• China is building nuclear reactors faster than any other country | China
• Supply chains headline China-Vietnam talks as US vies for influence
• Get a flu shot, health expert says as China grapples with respiratory illness wave
• National security studies are going mainstream in China. Will it breed a new Chinese elite?
• Philippines says China has executed 2 Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking despite appeals
• Ex-president of Micronesia urges US to live up to funding promise, warns of China’s influence drive in Pacific
• Uganda chases China’s cash after Western lenders baulk at bankrolling projects over human rights issues
• Hong Kong Audit Commission head brushes off accusations over targeting of Chinese University, says it scrutinises all use of public money
• China is a ‘priority country’ in Netherlands’ global cultural strategy, top Dutch official says during Hong Kong visit, highlights aim of deepening collaboration in design
• Beware of ‘fake financial innovation’, China’s new overseer warns industry
• ‘Violated right to life’: China daughter, 23, loses domestic violence case against mother but gets restraining order for protection
• ‘I want to attend their classes’: young China teachers turn to emojis, fun, cute comments when marking, win plaudits on social media
• New Sunway: how China has sidestepped US sanctions on its most powerful supercomputers
• Understanding China: military and political challenges | Films
• Aukus deal: Australia, US, Britain to test new AI system to track Chinese submarines in the Pacific
• Chinese president’s mother and sister make rare media appearance in documentary about Xi Jinping’s father
• Hong Kong should import more nuclear power from mainland China to hit its 2050 climate targets, top government adviser says
• Ukraine blows up Siberian railway linking Russia-China trade corridor
• South China Sea: Philippines risks its Beijing ties with ‘non-starter’ mini-code of conduct plan
• Chipping away at China | Podcasts
• FII Priority: Ray Dalio’s ‘smart rabbit with 3 burrows’ hedge shows Chinese executives the way to navigate Middle Eastern markets
• How can US-India friendship survive alleged murder-for-hire plot? Because both need an ally to counter China
• US-China joint study challenges theory on the origins of modern corn
• Bed of roses? Purple underwear, pinky nails, unruly mole hair and triangular money – quest for good fortune continues in China
• Cash-strapped China county hired an army of temporary civil servants, but their paltry salaries of US$2,300 a year are snowballing local debt
• Childhood pneumonia outbreak in Ohio unrelated to China, Europe
• A year on from the white-paper protests, China looks much different | China

China is building nuclear reactors faster than any other country | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2023/11/30/china-is-building-nuclear-reactors-faster-than-any-other-country

TO WEAN THEIR country off imported oil and gas, and in the hope of retiring dirty coal-fired power stations, China’s leaders have poured money into wind and solar energy. But they are also turning to one of the most sustainable forms of non-renewable power. Over the past decade China has added 37 nuclear reactors, for a total of 55, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN body. During that same period America, which leads the world with 93 reactors, added two.

In the early days of its programme China imported its nuclear technology. It still must rely on other countries for the uranium that fuels reactors. But most of its new and planned reactors are based on Chinese designs, especially the Hualong One. Now it is keen to export such units (it has already made deals with Pakistan and Argentina). With much of its equipment sourced at home, China’s programme has not been hindered too much by the Biden administration’s export controls, which aim to cut off China from advanced technologies of American origin.

Some of China’s scientists and engineers have been put to work on a new project—developing nuclear fusion. Fusion plants do not require uranium and produce much less radioactive waste than fission plants do. But the technology, which aims to mimic the sun’s internal workings to create an inexhaustible supply of energy, has proved elusive.

Fusion reactors control plasma with superconducting magnets in a process called confinement. A Chinese reactor holds the record for the longest confinement at high temperatures: around 17 minutes. But the country’s scientists, like those elsewhere, are confronting a problem of fundamental physics: holding plasma together at extreme temperatures for extended periods requires more energy than the reaction itself can produce. If China can solve that problem, it might hasten the end of dirty energy—for everybody. ■

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.

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Supply chains headline China-Vietnam talks as US vies for influence

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3243636/supply-chains-headline-china-vietnam-talks-us-vies-influence?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top diplomat has been in Vietnam on a mission to boost supply chains as competition rises with the US for influence in the Southeast Asian country.

In Hanoi on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the two countries to increase high-level exchanges and improve security, economic and maritime ties.

“The two sides should … deepen cooperation in trade, connectivity, and key minerals, and jointly build a mutually beneficial, stable, and unimpeded production and supply chain system,” Wang said during the meeting of the Steering Committee for Bilateral Cooperation co-chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang.

Wang’s trip to Hanoi was expected to pave the way for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the country later this month, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources.

If the trip goes ahead, it will be Xi’s first to Vietnam in six years and come hard on the heels of a visit by US President Joe Biden.

During Biden’s visit in September, ties between Washington and Hanoi were upgraded to put the United States on a diplomatic par with China. The US and Vietnam also agreed to improve hi-tech cooperation.

At the meeting on Friday, Wang said the two sides had reached important consensus on upgrading bilateral relations, which would usher in a new stage of bilateral ties.

“Facing a world with changes and chaos, China and Vietnam should stay true to their original aspirations, remain united,” the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Wang as saying.

Vietnam is China’s biggest trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 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 last year, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment.

In late November, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh that the neighbours should cooperate on “interconnection”, while Pham advocated the promotion of railway links.

The two countries are considering a major upgrade of their underdeveloped rail links to improve a line that runs across Vietnam’s rare earths heartland to the country’s top port in the north, according to a report by Reuters.

Despite the strong trade ties, the two countries are in dispute over parts of the South China Sea – differences that sometimes lead to maritime stand-offs.

In a separate meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son, Wang said Hanoi and Beijing should work together at sea.

“China and Vietnam should actively promote mutually beneficial cooperation at sea, prevent the involvement of external forces, and accelerate consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea,” he said.

Officials from both sides agreed to increase Chinese investment in areas in Vietnam that used advanced technology and were environment friendly, Vietnamese online news service VnExpress reported.

It also reported that deputy prime minister Quang said the two countries should cooperate to improve goods clearance procedures at borders, and speed up the opening of Chinese markets for certain Vietnamese agriculture and aquaculture products.

Get a flu shot, health expert says as China grapples with respiratory illness wave

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3243640/get-flu-shot-health-expert-says-china-grapples-respiratory-illness-wave?utm_source=rss_feed

Existing treatment methods are proving effective in a wave of acute respiratory illnesses across the country, Chinese health authorities said on Saturday.

National Health Commission (NHC) spokesman Mi Feng said the diseases monitored all had “corresponding mature treatment methods” and were caused by known pathogens.

Cases were being monitored and assessed to help coordinate resources during winter.

“It is necessary to increase paediatric outpatient services and extend service hours,” Mi said, also noting the need to “ensure the supply of medical materials” and “guarantee the supply of vaccines ... and that more elderly people and children receive vaccines as soon as possible”.

Chinese social media has been awash in the past few months with photos of children on intravenous drips in crowded hospitals in cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.

The posts have fanned concerns of strain on the healthcare system.

In mid-November, the NHC reported that there had been an increase in incidence of respiratory disease but it did not give details.

The World Health Organization then asked China to provide more information, amid concerns about a potential new strain of the virus that causes Covid-19, and the possibility of new pathogens.

Beijing told the WHO that there was no new or unusual pathogens behind the spike in respiratory diseases among children.

In its response to the WHO request, Beijing also said that outpatient and hospital admissions of children with mycoplasma pneumoniae started to rise as early as May. Respiratory diseases caused by other pathogens, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenovirus and influenza virus, began to jump in October.

And last weekend, Mi noted that various pathogens were responsible for the rise in cases among children. The surge was being driven by the influenza virus as well as rhinoviruses, mycoplasma pneumoniae, RSV and adenovirus, he said.

That message was reinforced on Saturday with the NHC saying no new infectious diseases caused by new viruses or bacteria had been identified in the ongoing surge.

Wang Dayan, director of the Chinese National Influenza Centre, also said monitoring indicated that antiviral drugs were still effective against the viruses.

She said the flu strains prevalent now – including H3N2 subtype of influenza A virus – were also prevalent last year and also “consistent with the main strains circulating in most regions globally”.

Researchers were monitoring whether existing vaccines were “compatible” with the strains, she said.

She also noted that the existing corresponding vaccines for prevalent respiratory diseases, including flu, proved to be “safe and effective”, and it was important to be vaccinated.

“It is still effective for people who have not previously been vaccinated against influenza to get the flu vaccine now,” she said.

In Washington on Friday, five Republican senators led by Marco Rubio asked President Joe Biden’s administration to ban travel between the United States and China because of the spike in cases, Reuters reported.

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National security studies are going mainstream in China. Will it breed a new Chinese elite?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3243616/national-security-studies-are-going-mainstream-china-will-it-breed-new-chinese-elite?utm_source=rss_feed

China is in the midst of a sweeping pivot to ramp up its national security – a massive undertaking led by its president, Xi Jinping, who has deemed the changes essential for China’s survival amid elevated geopolitical tensions with Washington and its allies.

The measures, which have sent political and financial shock waves beyond China’s borders, have prompted long-term planning to ensure that the world’s second-largest economy will operate according to the national security agenda of China’s top leadership for decades to come.

Over the past five years, more than a dozen Chinese universities – seven of which are general universities – have established national security studies departments, and more schools are expected to follow, billing the new field of studies as “safeguarding the country”.

The initiatives first introduced in 2018 have turned the once-specialised subject into a discipline that is now accessible to the wider public and admits students from diverse academic backgrounds

Previously, the curriculum was mostly focused on academic training for military, security and law enforcement officials. National security courses in Chongqing’s Southwest University of Political Science and Law, for example, have been offered since the 1980s.

In 2021, China’s Ministry of Education explained the rationale for the initiative as an “urgent need for a large number of national security talents” as China faced “complex and severe” international and domestic challenges.

Senior Chinese officials have repeatedly warned citizens about the “worst and most extreme situations” and to be prepared for “high winds and waves” – likely references to geopolitical headwinds from Washington and its allies.

Both outside observers and insiders say the push within the education sector to meet Beijing’s security-focused priorities reflects an in-depth assessment of the geopolitical environment against a long-held insecurity about Beijing’s place in the world order and its ability to compete with Western powers.

While China continues to play catch-up in a field that has been dominated for decades by the United States, the shift has also raised fears among experts that nurturing a new class of security personnel, and the apparatus to support them, would fundamentally refocus the mindset and approach to governance by Chinese officials.

Self-reliance, security, SOEs: Chinese premier has clear message on rust belt tour

When China’s Education Ministry first announced a plan in 2018 to set up national security studies departments in universities across the country, it designated the field as a new first-grade discipline, on par with other essential subjects, such as maths and philosophy. The move ensured prestige and funding for the new field of study, in addition to allowing the ministry to foster master’s and doctoral degree programmes.

Over the past five years, new national security studies departments at Chinese universities have boasted about their academia and geographical strength for specialised curriculums that tick the boxes of the 16 areas of security laid down by Xi in 2014, when he founded the country’s first National Security Commission. Xi continues to chair the commission to this day.

The all-encompassing framework seen as critical for China’s domestic stability and international prosperity, covers political, territorial and military aspects of security, as well as non-traditional aspects such as the economy, culture, cybersecurity, food, nuclear materials and financial security.

Zhu Feng, dean of the school of international studies at Nanjing University, said setting up the new discipline reflected the country’s long-term strategy to improve knowledge and talent in the national security field amid the most “unprecedented, severe international environment” China had seen since it was founded in 1949.

“The great powers’ competition is not something that can be easily and quickly be done with, so looking at things now, we need to aim for the long term and prepare accordingly,” Zhu said.

“We are small and slender, but those in the game are tall and strong,” Zhu said, referring to the external environment that China must operate in. He said the power imbalance dictated China’s calculus and its change of mindset, so one option to respond was by building a knowledge framework on natural security.

Since it was introduced, Xi’s vision for “comprehensive national security”, has become a prevailing theme, permeating all aspects of governance amid sustained tensions with the US-led West over trade, technology, Taiwan and the South China Sea.

“Building the discipline is not only a response to strategic challenges, but more importantly, it pertains to future talent development and improves the entire governance in this area,” Zhu said, adding that national security studies will lead the future direction for China’s social sciences research.

A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the establishment of the field of study at the general university level signalled that Communist Party leaders wanted to raise national security awareness in face of the perceived external threats.

“As the current situation is like this – China is going to rise and the US is going to suppress it. It is inevitable, and you have to admit the West is much more skilled in intelligence operations than China,” the source told the Post.

“Espionage cases in recent years have been scandalous and many government officials aren’t even aware of this when interacting with foreigners, so if Chinese leaders must pay attention to it, they would want to start with education.”

China’s Ministry of State Security has recently drawn attention to several high-profile espionage cases, including one in August in which it said a government worker recruited in Japan and trained by the CIA had been captured. This month, the ministry said a former executive from a state-owned firm in southwest China had been jailed for six years for providing classified information to a foreign country.

The source said that the fact that national security studies were made accessible to the general public and young people in particular, instead of being restricted to military academy members, meant that party leaders were intent on extending the overall influence of the security drive across the education sector.

However, William Kirby, a T.M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University, and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, said the establishment of the new discipline reflected more the “insecurity of the party” and its perceived external threats.

He said the move gave the sense that “China’s national security is somehow in danger, which I personally do not believe is the case”.

“It reflects more the insecurity of the party,” Kirby said.

China was in its “best strategic position of its modern history”, and it would make more sense if universities were set up for peace studies, he added.

China’s spy agency warns of national security threats from AI technology

The focus of the national security studies departments will vary and most will be built to leverage the traditional strengths of the university.

For example, the programme in northeast China’s Jilin University, which was introduced in 2019, specialises in security matters relevant to that region, which shares a border with North Korea. It also offers courses in food security, where grain is an important commodity.

The national security department at Fudan University in Shanghai, which oversees one of the country’s best computer science schools, focuses on artificial intelligence and cryptography, reflecting China’s emphasis on cybersecurity.

Minzu University of China, in Beijing, which is affiliated with the country’s top office on ethnic affairs, focuses its national security studies on the far-west region of Xinjiang, where Beijing has drawn international criticism for alleged human rights abuses and sanctions from Western countries.

Earlier this month, Renmin University’s school of international relations opened a national security studies programme that features eight scholars who specialise in China’s various relations with major world powers.

Hong Kong to mark National Security Education Day with activities across city

Katja Drinhausen, head of the politics and society programme at Berlin-based think tank the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics), said the national scope of the new discipline spoke to China’s overarching national security drive. But she said that developing such specialised subjects also came with risks for the next generation.

“There is a benefit to developing more specialised national security studies and it is a normal thing we also see in other countries. But at the same time, I also do see a big risk because the official concept of ‘comprehensive national security’ is so broad that almost anything can be a matter of national security,” Drinhausen said.

Drinhausen said the curriculum was designed to insert Xi’s security ideology into the education system, and risked skewing the minds of China’s young people with “a very securitised view” of how China related to the world.

When it was introduced in 2015, China’s National Security Law stipulated that incorporating national security into education systems would improve awareness for all. The directive has since been elevated to a key doctrine of the Communist Party and is now considered central to its future development and survival.

“We have seen in the past decade how much this [mindset] has driven friction with other countries, more isolation of China, more focus on self-reliance and ... really a step back from the very format of opening to the world,” she said.

Such an agenda could become something that held back China both in its domestic development and in its ability to work with others internationally, Drinhausen said.

Nora Niu, a first year student in the national security studies programme at Jilin University, said many students faced the challenge of having to learn the curriculum from scratch since the new discipline had no established pathway from previous undergraduate coursework.

“It is quite a leap subject-wise and it is pretty difficult for us to learn,” said Niu, who began her studies this autumn, adding that many classmates were hoping for a career in government or academia.

Zhu Feng, who as dean of the school of international studies at Nanjing University oversees its new national security programme, said the most pressing challenge for the “relatively weak” discipline was its lack of real experts in the field.

He said China should use lessons from the US – which has a much longer history in the discipline – to build its own national security core curriculum with “Chinese characteristics”.

But Kirby, with Harvard University, said it was “not common at all” in the US to have such national security studies at regular universities and colleges.

US universities mostly spin out their national security studies courses as online master’s courses or short-term training for military or security professionals for career development. In contrast to scholarly research, the curriculum is more practical, sometimes with courses taught by the FBI and Nato experts.

Kirby said that as a new discipline, it was important for the curriculum to be taught in a way that not only understood domestic national security, but also security from other international perspectives.

“If you only learn what national security is like within your own country, then you do not understand the views of other countries – what their worries are about national security,” he said.

He said he would prefer to see Chinese students studying national security alongside their counterparts in the US, Europe, Russia and Japan.

“You have to see the way the world, your partner or your adversary sees it, if you are going to have any success,” Kirby said.

Philippines says China has executed 2 Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking despite appeals

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3243638/philippines-says-china-has-executed-2-filipinos-convicted-drug-trafficking-despite-appeals?utm_source=rss_feed

China has executed two Filipinos for drug trafficking despite high-level Philippine government appeals to commute their death sentences to life in prison, the Philippine government said on Saturday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila did not identify the two Filipinos, citing the wishes of their families for privacy. It added that it did not announce the November 24 executions until the Philippine government was formally notified by China.

No other details were immediately given by Chinese or Philippine authorities about the executions and the drug trafficking cases.

4 Chinese drug traffickers killed in Philippines methamphetamine bust

The DFA said that from the time the two Filipinos were arrested in 2013 until their 2016 convictions by a lower Chinese court, it provided all possible help, including funding for their legal defence.

“The government of the Republic of the Philippines further exhausted all measures available to appeal to the relevant authorities of the People’s Republic of China to commute their sentences to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds,” the DFA said. “There were also high-level political representations in this regard.

“The Chinese government, citing their internal laws, upheld the conviction and the Philippines must respect China’s criminal laws and legal processes,” the DFA said.

“While the Philippine government will continue to exhaust all possible avenues to assist our overseas nationals, ultimately it is the laws and sovereign decisions of foreign countries, and not the Philippines, which will prevail in these cases.”

The executions came at a difficult point in the relations of China and the Philippines due to escalating territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The Philippines, through the DFA, has filed more than 100 diplomatic protests over aggressive actions by China in the disputed waters since President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr took power in June last year.

The DFA said that while it was saddened by the executions of the Filipinos, their deaths strengthen “the government’s resolve to continue our relentless efforts to rid the country of drug syndicates that prey on the vulnerable, including those seeking better lives for themselves and their families”.

It renewed a reminder to Filipinos travelling abroad to be vigilant against drug syndicates, which recruit travellers to serve as “drug mules” or couriers, and to refuse to carry any uninspected package from other people.

Two other death penalty cases involving Filipinos are on appeal and under final review in China, DFA spokeswoman Teresita Daza said, without elaborating.

One other Filipino, Mary Jane Veloso, is facing execution in Indonesia after being convicted of drug trafficking. Marcos Jnr has said that he has appealed for a commutation of her death sentence or a pardon, but it remains to be seen whether that will be granted.

The Philippines is a major global source of labour and Filipino officials have been particularly concerned over the vulnerability of poor Filipinos to being exploited by drug syndicates.

Ex-president of Micronesia urges US to live up to funding promise, warns of China’s influence drive in Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3243627/ex-president-micronesia-urges-us-live-funding-promise-warns-chinas-influence-drive-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed

Months after exiting office, the former president of the Federated States of Micronesia has urged American lawmakers to keep their promise of approving funds for the Compact of Free Association (Cofa) pact, warning that “nations can be looking elsewhere”.

The Cofa treaty has steered US ties with the strategically located Pacific island nation for decades.

“The livelihood of our nation hinges upon approval of the extension of our treaty, which has expired as of the end of September,” David Panuelo, who stepped down in May after a four-year term as president, told the South China Morning Post in Washington on Friday.

The situation “puts our country in a very awkward position”, Panuelo added, since many legislations back home were counting on new levels of funding from Cofa renewals.

He called on the US to demonstrate the bipartisan support “as promised when we signed the treaties, and that funding would be forthcoming and supported” by both the Democratic and Republican parties.

US must catch up with China in Pacific islands outreach: Biden adviser

After administering Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau under a UN trusteeship following World War II, the US signed international treaties with each as sovereign Pacific nations in 1986 and 1994 under the Cofa.

The pacts granted the US military exclusive access to each nation’s land, air and sea in exchange for financial assistance and permission to legally live, work and go to school in the US.

The economies of the three island nations remain heavily reliant on American subsidies, which account for roughly 40 per cent of Micronesia’s annual revenue. For the Marshall Islands, US funding makes up about 70 per cent of its GDP. Palau, meanwhile, is on the verge of hitting a debt crisis on January 1.

The country’s GDP dropped by 30 per cent between 2016 and 2019, as the flow of Chinese tourists dropped by half after Palau reiterated its support for Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing as an integral part of its sovereign territory.

The Cofa programmes for the Marshall Islands and Micronesia lapsed on September 30, while for Palau it ends next year.

New deals – under which US President Joe Biden has committed a total of US$7.1 billion over 20 years to the three nations – have already been negotiated and renewed. But those are still only on paper, as the largest-ever congressional budget request for the region remains in limbo amid a partisan clash over federal spending.

Both chambers of US Congress are expected to vote next week on the 2024 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), which establishes the top-line budget and directs Pentagon policy for the coming financial year. But Cofa renewals are unlikely to make the cut either in the NDAA or in a proposed US$150 billion supplemental package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Approval of the Cofa funds has become a crucial part of US efforts to counter China in the region.

“When they say it’s a priority, but they don’t take action on it and can be delayed a year or two year, nobody knows, we don’t like uncertainty”, Panuelo said.

“[That] can put us in a position that can compromise the trust, that we’ve always counted [on the US, given] competing powers in the region that are wanting to see this fail.”

“Nations can be looking elsewhere for development, and that comes with the strategic cooperation,” Panuelo cautioned.

Over the last decade, Beijing has remained focused on deepening its ties in the Pacific through increased development assistance, diplomacy and security cooperation.

Last year, Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, prompting concerns among the US and its allies and partners over the possibility of a Chinese military base there.

Panuelo had at the time written to Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, expressing his opposition to the agreement.

On Friday, Panuelo claimed Beijing had been trying to gain influence “in our countries’ decision making”, alleging that during his presidency Chinese officials “attempted to aggressively go against” some of his decisions.

The Chinese embassy in Micronesia did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

Cleo Paskal, a non-resident senior fellow for the Indo-Pacific at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a Washington think tank, described the delay in getting the funds as “a betrayal of an old, deep relationship” with the three Cofa nations, that would allow China’s “political warfare room to manoeuvre and grow”.

“If the US isn’t willing to help them with the things that they care about – schools, healthcare – then there’s an opening for them to ask themselves legitimately, frankly, why are we doing this?”

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Uganda chases China’s cash after Western lenders baulk at bankrolling projects over human rights issues

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3243529/uganda-chases-chinas-cash-after-western-lenders-baulk-bankrolling-projects-over-human-rights-issues?utm_source=rss_feed

Uganda is facing a Catch-22 as it courts financiers to bankroll its multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects, including a railroad and an oil pipeline.

The landlocked East African nation wants to build a US$5 billion pipeline that would transport crude oil from its Lake Albert oilfields in the northwest of the country to Tanga on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast.

It also wants to upgrade its internet infrastructure and construct a major railway line running from the capital Kampala to the Kenyan border town of Malaba.

But Kampala has a dilemma after dozens of banks and insurers from the West backed out of the pipeline over growing opposition from environmental groups. The World Bank complicated the situation further when it froze any new loan requests in August after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-LGBTQ law, which criminalises homosexual acts, with severe penalties, including execution.

On Monday, Uganda’s finance ministry sought parliamentary approval to borrow US$150 million from the Export-Import Bank of China to expand its internet infrastructure.

It is another example of Uganda’s reliance on borrowing from China. While Chinese lenders have not officially announced if they will finance the 1,443km (900-mile) oil pipeline, in September, Uganda’s energy and mineral development ministry told the Post that Sinosure was working with Eximbank to provide over half of the US$3 billion debt that Uganda needed to build it.

Chinese lenders step in to back crude oil pipeline in Uganda

Tim Zajontz, a research fellow in the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University, said after the freezing of loans by the World Bank, the Ugandan government was under immense pressure to find money for certain projects.

And with Western lenders backing out of the oil pipeline project, he said Chinese funding seemed to be Kampala’s “plan B”.

“We can expect that the China Eximbank will seriously consider both requests,” Zajontz said, referring to the oil pipeline and the funding for internet infrastructure.

But equally important for China Eximbank will be geopolitical considerations.

“Beijing has a keen interest for Chinese firms to put in place Chinese technology, infrastructure and norms in the information and technology sector. There is a direct and intensifying competition with Western competitors,” said Zajontz, who is a lecturer in global political economy at the University of Freiburg where he works in the research project De/Coloniality Now.

And while, according to Zajontz, both the European Union’s Global Gateway and the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment had significant envelopes earmarked for IT infrastructure across Africa – in part to help contain Chinese control in this sector – before any cash could be handed over, tough questions would first be asked about Kampala’s human rights record.

“So, I assume that Museveni’s government prefers Chinese money and technology,” Zajontz said.

But even as Uganda endears itself to China, Chinese money is not guaranteed.

Beijing had already said no to funding the building of Uganda’s section of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), leading to the cancellation of the contract Uganda had signed with China Harbour Engineering Company.

The same fate befell Kenya when China Eximbank would not fund its section from Naivasha in the Central Rift Valley to Malaba at the Ugandan border over commercial viability concerns.

Uganda has since contracted Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi to build the section, with funding reportedly expected from Britain’s Standard Chartered Bank and export credit agency UK Export Finance.

Mark Bohlund, a senior credit research analyst at REDD Intelligence, said the Turkish financing of the Ugandan leg of the SGR increased the likelihood that China would provide financing for other projects in Uganda, as well as the Naivasha to Malaba leg of the railway.

“Freighting goods into Uganda should significantly increase revenues for the Kenyan part of the SGR and thus reduce Kenya’s debt-servicing pressures,” Bohlund said.

“I see the priority for the Chinese being the financing of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline rather than the Ugandan leg of the SGR.”

Lauren Johnston, an ­associate professor at the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, said Uganda’s oil pipeline appeared to face a few headwinds – starting with the political problems caused with Western leaders over the country’s recent homophobic legislation.

The other issue, she said, was the environmental risks associated with both the construction of the pipeline and the consumption of the oil it would deliver.

French energy giant TotalEnergies is behind the Ugandan oil project, and Johnston said it was facing pressure from the European Parliament to drop it.

On the other hand, at the belt and road forum held in Beijing in October, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised a cleaner, greener Belt and Road Initiative alongside elevated trade and infrastructure investments.

But China has also promised to support African economic integration, and this pipeline may help integrate African energy markets. Tanzania, for example, in November signed an agreement to export gas to Kampala, Johnston said.

“How China will balance its promise to support regional integration, increased trade, and green development – concurrently – is not clear,” Johnston said.

Aly-Khan Satchu, a sub-­Saharan Africa geoeconomic ­an­­­­­­­­­­a­­­­­­­­­lyst, said Uganda’s SGR proposal was by all accounts a little flaky.

“Uganda needs to reboot its SGR proposal and align it regionally with [South Sudan and the DRC] and also integrate the Tanga pipeline into the financing request. I am sure China will advance the loan at the right price,” Satchu said.

With declining borrowing options for Uganda, he said, “I think China or some constellation of Brics countries is where Museveni has to look”.

But Fabrice Houdart, a former World Bank senior country officer and researcher at Georgetown University, said that, in practice, the World Bank was not cutting lending to Uganda, and the African nation should persist with the global lender instead of chasing China.

“The bank is in a bind like everything else in which it must balance its sincere desire to fund Uganda and not appear as disregarding what is an egregious human rights violation and a provocation,” Houdart said. “As a consequence, Uganda’s economic stage is now set for a less-than-stellar performance, which is not that different from usual.”

He said Uganda’s decision to pivot to China for financing was like switching dance partners mid-song.

“Sure, China’s dance card isn’t as full these days, with their lending orchestra playing a slower tune, but it’s a partnership that comes with its own set of intricate steps,” Houdart said.

Hong Kong Audit Commission head brushes off accusations over targeting of Chinese University, says it scrutinises all use of public money

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3243637/hong-kong-audit-commission-head-brushes-accusations-over-targeting-chinese-university-says-it?utm_source=rss_feed

The head of Hong Kong’s Audit Commission has brushed off accusations over deliberate targeting of Chinese University in its latest investigation, saying it scrutinises all use of public money regardless of the institution involved.

Director of audit Nelson Lam Chi-yuen on Saturday did not rule out looking into other tertiary institutions in future, noting the commission was tasked with carrying out value-for-money reviews of all organisations that received public funds.

“The coverage of our scrutiny is all-encompassing, touching on every institution about its use of every dollar,” he said.

“When the situation warrants, we will look into the use of public money in every aspect. The scrutiny covers all universities and tertiary institutions.”

Chinese University falls short in ensuring national security: Hong Kong auditor

Lam said the public spending watchdog had conducted checks on other tertiary institutions, adding that full audits would look into every aspect of legal compliance, which included the national security law.

“People may not have seen us audit only one single university [previously],” he said. “But in future, the chances are we will look into all other universities for every dollar they receive from the government. We’ll also see if the institution concerned has complied with the law, including the national security law.”

He was responding to accusations that the commission had singled out Chinese University for scrutiny in its latest auditing exercise.

Released this week, the audit report was the latest addition to a turbulent year for the publicly funded university and came just weeks after the legislature’s passing of a controversial bill shaking up its governing council.

In the report, the commission said the university had yet to incorporate national security safeguards in its tender documents, contracts and guidelines, calling on the institution to strengthen its “guidance and regulations” for facilities operated by external contractors. One example it cited was the lack of national security guidelines for the operation of the bookstore.

Hong Kong graft-buster probes Chinese University research centre over misconduct

Chinese University said it “welcomed” the findings and it would revise all contracts to specify that operators needed to adhere to local legislation, including the national security law.

The legislation, imposed by Beijing on the city in June 2020 following months of anti-government protests, criminalises acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Lam said the university had accepted the report’s findings and agreed to roll out improvement measures.

Hong Kong lawmakers pass bill reforming Chinese University’s governing council

But Heung Shu-fai, a council member who had opposed the governing body overhaul, earlier said the report focused on “petty and trivial issues not worth the manpower spent”, and the only option for the university was “to swallow it”.

The report found the university’s bookstore was selling miniature rechargeable fans and toy dolls, products which fell outside those stipulated in the agreements.

It also said that all of the catering outlets had failed to obtain a food business licence, and none served students and staff exclusively.

The operators of a supermarket, convenience store, hair salon and the bookstore had not changed since 1981, 2001, 2005 and 2012, respectively, according to the audit.

China is a ‘priority country’ in Netherlands’ global cultural strategy, top Dutch official says during Hong Kong visit, highlights aim of deepening collaboration in design

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3243626/china-priority-country-netherlands-global-cultural-strategy-top-dutch-official-says-during-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed

China is a “priority country” in the Netherlands’ global cultural strategy, a top Dutch official has said during a visit to Hong Kong for an annual design event, adding that she aims to expand collaboration in creative endeavors to address environmental issues.

Barbera Wolfensberger, director general of culture and media at the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, arrived in the city this week as part of the Netherlands’ delegation to Business of Design Week 2023, held from Monday to Saturday.

“China is a priority country for us in our international cultural policy,” Wolfensberger told the Post in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “That’s why we’re also here with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, not only the Ministry of Culture.”

The director general said there was already extensive cultural cooperation between the Netherlands and Hong Kong, as well as mainland China, in various fields including architecture and music, citing Dutch singer-songwriter Wende’s show in the city and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance in Rotterdam next year.

“The arts give us a really good chance to learn to understand each other and see each other’s points of view, and really know where we’re coming from,” she said. “That’s important if you want to work together and to understand each other.”

Wolfensberger said a meeting with Hong Kong’s tourism minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung during his trip to the Netherlands in March was significant and that she hoped to establish a long-term relationship with the city.

“We are here because we want to work together long term, not because we just want to shake hands and go away,” she said, adding that cultural collaboration encompassed a wide range of areas.

‘Renaissance of the city’? Hong Kong hosts star-studded Louis Vuitton show

“For us, design is also culture,” she said. “I think creative professionals are never really bound by the boundaries of what is culture.”

Wolfensberger added design artists could use their imagination to help create a more environmentally-friendly world with a focus on the circular economy, which aimed to extend the life cycle of products and reduce waste.

“The designer can take you on that road in small steps and in the design thinking process,” she said. “This is what we need to listen to, ‘Oh, this is technically possible’. In the end, often it’s the same person because that person is an artist and also a creative professional.”

Director of CLICKNL Bart Ashmann, also a member of the Dutch delegation, said the Greater Bay Area presented a lot of opportunities and he was looking to work with businesses in the region.

UK National Gallery chief praises presentation style at Hong Kong’s Palace Museum

The bay area refers to Beijing’s initiative to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland Chinese cities into an economic powerhouse.

“Hong Kong can play a role as an entry point, the starting point of collaboration,” he said, adding that the concept of circularity extended beyond the city, the mainland or any other place.

According to the Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, there are at least 140 Dutch companies in the city, down from at least 190 three years ago.

“We have seen a dip, but that is especially among small and medium-sized enterprises and freelance entrepreneurs due to Covid-19 travel restrictions,” a chamber spokesman said. “Virtually, all bigger companies stayed in Hong Kong and kept their status of regional head office.”

Beware of ‘fake financial innovation’, China’s new overseer warns industry

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3243628/beware-fake-financial-innovation-chinas-new-overseer-warns-industry?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s new finance overseer has spelled out its plans for the industry’s direction with a warning that financial innovation must be tethered to the real economy.

In an article in Qiushi, a top Communist Party journal, on Friday, the watchdog said advances in financial innovation must comply with the market and the rule of law.

“The vitality of finance lies in the market, and the order of finance lies in the rule of law … Unrealistic or fake innovation will only lead to significant risks and losses,” the article said.

Finance and real economic activity were also integral to each other, it said.

“The real economy is the foundation of finance, and finance is the lifeblood of the real economy, they coexist and prosper together.

“If finance detaches from the real economy, it is like water without a source and a tree without roots. Without a robust real economy to support it, financial prosperity will only have ‘virtual fatness’.”

The article was written by the Central Financial Commission’s (CFC) general office and the Central Financial Work Commission, which were set up in March as part of a restructuring that bolstered the party’s direct control over strategic sectors.

The CFC, headed by Premier Li Qiang, oversees the country’s 400 trillion yuan (US$58 trillion) holdings in banking, insurance and securities assets.

The article echoes concerns in Beijing about the fragility of the country’s financial system.

At the party’s five-yearly central financial work conference in late October, the leadership drew attention to various financial and economic risks, saying the standard of financial services fell short of the needs of the real economy. Managing those risks was essential to the next stage of development in China, the conference statement said.

The article also coincided with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s announcement of more than 300 million yuan in penalties handed to 22 banks and insurers for irregularities.

Citic Bank was the biggest offender, with 224 million yuan in fines for violations including non-compliance with management of related-party loans.

The who, what and how of China’s new financial watchdog

As part of the Qiushi article, the CFC underlined the need for tougher and broader financial oversight to ensure all activities were covered.

It pledged to “effectively address the issue of ‘loose and lax’ regulation, striving for consistent, stringent, and thorough supervision, making financial supervision truly ‘with teeth and thorns’”.

It also called for constant improvement on “the professionalism, authority, and transparency of regulation”, and noted the need to “strengthen coordination between central and local regulators” and strengthen “supervision of the regulators”.

Renmin University finance professor Zhao Xijun said the conference clearly laid out policy points and goals to be implemented, including strengthened supervision in the sector and the need to serve the real economy.

Zhao said as the country’s economy transformed and upgraded, its needs grew and “in the process of meeting these ever-expanding and growing demands ... financial services should meet the real needs of the real economy”.

He said that with the development of new technologies, financial institutions needed to innovate to provide new services but such innovation “should be distinguished to avoid detaching from the needs of the real economy”.

According to Zhao, the leadership had always stressed the need for better oversight but previously “the regulatory system was not very smooth”, with problems such as regulatory overlaps and vacuums that weakened the ability to identify and prevent risks.

The premier highlighted those weaknesses at a CFC meeting last month, reportedly saying the commission would prioritise risk prevention and buttress “weak links” in the economy.

He Lifeng, a Politburo member and a vice-premier in charge of finance, trade and economic matters, is director of the new commission’s general office which runs its day-to-day affairs.

He is also the party chief of the Central Financial Work Commission, which oversees the party ideology and discipline in the country’s financial sector.

‘Violated right to life’: China daughter, 23, loses domestic violence case against mother but gets restraining order for protection

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3242969/violated-right-life-china-daughter-23-loses-domestic-violence-case-against-mother-gets-restraining?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman in China who took her mother to court after suffering depression she claimed was caused by her long-term abuse has had her case thrown out of court because she could not prove a causal link between her condition and her ill-treatment.

The woman, 23, from Beijing, who uses the pseudonym Xiaogu, said her mother had constantly abused her physically and verbally for no reason since she was very young, and once beat her up so badly that she ended up in hospital.

She told the mainland media outlet 36Kr that she was diagnosed with depression and sleep disorders in 2019, conditions she claimed were the result of abuse by her mother.

Following a bout of abuse in 2021, Xiaogu moved into a youth hostel and decided to sue her mother for violating her right to life, body and health.

During an online video trial in April last year, Xiaogu pasted 43 awards she had won in her previous life on the wall of her hostel accommodation.

She claimed this proved that she was not the reason for her mother’s abusive behaviour.

She also presented her medical records, photos of bruises she suffered and recordings of her mother’s insults as evidence.

She lost the lawsuit on two counts with the court saying there was no proof of abuse nor was there any evidence of a causal link between her mental illness and the “conflicts with her mother”.

However, the court granted her a domestic violence restraining order that prohibits her mother from beating or threatening her.

Xiaogu said she had “found the reason to live” when she was granted the protection order.

She said she had moved back to live with her mother after the trial, but had deleted all her contact information and avoided her in their 40-square-metre home.

Meanwhile, she has become an online influencer who promotes anti-domestic violence content and helps with others facing parental abuse.

Xiaogu said even after her mother stopped abusing her, she still felt the pain.

She added that she had been trying hard to meet her parents’ demands and ignoring her own needs: “I am the third person who abused me apart from my parents,” she added.

In 2022, the Deputy Director of the All-China Lawyers Association’s Marriage and Family Law Committee, Tan Fang, told the mainland media outlet Legal Daily that long-term mental abuse, which tends to be invisible and prevalent than physical abuse, could cause mental health problems such as low self-esteem, and a tendency for violence.

China’s first national Anti-Domestic Violence Law, enacted in 2016, included mental abuse in the definition of domestic violence for the first time.

However, according to the Deputy Director of Beijing Dongwei Law Firm’s women’s legal aid centre, Gao Lei, it is especially difficult to obtain judicial evidence of mental abuse.

Many people remain unaware that verbal abuse is a form of domestic violence against which they could seek legal help, Gao added.

A report on anti-domestic violence issued by China’s State Council in August also highlighted the difficulty in discovering abuse cases involving children.

Meanwhile, an online survey conducted by the mainland newspaper Nanguo Zaobao in 2022 indicated that 83 per cent of the 1,482 respondents admitted they had beaten their children.

‘I want to attend their classes’: young China teachers turn to emojis, fun, cute comments when marking, win plaudits on social media

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3243106/i-want-attend-their-classes-young-china-teachers-turn-emojis-fun-cute-comments-when-marking-win?utm_source=rss_feed

Young teachers in China are incorporating memes and cute comments when they mark exams and assignments, winning plaudits from parents.

Beyond memes, teachers are also replacing the traditional – and more formal – term “the student” with casual words like “you” or “dear”.

They also use more vivid and personalised feedback, incorporating images instead of formal evaluations.

Many parents believe integrating memes and cute comments helps motivate students to perform better while forging stronger connections between teachers and students.

Even teachers who are not artistically talented have resorted to drawing simple but popular cartoons on evaluations as encouragement.

One example is a primary school English teacher who gave heartwarming comments to all her students.

For instance, a student who scored 95.5 points out of 100 was told: “I’m sending you a little flower, don’t be too proud!” The comment was accompanied by a hand-drawn image of a person handing the student a flower.

Another student with an average score of 82.5 points received a drawn smiley face and the message: “Keep up the good work”.

Typically, a student scoring a 72.5 would receive harsh criticism, but the teacher was kinder, writing: “Your score made your baby unhappy!”

The student even responded: “I’m not very satisfied either, but I will work harder!”

In another case, a Chinese teacher was marking a homework assignment for her primary school students and noticed that one pupil struggled with writing the simple Chinese character for “hand”.

She wrote: “It has been three years. Let me repeat one last time, the character for hand has four strokes, not five” and added an emoji of a cartoon character wiping away tears.

Many online observers expressed admiration for such teachers.

“I want to attend their classes,” said one commenter.

Another added: “I started school too early. It would be amazing to have a teacher like this!”

“These comments are great motivators for students. These teachers are excellent!” agreed a third.

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New Sunway: how China has sidestepped US sanctions on its most powerful supercomputers

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3243619/new-sunway-how-china-has-sidestepped-us-sanctions-its-most-powerful-supercomputers?utm_source=rss_feed

China has unveiled one of its secret top-performing supercomputers, which was built under US sanctions.

Powered by an upgraded home-grown chip, the new Sunway supercomputer boasts a performance that is second only to the world’s most powerful system – the Frontier – which was built and hosted by the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

According to a Chinese computer scientist who asked not to be named, the new Sunway is not the most powerful supercomputer in China at present. But after details of it were given at the Supercomputing 2023 (SC23) conference in Denver, US, earlier this month, it gave the public some hints on how China has managed to sidestep US sanctions to build its own supercomputers.

While the home-grown chips the new Sunway uses are not as powerful as the US version, the Chinese scientists have instead increased the number of cores in the machine. This does, however, increase energy consumption, size and cost of running the supercomputer.

But despite the drawbacks of the measures needed to circumvent the US sanctions, the result is a fast and powerful machine. The supercomputer has a speed of a billion billion operations per second, expressed as 5 floating-point operations per second (exaflops) under a benchmark called “HPL mixed precision”, a technical way of measuring the performance of supercomputers. It is just below the performance of Frontier which has a score of 9.95 exaflops. The new Sunway also has more than 41 million CPU cores – nearly five times as many as Frontier.

This Chinese dark horse has also outdone leading supercomputers, including the Frontier, in computing efficiency. It can maintain over 85 per cent of its peak performance in regular operation, ranking the highest among all heterogeneous systems – a type of common supercomputing architecture – and second among all systems.

Meanwhile, China’s most powerful supercomputer remains undisclosed and other supercomputing chips are also under development, according to the Chinese scientist who works at a top mainland university.

The new Sunway, also known as Sunway OceanLight, is an iteration of the Sunway TaihuLight, developed by the National Research Centre of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology in Wuxi, in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

TaihuLight was once number one on the Top500 list of supercomputers, the most influential ranking of the 500 fastest supercomputer systems in the world. It held the top spot from 2016 to 2018 but fell to 11th place in the latest ranking.

This new generation of Sunway is made possible largely because it is underpinned by a more powerful processor, the Sunway SW26010 Pro CPU, which is an upgraded version of the Sunway SW26010 that was used in the TaihuLight system.

Compared with its predecessor in the series, the new processor has made improvements in the clock speed, the instruction set and the memory bandwidth, bringing in a fourfold increase in performance.

After reading recent online news of the supercomputer, the Chinese scientist expressed no surprise.

“This processor is not new,” he told the Post. “It has been used in China’s supercomputing systems for the past two or three years, but was just made known to the public, especially the Western world.”

SW26010-Pro was a home-grown chip that aimed to boost China’s supercomputing capabilities and self-reliance, but it was still not on a par with its most advanced rivals, the scientists interviewed said.

To get around that, in the new Sunway system, Chinese scientists have employed a strategy where, despite the inferior individual chips, they use a greater number of cores – the fundamental units of computation – to enhance the computer’s performance.

“The sanctions on chips make it expedient for China’s supercomputers to rely on more cores to achieve the same results,” the university scientist said. “It is equivalent to a task that could be accomplished by three young individuals therefore requiring five to 10 elderly people to complete it.”

A supercomputer is a massive system that connects many nodes (machines), with each node containing multiple chips that are dotted with numerous cores.

Compared to its previous version, the SW26010-Pro chip has seen an increase in core clusters from four to six, with each cluster containing 64 cores, bringing a total of 384 cores.

The new Sunway is equipped with more than 100,000 chips and over 41 million cores, according to the paper, but due to limitations such as the on-chip memory and network bandwidth of the processor, the system has to be carefully optimised.

“It is good to know that China has developed a chip specifically designed for supercomputers, and some of its primary performance shows promising results. However, there are still many unknowns and challenges,” said a computer scientist surnamed Liu, who declined to use his full name.

Under the containment of semiconductor technology from the United States, China has been unable to access the most advanced chips, forcing domestic supercomputing builders to find alternative methods to circumvent sanctions and mitigate their impact.

That is what led to the use of cores, Liu said.

Generally, he said, if one chip could integrate more cores, it implied that it could divide a task into smaller sub-tasks and process them simultaneously in parallel and its computational efficiency would usually be higher. However, the drawback is that it consumes more energy.

In fact, high energy consumption is a notorious challenge for supercomputers; thus, energy efficiency is also an important metric when evaluating supercomputing systems.

The new Sunway significantly surpasses the 8.7 million cores of the Frontier system.

“While this might demonstrate its strong parallel computing capability, it is also likely to lead to a higher energy consumption,” Liu said.

Another problem was the cost-effectiveness of the system, he noted.

The Frontier is backed by AMD’s general-purpose chips; China’s player, by contrast, uses tailored chips. This approach may present challenges in terms of manufacturing and mass production, and whether the prices are reasonable remains unknown when not reaching a certain production scale.

US guru says China’s supercomputer power may exceed all countries

The US sanctions as well as China’s worsening relationship with the United States in recent years have also seen supercomputing research institutions stop submitting data to the Top500 list, including information on supercomputing development and performance.

Since then, the world has known little about China’s supercomputing capabilities. Despite that, the nation has never stopped in its aim to be a superpower in the field.

In 2018, Chinese state media reported that the country had completed three prototype exascale systems: the Sunway OceanLight developed in Wuxi, the Tianhe-3 by the National Supercomputing Centre of Tianjin, and one by the Chinese company Sugon for the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen.

The three next-generation supercomputers may already be up and running in China, said Turing Award laureate and University of Tennessee professor Jack Dongarra in an interview with the Post in September.

Amid China’s silence, the information about the Sunway OceanLight surfaced at the SC23 conference because of an academic paper that was presented there.

The paper was led by a group of scientists from China’s National Research Centre of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology and Tsinghua University.

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Understanding China: military and political challenges | Films

https://www.economist.com/films/2023/12/01/understanding-china-military-and-political-challenges

China boasts the world’s largest armed forces, with 2m personnel. But despite its strength, it is also vulnerable. The People’s Liberation Army is a force untested in recent conflict, and internally it is dealing with corruption, complex command structures and the effects of America’s technology restrictions.

Rosie Blau, International China correspondent, Jeremy Page, Asia diplomatic editor, and Roger McShane, China editor, explore the intricacies of China’s armed forces, offering insights into the complexities that shape this military powerhouse—and what they mean for the rest of the world.

Visit our subscriber events page to view the schedule for our forthcoming events. Subscribers can also watch recordings of all our previous sessions.

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Aukus deal: Australia, US, Britain to test new AI system to track Chinese submarines in the Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3243606/aukus-deal-australia-us-britain-test-new-ai-system-track-chinese-submarines-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed

The US and two of its closest partners are set to test a new way to track Chinese submarines using artificial intelligence.

Crews flying Pacific missions on the US navy’s top maritime surveillance and attack aircraft will be using AI algorithms to rapidly process sonar data gathered by underwater devices of the US, UK and Australia, the defence chiefs of the three nations announced on Friday.

The technology could enable the allies to track Chinese submarines with greater speed and accuracy as they search for ways to blunt the impact of China’s rapid military modernisation and growing global assertiveness. The tests are part of the three nations’ extensive technology-sharing agreement known as Aukus Pillar II.

“These joint advances will allow for timely high-volume data exploitation, improving our anti-submarine warfare capabilities,” according to a joint statement from US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles and UK Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps during a meeting in California.

Australia’s Aukus nuclear submarines could fuel arms race despite assurance

The three powers said they would deploy advanced AI algorithms on multiple systems, including the P-8A Poseidon aircraft to process data from each nation’s sonobuoys, underwater detection devices.

All three nations fly the naval aircraft made by Boeing Co. The US version of the warplane flies regular patrols in the Pacific, including the South China Sea, where they are occasionally buzzed by Chinese fighters. The Poseidon carries torpedoes and cruise missiles to attack submarines and surface vessels.

The announcements are part of a broader security partnership among the three allies known as Aukus, one of a number of regional alliances the US has pursued to counter China.

Pillar I of the partnership focused on building up Australia’s domestic nuclear-powered submarine capability, which will culminate in the joint development of a new submarine for fielding by 2040. Pillar II focuses on cooperation in eight technological areas, including quantum technologies, advanced cybersecurity and hypersonic weapons.

The three defence chiefs announced plans to integrate their ability to launch and recover undersea drone vehicles from torpedo tubes on their current submarines for underwater attack and intelligence-gathering, according to the announcement.

“This capability increases the range and capability of our undersea forces and will also support” Australia’s eventual new submarine called “SSN-Aukus,” the announcement read.

The Pentagon said on Friday the US State Department has approved the potential sale of Aukus-related training devices to Australia for an estimated US$2 billion.

General Dynamics will be a principal contractor in the sale, it added.

Australia’s Aukus deal safe for now, but split in Labor reveals ‘problems ahead’

According to the Pentagon’s latest annual report on China’s military, the country currently operates six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines, and 48 diesel powered/air-independent powered attack submarines.

The Chinese navy’s “submarine force is expected to grow to 65 units by 2025 and 80 units by 2035 despite the ongoing retirement of older hulls due to an expansion of submarine construction capacity,” the report found.

Chinese president’s mother and sister make rare media appearance in documentary about Xi Jinping’s father

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3243554/chinese-presidents-mother-and-sister-make-rare-media-appearance-documentary-about-xi-jinpings-father?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s mother and sister have made a rare appearance in a documentary series as part of a publicity campaign about the family and Xi’s upbringing around the 110th anniversary of the birth of his father, Xi Zhongxun.

Xi’s mother Qi Xin, 97, is featured among interviewees in the documentary which aired on state broadcaster CCTV this week. The series titled Chicheng, which means “total devotion”, consists of six episodes that recount the revolutionary career of the elder Xi.

In an interview for the series, Qi Xin recalled her husband saying he required his children to be humble and “avoid having a sense of superiority” as the offspring of cadres.

She also recalled the elder Xi stressing the importance of focusing on work and studies, which she said “can be used as a motto … and it can be passed on and be useful for future generations”.

In another episode, Qi said that during Xi Zhongxun’s revolutionary career, “he did not present himself as a cadre but as an ordinary member of the public … this is why he was said to be a leader of the mass who emerged from the mass”.

The series cited an article written by Qi Xin, who noted that: “Under Zhongxun’s influence, being diligent and thrifty has become our family values”.

In the interview, Qi is seen speaking in front of a photo of the elder Xi. She wears a warm-coloured shirt and glasses, appearing to express sentences fluently and clearly while in good spirits. The broadcaster did not specify when the interviews were conducted.

The series featured archive documents, photos and videos that reflect Xi Zhongxun’s career and life in regions that include Gansu and Guangdong provinces. Party history researchers, former officials and Xi’s brother Xi Yuanping and sister Qi Qiaoqiao were among those interviewed for the documentary.

While Xi Yuanping occasionally attends public events, Qi Qiaoqiao rarely appears in public.

In the documentary Qi Qiaoqiao recalled Xi Zhongxun’s works in late 1950s when he coordinated relief efforts for regions that suffered famine.

After the elder Xi received letters from people noting their situation during the famine, she said: “He reported to Premier Zhou [Enlai] and Chairman Mao, and convened a meeting, where he [showed] and ate a vegetable flatbread that had gone bad, which he received from the people, and said bitterly, ‘how can people eat this?’”

CCTV aired the series from Sunday to Tuesday following the 110th anniversary of the elder Xi’s birth. Xi Zhongxun was born on October 15, 1913 and died in 2002, having been a Politburo member and vice-premier.

The early years: the troubled times that ‘forged Xi Jinping’

A decade ago, CCTV broadcast a six-episode documentary series on Xi Zhongxun, including interviews with more than 300 people and featuring video and audio recordings of the elder Xi.

In one of the 40-minute episodes of the new series, Xi Zhongxun is quoted as asking his family “not to make any special arrangements, not to play with privileges, and not to seek mere enjoyment”.

In recent years, state media has published articles on Xi Jinping’s family as part of a public relations campaign. An article published in the People’s Daily early last year said of the president’s mother: “Qi Xin has always set an example herself, educating her children with excellent family style”.

“Xi Jinping, who was deeply influenced by Qi Xin’s words and teachings, has always borne in mind his mother’s advice, being strict with himself and remaining true to the original aspiration,” the article said.

Xi keeps a photo of his father in his office, according to his most recent New Year’s Eve video address that revealed his office bookshelves. A photo showing Qi Xin, Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan is also among family pictures kept on his office bookshelves, according to state media reports.

Ahead of the 110th anniversary of his birth, officials in Guangdong province hailed the elder Xi as a spiritual icon for his role in developing the Greater Bay Area.

Guangdong provincial party chief Huang Kunming, who chaired a provincial party committee’s study group session in early October, said Xi Zhongxun was “an outstanding member of our party, a great communist fighter and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist”.

In Shaanxi province, a commemoration was held on October 15 in Fuping County – Xi Zhongxun’s hometown – and was attended by his son, Xi Yuanping.

Xi Yuanping relayed his mother Qi Xin’s greetings to the people of the town and recounted the revolutionary career of his father, according to the official Shaanxi Daily.

Xi Jinping's tribute to father seen as a bid to shore up his position

A decade ago, Beijing hosted a high level seminar to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Xi Zhongxun’s birth. The CPC Party History Press published three books on the elder Xi featuring some of his writings, which complement an official biography that had its second part published in August 2013.

In late 2014, another book on the elder Xi was published by the state-run People’s Press and featured 300 photographs and a 70,000-word biography.

Hong Kong should import more nuclear power from mainland China to hit its 2050 climate targets, top government adviser says

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3243592/hong-kong-should-import-more-nuclear-power-mainland-china-hit-its-2050-climate-targets-top?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong should consider importing more nuclear energy from mainland China to achieve its ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, a top government adviser has said, citing favourable factors over renewable energy.

Dr Lam Ching-choi, head of Council for Carbon Neutrality and Sustainable Development, spoke to the Post on Thursday, when the city’s environment minister led a delegation to the United Nations’ 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (Cop28) in Dubai.

On the same day, the provisional State of the Global Climate report by the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2023 was set to be the warmest year on record, with about 1.4 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial 1850-1900 baseline.

Lam said that considering the accessibility, pricing and power distribution network, using more nuclear energy was one of the options for Hong Kong to reduce electricity-generated carbon emissions.

“We have been using nuclear energy for many years,” he said. “If we are walking towards carbon neutrality, the proportion of nuclear energy is highly likely to increase.

“We have the track record and the unique co-development model we have been adopting with the mainland has been effective. We have also witnessed the safety and reliability of nuclear energy. There are many favourable factors.

“If we limit the proportion of nuclear energy now, it will be the greatest obstacle in achieving carbon neutrality.”

Delegation to COP28 to discuss how Hong Kong can help save the planet: official

In 2020, natural gas accounted for almost half of the fuel mix of Hong Kong’s electricity generation, with 24 per cent from coal, 25 per cent imported from a nuclear energy plant in Daya Bay, Shenzhen and the rest from renewable energy.

Electricity generation is the major source of greenhouse gas emissions, amounting to 63 per cent of the city’s overall total.

Under the Climate Action Plan 2050, the government has aimed to halt the use of coal for daily electricity generation, increase the share of zero-carbon energy in the fuel mix to about 60-70 per cent and that of renewable energy to 7.5 to 10 per cent by 2035.

Lam made his remarks after the two electricity suppliers in Hong Kong on Tuesday announced they would raise their basic tariff for next year and reduce their fuel surcharge due to the falling fuel prices. Consequently, bills, made up of both charges, will drop.

But the latest five-year development plans submitted by both firms had not covered offshore wind farms, with the government explaining that it was to prevent putting pressure on the tariffs under the high costs of constructing the facilities and power generation.

Hong Kong to host first forum at COP28 in bid to promote city as green finance hub

Lam said Hong Kong had limitations in generating clean energy, such as land shortage, while avoiding high costs that might lead to a drastic increase in electricity bills.

“It is logical to purchase it from elsewhere. It will be the most convenient to import from the mainland,” he added.

Hong Kong is on the path to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions that amounted to 33.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022, an about 4 per cent decrease from the 2021 level and 24 per cent from the 2014 peak.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Thursday flew to Dubai to join the Chinese delegation at Cop28, where the Financial Services Development Council and Friends of the Earth are expected to host Hong Kong’s first forum at the summit.

Lam said he expected the delegation to tell of Hong Kong’s “good stories”.

“We have achieved the goals that we have set in the past on time. We can set a good example for the world to treat the goals with more sincerity.

Hong Kong’s waste charging scheme has loopholes, cleaning industry warns

“We have very strict standards and we strictly follow the rules of everything. We also have high transparency and audit everything. I hope we can promote our strategy to the world.”

With garbage representing about 8 per cent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, Lam said the coming year would be “critical” to see whether the waste charging scheme to be rolled out in April next year would bring about public behavioural changes.

To reduce excessive household rubbish, the scheme will require residents to buy government-designated plastic bags in any of nine available sizes, with each litre costing 11 HK cents (1.4 US cents). A six-month grace period will be given after the scheme starts.

While expressing confidence that neighbours would monitor each other for any violations, he said he was worried about the illegal dumping of waste in the countryside and called for strict enforcement of penalties in such areas.

Lam warned that legal requirements might be necessary if excessive packaging in logistics did not improve after the scheme’s implementation, while some sectors, such as the medical industry, might need more efforts in waste reduction.

Lam said he would continue to spend the next two to three years explaining carbon neutrality to different industry representatives.

“As we already have all the law frameworks, if some industries need to formulate regulations, along with explanatory work, it will not be difficult.”

Ukraine blows up Siberian railway linking Russia-China trade corridor

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3243609/ukraine-blows-siberian-railway-linking-russia-china-trade-corridor?utm_source=rss_feed

Ukraine’s spy agency staged two successive explosions on a railroad line in Siberia that serves as a key conduit for trade between Russia and China, Ukrainian media reported on Friday. The attacks underscored Moscow’s vulnerability amid the war in Ukraine.

Ukrainska Pravda and other news outlets claimed the Security Service of Ukraine conducted a special operation to blow up trains loaded with fuel on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which runs from southeastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean in the Russian Far East.

The media cited unidentified sources in Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, a regular practice in claims of previous attacks in Russia. The security service, which is known in Ukrainian as SBU for short, has not confirmed the reports.

The first explosion hit a tanker train in the Severonomuisky tunnel in Buryatia early Thursday, causing a fire that took hours to extinguish, Russian news outlets said. The 15.3-kilometre (9.5-mile) tunnel in southern Siberia is the longest in Russia.

A second explosion hours later hit another train carrying fuel as it crossed a 35-metre (115-foot) high bridge across a deep gorge while travelling on a bypass route, according to the Ukrainian news reports.

Russian railways confirmed the tunnel explosion but did not say what caused it.

‘Forgotten’ since Gaza war, Ukraine says no ceasefire unless Russia withdraws

Russian daily business newspaper Kommersant cited investigators saying an explosive device was planted under one of the train’s carriages.

There was no comment from Russian authorities on the second explosion.

Ukrainian authorities have emphasised that the country’s military and security agencies can strike targets anywhere in Russia to fight Moscow’s aggression.

Officials in Kyiv have claimed responsibility for some previous attacks on infrastructure facilities deep inside Russia.

Russia’s top counter-intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said on Friday that it detained a man accused of attacking a military airbase in western Russia with exploding drones in July and staging an explosion that derailed a cargo train in western Russia last month.

The FSB identified the suspect as a dual Russian-Italian citizen and alleged he was recruited by the Ukrainian military intelligence in Istanbul and underwent training in Latvia before returning to Russia.

There was no immediate comment on the claim from Ukrainian authorities.

As the war continued into its 22nd month, Ukraine’s forces shot down 18 of 25 Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones and one of two air-launched missiles that Russia launched early Friday, the Ukrainian air force said.

The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least four civilians and wounded 16 others between Thursday and Friday mornings.

Three of them died when Russian warplanes struck the village of Sadove in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region; the fourth was killed in Russian shelling of the town of Toretsk in the eastern Donetsk region, the presidential office said.

South China Sea: Philippines risks its Beijing ties with ‘non-starter’ mini-code of conduct plan

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3243543/south-china-sea-philippines-risks-its-beijing-ties-non-starter-mini-code-conduct-plan?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines risks torpedoing its relations with Beijing and derailing talks on a wider South China Sea code of conduct by pursuing a separate set of rules and regulations for the disputed waterway with fellow claimant states, analysts say.

Security experts have warned that China will not take kindly to attempts to “gang up” on it, following Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s recent announcement that he had approached Vietnam, Malaysia and others to discuss their “own” code of conduct (COC).

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have been working on a South China Sea COC for more than two decades, but progress has been slow despite commitments by all parties to advance and accelerate the process.

At a live-streamed event in the US state of Hawaii on November 20, Marcos said he hoped Manila’s recent efforts to forge a pact excluding China would “grow further” and extend to other Asean member states, citing the limited headway that has been made so far in talks with Beijing.

But Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute who specialises in Asian security issues, said Vietnam, Malaysia and the other South China Sea claimant states were highly unlikely to go along with the Philippine proposal as they had already committed themselves to COC talks with Beijing.

“Any attempt to start a parallel set of talks to the Asean-China negotiations risks derailing the COC process,” he said. “Nobody wants to start all over again.”

China-Philippines relations have become increasingly tense in recent months, with vessels from both countries becoming embroiled in naval skirmishes, including two collisions near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in October.

Storey said Manila’s suggestion for separate talks stemmed from these increased tensions and its frustration at the slow pace of COC talks with Beijing.

“But it’s a non-starter. China would absolutely reject it. Beijing won’t sign any agreement it wasn’t involved in the negotiations for from the beginning,” he said.

“It would also see it as an attempt by the Southeast Asian claimants to ‘gang up’ on it.”

Any talks on a “mini-COC” might result in Beijing “misperceiving” claimant states’ intent, which would affect bilateral ties and likely result in Beijing threatening to pull out of negotiations on a wider pact, said Collin Koh, a senior fellow specialising in defence and strategic studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“Beijing’s motivation for having a COC with Asean differs from the bloc’s anyway,” Koh said, noting that China needed the code to demonstrate that regional disputes could be addressed amicably by the concerned parties without extra-regional interference.

“Asean needs the code to assert its relevance and centrality” he said, pointing out that if talks collapsed, Beijing could blame it on parties involved in the “mini-COC”.

“However, the collapse of the COC process could be disastrous for Asean, which is already beset with a host of problems that call into question its claims of relevance and centrality,” Koh said.

Critics have long singled out the bloc’s passive, consensus-based “Asean Way” approach – rooted in the principles of non-interference and cooperation through dialogue – for being ineffective, especially in resolving the Myanmar crisis that erupted after the military seized power in a February 2021 coup, leading to an ongoing armed conflict.

China has been able to exploit this consensus-based model, which allows any of the 10 member states that dissents to veto decision-making processes, in its COC negotiations with Asean, according to analysts Tanvi Kulkarni, Frank O’Donnell, Shatabhisha Shetty and Angela Woodward.

“Disagreements persist over the geographical scope of the code, the scope of permissible maritime activities, measures to manage escalation of disputes and promote self-restraint, the roles of different regional powers, and the issue of whether the code should be legally binding or otherwise,” they wrote in their report Tackling Maritime Incidents and Escalation in the Asia-Pacific, published on Thursday by the Seoul-based Asia-Pacific Leadership Network.

While China would likely react negatively to any “mini-COC”, Joshua Bernard Espeña, a defence analyst and resident fellow at the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank in Manila, argued that such a pact would be better than “standing still” and could help sort out lingering issues between other claimant states.

“If things go smoothly, it could set the stage for a more polished, effective COC down the line for all Asean,” he said, adding that the United States’ endorsement and support of the initiative to reinforce a rules-based order would be essential.

“This involves providing diplomatic support, engaging in freedom of navigation operations, and making economic contributions,” Espeña said, noting that without such backing, “China’s hegemonic actions” could scuttle the pact.

In the case of Vietnam, Huynh Tam Sang, an international-relations lecturer at Vietnam National University, said Hanoi still had to work with Beijing on illegal fishing issues and would not want to jeopardise ties.

China has often accused Vietnamese vessels of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the South China Sea, while Hanoi routinely opposes an annual summer fishing ban in the waterway that Beijing has imposed since 1999 for violating its sovereignty.

Huynh found the idea of a “mini-COC” far-fetched, but said a more flexible kind of regional “minilateralism” could address non-traditional security challenges in the disputed waterway.

“Marcos’ remarks suggest that claimant states might work together to minimise differences and explore minilateral mechanisms that suit their interests and strategic calculations,” he said.

Is Philippines’ alliance building to counter China a ‘major naval war’ risk?

Noting that Vietnam and the Philippines had in recent years sought defence policy dialogues and maritime collaboration, Huynh said that Vietnam and Malaysia were equally eager to strengthen maritime cooperation.

All three countries had rejected a new map Beijing released in August laying claim to about 90 per cent of the South China Sea, Huynh said, adding that “a trilateral maritime mechanism between like-minded states” was a possibility in future.

Thomas Daniel, a senior fellow specialising in foreign policy and security studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia, was also dismissive of the idea of a pact excluding China, asking: “What would a ‘mini-COC’ without China accomplish, when it is China that is the recent primary source of aggression and militarisation in the South China Sea?”

China has fully militarised at least three islands it built in the disputed waterway, US Indo-Pacific commander Admiral John C Aquilino said in an interview in March last year, calling it the country’s “largest military build-up since world war two”.

He told reporters the islands are armed with weaponry that threaten other countries in the region, such as anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment and fighter jets.

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Chipping away at China | Podcasts

https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2023/11/30/chipping-away-at-china

The US government is intent on keeping the most advanced semiconductor chips—and the technology required to make them—out of China’s hands. In the last two years a barrage of export controls have been put in place to do this. But creating a watertight system in a deeply interlinked global economy is difficult, verging on impossible. It will only work if America’s allies are on board.

Hosts: Mike Bird, Tom Lee-Devlin and Alice Fulwood. Guests: Maria Shagina, senior research fellow at the IISS, and Gregory C. Allen, an export controls expert at CSIS.

Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Podcast transcripts are available upon request at [email protected]. We are committed to improving accessibility even further and are exploring new ways to expand our podcast-transcript offering.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

FII Priority: Ray Dalio’s ‘smart rabbit with 3 burrows’ hedge shows Chinese executives the way to navigate Middle Eastern markets

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3243549/fii-priority-ray-dalios-smart-rabbit-3-burrows-hedge-shows-chinese-executives-way-navigate-middle?utm_source=rss_feed

One late-October morning in one of the most expensive hotels in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, a group of Chinese start-up entrepreneurs and mainland financiers was reminded of the importance of preparedness and proactive backup plans by Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates.

Dalio, a self-proclaimed Sinophile, used a Chinese idiom, “Smart Rabbit has three burrows”, while making his point to delegates at the 7th Future Investment Initiative (FII), the annual conference which is often referred to as “Davos in the Desert”, where admission requires membership at US$15,000 a pop.

Attendees at the event networked with major Saudi executives from Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, to Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s US$700 billion sovereign wealth fund.

The FII Institute will host the FII Priority Asia Summit in Hong Kong on December 7 and 8. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu will attend the opening ceremony, while Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po is scheduled to speak at the event. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF’s governor and chairman of the FII Institute, will lead the kingdom’s delegation.

Dalio’s hedging tip in Riyadh emerges when the global economy is grappling with market uncertainties and geopolitical tensions. It immediately struck a chord with the audience, evoking both applause and laughter after the humorous and appropriate use of the rabbit analogy. But on a more sombre note, Dalio’s words underscored the need for investors to diversify their portfolios given the inherent instability of the global economy, and the repercussions of the Ukraine invasion and the Israel-Gaza war.

Bill Huang Xiaoqing, the founder and CEO of Shanghai-based AI powered robot developer Dataa Robotics, was in the audience that day and said the advice was timely.

Following his first trip to Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October, Huang has decided to pick the region as his company’s possible “new home” for his business ventures in conjunction with the United States and Europe. Huang believes his company, an eight-year-old start-up, which has developed cloud-based humanoid robots to provide services like cleaning, caring and sanitation to households, restaurants and hospitals, is up to the task.

“The Middle East market is deep and vast,” said Huang, who believes the region offers ample business opportunities, drawing parallels to China’s booming era in the 1990s.

China’s economic growth rate has hit a peak after decades of rapid expansion which followed its opening up in the 1980s, analysts say, as political tensions and a global economic slowdown intensify. The Middle East presents an attractive alternative as the region seeks to develop tech-driven start-up ecosystems and reduce reliance on fossil fuels as a growth driver.

Trade between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and China has surpassed trade with the US and the euro area combined, according to a report released by HSBC in August. GCC refers to the six Arab nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The HSBC report estimates there is an untapped trade potential of US$178 billion between China and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region from now until 2027.

In October, the World Bank estimated real GDP growth in the GCC would decelerate to 1 per cent in 2023, down from 7.3 per cent in 2022 due to lower oil production and falling oil prices, presenting an opportunity for the non-oil sectors to help fill the growth gap.

“The timing is ripe for certain Chinese companies to target the market leveraging on the strengthened diplomatic ties after President Xi Jinping’s visit [to the country last December],” said Vincent Yan, senior vice-president of Saudi Arabian conglomerate Ajlan and Bros Holding Group.

The conglomerate facilitates the entry of Chinese companies into the kingdom, in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy for economic transformation and for cutting the kingdom’s reliance on fossil fuels. Ajlan has since brought 12 Chinese companies, drawn from various sectors, which are focused on sustainable business models that cater to government, corporate, and individual clients.

The recent wave of investments shares a common thread: the companies involved are focused on developing products that have the potential to benefit humanity and foster a better, more sustainable way of living through technological advancements in the region, according to industry players.

Mega-deals involving manufacturing and tech projects that generate massive economic benefits and handsome profits are actively being pursued by the Saudi government, said Yan.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF’s governor and chairman of the FII Institute, underscored the kingdom’s commitment to renewable energy to ensure a sustainable future when he spoke at the FII conference, stating that it is projected to constitute half of the country’s energy sources by 2030. In 2022, less than 1 per cent of its electricity came from wind and solar.

Al-Rumayyan also underscored the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the kingdom’s economic future. In June this year, Saudi Arabia’s ministry of investment launched a joint venture with Human Horizons Technology, amid a push by Riyadh to develop a domestic electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing industry. Also in the pipeline is a plan by Enovate Motors, a Chinese EV start-up, to build a factory in Saudi Arabia.

Chinese start-ups such as Fourier Intelligence and WeRide have already successfully invested in the region and have aligned their business models with the needs of Middle Eastern countries.

Fourier, which specialises in exoskeleton robotics for medical rehabilitation, has already received investments from Prosperity 7 Venture, the US$1 billion diversified investment fund of Saudi Aramco.

The fund, with its name derived from “Prosperity Well’, the seventh oil well drilled in Saudi Arabia and the first to strike oil, joined the 400 million yuan investment round in Fourier in 2022, together with global investors like Japan’s SoftBank.

“They want to invest in something that can change lives. And that is what we are doing,” Zen Koh, Global CEO of Fourier, recalled.

JPMorgan’s Dimon, Dalio addressing world’s challenges in Riyadh

Aysar Tayeb, executive managing director of Prosperity 7 Venture, explained the investment strategy when it made its second round of investment in Fourier last year.

“We hope to land Fourier’s rehabilitation solutions within the kingdom’s network of hospitals and clinics. They will also work with the company to deliver the most advanced rehabilitation services and solutions to improve recovery and the quality of life among patients in Saudi Arabia and beyond,” Tayeb said.

Another innovator, WeRide, a self-driving technology company headquartered in Guangzhou with offices in San Jose, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi, has obtained the first self-driving licence in the UAE.

This approval came after two years of rigorous testing and examination processes involving the robotaxi on the UAE roads, according to Tony Han, CEO and co-founder of WeRide.

“With the licence in hand, WeRide is now authorised to trial all of its vehicles within the country,” said Han, referring to robotaxis, robobuses, robovans and robosweepers.

Currently, WeRide operates a fleet of 10 vehicles in the UAE, consisting of eight robotaxis and two robobuses. The company plans to have hundreds of vehicles on the country’s roads by 2025, in line with its mobility strategy and its commitment to advancing technological innovation in transport.

“We hope to truly put autonomous driving into practice and reduce labour costs,” said Han.

Yan of Ajlan said it was both a quantitative and qualitative game.

“Ajlan has to make sure that the business looking to invest in Saudi Arabia will be able to create a sustainable business model there. To be precise, it needs to attract government, corporate and individual clients who are willing to pay for the products and services.”

Ajlan has also backed Autowise, a developer of autonomous road sweepers, in another instance of the benefits Chinese technology could bring to the country through the reduced need for labour and improvement of environmental conditions.

“We are the go-to for Chinese companies as they plan to localise operations in Saudi Arabia because we know both markets well and are able to help facilitate investment and save time,” said Yan.

Other Gulf nations are also seeking to diversify its oil-dependent economy through sustainable and renewable energy and tech investments, said Tang Ying Lan, CEO and founding managing partner at Insignia Ventures Partners, a Southeast Asian venture capital firm specialising in early-to-growth stage investments.

For example, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, is currently assessing investment prospects in China’s retail, healthcare, tech, and logistics sectors. Abdulla Al-Kuwari, head of the fund’s Qatar Investment Authority Advisory (Asia-Pacific) unit, revealed his intentions during the Caxin Summit held in Beijing in early November.

CYVN Holdings, an investment company funded by the Abu Dhabi government, in June acquired a 7 per cent stake in Nio, one of China’s leading EV manufacturers, for US$738.5 million.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies that are eyeing the Middle East are being advised to adopt global perspectives while localising their products.

Fourier’s Koh emphasised the importance of collaboration with overseas partners which possess international experience and vision, while Dataa Robotics’s Huang believes that localisation and contributing to the local economy are crucial strategies for success in the Middle East.

“Learning from the experience of foreign companies in China over the past decades can provide valuable insights for Chinese companies expanding into the Middle East,” Huang said. “By leveraging these strategies and insights, Chinese companies can position themselves for success as they expand into the Middle East.”

How can US-India friendship survive alleged murder-for-hire plot? Because both need an ally to counter China

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3243581/how-can-us-india-friendship-survive-alleged-murder-hire-plot-because-both-need-ally-counter-china?utm_source=rss_feed

A brazen murder-for-hire plot against a US citizen, which authorities say was directed by an Indian government official, outwardly seems like a development that could upend the fragile new US-India partnership.

But the countries – each eager for an ally to counterbalance a rising China – appear ready to try to look past the assassination attempt detailed in a US indictment released on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said the unnamed Indian official, whose responsibilities include security and intelligence, and Indian national Nikhil Gupta, 52, plotted this summer to kill a New York City resident who advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India.

They did so – exchanging messages with an undercover DEA agent about the planned assassination – even as President Joe Biden was honouring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a state visit to the White House on June 22.

US officials named the target as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.

US officials, after learning about the plot in late July, demanded that India investigate, a senior administration official said. Biden dispatched his CIA chief to New Delhi and raised the issue with Modi during a September summit, outlining “the potential repercussions for our bilateral relationship were similar threats to persist,” the official said.

High-level meetings and pledges of closer cooperation have continued, with Biden’s secretaries of state and defence visiting Delhi this month. When details of the plot appeared this week, the US released a measured statement.

A senior US administration official called the assassination plot a “serious matter” and said Washington expects India to stop such activities, even as the Biden administration pursues “an ambitious agenda to expand our cooperation” with India.

The US response reflects a desire not to let the issue damage the broader relationship, foreign policy experts said.

“The Biden administration appears to be seeking to compartmentalise this issue from the rest of the strategic relationship,” said Lisa Curtis, a former senior director for South and Central Asia at the White House’s National Security Council.

Biden has made a priority of nurturing ties with India, hoping to counter China’s ambitions in Asia while drawing India away from Russia as the US seeks to isolate Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

‘They need each other’

So far, the New York assassination plot has played out very differently from a similar case in Canada this year.

Canada said in September there were “credible” allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a Vancouver suburb.

India angrily rejected Canada’s claim, sparking a diplomatic row that saw expulsions of diplomats by both sides, and New Delhi threatened to scupper trade talks.

By contrast, India’s response to the US indictment on Wednesday was conciliatory, saying it was taking the case seriously and investigating.

India vows to probe US charge that New Delhi directed plot to kill activist

“India doesn’t share a strategic partnership with Canada, which it does with the US” said Happymon Jacob, an Indian foreign policy expert at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. “Both the US and India realise that they need each other, perhaps the US a bit more than India.”

The Biden administration’s overtures to Modi were already controversial, with some arguing that the Indian leader’s Hindu nationalism and authoritarian instincts made him an unreliable partner.

Activists hold Modi responsible for religious riots in his home state of Gujarat in 2002, in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died. Modi was denied a US visa in 2005 under a US law that bars entry to foreigners who have committed “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

The June summit was Modi’s first state visit to the US, despite taking office in 2014. Sitting alongside Modi in the White House, Biden hailed a relationship “built on mutual trust, candour and respect.”

Richard Rossow, an India specialist at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that from the announced timeline of the alleged plot, the Biden Administration would have known about it well ahead of a series of significant high-level engagements.

“So, based on its own merits, this issue is not enough to derail ties even if it generated some underlying level of tension,” he said.

Ashley Tellis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that although the Biden administration “has bent backwards to avoid a public spat with Delhi”, the issues of sovereignty involved in attack on a US citizen inside the United States would be troubling to US officials.

“I think the bilateral relationship will survive this fiasco,” he said.

“But it will reinforce the qualms of many who believe that the claims about shared values between the US and India are simply mythology.”

US-China joint study challenges theory on the origins of modern corn

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3243528/us-china-joint-study-challenges-theory-origins-modern-corn?utm_source=rss_feed

Scientists have uncovered a new model for the origins of modern corn, challenging the commonly accepted idea that it was domesticated from a single wild relative in Mexico.

After examining samples from around the world, the team found that genetic contributions from a second wild plant about 5,000 years ago may have been key to the adoption of maize as a staple grain in Mesoamerica.

The paper, led by researchers at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan and the University of California, Davis, was published in the journal Science on Thursday.

Despite being one of the most important staple crops around the world, the exact origins of corn have been contested by scientists.

The origins of modern maize have led to “more than 100 years of debate between archaeologists, geneticists and botanists”, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, a professor of evolution and ecology at University of California, Davis, said.

The most commonly accepted model, based on genetic analysis done at the start of the century, is that corn was domesticated in a singular event in a specific part of Mexico, he said.

‘A new era’: China embraces GM corn, soybeans after years of heated debate

This theory says the crop was domesticated from a singular variety of teosinte – a type of wild grass – in particular one from the lowlands of southwest Mexico.

However, the researchers found some discrepancies in this model – namely that “maize varieties that looked most like the single lowland teosinte actually come from the highlands of Mexico”, Ross-Ibarra said.

This discrepancy caught the interest of his team, who began looking into why this may have occurred.

The team began to find evidence of a second teosinte variety, adapted to the central highlands of Mexico, in the genomes of modern corn. This variety had evolutionarily diverged from the lowland one up to 60,000 years ago, the paper said.

They initially found that this variety, Zea Mays subspecies Mexicana, was important for gene flow in the highland regions of Mexico, and hybridisation with maize allowed it to adapt to living in the area.

The researchers also began to find evidence of the highland variety elsewhere.

The Andes do not have teosinte, so it could not have contributed to local maize populations in the South American mountain range, but “we still found it there,” Ross-Ibarra said.

In fact, genetic evidence of Mexicana was found “absolutely everywhere,” he said.

To explain the findings, the team came up with a novel model for the origin of modern maize that explains why Mexicana genes are found in corn around the world.

The model suggests that 4,000 years after maize began to be domesticated, it hybridised with Mexicana. After this event, it spread across the Americas “either replacing or hybridising with pre-existing maize populations,” the paper said.

This model is consistent with both archaeological data and the team’s genetic analysis, which found that Mexicana genes were “ubiquitous” in the maize samples, according to the paper.

The team analysed over a thousand corn genomes from the Americas and China, including around 300 newly sequenced traditional varieties.

Across hundreds of genomes, they found that on average Mexicana contributed to 15 to 25 per cent of the samples’ ancestry.

Mexicana contributes to 25 per cent of genetic variation for kernels per row, 15 per cent for plant height, and 10 per cent for flowering time on average, according to the paper.

While the team was not able to pinpoint specific traits in modern corn that were directly a result of Mexicana genes, Ross-Ibarra said that the genes could have contributed to development of certain maize traits that made it more viable as a staple crop.

But this model also raises further questions, such as how it spread across the Americas.

It requires “either movement of people bringing their maize with them, or trade between groups,” Ross-Ibarra said.

‘Over-reliance’ on seed imports highlights China’s food security conundrum

The team cannot answer this question at present but will continue investigating this question along with human geneticists and archaeologists, with a goal of looking at “maize and humans as a combined system.”

Once we have domesticated a crop to fit our needs, “we don’t tend to think of wild relatives of crops as being particularly useful,” Ross-Ibarra said.

But these wild varieties provided genetic contributions that helped plants to adapt, so their wild genetic resources could be used to help breed crops for “changing climates and new environments”.

The wild relatives could have bad genetic variants that we do not need, and the process of breeding them could be difficult, but it is still important to safeguard this genetic diversity, Ross-Ibarra said.

Bed of roses? Purple underwear, pinky nails, unruly mole hair and triangular money – quest for good fortune continues in China

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3243423/bed-roses-purple-underwear-pinky-nails-unruly-mole-hair-and-triangular-money-quest-good-fortune?utm_source=rss_feed

China has a rich and ancient history of employing specific colours or symbols to amplify luck.

The traditions have evolved to meet the contemporary aspirations of parents, students and young adults.

While a sceptic might dismiss them as hocus-pocus, they have stood the test of time because people believe they can enhance the next generations’ prospects in education, wealth and love.

Today, the Post offers a mini guide to some of the enduring “good fortune” customs which, like it or not, are part of China’s DNA.

China’s National College Entrance Examinations, known as gaokao, mark a pivotal moment in the lives of Chinese students as their performance will largely shape their future prospects.

Hoping their children will excel, many Chinese mothers don long, narrow-cut slit qipao dresses as they wait outside exam centres.

The slit qipao is symbolised by two Chinese characters, kai, meaning “slit”, and qi, referring to qipao. It represents the traditional Chinese idiom qi kai de sheng, meaning “to win victory in the first battle”.

Sometimes, fathers also participate in this custom.

In June, a father in Hunan province, southern China, became an online sensation when appeared at one such gathering wearing a black-and-white slit qipao holding a banner that read qi kai de sheng.

His gesture not only conveyed heartfelt wishes but helped alleviate the nervous mood among parents waiting outside the exam venue.

Wearing auspicious attire extends beyond parents, students also get in on the act.

In northern China, during exam season, students are encouraged to wear purple underwear.

This custom is based on the connection between the colour purple, meaning zi in Mandarin and the word “buttock”, which means ding in the local dialects of northeastern China.

Putting them together alludes to the phrase zi ding xing in the local language, which means “definitely win”. Thus purple underwear is thought to add extra boost of positive energy at exam time.

The catchphrase “It is OK to have no love, but not OK to have no money” has caught on with China’s young adults and led to modern-day rituals aimed at boosting their financial prospects.

A popular activity is to tuck a folded 100-yuan banknote inside your phone case, placing it snugly between the phone and the case.

The banknote is carefully folded into a triangle. The three-sided cash denomination must have its base flush with the lower horizontal edge of the case, and the tip pointing upwards.

Some online tutorials even provide step-by-step instructions on how to fold the money properly, attracting a significant following.

More importantly, the number 100 should face inwards towards the phone, and it is highly recommended to use banknotes with serial numbers ending in eight, a number which symbolises wealth in traditional Chinese culture.

While this has traditionally been viewed as unattractive and unaesthetic, many people in the mainland and Hong Kong believed that long hair growing from a mole symbolises luck, fortune and wisdom.

During the 2021 London Summer Olympics, the Chinese 62kg weightlifter Zhang Jie’s prominent mole with long, wiry, black hair became a topic of discussion among international viewers.

While some suggested removal due to concerns about skin cancer, others were of the belief that the hair had been retained specifically to confer good luck on Zhang.

As well as enhancing money-making luck, some Hongkongers believe that allowing the nail on your pinky finger to significantly outgrow that of those on every other digit, signifies affluence.

The rationale behind this thinking is that if a person sports an extended pinky nail, the chances are they do not engage in low-paid manual labour.

If you are a young man, or woman, seeking help in the pursuit of love and romance, the superstition lobby recommends populating your sleeping quarters with fresh roses, minus their thorns.

Some go even further, arguing that the charm only works if nine of the flowers are placed in the bedroom every day for 49 days, replacing them as they wither.

Others recommend that women place the flowers in the southwest corner of the room, while men should plump for northwest.

This gender-based geographical stipulation stems from the “Eight Trigrams” in Chinese culture which sees the southwest as receptive, signifying women, and the northwest creative, signifying men.

Cash-strapped China county hired an army of temporary civil servants, but their paltry salaries of US$2,300 a year are snowballing local debt

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3243563/cash-strapped-china-county-hired-army-temporary-civil-servants-their-paltry-salaries-us2300-year-are?utm_source=rss_feed

In a rare acknowledgement of the regional financial struggles facing one of China’s most destitute regions, state media has reported on the crushing fiscal pressure resulting from overstaffing.

The report by China Comment, a fortnightly current-affairs magazine affiliated with Xinhua, a Communist Party mouthpiece, explored how the continuous expansion of government workers has taken a toll on local-level finances.

The report was based on the magazine’s recent visit to an unidentified county in the mountainous Wumeng region, which covers more than two dozen poor counties in southwest China’s Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

The disclosure came as Beijing has been scratching its head over how to deal with the level of snowballing debt owed by local authorities, which has forced many of them to cut construction budgets or downsize their general spending.

According to the report, the total wage budget for temporary workers is less than a fourth of what is paid to institutionalised civil servants, who have jobs that are considered to be as secure as an “iron rice bowl”. However, temporary workers were found to outnumber full-time civil servants in the county by nearly twice as much.

The findings showed that 28,806 temporary workers in the county were each making an average of 16,100 yuan (US$2,268) annually, while the 15,580 civil servants were making an average of 128,300 yuan each – eight times more.

“The recruitment process for most temporary personnel lacks central oversight and appears arbitrary, leading to unregulated growth in quantity, and a lack of quality assurance. Nepotist hiring practices are challenging to eliminate,” the magazine said.

The rapid expansion of temporary workers has weighed heavily on the county’s already-strained fiscal budget.

As land sales, which account for the lion’s share of local government revenue, have been declining amid a real estate slump, the heavily indebted municipalities have been grappling with worsening fiscal conditions.

For economy to flourish, China must ‘spell out, ram home’ private sector’s role

With the national economy struggling to find its feet, many local governments are desperate for reliable sources of revenue, and they end up relying on transfers and payments from higher-level authorities.

According to data from the Ministry of Finance, the central government’s budgetary revenue reached 3.4 trillion yuan (US$479 billion) in the first 10 months of 2023 – a 5.8 per cent decline from a year earlier – while local-government revenue dropped by 16.8 per cent to 40 trillion yuan. Land sales dropped by more than 20 per cent, year on year.

In the unnamed mountainous county, the special funds were enough to cover only about 16 per cent of the wages of temporary staff, and most of the rest needs to be reallocated from payment transfers from higher-level authorities to meet these payments, a local official was quoted as saying.

The general public budget revenue falls short of covering wage expenditures for government workers, and the total wage expenditure for temporary staff exceeds the entire county’s total tax revenue, the magazine said.

China’s grass-roots governments usually follow three guiding principles, the magazine noted, pointing to the critical need to “guarantee employee wages, sustain normal operations, and secure the well-being of the people”.

Some counties in the reported region were found to have included wage expenditures for temporary staff in their county-level financial salary budgets, and considerable expenditures were reportedly hidden within the operational expenses of various government departments.

“Higher-level governments should allocate sufficient funds based on functional responsibilities, and specify the funding sources,” an unidentified local official was quoted as saying. “Otherwise, all of the pressure ultimately falls on county-level finances, and the difficulties accumulate at the grass-roots level.”

Other state media outlets have reported that several counties have been scaling back civil services and downsizing jobs in a bid to balance their budgets, in line with broader institutional reforms that could include consolidating and merging various administrative departments.

Childhood pneumonia outbreak in Ohio unrelated to China, Europe

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/12/01/pneumonia-ohio-outbreak-white-lung-mycoplasma-china-europe/2023-12-01T15:43:11.294Z

Health authorities are monitoring an outbreak of pneumonia in children in an Ohio county, stressing it appears driven by familiar pathogens with no connection to pneumonia clusters in China and parts of Europe.

Officials in Warren County, which is in the Cincinnati area, reported 145 cases of pneumonia in children ages 3 to 14 since August. The caseload is higher than normal and reaches the state’s threshold for an outbreak, but there have been no deaths or evidence of increased severity, officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been in touch with Ohio officials and is also monitoring the increases in respiratory illness among children, including potential elevated rates of pediatric pneumonia, in parts of the United States. Officials said the reported trends do not appear to be due to a new virus or other novel pathogen, but instead attribute the increases to several viral or bacterial causes expected during the respiratory illness season.

“As of today, we are not seeing anything that is atypical in terms of pneumonia-related emergency department visits,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen told reporters Friday, noting that “a lot of kids” are going to the emergency department for respiratory illness such as flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, which can be dangerous for some infants and young children.

The CDC monitors overall respiratory illnesses using data reported daily from about 80 percent of the country’s emergency departments. Nationwide data as of Nov. 25 show that diagnosed pneumonia rates in children are not unusual for this time of year, CDC officials said.

The Ohio cases have not caused undue strain on the state’s health-care system and the overall respiratory virus trends are typical for this time of year, Cohen said. “Hospital capacity is fine. Children are recovering at home,” she said. “There’s no evidence that any of those increases are connected to other outbreaks nationally or internationally.”

What to know about fall flu, covid and RSV vaccines for kids

Respiratory illness is spreading in most of the country, and CDC officials said they expect levels of covid-19, influenza and RSV to continue to increase. “RSV season is in full swing,” Cohen said, and flu spread is “accelerating fast.” Covid-19 remains the primary cause of new respiratory hospitalizations and deaths, with about 15,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths every week, according to the CDC.

The outbreak in Warren County attracted outsize attention that erroneously linked it to clusters of childhood pneumonia in northern China. The CDC and independent public health experts who monitor China say the cases appear driven by the usual mix of respiratory viruses including influenza, coronavirus and RSV, as well as Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a type of bacteria that can infect the lungs. All of these pathogens circulate in the United States.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae can cause several types of infection, including chest colds and pneumonia. While some media outlets have used the term “white lung syndrome” to describe illness caused by mycoplasma, public health authorities do not use the term and some experts caution it creates a misleading perception of a dangerous unknown disease.

In fact, the bacteria is fairly common, and when it causes pneumonia, it’s not as severe as other types of bacterial pneumonias, which is why it is often referred to as “walking pneumonia,” said Paul Offit, a professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit said he has never heard the term “white lung” in reference to this disease. Although physicians treat the disease with antibiotics, such as azithromycin, it often resolves on its own.

Since the pandemic, he said, parents and physicians may be paying more attention to symptoms of respiratory illness — cough, runny nose, fever, difficulty breathing — because people want to know whether it’s covid-19. “That’s caused people to pay more attention to respiratory infections, and more importantly, pay more attention to making the diagnosis,” Offit said.

Warren County officials said it’s unclear why they are experiencing a rise in pneumonia, which usually isn’t reported to health authorities.

“We have no evidence whatsoever of any connection to any outbreaks statewide or internationally,” said Clint Koenig, a family physician and medical director at the Warren County Health Department. “We don’t have any evidence to suggest this is anything but routine, standard winter bugs causing pneumonia in higher rates in kids.”

A mix of pathogens are behind the pneumonia cases, he said, with few cases linked to mycoplasma.

Koenig said school nurses alerted his agency to unusually high numbers of sick students, spurring further investigation and news releases about the pneumonia outbreak. He said those announcements were meant to encourage health providers to test children coming in with symptoms and to encourage parents to be vigilant about hand washing and keeping kids home when sick — not to warn the nation.

The fall and winter respiratory season is typically a tough time for children’s hospitals and pediatric offices, but doctors say they worry more about RSV, influenza and covid than pneumonia.

GOP lawmakers grill CDC director about China respiratory virus spike

Jason Terk, a pediatrician in Texas, said he has treated several suspected mycoplasma pneumonia cases in the last six weeks, which is not out of the norm.

“This is a bacterial infection and will sporadically cause clusters of cases,” Terk said. “I don’t think this is on the freaking out scale for most parents generally. Sometimes, when it is going around, awareness and concern may increase about it among parents.”

Widespread media coverage of a pneumonia spike in western Massachusetts was dispelled Friday by pediatrician John Kelley, whose comments to a local news outlet about how children with RSV sometimes develop pneumonia were inaccurately reported as confirmation of a second outbreak. Kelley told The Washington Post he is not seeing unusual pneumonia trends or any parallels to China in his office. Massachusetts health officials said a statewide increase in pediatric pneumonia is expected this time of year, with no evidence suggesting a link to mycoplasma.

Mycoplasma, which causes epidemics in countries every several years, is landing on the radar of pediatricians because it is re-emerging in parts of Europe and Asia for the first time since the covid-19 pandemic, according to a paper recently published in the Lancet journal.

The researchers found mycoplasma was most frequently detected between April and October in Denmark, with Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland further behind.

Danish health officials said the country normally sees mycoplasma epidemics about every four years and expected an increase in cases, driven by children who did not build up immunity due to covid-19 restrictions.

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A year on from the white-paper protests, China looks much different | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2023/11/23/a-participant-considers-the-impact-of-the-white-paper-protests

It was a year ago this month that China experienced the biggest wave of unrest since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Thousands of people, mostly students and youngsters, gathered in cities across China to show their displeasure with the government’s exceptionally harsh covid-19 controls. The public was fed up with the constant testing, the brutal lockdowns and the restrictions on movement. Some of the demonstrators chanted slogans. A few called for Xi Jinping, China’s leader, to step down. Many held up blank pieces of paper, a wry critique of China’s stifling censorship regime. The events thus became know as the “white-paper protests”.

They were effective—or appeared to be. Within weeks the government abruptly changed course, ending its “zero-covid” policy. It may have been an accumulation of pressure, not least economic, that forced the government’s hand. Chinese officials would never acknowledge the demonstrations as a turning point, lest they encourage more like them. But reports suggest that the country’s leaders did have the protesters in mind, along with other considerations, when they began lifting restrictions in early December of last year.

One person who is sure that the demonstrations had an effect is Huang Yicheng. The 26-year-old student joined a protest in Shanghai. He points to the government’s haphazard dismantling of zero-covid infrastructure and its failure to stockpile basic fever medication as evidence that, until last November, it had not been planning to change its policy. Regardless, the authorities have shown little mercy to the protesters. Using facial-recognition technology and mobile-phone data they identified, interrogated and arrested some of them.

Mr Huang himself was detained, along with others, on the night of the protest in Shanghai. He managed to exploit a moment of chaos to escape the bus where he was being held. Earlier this year he made his way to Germany, where he is attending university. But he remains worried about his parents back in Shanghai. They have been harassed and threatened by the police, he says. Security officials told his mother that he could face seven to ten years in prison if he were to return to China.

Little wonder then that Mr Huang is not optimistic about China’s near-term future. He laments its lack of freedoms and the government’s crackdown on civil society. The pandemic, he says, was a kind of a test for the country. In the first two years China passed, controlling the virus better than most countries. But in 2022 it failed in a way that, he argues, revealed the flaws in a one-party system where Mr Xi reigns supreme.

Over the longer term, though, Mr Huang is more optimistic. “Even the desert has a little bit of grass,” he says. “China is a desert and the white-paper movement is that little piece of grass.” He believes that in 20 or 30 years people will come to understand its importance. ■

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