• China has eased ‘economic pressure’ on Lithuania, says Baltic foreign minister amid ‘ongoing’ talks
• Xi Jinping calls legal backing on foreign affairs an ‘urgent task’ for China
• China not targeting Australia’s Pacific Island ties, says senior Communist Party official
• Transparency is China’s best chance of overcoming international suspicions over latest outbreak of respiratory illness
• Israel-Gaza war: China’s top diplomat to make one more UN Security Council peace push
• ‘Out of control’: woman in China spends US$38,000 on hotpot meals across China over 9-year period, shocking social media
• Chinese official warns Australia on navy movements in East, South China Seas
• Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing apologises for widespread service outage in China
• UAE university joins China’s moon project after initial bid by Arab nation killed by US sanctions
• China eager for closer supply chains and no decoupling, Premier Li Qiang tells inaugural expo, in latest charm offensive
• Chinese fashion giant Shein has filed paperwork to float on US stock market – reports
• China uses cyberbullying case studies and outlines new rules in crackdown on internet violence
• Will China save the planet or destroy it? | China
• Japan joins China, US, India as top-tier security, economic partner of Vietnam
• Intravenous education: China hospitals set up ‘classrooms’ so sick children can study during nationwide outbreak of respiratory diseases
• These three men are vying to lead Taiwan — and fend off threats from China
• Chinese navy ships visit Myanmar amid heightened security tensions
• Hong Kong awaits day it will contribute payload specialist to Chinese space missions, city’s John Lee says ahead of astronauts’ arrival
• CropWatch: more than 160 countries join China’s tech war against the West on food
• Foxconn, maker of Apple’s iPhones, invests US$1.6 billion in India expansion plan amid diversification from China
• Why US-China ‘thaw’ after Biden-Xi summit is bad news for Japan
• ‘I have a home now’: China DNA match sees repentant petty criminal abducted as child reunited with parents 33 years on
• As Malaysia offers visa-free travel to Chinese tourists, will domestic operators see ‘benefit’?
• South China Sea: openness encouraged to shore up marine economy after disputes threaten to capsize relations
• [Sport] Chinese Super League: From bidding for Bale to selling the team bus
• New Zealand’s Beijing ties to remain ‘consistent’ even as China hawk returns as foreign minister
• US and China pitch rival supply-chain visions in latest clash over global trade and economic needs
• China, Vietnam seek rail and hi-tech ‘interconnection’ as trade, investment skyrockets
• China-founded e-commerce fashion start-up Shein files for US IPO

China has eased ‘economic pressure’ on Lithuania, says Baltic foreign minister amid ‘ongoing’ talks

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3243159/china-has-eased-economic-pressure-lithuania-says-baltic-foreign-minister-amid-ongoing-talks?utm_source=rss_feed

China has lifted its “economic pressure” on Lithuania, the Baltic country’s foreign minister said, as the two sides who have been at odds diplomatically move closer to what would be an unlikely detente.

Gabrielius Landsbergis said talks were ongoing to end a feud with Beijing that flared when Lithuania in 2021 permitted the opening of a controversially named Taiwanese office in its capital, Vilnius.

Soon after, Lithuanian exporters found they could not access China’s customs system, leading to a near-total drop in shipments to the country.

“I must highlight that, following discussions and various diplomatic processes, some of which are still ongoing at the World Trade Organization, most of the economic pressure measures against Lithuania have been lifted,” Landsbergis told Lithuanian news agency ELTA.

“What I haven’t made so clear in the past is that Lithuania is no longer under any economic pressure from China,” he said, adding that while trade had not been fully restored it had been “more than compensated for” through trading with other Indo- Pacific countries.

“Businesses are not choosing China as a partner because of previous experiences and understanding that the country uses the economy as a tool.”

Lithuanian shipments to China were up 53 per cent over the first 10 months of the year from a year earlier, to US$110 million, according to Chinese customs statistics. But they stood 71 per cent lower than the first 10 months of 2021, before the trade ground to a halt.

Landsbergis denied that the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius would change as a result of the thaw in ties. Most similar presences in European capitals go by the name “Taipei”, although the European Union insists that the name “Taiwanese” is consistent with its one-China policy.

EU values-based policy will create a ‘lot of rivals’, Chinese envoy warns

“The issue of the Taiwanese representative office is not part of our discussions with Beijing,” said Landsbergis. “It’s a question of how to alleviate the pressure on Lithuania, how to remove that pressure, which, in my view, runs contrary to international norms. I believe that with patience and skill this issue can be resolved.”

“The second tool that has been used against Lithuania is diplomatic pressure. China is demanding that Lithuania rename its diplomatic mission in Beijing in line with its model.

“But we have no such models in place. The talks on harmonising the ‘visions’ have been ongoing for the past year.”

The saga has been one of the most contentious points in EU-China relations for the past two years, resulting in significant reputational damage for Beijing across the bloc.

Before the end of the year, a retaliatory trade tool inspired by the coercion is scheduled to take effect. The anti-coercion instrument would allow Brussels to impose tariffs, quotas or market bans on powers who bully EU members.

Last week, Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the EU, made a rare explicit admission that Beijing had officially punished Lithuania for the affair.

“This concerns one of the fundamental principles of Chinese foreign policy, which is the one-China policy,” Fu said. “So if a country actually harms that basic principle, we will take responsive actions. I think that is understood.”

Asked by the Post whether China was open to normalising ties with Lithuania, Fu said he was not “privy to the diplomatic negotiations”.

‘Explicit element of rivalry’: EU warns of harsher stance on China before summit

A week out from the EU-China summit, resolution on the issue would offer welcome positive news as far as Brussels is concerned. Officials said they were still seeking clarity on the situation.

In Berlin on Tuesday, however, Landsbergis kept up his tough rhetoric against autocratic governments, without naming China individually.

“We’re definitely been watched, that’s for sure, we’re being watched by non-democratic actors, by those who have been mired in crises of their own for decades or even longer than that,” the Lithuanian diplomat told the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum.

“And now they’re trying to answer the question: how would we [in Europe] answer if they were to start a crisis?”

After his remarks, Landsbergis was seen greeting Taiwan’s top envoy in Berlin, Shieh Jhy-Wey.

Xi Jinping calls legal backing on foreign affairs an ‘urgent task’ for China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3243143/xi-jinping-calls-legal-backing-foreign-affairs-urgent-task-china?utm_source=rss_feed

President Xi Jinping has called for stronger legal backing in areas related to foreign affairs so that China can better manage its opening up and mitigate risks.

Xi described this as an “urgent task for advancing high-level openness to the outside world and addressing external risks and challenges”, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

The Chinese leader made the remarks at a Politburo study session in Beijing on Monday.

He told the gathering of the top decision-making body that creating favourable legal conditions and external environments was essential for the nation’s “rejuvenation” and also concerned the “overall picture of [China] opening up to the outside world and diplomacy”, according to the report.

It comes as Beijing has been trying to expand its legal toolkit on foreign relations – including to respond to sanctions – as rivalry with Washington and its allies intensifies in areas ranging from trade and technology to human rights and geopolitics.

China’s foreign relations law signals new red lines – not what crosses them

International law expert Huang Huikang delivered a report on the subject at the study session, Xinhua reported, without giving further details.

Huang – who is also a diplomat and a former ambassador to Malaysia – is currently serving a third five-year term as a member of the United Nations International Law Commission.

In his remarks, Xi said China needed to build a “coordinated and efficient” legal system for foreign affairs, that reform was needed in relevant areas of the trial system, and that the credibility of the legal process needed to be improved, according to Xinhua.

He said legal services also needed to be developed, including by cultivating “internationally renowned” arbitration institutions and law firms, and legal professionals that were “politically steadfast and highly skilled” in foreign affairs.

Xi also told Politburo members that China should be proactive by taking part in international rule-setting as part of efforts to position the country as a major power in global governance.

He said a more robust legal framework was needed to safeguard the interests of overseas Chinese, including through more international cooperation and stronger consular protection, according to the report. Xi also called for measures to improve convenience for foreigners living in China.

Beijing has brought in more foreign policy legislation in recent years in response to a more challenging international environment.

For example, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law enacted in 2021 gives legal backing for retaliatory measures to be taken against punitive actions from the US-led West on Chinese officials and companies over issues such as alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.

A new Foreign Relations Law also took effect in July, with a focus on national security and countering the alleged “long-arm jurisdiction” of the US and other nations. It is another effort to back Beijing’s response to sanctions imposed by the West.

Meanwhile, the status of international law studies in China’s education system was upgraded earlier this year, with Beijing saying there was a “critical shortage of experts in this field”.

China not targeting Australia’s Pacific Island ties, says senior Communist Party official

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3243141/china-not-targeting-australias-pacific-island-ties-says-senior-communist-party-official?utm_source=rss_feed

China does not aim to challenge Australia’s influence among the Pacific Islands, a senior Chinese official in charge of Communist Party diplomacy said in Sydney on Tuesday, amid renewed efforts to improve relations between the two countries.

“China has no intention of seeking any sphere of influence. We respect the role and the influence of Australia in the Pacific island countries,” Liu Jianchao said in a speech to the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

Liu, head of the Central Committee’s International Department, said Australia and China could consult each other on regional affairs.

“We could work together for the economic development in these countries,” he said.

Liu is the first top-level Chinese official to visit Australia since the Covid-19 pandemic and his three-day trip comes less than a month after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese became the first Australian leader to go to China in seven years.

The trips are part of efforts to put relations back on a normalised track following the decline induced by the previous Australian administration’s demands in 2020 to investigate the origin of Covid-19.

The two countries have described their relations as a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, a definition that Liu said China wanted to “stick to”.

But Beijing was not “that ambitious” to define the relationship as stabilised, he said.

“You know, after suffering so many years of setback in our bilateral relationship, we need to restore the relationship to its desired state [in] a gradual manner,” Liu said, adding that “enhancing mutual trust” would keep the two countries on course.

But relations hit some turbulence soon after Albanese’s trip with Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles accusing a Chinese warship of making an “unsafe and unprofessional” interaction with an Australian navy vessel that injured a number of Australian military divers.

Marles said HMAS Toowoomba was on a diving operation in Japan’s exclusive economic zone on November 14 to clear fishing nets from its propellers when a Chinese destroyer approached “at a closer range”.

“Soon after, it was detected operating its hull-mounted sonar in a manner that posed a risk to the safety of the Australian divers who were forced to exit the water,” he said.

Liu dismissed suggestions that the Chinese ship was unprofessional and said the Australian vessel appeared to be a statement about China’s policies in the South China Sea.

“My question would be why the Australian naval ship should be allowed into that area,” he said.

“The reason why the Australian naval ships were there was really to contain China – so that is the message that we have been getting.

“China did it in a very professional way. We did nothing that harms … the sailors, the naval people on that ship. So I think that this is the kind of thing that needs to be discussed at a certain level.”

Calling it “small incident”, Liu said such encounters could really escalate if not properly managed.

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Transparency is China’s best chance of overcoming international suspicions over latest outbreak of respiratory illness

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3243132/transparency-chinas-best-chance-overcoming-international-suspicions-over-latest-outbreak-respiratory?utm_source=rss_feed

A spike in respiratory illnesses in China has attracted widespread attention around a world and reawakened the trauma of the pandemic years.

The reports of hospitals packed with children suffering pneumonia and other flu-like symptoms triggered flashbacks to the early stages of the pandemic in 2020

Last week the World Health Organization asked China for information about the reported clusters of “undiagnosed pneumonia.” In itself that request is standard practice, but the way it was publicised – via a press release – is unusual.

In 2020, the WHO was criticised for its slow response in declaring Covid 19 to be a pandemic, while China was criticised for withholding information about the illness and telling the world that there had been no human-to-human transmission.

China has denied there was any cover-up, but for the past three years it has had to fight a fierce publicity battle to defend its reputation and restore international trust.

That is why the response by the WHO and Beijing to this latest outbreak is so important for the image of both.

Loss of smell from Covid takes up to 3 years to return, study finds

Experts have long warned that new pathogens or outbreaks caused by known pathogens are inevitable.

What matters most is the response – a lesson the whole world should learn after paying a heavy price for its handling of the Covid pandemic.

This time, China followed the WHO’s regulations and presented data to the global health body within 24 hours of the request.

Its main message was that the current spike was caused by multiple known pathogens, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, adenovirus and mycoplasma pneumoniae, along with Covid.

Most scientists, as well as the WHO, have accepted China’s explanation so far, which is plausible because there were also spikes in respiratory diseases among children in the United States and Europe in 2022 after Covid restrictions were lifted.

There had already been warnings from scientists in the US and Europe about the risk of a “tridemic”, referring to the triple threat from flu, RSV and Covid.

Scientists attributed the 2022 outbreaks to the “immunity debt” that resulted from the fall in other respiratory illnesses during the Covid pandemic as a result of lockdowns and other measures such as mask-wearing.

This meant children lacked the chance to build up immunity against common pathogens, such as influenza, and when the Covid 19 measures were lifted, they succumbed to them.

The fact that the current outbreak has mostly affected children further supports the immunity debt theory as adults had already developed immunity due to exposure to these pathogens before the pandemic.

What is unusual this time is the high incidence of pneumonia and hospitalisations caused by mycoplasma pneumoniae, a very small bacterium that usually causes mild symptoms.

Scientists said the bacterium is displaying high drug resistance, which renders antibiotics normally prescribed to children ineffective and can lead to more serious illnesses.

Chinese military surgeon who blew the whistle on Sars cover-up dies at 91

The problem has existed for years and China already has a far higher level of resistance to macrolide antibiotics than other countries, according to a 2013 paper by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control – making recent pleas by doctors for parents not to stockpile the drugs or give them to children without consulting medical professionals largely ineffective.

The Chinese authorities are now trying to strike a balance between transparency and not causing fear or anger among the public.

They have been quick to highlight cases that were caused by known pathogens and have launched a campaign to teach the public about the symptoms caused by different pathogens.

At the same time, they insist that the public health system has not been overwhelmed and that it has enough capacity to handle the situation.

But the concern the outbreak has caused internationally is a sign of the trust deficit that lingers from Covid.

Beijing should try to overcome this by being fully transparent about all aspects of the outbreak. This means providing epidemiological data, tracking the evolution of all pathogens, releasing details of the treatments used and examining in-depth the problem of drug resistance.

Israel-Gaza war: China’s top diplomat to make one more UN Security Council peace push

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3243130/israel-gaza-war-chinas-top-diplomat-make-one-more-un-security-council-peace-push?utm_source=rss_feed

China could push for an extended truce in the Israel-Gaza conflict when Beijing’s top diplomat chairs a United Nations Security Council meeting this week, according to analysts.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will head to New York to host a meeting on the war on Wednesday, as Beijing gives a last push to its peacemaking efforts before its monthly presidency ends the next day.

Beijing has described the meeting as “high level” but it is not clear who else will be attending.

Earlier this month, Beijing was the first permanent member of the council to host an Arab and Islamic delegation trying to rally the international community to help resolve the conflict.

As holder of the council’s rotating presidency, China also oversaw the adoption of a resolution calling for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting.

But it could not bridge division among members over common language on a ceasefire and condemnation of Hamas.

The United States vetoed several council resolutions because Hamas was not censured and Israel’s right to self-defence not upheld.

China has long supported Palestinian sovereignty and says a “two-state” solution is the only way to end the conflict, which erupted on October 7.

It has not condemned Hamas, prompting criticism from the West.

Victor Gao, a Middle East affairs specialist and vice-president of the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation, said Wang was expected to give a full explanation of China’s position on Wednesday, making the case that Beijing was siding with “justice”.

Gao said Beijing’s desire to play a positive role in ending the conflict was reflected in the “rare” decision to have the country’s top diplomat chair the council meeting.

“I think [Wang’s trip] will have a positive impact – whether it will potentially lead to a ceasefire or a truce extension … or to have a positive impact in reducing the killings,” he said.

Wang’s trip coincides with an agreement between Israel and Hamas to extend the four-day Qatar-brokered truce for two more days past its Tuesday deadline, enabling more hostage exchanges and humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip.

James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow specialising in Middle East studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, questioned Beijing’s capacity to bring about any peace progress, given it was “not the decisive player” on the ground.

“Whatever the UN Security Council may or may not come up with, I don’t think it’s going to make a big difference on the ground unless the Americans vote in favour of it,” he said.

Dorsey said that with persistent divisions within the council, the meeting on Wednesday would be a “motion without movement”, adding: “[China is] going through the motions because they want to be seen as trying. And they probably know that they’re not going to have a lot of impact.”

Yin Gang, a Middle Eastern affairs specialist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of West Asian and African Studies, agreed that neither China nor the UN had much influence on the ground.

“I think [Wang’s trip] will be an opportunity to elaborate more on China’s position,” he said. “[But] Whether there will be a truce extension or resumption of fighting is not decided at the United Nations … It will be decided in Qatar and Cairo.”

Additional reporting Hayley Wong

‘Out of control’: woman in China spends US$38,000 on hotpot meals across China over 9-year period, shocking social media

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3242597/out-control-woman-china-spends-us38000-hotpot-meals-across-china-over-9-year-period-shocking-social?utm_source=rss_feed

A hotpot-mad woman in China has spent a total of 270,000 yuan (US$38,000) to eat her favourite dish 627 times in more than 20 cities over the past nine years.

The hotpot devotee, surnamed Kong, has caused a splash on mainland social media after she revealed her addiction to getting her favourite hotpot meals from the famous mainland restaurant chain, Haidilao.

Kong, from Nanjing in the eastern province of Jiangsu, revealed her hopelessness for hotpot on a social media platform on November 17, the Yangtze Evening News reported.

“I don’t cook. I don’t have other hobbies and I am not interested in clothes or makeup like other girls. My only hobby is eating, especially eating Haidilao,” Kong was quoted as saying.

Haidilao is a household hotpot brand in China famous for its spicy Sichuan food and considerate service.

Kong, who is a manager at a bed and breakfast hotel, said she first sampled Haidilao hotpot about nine years ago after many recommendations.

“My initial impression was that its raw ingredients were fresh and the taste was super,” she said. “Since then, my affection for Haidilao has been out of control.”

The woman said she is not only fond of the restaurant’s food, but touched by its service.

She recalled a time when she went on a business trip to the northern province of Shanxi, a Haidilao outlet there agreed to let her sleep in the eatery because she needed to catch a flight the next morning, they even gave her a quilt and pillow.

Kong said she usually went to Haidilao outlets with friends, rather than with her family, because her relatives were concerned about the danger of eating so many hotpot meals.

She admitted her habit had caused her to put on 13.5kg in weight.

“I am aware that eating a lot of hotpot is likely to increase the level of lithic acid in our bodies, a cause of gout,” Kong said.

“My physical checkups have shown some indexes are not as good as they were before, so I will restrain my enthusiasm for hotpot a bit.”

Wang Yan, a doctor from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, wrote on the website baidu.com that diners should not eat hotpot more than once every one to two weeks.

“Eating hotpot too often will result in shang huo (a Chinese term referring to excessive internal heat),” she said, adding: “I suggest people consume a lot of vegetables when they eat hotpot.”

Kong’s addiction triggered a heated discussion on mainland social media.

“She is just flaunting her wealth,” one person said.

“I doubt it is an advertisement by Haidilao. An ordinary person couldn’t stand eating hotpot so frequently for nine years,” said another online observer.

Chinese official warns Australia on navy movements in East, South China Seas

https://reuters.com/article/australia-china/chinese-official-warns-australia-on-navy-movements-in-east-south-china-seas-idUSKBN32N0E3

China has urged Australia to notify it of navy movements in the contested South China Sea and East China Sea, with a senior Chinese official cautioning that a small incident between militaries could escalate and damage ties.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week said a Chinese warship acted in a dangerous manner by using its sonar during an incident with an Australian navy vessel in Japan's waters that injured a military diver.

The same Australian vessel, Toowoomba, began joint patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea for the first time on Saturday, amid rising tensions between Beijing and Manila over a disputed shoal.

Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday, the head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party, Liu Jianchao, said the sonar incident took place in waters where there is a dispute between Japan and China, and questioned why the Australian navy was there.

Liu, who denied China had harmed Australian navy personnel, called for "any kind of pre-consultations or notification" to prevent misunderstandings from happening between two militaries.

"Such small incidents could really escalate if it's not properly managed," he said, referring to public emotions. He was speaking in response to questions at an event hosted by the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Liu said the presence of Australia's navy vessels appeared to be a statement about China's policies in the South China Sea. "The reason why the Australian naval ships were there was really to contain China - so that is the message that we have been getting", he said.

He urged the Australian government and military to "act with great prudence in this area".

Australia has previously said it respects the right of all states to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law. Two-thirds of Australian trade passes through the South China Sea.

This month Albanese made the first visit by an Australian leader to China in seven years, after efforts by both sides to stabilize the relationship.

Liu said he hoped Australia could revise its screening of Chinese investment on national security factors.

Two rare earth investments by Chinese companies have been blocked by the Foreign Investment Review Board this year, and Australia has sought greater investment in the sector by the United States.

Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing apologises for widespread service outage in China

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3243071/ride-hailing-giant-didi-chuxing-apologises-widespread-service-outage-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has reported a widespread service breakdown affecting users across major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to the company and its users.

The Beijing-based company apologised for the app outage late on Monday, blaming it on a “system failure” in a post published on Didi’s account on Chinese microblogging service Weibo. The statement came hours after the service disruption affected some of its 400 million users in China, as well as drivers.

Didi was the first Big Tech company to undergo a cybersecurity review by the Chinese government, which came shortly after its ill-fated New York listing in June 2021. It had been banned from signing on new users for 18 months until January this year, after it received a US$1.2 billion fine from the government over data violations. Despite the punishment, the company remains China’s most popular ride-hailing service.

Eighty per cent of Chinese users surveyed by market intelligence service Statista earlier this year said they would choose Didi over similar services from operators including Meituan and HelloGlobal. The latter is backed by Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Across China, there are signs that the taxi-hailing market is near saturation. Guiyang, capital of southwestern Guizhou province, recently became the latest Chinese city to stop issuing ride-hailing business permits due to an oversupply of taxi services.

Shanghai earlier this year also ceased the issuance of online ride-hailing service licences, as part of a move to ensure the “orderly and healthy” development of the local ride-hailing market.

Some of the issues encountered on Monday by Didi drivers and users of its ride-hailing and bike-sharing services included failure of the app’s turn-by-turn navigation, ride-hailing and journey-confirmation functions, according to local media reports and user posts on Weibo.

By Tuesday morning, Didi said it had resolved all ride-hailing-related issues and was working to completely restore its bike-sharing service.

However, some internet users still reported intermittent issues. A Weibo user who goes by the handle Jiangailiuxia18 and listed her location as southwestern Sichuan province said in a post that she had to pay her fare through Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay because the driver was unable to confirm the end of her ride on the Didi app.

Several users replied to that post, saying they also experienced difficulties with the Didi app in southeastern Fujian, northeastern Liaoning, central Hubei and eastern Jiangsu provinces.

Didi in September last year also drew a wave of complaints from customers unable to hail rides or pay taxi fares through the app. The company said at the time that the problems were caused by a network failure at one of its data centres, and issued an apology.

Didi, which went public in the US under the name Didi Global and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last year, is looking to list its shares in Hong Kong next year, according to a Bloomberg report last month, which cited anonymous sources.

For now, Didi shares are mostly traded on the over-the-counter market in the US.

UAE university joins China’s moon project after initial bid by Arab nation killed by US sanctions

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3242545/uae-university-joins-chinas-moon-project-after-initial-bid-arab-nation-killed-us-sanctions?utm_source=rss_feed

A national university in the United Arab Emirates has become China’s latest partner in the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project, which aims to build a permanent base near the moon’s south pole by the mid-2030s.

The UAE government initially sought China’s help in sending a rover to the moon but had to drop the plan earlier this year due to US sanctions.

A memorandum of understanding on ILRS-related cooperation was signed between the University of Sharjah and China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) last week, during the Arabic Conference of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences which took place at the university.

The two sides plan to collaborate and exchange data on lunar science and other issues, and China welcomed all Arab countries to join the project, DSEL said on its official WeChat account on Wednesday.

The new partnership brought the total number of members of the China-led ILRS to more than a dozen, as opposed to the US-led Artemis Accords which now has 32 signatories.

Besides Russia, the national space agencies of Venezuela, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Belarus have signed up to the ILRS since July, according to official releases from the DSEL since its inauguration in February last year.

The ILRS has also attracted non-governmental organisations, including the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation, the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) in the US, and start-up nanoSPACE in Switzerland.

The ILRS partner list also includes the UAE, Argentina and Brazil, which had signed either a cooperation agreement or letter of intent with China by April, according to Wu Weiren, chief designer of the Chinese lunar exploration programme and DSEL’s director general.

Negotiating with more countries as potential participants, China welcomed “all agencies, NGOs and individuals to join the ILRS at any stage and any level”, Wu told an international space exploration conference in Hefei in late April.

While the US was leading what was often seen as a race to return to the moon, China’s approach had an advantage, ILOA chairman Steve Durst said.

“The Artemis Accords is having great success on a nation-state basis, but its scope could expand from civil space agencies to the broader lunar community in democratic fashion, just like how China opens up its initiative to NGO participation,” Durst said.

“If independent organisations or even individuals were allowed to join the Artemis Accords, we would have preferred to sign it even before signing the ILRS, and we still hope to do that as soon as it becomes possible.”

Both the US and China have said their programmes are open to all countries without exception. While the Wolf Amendment prohibits Nasa from engaging in bilateral cooperation with China, multilateral collaboration has been allowed.

During an interview with Russian news agency TASS last month, Nasa communications official Tiffany Travis said the agency would “leave the doors open” to its potential participation in the ILRS.

And China was not excluded from signing the Artemis Accords, said Brian Weeden from Secure World Foundation, a think tank in Washington DC.

“Politically it is difficult, but there’s nothing in law that says they can’t, and I think Nasa would be all for it if China did,” Weeden said.

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China eager for closer supply chains and no decoupling, Premier Li Qiang tells inaugural expo, in latest charm offensive

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3243078/china-eager-closer-supply-chains-and-no-decoupling-premier-li-qiang-tells-inaugural-expo-latest?utm_source=rss_feed

Premier Li Qiang vowed to build closer supply chain ties as part of China’s latest efforts to retain foreign investment amid “de-risking” moves from Western economies.

“We are willing to build closer production and industrial supply chain partnerships with all countries,” Li said during the opening ceremony of the inaugural China International Supply Chain Expo on Tuesday in Beijing.

He warned of “challenges and risks brought by protectionism and uncontrolled globalisation”, and said China would continue to create an international and rule of law-based business environment.

Foreign businesses have been moving investments and de-risking their supply chains away from China due to fears of over-reliance as geopolitical and domestic uncertainties mount.

Beijing has been promoting the five-day event as a demonstration that China is still the indispensable so-called world factory by having global brands, including Apple and Tesla, among the 550 exhibitors, of which 130 are foreign companies.

Foreign chambers of commerce said the expo could provide a window to assess the opportunities still on offer in China, and to have a clearer view on how other businesses are assessing the market.

Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said the expo is expected to show “a clearer position on how China sees its role in global supply chains, as well as how some of the pressing issues in trade and globalisation can be addressed”.

“We also expect that the opportunities China can provide for strengthening global supply chains will be showcased,” Eskelund said.

Loh Wee Keng, chairman of the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, said there is an eagerness to observe larger multinational corporations that still have operations in China.

“We mainly want to understand multinational corporations’ current operations and planning in China,” said Loh, who heads the chamber of more than 600 members.

Since China relaxed its stringent coronavirus controls at the beginning of the year, Beijing has begun an all-out push to woo foreign investors.

However, China reported its first-ever quarterly deficit in direct investment liabilities – a broad measure of foreign direct investment that includes foreign companies’ retained earnings in China – in the third quarter.

“Many of our members will formulate their own investment plans according to these corporations’ development strategy,” Loh added.

“For example, if there is a certain industry that still has its entire supply chain in China, it would be a forecast to show that this industry probably still has huge potential in the country.”

From 72 hours to 30 days: 5 visa-free ways to visit China by land, sea and air

To offset the downward trend, Beijing has unveiled a series of measures in a bid to address waning confidence, which has been hit by policy uncertainties and a tightened grip on national security amid geopolitical headwinds.

It also announced the removal of investment barriers to the manufacturing sector and the opening up of part of the digital economy in selective regions, while also expanding visa-free entry to more countries to facilitate inbound travel.

China’s goal to underpin its position in the global supply chain would, however, also be closely affected by the revised expectations that global economic growth is seen to be on the downside.

“Companies are scrutinising costs to protect their margins. Invariably, supply chains will be a target, as 50 to 75 per cent of the cost of doing business is influenced directly by supply chains,” said Mads Lauritzen, Asia-Pacific strategy and transformation leader at management consulting firm EY-Parthenon.

“CEOs need to scrutinise every area of their operations, from a product, asset, and geographic perspective, and decide which underperforming areas to jettison.”

EU chamber in China lays out ideas to spur growth, hits at self-reliance push

Expo organiser, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said American businesses account for 20 per cent of the 130 foreign exhibitors, while around a dozen European companies are also taking part.

Companies at the expo are focused on agriculture, clean energy, digital technology, health and logistics, the organiser said.

In the past year, multiple foreign chambers of commerce in China have published reports saying increasing supply chain resilience is one of the top priorities for businesses in China.

Disruptions to the supply chain include China’s coronavirus lockdowns, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, inadequate infrastructure and rising geopolitical tensions.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Chinese fashion giant Shein has filed paperwork to float on US stock market – reports

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/28/shein-chinese-fast-fashion-label-us-stock-market-shares-ipo

Fast fashion giant Shein has reportedly lodged confidential paperwork with US securities regulators, informing them of an intention to go public in the US.

The listing would likely be the largest initial public offering (IPO) in years.

Shein is one of the global leaders of fast fashion e-commerce, harnessing a network of small-shipment manufacturers in China, and a massive online advertising presence.

JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have reportedly been hired as underwriters for the move, according to unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times and Reuters.

The news of the filing follows reports and rumours from at least the middle of last year that the company intended to go public in the US in 2024.

Shein, a mass market online clothing retailer, was founded in China by entrepreneur Chris Xu, but is now headquartered in Singapore. Within a decade it reached a valuation of $100bn at an April 2022 fundraising round, making it the third most valuable start-up in the world.

By May this year the company’s value had dropped to a little more than $60bn but if it goes ahead with the IPO it is still expected to become the most valuable China-founded company to go public in the US since ride-hailing giant Didi Global’s debut in 2021 at $68bn valuation.

The company has reportedly told investors it hopes to receive a valuation of $80-90bn, Bloomberg reported last month.

In recent years Shein has expanded manufacturing into Brazil and Turkey, and distribution processes into the US, Europe and Canada. However, the company has come under criticism for things such as allegedly poor working conditions in factories, alleged copyright infringement on independent artists’ designs, along with criticism of fast fashion’s impact on the environment. Shein has denied the accusations.

Earlier this year Shein was accused, alongside its rival Temu, by a US house committee report of “building empires” by using legislative loopholes to “dodge US import taxes and sanctions checks”.

Shein declined to comment on the reports.

Reuters contributed to this report

China uses cyberbullying case studies and outlines new rules in crackdown on internet violence

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3243063/china-uses-cyberbullying-case-studies-and-outlines-new-rules-crackdown-internet-violence?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing can detain or fine individuals for Photoshopping other people’s pictures, spreading sex-related rumours or harassing others with insulting text messages and phone calls, China’s Ministry of Public Security said on Tuesday as it addressed 10 typical cases of cyberbullying.

The ministry’s statement is the first time China has published a cluster of examples since its directive to define and punish cyberbullying was issued in September.

Beijing’s latest push to crack down on cyberbullying came after some cases caught national attention. The ministry said cyberbullying had been rampant in recent years and some cases had resulted in victims killing themselves or becoming mentally ill.

“We have always maintained a ‘zero-tolerance’ attitude and dealt with a number of internet violence cases where individuals slandered others, spread rumours or invaded privacy online,” the ministry’s statement said.

In one typical example, Zhang, who lives in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, installed a positioning device and spyware to obtain a person’s information. Zhang then hired a group online to spread fake videos, pictures and insulting articles about the victim, leading to the victim developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

In January, Zhang was detained and was later sentenced to six years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,409) for invading others’ privacy, picking quarrels and provoking trouble and intentional injury.

Picking quarrels and provoking trouble is a criminal offence that could lead to up to 10 years in jail under Chinese laws.

In other cases, individuals were detained after spreading rumours that a victim’s wife “had an affair” and a teacher was harassed by her superior.

Being hired to defame others is also not tolerated. In two cases, individuals were hired by others to expose victims’ private information online, send insulting text messages and mail paper money and other funeral items to the victims. Local police detained the hired perpetrators, according to the ministry.

In September, China’s top three legal bodies – the Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Ministry of Public Security – jointly issued a directive on cyberbullying.

The document clarified how online violence may be punished under different existing laws, specifically stressing bullying against minors and people with disabilities, the deployment of paid posters, spreading sex-related rumours, the use of deepfake technology and cyberbullying organised by websites.

China does not have a law against online violence, and there have been calls to strengthen regulations to crack down on such abuse.

In recent years, cyberbullying has become more rampant and is subject to trends. This year has seen a new “box-opening” movement surface in which a victim’s telephone number, ID number, address, photo and even hotel check-in information is publicly displayed online.

Some instances of cyberbullying have led to serious outcomes. In February, a 23-year-old woman killed herself after battling depression for months over being cyberbullied for her pink-dyed hair.

‘We don’t talk enough about this’: cyberbullying and how to tackle it

Last year, a 17-year-old boy, Liu Xuezhou, took his own life after being cyberbullied for more than a year. Liu was abducted at birth and spent years looking for his biological parents. When he found them, he met rumours that he had only wanted a house from his parents and was trying to gain sympathy.

Liu’s adoptive family sued two influencers this year and the case is still being processed.

Will China save the planet or destroy it? | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2023/11/27/will-china-save-the-planet-or-destroy-it

THOUGH HE LAY dying of brain cancer, Tu Changwang had one last thing to say. The Chinese meteorologist had noticed that the climate was warming. So in 1961 he warned in the People’s Daily, a Communist Party mouthpiece, that this might alter the conditions that sustain life. Yet he saw the warming as part of a cycle in solar activity that would probably go into reverse at some point. Tu did not suspect that the burning of fossil fuels was pumping carbon into the atmosphere and causing the climate to change. In that issue of the People’s Daily, a few pages before his paper, there was a photo of grinning coalminers. China was rushing to industrialise with the aim of catching up economically with the West.

Many of these may never be built. Declining utilisation rates of existing coal plants undermine the case for further construction. But China is not moving away from coal as fast as environmentalists would like or analysts say is necessary to meet its 2060 target. Part of the problem is that the country has a lot of it. With little oil or gas, coal provides China a secure source of energy. Digging it up creates jobs. Building a coal plant, whether it is needed or not, is also a common way for local governments to boost short-term economic growth.

Save yourself

China, though, has good reason to prioritise the climate. Some of its biggest cities, including Shanghai, lie on the coast and could be swallowed by rising seas. The arid north lacks drinking water. Extreme weather is already taking a toll. Last year deaths associated with heatwaves in China increased by 342% compared with the historical average, according to a study published by the Lancet, a medical journal. This summer floods damaged much of China’s wheat crop.

Meanwhile, China has become a leader in green-energy technology. The rest of the world is largely dependent on Chinese solar-panel and battery supply chains. This year China overtook Japan to become the world’s largest car exporter, thanks in part to Chinese dominance in electric vehicles.

So there is some hope that China will play a productive role at the climate summit in Dubai. With ambitions to lead the global south, it will not want to look as if it is neglecting an issue that is foremost on the mind of many officials in developing countries. Optimists also note the meeting between Xie Zhenhua, China’s climate envoy, and John Kerry, his American counterpart, in November. They agreed on some small steps, such as collaborating on carbon-capture projects.

Yet China has also made it clear that it will not bow to pressure on climate change. Earlier this year Xi Jinping, its leader, reiterated his aim of reaching a carbon peak by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. “But the path, method, pace and intensity to achieve this goal should and must be determined by ourselves, and will never be influenced by others,” he said.■

Subscribers can sign up to Drum Tower, our new weekly newsletter, to understand what the world makes of China—and what China makes of the world.

Japan joins China, US, India as top-tier security, economic partner of Vietnam

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3243052/japan-joins-china-us-india-top-tier-security-economic-partner-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed

Japan and Vietnam have agreed to strengthen their security and economic ties in the face of China’s growing influence in the region.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong held talks in Tokyo on Monday and agreed to broaden their security cooperation, work on defence equipment and technology transfers and start discussing a new Japanese aid programme for militaries of like-minded developing countries in the region.

The two leaders said the Japan-Vietnam relationship would become a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, bringing their ongoing cooperation to “new heights and to further expand it to new fronts”, according to their joint statement provided by Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

Japan has been rapidly developing closer ties with Vietnam, a key southeast Asian nation that has important security and economic roles in the region faced with China’s rise and rivalry with the United States and other Western nations.

Monday’s announcement meant that Japan has now gained the status of Vietnam’s top-tier partners, along with the US, China and India.

At a joint news conference after their meeting, Kishida said Vietnam is “a key partner in achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific”. Thuong said that close cooperation between the two countries contributes to the region’s peace and prosperity.

As US, Japan, India, South Korea woo ‘neutral’ Vietnam, what of its China ties?

Under its Official Security Assistance scheme, Japan recently agreed to provide a coastal surveillance radar to the Philippines, another strategically important Southeast Asian country for Japan and the US amid escalating tensions over Taiwan, which Beijing regards the island as a breakaway province to be brought under mainland control – by force, if necessary.

Many countries, including the US, do not officially recognise Taiwan as an independent state but oppose the use of force to change the status quo.

Kishida’s government in December adopted a new security strategy, involving significant military build-up, including counterstrike capability in a major shift from the country’s post-war principle of solely relying self-defence.

Japan in recent years has also provided a number of patrol vessels to Vietnam to help strengthen its law enforcement capability at sea. Vietnam is one of several countries defending their territorial interests against China in the disputed South China Sea. Japan has had a long-standing territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea.

Japan, Vietnam vow to work to tackle China in nearby waters

Kishida and Thuong agreed to expand their cooperation in wide range of areas from trade, climate change and economy to achieve a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.

Thoung, who is on a four-day visit as a rare state guest marking the two countries’ 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties, was also to visit the Imperial Palace for a meeting and lunch hosted by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako. In addition, he was set to give a speech at the Lower House, the more powerful of Japan’s two parliamentary chambers, and visit a hydrogen energy facility in Fukuoka in southern Japan.

Intravenous education: China hospitals set up ‘classrooms’ so sick children can study during nationwide outbreak of respiratory diseases

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3242960/intravenous-education-china-hospitals-set-classrooms-so-sick-children-can-study-during-nationwide?utm_source=rss_feed

As China enters a seasonal outbreak of respiratory infectious diseases, the issue of special “homework zones” being set up in hospitals for primary and secondary school students has become the subject of much public debate.

Recent photos of young pupils doing their homework in hospital have gone viral on mainland social media, the state broadcaster CCTV reported.

In some areas including the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui, and central Hubei province, young patients are provided with desks, chairs, and a high infusion frame for them to study while on an intravenous drip.

Parents can be seen accompanying their children and helping them with their studies, the report showed.

Several years ago, a number of medical centres across the country were hailed for setting up such zones.

Many more hospitals have followed suit this year amid an autumn surge in the number of primary and secondary school students who have fallen sick with respiratory diseases, like the flu.

It is common for mainland parents to take their children to the hospital when they develop flu-related symptoms in the belief that putting them on a drip speeds up the recovery process.

“I did not intend to let my kid do homework here. But seeing that the studying atmosphere is so good in the hospital, I pushed my kid to do his homework too,” one parent was quoted as saying.

“My kid had to do his homework this way because if he did not finish it, he would have to do a lot more when he returns to school after he recovers,” another father said.

“This is a societal issue. We ordinary families can not change the unwritten rule that whatever the circumstances, you need to complete your homework,” he added.

The situation has sparked a debate on mainland social media.

“These kids may be physically ill, but these adults are mentally ill,” one online observer said on Douyin.

“The parents look relieved and pleased when seeing their kids doing homework. It seems this worries them more than the actual physical illness,” said another.

Another commenter said: “Opening a homework zone at hospitals is an inhumane idea.”

“I feel heartache for these students who have to study despite not feeling well. Are the students’ academic scores more important than their health?” asked a fourth online observer.

State media CCTV weighed into the discussion by publishing an editorial on November 23 which argued that while the homework zone arrangement is understandable, it should not be advocated.

“Forcing or inducing their children to study at hospitals is designed to erase parental anxiety about children not studying,” CCTV said.

“Children should not be the victims of this unreasonable practice of doing homework at hospitals. Their schedule should not be filled tightly. Allowing them to have a rest when being sick, cry when feeling sad, or just do nothing for a while is as vital as passing the university entrance exam,” the editorial added.

On November 25, the Beijing municipal education authority said that schools should make it clear that it is not compulsory for students to do homework while they are sick.

Amid rampant respiratory infection, many schools are forced to suspend classes and require students to return to school two days after their symptoms disappear.

These three men are vying to lead Taiwan — and fend off threats from China

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/28/taiwan-presidential-election-2024-candidates-china/2023-11-24T06:48:24.597Z

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan will go to the polls on Jan. 13 to choose its next president in a vote that could reignite U.S.-China tensions if Beijing takes the results badly.

Beijing calls the race a “choice between war and peace” and it has escalated an intimidation campaign around the island democracy, taking Chinese military aggression in the Taiwan Strait to heights unseen in decades.

The race will also have significant implications for the United States, which acknowledges Beijing’s one-China policy, but supports Taiwan’s democracy and arms it with weapons.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping told President Biden in San Francisco in November that Taiwan remains “the most important and most sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations.” The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but claims the self-governed island of 23 million as its territory and regularly threatens to take charge by force if Taipei refuses to submit.

Experts on Taiwanese politics expect the presidential election race to hinge on who voters think is best placed to handle these Chinese threats and work with the United States and other partners to mitigate risks of war. The pivotal election is shaping up to be one of the most fractured in Taiwan’s democratic history as an insurgent third candidate party challenges a traditionally two-party system.

The Taiwan party toughest on China has a strong lead as election nears

Here’s who’s running for president.

Lai Ching-te, 64, Democratic Progressive Party

Despite criticism over stagnant wages and a controversial phaseout of nuclear power, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is leading in the polls. Beijing deeply mistrusts the party, which it views as supporting Taiwan’s independence, and has refused to talk to Tsai Ing-wen, who was elected president in 2016 and will step down in May, in line with term limits.

Their candidate, Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, is a former kidney doctor who has been vice president since 2020. He is trying to convince voters that Taiwan would be safer under his leadership. He claims his party has over the last eight years forged stronger ties with the United States, Japan and other democracies, and has stood its ground against growing Chinese pressure.

A Lai victory would anger China, which accuses him of being even more of a “separatist” than Tsai. For years Lai openly supported Taiwan’s independence. After he briefly visited New York and San Francisco in August, Beijing held large-scale drills around Taiwan as a warning. His running mate, Hsiao Bi-khim, a former envoy to the United States, has been sanctioned twice by Beijing.

Since becoming vice president, Lai has backed away from his pro-independence views. He now vows to maintain the status quo — where Taiwan enjoys de facto sovereignty without provoking Beijing by declaring independence. Taiwan and China can be “brothers” with a shared ancestry but neither should be subordinate to the other, he says.

When it comes to handling Xi, the Chinese leader, Lai says he is willing to work together to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, if Beijing lets him.

“I’ll advise him to take it easy, don’t be so stressed,” Lai said when asked what he would tell Xi in a meeting. “Peace is good for everyone.”

Hou Yu-ih, 66, Kuomintang

The Democratic Progressive Party’s main rival is the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang, which wants to resume trade and dialogue with China. After failing to reach a deal with another party that favors closer ties with China, the party must overcome split support in the opposition camp to win.

Their candidate is Hou Yu-ih, a former policeman of 30 years who vows to restore dialogue and strengthen business links with China to ease tensions. As the popular mayor of New Taipei City, he earned a reputation for efficiency but critics say he has little experience with China or foreign affairs.

Hou has condemned the current government for stoking tensions with China and has called for returning to a policy of engagement. He opposes Taiwanese independence and accepts that the island is part of “one China,” even though Taipei and Beijing disagree about what that means.

Hou is not a typical presidential choice for the Kuomintang. He is the party’s first native Taiwanese candidate: His family didn’t flee to the island following the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, a choice made to appeal to middle-ground voters.

But traditional Kuomintang voters appeared less than enthusiastic about Hou’s Taiwanese background, leading him to tap Jaw Shaw-kong, a famous television personality and fierce critic of Tsai and Lai, as his running mate to shore up support.

Ko Wen-je, 64, Taiwan People’s Party

Ko Wen-je has been the dark horse of this election. The populist appeal of the one-time trauma surgeon and former mayor of Taipei has upset a political system long dominated by two parties, the DPP and the KMT, and drawn support to his much smaller Taiwan People’s Party.

Plain-spoken to the brink of offensive, Ko’s unorthodox approach has endeared himself to young voters who share his disdain for Taiwan’s traditional political divide. If elected, he promises to reform the electoral system to better include other parties.

On China, Ko has said that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one family.” He promises dialogue with Beijing, but also emphasizes the need to build up Taiwan’s military to deter Beijing from attacking. It is unclear whether China would talk with Ko, however. He has avoided taking a stance on whether Taiwan is part of “one China,” something Beijing considers a precondition for engagement.

A Ko victory could complicate the U.S.-China tensions because of his tendency to go off script on sensitive parts of the relationship between Beijing, Washington and Taipei.

During a recent television appearance, Ko declared that various countries want to “dip their fingers in” Taiwan’s elections and claimed that the American Institute in Taiwan, the United States’ de facto embassy, called him to ask about Chinese influence. The institute responded by reaffirming that Washington will not take sides in the election.

How will China respond to a win by each of these candidates?

A Lai victory would almost certainly be met with more Chinese aggression, analysts say. China has called Lai a “troublemaker,” and warned the Taiwanese people to make a “rational decision.” If Lai loses, though, that could raise concerns in Taiwan about how to keep Chinese influence in check.

Either Hou or Ko would be preferable for Beijing. Both take a friendlier approach to China and will likely meet Beijing’s conditions to restart talks and revive trade. But even with that thaw, experts doubt the Chinese military will stop threatening activities around Taiwan.

“Even with a Kuomintang victory, we cannot tell people that there will be no more air incursions in the Taiwan Strait, because [China is] playing a chess game with the United States and its allies,” said Alexander Huang, the party’s director of international affairs.

However, Huang argued that a Hou presidency could “buy time” by calming China with dialogue at the same time as building up Taiwan’s defenses. “Deterrence without assurance is like walking on one leg,” he said.

Lai’s supporters, however, fear that cozying up to Beijing could create openings for Chinese influence operations. “China’s influence in Taiwan has faded in recent years due to the ruling party and covid,” said Wu Jieh-min, a sociologist at Academia Sinica, a Taiwanese research institute. “If the opposition camp is in power, China’s influence may return to all levels of Taiwan’s government.”

Chinese navy ships visit Myanmar amid heightened security tensions

https://reuters.com/article/china-military-myanmar/chinese-navy-ships-visit-myanmar-amid-heightened-security-tensions-idUSKBN32N07A

Three Chinese navy ships have arrived in Myanmar on a goodwill visit as part of renewed Chinese defence engagement amid Chinese concern about a surge of fighting between Myanmar junta forces and insurgents near the Chinese border.

The guided-missile destroyer Zibo and the guided-missile frigate Jingzhou were escorted by a Myanmar frigate to docks in Myanmar's main city of Yangon on Monday, China's People's Liberation Navy (PLAN) said in a statement.

The 700-strong force, on a four-day visit, is being led by Senior Captain Sun Bo and includes a Chinese resupply ship, the Qiandaohu, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

The Chinese task force would "conduct naval security exercises" with Myanmar, it reported.

The Chinese vessels are part of the Chinese navy's 44th fleet that has conducted anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia since 2008. The 44th fleet was sighted in the United Arab Emirates this month.

China's military has stepped up defence engagement in Southeast Asia this year after the lifting of zero-COVID restrictions in late 2022.

This month, the Chinese and Vietnamese navies conducted their 35th joint patrol in Beibu Gulf since 2005, while Chinese troops held a border defence exchange with armed forces from Laos.

The Chinese naval visit comes as Myanmar junta forces are battling ethnic minority insurgents near the border with China, raising concerns in China, which has called for peace.

Chinese troops have been conducting live-fire drills on their side of the border since Saturday so that People's Liberation Army (PLA) forces are "ready for any emergency", the PLA Daily reported.

The drills, due to end on Tuesday, are in line with an annual training plan but the PLA Daily said the conflict in Myanmar had inflicted casualties and was "complicating the security situation".

Hong Kong awaits day it will contribute payload specialist to Chinese space missions, city’s John Lee says ahead of astronauts’ arrival

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3243051/hong-kong-awaits-day-it-will-contribute-payload-specialist-chinas-space-exploration-push-citys-john?utm_source=rss_feed

Hongkongers are eagerly awaiting the day that a local payload specialist can play a part in China’s space exploration efforts, the city’s leader has said, welcoming the coming arrival of the country’s astronauts on a packed four-day tour.

Speaking ahead of his weekly Executive Council meeting, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the astronauts’ visit to the city showed that the nation championed local youth and the innovation and technology sector.

“Through the delegation’s visit, Hongkongers can share the nation’s pride in China’s manned space development from close range and develop a deeper understanding of the country’s developments in aerospace technologies,” he said. “The visit exemplifies the affection and support the central government has for us.”

The delegation, which is helmed by China Manned Space Agency deputy director Lin Xiqiang, includes astronauts Liu Boming, Wang Yaping, Chen Dong and Zhang Lu, who respectively took part in the Shenzhou-12, 13, 14 and 15 space flights.

Watch this space: Chinese astronauts ‘set to visit Hong Kong in late November’

A source earlier told the Post that elite police officers would be responsible for security arrangements to protect the astronauts, considered “space heroes” and “national treasures”.

The group are expected to arrive in the city by Tuesday noon and attend a media briefing at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre to discuss the latest developments at the China Manned Space Program.

Lee said the group’s four-day itinerary included an appearance at the Hong Kong Coliseum, with about 5,000 free tickets to be distributed by the Home Affairs Department from 1pm that day on a first-come, first-served basis.

The astronauts will also speak at the opening ceremony for the Science Museum’s “China Manned Space Exhibition” and later meet local students of all ages and talk to members of the innovation and technology sector.

“The visit reflects how the country values our city’s youth,” Lee said.

“During the delegation’s stay in the city, they will talk to local young people as part of a variety of events … and share the developments history and latest efforts by the country’s aerospace industry.”

The city’s leader also said the visit showed the nation valued the local science and technology sector, adding that he hoped the city might one day contribute an astronaut to China’s space exploration efforts.

“We look forward to seeing the emergence of the first local astronaut in the future,” Lee added. “The country’s aerospace industry is developing rapidly.

“In addition to actively promoting local innovation and technology development, we will also support various institutions to participate in the country’s aerospace projects to ensure we make greater contributions.”

‘Good to be home,’ Chinese astronauts say after landing with hole in parachute

Beijing announced in October last year that it was recruiting two payload specialists from Hong Kong and Macau, marking the first time the China Manned Space Agency was accepting candidates from the two cities for the positions.

The Hong Kong government later shortlisted about 80 people from among more than 100 applications and recommended them to central authorities.

In September, the city’s technology minister Sun Dong revealed at least two candidates had made it to the final round of the astronaut selection process.

Chinese astronauts last came to Hong Kong more than a decade ago. Three crew members who had been on the Shenzhou-9 spaceship mission in June 2012 visited the city for four days that August.

CropWatch: more than 160 countries join China’s tech war against the West on food

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3242568/cropwatch-more-160-countries-join-chinas-tech-war-against-west-food?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s leading remote agricultural monitoring system is arming developing countries with tools to break the information barrier in agriculture, challenging the Western-dominated rules of food.

CropWatch was first developed in 1998 by a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Originally intended for domestic use, it has now become a global initiative that is gaining popularity in many countries around the world.

The system analyses data from satellites and ground stations to provide insight into crop yields and environmental changes, and provides agricultural trend analysis, publishing a bulletin multiple times a year on global agriculture trends.

Most countries had relied on two major remote agricultural monitoring systems run by the United States and the European Union to predict the rises and falls of food prices in the global market.

The development of CropWatch enabled China to “avoid being deceived by foreign forecast information in market decisions,” the academy said in a mission statement dated in 2012.

Now recent efforts by the CropWatch team have sought to transfer the technology to developing nations.

In August, the team behind CropWatch held a workshop in Mauritius for a dozen developing nations on the implementation and progress of the system, in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

“Food security requires information transparency,” Wu Bingfang, head of the CropWatch team and professor at the CAS Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, told China Youth Daily last month.

Wu said he believed fluctuations in food prices are largely caused by “market speculation”, and that a lack of information impacts decisions in agricultural planning, as well as deciding on imports and exports.

Most countries do not have the technology or resources to establish their own global crop yield monitoring system.

“Accurate estimates on agricultural production are a challenge even for highly developed nations,” a UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson told the South China Morning Post in an email last month.

In the pursuit of understanding agriculture, developing nations face different challenges relating to a lack of capacity to accurately analyse and estimate their production, as well as a lack of resources to implement the analyses, the WFP spokesperson said.

How Asia can invest in averting a food crisis caused by climate change

Linda See, a researcher for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, told the Post in an email on November 15 that a lack of data and resources for collection and analysis, and expertise or capacity to process the data are major challenges to agricultural monitoring.

The cloud-based CropWatch system combines a wide array of indicators at a global, national and regional scale – including indicators like rainfall, crop area, land utilisation intensity, air temperature and more.

It uses satellite and ground monitoring to analyse the production and conditions of countries that account for over 80 per cent of the world’s staple grain production.

The crop monitoring that the system provides “reduces food market volatility” and is customisable to allow for nations to generate indicators based on their needs, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

In 2020, CropWatch announced a partnership with UNCTAD to “facilitate and stimulate agricultural monitoring of 14 developing countries”. This includes providing training for use of the system, as well as customising it to the specific requirements of each country.

The partnership is funded in part by the Alliance of International Science Organisations, which was founded in order to join together science partners under the Belt and Road Initiative.

According to UNCTAD, the goal of the partnership was to overcome the challenge of a lack of tools and access to agricultural monitoring systems to help participating nations achieve the sustainable development goal of zero hunger.

“The technologies that emerge in developing countries are a lot more suitable to the local conditions and the low resource settings of other developing countries,” Shamika Sirimanne, director of technology and logistics for UNCTAD, said in an interview in April.

“The CropWatch programme is a model of South-South cooperation,” Sirimanne said during her opening remarks at the workshop in August.

“Its focus on long-term sustainable implementation by participating countries and the fact that it represents a true transfer of knowledge and technology make it stand out,” she said. “This will enable [countries] to make data-driven policy decisions.”

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, the inability to forecast a change in food prices makes it difficult for producers to respond to supply changes and for policymakers to take action.

CropWatch’s cloud-based system allows stakeholders to access the platform “without additional investments on hardware and software”, which the FAO said are the main constraints behind building up crop monitoring capacity in developing nations.

It added that improving access to information is essential for calming speculations on the world food market.

Mauritius imports around 75 per cent of its food. This makes the nation vulnerable to external shocks from other nations.

For the small percentage of food that the nation produces domestically, droughts, cyclones and flooding threaten production, according to UNCTAD.

Mauritius implemented CropWatch to enhance early warning for natural disasters, and to influence how it trades based on monitoring global yield and supply.

The system “will mitigate price fluctuations due to erratic supply on the market,” and help reduce food import bills, Micheline Seenevassen Pillay, chief executive officer of the country’s food and agricultural research and extension institute, told UNCTAD.

In Mozambique, prior to CropWatch being implemented, the country relied on others to obtain its monitoring information. So CropWatch was customised to help address Mozambique’s specific needs.

Now the country has the ability to publish monthly reports on the status of its agriculture during the rainy season, according to China Youth Daily.

“The difference between our technical service model and the existing model is that when countries that need the technology learn it, they can monitor agricultural conditions according to the specific conditions of their own country,” Wu told China Youth Daily.

The partnership with UNCTAD also includes other nations in Africa like Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, as well as partners in Asia like Thailand and Laos.

Wu said during a presentation in August that one of the issues with crop monitoring reports was that a lack of access to the code and underlying data meant it was hard to question results.

With CropWatch, nations can take a closer look at the information provided by creating their own analyses, as well as looking at the published and synthesised bulletins developed by stakeholders around the world.

In the first decade of CropWatch’s implementation, the centre stated that it helped predict the 2003 soybean crisis and gave early warning to relevant authorities in China.

A decade later, the CropWatch bulletin has been downloaded by stakeholders in over 160 countries, and has been recognised by global organisations as a valuable tool to achieve food security, according to the FAO.

CropWatch is a partner of the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM), which was mandated by the Group of Twenty agricultural ministers in 2011.

GEOGLAM, which has national partners across the world, aims to monitor global production of maize, rice, soy and wheat, as well as provide information to improve market transparency.

“We hope that after developing countries around the world master this technology, food production information can be shared transparently and reduce distortions in the international food market,” Wu said.

While remote crop monitoring plays a major role in adapting to food security problems, the WFP spokesperson stated that it still needs to be “part of a broader package that looks to address hunger and malnutrition in all its forms”.

However, the spokesperson stated that they look to the work of CropWatch with “great interest” and look forward to collaborating with the team in the future.

Foxconn, maker of Apple’s iPhones, invests US$1.6 billion in India expansion plan amid diversification from China

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3243027/foxconn-maker-apples-iphones-invests-us16-billion-india-expansion-plan-amid-diversification-china?utm_source=rss_feed

iPhone maker Hon Hai Precision Industry plans to expand its footprint in India with another NT$50 billion (US$1.6 billion) investment for construction projects.

The announcement, made in an exchange filing in Taiwan late Monday, did not give any further details, saying only that the investment was for “operational needs”. A spokesperson for the company declined to say where the new facilities would be or what they would build.

The news comes as Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, and other Taiwanese electronics manufacturers continue to diversify their businesses outside China as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing.

About half of Foxconn’s revenue comes from business with Apple. The company has been making iPhones and other products in India for several years, including the latest iPhone 15. In September, a Foxconn representative in India said on LinkedIn that the Taiwanese company plans to double the size of its business in the South Asian country.

India’s Karnataka state government in August announced that Foxconn planned to invest US$600 million on two component factories in the southern Indian state. That included a plant that will make mechanical enclosures for iPhones and a semiconductor equipment manufacturing plant it will operate with Applied Materials, the government said at the time.

Those two projects are on top of a US$700 million facility Foxconn aims to build on a 300-acre (121 hectares) site close to the airport in Bangalore, capital of Karnataka, Bloomberg News previously reported. That plant is likely to assemble iPhones.

It was not immediately clear if the latest investment announcement is to cover those projects or additional ones.

Foxconn already operates nine production campuses and more than 30 factories employing tens of thousands of people in India, where it takes in around US$10 billion of revenue annually.

Why US-China ‘thaw’ after Biden-Xi summit is bad news for Japan

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3242864/why-us-china-thaw-after-biden-xi-summit-bad-news-japan?utm_source=rss_feed

With the world looking on, US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met in person in San Francisco on November 15, their first meeting since the two posed shaking hands for a photo in Bali, Indonesia, at last year’s Group of 20 summit.

While most would agree this did not signal a rapprochement between the two competing superpowers or even represent a thaw in the strictest sense of the word, the summit itself did manage to impress. The leaders of the two countries managed a public display of cordial interactions but refused to budge on almost all the major issues with which they are concerned.

It was quite a thing to witness the two presidents walking side by side around the Filoli Estate, with Biden answering a reporter’s question, “How did your meeting go?” with two thumbs up. One couldn’t help but be amazed by the scene in which Biden retrieved a picture from his smartphone, showed it to Xi and asked, “Do you recognise this young man?” Xi answered, smiling, “Oh yes. This was 38 years ago.”

There was Biden’s praise of Xi’s Hongqi limousine and introduction to his own presidential Cadillac. One would almost have thought it was Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida or South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol – the leaders of Washington’s two closest allies in East Asia – who were being treated so warmly.

In the meantime, everything of substance remains as it has been between Washington and Beijing. The two sides effectively reaffirmed their agreement to disagree on all the major issues that matter. Calling off the trade war was not on the cards, for one thing.

Last week, the United States and the Philippines conducted joint air and sea patrols in the South China Sea. Around the same time, a warship from Australia navigated through the Taiwan Strait. Late last week, a US destroyer sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands. China’s military responded by accusing the US of creating risk in the South China Sea and claiming to have used its forces to “track, monitor and warn away” the US vessel.

Juxtapose this stream of developments with the touted achievements in the resumption of communications between the two countries’ military officers and cooperation on dealing with fentanyl – the latter being trumpeted with much fanfare from the US side – and one will be hard pressed to see a meaningful alignment of interests.

A moment that summed up all this oddity was Biden once again calling Xi a “dictator” in response to a reporter’s question while Xi was still in town, something to which the Chinese side almost immediately expressed its displeasure.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken came to Biden’s defence by claiming the US president “speaks for us all”, adding that “it’s clear that we will continue to say things and continue to do things that China doesn’t like, just as I assume that they will continue to do and say things that we don’t like”. This was almost exactly what Blinken said after returning from his visit to Beijing in June.

Even so, both sides have stuck by their assertions that the summit was a great success. This could be because it seems to have helped ensure that the competition and confrontation between them will not veer into conflict.

By joining hands to hold back the potential for disaster, therefore, the two leaders will hopefully let the rivalry play out peacefully, as I and others have appealed for.

However, these developments could be disappointing to other countries – Japan in particular – for some fundamental if less-discussed reasons.

Washington’s stance towards Beijing since the Trump administration has instilled within some in Tokyo a sense that the time could be right to break from the status quo and attempt to regain its full independence with the hope of becoming a “normal country” again.

If the US-China rivalry follows the assumptions of the so-called Thucydides Trap and proceeds to its logical conclusion, Japan would benefit from either result – a Chinese victory would see US military forces leave Japanese territory, while if the US wins Tokyo would be rewarded for its allyship by regaining superiority over China.

Seen from this perspective, Biden’s warm welcome for Xi and the Chinese president’s enjoyment of his time in San Francisco means Japan must continue to wait patiently and deploy the kind of diplomatic finesse for which it has become known to stay in the game.

This could go some way towards explaining the visit by a delegation from Komeito – the junior partner in Japan’s ruling coalition – to Beijing last week. This came after Kishida’s own meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the Apec summit, at which both sides reaffirmed a “strategic relationship”.

All this could be relegated to a mere geopolitical sideshow, of course. As the foundations of the existing global order grow weaker, countries from outside the ranks of the established powers are more willing to assert themselves and their interests – witness Turkey’s attempts at influence in the Middle East for example.

Japan is no ordinary lesser power playing geopolitics, though, given its role in modern history and today’s world, as well as its stance on China’s rise. Beijing needs to look closer at Tokyo’s desire to be restored as a normal country. Like it or not, the reconstruction of Japan’s political and cultural identity is at stake, and China must handle this situation delicately.

‘I have a home now’: China DNA match sees repentant petty criminal abducted as child reunited with parents 33 years on

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3242444/i-have-home-now-china-dna-match-sees-repentant-petty-criminal-abducted-child-reunited-parents-33?utm_source=rss_feed

A family in China who spent more than three decades searching for their son who was abducted by human traffickers when he was four years old has finally been reunited with him, thanks to a DNA database.

Joy for the Wei family from Sichuan province in southwestern China, however, was tinged with shock as they discovered their missing boy was serving a jail term for theft in Zhejiang province in the east of the country.

The 37-year-old was identified as their long-lost son when his DNA was collected by the prison in April as part of a registration scheme.

His parents had registered their own DNA with a national network designed to help people seeking lost family members.

The man was reunited with his parents and his two sisters in the Zhejiang prison on November 20, according to Ningbo Evening News.

Using the pseudonym, Mingdong, the man said he had fallen into a life of petty crime and had been jailed four times.

After meeting his birth family, he said he “has a home now” and vowed to turn over a new leaf after completing his prison term.

His relatives hugged him tightly and promised to take him home after his release.

Online observers were moved by the reunion, with many blaming Mingdong’s petty crimes on a life blighted by human trafficking.

“His life was destroyed by human traffickers. It is his one and only life,” one person said on Douyin.

“Parents’ care and supervision are really important in a person’s growth. If he wasn’t abducted, he might be able to enjoy a lot of love from his family and become a well-behaved man,” said another.

“The fact that he reunited with his family because of imprisonment is a kind of misfortune turned into a blessing. I believe he will reform,” said a third.

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, cases of trafficking in women and children nationwide totalled 118,598 between 2010 and 2021.

China has increased efforts to combat human trafficking in recent years.

A national DNA database was established in 2009 to collect and match the DNA of families searching for lost relatives and a reunion campaign was launched in 2021, with police stations across the country setting up their own family search bureaus.

As Malaysia offers visa-free travel to Chinese tourists, will domestic operators see ‘benefit’?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3242998/malaysia-offers-visa-free-travel-chinese-tourists-will-domestic-operators-see-benefit?utm_source=rss_feed

Thirty-day visa-free travel for Chinese tourists to Malaysia is likely to bolster the country’s weak tourism numbers, but some tour operators fear the swift return of all-inclusive packages paid in China that leave little on the table for domestic businesses.

The announcement on Sunday by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim launches Malaysia into direct competition for tourist dollars with neighbouring Thailand – which rolled out its own visa exemptions for Chinese, Indian, Russians and Kazakhs ahead of peak travelling season.

From December 1, China and India join a list of countries whose citizens can travel to Malaysia on short trips without a visa.

The move came just days after China added Malaysia to its visa-free travel list on a one-year trial. Malaysians heading to China can stay for 15 days visa-free, while Chinese visitors will have double the time to travel in Malaysia.

In 2019, more than 3.1 million Chinese visited Malaysia, the third-largest group behind Singapore and Indonesia, according to data from government tourism authority Tourism Malaysia.

“It’s going to contribute a lot in traffic both ways, including for people in Malaysia to visit China as well,” said John Gong, a China Forum expert and professor at China’s University of International Business and Economics.

Tourism is a significant contributor to national coffers, with the sector and related industries pulling in 251.5 billion ringgit (US$53.7 billion) or 14 per cent of Malaysia’s gross national product in 2022, according to data from the department of statistics.

Malaysian economy ‘no longer in crisis’ as return of tourists buoys growth

But the prospect of the return of Chinese tourists en masse, may not translate into direct benefits for local tour operators, who end up competing with larger agencies from China that organise prearranged trips for their clients.

Before the pandemic, Chinese tour groups booked everything in China from island-hopping to golfing holidays, on trips almost always book ended by big buffet spreads prepared by major seafood restaurants and hotels.

Freelance tour coordinator Marilyn Lai said those same major players are likely to benefit first from visa-free arrangements, while the rest of the industry can only hope that the expected deluge of Chinese tourists will also bring in more intrepid travellers keen on different experiences.

“The only way for tour operators to benefit from this is if they have customised tour packages for a particular niche market,” said Lai, a 19-year tour industry veteran from Sabah state, a popular destination for Chinese tourists.

Those include activities favoured by free and independent travellers, Lai said, which typically cover more adventurous pursuits such as white water rafting, jungle treks and other nature trips.

Malaysia’s interior ministry said on Monday it would review the scheme “after one year to evaluate the return of investment to the country”.

It also pledged to review “the effectiveness of the initiatives and security risks from the immigration facilities provided”.

Malaysian authorities have been on high alert after hundreds of its citizens were duped by fake job offers to end up working in scam centres in Myanmar and as far as Peru, mostly operated by Chinese gangs.

From love scams to fake jobs, Asia-Pacific is new ‘ground zero’ for cybercrime

Malaysian police said in October they had detained 1,160 scam suspects – including 300 Chinese nationals – in raids over the first nine months of this year on 148 “call centres” running scam operations, local newswire Bernama reported.

The ministry said Malaysia would also grant 30-day multiple entry visas to all tourists, and extend social visit passes by 12 months for international students from 23 nations to further their studies, travel or work in approved sectors.

Searches for Malaysia travel surged on Chinese travel platforms after Anwar’s announcement, with travel apps recording up to double the traffic for travel arrangements to Malaysia, Chinese state-owned news portal Global Times said on Monday.

Strict Covid-19 curbs in both Malaysia and China lowered inbound Chinese arrivals to the Southeast Asian nation to 400,000 in 2020 and to just under 8,000 visitors in 2021.

Chinese arrivals have since returned to 500,000 over the first half of 2023, but remained at just a third of the total number of Chinese tourists in the same period in 2019.

The removal of visa requirements to travel between the two countries also presents an opportunity for Malaysian businesses to build their relations inside China, especially through the Belt and Road Initiative projects, said Ong Tee Keat, chairman of the Centre for New Inclusive Asia think tank.

Malaysia was among the early adopters of the Belt and Road Initiative, signing a deal to build a US$1.5 billion rail project on the peninsula’s east coast. China Communications Construction has the contract to build it and the line is scheduled to begin operations in early 2027.

Other projects initiated under the Belt and Road Initiative include the troubled Forest City megacity development in Johor state and the Melaka Gateway maritime project, involving the creation of several artificial islands off the historic coastal state.

“The level of participation by our entrepreneurs here in the Belt and Road Initiative is still relatively low,” said Ong, a former Malaysian minister.

“We need to spearhead more efforts proactively in forging collaboration with China, particularly in green sustainable development … alongside the digital economy.”

South China Sea: openness encouraged to shore up marine economy after disputes threaten to capsize relations

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3242984/south-china-sea-openness-encouraged-shore-marine-economy-after-disputes-threaten-capsize-relations?utm_source=rss_feed

In light of maritime disputes with neighbouring countries and the lack of trust and confidence these conflicts have engendered, the head of a top Chinese think tank has called for a strategy of unilateral opening-up in the marine sector to address the issue head-on.

Chi Fulin, president of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, proffered the strategy as a means of rapprochement with Southeast Asian countries, many of which dispute China’s claims over the South China Sea.

Global ocean governance is facing serious challenges due to changes in relations between major powers, and opening up at a high level is crucial for promoting marine economic cooperation between China and the world, he said at the China Ocean Economy Expo on Saturday in Shenzhen.

“We recently proposed a strategic recommendation for unilateral opening-up to Asean,” he said, calling the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations a “strategic leverage point” in the region.

“In the South China Sea, where other issues are challenging to resolve in the short term, the ‘blue economy’ has become one of the most important [factors] in China-Asean cooperation,” Chi added, referring to the use of ocean resources for development and growth while continuing to prioritise conservation.

He specifically mentioned tourism – encouraging domestic and Asean enterprises to develop tourism in the South China Sea – and fishery when discussing what form that cooperation would take.

The remarks come at a time when China is delving into deep-sea exploration to make use of marine resources, such as offshore wind power, to enhance its energy supply as well as the economies of its coast.

According to the 2023 China Ocean Economic Development Index, released on Saturday by the National Marine Data and Information Service, China’s 2022 gross marine product – a calculation of the economic value provided by the ocean – increased by 1.9 per cent year on year to 9.5 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion), with the value added per hectare by marine industries growing 3.1 per cent in nominal terms from the year before.

Emerging marine industries, including advanced manufacturing, services and coastal tourism, grew more than 7.9 per cent year on year, while offshore wind power generation more than doubled.

Local governments in Shenzhen, as well as Liaoning and Shandong provinces, are racing to incentivise marine industry growth as part of China’s efforts to expand its blue economy.

Zhang Chunyu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he believes that Shenzhen, a southern port city already well-known as China’s tech hub, would be an optimal choice.

The city is now building Shenzhen Maritime University as part of its plan to become a maritime industry centre, and last year the local government announced a policy fund of up to 10 billion yuan to support the shipping industry.

Shenzhen looks to tap blue economy with support for marine industries

According to official data, Shenzhen’s citywide marine gross domestic product (GDP) reached 300 billion yuan in 2022, up 3.9 per cent year on year and accounting for 9.7 per cent of total GDP.

Klaus Zenkel, vice-president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China and chair of its south China chapter, said at the forum the development of the maritime economy, like many other sectors, is marred by a lack of confidence.

“Unpredictability is not good,” he said. “So make sure people come here, they can plan ahead for a decade, for example, and don’t have to be interrupted by a new law like the cybersecurity law and anti-spy law.”

He emphasised the need for China to proactively take action to gain traction in the sector.

“If China wants to be a leader in this marine economy, I think they need to take responsibility,” he said. “They need to start a dialogue with all the countries on a working level, not on a political level.”

[Sport] Chinese Super League: From bidding for Bale to selling the team bus

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67509606?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

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Hulk, a 29-year-old Brazil international at the peak of his powers, had been signed by Shanghai SIPG manager Sven-Goran Eriksson for more than £46m and would earn reported wages of £320,000 a week.

As he strode through arrivals, a welcoming bouquet of flowers was thrust into his arms and a Shanghai SIPG scarf draped over his neck.

Over the next three years, he was joined by other big names, signed for even bigger price tags.

Chelsea star Oscar arrived six months later. The transfer fee was about £60m, while his wages were believed to be £400,000 a week.

Carlos Tevez, who had won the Premier League with Manchester United and City, reportedly earned even more when he joined.

Paris St-Germain star Ezequiel Lavezzi,Liverpool target Alex Teixeira and Colombia striker Jackson Martinez were also lured with astronomical transfer fees and bumper pay cheques.

The rise of the Super League came alongside President Xi Jinping's wish to turn the country into a footballing nation. In 2011, he announced plans for the men's national team to qualify for a World Cup and for China to eventually host the tournament.

As the Chinese Super League began spending large sums of money, his ambition to turn the nation into a football super power started to look very real.

"The Chinese market is a danger for all teams in the world, not only for Chelsea," said the Blues manager Antonio Conte at the time on seeing Oscar head east.

"China looks to have the financial power to move a whole European league to China," said Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger.

Less than a decade on, though, and the movement is in the opposite direction, with the bubble bursting and players leaving.

Jack Sealy was not one of the big-name arrivals. The son of former QPR striker Tony Sealy, he signed for CSL's Changchun Yatai in December 2015.

Sealy, then 28, had been playing in Hong Kong and was drawn to the Super League by the big names, the higher standard of football and the money that came with it.

"I went out there while it was still growing so it was very exciting to be around," he told the BBC.

"People had kind of heard about it before but no one really knew about it. And then as soon as you said to someone who knew football, they were like: 'Oh wow, you're going to the Super League.'

"I have no regrets about it at all. It was amazing."

Amazing, but also strange.

"You kind of have to just completely forget who they are," he added of some of his big-name opposition.

"I've made the step up or they made the step down, however you see it, and you just have to see them as equals and try your best. But it was pretty surreal.

"Oscar - I've watched him play with Chelsea - and obviously from playing Fifa, you know all of the players. It was pretty incredible."

By 2019, the league had become so big that Real Madrid's Gareth Bale - at one point the most expensive player in the world - was tipped for a move to Jiangsu Suning on a three-year, £1m-a-week contract.

Less than two years later, Jiangsu Suning ceased operating with their financial situation so bad that they even auctioned off the team's bus for cash.

How did the Chinese football scene implode so spectacularly?

Things went downhill when China's Football Association, which had already introduced a 'luxury tax' that made big-money transfers prohibitively expensive and banned sponsors from naming teams after themselves, announced a salary cap in December 2020.

At the time, the CFA said it hoped the move would "curb money football" and provide an "investment bubble" in the Chinese national team.

For some time, China's sport administration had been wary of the league's spending. In 2017, it vowed to curb spending and control "irrational investment", accusing clubs of "burning money" and paying foreign players with "excessive salaries".

The salary cap certainly had the desired effect. The limit meant overseas players would only be able to earn a maximum of £52,000 a week, far lower than the contracts previously offered to star names.

Some teams needed such restraints having piled up debts via their big spending.

A large number of clubs' troubles were also exacerbated by their owners' growing problems in China' real estate sector with several home-building giants running into cash flow problems.

On top of everything, the Covid pandemic hit.

China's strict containment policies reduced fixture lists and kept whatever games were staged behind closed doors for more than two years. Broadcast and sponsorship revenues duly plunged.

Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Samir Memisevic played for Hebei FC from February 2020 - but by his second season at the club, could tell there were issues behind the scenes.

"The second season, I thought that something was wrong," he told the BBC.

"After a few months, financial problems started. Then they had a big problem with the Chinese players - they didn't pay them for a lot of months and I was sure that at the end of that year Hebei would not exist any more."

Memisevic received and accepted an offer to go on loan to Beijing Guoan, one of the top clubs in the league.

Hebei, who had signed Lavezzi and former Premier League regulars Javier Mascherano and Gervinho during the CSL's boom times, scrapped their youth teams in a desperate bid to survive.

Some employees, furloughed without pay for months, offered to work for free as the club, owned by a debt-ridden real estate company, struggled to pay its utility bills.

It was all in vain though. Earlier this year, Hebei disbanded.

"I just feel so sorry for Hebei and what happened because they were one of the biggest teams with loads of big names and money," said Memisevic, who now plays for Al-Nasr in Dubai.

"Now it's just disappeared.

"It's really sad but it's been a thing at a lot of Chinese clubs. I've seen that Guangzhou and Wuhan are also disappearing. It's just really sad.

"I hope that Chinese football will get better because they put a lot of money into it. But I don't think it will be the same like before."

For John Hassett, the Chinese Super League will not be the same without his favourite team, Guangzhou City. The club, which has been managed by Eriksson and former Arsenal and Rangers star Giovanni van Bronckhorst in the past, also disbanded in March.

Every home game, Hassett looked forward to meeting fellow fans and joining them to cheer on the team.

"For lots of people, the social side was as important as the football," he told the BBC.

"We had this tiny little shop outside the ground, so we'd drink there before and after the game. It had also become the haunt of the local Chinese fan group after the game. It became quite a spot.

"We were all gutted. We did a little wake for the club at our beer shop after it closed down. We met up with a couple of other groups and had a beer outside the stadium. It was good fun.

"Part of the problem is that none of the clubs had set themselves up to make money.

"Tickets are very cheap. Our season ticket was £50 or £60. Some of the student groups were buying tickets cheaper than that. Most people don't buy the official shirts, they got them outside the stadium for £3.

"Revenue generation for clubs is the biggest problem the Super League will have. As the economy tightens, where does the money come from?"

Late last year, as the countdown to reopening stadiums to fans began, another question was being asked; where has the money gone?

A corruption scandal spread through the highest offices of the domestic game.

Former Everton midfielder and ex-head coach of China's men's team, Li Tie, was investigated for "serious violations of the law", with charges of bribery brought in August.

Chen Xuyuan, the Chinese Football Association's former chairman, is facing similar accusations while South Korea midfielder Son Jun-ho, who played for Shandong Taishan, has been detained since May on suspicion of accepting bribes.

Now, only a small number of foreign players remain in the league. Those currently playing in China, both local and foreign players, did not respond to interview requests from the BBC.

But despite the league's problems, there is still a demand for domestic football.

When tickets for Beijing Guoan's first match back in front of a crowd went on sale in April, they sold out within five minutes.

Alberto Doldan, who has worked in China with La Liga and made deals in Asia as an agent, said that the aggressive acquisition of talent by top teams in Saudi Arabia currently is reminiscent of the CSL's peak.

But he insists that the Chinese league still has a future, even if it is different from the one that once seemed possible.

"Many teams in China have disappeared due to financial problems," he told the BBC.

"But I think the future will be better because they've been working with young players. I think in the next five, six or seven years, we'll get more local players with a higher level.

"China is still a good place. I think the future is in the local players."

Now with fewer, flown-in superstars, the focus is on producing more homegrown superstars to grow the league and improve China's prospects at the World Cup, a tournament which, on the men's side, they have qualified for only once.

New Zealand’s Beijing ties to remain ‘consistent’ even as China hawk returns as foreign minister

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3242989/new-zealands-beijing-ties-remain-consistent-even-china-hawk-returns-foreign-minister?utm_source=rss_feed

As the swearing-in of New Zealand’s new coalition government concludes on Monday, the Pacific nation’s stand-out diplomacy with Beijing is likely to prevail despite the presence of old and new China hawks and hard-right politicians in Wellington, analysts say.

A three-party bloc led by new Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, leader of the centre-right National Party, not only necessitated a negotiation that splits the deputy role between nationalist New Zealand First’s Winston Peters and right-wing ACT Party’s David Seymour, it would also keep New Zealand’s foreign policy balanced, said China-New Zealand expert Jason Young.

Peters will be deputy until 31 May 2025, when Seymour takes over. Peters also takes on the foreign affairs portfolio while Seymour is also the minister for regulation.

While Peters is a veteran politician who is on his third stint as foreign minister and had run-ins with Beijing in the past, it does not mean he will not try to prioritise New Zealand in his dealings with China, said Young, who is an associate professor in political science and international relations at Victoria University of Wellington.

Peters’ skirmishes with Beijing include calling for Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Organization at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and later telling Chinese ambassador to New Zealand Wu Xi to “listen to her master” after the Chinese embassy issued a statement reminding Wellington of the one-China policy.

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“New Zealand’s coalition government is likely to maintain a consistent approach to major partners, including China,” said Young, who is also director of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre.

“As in any coalition arrangement with three parties, foreign policy usually becomes centrist, suggesting we are likely to see more consistency than change,” he added.

Wellington has successfully walked the tightrope of calling out China on its aggressions in the Pacific region and exercising diplomacy with Beijing.

Former leader Jacinda Ardern was tough on China but had said there was no need for retaliation and more need for dialogue.

Chris Hipkins, her Labour Party successor following her resignation earlier this year, concluded a “warm and constructive” visit in June to Beijing, where he chose not to agree with US President Joe Biden’s remark that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was a “dictator”.

In terms of relations with Pacific nations, Peters is likely to want to pick up from where he left off with his “Pacific Reset” policy that he launched in 2018 when he was last foreign minister in Ardern’s cabinet, said Geoffrey Miller, a New Zealand geopolitical analyst at the Democracy Project.

The policy involved an increase in New Zealand’s aid budget for the Pacific region and more interactions between New Zealand and the United States and countries that were becoming wary of China’s actions in the region, Miller said.

With more hawkish attitudes among Western nations towards China now than seven years ago, Peters might feel confident to take his Pacific Reset “to the next level”, although there was a safety switch, he said.

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“Peters will only be one of several ministers deciding the future shape of New Zealand’s international relations. The trade and defence ministers are both from the National Party and both are seasoned politicians who will be well aware of Peters’ views,” Miller said.

Further, former business executive Luxon is focused on his key goal of fixing New Zealand’s economy and making sure he sends the right international messages, particularly those that underpin the country’s solid trading relations, Miller said.

“[Luxon’s] National Party has a strong rural base, which if anything became stronger at the last election. China is still New Zealand’s biggest trading partner by far, so Luxon’s own party faithful would have a lot to lose if New Zealand’s relations with China soured,” Miller said.

New Zealand political commentator and foreign policy expert Reuben Steff said Peters might seek to strengthen the country’s ties with the US but would avoid confrontations with Beijing given New Zealand’s trade relations with China.

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Stephen Jacobi, New Zealand trade expert and executive director of the NZ International Business Forum, remained wary but was comforted by Peters’ experience as a foreign minister who was aware of China’s importance to New Zealand and an absence of “anti-China” rhetoric in his election campaign.

The possibility of New Zealand joining Aukus, the alliance between Australia, Britain and the US, however, could resurface especially with both Peters and Seymour supportive of the move, experts said.

“Given his past views, Winston Peters is likely to support at least further exploration of the idea or, with a US election year coming up, perhaps to play for more time,” Miller said.

Peters’ view that the Pacific has to keep an eye on the power contest in the region aligned with his stance that Aukus made the region “safer” through deterrence, Steff noted.

He would be supported by his co-deputy, Seymour of the libertarian ACT Party, who has shown an interest in Wellington joining “Pillar Two”, or the non-nuclear aspect, of the pact, and doubling the country’s defence budget, Steff added.

“In reality, the decision will not be left up to Winston Peters alone. The Aukus issue is one of the biggest foreign policy decisions facing New Zealand in a generation,” Miller said.

With the 10th anniversary of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to New Zealand coming up next year, and the presence of former New Zealand prime minister and China-friendly John Key as an adviser to Luxon, the new prime minister would be unlikely to make decisions that would send New Zealand-China relations veering off course, Miller said.

US and China pitch rival supply-chain visions in latest clash over global trade and economic needs

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3243022/us-and-china-pitch-rival-supply-chain-visions-latest-clash-over-global-trade-and-economic-needs?utm_source=rss_feed

The US and China this week are pitching rival visions of what constitutes a resilient and sustainable supply chain, marking the latest chapter in their fierce competition to assert a global trading system built around their respective economic needs.

Just hours before Beijing was to launch its first international expo on supply chains featuring American tech giants like Tesla, Apple, Intel and Qualcomm under the tagline “connecting the world for a shared future”, US President Joe Biden convened the inaugural meeting of his supply-chain resilience council in Washington on Monday.

In doing so, Biden announced 30 new actions “to strengthen supply chains critical to America’s economic and national security”, according to the White House.

The measures are meant to spur domestic production of essential medicines and cut reliance on “high-risk foreign supplies” of medical products, calling to mind widely held American concerns at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

They entail new investments in tools to monitor supply chains by sharing data more efficiently among federal agencies and assessing risks to the supply of renewable energy resources.

Accordingly, the White House has sought allies and partners to mitigate the impact of China’s dominance in key sectors such as critical minerals through initiatives like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

The framework seeks to establish rules covering areas ranging from data protection to carbon emissions, and its founding members comprise 14 Asia-Pacific nations who together account for 40 per cent of the world’s GDP.

IPEF recently grabbed headlines for failing to secure a trade deal in the lead-up to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting held in San Francisco earlier this month that Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, attended.

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Washington also established an early-warning system for supply-chain disruptions in semiconductors, a cornerstone technology for both economies and a point of contention with Beijing.

This week’s announcement comes as the American leader faces the prospect of a tough re-election campaign in 2024, possibly against his 2020 opponent, former president Donald Trump, who leads polling among Republican candidates.

Biden and his fellow Democrats are eager to score political points with a visible implementation of his repeated pledge to fortify US supply chains and rely less on China. At various points in his presidency he has called for relocating more American manufacturing stateside.

As the race intensifies, Biden could seek to cut prices for American consumers. Since entering the White House in 2021, he has kept in place Trump-imposed tariffs on Chinese imports worth more than US$200 billion. But several studies suggest American companies and consumers have ended up absorbing those costs.

And although the volume of US goods imported from China has fallen sharply, American supply chains remain indirectly tethered to the Asian giant through third-party countries like Mexico, a leading exporter of goods to the US that has recently deepened economic ties with China.

On Monday, Biden said the US “never gives up” and predicted that 50 years from now historians would view “this moment” as “the beginning when America won the competition of the 21st century”.

Meanwhile, Beijing’s supply-chains expo will host 515 companies from 55 countries and regions between November 28 and December 2.

American participants account for 25 per cent of the registered overseas exhibitors at the event, according to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a Beijing-backed trade association.

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The council has marketed the Beijing expo as a “testimony to China’s sincerity and readiness to greater opening up and its responsibility as a major country”, adding that economic globalisation was facing “counter-currents”.

The messaging follows a warning uttered by Xi in October about “unilateral sanctions, economic coercion, decoupling and supply-chain disruption” at a seminar marking 10 years of China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.

To stem inroads in the Beijing-centred trade network and in general, Washington since last year has imposed restrictions on China’s ability to export advanced technology.

Xi at Apec reportedly reiterated to Biden his stance against economic decoupling. Following their meeting, Biden told American business leaders that he was “de-risking, not decoupling” from China.

China, Vietnam seek rail and hi-tech ‘interconnection’ as trade, investment skyrockets

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3242981/china-vietnam-seek-rail-and-hi-tech-interconnection-trade-investment-skyrockets?utm_source=rss_feed

Manufacturing heavyweights China and Vietnam have stepped up talks toward improving economic ties that could give Chinese railway contractors and hi-tech firms, among others, a stronger hold in the Southeast Asian country.

Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao told Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City that the neighbours should cooperate on “interconnection”.

Pham, meanwhile, advocated the promotion of railway links, according to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce.

He also said Vietnam supported China’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pact, and that the two sides could discuss trade settlements in their own domestic currencies.

Wang Wentao’s trip came amid Beijing’s efforts to retain a resilient footing in the global supply chain realignment and improve ties with its major trading partners in Southeast Asia.

China applied to join the 11-member CPTPP in September 2021, and any application to join the trade bloc must be approved by all members.

“The prime minister is very keen on improving Vietnamese infrastructure,” said Nguyen Thanh Trung, director of the Saigon Centre for International Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.

“They want to have some railroads in and out of Vietnam, some short segments first.”

The 1,297km (806-mile) land border between China and Vietnam is a key conduit for Chinese trade with Southeast Asia.

Trucks from Vietnam take farm produce to China, while China ships raw materials to Vietnam. Vietnam is China’s major trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Vietnam and China have disputes over parts of the South China Sea, sometimes leading to maritime stand-offs, but relations have improved in recent years.

“Vietnam has found a formula of keeping maritime disputes separate from interactions between the two economies,” said Peking University international studies Professor Zha Daojiong, citing past cooperation on using marine resources in the shared Gulf of Tonkin, also known as the Beibu Gulf.

And Vietnam has become one of the popular investment destinations, as some foreign multinational companies relocate their supply chains from China, while Chinese companies have also moved production.

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Wang said China will “carry out cooperation in strategic and emerging areas” including the digital economy and “green development”, according to the Chinese statement.

Wang also suggested allowing more “high-quality” Vietnamese products to be imported.

China has already accepted a surge of Vietnamese durians over the past year.

“Vietnam wants better trade relations with China and they want to promote more trade with China,” said Jack Nguyen, a partner at business advisory firm Mazars in Ho Chi Minh City.

China registered US$2.92 billion in direct investment in Vietnam over the first nine months of the year, 94.9 per cent higher than in the first three quarters of 2022, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Wang Qin, a professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University, said apart from the traditional labour-intensive production, Chinese tech and new energy firms have also started to invest in Vietnam.

This would, Wang Qin added, facilitate Beijing’s push for industrial transformation and the forging of regional industrial and supply chains.

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“Amid the heightened strategic power play between the US and China, as well as Washington’s push for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Vietnam has become a hotspot for China and the US in their rivalry in political, economic fronts,” said Wang Qin.

“Cooperation in new economic frontiers, such as digital economy, green transition and renewable energy, will determine the pattern and trajectory of economic ties between Beijing and Hanoi.”

The Biden administration introduced the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity in May 2022, and it is seen as the economic component of the US strategy to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.

China has already improved Vietnam’s supply chain by investing in casings for mobile phones or in facilities for testing electronic parts, said Frederick Burke, a Ho Chi Minh City-based senior adviser with law firm Baker McKenzie.

China-founded e-commerce fashion start-up Shein files for US IPO

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3243020/china-founded-e-commerce-fashion-start-shein-files-us-ipo?utm_source=rss_feed

China-founded fashion company Shein has confidentially filed to go public in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The fast-fashion giant has been working with at least three investment banks about a potential IPO and was in talks with the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, Reuters had reported in July.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have been hired as lead underwriters on the offering, which could happen in 2024. the Wall Street Journal report said.

Shein did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

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The company was valued at more than US$60 billion in May and is expected to become the most valuable China-founded company to go public in the United States since ride-hailing giant DiDi Global’s debut in 2021 at US$68 billion valuation.

Fast-fashion has been gaining popularity in the United States with Shein partnering with SPARC Group, a joint venture between Forever 21 owner Authentic Brands and mall operator Simon Property, as the online fashion retailer and its rivals look to expand their market reach.