February 8:
China is financing think-tanks and university research in Belgium to influence the intellectual debate there, De Standaard reports. Last summer, a contract establishing a Confucius Institute at the Flemish University of Brussels was signed in the presence of China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Prime Minister Charles Michel. Jonathan Holslag, the university’s top China expert, has refused to get involved. "A university must carry out autonomous research. With the arrival of the Confucius Institute this is becoming more difficult. Such an institute has a clear goal: To improve China's image. It is as if you placed research into sustainability in the hands of a steel giant. Problems have already been encountered in the past." Amid growing criticism, universities in Sweden, Lyon and Chicago, have closed their Confucius Institutes.
February 10:
The number of North Koreans working in China has grown sharply under the Kim Jong-un regime, from 79,600 in 2012 to 94,200 last year, Yonhap reports. Many North Koreans work at factories, restaurants and construction sites near the DPRK border. The increase is likely a reflection of the DPRK's economic troubles, which have worsened as China has reduced its imports of coal and iron ore amid its own slowing economic growth. Between 2005 and 2011, an average of 56,800 North Koreans worked in China each year.
February 14:
Senior officials at the Ministry of Public Security and the State Council have warned ministry-level authorities, local governments, and police to prepare for possible social unrest in June due to defaults from runaway online private lending and illegal fundraising schemes. Police are shutting down illegal online lending platforms and closely monitoring legal operations. Police branches are on alert for social unrest, according to one source. "Lots of debt and wealth management products sold online are likely to expire in the middle of this year. Alarm bells are ringing now," he said. Between late 2014 and mid-2015, about 2 trillion yuan from the grey financing market, flowed into the stock market before the boom went bust. The China Banking Regulatory Commission said 1,000 mainland-based private lenders, 30 percent of the total, were in trouble, the South China Morning Post reports.
[Editor’s Note: The warning comes after the collapse of Ezubao, the country's biggest peer-to-peer online lending platform, which defrauded about 900,000 investors across the country of more than 50 billion yuan. Authorities branded Ezubao a Ponzi scheme and police arrested 21 people after the collapse. Five years ago a credit crisis in the underground banking system in Wenzhou, Zhejiang led dozens of entrepreneurs to commit suicide or flee the country.]
February 16:
Lawmakers want the government to introduce an anti-mask law, claiming many protesters hid their identities to avoid police capture during the Mong Kok “fish ball” riot. Pro-Beijing lawmakers have expressed concerns about protesters masking themselves during the riot and the Security Bureau and police force slammed radical protesters for concealing their identities. Clashes erupted on February 8, the first night of the Lunar New Year, when rioters confronted police to "protect" illegal street hawkers. The bloody overnight confrontation between 700 protesters and police lasted over 10 hours. Nearly 130 people were wounded, including five journalists and more than 90 police officers. Fires were set in 22 different locations, and 2.000 bricks were dug out of the pavement. To date 69 people have been arrested in connection with the riot, and about 40 of them formally charged, SCMP reports. Beijing-controlled media outlets including the Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao have published editorials criticizing the protesters.
February 17:
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that would change the address of the Chinese embassy in Washington to 1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza after the Nobel Peace laureate imprisoned in China, reports the New York Times. Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate, introduced the legislation, which passed the Senate. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House. Liu was sentenced to an 11-year prison term in 2009 for inciting subversion after he compiled Charter 08, a pro-democracy manifesto. A State Department spokesman said the president would veto the bill: “We view this kind of legislative action as something that only complicates our efforts, so we oppose this approach.” Cruz responded: “The Obama administration’s veto threat is yet another outrageous example of its eagerness to coddle an authoritarian Communist regime at the expense of pro-American dissidents.” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman threatened “severe consequences” if the bill passed. In 2014, the House Appropriations Committee approved a similar measure to rename the street after Mr. Liu.
[Editor’s Note: During the Cold War the U.S. changed the Soviet Embassy’s address to Andrei Sakharov Plaza, after the dissident physicist. During the Cultural Revolution in 1966, China renamed the Beijing street where the Soviet Embassy was situated Anti-Revisionism Road.]