Hi, China Watchers. I’m Nicolle Liu, a Hong Kong journalist who arrived in the United States a year ago. I’ve been interning with POLITICO on China Watcher for the past few months, and I’m delighted to be your guest host today, with Phelim Kine taking a short family vacation. Big shoes to fill, but don’t worry: We’ll be back to regular programming on Sept. 8 after China Watcher takes a summer break next week.
In today’s newsletter, we’ll take a dive into the scourge of Chinese phone scammers, explore the latest incident of corporate “de-Japanization,” and introduce a book that unpacks Beijing’s grand ambition to dominate the world.
Have a good time reading! —Nicolle
Your host was on the receiving end of a notorious scam attempt recently. It started with a call posing to be from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. about a policy violation of a WeChat account that had apparently been registered with my stolen credentials in China. Someone had been selling fake Covid medicine online — and the Shanghai police were pursuing the criminal (namely, me).
Suspicious, but concerned, I returned the call. It all sounded very professional: The people on the other end of the line gave me their full names and staff identification numbers — even a photo of the police badge and case paperwork. But within short order I was informed that I was the chief suspect in…
