protection of Chinese heroes and martyrs. Netizens are concerned about the vague definition and application of the meaning of the “hurt national feelings”. Questions have been raised on what qualifies as “harmful”? Who determines what qualifies as “harmful”? What criteria will be used? How will it be enforced? Absence of clear guidelines on what attire is deemed offensive and illegal questions on the misuse of the law due to its subjective nature have also been raised. Some people are questioning whether incidents like wearing foreign brands like Adidas or Nike would be considered offensive, another common topic is Cosplay, a popular form of roleplaying among the youth where individuals dress up in costumes and accessories to potray specific characters. In one case, an administrative official yelled at a woman she was wearing a Kimono, a traditional Japanese clothing item. There is a significant opposition to the law with many making cynical remarks like, “Maybe we should say nothing and wear nothing, as anything else could lead to our arrest.” “This is not progress,” another person wrote, “this is taking a step back in time.”

INDIA WATCH

Growing ties between China and Indonesia emphasize India’s need re-prioritize its “Look East” policy. Indonesia has emerged as India’s largest trade partner in ASEAN region. The total bilateral trade (as per Department of Commerce) during the fiscal year 2022-23 was USD 38.85 Billion. However India and Indonesia could potentially capitalize and increase cooperation in areas of energy and health care in order to deepen ties with Indonesia given India’s imports in items like crude oil, coal and minerals. The Chinese deal is reflective of the power of the BRI diplomacy it is engaged in as well but the relationship is also reflective of Indonesian political interests. From the start of his presidency, President Joko made infrastructure development a recurring theme of his tenure, and Beijing’s current agreements had made infrastructure investments a backbone of this diplomatic strategy. With the Prime Minister of India who just visited Indonesia to attend and speak at the ASEAN summit, Indonesia’s importance to India’s foreign policy is reemphasized. He reiterated global cooperation at the summit in areas of security and environment. Security ties among the nations are strong as the Navies of the two states regularly collaborate on military exercises with one recent exercise in the month of May this year. The two have also continually challenged Chinese land claims, the latest being the launch of its standardized map. The two sides have constantly denied and challenged Chinese claims, the Indians in case of its border and Indonesia over South China Sea claims.

Prepared By

Priyanka Raman

Priyanka Raman is a final-year student at Shiv Nadar University Noida, with a major in international relations and a minor in communications. Through her degree, she has had the opportunity to pursue multiple courses relating to Chinese politics and is deeply interested in politics of the Party media and knowledge dessimination. Her research interests surround topics of propaganda media and politics, gender and international relations and refugee politics.