July 6, 2021

China's Xi Throws Down Gauntlet to U.S.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has drawn enormous attention.

In an article in TheHill, Heritage Senior Research Fellow Dean Cheng writes that much of this attention has focused on the part in which Xi warned that China will not be “bullied, oppressed, or subjugated,” and that anyone who dares to try “will find their heads bashed bloody against a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.” The speech has been characterized as “defiant” and “fiery.”

More importantly, the broader speech reflected a set of points that have been longstanding Chinese memes and themes, many of which predate the founding of the CCP. Above all, the speech focused on China’s (and not just the People’s Republic of China’s) efforts to modernize and advance from being one of the most backwards nations to reassuming its place as a global leader. 

Xi’s warning that those who seek to “bully” or “subjugate” China will bloody their heads against a great wall of steel was clearly rooted in the same sentiments that Yang and Wang evoked when they warned that the United States was not qualified to criticize China, and that the Chinese people would no longer tolerate this kind of behavior. Notably, trying to get China to liberalize, whether with regards to the Uyghurs or Hong Kong, was portrayed as “bullying” and “subjugation.”

On the same grounds, expecting China to moderate its behavior towards Hong Kong or Taiwan is a forlorn hope. “Resolving the Taiwan issue,” he stated, is part of unifying the nation and is a “historic mission” for the CCP.

Xi’s speech, while fiery, did not indicate personal weakness or fear. It needs to be seen as part of an ongoing messaging campaign that China will no longer play a subordinate role. Xi’s China will not submit to foreign lectures and pressure. Insofar as the West wants China to conform to the rules of a rules-based international order, Xi and the CCP are indicating that those rules must be ones that China has forged.

Napoleon is said to have warned, “Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.” Xi Jinping’s speech suggests that China is, indeed, roused and ready to start that shaking.

Related: Click here to read the Heritage Foundation's 2021 China Transparency Report.

The Closure of Apple Daily: Another Nail in the Coffin for Freedom in Hong Kong

(Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

On June 17, 500 Hong Kong police raided the headquarters of Apple Daily – a well-known, pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. It was only a matter of time.  After Beijing interfered in Hong Kong’s autonomy by implementing a new National Security Law in June 2020, Apple Daily knew that it would quickly become a target. The first raid came within months of the new law’s implementation. In August 2020, Hong Kong police raided the newspaper’s offices and picked up its founder, Jimmy Lai. Lai was later sentenced to 14 months in jail for his involvement in pro-democracy protests. After Lai was taken into custody, many wondered not if, but when, the 26-year-old publication would be shuttered for good.

In an articled in Forbes, Heritage Senior Policy Analyst Olivia Enos writes that Lai was a pillar of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in no small part because he founded Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company. He launched the newspaper itself shortly before the British handed Hong Kong back to China under the one-country, two-systems framework. The paper quickly gained a reputation for salacious, tabloid-like reporting, but also cutting-edge reporting on the pro-democracy movement and political subjects du jour.

Apple Daily is a symbol of freedom of speech and freedom of expression as a newspaper, but it was also a business. It’s forced closure is meant to send a chilling message to the city-state’s business community that Beijing will not allow business as usual; those who dare exercise the old freedoms will not go unscathed.

The international community observed with dismay Beijing’s unjustified intervention in Hong Kong following pro-democracy protests there in 2019. After the introduction of the National Security Law, the Trump administration decertified Hong Kong’s special status saying that it was no longer sufficiently autonomous to merit separate treatment under U.S. law – a status since renewed by the Biden administration. Both administrations also issued targeted sanctions to hold individuals accountable for undermining liberty in Hong Kong. The Executive Order that revoked Hong Kong’s special status includes provisions for extending refugee status to Hong Kongers fleeing persecution. The U.S. should go one step further and offer Priority-2 refugee status to those in need of safe haven.

While these steps cannot undo the damage Beijing has inflicted on Hong Kong, they can help those reeling from the assault on freedom in the place they call home. Congress and the Biden administration should give serious consideration to extending refugee status, especially in light of last week’s attacks on Apple Daily.

Related: Click here to read Heritage ASC Director Walter Lohman's op-ed on the House of Representative's markup of the China legislation.

Critical Signs to Watch for Famine in North Korea

(Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty Images)

Heritage Senior Policy Analyst Olivia Enos writes that Covid-19 has not been kind to the North Korean people. Like many authoritarian actors around the globe, Kim Jong-un used the pandemic as an excuse to tighten his grip on power. Among the most draconian measures taken was the decision to put an air-tight seal on the country’s already-restricted border with China. While the decision to close the Sino-North Korean border was intended to ward off a potentially catastrophic outbreak of Covid-19, it also ushered in instability of another kind: economic uncertainty.

In a speech before the Workers Party of Korea in April, Kim Jong-un warned of an “arduous march,” (고난의 행군) the same language used to describe a period of famine that took place in North Korea in the 1990s. The Arduous March is estimated to have taken anywhere from several hundred thousand to 2 million lives.

It is unclear whether the North Korean leader was expressing concerns over impending economic hardship or an actual famine. Some speculate that Kim invoked the language to once again blame U.S. and United Nations sanctions for economic difficulties. Others suggest that Kim is exaggerating the severity of conditions to solicit humanitarian aid. Either option is plausible and a clear attempt at shifting blame away from the regime’s resource mismanagement toward an external cause. Whether Kim’s use of the term arduous march is an exaggeration or not, there are indicators of famine that were observable during the Arduous March that are not observable now due to how closed off North Korea is from the rest of the world.

First, defections from North Korea are at an all-time low. According to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, only 229 North Korean refugees were resettled in the South during 2020, down from the typical 1,000 or more defectors resettled on an annual basis since the Arduous March period. The influx of refugees during the 1990s famine was an indication of worsening conditions. This dramatic reduction in defections is due principally to the Kim regime’s heightened security at the border, including shoot-to-kill orders carried out against anyone attempting to leave. Second, sources of information in North Korea are even more limited than usual because every single humanitarian aid worker has left the country. As of March, all United Nations, NGO, and expatriate staff left North Korea, including the last two World Food Programme (WFP) staff members. Third, since the Sino-North Korea border is currently closed, the lifeline of free-market activities has likely been severed. The jangmadang (장마당), or informal markets, rely on informal cross-border trade with China to gain access to critical sources of food, money, and access to outside information.

Severe food insecurity and economic hardship are no doubt destabilizing, and while we don’t know exactly how destabilizing they might be, the United States and its ally South Korea should always be prepared for a humanitarian crisis. Both countries should shore up humanitarian contingency plans and ensure that as they craft these plans, protection of the North Korean people’s human rights lies at the center of the strategy.

July 14, 2021 @ 1:00 pm EDT - VIRTUAL: The 2021 B.C. Lee Lecture featuring Mike Pence

The Heritage Foundation is honored to host former Vice President Mike Pence for our signature event on U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific. Heritage’s annual B.C. Lee Lecture on international affairs was endowed by the Samsung Group in honor of its founder, the late B.C. Lee, to focus on the U.S. relationship with the Indo-Pacific.

Mike Pence joined The Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow in February 2021 after serving four years as vice president of the United States. In his capacity as a distinguished visiting fellow, Pence advises Heritage experts on public policy issues and ensures Heritage remains the leading conservative voice on solutions to America’s biggest challenges. Three decades ago, it was The Heritage Foundation’s influence that inspired Pence to help create a think tank in his home state of Indiana. After coming to Washington as a congressman and later as vice president, Pence frequently collaborated with Heritage. As vice president, Heritage worked closely with Pence and others in the Trump administration on many of the consequential policy victories they achieved for the American people.