China Reform Monitor No.1556

CHINA'S XI BACKS PALESTINE STATEHOOD
China backs Palestinian statehood, Xi Jinping told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during the latter's three-day visit to Beijing. Abbas was welcomed with full military honors at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. A solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in the establishment of an "independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital," Xi said. "We have always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights." The establishment of a "strategic partnership" with Palestine, he noted, is an "important milestone in the history of bilateral relations." Abbas expressed appreciation for "the Chinese side's commitment to financing a number of development projects presented by Palestine." (Al Jazeera, June 14, 2023)

CHINA'S GAOKAO EXAM TESTS XI JINPING THOUGHT
A record 12.91 million students took this year's China's National College Entrance Examination - or gaokao - which tested students' knowledge of Xi Jinping Thought. According to China's National Education Examinations Authority, the goal is to boost young people's confidence in China and their support for Xi, so they can "understand the power of truth and master the right way of thinking." This year's history portion was based on the principle that to know history was to "love the party and the country," and the geography section had excerpts on Xi's concept of "ecological civilization" from his work report at the 20th party congress in October. In March, Beijing launched a nationwide campaign to study Xi Thought and the People's Publishing House printed a new collection of Xi's selected works. (South China Morning Post, June 11, 2023) 

U.S., CHINA REVIVE DRUG CONTROL TALKS AHEAD OF BLINKEN VISIT
After a ten-month hiatus, the U.S. and China have resumed cooperation on illegal drugs. In Beijing, Zhao Junning, deputy director of China's National Medical Products Administration, met Andi Fristedt, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's deputy commissioner for policy, legislation, and international affairs, and "exchanged views on cooperation for 2023 and in the future," according to a statement. "Cooperation between Chinese and U.S. drug regulatory agencies not only helps promote regulatory coordination between the two countries, but also lays a solid foundation for global cooperation in the field of drug regulation. We hope that both sides can work together to put the cooperation plan into practice, so as to better protect and promote public health," Zhao said. Fristedt said the U.S. "looks forward to more cooperation in the future." Beijing had suspended narcotics cooperation with Washington last August, after U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. (South China Morning Post, June 16, 2023)

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Fentanyl overdose deaths in the U.S. rose from 5.7 per 100,000 people in 2016 to 21.6 in 2021. Over the past year, the U.S. has sanctioned Chinese entities and individuals. In May, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned seven entities and six people based in China. Similar sanctions were introduced in April against two Chinese companies and four nationals for supplying Mexican cartels with precursor chemicals used for fentanyl production. China had warned that "unreasonable" U.S sanctions could create "obstacles" for cooperation on the fentanyl crisis.]

CHINA EXPANDS OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION IN THE U.S.
China's intelligence agencies are expanding their open-source collection on the U.S. military to plan for a possible conflict. China's government and companies are scraping publicly available data from the Pentagon, think tanks and private firms. Beijing's big data management and mining help collect intelligence on the U.S. and its allies because, as democracies, they publish information about their own military capabilities, doctrine and planning. China mines that information, hoping to gain a military edge. A lot of the open-source data China collects may already be held by one Chinese intelligence agency or another, but because they often do not share information sometimes it's easier to collect it again than to request it from a sister spy agency. (New York Times, June 1, 2023)

THOUSANDS OF CHINESE ENTERING THE U.S. ILLEGALLY
Since January 1, patrol agents at the U.S. border have caught nearly 8,000 Chinese immigrants entering the U.S. illegally. In April alone, 3195 Chinese were detained, a 20-fold increase over last April, when agents caught just 146 of them. Chinese migrants often enter California and Texas through official border crossings concealed inside vehicles. The Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley detained 2,600 Chinese in April, with most entering as single adults who pay up to $80,000 to make the trip. But if U.S. authorities want to deport these individuals, China often refuses to accept them back. In 2022, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement successfully deported just 127 people to China. (Washington Times, June 14, 2023)