December 1:
The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television will send artists to rural communities to learn from the masses and form a “correct view on art.” The initiative seeks to rehabilitate artists who have gone “astray” by helping them “unearth new subjects, find their market and promote fine works within the passionate lives of the people,” the announcement said. Part of the program will embed film and television production teams in rural areas for at least 30 days to experience local life. Scriptwriters, directors, actors and others working on ten designated films and television shows will also be sent to live among local communities. Every year 100 staff from central and local arts programs will travel to border regions, ethnic minority areas, and localities relevant to China’s revolutionary past. For instance, for an animated film series, TV crews from Jiangsu and Zhejiang will visit the site of the 1945 Taixing Campaign, where Communists defeated the KMT fighters during the Chinese Civil War.
[Editor’s Note: Two months ago President Xi Jinping delivered a major speech on the arts, officially dubbed one of the most important statements on art and literature by a Chinese leader since Mao Zedong’s 1942 Yan’an Talks. At a meeting last month, Liu Qibao, head of the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, said artists should create more works with “touching scenarios and virtues,” reports the New York Times. During the Maoist period millions of Chinese were sent to the countryside in a campaign called “Up to the Mountain, Down to the Village.” The seven years Xi spent in rural Shaanxi supposedly taught him to serve the people.]
December 2:
China would not help save North Korea if the regime collapses, Wang Hongguang, former deputy commander of the Nanjing military region of the People’s Liberation Army, wrote in the official Global Times newspaper. “China is not a savior. If North Korea really collapses, even China can’t save it. China has no need to get burned. Whoever provokes a war bears responsibility. It is not necessary for China’s young generation to fight for another country,” Wang said in comments carried by Yonhap.
A second land route between China and Nepal – Gyirong on the Rasuwagadhi border – has been inaugurated by Nepal’s consular general in Lhasa, Hari Prasad Bashyal, and vice-chairman of the Tibet provincial government, Dong Mingjun. Customs, quarantine and immigration offices are now operational and Chinese visitors can receive on-arrival visas to enter Nepal. The newly opened route will be linked with the Qinghai-Tibet railway, which Beijing agreed to extend to the border during the 5th Nepal-Tibet Trade Facilitation Committee meeting in Lhasa in September. During talks held in Kathmandu last month, China agreed to fund the construction of an Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Rasuwagadhi, which includes a quarantine facility, warehouse, customs office, inspection and security, bank, restaurant and medical facility in the border area. In addition to Gyirong, China has agreed to help Nepal upgrade five major customs points, eKantipur reports.
December 4:
Police in Nairobi, Kenya raided a “six-bedroom mansion,” arrested 76 Chinese nationals for “conducting high-tech espionage and internet fraud,” and confiscated servers containing their transaction histories. The Chinese hackers were operating in “military style dormitories, with numerous desks, telephones, computers linked to high-speed internet and monitoring screens.” They used mattresses over the windows to insulate them from noise and prying eyes. Apparently the hackers had been operating out of five houses and when one burnt down “Chinese nationals emerged from the adjacent houses but blocked residents from helping them put out the fire,” Kenya’s TheStar reports. One died in the fire, and the residents’ odd behavior brought suspicion from police. China’s ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa was called to the Foreign Affairs ministry to inquire whether Beijing was aware of the group’s activities.
December 5:
The more than 70 Chinese arrested in Kenya belong to a cross-border telecom fraud group that cheats Chinese within China, according to China’s Embassy in Kenya. The group moves from one country to another to avoid authorities, the PLA Daily reports. Chinese police arrested suspects in Zhejiang that “confessed to belong to the group in Nairobi.” In September, around 100 Chinese hackers were arrested in Egypt and expatriated back to China. According to the embassy, China and Kenya are “working closely” and will “establish a joint task force to tackle this issue.”