UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CUTS TIES WITH SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY
The University of Michigan has initiated the six-month process required to officially sever its partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The decision comes after charges were filed in October against five Chinese students in the joint program over their suspicious activities outside Camp Grayling, Michigan, and their subsequent lying about the incident. In August 2023, the students were discovered after midnight near the remote U.S. military site during a large-scale military drill. Congressman John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, wrote to Santa Ono, president of the University of Michigan, asking the university to reconsider the joint program in light of the arrests. Last year, Georgia Tech shut its 10-year-old overseas campus, the Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, and University of California, Berkeley, dissolved its partnership with Tsinghua University. (Inside Higher Education, January 13, 2025)
[EDITOR'S NOTE: In 2020, two Chinese MA students at the University of Michigan were sentenced to prison for illegally photographing sites at a naval air station in Key West, Florida. In October, another UM student from China was charged with casting an illegal ballot during early voting.]
CHINESE OWNED SHIP SUSPECTED OF CUTTING TAIWAN'S UNDERSEA CABLE
Taiwan's Coast Guard believes the Shunxin39, a Cameroon- and Tanzania-flagged vessel crewed by seven PRC nationals, intentionally damaged an undersea telecom cable off the island’s northeastern coast. The vessel is owned by Jie Yang Trading Ltd., which is directed by a PRC national and based in Hong Kong. While there was no direct evidence the vessel sabotaged the submarine cable, radar tracking shows that it passed over the cable at the time it was cut. China uses "ships with flags of convenience to cut Taiwan's international communication as a form of preparation for future blockade and quarantine," said a Taiwan official. The incident follows two similar cases in the Baltic Sea in which PRC ships are also suspected of damaging undersea communications cables. (CNN, January 10, 2025)
CHINA WORKS WITH GANGS TO GAIN INTELLIGENCE ON TAIWAN
China's Ministry of State Security is working with criminal gangs, shell companies and other partners to gain intelligence on Taiwan's defenses. The campaign of "gray area" tactics includes economic enticements and coercion, among them offers of all-expense-paid trips to China to low-level Taiwan officials. According to a report from Taiwan's National Security Bureau, PRC agents use Taiwan's gangs to channel cash or cryptocurrency to those with top secret information to sell. Funds from the PRC are laundered using shell companies, religious sects, and non-profit groups. Current and retired military personnel account for about half of the 64 spies that Taipei put on trial last year, up from 16 in 2021 and 10 in 2022. (Associated Press, January 13, 2025)
CHINA'S POPULATION FALLS FOR A THIRD STRAIGHT YEAR
In 2024, China's official population fell for the third straight year, to 1.408 billion – a decline of 1.39 million people over the past year. The country has an aging population, a shortage of working age people, and tens of millions more boys than girls. China's official sex ratio is 104.34 men for every 100 women, and its birthrate is falling drastically while those over 60, who now account for 22% of the total population (310.3 million people), are forecast to exceed 30% by 2035. With fewer kids, vacant schools and kindergartens are being transformed into elder care facilities. (NPR, January 17, 2025)
U.S. SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA'S "SHADOW FLEET" PUSH UP CHINA'S COSTS
The cost of transporting oil from Russia to China has surged nearly threefold compared to before January 10 — the date the U.S. Treasury unveiled aggressive new measures targeting 183 oil tankers in Russia's "shadow fleet." The cost of shipping oil from Russia's Far East to China surged to more than $5 million per voyage from the $1.5 million recorded before Washington's sanctions were announced. The new sanctions targeting ships transporting Russian oil have led more than 60 tankers to drop anchor off the coasts of China, Singapore, and Russia. (The Insider, January 16, 2025)