• Scientists find moss is protecting China’s Great Wall, similar to ancient Mayan technique
• China is struggling with a surge of respiratory ailments | China
• [Business] Chinese garlic is a national security risk, says US senator
• US bars imports from 3 more Chinese companies over Uygur forced labour
• Macau ‘junket king’ Alvin Chau makes plea to Chinese President Xi Jinping for re-trial, leniency over 18-year jail sentence
• China’s leadership prioritises economic stability and investor confidence for coming year
• Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, Huawei to build HarmonyOS-based Alipay app amid growing adoption of home-grown operating system
• China bans new steel plants in drive to ‘defend the blue sky’ and cut atmospheric pollution
• China seen ‘more investible than ever’ for Middle East and Latin America, but Western capital remains wary
• China’s lunar base: major African nation joins Beijing’s international moon project
• China, Singapore to let each other’s tourists pay with digital yuan as Beijing seeks to globalise its e-CNY currency
• Why China’s yuan may stay weak in 2024, regardless of any US Fed interest rate cuts
• ‘Too shameless’: man in China demands share of influencer ex-wife’s Douyin account with 800,000 followers worth US$280,000, makes joint property claim
• Stone Age dam and infrastructure point to rise of a ‘great power’ in central China thousands of years ago
• China sees surge in value of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment orders amid latest US export controls, as chip imports post mild recovery
• Indonesia’s nickel supply glut, slowing EV demand could ‘jeopardise’ Chinese miners
• China vows closer security ties with Mekong states as cyber scams, Myanmar unrest have cross-border impact
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• Modi tilts towards Taiwan, Agnes Chow jumps bail, Elon Musk’s SpaceX dents China’s space ambition: SCMP’s 7 highlights of the week
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• What India can learn from China about cleaning up its ‘constant’ filthy air problem
• China dispatches massive vessel to catalogue fisheries, scale up industry presence
• China trade: 5 takeaways from November’s data as exports edge up for first time in 7 months
• Senator peppers State Department nominee Kurt Campbell with questions about China
• China awaits whether US interest rate cut, better ties bring economic tailwinds in 2024

Scientists find moss is protecting China’s Great Wall, similar to ancient Mayan technique

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3244401/just-maya-scientists-find-moss-protecting-chinas-great-wall?utm_source=rss_feed

Biological soil crusts have protected the Great Wall of China from erosion due to rain and wind, a new Chinese-led study has found.

A similar discovery was recently made in ancient Mayan temples.

Biocrusts – thin layers of cyanobacteria, mosses, lichens and other microbiomes – covering large sections of the ancient construction have been “a shelter and regulator to help the heritage structure endure”.

“Our study proves that the colonisation and development of biocrusts exert long-term and multifaceted protections against erosion on the Great Wall through enhancing mechanical stability and reducing the erodibility of rammed earth,” the team from China, Spain and the United States wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on Saturday.

“We should conserve naturally occurring biocrusts on heritage structures rather than removing them,” they said, adding that further study on artificial inoculation and cultivation of biocrust as a nature-based intervention might be helpful to preserve heritage structures amid climate change.

Vegetation was usually deemed as detrimental in monument conservation because it could destroy a structure via its root activity and biodegradation. But this study along with previous ones over the past three decades have challenged the traditional viewpoint.

The current study began in 2021 when the group, with more than two decades of experience studying biocrusts in arid areas, came across the development of biocrusts – only a few centimetres deep on the surface soil – during fieldwork at the Great Wall.

The scientists then set to work, collecting samples from a 600km section of the wall.

While the Great Wall stretches for around 22,000km (13,670 miles) in total, the study focused on the 8,800km section in the drier climate region of northern China which was built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

They found that cyanobacteria and moss biocrusts covered two-thirds of the studied sections. Compared with bare rammed earth, the biocrust-covered sections showed greater stability and lower erodibility, the study found.

Lead author Xiao Bo, a professor at the China Agricultural University who specialises in soil physics, said as well as considering the use of artificial inoculation of biocrusts to protect the Great Wall, future research work could explore its potential applications in other scenarios.

Examples include fixing and controlling sand in desert areas, preventing and controlling water and wind erosion in farmland, protecting archaeological sites, restoring vegetation and ecology in mining areas, restoring heavy metal-contaminated soil, and protecting road slopes, according to Xiao.

“We should study the functions and ecological processes of biocrusts in arid ecosystems throughout China and the world more comprehensively,” he said.

Southeast Asia’s water risk on track for 1,000-year high: China-led study

Scientists have found that ancient civilisations used natural organic additives to strengthen their constructions.

In April, a team of scientists in Spain discovered an ancient Maya technique that used organic plant materials to reduce weathering in lime plasters.

The Mayan civilisation flourished in modern-day Mexico and Central America around the years 250-900AD. It was known for its temples and great stone buildings – and produced some of the most durable lime plasters on Earth.

Elsewhere, plant extracts, sticky rice, fruit juices, oils, animal fats, blood or beer have been previously found to be added to slaked lime to improve the properties of lime mortars and plasters, the researchers said in the paper.

China is struggling with a surge of respiratory ailments | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2023/11/30/china-is-struggling-with-a-surge-of-respiratory-ailments

On China’s fever-prone social media, netizens have been sweating with anxiety as hospital waiting rooms fill up. On November 29th a provincial newspaper posted a message on Weibo, a microblog service, describing an unnamed hospital in the north. The waiting area, it said, was filled with the sound of coughing and the crying of children. After receiving confirmation that her daughter had tested positive for a bacterium that can cause pneumonia, one woman, having waited hours, still had 300 people ahead of her in the queue for a consultation.

The item rapidly became one of Weibo’s hottest-trending posts: its hashtag received tens of millions of views. It was quickly deleted. China’s censors apparently want to keep the temperature down. But in recent days similar stories have filled the internet. Some have included pictures of packed fever clinics and even of children doing their homework while hooked to intravenous drips. The covid-era custom of wearing masks in public had all but ended in China. Amid a recent surge of respiratory diseases, especially among children, it is making a comeback.

On November 22nd the World Health Organisation (WHO) asked China for more details of the outbreaks, raising concerns all over. On the following day Chinese officials told the WHO that there was no new or unknown cause of these ailments. They said the infections were being caused by a range of familiar pathogens, such as the Mycoplasma pneumoniae bacterium, as well as adenovirus, covid-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The WHO said some of the increases were “earlier in the season than historically experienced, but not unexpected” given the lifting of covid controls, and were similar to patterns observed in other countries. It quoted the Chinese officials as saying that hospitals were not being overwhelmed.

Drips all around

But it is clear that China’s health-care system still suffers from problems that make it prone to unusual stress. One is the weakness of primary health care. The number of general practitioners (GPs) has more than quadrupled since 2012, but there are still far fewer of them per person than there are in rich countries and they are often poorly trained. Many Chinese prefer to go straight to hospitals for diagnosis and treatment rather than consult a GP. This causes lengthy queues, especially at the best facilities. Another handicap is pressure on doctors to generate revenue. Ill-informed patients demand unnecessary treatments, which doctors are often willing to prescribe (such as intravenous infusions even for minor ailments).

China has stopped publishing regular statistics on covid vaccinations, but last year take-up was low among the elderly. Less than 4% of over-60s typically get a flu jab. So it will be a tough winter for China’s hospitals—and for the country’s most vulnerable people. ■

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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[Business] Chinese garlic is a national security risk, says US senator

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67662779?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

US bars imports from 3 more Chinese companies over Uygur forced labour

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3244470/us-bars-imports-3-more-chinese-companies-over-uygur-forced-labour?utm_source=rss_feed

The United States restricted imports from three more Chinese companies, including Cofco Sugar Holding, over forced labour practices involving Uygurs and other minority groups in China, the US government said on Friday.

The companies – which produce everything from sugar to network transformers to yarn – will be added to the Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act Entity List, said a posting in the Federal Register.

The list restricts the import of goods tied to what the US government has characterised as an ongoing genocide of minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.

The addition of Cofco Sugar Holding, Sichuan Jingweida Technology Group and Anhui Xinya New Materials will bring the total number of companies on the list to 30.

Since June 2022, US Customs and Border Protection has reviewed over 6,000 shipments valued at more than US$2 billion as a result of the Uygur Forced Labour Protection Act, which was signed into law in 2021, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

The act denies entry to goods from listed companies unless they can prove they were not produced with or tied to forced labour.

“The Department of Homeland Security remains committed to eradicating the use of forced labour and holding organisations accountable for their human rights abuses,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

US officials believe Chinese authorities have established labour camps for Uygurs and other Muslim minority groups in China’s western Xinjiang region. Beijing denies any abuses.

Will China’s Xinjiang cotton output get a boost from Western satellites?

The US said the three companies added to the list worked with government programmes to transfer persecuted minorities to work at their facilities.

A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In September, after three other companies were added to the list, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson called allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang “the lie of the century.”

Cofco Sugar is one of the largest sugar traders in China and also produces and exports tomato paste. Headquartered in Xinjiang, it is part of the Cofco Group.

Jingweida Technology in Sichuan Province produces transformers, network and radio frequency filters, and other devices.

Anhui Xinya New Materials produces fibre yarns and other textiles.

Cofco and Jingweida Technology did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Xinya New Materials could not immediately be reached.

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Macau ‘junket king’ Alvin Chau makes plea to Chinese President Xi Jinping for re-trial, leniency over 18-year jail sentence

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3244462/macau-junket-king-alvin-chau-makes-plea-chinese-president-xi-jinping-re-trial-leniency-over-18-year?utm_source=rss_feed

Macau casino magnate Alvin Chau Cheok-wa has written an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping appealing for a “fair trial” and seeking leniency for his 18-year jail term resulting from 162 charges of fraud, illegal gambling and criminal association.

The former Suncity Group CEO was sentenced in January after a four-month trial that included 12 other defendants and involved losses of HK$8.2 billion (US$1.05 billion) in tax revenue. Chau recently lost an appeal against the judgment.

In the letter dated November 14 and published on Friday by local media, 48-year-old Chau pledged his allegiance to the nation and praised Xi as an exemplary leader.

“President Xi, you are the greatest president in our country’s history and our spiritual leader,” he wrote. “I hope you can speak up for the innocent families. We just need a fair and normal verdict.”

Suncity Group was previously considered the largest junket operator in Macau, acting as go-betweens who bring high rollers on all-expenses-paid trips to casinos, extending them credit and collecting their debts.

The other 12 on trial, many of whom worked for the company, were handed jail terms of up to 15 years for handling almost HK$824 billion in illegal bets and making unlawful gains of HK$21.5 billion from under-the-table wagers between 2013 and 2021.

In the letter, the 48-year-old tycoon claimed the incident had resulted in “no victims, no property loss, no deaths or injuries and no corruption”.

“We always believed that Macau is governed by law and were never worried that we would be jailed by association without committing a crime,” Chau said. “Those involved in the case and their loved ones are in distress.

“Usually, casino-related crimes are non-violent and face a jail term of a few years, why is this sentence so harsh? Can our country, governed by law, protect our people? Why are they facing such treatment?”

Macau ‘junket king’ Alvin Chau sentenced to 18 years in jail

Chau also touched on his childhood in the former Portuguese colony and thanked the central government for contributing to Macau’s development.

The tycoon said he had built his business from scratch and claimed he had never misappropriated funds or received any money or gifts from clients.

He also contested the charges of triad associations, unlicensed gambling and setting up VIP rooms to cater to high rollers.

“I am really overwhelmed by the situation, and I only hope to salvage the disaster that has happened to all of us, so I make this plea in an audacious manner,” he wrote. “I hope you can understand my position.”

Melco Resorts sues ex-lover of jailed Macau ‘junket king’ for Hong Kong flat

Chau wrapped up the letter by calling on the public to testify whether the contents of his words aligned with the facts.

“Regardless of how fate ultimately unfolds, I will unquestionably follow the will of our nation and people, unite the hearts of the people, and share with the party in honour and disgrace, destiny and fate, life and death,” he added.

Like many magnates and tycoons, details of Chau’s personal life often made headlines in tabloids, especially his extramarital affairs with model and actress Mandy Lieu, with whom he had four children. The couple broke up in 2019.

China’s leadership prioritises economic stability and investor confidence for coming year

https://www.scmp.com/economy/article/3244460/chinas-leadership-prioritises-economic-stability-and-investor-confidence-coming-year?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top leadership has made economic stability and a strong push to revive investor confidence priorities for next year.

A meeting of the Politburo on Friday set out the key economic and political tasks for the next 12 months, with President Xi Jinping calling for policy continuity to consolidate recovery and improve market expectations.

He also called for efforts to stabilise the economic fundamentals to help attract foreign capital and boost trade growth, and for more exchanges with the markets to counter negative narratives about the Chinese economy, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Xi also vowed to strengthen party discipline and crack down on corruption, calling for a further push to “carry out special rectification on relatively prominent industrial, systemic and regional corruption problems”.

Earlier this year both the foreign minister Qin Gang and defence minister Li Shangfu were removed from their posts for reasons that remain unknown.

Xinhua’s report did not say when the Communist Party will hold its third plenum, an event that sets the economic tone for the next five to 10 years and which would normally have been expected to take place this year around this time.

As China looks to shore up economy, geopolitics, US rate cuts weigh on outlook

The meeting called for “reasonable” economic expansion, redoubled efforts to support innovation and technological development to put supply chains on a stronger footing in the face of US-led efforts to de-risk from China and curb its access to advanced technology.

The report also highlighted the importance of “establishing the new before abolishing the old”, which generally means a step-by-step approach to developing the economy rather than rushed campaigns.

“When dealing with different risks, Beijing needs to draw up new rules in advance before it breaks the old ones. Otherwise, the public will be confused without new rules when the old ones are removed. This could breed even greater risk,” said Ding Shuang, chief economist with Greater China at Standard Chartered.

Fu Weigang, executive director of the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, said fleeing foreign investment and low expectations among people and businesses are the main “sore points”.

After years of emulating West, China starts to turn on ‘predatory’ finance

“The key to solving these are specific, case-by-case measures that we must have for next year,” Fu said.

The December meeting of the 24-member Politburo often precedes the annual economic work conference, which is expected to start next week and should provide details of Beijing’s policy priorities for next year.

China is widely expected to hit its 5 per cent growth target for this year thanks to a low comparison base from last year, but there is global concern about whether it can maintain strong growth in the coming years.

Its efforts to recover after the Covid pandemic face a series of challenges, including a protracted property sector crisis that is the biggest drag on growth.

Beijing is also struggling to revive consumption demand and maintain investor confidence, especially from private and foreign companies.

The Politburo meeting pledged to maintain a proactive fiscal policy and flexible monetary policy to support growth, reinforcing expectations that the authorities will fine-tune economic-support policies but refrain from a massive stimulus next year.

“China is likely to maintain an expansionary policy next year. Liquidity will also remain relaxed next year,” said Ding.

Beijing already approved the sale of 1 trillion yuan (US$140 billion) of special treasury bonds in October to prop up economic growth. It lifted this year’s fiscal deficit ratio to around 3.8 per cent of the national GDP, much higher than the previous red line of 3 per cent.

“Even though there will be no large-scale stimulus measures, fiscal policy will remain expansionary, this fiscal expansion is at least not smaller than this year,” Ding said.

The authorities also highlighted the importance of “countercyclical” and “inter-cyclical adjustment” of macroeconomic policies, two terms often associated with efforts to stabilise the economy.

‘The economy stagnated in November’: 4 takeaways from China’s activity data

“This may imply Beijing is aware that investment growth is weak, especially for the private economy,” said Zhu Tian, a professor of economics at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.

“So Beijing in the new year may use some consumption-boosting policies to create more demand and help private businesses to invest more.”

On Wednesday, during a meeting with non-party figures, Xi said the country’s economic recovery is at a “key stage’

Xi specifically asked the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, a Beijing-based semi-official organisation representing the private sector, to help implement supportive policies and let private businesses play a bigger role in national development.

The market has been closely monitoring Politburo meetings in recent months for clues about personnel changes and the date of the third plenum.

The decision-making body usually meets once a month, but it also normally holds a study session towards the end of the year, where Xi would be expected to deliver a key speech on the next year’s political priorities.

“The [Politburo] statement aims to repair the loss of confidence in China, which is the core of many economic problems. The government has shown a willingness to retain exports and foreign investment,” said Gary Ng, senior economist for Asia-Pacific thematic research at Natixis.

“Domestically, it is about stabilising the sentiment of consumers, firms and investors with reasonable expansion in fiscal and monetary policy. However, the implementation remains unclear as usual,” he said.

Fu added the recent decision to allow citizens of six countries visa-free access for a year had helped boost travel and confidence among foreign businesses.

“We need no empty promises but more concrete and specific measures like this in 2024 for the benefits to multiply and turn the corner on the economy.”

Additional reporting by Miyasha Nunimaimaiti

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, Huawei to build HarmonyOS-based Alipay app amid growing adoption of home-grown operating system

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3244442/chinese-fintech-giant-ant-group-huawei-build-harmonyos-based-alipay-app-amid-growing-adoption-home?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group is building a new version of mobile payment app Alipay based on HarmonyOS, the self-developed operating system of Huawei Technologies that is seeing growing adoption on the mainland, as the telecommunications equipment and smartphone maker reduces its reliance on Google’s Android.

The collaboration between Ant, the fintech affiliate of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, and Shenzhen-based Huawei is expected to benefit consumers who use Alipay and the Chinese tech firm’s devices across different scenarios, according to a statement by Ni Xingjun, president of Alipay China business group and chairman of Ant’s technology strategy committee.

“Huawei’s digital coverage in the field of Alipay mini-programs is also conducive to improving the operating efficiency of merchants on the two ecosystems,” Ni said on Thursday.

The strategic cooperation between Ant and Huawei underscores the growing momentum of HarmonyOS’ adoption in the world’s biggest e-commerce and smartphone market, which also has the largest number of internet users at 1.08 billion as of June.

The success of Alipay, along with Tencent Holdings-owned rival WeChat Pay, in China has made the country a global model for the shift to digital payments, as cash has all but disappeared from many shops and street stalls in recent years.

The deal with Ant represents an acceleration of “HarmonyOS’ native app development” efforts in the country, said Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group and chairman of its Intelligent Automotive Solution business unit, in a statement on Thursday.

Earlier this week, McDonald’s China – with a network of more than 5,500 restaurants and over 200,000 employees serving more than 1 billion customers each year – became one of the first multinational food companies on the mainland to adopt the new iteration of Huawei’s mobile platform, HarmonyOS Next.

Huawei is expected to launch a developer preview version of HarmonyOS Next in the first quarter of 2024. HarmonyOS Next will not support Android-based apps on all Huawei devices installed with the new operating system.

Alibaba builds native app for HarmonyOS, as Huawei cuts Android ties

The deal with Ant also comes more than a week after Alibaba started development on a new version of DingTalk, its workplace collaboration app, that is compatible with Huawei’s HarmonyOS platform.

Other major Chinese internet companies – including e-commerce firm JD.com, video gaming giant NetEase and food delivery market leader Meituan – last month already started to recruit developers to build native apps based on HarmonyOS.

Huawei introduced HarmonyOS as an alternative mobile operating system in August 2019, three months after the US government added the firm to its Entity List. Under this trade blacklist, Huawei is barred from buying software, chips and other technologies from US suppliers without Washington’s approval.

More than 700 million devices currently run on HarmonyOS, with more than 2.2 million third-party developers creating apps for the platform, according to Huawei’s Yu at the company’s annual developer conference in August.

China bans new steel plants in drive to ‘defend the blue sky’ and cut atmospheric pollution

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3244421/china-bans-new-steel-plants-drive-defend-blue-sky-and-cut-atmospheric-pollution?utm_source=rss_feed

China has banned the building of new steel factories in a drive to cut carbon emissions and improve air quality.

The measures were included in a broader 36-point plan to “defend the blue sky” published by the State Council on Thursday.

The plan, under which new plants are “strictly prohibited”, expands a previous ban on new steel projects in specific regions to the whole country.

The main goal is to reduce the concentration of particulate matter (PM2.5) in larger cities – the most harmful small particles – by 10 per cent by 2025 compared with 2020 levels.

Last year over a quarter of Chinese cities did not meet the PM2.5 standard of 40 micrograms per cubic metre, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Beyond a ban on new steel capacity, further measures to make the industry greener have also been proposed.

Air pollution from fossil fuels linked to 5 million deaths a year, study finds

Most of China’s steel production currently relies on blast furnaces which use coke, made from crushed up and heated coal, to produce pig iron.

But by 2025, the goal is to make at least 15 per cent of its steel using electric furnaces to heat up pig iron or scrap steel – a process which lowers carbon emissions by around 20 to 25 per cent, according to a paper published in April in the peer-reviewed journal Engineering.

However, the paper warned that one limiting factor is that China is struggling to get enough scrap steel, which it had to start importing in 2021 to meet demand.

Emissions from the steel industry have been increasing over the years, accounting for 15 to 18 per cent of China’s total carbon emissions in 2020, according to the paper by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In Europe and the United States, the electric furnace method already accounts for around 43 per cent and 69 per cent of production, respectively.

According to the action plan, by 2025 over 80 per cent of China’s steel production capacity will “complete ultra-low emissions transformation tasks”.

In Hebei, China’s top steel producing province, the number of iron and steel companies has been cut by nearly 70 per cent in a bid to meet local targets, according to Xinhua.

The report said this had dramatically reduced PM2.5 concentrations from 104 micrograms per cubic metre in 2013 to 38.9 this year.

The action plan also includes measures to begin phasing out outdated production and capacity in high-emitting industries, and to promote the growth of green industry.

Under the plan, China aims to curb the “blind launch” of high-emission and energy-consuming projects, and will require capacity replacement projects to start after the facilities they are replacing shut down.

Expansion or capacity replacement projects will also need to draft peak emissions goals as well as undergoing environmental assessments and energy conservation reviews.

Other targets for 2025 include reducing the emissions of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide by 10 per cent compared with 2020 levels.

The action plan also has specific policies for key areas such as the northern megacities of Beijing and Tianjin and surrounding parts of Hebei province, or Shanghai and the Yangtze Delta. Both these areas will have to cut coal consumption by 10 and 5 per cent respectively.

Climate envoy says China has ‘done a lot’ on methane despite criticism of plan

Meanwhile, the number of new energy public transport vehicles and the coverage of electric fast charging stations will have to reach 80 per cent in key areas, while non-fossil fuel energy will have to account for 20 per cent of total energy consumption

The plan also calls for an increase in natural gas production to reduce the need to use coal for household heating.

The State Council also pledged that action will be taken “to address the chaos of winning bids at low prices” to ensure cheaper, low-quality projects that do not take the environment into account will not benefit.

Other measures aim to strengthen the supervision of industries using increased surveillance, enhance environmental policies while keeping economic goals in mind, and to improve international cooperation on issues such as atmospheric pollution.

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China seen ‘more investible than ever’ for Middle East and Latin America, but Western capital remains wary

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3244406/china-seen-more-investible-ever-middle-east-and-latin-america-western-capital-remains-wary?utm_source=rss_feed

China is more investible than ever for businesses from the Middle East and Latin America, but it would not regain its appeal for Western investors any time soon amid its increasingly opaque business environment, a prominent research firm said.

“There’s a lot of negativity around [the fact that] China’s uninvestible, which I think reflects that most of our media remains very Western centric and for the rest of the world, China is not uninvestible,” Louis-Vincent Gave, founding partner and CEO at Gavekal, told a seminar in Beijing on Thursday.

“If you’re a US pension fund today, or if you have US public money, then China is not investible, that’s just plain simple, and I don’t think that changes any time soon.

“Against that, if you’re a pension fund in Latin America, or a public or a private institution in the Middle East, China is actually more investible than ever now.”

Pension funds are growing rapidly in developing countries, and Chinese bonds have been more stable than US treasuries, while countries in the Middle East and Central Asia are increasingly reluctant to invest in the United States due to repercussions for Western sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine last year.

The comments come as confidence among the foreign business community has been eroded by China’s increasingly tightened and volatile regulatory environment, while a lack of transparency and China’s weak economic recovery has driven away foreign capital.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, despite the rise in the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises in the first 10 months of the year, yuan-denominated actual foreign capital used dropped by 9.4 per cent, year on year, to 987.01 billion yuan (US$138 billion).

‘The next China is still China’: Xi pledges to tear down investment barriers

Direct investment liabilities – which measures both inflows of foreign direct investment and outflows of capital from investors – stood at a deficit of US$11.8 billion in the third quarter, according to preliminary balance of payments data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, marking the first quarterly deficit since 1998.

Chinese leaders have attempted to charm and reassure concerned Western investors, who have ramped up de-risking efforts, and Beijing has released guidelines pledging more market access, speedier cross-border data flows and easier visa access.

But analysts and foreign chambers have said more concrete measures must be implemented to reverse sentiment.

For Western investors, the three years of China’s zero-Covid policy and closed borders meant the business environment has become more opaque and the decision making process clouded by a lack of high-level visits and first-person knowledge, Gave added.

He also said that unpredictable crackdowns against the real estate, education and big tech sectors have spooked foreign investors.

“If, for whatever reason, it’s in the government’s crosshair, then it goes from 100 to zero as we saw in the education stocks, very quickly,” he added.

Western investors’ worries over tensions in the Taiwan Strait have also been noticeable, especially among European businesses, he added.

China’s lunar base: major African nation joins Beijing’s international moon project

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3244433/chinas-lunar-base-major-african-nation-joins-beijings-international-moon-project?utm_source=rss_feed

Space cooperation between China and Egypt has reached a new milestone, with the Arab nation joining the construction of a China-led moon base that is expected to be up and running by 2035.

A cooperation agreement on the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) was signed between Zhang Kejian, director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), and Sherif Sedky, chief operating officer of the Egyptian Space Agency, in Beijing on Wednesday.

The two countries will work together on the lunar station’s design, related space missions, the development of space systems, subsystems, facilities and ground-based segments, as well as talent training and capacity building, according to the CNSA website.

John B Sheldon, a partner at AzurX, a space services company in Dubai, said the new partnership would benefit both sides in a number of ways.

He said Egypt is a significant space market and the gateway to the larger African space market for China. It is also a valuable diplomatic partner in future multilateral debates on lunar governance and resource-sharing arrangements.

For Egypt, “joining the ILRS is a diplomatic and public confirmation of their partnership with China, and will undoubtedly benefit Cairo for many years to come in terms of continued Chinese support for its growing space programme,” said Sheldon.

UAE university joins China’s moon project after US kills nation’s initial bid

Joining the ILRS also meant there was a strong possibility an Egyptian astronaut would walk on the moon alongside their Chinese colleagues within the next decade or so, he said.

Sheldon, who also publishes Middle East Space Monitor on Substack, said it was not surprising Egypt signed up to the ILRS – a project often seen as a rival to the US-led Artemis Programme – because of the deep and long-standing space ties between Egypt and China.

“Over the past several years, China has provided significant aid in terms of finance, know-how, and actual facilities and services to Egypt’s civil Earth observation programme,” he said. Meanwhile with America, “there is no US-Egyptian space cooperation beyond a few Nasa educational programmes”.

This week, China launched the MisrSat-2 Earth observation satellite for Egypt. The 350kg (770lb) satellite will take images of its nation’s water, agricultural and mineral resources, and help monitor climate change in the region.

“The resolution of this satellite is very high compared to the previous satellites we have,” Sedky told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN on Monday. “Having the 2-metre resolution will serve a broader sector of interests for different governmental entities, and for different users of the satellite images,” he said.

MisrSat-2 was jointly developed by engineers in China and Egypt under the Belt and Road Initiative. China provided the satellite platform and Egypt developed, assembled and tested the imaging payload.

China also helped build a satellite assembly, integration, and testing centre in Cairo, which is the largest of its kind in Africa and the Middle East.

“The centre is very important for us – and for China to help transfer satellite technologies to Africa,” Sedky told CGTN.

On Wednesday, Sedky and his Chinese counterpart also signed a memorandum of understanding on the cooperation and peaceful use of outer space. Besides the moon base, the two countries will also co-develop spacecraft and space infrastructure, share satellite data and jointly observe astronomy, among other collaborations.

US team says Chinese rocket booster hit the moon with secret payload

Egypt was the eighth country – and the second from Africa after South Africa – to sign up to the ILRS. It brings the number of ILRS partners to at least 14.

Meanwhile, the US-led Artemis Accords have attracted 33 signatories, with Angola the latest nation to join in late November.

China, Singapore to let each other’s tourists pay with digital yuan as Beijing seeks to globalise its e-CNY currency

https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3244387/china-singapore-let-each-others-tourists-pay-digital-yuan-beijing-seeks-globalise-its-e-cny-currency?utm_source=rss_feed

Tourists from China and Singapore will be able to pay with the e-CNY when travelling to both countries as part of a new pilot programme, in a breakthrough for Beijing’s efforts to promote the cross-border use of the digital yuan.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement that its project with the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) would allow travellers from both countries to use the digital version of the Chinese currency in tourist spending.

Authorities in Singapore said the scheme was expected to “enhance convenience for travellers when making purchases during their overseas travel”, without disclosing further details.

The pilot forms part of a series of initiatives announced by the two governments on Thursday at the annual Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation in China’s northern coastal metropolis Tianjin.

During the event, the two countries also agreed to introduce a mutual 30-day visa-free travel arrangement, one of 24 deals signed to boost bilateral ties.

The new digital-yuan collaboration represents a great opportunity for the cross-border retail use of e-CNY, according to Richard Turrin, independent financial technology consultant and author of Cashless: China’s Digital Currency Revolution.

The use of the digital yuan for small transactions could pave the way for its application in trade and other high-value scenarios, Turrin said.

China started testing its digital currency in 2019. While Beijing has yet to confirm a timetable for the official launch of e-CNY, adoption of the digital yuan has accelerated recently.

Total e-CNY transactions grew to 950 million yuan (US$133 million) in June, reaching a cumulative value of 1.8 trillion yuan compared to 100 billion yuan in August 2022, former PBOC governor Yi Gang said in July this year.

As of last year, 5.6 million merchants across 26 pilot cities had registered to use the digital yuan.

Beijing has also been experimenting with the use of e-CNY outside mainland China, as the internationalisation of yuan becomes more urgent amid rising geopolitical tensions.

China last year completed a multi-country trial named mBridge that used central bank digital currencies to settle trades with Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

Tests for the cross-border retail use of e-CNY have also been under way in Hong Kong, after Bank of China Hong Kong (BOCHK) in July launched a project allowing mainland customers to shop with the digital yuan in more than 200 retail outlets in the city.

Last year, BOCHK, one of three note-issuing banks in the city, also gave out digital red packets worth 100 e-CNY to customers who set up a digital-yuan wallet through the bank. The electronic money could be used to buy goods at 14 locations of a local supermarket chain.

Why China’s yuan may stay weak in 2024, regardless of any US Fed interest rate cuts

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3244416/why-chinas-yuan-may-stay-weak-2024-regardless-any-us-fed-interest-rate-cuts?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s yuan could stay weak against the US dollar next year, according to analysts, even though expectations are high for an interest-rate cut from the US Federal Reserve that could help the world’s second-largest economy ease its capital-outflow pressure.

The large interest-rate differential between China and the US has exacerbated capital outflow from yuan-denominated assets since the US Federal Reserve began raising its benchmark rate in March last year.

The yuan lost as much as 6.2 per cent against the US dollar since the start of this year, weakening past 7.3 in September and again in October. Pressure on the yuan has since eased, and it hovered around 7.13 to 7.16 against the US dollar in recent weeks. The higher the number, the more yuan it takes to buy a single US dollar.

Can China’s pummelled yuan find strength with US Fed pausing interest hikes?

Zhang Ming, deputy director of the Institute of Finance and Banking at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said he believes that the US central bank may not start to cut rates in the second quarter of next year, as has been anticipated by markets, citing a possible rebound in energy prices and a tight labour market in the US that might prompt the Federal Reserve to stay put longer.

Zhang said two key risks that could pressure the yuan are weaker-than-expected fiscal expansion and further contraction in the property market. A prolonged slump in the housing market could have a significant impact on consumption and trigger financial risks among the country’s small to medium-sized banks, Zhang added.

“Under a pessimistic situation, I think that, by the end of next year, the exchange rate of the yuan against the US dollar may still remain around 7.3 to 7.5,” Zhang said at a seminar arranged by Renmin University on Friday.

Meanwhile, China’s direct investment liabilities – a broad measure of foreign direct investment that includes foreign companies’ retained earnings in China – stood at a deficit of US$11.8 billion in the third quarter, according to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. This marked the first quarterly deficit since records started being kept in 1998, and it suggests that capital-outflow pressure has indeed weighed on the yuan.

Ding Shuang, chief Greater China economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said “de-risking” efforts among multinationals have also been a key factor driving away investments away from China.

And he said that many foreign firms are now pursuing a China-plus-one strategy – a policy of managing risk by locating plants and facilities in China and another nation.

“Based on our understanding from our multinational clients … their headquarters are beginning to repatriate the accumulated profits [from China]. Interest rates are low in China, so these funds are getting more returns overseas,” Ding said at the seminar.

In August, the People’s Bank of China tightened regulations on capital flow and set the yuan midpoint in a stronger range on a number of occasions. The yuan midpoint is a reference point for trading, and the yuan is allowed to trade 2 per cent above or below the fixing rate each trading day.

Wang Yongli, general manager of China International Futures and a former vice-president of the Bank of China, said the central bank is likely to refrain from direct intervention in the foreign-exchange market, despite the yuan’s weakened state. China has the world’s largest foreign-exchange reserves, totalling US$3.17 trillion as of the end of November, official data showed.

“I think the fluctuation [of the yuan] will not exceed 8 per cent, which is between 6.4 and 7.4 [to the dollar]. Basically, there is no need for too much intervention,” Wang said at the seminar. “Although there is a lot of debate on whether it’s reasonable to keep such a huge foreign-exchange reserve, if we didn’t have that, our international influence – including the importance that the United States may attach to us – would be greatly reduced.

“In this regard, we should still maintain that [we should not] use foreign-exchange reserves to intervene easily.”

‘Too shameless’: man in China demands share of influencer ex-wife’s Douyin account with 800,000 followers worth US$280,000, makes joint property claim

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3243742/too-shameless-man-china-demands-share-influencer-ex-wifes-douyin-account-800000-followers-worth?utm_source=rss_feed

Mainland social media is abuzz over a divorce settlement in which an ex-husband in China won the right to use his former wife’s Douyin account for 200,000 yuan (US$28,000), even though they divorced three years ago.

Zhang Cong said he deserved a percentage of the profits because he assisted his ex-wife, Tian Li, by shooting videos and acting as her helper.

Zhang filed the lawsuit with Pengzhou Municipal People’s Court in Sichuan province, southwestern China claiming his ex-wife did not share any of the revenue from the account with him, according to Chengdu Business News.

Tian, a garment vendor, registered an account on Douyin, China’s TikTok, under her name in 2017.

She released video clips about her fashion tastes and anecdotes about her daily life, amassing 800,000 followers and 15 million likes by the time she and Zhang divorced in 2019.

Zhang, who was jobless when the account started to take off, helped Tian shoot videos and deliver goods.

Their financial situation improved thanks to Tian’s online fame and the couple bought a flat and two expensive cars, according to the report.

During the divorce, they agreed to split their common assets like property and vehicles, and Tian was given guardianship of their child.

However, a recent hit TV drama series in which a protagonist said a short video account could be sold for money inspired Zhang to request half the value of Tian’s Douyin account.

“During our marriage, she had 800,000 fans. Someone told me that a top-tier account like hers is worth at least two million yuan (US$280,000). Her account is our joint property, so I deserve one million yuan,” Zhang was quoted as saying.

Tian claimed she does not make money directly through her Douyin account.

“I do not ask my fans to reward me financially, and I do not broadcast live-streaming sessions to sell goods. This account only helps guide online traffic to my WeChat account, where I sell clothes,” she added.

Xiong Yi, a judge at the court, said it was legally sound for the man to ask for the woman to share part of her Douyin account’s profits since it was operated during their marriage.

“But this account is registered with Tian’s real name, meaning it cannot be bought and sold on the market, so it is difficult to estimate how much it is worth,” Xiong told the newspaper.

After multiple rounds of mediation, the couple reached an agreement whereby Zhang paid his ex-wife 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) to access her Douyin account for a designated period, although the court did not reveal the length of time.

The strange arrangement has captured online attention, and Zhang has been widely mocked.

“This man is way too shameless,” commented one online observer.

Another person joked that Zhang should “ask those 800,000 fans whom they want to follow”.

“What a weird case. It opened my eyes, haha,” wrote a third person.

Another strange divorce settlement caught public attention last year when a childless couple divorced and could not agree on who would take custody of their pet dog.

The couple accepted a solution where the dog would live with the woman while the man paid alimony in exchange for visitation rights.

Stone Age dam and infrastructure point to rise of a ‘great power’ in central China thousands of years ago

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3244142/stone-age-dam-and-infrastructure-point-rise-great-power-central-china-thousands-years-ago?utm_source=rss_feed

Researchers have uncovered a 5,100-year-old dam in China, part of an extensive water infrastructure system constructed by a prehistoric civilisation which was considered to be a “great power” in its time.

Dating from the Neolithic period, the Xiongjialing Dam is located in the Qujialing site in the central province of Hubei, where rice was cultivated in ancient times, state news agency Xinhua reported. It is the oldest water management system to ever be discovered in China.

The findings shed light on the advanced engineering, architecture and water management capabilities of past cultures, offering valuable insights into a cradle of Chinese civilisation along the Yangtze River – the nation’s longest waterway.

“Unearthed relics and dating data show the dam dated back to between 5,100 and 4,900 years ago. It is the earliest water conservancy facility discovered in China so far,” Tao Yang, researcher with the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said at an archaeologist meeting on Monday.

Measuring two metres tall (6.5 feet) and 180 metres long, the Xiongjialing Dam was built on a tributary of the Qingmudang River and later expanded during the autumn and winter dry seasons, according to Tao.

The Jianghan Plain, home to the Qujialing culture, is rich in water resources with a dense river network. But due to climatic extremes, storing water while also preventing floods is crucial to living in the region, the scientist said.

A three-year excavation of the Hubei dam revealed that to its east is a reservoir with a spillway attached to discharge excess water during flood seasons. An 8.5-hectare irrigation area was also found to the west, in an area that was once home to a prehistoric paddy, according to the scientists.

Some parts of the dam exhibit marks of manual pounding, compaction and reinforcement – a sign of the ancient civilisation’s advanced building techniques. Local earth mixed with root plants was also used in the construction, just like steel reinforcement bars in modern architecture.

Researchers also said they found traces of soil being wrapped by grass, an ancient building technique that was also employed at the 5,000-year-old ruins of Liangzhu, on the outskirts of Hangzhou. The method was used to speed up the consolidation of the dam, boost its tensile strength and prevent collapse.

He Nu, a researcher with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the design showed that people of that time had learned to use water based on the landform, a step ahead of simply defending themselves against floods.

“This water conservancy project is a large-scale endeavour organised by a great power which mobilised labour. It could be seen as a national undertaking,” He said, as reported by the official newspaper of the Ministry of Water Resources.

How Xi’s nod to ancient Chinese ruins reinforces Beijing’s historical narrative

“The findings confirm the existence of a water management and control system within the middle reaches of the Yangtze River which was used for irrigation.

“This development represents the epitome of advanced productivity in the era dating back more than 5,000 years,” He said.

Archaeologist Liu Bin, a professor at the Zhejiang University School of Art and Archaeology agreed, saying that the ancient city at the Qujialing site used water management to support its society.

“It served as planning for water use, different from the objective of Yu the Great,” he said, referring to the legendary founder of the Xia dynasty (2100-1600BC), who was known for taming floods.

The Xiongjialing Dam is almost as old as the Jawa Dam in Jordan, which is the oldest known dam in the world. It was constructed around 3,000BC as part of a reservoir system in Mesopotamia.

According to Guinness World Records, the Proserpina Dam in Spain is the world’s oldest working dam. It was constructed by the Romans around the late 1st century into the 2nd century, and refurbished in 1991.

China sees surge in value of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment orders amid latest US export controls, as chip imports post mild recovery

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3244407/china-sees-surge-value-semiconductor-manufacturing-equipment-orders-amid-latest-us-export-controls?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s imports of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, the prime target of the United States government’s updated tech export controls, surged in value by nearly 80 per cent in October from a year earlier, according to the mainland’s latest customs data.

Imports of various chip-making tools – including those used to manufacture silicon wafers, integrated circuits (ICs) and flat-panel displays – totalled US$4.3 billion in October, up from US$2.4 billion in the same period last year, customs data showed.

That increased demand reflects the major effort by Chinese semiconductor companies to stockpile chip-making tools ahead of the latest US tech trade controls, which took effect a month after Washington’s announcement.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security in October added less-advanced lithography equipment, used for making semiconductors on a 45-nanometre node and more mature processes, as well as certain advanced tools for etching and film deposition to a list of restricted items for export to China. This was expected to tighten controls that were enforced a year ago, which aimed to impede China’s development of artificial intelligence chips and other advanced ICs.

The latest US export restrictions further limit the range of chip lithography equipment that Netherlands-based ASML Holding can export to mainland China, the company’s third-largest geographic market.

ASML has a monopoly on the world’s most advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, which are used to produce cutting-edge chips. The Dutch firm has not supplied these machines to China since 2019 under pressure from US sanctions.

Still, ASML is allowed to sell most of its less-advanced deep ultraviolet lithography systems to clients in China that produce so-called legacy chips, widely used in everything from cars to home appliances.

China’s chip imports, meanwhile, have gradually improved since recording a 26.5 per cent year-on-year decline in the first two months of this year.

Nvidia working closely with US to ensure new chips for China are compliant with curbs

The total number of IC imports from January to November reached 437.6 billion units, down 12.1 per cent from the same period last year, according to data published by the General Administration of Customs on Thursday. By contrast, China’s chip imports in the first 10 months of 2023 were down 13.1 per cent.

While the total value of chip imports from January to November was down 16.5 per cent year on year to US$316.6 billion, that marked an improvement from the 18.8 per cent drop in value in the first 10 months of the year. By comparison, the value of China’s overall imports saw a 6 per cent decrease in the first 11 months of the year.

The latest chip import figures show a mild recovery in the domestic market, especially in the consumer electronics sector.

Smartphone sales in China, for example, rose 11 per cent in the first four weeks of October compared with a year earlier, according to a report from Counterpoint Research. It was the latest sign that the world’s largest smartphone market is recovering from an eight-month slump, as top Chinese handset vendors led by Xiaomi, Honor and Huawei Technologies beat rival Apple in terms of growth during that period.

Indonesia’s nickel supply glut, slowing EV demand could ‘jeopardise’ Chinese miners

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3244369/indonesias-nickel-supply-glut-slowing-ev-demand-could-jeopardise-chinese-miners?utm_source=rss_feed

China has embedded itself firmly into Indonesia’s burgeoning nickel industry over the past decade, but with nickel prices facing sharp drops, some Chinese miners are feeling the pressure.

The price of nickel fell by around 50 per cent in November since its year-to-date peak in January, making it the worst-performing metal on the London Metal Exchange this year.

The primary reason for this decline is the huge oversupply of the commodity caused by a deluge of investments into Indonesia’s refining capacity over the past three to four years, experts say.

“The demand for nickel is rising fast, but supply is increasing much faster, mainly due to this rise in production in Indonesia,” said Kyunghoon Kim, an associate research fellow focusing on industrial policies at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP).

Indonesia lays claim to the world’s largest nickel reserves, and the commodity has become especially lucrative with the growth of electric vehicles globally.

Seeing the massive opportunity to attract investment, Indonesia banned the export of unprocessed nickel ore in 2020, aiming to establish a competitive electric vehicle (EV) and battery supply chain on its own shores.

The global expansion of the EV market also contributed to the hype, and Indonesia lured billions of dollars in foreign investment, primarily from Chinese firms including steelmakers like Tsingshan and battery behemoth CATL.

But geopolitical tensions fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine war have caused somewhat of a slowdown in EV uptake, experts say.

“The EV market has not grown as expected by the producers, especially due to the high levels of interest and inflation affecting the purchasing power in the North American and European markets,” said Wang Yanchen, managing director of the Shanghai Metals Market (SMM).

“In the past, people were worried about not having enough nickel to meet the growing demands of the EV industry, so that drove a lot of investment into the area,” he said. “But now, we’re seeing an oversupply.”

In 2022, Indonesia experienced a staggering 50 per cent increase in nickel ore production, as reported by the US Geological Survey.

According to the International Nickel Studies Group, the surplus in the global nickel market has doubled from last year, and is expected to widen to 239,000 metric tons in 2024, up from 223,000 tons this year.

China accounts for around 60-70 per cent of all investments in Indonesia’s nickel industry, so it’s unsurprising that these companies would feel the impact of the price drop, said Ahmad Zuhdi Dwi Kusuma, a mining industry analyst from Indonesia’s state-owned lender Bank Mandiri.

“As anticipated, with falling prices, the financial performance of Chinese companies investing in Indonesia’s nickel mining will be jeopardised,” he said.

In September, Chinese state-owned Baowu Steel Group put a pause on a US$4 billion deal to secure nickel assets in Indonesia from Tsinghan, following more than a year of negotiations, according to a report by Caixin.

Tesla faces long road to success in India even as New Delhi weighs EV tax cuts

But experts also highlight that the challenges caused by low nickel prices will only be in the short term.

Companies like Baowu might put a hold on their investment and come back when nickel prices stabilise, said Wang from the SMM.

“Indonesia will still attract investors in the long term, they are likely just waiting for the right time and better prices,” he said. “The demand for raw materials like nickel from the Chinese stainless steel and battery companies will still need to be met in the future.”

To address the supply glut, experts suggest that Indonesia could consider implementing policy changes, such as temporarily suspending the granting of mining rights to new players, prioritising investments from battery mining companies, and restricting access to reserves for stainless steel companies.

“Indonesia can make efforts to address the supply side, for example, by pausing the expansion of intermediate nickel production processing and limiting the number of smelters,” said Zuhdi from Bank Mandiri.

Kim from KIEP believed that concerns surrounding threats to Chinese miners from fluctuating nickel prices might be “over-exaggerated”.

“Are miners and refineries concerned with the declining nickel prices? Of course,” he said. “However, their investment horizon is long … even after two or three consecutive years of overproduction, the nickel price will be close to the long-term average.”

Kim added that demand for nickel would continue to increase for the EV market, and leading nickel producers would make adjustments to their production output to reflect the price changes.

Nickel is also facing competition from a new type of battery, which is largely getting traction among manufacturers in China, known as lithium ferrophosphate (LFP) batteries, which do not require nickel.

“The rise of LFP batteries is a fascinating phenomenon. Its market share in EV batteries has increased from under 10 per cent in 2018 to around 30 per cent in 2022,” Kim said.

While it is expected that the expansion of LFP production might weaken some demand for nickel, Kim says that there will be enough room in the EV market for demand for both types of batteries to grow.

“[Considering] the massive expansion of the EV market, demand for nickel in EV battery production will see huge amounts of growth in the next decade followed by resilient, more stable growth in the following two decades,” he said.

In Southeast Asia’s EV race, domestic markets face a long and winding road

Wang said the battery industry was a fast-moving one, and new technologies and developments “can totally transform the raw material demand”.

“LFP is definitely gaining more market share in China. In both the EV market and for energy storage,” he said.

However, he noted demand for nickel should not be discounted since nickel-based batteries offered more energy density than LFP batteries, and were more popular among high-end EV companies, particularly those in North America and Europe.

“The geopolitical issues and their impact on the supply chains are a key factor impacting the EV industry, but it’s hard to forecast the results of that,” Wang said. “Once economic situations improve, the purchasing power of consumers will return and demand for EVs will continue to grow.”

China vows closer security ties with Mekong states as cyber scams, Myanmar unrest have cross-border impact

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3244388/china-vows-closer-security-ties-mekong-states-cyber-scams-myanmar-unrest-have-cross-border-impact?utm_source=rss_feed

China and its five Southeast Asian neighbours along the Lancang-Mekong River have agreed to focus on security cooperation, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

“We will resolutely combat cross-border crime in the [region], especially cyber fraud and gambling,” Wang said after the annual Lancang-Mekong Cooperation foreign ministers’ meeting with Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Lancang is the name for the section of the Mekong that runs through China.

China will strive to eradicate security threats endangering public safety and development in these countries, Wang told a press conference on Thursday.

Earlier this year, Beijing vowed to double down on cyber scam crackdowns across the Mekong River basin.

Northern Myanmar on the southwestern Chinese border in particular, with its close cultural and political ties with China, is a major base for cyber scammers who often lure Chinese with job hopes and coerce them into working for them.

At least 120,000 people in strife-torn Myanmar and roughly 100,000 in Cambodia “may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams”, the United Nations human rights office said a report in August.

The forced online criminality could range from romance-investment scams and crypto fraud to illegal gambling, and the victims endured “inhumane treatment”, the report said.

China has been pushed to step up crackdowns in the region after news of forced labour and online scams made headlines in the summer.

Last month, Myanmar handed over 31,000 telecoms fraud suspects to China, including 63 “financiers” and ringleaders of crime syndicates that Beijing’s public security ministry says swindled Chinese citizens out of large sums of money.

In a flurry of meetings with Southeast Asian diplomats ahead of the regional forum, Wang highlighted China’s resolve to counter cyber scams and human trafficking in Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand, and pledged further cooperation on the matter.

China is also facing the fallout of continued unrest in northern Myanmar, as the military junta there grapples with one of the biggest rebel challenges to its rule.

China urges Myanmar to restore border stability as conflict intensifies

Multiple armed groups launched a coordinated offensive in late October across the northern Myanmese provincial administrations of Shan and Kachin state, and the upper Sagaing Region.

Several combats have closed in on China’s border towns, forcing locals to evacuate several times.

China’s border runs for 2,000km (1,250 miles) along the Shan and Kachin states, with at least 10 cross-border ports in its southwestern province of Yunnan.

During talks with Wang a day ahead of the Mekong meeting, Myanmar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Than Shwe said his country hoped “to continue to receive support and help from China to achieve domestic peace and stability”.

Wang said China would not interfere in Myanmar’s internal affairs but hoped the country could “achieve national reconciliation” and “continue its political transformation process under the constitutional framework as soon as possible”.

At the summit, Wang also said China was willing to cooperate with Mekong basin countries on economic, technological and cultural matters and to encourage people-to-people exchanges.

All five Mekong countries are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative multinational infrastructure and investment plan. Better-known projects include a 1,035km (643 mile) high-speed railway in Laos that opened in 2021, and pipelines to transport natural gas and crude oil from Myanmar’s deep water port of Kyaukphyu in the Bay of Bengal to Yunnan’s capital Kunming.

The five are also part of the 10-nation Asean regional bloc, China’s biggest trading partner. Trade volume with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations expanded 120 per cent over a decade to US$975.3 billion in 2022, according to Beijing’s commerce ministry.

Under China’s new security rules, internet operators must report hacks and cybercrimes within 1 hour

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3244358/under-chinas-new-security-rules-internet-operators-must-report-hacks-and-cybercrimes-within-1-hour?utm_source=rss_feed

Internet operators are required to report major cybersecurity incidents – including hacking, infrastructure breakdown and key data leaks – to authorities within an hour of them occurring or risk severe punishment, according to draft regulations from China’s internet watchdog.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published the new rules on Friday to solicit public opinion. The CAC said regulating the reporting of cybersecurity incidents could reduce the loss and damage they caused, as well as protect national internet safety.

According to the draft, all operators must report the incidents to local or national cyberspace offices, and those who work with “key information infrastructure” or face crime-related incidents should also report breaches to the police.

Cybersecurity incidents are defined as “incidents that cause harm to networks, information systems or data because of human factors, software or hardware failures or natural disasters”.

The operators are required to report damage caused by the incidents and measures taken, the probable cause, tips for investigation – including anything known about the attacker – the path of attack and existing loopholes, the draft said.

The draft especially stressed that major incidents should be reported within an hour.

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

It describes three levels of incident, with the most severe level including leaks affecting the personal data of more than 100 million people, “affecting the work and lives of over 30 per cent of the population in a province”, “key information infrastructure disconnected for six hours” and harmful information viewed more than 1 million times or displayed for more than six hours on news media or government websites.

After the public comment period, the draft will go back to the CAC for edits.

In recent years, Chinese authorities have repeatedly stressed that the country faces a growing risk of cyberattack, data leaks, disinformation and AI-driven cognitive warfare, with the rapid growth of technology.

In an article published in September in China Internet and Information, the official journal of the CAC, State Security Minister Chen Yixin wrote, “Our biggest hidden risk is that our critical basic information infrastructure can be vulnerable to attack”.

“Our finance, energy, electricity, communications and transport operation networks have become key targets of cyberattacks from outside the country,” he wrote. “There would be dire consequences, such as transport disruptions, chaos in financial markets and paralysis of electricity supply if these systems were hacked, taken over, tampered with or sabotaged.”

Without citing specific examples, Chen named new technologies that could introduce greater security uncertainty, including artificial intelligence, quantum communication, blockchain technology and satellite internet.

In a recent example, a breakdown in ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing last month affected thousands and caused an estimated 100 million yuan (US$14 million) loss. In the meantime, Alibaba Cloud suffered its second outage, which affected customers in mainland China, Hong Kong and the United States.

The incidents prompted discussion among experts, media commentators and netizens about how internet infrastructure had become a normal part of public life, just like gas and water, and its security needed to be emphasised and regularly maintained.

China indicts 52 per cent more cyber scammers than last year amid crackdown

China enacted its Cybersecurity Law in 2016, stressing the need to maintain control of the nation’s sovereign cyberspace and national security.

Building on that foundation, the Data Security Law was implemented in September 2021 to limit the ways data can be processed. The law also stresses the need to safeguard national security and interests, making the protection of data a national security priority.

Are China officials aiming to charm the neighbours over next Dalai Lama choice?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3244340/are-china-officials-aiming-charm-neighbours-over-next-dalai-lama-choice?utm_source=rss_feed

Once rare foreign trips by senior officials from Tibet could be aimed at drumming up support for Beijing’s choice of the next Dalai Lama, analysts said.

Yan Jinhai, chairman of the Tibetan autonomous region, and its Communist Party chief Wang Junzheng went on multiple-stop tours of South and Southeast Asia last month.

Yan led a delegation to the Maldives, Thailand and Myanmar from November 19 to 28, to “comprehensively promote the successful practice and rich experience of the Communist Party in governing Tibet … and to promote extensive exchanges and cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative,” according to the official Tibet Daily.

It followed a 10-day visit by Wang to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Singapore to “strengthen people to people exchanges, promote closer economic and trade contacts, and deepen practical cooperation in various fields”, according to an earlier report by the same newspaper.

Robert Barnett, founder of the Modern Tibetan Studies Programme at Columbia University and currently an affiliate lecturer with King’s College London, said the recent trips might be part of Beijing’s attempts to win support from regional Buddhists over the Dalai Lama succession issue.

“That is a very important political issue for China,” he said.

Beijing insists that it has the right to approve the appointments of all senior Tibetan Buddhist figures – including the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama – as a legacy inherited from China’s emperors.

That assertion that has been strongly opposed by the Dalai Lama and his followers, who say it is up to the Tibetans to decide. The Dalai Lama, who turned 88 in July, said that Beijing was trying to contact him “officially or unofficially”.

Barnett said “this might be why these officials from Tibet included Buddhist countries, or countries with significant Buddhist populations, in their itineraries”.

“China may be sending these officials from Tibet abroad to step up pressure on foreign governments in the region to promise total support for China’s claim to have the sole right to select the next Dalai Lama,” he said.

Lin Minwang, a professor at the Institute of International Studies under Fudan University in Shanghai, said the trips could be seen as part of Beijing’s push for provincial officials to play a bigger role in China’s diplomatic push to win over neighbouring countries.

Provincial leaders take centre stage in China’s push to charm neighbours

China has been on a regional image-boosting spree since lifting all pandemic restrictions in early January, following three years of near isolation under a strict zero-Covid policy.

This has led to a higher profile for some provincial officials, as Beijing focuses on the border regions’ close cultural and historic ties with the neighbouring states.

Xinjiang party chief Ma Xingrui, for instance, has travelled several times to countries in Central Asia, a culturally close resource-rich region seen as crucial to stability on China’s western border.

“China’s provinces – especially those on the frontiers – share a lot of common interests with the neighbouring countries, and now [the leaders of] the local governments are encouraged to ‘go out’,” Lin said.

“This is indeed a break with the tradition of diplomacy being solely carried out by the central government.”

The countries visited by the officials – Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal – also had “a variety of connections with Tibet, for example, Buddhism, which makes them very close”, Lin added.

Nepal, which shares a 1,389km (863 mile) border with Tibet, is home to a sizeable Buddhist population. It is also the only country to have a consulate in Lhasa, the capital of the autonomous region.

Tibet, which also borders Myanmar, India and Bhutan, has often been described by local officials as a “major gateway” to South Asia under China’s belt and road global investment and infrastructure programme.

Bolstering stable neighbourly ties has been a centrepiece of Chinese foreign policy since President Xi Jinping took over in 2013 and provincial leaders have been encouraged in recent years to take on an active role in promoting foreign relations.

During the Central Foreign Relations Work Conference in 2018, Xi urged local governments to better coordinate and allocate foreign affairs resources, calling it “an important part of the foreign affairs work of the party and the state”.

Months later, Tibet hosted its first trans-Himalayan cooperation forum in Nyingchi. India, which has border disputes with China in the Himalayas and has not joined the belt and road programme, was absent in 2018 and 2019.

At the forum’s latest edition in October – with India again not present – China’s top diplomat Wang Yi called on attending officials from Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Mongolia to “jointly maintain regional unity, and respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Chinese Foreign Minister calls for respect for ‘territorial integrity’

However, foreign trips were once rare for officials in Tibet, a region of great political sensitivity for Beijing after a failed uprising in 1959 saw the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual and political leader, flee to India and set up a Tibetan government in exile.

Beijing says it peacefully liberated Tibet in 1951 after sending troops into the region and boosted its development with billions of dollars of investment, though the United Nations has raised concerns with its human rights record there.

Before becoming party chief of Tibet, Wang made his name as security chief of neighbouring Xinjiang and features on several Western sanctions list over accusations of human rights violations.

China promotes its most sanctioned official to Tibetan party chief

Since anti-government riots in Lhasa in March 2008, Beijing has tightened its grip on Tibet, and closed it to most foreigners.

But top officials in Lhasa would sometimes host foreign leaders and diplomats – including Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari, whose trip was part of a state visit to China in 2019. Diplomats from Europe and the US have also visited.

Since 2010, four US ambassadors to China – Jon Huntsman, Gary Locke, Max Baucus and Terry Branstad – have visited Lhasa.

The Chinese readouts from Yan Jinhai and Wang Junzheng’s trips suggest the officials from Tibet were unleashing their full diplomatic charms.

Chinese academics want Tibet to be known as Xizang to help ‘reconstruct’ image

In Nepal, Wang pledged that Tibet would “give full play to its advantages in location, geography and humanities in deepening exchanges and cooperation with Nepal, and jointly build a trans-Himalayan connectivity network”.

In Sri Lanka, he vowed to boost cooperation in culture, arts and ecology, and in Singapore he said Tibet should take notes from the city state on urban planning and entrepreneurship.

On his stop in the Maldives, Yan donated 1,500 tonnes of bottled water, to help the Indian Ocean archipelago which is struggling to maintain fresh supplies because of rising sea levels.

Yan, who served as Lhasa party chief from January 2021 to April last year, met local business leaders during his visit to Thailand.

He called for stronger political trust in Myanmar, as well as closer coordination on security and development, and also met the tourism and hotels minister.

Samsung to overtake Xiaomi as India’s top smartphone brand in 2023, reclaiming crown amid crackdown on Chinese brands

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3244336/samsung-overtake-xiaomi-indias-top-smartphone-brand-2023-reclaiming-crown-amid-crackdown-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi is expected to lose its crown in the India market to South Korean rival Samsung Electronics, the first time since 2018, according to the latest prediction by Counterpoint Research, a consultancy.

Xiaomi’s share of shipping volume in the world’s second-largest smartphone market is estimated to drop to 15 per cent this year, down 5 percentage points from last year. It is expected to be overtaken by not just its biggest international rival, but also Chinese peer Vivo, according to the market tracker.

Samsung and Vivo are expected to secure 18 and 17 per cent of the India market, respectively.

Samsung’s quarterly shipments have been outperforming Xiaomi’s for four consecutive quarters, according to Counterpoint Research data.

Chinese phone brand Vivo vows support for executives arrested in India

Samsung had led the market for six years until the last quarter of 2017, when it was overtaken by Xiaomi. Chinese brands, known for their budget handsets, have dominated the market for years, but recent geopolitical tensions are putting them on more shaky footing.

Since a deadly 2020 border clash between Chinese and Indian forces, New Delhi has put increasing pressure on Chinese tech companies. The government banned dozens of Chinese apps, including the viral short video platform TikTok and WeChat, the super app from Tencent Holdings.

The Indian government has also hit big Chinese brands with raids and tax penalties amid intensified scrutiny of business from its northern neighbour.

In April this year, an Indian High Court rejected a plea from Xiaomi to return funds worth more than US$676 million, which were seized in April 2022 after India’s federal financial crimes agency alleged the company’s local unit made illegal remittances to foreign entities by passing them off as royalty payments. Xiaomi has denied the accusations and is set to continue the legal fight, the South China Morning Post reported in June.

Last year, Indian authorities raided the offices of Xiaomi and Vivo over tax evasion and money laundering allegations. Xiaomi had already closed its financial services business in India, pulling its mobile payment and digital lending apps from local app stores.

Inspirational: severely disabled man in China who defied death predictions passes away after making most of life to support family

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3243730/inspirational-severely-disabled-man-china-who-defied-death-predictions-passes-away-after-making-most?utm_source=rss_feed

A courageous man in China has passed away at the age of 40 after a decades-long battle with a rare muscle disease, but his optimistic attitude to life has inspired many people on mainland social media.

Li Zhoujun from Zhejiang province in eastern China, was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) when he was eight years old, and doctors told his family he would not live past 20.

While his physical condition did not improve after he lost the ability to walk in secondary school, he still carved out a meaningful life, primarily through computers.

Beginning in 2001, Li taught himself how to design websites and make animations – even though he could only type with three fingers.

He also educated himself about the condition so he could share insights and become a leader in the DMD community.

Li’s decision to not allow his disease to ruin his life was highlighted in 2016 when he continued his mission to help people despite having to function via a life-support machine.

In 2019, he entered the social media space, opening his first WeChat account, where he would eventually publish 145 articles.

In 2020, he launched two Douyin accounts and published 816 video clips for his 171,000 followers.

Throughout the past decades, his family made immense sacrifices to ensure Li could make the most of his life.

They spent almost all of their savings and travelled across China seeking medical treatments, selling fish and breeding pigs to support the family.

Li also created an online shop to sell goods to earn money to support the family and eventually got into live-streaming to help his mother sell waxberries for extra income.

In 2022, the disease worsened, and Li had to go on invasive oxygen life support to survive, which he said was “the most expensive thing I have ever purchased”.

His older sister said the death of her brother was sudden, but added that it provided some relief from a disease that had tortured him for decades.

The story has gone viral in China, with many people expressing their condolences to Li and his family.

One person said: “May the heavens be your resting place.”

“I hope you will be healthy and happy in your next life,” said another.

Chinese weather balloon spotted near Taiwan a month ahead of presidential election

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/08/chinese-weather-balloon-taiwan-presidential-election-security

Taiwan’s defence ministry has said that a Chinese balloon crossed the Taiwan Strait median line on Thursday, about a month before Taiwan’s presidential election.

The ministry of national defence (MND) earlier described it as a “surveillance balloon” but the defence minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng later told reporters at parliament: “our initial understanding is that it was a sounding balloon”.

A sounding balloon is a meteorology balloon which carries atmospheric measuring equipment to high altitudes. US officials have previously said large surveillance balloons are produced by the People’s Liberation Army for collecting intelligence. The Guardian has contacted the MND for clarification on what was detected on Thursday.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, frequently accuses Beijing of seeking to exert military or economic pressure to sway its elections toward outcomes favourable to the Chinese government.

The island will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on 13 January.

The defence ministry said the balloon was detected shortly before midday on Thursday, 101 nautical miles (187 km) southwest of the northern Taiwanese city of Keelung, and that it travelled eastward for about an hour before disappearing. An accompanying map showed a tracking line beginning near the Chinese coast and crossing the median line, which is an unofficial border splitting the Taiwan Strait.

Chinese military aircraft were also detected in Taiwan’s air defence identification zone in the last 24 hours. A reconnaissance plane and drone, 12 fighter jets and a transport plane were also detected, all reported by the MND as crossing the median line.

China has stepped up its military pressure against Taiwan over the past four years, including staging two rounds of major military exercises around the island in the past year and a half, including the firing of missiles over Taiwan.

Earlier this year, the defence ministry said a balloon that came down on a remote Taiwanese-held islet close to China’s coast was used for weather monitoring and had no audio-visual recording equipment on board. The MND has not confirmed any other detections. In June BBC Panorama reported photographs taken by Taiwan’s weather service revealed an apparent balloon flying over Taiwan’s capital Taipei in 2021. Other satellite images appeared to show balloons launched from China flying over Japan and off Taiwan’s coast.

In February the US shot down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon flying in its airspace. The fallout saw the collapse of attempts to repair the US-China relationship, with US secretary of state Antony Blinken cancelling a visit to Beijing. The US later said it had not collected intelligence.

Modi tilts towards Taiwan, Agnes Chow jumps bail, Elon Musk’s SpaceX dents China’s space ambition: SCMP’s 7 highlights of the week

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3244329/modi-tilts-towards-taiwan-agnes-chow-jumps-bail-elon-musks-spacex-dents-chinas-space-ambition-scmps?utm_source=rss_feed

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

China’s ambition to become a dominant space power by 2045 is facing unprecedented challenges, especially from US company SpaceX, according to an official commentary in state-owned China Space News.

Unofficial ties between India and the self-ruled island that Beijing views as a renegade province have only strengthened as New Delhi’s relationship with Beijing has remained tense.

“A fugitive’s blatant disregard of police bail terms and [decision to jump] bail show that the fugitive is completely devoid of integrity,” John Lee said before the weekly meeting of key decision-making body the Executive Council.

A team of Chinese military scientists and defence industry engineers have developed a microwave source for drones that is more powerful than anything available worldwide, according to a new paper.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has hailed Liangzhu as physical proof of China’s 5,000-year civilisation and “a real treasure for the world”, elevating the ancient city ruins amid a sweeping push to reinforce the country’s historical status as a global power.

Japan is slipping further down the international rankings for spoken proficiency in the English language, with the latest study by a Swiss educational company placing the country behind Malawi and only narrowly ahead of Afghanistan.

A woman in China was shocked to receive a 430,000-yuan (US$60,000) bill at a restaurant after accidentally posting the QR code for ordering food online, which others used to place food orders.

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China grants tariff-free access to 6 African countries in bid to boost food imports and rebalance trade

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3244274/china-grants-tariff-free-access-6-african-countries-bid-boost-food-imports-and-rebalance-trade?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has granted six African countries zero-tariff treatment on 98 per cent of products entering the massive Chinese market, joining dozens of others granted tariff relief as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plan to boost agricultural imports from the continent.

Starting on December 25, 98 per cent of taxable products from Angola, Gambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Mali and Mauritania will be exempt from tariffs when entering China, according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

The African nations are some of the most resource-rich on the continent – especially the DRC, the source of more than 60 per cent of China’s cobalt imports, and Angola, a major exporter of petroleum and diamonds.

The commission said the move aimed to symbolise “the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation” and facilitate “a high-quality China-Africa community with a shared future”.

As China opens up to African farms, long road still ahead for ‘green lanes’

Over the past two years, 21 other African countries have benefited from the removal of tariffs on 98 per cent of their products.

Xi introduced the tariff cuts in 2021 during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in the Senegalese capital Dakar, promising to open “green lanes” for African agricultural exports to China, expand the range of products covered by zero-tariff treatment and speed up border processing. The Chinese leader said his country aimed to import products worth US$300 billion from Africa by 2024.

Data from China’s General Administration of Customs revealed that trade between China and Africa reached US$234.8 billion in the first 10 months of 2023, flat compared to the same period last year. Imports to China accounted for US$91.49 billion of the 2023 figure.

The commission said it planned to expand its zero-tariff treatment to all of the “least-developed countries” that have diplomatic relations with Beijing. The tariff relief will enable the countries to export to China without facing customs duties on over 8,000 different products or items.

This will help China increase African food imports after more than two decades of mostly buying raw materials from the continent while exporting electronics, machinery and textiles.

The new measures will allow the DRC to sell goods such as coffee, palm oil, rubber, cotton and cocoa to China while bypassing tariffs, and Angola’s tariff-free items include coffee, sisal, fruit, seafood and spices.

Chinese exports to Africa made up nearly 60 per cent of the US$282 billion in two-way trade last year.

China has come under fire for the trade surplus, with some accusing it of promoting an unhealthy balance by exporting finished products to the continent while importing mostly raw materials.

While meeting a delegation from China’s top legislature last month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni appealed to Beijing to open its market for finished goods.

“I would like to encourage China to open their market more for processed coffee and other products, not only raw materials,” Museveni said.

“One of the problems in Africa has been the export of raw materials, because when you export raw materials, the income is not only much lower, but you also lose jobs. It is important for China and Africa to trade in finished products more.”

How Brics expansion could help boost China’s influence in Africa

On the sidelines of the Brics summit in Johannesburg in August, Xi promised to help African countries produce more food products and set up industries to process them as part of efforts to reverse the trade imbalance.

“To address trade imbalances with African countries, the Chinese seem to believe that agricultural development and increasing imports from Africa could narrow the trade deficit,” said Mandira Bagwandeen, senior researcher at the University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance.

“China agreed to open green lanes for agricultural exports from Africa, speed up inspection and quarantine processes and increase the number of products with zero-tariff treatment.”

However, as Carlos Lopes, a professor at the Univer­sity of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Govern­ance, pointed out in an interview with the Post last year, while the tariff-free treatment applies to 98 per cent of the countries’ tradeable items, it might not cover the items that account for most of the trade value.

“What the 2 per cent will exclude is important as the percentage is calculated in terms of the schedules, not value,” he said, noting that for many of the least-developed countries in Africa, much of that value comes from mineral exports.

Brics summit: African countries wait in the wings for membership expansion

Lauren Johnston, an ­associate professor at the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, said there had been a shift in China’s relationship with Africa away from a focus on oil and extractive commodities. She called the shift the “Hunan model”, after the southern Chinese province leading the push.

Johnston said Hunan was chosen as the new frontier for China-Africa relations partly because many of China’s competitive industries were based there, including major agritech, manufacturing equipment and construction companies.

“Many of these companies have a presence in, and long-running strategy for, African markets,” she said.

Johnston highlighted the Hunan model’s focus on agriculture, heavy industry equipment and transport such as electric cars and trains – areas where the province is a leader within China and which are growth industries for many African countries.

Wedding gamers: China couple shun tradition, turn nuptials into esports contest between bride and groom

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3243727/wedding-gamers-china-couple-shun-tradition-turn-nuptials-esports-contest-between-bride-and-groom?utm_source=rss_feed

A pair of newlyweds in China shunned a traditional wedding and instead staged a gaming contest during their nuptials, creating a unique ceremony and rekindling precious memories.

When the wedding party of the groom arrived at a hotel room, the couple kicked off a League of Legends competition with the bride, surnamed Ning.

In a viral video, the woman is seen sitting on her bed hyper-focused on the laptop screen while her groom competes with her from across the bed, surrounded by his wedding party.

Ning said esports are an important part of their relationship, as her husband was an enthusiastic gamer when they first met. However, his love for games weakened, but she kept playing and has since become better than him.

“Everyone knows that I am good, so they joined together to help him beat me,” said Ning with a smile, adding: “The winner will get lucky money, so even if I end up losing we will both be happy.”

Ning still beat her partner despite him having extra help.

The couple have been together since secondary school and their memories of gaming together inspired them to have the unusual wedding.

Their story has captivated many people on mainland social media.

One online observer said: “Their wedding is so cool!”

“These young people know how to enjoy their wedding,” said another.

“This is the most civilised wedding scene I’ve seen,” quipped a third person.

The popularity of esports is widespread and still growing in China despite a tough regulatory environment in the country.

According to a news report by CNBC in July last year, China was the largest competitive gaming market in the world, generating US$403.1 million in esports revenue in 2021.

Prior to that, in 2020, Chinese iResearch Consulting Group released data that there were 470 million gamers nationwide.

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What India can learn from China about cleaning up its ‘constant’ filthy air problem

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3244262/what-india-can-learn-china-about-cleaning-its-constant-filthy-air-problem?utm_source=rss_feed

India and China have each struggled with throat-searing air pollution blanketing their major cities with the onset of winter. Only one country has succeeded in tackling the problem.

China has made strides in scrubbing the once-foul air that had become a fact of life each year in major cities like Beijing and industrial towns across the country. Meanwhile, huge swathes of northern India continue to choke on clouds of polluted air, peaking during the winter period as temperatures drop, winds disappear and farmers across the region set their fields ablaze.

In the 30 days through November 9, levels of hazardous microparticles known as PM2.5 averaged 14 times higher in New Delhi than in Beijing, according to air-quality tracker IQAir. The picture is even more stark outside the two capitals. Last year, 65 of the 100 most polluted cities were in India, while China had just 16, according to IQAir.

Air pollution cuts lifespans in South Asia by 5 years or more: study

Previously, it was China that dominated the list: In 2017, about three-quarters of IQAir’s tally of the world’s most polluted cities were in China, while 17 were in India.

India’s pollution crisis is conspicuously absent from its climate and environmental ambitions, both on the world stage and at home. It also remains far from the top of the agenda of a coming national election that observers widely expect will sweep Modi into a third term.

The pollution epidemic is a problem not just for the health of India’s 1.4 billion residents – the biggest population of any country in the world – but also for its economy, currently the fastest-growing of any major nation. A World Bank report published in June estimated that India’s annual increase in fine particle pollution shaves 0.56 percentage points off its annual GDP growth every year due to reduced worker productivity and capital formation.

Air pollution in India also reduces the productivity of a range of business assets – blocking sunlight from solar panels, degrading electronic circuitry and reducing crop yields, according to a 2021 report commissioned by the Clean Air Fund.

“This is the biggest challenge that urban India faces today,” said Karthik Ganesan, a fellow and director of research coordination at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a Delhi think tank.

“Effectively, it’s turning the demographic dividend into a big bane because I’m left having to care for all these people who in their 50s or 60s are down and out.”

A decade ago, China was also confronted with crisis-level air pollution across its major cities, a consequence of breakneck growth and runaway emissions from a combination of vehicles, heavy industry and coal-fired power plants. The issue attracted international attention as the US Embassy in Beijing – one of the few reliable sources of air pollution data in the nation’s capital – broadcast regular crisis-level readings. It also translated into protests that bubbled across the country.

China at first pushed back against the outcry and demanded foreign embassies cease publishing air-pollution data. But the government eventually owned up to the problem as pollution levels continued to soar to records. In 2014, President Xi Jinping admitted air pollution was the “most prominent problem” facing Beijing, and the country responded with a national plan to reduce it with a US$270 billion war chest.

In the years since, China restricted the number of cars on the road in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, while capacity in China’s emissions-heavy iron and steel industries fell and new coal-fired power plants were banned in some areas, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, or EPIC.

Air pollution declined 42.3 per cent between 2013 and 2021, according to the institute, which said China’s efforts were the sole reason behind the modest drop in global pollution levels during that period.

In Delhi, meanwhile, heavy air pollution remains a fact of life, especially for the many who work outdoors and lack access to luxury solutions like air purifiers and effective face masks.

“It’s just constant,” said Subash Sharma, a 50-year-old rickshaw driver, as he waited for passengers on a recent hazy afternoon in central New Delhi. “When I go home, there’s a layer of dirt on my face.”

Sharma has been driving a rickshaw – the three-wheeled, open-door vehicles ubiquitous across India – for more than a decade, often seven days a week. He said the steady dose of air pollution has led him to develop breathing problems and a stubborn black discolouration to his face. But he said he doesn’t think too much about the long-term effects of the constant exposure to toxic air.

“We might live five years, 10 years, who knows?” he said. “You don’t know anything about tomorrow, so why think about it.”

Such acceptance, not uncommon among New Delhiites, may be one reason why the pollution crisis doesn’t figure heavily in the country’s national politics. As New Delhi’s air quality hit critical levels last month, Brijesh Goyal, the head of the Delhi-based Chamber of Trade and Industry urged Modi to hold an emergency meeting with the governments of several northern Indian to discuss the air crisis.

To date, the industry body hasn’t got a response, Goyal said. Instead, issues like unemployment, corruption and Modi and his party’s Hindu nationalist agenda are dominating the political agenda in the lead-up to next year’s election.

“What figures in the electoral documents are what people want. If people are asking for clean air, it would figure there,” said Parthaa Bosu, executive director at EPIC India. “However, it seems that we as citizens are not fully committed to this cause.”

To be sure, Indian authorities have made some progress in tackling air pollution in recent years. In 2019, the government launched a National Clean Air Programme charged with disbursing funds to cities across the country to help clean the country’s air.

In other areas, progress has been at the local level. They include expanded public transport options in New Delhi, regulations requiring city buses use natural gas and restrictions on farm fires that have resulted in a reduction in their number in recent years.

India must follow China in showing political will to fight winter smog

According to data collected by the Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi research group, the level of PM 2.5 – microscopic, cancer-causing pollutants that travel deep into lungs – averaged 98 during the three years through 2023, down 28 per cent from the three-year period ending in 2017.

The pace of improvement, however, has slowed in recent years, and some new measures, like outdoor “smog towers,” do little to clean filthy air. Squeezing further improvements will require more sweeping changes, like taking many drivers off Delhi’s clogged streets or changing the farming patterns of Indian farmers so they don’t have to set their fields ablaze, experts said.

“The tragedy is they have done all the things which are relatively easy to do – all those low hanging apples have been plucked,” said Avikal Somvanshi, senior manager at the CSE.

“Now what they need to do is much more difficult.

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China dispatches massive vessel to catalogue fisheries, scale up industry presence

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3244228/china-dispatches-massive-vessel-catalogue-fisheries-scale-industry-presence?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s largest fishery research vessel has cast off on its first overseas mission as the country strives to shed a long-held image as a ravenous consumer of global fish stock and gain a greater say in the industry’s governance.

The independently developed Lan Hai (Blue Ocean) 201 set sail from Shanghai last Thursday to carry out surveys in the high seas of the northwestern Indian Ocean, according to Chinese media reports.

“The high seas are an important source of high-quality protein for China and an important strategic support point for our marine strategy,” said Fang Hui, director of the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, which owns the vessel.

“Carrying out surveys of fishery resources in the open ocean is important for achieving the sustainable development of distant-water fisheries and safeguarding China’s maritime rights,” Fang said.

The voyage will last four months and cover 100 sites, according to the institute, and assess the volume and biological diversity of fishery resources as well as the hydrological and meteorological elements around major fisheries.

Weighing 3, 289 tonnes and measuring 84.5 metres in length and 15 metres in width, Lanhai 201 has a cruising power of 10,000 nautical miles and is equipped with an internationally advanced scientific investigation system.

Can deep-sea fishing feed China, or will the haul be too costly?

“This offshore survey mission can help integrate China’s distant-water fisheries into [Belt and Road Initiative] industrial development, and enhance China’s voice while participating in international fishery governance,” said Tang Xiaolin, captain of the vessel.

A consumer of a full third of the world’s fish, China is also the globe’s biggest seafood exporter thanks to its massive distant-water fleet, the largest of any country.

But it has long been accused of depleting the world’s fishery stocks and devastating global maritime ecosystems after exhausting its domestic resources.

Chinese vessels have also been involved in clashes over fishing grounds in the waters of other nations – mostly low-income countries like North Korea.

According to figures from the Chinese government, the country had 2,551 distant-water fleet vessels operating in the high seas of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans and the seas around Antarctica, as well as in waters under the jurisdiction of cooperating countries as of 2022.

But according to a 2020 study by the London-based think tank Overseas Development Institute, the actual number could be close to 17,000. It is also unclear, the authors said, whether the Chinese government has comprehensive control over the sector, as vessel ownership is highly fragmented and ships can be registered in other jurisdictions.

To better fulfil its international obligations, Beijing has pledged to control the size of its distant-water fleet and cancelled their fuel subsidies, according to a white paper published by the State Council Information Office in October.

However, the office said, China still lags behind developed countries in terms of fishing vessels and equipment, fishery cataloguing and the contribution of science and technology to the industry’s development.

“By optimising the industrial structure, strengthening scientific and technological foundations, increasing regulatory capabilities, participating extensively in international fisheries governance, and improving the policy system, China aims to achieve high-quality development of its [distant-water fleet] sector,” it said.

By 2025, the size and output of the country’s distant-water fleet will be stable, with fewer violations and accidents, as well as more effective supervision and administration, the office said.

“A significant effort will be directed towards the implementation of international agreements,” it added.

China trade: 5 takeaways from November’s data as exports edge up for first time in 7 months

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3244205/china-trade-5-takeaways-novembers-data-exports-edge-first-time-7-months?utm_source=rss_feed

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China’s exports edged up for the first time in seven months in November, increasing by 0.5 per cent from a year earlier to US$291.9 billion.

The reading was better than the fall of 6.4 per cent in October, and was above the forecast by Chinese financial data provider Wind, which projected an increase of 0.4 per cent.

The year-on-year jump - the first such increase since May - and the level of export volumes hitting a fresh high was supported by exporters reducing prices, according to analysts at Capital Economics.

“We doubt this robustness will persist, however, as exporters wont be able to continue cutting prices for much longer,” they said.

After accounting for price effects and seasonality, Capital Economics estimated that export volumes rose by 1 per cent last month, reaching a record high.

China exports edge up for first time in 7 months in November, imports decline

“China’s export growth turned positive in November. The improvement in exports is broadly in line with market expectation,” said Zhang Zhiwei, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

“Indeed, the sequential growth in China’s exports in the past few months strengthened. There are green shoots in other Asian countries’ export data as well in recent months.”

But Ding Shuang, chief Greater China economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said the modest improvement in China’s exports was largely due to the low base of comparison as the overall trade situation has deteriorated over the past two years.

“China’s overall trade is still sluggish,” Ding said.

China’s imports fell by 0.6 per cent in November to US$223.5 billion, a pronounced drop compared to October’s 3 per cent growth, and fell short of Wind’s prediction for growth of 3.5 per cent.

“Import volumes declined after hitting a record high in October, but they are likely to remain strong in the near-term as fiscal support boosts commodity demand,” said analysts at Capital Economics.

China’s total trade surplus in November stood at US$68.3 billion, up from US$56.5 billion in October.

China’s exports to the United States grew by 7.35 per cent year on year, rising for the first time since July last year, having fallen by 8.19 per cent in October.

China’s exports to the European Union fell by 14.51 per cent, down further from a fall of 12.56 per cent in October.

And China’s exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also dropped by 7.07 per cent from a year earlier, although the fall was slightly narrower than the 15.1 per cent decline in October.

With the recent strength in China’s exports at least partly fuelled by firms slashing prices to gain market share, analysts at Capital Economics said they do not expect the resilience to last.

“This is not sustainable and is negatively affecting firms’ profit margins, which have dropped near levels not seen since at least 2010, excluding the initial pandemic lockdowns,” they said.

“Without the support of price cuts, exports are unlikely to defy the slowdown in growth among Chinas major trading partners, which we expect to continue in the first half of next year.”

Imports, though, are likely to hold up better in the near term, they added, as an increase in infrastructure spending should support demand for metals.

“While export growth improved, it is unclear if exports can contribute as a growth pillar into next year. The European and US economies are cooling,” added Zhang at Pinpoint Asset Management.

“China still needs to depend on domestic demand as the main driver for growth in 2024. The fiscal policy stance is the focus for the market.

“There is a consensus that fiscal policy will turn expansionary next year. How aggressive the policy will be is unclear at this stage. The central economic work conference next week may shed some light.”

Additional reporting by Mia Nulimaimaiti

Senator peppers State Department nominee Kurt Campbell with questions about China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3244298/senator-peppers-state-department-nominee-kurt-campbell-questions-about-china?utm_source=rss_feed

US President Joe Biden’s top official on Asia policy came under attack on Thursday by the senior Republican on the committee considering his nomination to the State Department’s No 2 position for agreeing to direct military talks with China.

As part of his opening remarks in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s grilling of Kurt Campbell, James Risch of Idaho cited a recent incident in the South China Sea as an example of why direct military-to-military talks with Beijing are counterproductive.

After more than 100 Chinese ships last month approached Whitsun Reef in the Spratly Islands, which is controlled by the Philippines but also claimed by China and Vietnam, Manila protested, accusing them of “swarming” in Philippine waters. The Pentagon and the People’s Liberation Army then accused each other of violating maritime rules.

“The recent focus at the Apec summit on establishing working groups with China allows them to weaponise against us,” Risch contended. “Beijing wants to tie us up in these mechanisms and use them to constrain our policies.”

“The administration claims – and maybe even believes – talks will help avoid miscalculation. If we were dealing with a good-faith actor, that should be true,” he added.

“Just days after China agreed to these talks and everybody happily shook hands, it conducted aggressive acts at sea and in air, risking lives of US and allied sailors.”

Campbell, the National Security Council coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs who led calls for Beijing to reestablish the military-to-military talks, was nominated by Biden last month to replace Wendy Sherman as deputy secretary of state, second in command to Antony Blinken.

Committee chairman Ben Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, told Campbell the Senate was “trying to expedite the consideration of your nomination”, owing to the urgency of challenges presented by China, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in the Middle East.

Philippines stands out in Asean over embrace of US’ Indo-Pacific strategy

Campbell did not respond directly to Risch’s criticism of the effort to resume bilateral military dialogue, which China had largely halted since August 2022 in retaliation for a trip then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi made to Taiwan.

However, the two were more aligned on another front involving China, with Campbell suggesting that he had moved to a harder line when it comes to Beijing’s involvement in Ukraine.

Risch said he disagreed with any openness by the Biden administration to Beijing having a role in ending the war in Ukraine.

“China must not and should not be allowed to use Ukraine as a way to anchor itself in European security issues because of some misguided belief that it can calm Russia down,” the senator said.

In a meeting with China’s special envoy for Eurasia, Li Hui, in August, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and acting deputy secretary of state Victoria Nuland said Washington welcomed a “productive” role for Beijing – “if that role respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed.

Campbell suggested that China’s support for Russia had aided Moscow militarily, a development that would make it difficult for him to support any further involvement by Beijing on ending the war.

Referring to a recent meeting that he had with Risch’s staff on the matter, Campbell said: “I don’t want to say that they schooled me but I really came away with … a greater sense of what the limitations are for any kind of role that China can or would play in the future” as a peace broker.

“China has assisted through a variety of means, not necessarily direct military means but … through commercial and other engagements, but Russia has largely reconstituted militarily,” Campbell added. “And even though China purports to be an independent actor that has not taken sides, very clearly they have taken sides.”

China awaits whether US interest rate cut, better ties bring economic tailwinds in 2024

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3244235/china-awaits-whether-us-interest-rate-cut-better-ties-bring-economic-tailwinds-2024?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top leaders are expected to assemble soon at the central economic work conference in Beijing to hammer out economic goals for 2024. This is the third part looking at what to expect from China’s economy next year.

When Chinese leaders assemble in the coming days to examine the nation’s bumpy post-Covid recovery and set next year’s growth targets, external uncertainties look to be prioritised during their closed-door discussions.

Pundits have pointed to the positive impact for China of potential interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve, which could reduce pressure on the yuan and result in a greater inflow of capital. However, there are concerns about how Washington’s policymakers will behave during the coming election year, and about how their actions could disrupt the world’s second-largest economy.

“It’s mainly about Fed rate decisions and the American presidential race, when we talk about if China will have a stable outside environment,” said Zhu Feng, dean of the Institute of International Relations at Nanjing University.

External uncertainties are carefully considered in setting Beijing’s domestic priorities. Following the central economic work conference a year ago, authorities warned of a “volatile” international environment and the impact it could have on China’s economy, as they set an “around 5 per cent” gross domestic product (GDP) target for 2023.

Many economists, including Chinese and Americans, expect that the US’ most aggressive rate-rising cycle in 40 years – totalling 525 basis points since March 2022 – will end soon, and that the first interest rate cut could come as early as mid-2024.

“Fed cuts would benefit the Chinese economy in the short run and allow for greater manoeuvring in China’s monetary policy,” Zhang Jun, director of Fudan University’s School of Economics, said at a forum in Shanghai last month.

Analysts expect that Chinese leaders will maintain a GDP growth target of around 5 per cent for 2024 to allow room for de-risking, while expansionary fiscal policy could be an option after Beijing’s decision last month to issue 1 trillion yuan (US$140 billion) worth of sovereign bonds. The move raised China’s budget-deficit ratio to about 3.8 per cent, well above the 3 per cent target set in March.

“The rate-cut cycle should ultimately lead to lower financing costs for businesses – a positive for trade flows,” said Heron Lim, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, adding that any uptick in net exports would likely be gradual, as initial rate cuts would be small.

Another charm offensive from China: closer supply chains, no decoupling

However, Lim warned that the Chinese economy, in terms of exports and capital flow, has much more riding on whether US-China ties continue to improve in an election year than on other factors such as Fed rate cuts or the rate spread between the two countries.

In dollar terms, China’s exports to the US in the first 10 months of the year contracted by 15.4 per cent, year on year, more than double the 5.6 per cent dip in the country’s total exports in the same period, but the share of exports to the US still accounted for 15 per cent of China’s total.

A meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden last month built on the momentum of an uptick in exchanges in recent months. But some observers have cast doubt on this momentum continuing, as US election years tend to amplify calls to be tough on China, as well as calls to decouple.

Bala Ramasamy, deputy director of the China Europe International Business School, said the expected rate pause or reduction would be good news for the yuan, but not so much for Chinese exports, as it would make them more expensive.

Meanwhile, he said, “geopolitical tensions with the US are a more important factor that affects trade and investments”.

Alex Ma, an associate professor of public administration at Peking University, said the tough-on-China consensus is a bipartisan one, and that the only difference between candidates will be “the extent of such toughness needed”, warning that the entrenched trade war and the burgeoning tech war would continue to weigh on China’s economic outlook.

The key, said Ma, will boil down to whether Washington heeds Beijing’s call for both sides to clearly set the boundaries of national security in terms of trade and business dealings.

Nanjing University’s Zhu said that for the Chinese economy to navigate US economic cycles and election politics, Beijing still has work to do in terms of reform and broadening market access.

“More reforms and opening up are the safest bet, regardless of whether US rate cuts serve as a tailwind or if the election may mean more headwinds,” he said. “The economic work conference is a good occasion to send messages of reform.

“Once we change the policymaking calculus towards a more market- and international rules-based approach, once we open the door wider and respect the market more in managing our economy and trade, we will be able to cushion the impact from external uncertainties.”