Editor’s note for Friday, December 17, 2021
A note from the editor of today's The China Project Access newsletter.
Dear reader,
Here’s a quick overview of China-related news as we head into the weekend:
Taiwan is holding a four-question referendum tomorrow, December 18. On The China Project, Itamar Waksman explains that the significance of the vote goes beyond the narrow economic interests of most of the measures. Rather, depending on how many of the measures pass, the referendum could have significant implications for the future leadership of both of Taiwan’s major political parties, the DPP and the KMT.
Hong Kong has its first “patriots only” legislative election the day after, December 19 — see the Guardian for a preview.
Beijing “is pressuring German car parts giant Continental to stop using components made in Lithuania,” Reuters reports today, in the latest fallout from the small EU state’s decision back in August to open a “Taiwanese representative office.” Earlier this week, Lithuania pulled its diplomats out of Beijing after China downgraded the status of its embassy there.
In 2012, Australia told the U.S. that a “software update from Huawei” had been the source of a telecommunications hack, and this development has, until now, been an unreported but “key piece of evidence underpinning the U.S. efforts” to discredit Huawei, Bloomberg reports.
In the U.S., at Purdue University in Indiana, a Chinese international student was “allegedly harassed and threatened by other students from China about a post he made commending the heroism of students killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989,” the Purdue Exponent reports, leading to university President Mitch Daniels issuing a letter condemning the harassment.
Bing just became even less useful in China, as the Microsoft-owned search engine “said it has suspended the autofill suggestion feature in China to comply with Chinese laws,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
How will COVID affect the Winter Olympics in Beijing? On a new China Sports Insider podcast episode, Mark Dreyer says he will eat his hat if Beijing ends up postponing the Games, as some have suggested is possible given the rapid spread of COVID in sports leagues around the world. Mark and his co-host, Haig Balian, also expose a myth circulating in the NHL about China’s quarantine rules at the Olympics, and interview NBA All-Star and three-time CBA champion Stephon Marbury.
—Lucas Niewenhuis, Newsletter Editor
