• China must cut US treasuries in ‘orderly’ fashion, maintain balance of trade amid rising risks: ex-central bank adviser
• China’s New Oriental fires live-streaming e-commerce platform CEO, promotes top influencer after corporate infighting
• South China Sea: Beijing flexes maritime muscles as Manila’s ‘aggressive transparency’ puts it on the defensive
• In China’s deep-sea mining, the Dream is ready to raise ‘flammable ice’ from the ocean’s depths
• Taiwan to seize intruding sand dredgers from mainland China to fight illegal mining and ‘grey zone warfare’
• Xi Jinping ‘personally’ steering China’s reform process, state media report says
• C919: China to develop high-altitude version of narrowbody passenger jet seeking to reduce reliance on Boeing, Airbus
• Taiwan singer makes ‘offensive’ joke China’s Henan province full of ‘scammers’ during concert there apologises after online backlash
• North Korea vows to work with China to ‘safeguard common interests’ as Pyongyang launches fifth ICBM this year
• ‘Breakthrough therapy’: a new Chinese drug shows record treatment success against one of the deadliest lung cancers
• ‘Emboldened’ by its Russia, China ties, North Korea rejects US calls for talks: ‘Pyongyang can bide its time’
• Amid China tensions, Philippines to look for more military pacts, Marcos Jnr says
• Arm laying off and relocating over 70 engineers in China amid cutbacks in chip industry, including at Qualcomm
• It’s a hit: China university karaoke course strikes a chord with senior citizens looking for fun way to learn music
• China health authorities say respiratory illnesses spike is finally easing
• This group thinks Taiwan’s people aren’t taking the risk of war with mainland China seriously enough. Their goal is to change that
• Secret space plane, links between Chinese Communist Party’s inner circles: 5 weekend reads you may have missed
• Hong Kong’s John Lee ‘to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang on Monday afternoon’ as part of second duty visit to Beijing
• As Russia projects its ‘great-power ambitions’ into India’s backyard, will it ‘irritate’ US, China?
• Outrage as man drags wife out of car leaving crying toddler son on busy road in China during row over boy’s education
• China jobs: suspended production, extended unpaid leave embody woes with private businesses under pressure

China must cut US treasuries in ‘orderly’ fashion, maintain balance of trade amid rising risks: ex-central bank adviser

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3245467/china-must-cut-us-treasuries-orderly-fashion-maintain-balance-trade-amid-rising-risks-ex-central?utm_source=rss_feed

China should make an “orderly” cut of its US Treasury holdings and maintain a “balance” of trade with the rest of the world, according to a prominent Chinese economist.

It is the second-largest foreign holder of US government bonds after Japan, according to data from the US Department of the Treasury, while China also maintains a large trade surplus with the rest of the world as it consistently exports more than it imports.

But former People’s Bank of China adviser Yu Yongding, who has been advocating Beijing to reduce its exposure to US government bonds, warned about the growing risks in the US debt crisis and Washington’s “weaponising” of the US dollar in international trade in a speech on Sunday at the Sanya Forum organised by Caijing Magazine.

“China should step up the adjustment of its overseas assets and liabilities, increasing the income of overseas net assets. To this end, China should reduce the proportion of overseas assets in its foreign exchange reserves,” Yu said, according to a transcript published by the Beijing-based New Economist think tank on Sunday.

Yu said that China needs to improve the security of its overseas assets, especially its foreign exchange reserves, which stood at US$3.17 trillion in November, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Under the current conditions, China should “try to reduce the stock of foreign exchange reserves” to a level that is recognised “internationally”, he said, without elaborating the specific foreign exchange reserve standards.

China held US$778.1 billion of US Treasury bills in September, based on US Treasury data, although the data excludes bonds held by non-US custodians, such as those in Europe.

Meanwhile, its trade surplus grew to US$68.39 billion in November, from US$56.53 billion in October, according to Chinese customs data.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US and its allies blocked the Russian central bank’s access to its holdings of foreign exchange reserves, with such moves undermining the US’ credibility, according to Yu.

The downgrading of the US’ credit ratings in recent months has also highlighted the risks in the country’s deteriorating debt problems, he added.

“This kind of thing needs to be done in an orderly manner,” Yu said, adding that it would be “unwise” to engage in large sell-offs of US government bonds given its geopolitical implications.

China, which has the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves due to its large export revenues, does not disclose the location of its deposits.

Brad Setser, a former US Treasury economist and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, estimated in a blog post in October that US bonds have consistently made up around 50 per cent of China’s reported reserves.

In August, Fitch Ratings knocked its US credit rating down to AA+ from AAA, while Moody’s Investors Service lowered its outlook on US government debt in October to “negative” from “stable” due to large fiscal deficits and a decline in debt affordability.

Yu also said it is important for China to maintain a “trade balance and international balance of payments” by increasing imports from the US and the rest of the world, while also growing its domestic consumption.

“In a certain period of time, we can have a trade deficit. On the other hand, China’s economic growth cannot rely too much on external demand,” Yu said.

“To do this, we must keep the Chinese economy at a relatively high economic growth rate.

“We are required to adopt an expansionary monetary policy, which is conducive to maintaining our foreign reserves and the security of overseas assets.”

China’s New Oriental fires live-streaming e-commerce platform CEO, promotes top influencer after corporate infighting

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3245502/chinas-new-oriental-fires-live-streaming-e-commerce-platform-ceo-promotes-top-influencer-after?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese live-streaming e-commerce website East Buy fired its CEO after he made comments angering fans of a top influencer on the platform, ending a widely-watched corporate battle that reflects the importance of A-list sellers.

The Hong Kong-listed company was created by the famed private tutor Michael Yu Minhong as the online tutoring arm of New Oriental Education Technology Group. It pivoted to live-streaming e-commerce after its private tutoring was outlawed in 2021. Former English teacher Dong Yuhui emerged on the new platform as one of the most popular influencers in China.

Sun Dongxu, the company’s sacked CEO, became the subject of ire when he backed a social media post insinuating Dong was taking too much credit for himself because scripts came from a team of writers. East Buy said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday that Sun’s mishandling of the incident hurt the firm’s brand and reputation, and that Yu, the chairman, would take over as CEO.

China’s tutoring giant triples sales by selling eggs after crackdown

Replacing Sun will protect the interests of shareholders, the company said in the statement, and “allow for a more experienced director to take over the management”.

The case comes as Chinese e-commerce platforms have been forced to navigate uneasy relationships with big influencers. After betting big on popular personalities to attract consumers and drive sales, platforms are now trying to reduce their reliance on any one individual.

The case of East Buy illustrates the precariousness of this balancing act. Dong skipped out on the company’s regular streaming schedule after the row about hogging credit. That resulted in a revolt from his loyal followers who thought East Buy was not being nice enough to their idol.

Both Dong and the company have a lot on the line. The two are mutually reliant on each other to pull off the work, according to Li Chengdong, founder and chief analyst at Beijing-based e-commerce consultancy Dolphin.

On Weibo, Dong has nearly 1.5 million followers, 10 times the 116,000 followers of East Buy’s official account.

On ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, Dong has around 22 million followers on his personal account. By comparison, the company’s official Douyin account – its main online presence where a team of about 10 hosts including Dong regularly appear – has around 29 million followers.

A casualty of China’s brutal online education sector crackdown, East Buy, previously known as Koolearn, morphed into its current form earlier this year with a successful push into peddling wares in online live streams, which has become a strong force in the domestic e-commerce industry.

Live-streaming e-commerce sales jumped 58.9 per cent year on year to 2.2 trillion yuan (US$309 billion) in the first 10 months of 2023, accounting for 18.1 per cent of total online shopping revenue in China, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

Following its stock exchange filing, East Buy announced that Dong would return to live-streaming on Monday evening as a senior partner of the company. In a separate statement, the parent company announced that Dong was being promoted to assistant of culture to the chairman, Yu, and would double as vice-president at New Oriental Culture and Tourism Group.

East Buy shares rose more than 21 per cent on trading Monday, closing at HK$31.85.

South China Sea: Beijing flexes maritime muscles as Manila’s ‘aggressive transparency’ puts it on the defensive

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3245481/south-china-sea-beijing-flexes-maritime-muscles-manilas-aggressive-transparency-puts-it-defensive?utm_source=rss_feed

China is likely to ramp up its actions in stand-offs with the Philippines in the South China Sea as Manila’s “aggressive transparency” tactic has put its powerful rival on the back foot, observers say.

However, they warned Beijing must carefully calibrate any escalation to avoid drawing in the US to defend its Southeast Asian ally.

Chinese and Philippine vessels have been locked in frequent stand-offs – some involving collisions in recent months – over the control of reefs in the South China Sea, making the strategic waterway a more dangerous flashpoint than the Taiwan Strait.

China has appeared taken aback by the Philippines, which is taking a more direct approach in confronting Beijing and its massive and heavily armed patrol boats.

Despite repeated blockades by the Chinese coastguard, the Philippines has continued its regular resupply missions – led by fishermen and civic groups – to shore up the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era navy ship that was deliberately grounded in 1999 as an outpost at the Second Thomas Shoal, to prevent it from falling into the sea.

Manila has also invited the international media to shine a spotlight on what it describes as China’s “aggressive activities” in the strategic waterway.

In an incident earlier this month, Chinese Coast Guard ships fired high-intensity water cannons at a ship with journalists on board, which had been deployed by the Philippine fisheries bureau on a mission to provide fuel to fishermen near the contested Scarborough Shoal, known in Chinese as Huangyan Island.

The triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the South China Sea was taken over by China after a tense maritime stand-off 11 years ago.

Observers said Beijing would remain on the defensive in the South China Sea dispute as long as Manila did not cross a red line – for example, by reinforcing the Sierra Madre, building a permanent outpost at the Second Thomas Shoal or having its ships enter the Scarborough Shoal’s lagoon, which would be considered a challenge to Chinese control.

“It’s a very strange phenomenon that the comparison of military powers between China and the Philippines is now completely reversed with our current situation at sea,” said Chen Xiangmiao, an associate researcher with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies in the southern island province of Hainan.

Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said Manila’s tactics had so far been effective.

“It may not have compelled Beijing to roll back its actions in the South China Sea, but at least one can say it might have deterred China from upping the ante via vertical escalation,” he said, referring to the process of taking even more drastic actions such as the use of force.

This has left China with limited options, prompting Beijing to carefully calibrate its response and avoiding crossing the “armed attack” threshold, which could invoke the US-Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty, Koh added.

“So while not rolling back these actions which could lead to obvious domestic political repercussions due to China looking weak, Beijing also finds itself struggling with persisting with the existing set of options below that threshold of armed attack,” he said.

“All in all, we see some sort of a stalemate.”

Pressure mounts on China as Philippines says it will never give an inch

The tactics reflect the calculations of Beijing and Manila, according to Ray Powell, director of SeaLight, a project at the Gordian Knot Centre for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, which monitors maritime activities in the South China Sea.

He said Manila, with its much smaller maritime security force, believed that its best defence was to publicise Beijing’s actions.

“This has resulted in commitments of increased maritime funding from its own legislature and moral support from partner nations,” said Powell, who dubbed the strategy “aggressive transparency”.

Meanwhile, Beijing has decided to convince Manila that the risks of continuing this strategy outweigh the benefits, according to Powell.

“How long and how much it keeps on this course depends on how long it can endure the reputational harm it is suffering and whether it believes Manila will blink first,” Powell said.

Some believe Beijing is playing the long game until the day the rusting warship falls apart on its own, which would force the Philippines to evacuate the Second Thomas Shoal.

Others said China was attempting to bait Manila into firing the first shot, which Koh said “would then legitimise Beijing to escalate as a ‘self-defensive measure’”.

“This explains the [Philippine] wariness against taking risks that could legitimise the Chinese to resort to more drastic actions.”

Will more assertive Philippine approach to South China Sea pay off?

There are signs that Beijing is changing its tactics.

In what appeared to be “a calculated show of force”, 11 Chinese vessels were spotted inside the Second Thomas Shoal on December 11 while dozens more clustered around the exterior, according to SeaLight, Powell’s project.

Citing images from satellite geospatial imagery provider Planet Labs, SeaLight said two of the Chinese ships were seen as close as 2km (1.2 miles) south of the Sierra Madre.

This came after two separate confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels – one near Scarborough Shoal on December 9 and another a day later near the Second Thomas Shoal.

SeaLight called the Chinese ships’ advance towards the Second Thomas Shoal “highly unusual”, because Chinese vessels typically return promptly to the Mischief Reef base nearby when Philippine resupply boats and their escorts depart.

“It’s quite rare to see [Chinese] vessels enter the shoal’s interior at all, but 11 is certainly the highest number we’ve yet observed at SeaLight,” Powell wrote. “China is escalating.”

Koh agreed that the unprecedented number of Chinese ships within the Second Thomas Shoal “represented a serious escalation” by China.

“All this while the Chinese forces have maintained a stand-off distance from the shoal, but now it appears they’re probably seeking to establish a tighter cordon – or at least making the first initial steps to do so, in a gradual manner,” he said.

However, it remains to be seen how far Beijing and Manila could go, Powell said.

“For example, does the Philippines attempt to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre by another method, or does China attempt to use other instruments like economic coercion to increase the pressure?” he asked.

Additional reporting by Amber Wang

In China’s deep-sea mining, the Dream is ready to raise ‘flammable ice’ from the ocean’s depths

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3245492/chinas-deep-sea-mining-dream-ready-raise-flammable-ice-oceans-depths?utm_source=rss_feed

China says the world’s most advanced ocean-drilling ship will launch on Friday – capable of harvesting energy-rich “flammable ice” from the ocean bed and conducting missions at depths near the deepest waters in the Mariana Trench.

State media said final preparations are under way on the home-grown drillship that will be used in part to extract gas hydrate – a crystalline solid that resembles ice, forms under immense pressure, and contains a lot of methane.

It could also become a commercially viable energy source – though not a green one – as the world’s largest oil and gas importer ramps up its maritime prowess, Xinhua reported.

That’s where the Dream comes in – the English name of the Meng Xiang drillship now said to be capable of reaching 11,000 metres (36,089 feet), compared with the 11,034-metre depth of the ocean’s deepest point in the Mariana, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

China’s ‘involuted’ new-energy industry awash with self-defeating overcapacity

But where the ship operates could become a point of contention, as flammable-ice reserves – according to Chinese surveys over several years – are mainly scattered throughout the South China Sea, and geopolitical tensions are high because of disputed sovereignty claims over the waters and the treasure trove of natural resources beneath them.

China has been pacing up efforts to mine gas hydrate since a successful 60-day trial extraction in 2017 and an even more promising trial in 2020. It can be found scattered across large areas of the sea floor. Gas hydrate is so densely packed with natural gas that one cubic metre of the solid releases 164 cubic metres of conventional natural gas once extracted, according to estimates by the US Department of Energy.

The substance contains mostly methane molecules and can therefore be lit on fire. The fuel is cleaner than coal, but methane is still a greenhouse gas and contains pollutants.

Thanks to its abundance and energy intensity, it has been regarded by some as the future of fuel. But environmental groups have warned that its extraction, if not supported by the most advanced mining technologies, could leak greenhouse gases and raise the ocean’s acidity level, threatening sea life.

Authorities unveiled preliminary information about the drillship a year ago when its main structure was completed, but they merely said it would be used for key national projects, without specifying which type.

A report by state broadcaster CCTV on Monday boasted that the ship not only drills deeper than any other, but that the size and sophistication of its onboard laboratory facilities are unmatched.

The laboratory spans 300 square metres (3,230 sq ft) and has nine sections including ones devoted to marine science, microorganisms, and the study of magnetic fields in rocks.

Construction of the vessel, which has a gross tonnage of about 33,000 and an endurance of 15,000 nautical miles, was led by the Ministry of Natural Resources and involved the participation of more than 150 companies and institutions, Xinhua said.

The ministry previously estimated that there are 80 billion tonnes of prospective flammable ice under waters claimed by China.

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Taiwan to seize intruding sand dredgers from mainland China to fight illegal mining and ‘grey zone warfare’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3245500/taiwan-seize-intruding-sand-dredgers-mainland-china-fight-illegal-mining-and-grey-zone-warfare?utm_source=rss_feed

Taiwan will seize sand dredgers from mainland China that cross into Taiwanese waters as a way to stop illegal gravel mining and growing incursions by civilian flotillas from across the strait.

The move also aims to counter a so-called grey zone tactic by Beijing that has been used to pressure and intimidate Taipei, observers said.

In a review of the Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf, Taiwan’s legislature on Monday approved a revision to the statute allowing for the seizure of the dredgers.

Under the revision, “ships or other machinery or equipment illegally used for excavation of sand and gravel in [Taiwan’s] exclusive economic zone or on the continental shelf shall be confiscated regardless of who owns the facilities,” the legislature said in a statement on Monday.

Over the past decade, dozens of mainland sand dredgers have reportedly crossed into the island’s waters to illegally extract sand from the Taiwanese seabed despite being repeatedly dispersed by Taiwan’s coastguard.

Illegal dredging, mostly in waters close to Taiwan’s Matsu archipelago, became rampant between 2020 and 2021. At its height, there were reports of several hundred large mainland dredgers operating at the same time.

Each time the boats returned after being dispersed, prompting the island to revise the law in 2021 to increase the penalties for illegal operations.

In addition to increasing maximum jail terms for the offence to seven years from five, lawmakers also doubled the fine to NT$100 million (US$3.2 million). The revised law also authorises Taiwanese authorities to confiscate the dredgers.

The increased penalties helped reduce the number of illegal operations to 224 last year from a high of 4,000 in 2020.

But there had been debate about whether seizure of a boat was reasonable if a sand dredger was rented from a company that was unaware of its illegal operations.

A recent court case raised questions about the ownership of a mainland Chinese dredger confiscated for illegal operations in Taiwanese waters. Its operator claimed the ship did not belong to him and that the law did not specify what to do with the boat if its ownership was in question.

“With the approval of the revised law in the third and final reading today, any Chinese dredger involved in illegal operations will be confiscated regardless of who owns the vessel,” said Kuan Bi-ling, the island’s ocean affairs minister, in response to the revision.

Taiwan to crack down on fishing boats with ‘illegal’ BeiDou satnav systems

Monday’s revision also applies to mainland fishing boats that enter Taiwanese waters for illegal fishing, according to the legislature.

Between January and September, the island’s coastguard expelled 652 mainland Chinese fishing boats and confiscated 20 of them for crossing into Taiwanese waters for illegal fishing.

Chuang Jui-hsiung, a legislator from the ruling independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, said the revision could further cut the number of offences.

“By confiscating the boats regardless of their ownership, it could effectively stop the offenders from illegal operations, given the expensive prices of the ships and their equipment,” said Chuang, one of the lawmakers who proposed the revision.

He also said seizure was “an effective way to counter the growing grey zone threats from China”.

“Grey zone” operations refer to tactics that occupy the grey area between peace and war and may involve coercive actions that fall short of actual combat or are unlikely to prompt a conventional military response.

Taipei, Washington seal coastguard deal ‘to counter Beijing’s grey zone threats’

Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taipei, said the dredging and fishing incursions were a part of the People’s Liberation Army’s grey zone warfare against Taiwan.

“The forays have not only damaged our environmental and fishing resources but they are also intended to exhaust our coastguard,” he said, adding the PLA was increasingly using such tactics to pressure and intimidate the island.

Su said the PLA’s grey zone tactics were meant to drain the resources and erode the will of Taiwanese forces.

The island’s defence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng has also said Taiwan needed to come up with measures to counter the PLA’s growing grey zone threats.

Beijing regards Taiwan as its territory that must be taken under its control, by force if necessary. It has intensified its military operations around the island since then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August of last year – a trip Beijing saw as a violation of its sovereignty and a breach of Washington’s one-China policy.

Like most countries, the US – Taiwan’s informal ally and biggest arms supplier – does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state but is opposed to any unilateral change in the cross-strait status quo by force.

Xi Jinping ‘personally’ steering China’s reform process, state media report says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3245488/xi-jinping-personally-steering-chinas-reform-process-state-media-report-says?utm_source=rss_feed

State media has highlighted President Xi Jinping’s leading role in the country’s reform process, as the ruling Communist Party marks the start of China’s economic revival more than four decades ago.

In a report on Sunday, official news agency Xinhua said Xi had taken the lead in the “overall design, coordination, supervision and implementation” of reforms. He did so as head of the top party group on systemic reform – a body that was initially a leading group and later upgraded to a top-level commission.

Citing unnamed “authoritative sources”, the report said Xi had “carefully reviewed each draft of major reform plans, making revisions word by word and sentence by sentence”.

The report said Xi had chaired 70 meetings with the leading group and commission on a series of major reform plans since the 18th party congress in November 2012, when he took power.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up policy, after then-leader Deng Xiaoping set the country on the road to economic transformation at a meeting of the party’s Central Committee held from December 18 to 22, 1978.

The Central Committee pledged further reforms and laid out dozens of market-oriented measures at a meeting in November 2013, a year after Xi took office.

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Xi personally oversaw the drafting process of the document on reforms that was passed at that meeting in 2013, according to the Xinhua report. It said the document “for the first time proposed the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform … to advance the modernisation of the national governance system”.

It said the document had set out “60 specific tasks and 336 reform measures” and outlined “the strategic focus, priority sequence, main directions, working mechanisms, promotion methods, timetable and road map” for reforms.

The report also pointed to a “major theoretical breakthrough” stated in the document – that the market should play “a decisive role” in resource allocation. That call was made by Xi, the report said, citing an unidentified source who was involved in the drafting process.

“Without the determination of General Secretary Xi Jinping, it would have been difficult for a lot of major reforms to happen,” the person was quoted as saying.

The report said “major deployments” to achieve China’s reform goals had been pushed forward over the past decade.

Xi “personally leads this great revolution that relates to the future and destiny of the party and the country, as well as the success or failure of our cause, steering reform and opening up towards an even broader journey”, according to the report.

It said Xi had taken a “long and broad view” on a series of key issues and that his statements seeking to answer the “major theoretical and practical questions” on reforms had provided “a powerful ideological and theoretical weapon” to carry them out.

C919: China to develop high-altitude version of narrowbody passenger jet seeking to reduce reliance on Boeing, Airbus

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3245475/c919-china-develop-high-altitude-version-narrowbody-passenger-jet-seeking-reduce-reliance-boeing?utm_source=rss_feed

China is developing a version of its first domestically developed narrowbody passenger jet suitable for high-altitude plateaus just six months after its maiden commercial flight and amid its pursuit of more technological self-reliance in aviation.

The state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), the designer and manufacturer of the C919, signed a cooperation deal with Tibet Airlines on Sunday in Shanghai to jointly develop a plateau-suited model of the aircraft.

“Tibet Airlines has accumulated rich experience in flying at high plateaus as China’s first plateau airline, and will work with Comac to push forward the research and development of domestic high plateau jets,” Comac president Zhou Xinmin said, according to Tibet Airlines’ WeChat account.

They agreed to jointly establish a national research centre during the signing ceremony, the report said, although no timetable was given for the development of the new model.

As the country with the world’s most airports located on plateaus, China is trying to further develop a new domestic jet for its complex plateau regions to reduce its reliance on overseas suppliers for aviation products.

The Boeing 737-700 and the Airbus A330 and A319 predominantly dominate the Chinese market for plateau-suited jets.

Plateau-suited jets are shorter and carry more oxygen cylinders to ensure the aircraft can maintain a continuous supply of oxygen in the event of a depressurisation, according to an article published by Comac in 2015.

The engines also have more thrust to support sustained flight at higher altitudes where the air is thinner, and are equipped with more accurate satellite communication systems to suit the complex terrain, the article added.

What is China’s C919 passenger jet and can it take on Airbus, Boeing?

Tibet is one of the most difficult regions in the world to fly due to its windy and sandy conditions during winter and spring, and thunderstorms in summer and autumn.

Wind speeds can change dramatically, and the complexity of the region’s geography limits the flight of ordinary aircraft over the plateau, according to a report in June by China Aviation Daily magazine.

China has 176 passenger aircraft operating on plateaus routes, accounting for less than 5 per cent of its entire civil aviation passenger fleet, the report said.

Comac said at an air show in Shanghai in late November that the C919 plateau-suited model has a lower seating capacity of 140, compared to 156-192 for the existing model.

Earlier, Comac unveiled an expanded model of the C919 with 210 seats, which is 7.4 metres (24.3 feet) longer than the current jet, and can operate between China’s major cities and the Asia-Pacific region.

In early December, Comac delivered its third C919 aircraft to China Eastern Airlines for operation on the Chengdu-Shanghai route following its maiden commercial flight in May after 14 years of development.

The C919 also made two passes over Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour on Saturday having arrived in the city earlier last week as part of its first trip outside mainland China.

Taiwan singer makes ‘offensive’ joke China’s Henan province full of ‘scammers’ during concert there apologises after online backlash

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3244903/taiwan-singer-makes-offensive-joke-chinas-henan-province-full-scammers-during-concert-there?utm_source=rss_feed

Popular Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang Cheng-lin stunned her audience at a concert in central China’s Henan province with an “insulting and offensive” comment.

She said inhabitants of the region “love cheating people”, but subsequently apologised for what she later admitted was an “offensive and impolite joke” after it triggered an online backlash.

According to a concertgoer, a kissing couple from the audience were caught on camera and appeared on a big screen at the back of the stage, which got the audience cheering. Yang, who could not see the screen, asked the couple to swing their glow sticks.

Her enthusiastic fans swung their sticks for her and it was then that the singer made the controversial remark that Henan people are “famous for loving and cheating people”.

Yang made the comment during her concert in the province on December 9, apologising for the blooper within 24 hours on her official Weibo account.

A member of the audience told Chinese media outlet Dingduan News that he immediately realised Yang had “said something wrong again”.

The Taiwanese singer and actress last sparked a public outcry about 20 years ago when she claimed the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression lasted “only eight years”.

She regained popularity on the Chinese mainland in recent years after she tied the knot with singer and songwriter Li Ronghao, who is from eastern China’s Anhui province.

Yang is not the first celebrity who has attracted attention for their tactless remarks on Henan people.

In 2010, Chinese actress Hao Lei posted 30 messages in one day on her Weibo account, which were all negative remarks about people from Henan, where her ex-husband is from. She later apologised and deleted all the posts.

In 2017, during China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala, which is widely watched by Chinese people as part of the celebrations on Lunar New Year’s Eve, a performance by comedian Guo Donglin caused outrage when it featured a phone scammer with a Henan accent.

The show’s scriptwriter claimed responsibility and apologised, explaining that he was the one who did the dubbing and was speaking in his own dialect.

People from Henan province have long been discriminated against by the rest of China, suffering stereotyping and being the butt of jokes made in poor taste.

On the Chinese Quora-like question-and-answer platform Zhihu, contributors claimed the attitude towards the residents of Henan is really discrimination against poor people and migrant workers, of which there is a high number in the province.

But times are changing and many online commenters are angry about such attitudes towards regional differences.

“The joke is not funny at all. No one likes to hear bad comments about their hometown,” said a person on Weibo.

“The stereotype about Henan is outdated and discriminative, and should never appear in a public speech,” said another.

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North Korea vows to work with China to ‘safeguard common interests’ as Pyongyang launches fifth ICBM this year

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3245466/north-korea-vows-work-china-safeguard-common-interests-pyongyang-launches-fifth-icbm-year?utm_source=rss_feed

North Korea said it will work with China on regional peace and stability as a senior delegation visited Beijing, and Pyongyang carried out its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

North Korean deputy foreign minister Pak Myong-ho told top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Monday his country would continue to deepen ties with China to “safeguard common interests” hours after it launched its fifth ICBM this year amid heightening tensions with the US and its allies.

“The DPRK will continue to strengthen multilateral cooperation with China to safeguard common interests and maintain regional peace and stability,” Pak was quoted saying in a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

Monday’s launch, which came after another short-range missile launch on Sunday, marked the most North Korean ICBM launches in a single year, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

It was an apparent response to closer military coordination between South Korea and the US as the two agreed during a consultation meeting on Friday to issue joint guidelines on nuclear defence strategies and include nuclear operation exercises in next year’s military drills.

In a statement responding to the US-South Korea meeting on Sunday, the North Korean defence ministry said it was “an open declaration on nuclear confrontation to make … use of nuclear weapons against the DPRK” and threatened “pre-emptive and deadly counteraction” in response, according to North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.

The US, Japan and South Korea all condemned North Korea’s latest launches. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called for a trilateral response to use a real-time missile information sharing system, which was agreed on at the three nations’ Camp David summit in August and was planned to be launched by the end of the year.

In the Chinese statement, Wang said China and North Korea would always “firmly support and trust each other” in the face of “turbulent international situations”.

Nato delegation points to more ‘institutionalised’ Asia-Pacific ties: analysts

“China has always viewed China-DPRK relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, and is willing to work with the DPRK to strengthen communication and coordination, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields,” Wang said.

The meeting on Monday followed diplomatic consultation between the two nations on Friday, led by Pak and his Chinese counterpart Sun Weidong. The two agreed to increase strategic communication in the lead-up to the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties next year.

Pak was the first and most senior North Korean official to visit China after the Covid-19 pandemic as the two countries resumed diplomatic engagement in recent months.

China has repeatedly been urged to use its influence on North Korea, which depends economically on Beijing and has ramped up military aggression as the US and South Korea expanded their defence cooperation.

Beijing rejected new economic sanctions on North Korea, saying it would not help solve the issue. It called for a “dual suspension” approach that would require North Korea to freeze its missile and nuclear programme and South Korea and the US to halt joint military exercises.

In a foreign minister meeting between China, Japan and South Korea last month, Wang condemned “bloc-based cooperation” and urged necessary conditions be created to resume nuclear talks with North Korea, adding that China would continue to play a “constructive role” in de-escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea test-fires missile capable of reaching ‘whole of US territory’

Asked about North Korea’s latest launches on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin urged the relevant parties to show “practical actions” to solve peninsula issues through dialogues.

“Trying to solve the problem through military deterrence and pressure will not work. It will only be counterproductive, further intensifying conflicts and escalating tensions,” Wang said.

‘Breakthrough therapy’: a new Chinese drug shows record treatment success against one of the deadliest lung cancers

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3245435/breakthrough-therapy-new-chinese-drug-shows-record-treatment-success-against-one-deadliest-lung?utm_source=rss_feed

For patients wrestling with an uncommon and recalcitrant subtype of lung cancer that will not ease with conventional therapies, such as platinum-based chemotherapy, a Chinese targeted antitumour drug shows encouraging outcomes and offers a beacon of hope.

In a phase 2 clinical trial that enrolled 104 advanced patients and analysed 97 cases, a new drug called sunvozertinib could reportedly achieve a 61 per cent anti-tumour activity response, higher than any previous candidates, according to a team of Chinese scientists who published their results in a paper.

The initial results of this trial were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago in mid-June, and were peer reviewed and published by The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal on December 12.

This new drug was developed by Dizal, a biopharmaceutical company based in eastern China’s Jiangsu province. It aims to combat a specific type of lung cancer in which the tumour harbours a mutation known as “EGFR exon 20 insertions”.

“It’s an impressive outcome because previously other potential candidates could only achieve a response rate below 50 per cent for this lung cancer subgroup, ” said one chief scientist surnamed Tang – who declined to be identified by his full name – from a major biotech company in China told the South China Morning Post.

In 2020 and 2022 respectively, the drug was granted breakthrough therapy designations from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In China, lung cancer is the leading type of cancer with the highest incidence and mortality rates, and the second most common cancer worldwide. It can be divided into two main categories, among which about 80 to 85 per cent are non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Around 30 per cent of NSCLC tumours harbour a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, with rates reported to be highest in Asia and lowest in Europe. If looking closely at NSCLC patients who carry this EGFR gene mutation, the EGFR exon 20 insertions mutation is the third most common type, accounting for around 12 per cent of all cases.

According to publicly available information, there are about 64,000 new lung cancer patients caused by this mutation around the world every year, of which around 30,000 are newly diagnosed in China. But there remains a need for new therapeutic approaches.

Because of its high heterogeneity, or diversity, there has been a lack of safe and effective targeted treatment options for this mutation, leading to limited survival benefits – or a relatively modest boost to lifespan – for patients, according to Dizal.

“Patients and healthcare providers have long sought hope in the form of effective treatments that offer respite from relentless disease progression,” said oncologist Hidetoshi Hayashi, of the Kindai University faculty of medicine in Japan, in a comment article published in the same issue.

With more than 100 different subtypes of EGFR exon20ins reported in NSCLC, it is challenging for a single agent to be sweepingly effective. Sunvozertinib is essentially an EGFR inhibitor, with “high potency against a broad spectrum of EGFR exon20ins subtypes”, according to the paper.

AI tool for brain cancer prognosis created by team led by Hong Kong scientists

The sunvozertinib phase 2 trial was conducted across 37 medical centres in China, with 104 patients enrolled between July 2021 and May 2022. The last enrolled patient was followed up for about six months.

This study finally screened 97 patients for efficacy analysis. All had received at least one line of previous systemic therapy, including conventional platinum-based chemotherapy.

It found that 59 patients achieved tumour response, reaching an “objective response rate” (ORR) of 61 per cent. All tumour responses were partial responses.

Regarding safety, the scientists said its toxicity was well tolerated when patients were given a dose of 300mg once a day. Of all grade 3 or above adverse effects, increased blood creatine phosphokinase was the most common, observed in 18 out of the 105 patients, accounting for 17 per cent, followed by diarrhoea and anaemia, at 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

However, in the worst scenario, five people in the trial were diagnosed with interstitial lung disease because of the new therapy.

Based on the data, the drug was granted conditional approval in August by China’s NMPA for the treatment of advanced NSCLC with this specific gene mutation after platinum-based chemotherapies, marking the first home-grown therapy approved in China.

In addition to China, the drug’s global registration clinical trials are being conducted in the US, Europe, South Korea and Australia and other places.

The firm is carrying out other multi-centre clinical studies, hoping to prove that the drug can be a first-line treatment option and not only for advanced patients who have failed other therapies.

However, even getting the green light from authorities cannot guarantee success.

Why the next big Asian medical tourism destination could be Osaka, Japan

In October, Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda and the US FDA announced that they planned to withdraw the drug mobocertinib – which fights the same subtype of lung cancer -from the global market because its phase 3 trial did not show the anticipated response when used as a first-line treatment. It received approval in China in January.

The new product from Dizal faces fierce competition from companies launching their own therapies. In China alone, more than 10 similar drugs are under development, and one has entered phase 3 clinical trials.

‘Emboldened’ by its Russia, China ties, North Korea rejects US calls for talks: ‘Pyongyang can bide its time’

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3245443/emboldened-its-russia-china-ties-north-korea-rejects-us-calls-talks-pyongyang-can-bide-its-time?utm_source=rss_feed

North Korea’s refusal to negotiate with the United States should come as no surprise, analysts say, as the reclusive regime has been “emboldened” by its growing ties with Russia and China – and only engages in talks with Washington when it feels “weak”.

“The Kim regime feels that it has secured Russian support in addition to essential sustenance from the PRC,” said Nah Liang Tuang, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, using the initialism for China’s official name.

“Hence it is relatively stronger and sees no need to talk to the US. Pyongyang never negotiates if it feels strong.”

North Korea dismissed US calls for a return to diplomacy late last month after criticising Washington’s condemnation of its recent spy satellite launch.

US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield had called the launch “reckless”, “unlawful” and a threat to South Korea at a UN Security Council meeting, where she also reiterated that Washington’s offer for dialogue came without preconditions, with Pyongyang able to “choose the timing and topic”.

North Korea gave the offer short shrift, however, saying that “the sovereignty of an independent state can never be an agenda item for negotiations”, adding that it “will never sit face to face with the US for that purpose.”

Opinion: Biden can offer Kim a denuclearisation deal he can’t refuse

Nah said the move reflected Pyongyang’s propensity to only negotiate in moments of “weaknesses”, such as after its first nuclear test in 2006 when it attempted to “strike a grand bargain with Washington” amid “Soviet abandonment and famines”.

Humanitarian aid was stopped after the test, compounding food shortages in a country whose agricultural output was already hurting from extensive flooding that year.

Russia denounced the test at the time, backing a UN resolution condemning North Korea’s actions, but relations between have since warmed, with leaders Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un meeting in September, as Moscow pledged to assist Pyongyang with its space programme.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported last month that China - a long-time provider of food and fuel aid to North Korea - had also been helping Pyongyang evade a broad range of international sanctions, according to a review of UN reports, court records and interviews with experts.

North Korea analyst Gabriela Bernal said the country’s Russia and China ties had served to “embolden” its attitude towards Washington as Pyongyang feels it “is not alone and has two of the five permanent UN Security Council members on its side”.

“Pyongyang can bide its time and is in no hurry to restart talks with the US,” she said, noting however that this could change if a new US president is elected next year – especially if Donald Trump is returned to power.

Trump met Kim twice while in office, first in Singapore in 2018 and again the following year in Hanoi, but neither summit produced a comprehensive agreement on North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Bernal, who is studying for a PhD at the University of North Korean Studies in South Korea, said Pyongyang’s refusal to negotiate with the US also stemmed from its belief that the US’ words and deeds do not match.

“Even though Washington keeps offering to hold talks, it is clear the Biden administration has not changed its overall policy approach to Pyongyang,” she said, adding that complete denuclearisation remains Washington’s goal, but is now impossible and “is something North Korea has already flatly rejected”.

Bernal said the only way talks can proceed is if the US is willing to show flexibility, prioritise arms control, and be open to providing gradual sanctions relief in exchange for corresponding measures from Pyongyang.

“What particularly angers North Korea is how one day the US says it is open for the talks and then the next it deploys a nuclear-powered bomber to South Korea and holds joint drills with them [South Korea] and Japan,” she said.

“To North Korea, this strong focus by the US on deterrence does not send the message that diplomacy is a priority for Washington.”

Leif-Eric Easley, an international-studies professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said Pyongyang was more focused on its nuclear weapons programme and arms race with the South.

The arms race between the two Koreas has intensified in recent years, especially with Pyongyang’s launch of a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile last year. On its part, Seoul has designed and successfully tested its own mostly short-range missiles, as well as launching its own conventionally powered missile submarine in 2021.

“Meanwhile, by exploiting so-called Cold War 2.0 geopolitics, North Korea is able to secure enough economic benefits from China and Russia to maintain the Kim regime without any negotiations over sanctions and denuclearisation,” Easley added.

Kim’s influential sister, Yo-jong, is believed to be behind the decision not to negotiate with the US. She currently holds the “No 2 position” in North Korean politics, according to Analyst Bernal – though there have been suggestions recently that her niece, Kim’s daughter Ju-ae, is being groomed for the top job.

Since making her public debut in November last year, Ju-ae has appeared with her father at many of the country’s most significant occasions and featured prominently in state media coverage.

But for now, Bernal said Yo-jong was still the more powerful of the two.

Is Kim Jong-un’s daughter the next North Korean leader or a ‘propaganda star’?

“Since the main negotiating figure of [North Korea] is Kim Jong-un, it is more appropriate for Yo-jong to make the more provocative remarks instead of her brother”, she said.

RSIS’ Nah said it was likely that Yo-jong was playing the role of the “bad cop” in the “good cop-bad cop” diplomatic approach and portraying “the stiff and unyielding side of the Kim regime”.

“So if her brother ever says anything more reasonable to the international community, he will not be labelled as a hypocrite,” Nah said.

Amid China tensions, Philippines to look for more military pacts, Marcos Jnr says

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3245452/amid-china-tensions-philippines-look-more-military-pacts-marcos-jnr-says?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines will seek more military agreements with other nations that would allow joint training, President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said, as the Southeast Asian country tries to build on growing defence ties with the US and Japan.

Marcos Jnr, who is in Tokyo for the Asean-Japan Commemorative Summit, said it was “not sufficient” for just the Philippines and Japan to enter into “the so-called interoperability” of their armed forces, according to a statement issued on Sunday by his communications office. “We really must get more of these kind of arrangements in place,” he said.

Marcos Jnr and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed during the Japanese leader’s visit to Manila last month to kick-start negotiations for the Reciprocal Access Agreement, which will facilitate mutual military visits and joint exercises. The Philippines is seeking to strengthen alliances as tension rises with China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

In a meeting on Sunday, Marcos Jnr and Kishida agreed to continue coordination to reach an early conclusion of the negotiations of the Reciprocal Access Agreement as well as enhance cooperation between the coastguards of the two countries.

The Philippines this month agreed to initiate talks with France for a defence agreement that would allow troop visits. Earlier in 2023, it held the largest version of its flagship military exercise with the US in more than 30 years.

Tensions in the South China Sea escalated again this month after the Philippines protested Chinese ships’ ramming and blasting of water cannons at Filipino vessels, the latest in a series of encounters in recent months.

Is Beijing warming to South China Sea code of conduct?

“The South China Sea situation is the most complex geopolitical challenge that the world faces,” the statement quoted Marcos Jnr as saying in an interview with the Japanese media on Saturday. “Tensions have increased rather than diminished.”

Amid the strain in relations with China, the Philippines has struggled to start exploring energy resources in the South China Sea.

“We are still at a deadlock right now,” Marcos Jnr said, adding that the country has been in negotiations for energy exploration for over three years now but very little progress has been made, according to the statement. “We have to try and resolve to see what role any countries can play,” he said.

Marcos Jnr and Chinese President Xi Jinping in January agreed to resume talks on oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea and discuss maritime differences amicably. But ensuing incidents between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the contested waters challenged bilateral relations.

The Philippine leader said exploration must start before the country’s Malampaya gas field is exhausted. The Philippines has said that it expects its biggest source of natural gas off the coast of Palawan to be commercially depleted by 2027.

Arm laying off and relocating over 70 engineers in China amid cutbacks in chip industry, including at Qualcomm

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3245456/arm-laying-and-relocating-over-70-engineers-china-amid-cutbacks-chip-industry-including-qualcomm?utm_source=rss_feed

Arm Holdings has recently laid off over 70 software engineers in China though it will relocate some of the roles outside of the Asian nation, according to people with knowledge of the move.

The British firm’s actions mirrored those of major chip companies including Qualcomm that have cut back on the global staffing level earlier this year as the semiconductor industry faces a downturn due to lacklustre demand for electronics. In November, Arm gave a disappointing sales forecast amid a slump in smartphone sales.

About 15 of the staff whose positions are being eliminated will be offered different roles working on China-related projects, according to one of the people, who declined to be identified discussing private matters.

SoftBank’s Arm soars after successful IPO despite China risks

The jobs being terminated are currently filled by contract software engineers who have worked on projects that span Arm’s business around the world, according to another one of the people.

“In order to ensure that the China Software Ecosystem can fully maximise the benefits of Arm performance and features, Arm is restructuring its China software engineering resources to focus on direct support for local developers,” the Cambridge, UK-based company said in a statement.

China’s contribution to Arm’s global sales fell to about 20 per cent from 25 per cent as rest of the world grew much faster, chief financial officer Jason Child told analysts in November.

The SoftBank Group-backed firm has been impacted by restrictions Washington has imposed on technology exports to Chinese companies as Arm has developed some of its proprietary designs, widely used by mobile devices, in the US.

Arm is still recovering from the turmoil of an extended dispute with the ousted head of Arm China, a joint venture owned by SoftBank and a group of Chinese investors.

Former Arm China Chief Executive Officer Allen Wu had refused to leave his post after being dismissed and it took investors years to retake control.

Arm China acts as the sales office for the British chip designer in the largest market for semiconductors. Earlier this year, the Chinese entity itself let go of over 100 employees, most of them working in the research and development unit to create new chip technology for the local market, the people said.

Arm has outsourced the work of supporting its Chinese customers to Arm China through a division called global service, which had as many as 200 employees at one point. Over 70 employees at that department have been let go, with some expecting an offer to be relocated, according to one of the people. Arm China did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

It’s a hit: China university karaoke course strikes a chord with senior citizens looking for fun way to learn music

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3244893/its-hit-china-university-karaoke-course-strikes-chord-senior-citizens-looking-fun-way-learn-music?utm_source=rss_feed

News of a university for senior citizens that has created a music course specifically for the elderly, which includes karaoke classes, is trending on mainland social media.

The Songshan campus of the Harbin University for the Aged, in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China, has rolled out a new curriculum that incorporates a range of genres and styles, such as the classic Italian vocal technique bel canto, folk songs, and choral singing. The karaoke class was rapidly fully booked.

Since the university opened enrolment for this semester in August, a staggering 38,580 mature students aged from 45 to 90 years old registered for the 118 courses. In addition to existing classes such as dance and calligraphy, a range of new classes was launched such as video shooting and yoga as well as karaoke.

The karaoke course comprises three parts, beginning with reading music scores, followed by vocal practice, and then learning different approaches to singing.

Qi Xin, the director of the campus, said each karaoke course comprised 16 lessons priced at 90 yuan (US$13) per course and could accommodate up to 42 students.

Xin explains to Life Daily how the university came up with the idea: “We often saw lots of elderly people joining together to enjoy singing at KTV when we were dining out so we had the idea of launching the karaoke course.”

Huang Nannan, who has taught vocal courses at the university for four years, teaches a 90-minute karaoke lesson twice a week.

She teaches popular songs that do not require too much technique because many students have little knowledge of singing but want to enrich their lives and have fun.

“Mainly because it’s easy to learn, so the students can sing after having a few lessons,” Xin said.

Huang agreed with Xin, adding that many students in her karaoke class came from her other courses where they have learned basic singing skills.

Many mainland social media observers were captivated by the story.

“It looks very cool,” one said.

“I’m going to suggest that my parents sign up for the class,” another commented.

“I hope I have such a cheerful thing in my life when I retire,” another said.

Stories involving offbeat courses launched by colleges are popular in China.

Back in September 2017, a university from southwest China that launched an “internet celebrity” programme for students who want to become live-streaming stars went viral.

In the same year, a university in eastern China won acclaim for offering an accredited weight-loss course, through a combination of regular exercise and diet control, in an attempt to tackle obesity on campus.

China health authorities say respiratory illnesses spike is finally easing

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3245439/china-health-authorities-say-respiratory-illnesses-spike-finally-easing?utm_source=rss_feed

China has seen a decline in respiratory diseases after a massive wave of cases that prompted the World Health Organization to ask for more information about the spike last month.

National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said on Sunday that China’s overall volumes of outpatient and emergency treatment for respiratory diseases has been showing a downward trend.

Speaking at a live streamed press conference, Mi said the country had “effectively met” patients’ healthcare needs, with expanded medical resources, including more hospital beds and increased capacity at outpatient and emergency department clinics.

Monitoring results showed that at grass roots levels, fever clinics and outpatient departments accounted for around 44 per cent of the nationwide medical institutions’ reception volume, he said.

China has been grappling with a surge in acute respiratory illnesses caused by various pathogens since October, with children among the worst hit. Chinese media has reported long queues at outpatient and inpatient paediatric clinics across the country.

Respiratory disease surge driven by range of pathogens, China says

The clusters of cases among children in China’s northern regions, along with reports of overburdened healthcare systems, prompted the WHO to ask Beijing for more information in November.

Chinese health authorities advised the WHO last month that various known pathogens were responsible for the spike, including the influenza virus, rhinoviruses, mycoplasma pneumonias, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and adenovirus.

At the NHC press conference on Sunday, Chang Zhaorui from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) said the public health risk posed by the Covid-19 variant JN. 1 – a sub-lineage of BA. 2.86 – is “relatively low”.

The highly mutated BA. 2.86 was upgraded in November to a variant of interest by the WHO, which said it has been reported in multiple countries with its global prevalence slowly increasing.

In its November report, the WHO said the public health risk posed by BA. 2.86 globally is low and unlikely to burden to national public health systems, with current global immunity globally highly cross-reactive to this variant.

Chang, a research fellow with China CDC, said experts had assessed the proportion of BA. 2.86 variant sequences as at a “low” epidemic level. BA2.86 cases from imported cases had been increasing rapidly since November, aligning with global trends, he said.

According to Chang, 160 cases involving BA. 2.86 and its sub-lineage were reported nationwide, with 148 arriving from outside China and 12 sequences identified as domestic in origin.

Based on monitoring results of China’s respiratory pathogens, there have been no severe or critical cases caused by the variant in China and no unknown viruses or bacteria have been discovered, he said.

This group thinks Taiwan’s people aren’t taking the risk of war with mainland China seriously enough. Their goal is to change that

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3245420/group-thinks-taiwans-people-arent-taking-risk-war-mainland-china-seriously-enough-their-goal-change?utm_source=rss_feed

A civil training organisation is trying to prepare Taiwanese to prepare for any conflict with the Chinese mainland.

The group is not a militia, does not teach people how to use guns and dismisses claims that it is advocating war with Beijing. Instead, it says its focus is on teaching people how to survive in the event of conflict and help others.

US and Taiwan to keep pressing for Taipei’s inclusion in World Health Assembly

“Such training is crucial, especially when Taiwan is known as one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints for conflict,” said Puma Shen, co-founder of the Kuma Academy, a name that means bear in Japanese.

Despite the serious threats and warnings from analysts in Taiwan and the United States that a conflict could erupt within a few years, the Taiwanese public’s response has remained mild as most of them do not think a war will happen if the cross-strait status quo remains in place.

Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be brought back under its control – by force if necessary.

“I don’t blame them as no textbooks here teach students of such a risk,” Shen, an expert on disinformation who teaches criminology at National Taipei University said in an interview.

“This was why we decided to set up Kuma Academy to increase public awareness of the threat of a Chinese attack and preparedness for a potential conflict.”

The financially strapped group was set up in April 2021 by Shen and four other partners and initially remained low-profile.

It was only able to hold its first series of events – mainly forums and courses – between late 2021 through early 2022 with the first NT$50,000 (US$1,600) grant it received from the government-funded Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year gave the group a chance to draw public attention to the need to prepare for war, Shen said, adding this allowed the organisation to find more funding sources.

Later that year, the visit to Taipei by then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi – a trip Beijing saw as a violation of its sovereignty and a breach of the US one-China policy – brought cross-strait tensions to the boil.

Beijing offered Taiwan pilot US$15 million to steal US-made helicopter: court

“We started a crowdfunding campaign in July, and China’s military response to Pelosi’s visit a month later drastically boosted our fundraising efforts as many people who were unhappy with the Chinese reactions donated funds to us,” Shen said.

In addition to sending warplanes to the Taiwanese air defence identification zone in greater numbers and crossing the median line that separates the island and the mainland in the Taiwan Strait on an almost daily basis, the People’s Liberation Army has also staged live-fire drills around the self-governed island.

These included an unprecedented series of exercises – some involving ballistic missiles – in six zones encircling Taiwan that went on for more than a week after Pelosi’s visit in August last year.

The United States, Taiwan’s informal ally and biggest arms supplier, later rebuked Beijing for its actions, calling them “provocative and irresponsible.”

Like most countries, the US does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state but is opposed to any change to the cross-strait status quo by force. It is also legally bound to help the island defend itself.

“Many people mistake Kuma Academy for a militia. We have no intention of forming a [civilian] troop … Nor do we teach people how to use guns in battle or give them guns. We do not have guns,” Shen said, dismissing claims that the academy is a violent group advocating war with the mainland.

“The academy is more like a school. We organise large-scale activities to allow people and their children to be aware of the importance of civil defence.”

Its curriculum includes teaching people the basics about military operations, ways to protect themselves and help others, what to put in a survival kit and how to tell which places are safe to hide in an emergency.

One major course is to teach people to identify misinformation on social media and other platforms, which Shen says Beijing has been using to induce anxiety, confusion and chaos to intimidate the island.

He said interest in the academy’s programmes has grown markedly since Russia invaded Ukraine, while the Israel-Gaza war that began with Hamas’s attack in October further fuelled public interest.

The organisation says the number of people taking its courses has now reached 30,000 – a marked increase on the 50 or so who had signed up in late 2021.

To continue its operations, the academy has rallied support from local firms to form a “civil defence national team” to supply survival kits and other items that can be used in emergencies, Shen said. These will then be sold to raise funds.

“Our goal is to have at least several million people attending our classes and events,” Shen said, adding it is important to increase public awareness of the importance of civil defence so that the government would be able to recruit enough people to help in their civil defence programmes in the event of a potential conflict.

Secret space plane, links between Chinese Communist Party’s inner circles: 5 weekend reads you may have missed

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3245359/secret-space-plane-links-between-chinese-communist-partys-inner-circles-5-weekend-reads-you-may-have?utm_source=rss_feed

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

Hong Kong’s John Lee ‘to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang on Monday afternoon’ as part of second duty visit to Beijing

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3245428/hong-kongs-john-lee-meet-chinese-president-xi-jinping-premier-li-qiang-monday-afternoon-part-second?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong’s leader will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang on Monday afternoon to provide updates on the political and economic situation of the city during his second duty visit to Beijing, the Post has learned.

Sources said the meeting would take place hours after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu met Xia Baolong, the head of the revamped Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, in the morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

Lee embarked on the four-day trip on Sunday, his first visit to the capital since Beijing’s top office overseeing Hong Kong and Macau affairs was restructured to report directly to the Chinese Communist Party instead of the State Council.

Ding Xuexiang, the country’s executive vice-premier who fronted the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Works, would also meet Lee at some point during the trip, sources said.

Other sources earlier told the Post that Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis development plan and national security would be high on the agenda when Lee meets state leaders.

The city leader told the press he would be reporting on the district council election to top officials. The poll had a turnout of 27.54 per cent, marking a historic low since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Hong Kong’s John Lee ‘to discuss Northern Metropolis plan, security’ in Beijing

Lee’s duty visit comes as slow consumption and external uncertainties have posed challenges for the city’s post-pandemic recovery, with authorities expecting a budget shortfall of more than HK$100 billion in the financial year ending March.

During Lee’s maiden duty visit to Beijing last December, Xi praised him for leading Hong Kong in a “courageous and pragmatic manner” and said Beijing would support the city’s efforts to pursue extensive international cooperation.

In a separate meeting, then Chinese premier Li Keqiang told Lee to further integrate the city into the nation’s development and improve the well-being of residents.

The chief executive is expected to meet leaders of various government ministries on Tuesday. He will wrap up his trip on Wednesday afternoon.

As Russia projects its ‘great-power ambitions’ into India’s backyard, will it ‘irritate’ US, China?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3245230/russia-projects-its-great-power-ambitions-indias-backyard-will-it-irritate-us-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Russia’s recent flurry of activity in the Indian Ocean reflects its desire to be seen as an equal and not a “fading power”, analysts say, though its outreach to Global South countries in “close strategic partner” India’s own backyard may pose a challenge to New Delhi’s regional ambitions – and security interests.

Last month, Russia held its first joint naval exercises with Myanmar and docked warships in Bangladesh for the first time in five decades, in moves widely seen as attempts to bolster its role in the Indian Ocean region.

But observers warned the actions could “complicate the geopolitical scene” and stir a hornet’s nest already fraught with a battle of the giants in the form of the US-China power struggle.

The November 7 to 9 naval drills in the Andaman Sea were trumpeted as “the first Russian-Myanmar naval exercise in modern history” by Moscow’s Defence Ministry.

Two anti-submarine ships, the Admiral Tributs and Admiral Panteleyev of the Russian Pacific Fleet, took part in the exercise alongside a frigate and a corvette from Myanmar’s navy.

Days after the exercise, the same Russian warships docked at Bangladesh’s Chittagong Port in the Bay of Bengal, marking a “huge milestone for Russia-Bangladesh relations”, according to the Russian embassy in Dhaka.

China wants to deepen ‘everlasting’ good ties with Russia: Xi Jinping

Richard Rossow, senior adviser and chair in US-India policy studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said such moves indicated that Moscow wanted to maintain the “perception” of being a global power.

“As it engages more deeply with China on regional issues, having a large global force presence will be important so Beijing sees Russia as a peer, rather than a fading power,” Rossow said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping last month hailed Beijing’s “everlasting” good relationship with Moscow and ties have steadily improved in recent years, especially militarily and diplomatically, despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Yet observers say that while China may have maintained cordial relations, there is a growing perception among the Chinese leadership of a Russia that’s weakened.

As Yun Sun, China programme director at the Stimson Centre security think tank, wrote in an article published by foreign-policy analysis platform War on the Rocks last year: “When China looks at Russia, it sees a nation torn between great-power ambitions and weak capabilities.”

“Russia will likely inject a nominal presence now and again just to prove it still has the ability to support distant military operations,” Rossow said.

While a “modest, occasional Russian presence” in the Indian Ocean should not have a major impact on the region’s security balance, Rossow said that an expansion of Moscow’s joint exercises with India could “irritate both American and Chinese defence officials”.

“The United States would like to see India further reduce cooperation with Russia, while China does not want to see India’s military power build up in any way,” Rossow said.

Last month, Moscow held joint naval exercises with Delhi in the Bay of Bengal to help the two navies “jointly counter global threats and ensure the safety of civilian shipping in the Asia-Pacific region”, according to Russia’s defence ministry.

The US previously voiced concern about India’s drills with Russia, while China has increasingly viewed India as a strategic competitor – especially after the border brawl between their troops in the Galwan Valley in 2020.

Delhi, which did not join Western capitals in sanctioning Russia over its war in Ukraine, has been careful in striking a balance in its ties with Washington and Moscow.

India not only has strong economic and security interests in both Russia and the West, but it has also benefited from a sharp discount in the price of Russian oil supplies and continues to purchase Russian arms.

Sankalp Gurjar, assistant professor of geopolitics and international relations at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, said Russia’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean region puts Delhi in a dilemma.

“Russia is a close strategic partner of India and therefore, under normal circumstances, India would not object to the expanding Russian presence,” he said.

“However, Russia’s close ties with China and regular naval exercises in the Indian Ocean [including with Beijing] also opens up a possibility of greater Russia-China collaboration and could potentially present a challenge for India.”

Apart from joint naval exercises held with China and South Africa in the Indian Ocean, Russia also conducts trilateral maritime exercises with China and Iran in the Gulf of Oman – through which millions of dollars of oil from the Gulf states passes every day on its way to the Indian Ocean.

Chirayu Thakkar, a doctoral candidate in international relations at the National University of Singapore, said Russia will “complicate the geopolitical scene” if it deepens its engagement and presence in the Indian Ocean region.

“Delhi would welcome Russian presence only to the point that it does not threaten or outdo [its] interest and influence”, Thakkar said, noting that India was opposed to the Maldives signing a defence pact with the US.

US regional strategy is an ocean short compared with China, critics say

As the major power in the region, India sees the Indian Ocean as its traditional sphere of influence and has aspired to achieve regional power status by, among other things, providing security to regional partners.

Just a decade ago in 2013, Delhi reportedly pushed back against a draft US- Maldives status-of-forces agreement as it opposed an increased American presence tipping the regional balance of power. But by 2020, it had changed its tune, welcoming a defence pact signed between the two as a check on China’s growing influence.

Moscow’s presence in the Indian Ocean is also aimed at demonstrating to the West that it is not “isolated” and is instead welcomed by countries in the underdeveloped and developing Global South, according to geopolitics professor Gurjar.

After all, US sanctions on Myanmar and Washington’s human-rights criticisms of Bangladesh are at least partly responsible for making Russia’s growing engagement with them possible, Gurjar said.

Since Myanamr’s military coup in 2021, the US and other Western countries have imposed sanctions on the regime, ranging from an arms embargo to an export ban on dual-use goods.

Earlier this year, the US State Department expressed concern about the decline of democracy in Bangladesh, after it accused an elite Bangladesh paramilitary unit for allegedly carrying out enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings on behalf of the government. Russia last month alleged that the US had tried to interfere in Bangladesh’s elections, due to be held next month.

Moscow has also had its eyes on the western side of the Indian Ocean, Gurjar said, with plans in the works since 2019 to establish a naval base in Sudan on the Red Sea, through which marine traffic bound for Europe via the Suez Canal flows.

Moscow and Khartoum in February finalised an agreement on a base housing up to 300 Russian troops and four ships – including nuclear-powered ones – in strategic Port Sudan.

Progress on the base has reportedly been complicated by a 2021 coup in Sudan and the activities of Russian state-funded mercenary group The Wagner Group in the power struggles that came before and afterwards.

Gurjar said Russia was part of a process through which “the growing presence of extra-regional powers has been a feature of Indian Ocean geopolitics”.

China and India navies vie for influence in Indian Ocean amid border tensions

China has shown increasing interest in recent years and has long-standing political and diplomatic ties with many Indian Ocean states – being the only nation with an embassy in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, and Comoros.

In 2008, Beijing began to deploy its navy for anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden off the Indian Ocean, and in 2014 deployed submarines for the first time to the region to support its anti-piracy mission.

Earlier this month, the second China-Indian Ocean Region Forum was held in China’s southwestern Kunming province, where the presidents of Kenya, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka and the Egyptian prime minister spoke via video link on “building a maritime community with a shared future”.

Outrage as man drags wife out of car leaving crying toddler son on busy road in China during row over boy’s education

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3244885/outrage-man-drags-wife-out-car-leaving-crying-toddler-son-busy-road-china-during-row-over-boys?utm_source=rss_feed

A little boy in China was rescued by a passing stranger after he was left upset, distressed, and lying on a busy road while his parents argued.

The incident, which happened when the husband forcefully dragged his wife out of his car on a main road as their toddler son clung to her, has shocked and outraged mainland social media.

On December 7 in a traffic-heavy area in Hangzhou in the eastern part of China, a Porsche SUV stopped suddenly and its driver emerged.

He marched to a rear door of the vehicle, opened it abruptly, and hauled out a woman with a little boy in her arms. The man appeared to use considerable force to drag them out, even placing one of his feet on a foothold to gain traction.

The couple appeared to be having an argument and the woman was heard shouting: “No one would like to live with a person like you.”

She hurriedly stood up from the road where she had fallen after being dragged and crawled back into the car but left her son lying in the road.

The boy, aged about two, was crying loudly during his parents’ angry exchange and was clearly scared and confused about being alone on a busy road.

Fortunately, a kind-hearted man stopped his car to pick up the boy and place him safely back inside his father’s car, before admonishing the couple for their thoughtless behaviour.

According to mainland media reports, the parents were quarrelling about their son’s education issues.

After the video of the incident went viral and was viewed 8 million times on the Douyin social media platform, the man apologised to his wife and to “society” as well.

“I won’t do that again. I will try to get along well with my wife,” the man said, adding: “I thank that kind driver who picked up my son in time.”

The woman also apologised to her husband, saying she should not have argued with him while he was driving.

Most internet users called out the husband while some criticised the wife too.

“The man’s action of suddenly stopping his car on the road was dangerous to other drivers. He should be punished seriously,” said one angry online observer.

“If I were the woman, I would never reconcile with the man,” said another person.

Another pointed out: “Both of them are in the wrong. No matter what disputes they have, they should not fight on the road.”

Couples having disputes in public frequently trend on social media in China.

In September, a man in central Hubei province was filmed beating himself about the head and stomping his feet in the street as he berated his wife for cheating on him.

In the same month, a divorced couple who fought over their son at his primary school gate were slammed for ignoring the crying boy’s feelings.

China jobs: suspended production, extended unpaid leave embody woes with private businesses under pressure

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3245207/china-jobs-suspended-production-extended-unpaid-leave-embody-woes-private-businesses-under-pressure?utm_source=rss_feed

Overwhelmed by an ongoing real estate crisis, a privately run aluminium producer in China’s southern manufacturing hub of Guangdong has forced staff to take five months of leave on reduced salaries, shining a light on potential unemployment problems for the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s economy disappointed on many fronts in 2023, defying support measures and dampening its prospects, with the weakness putting pressure on employment, which has long been a priority for Beijing to create enough jobs to ensure economic and social stability.

The official headline jobless data – the urban surveyed unemployment rate – showed the situation has largely stabilised over the past few months, remaining within the government target of 5.5 per cent at 5 per cent for three months in a row.

But there are worrisome signs that some companies have implemented months of unpaid leave or reductions amid a depressed market situation, and analysts have called for more policy support to revive domestic demand and stabilise manufacturing production.

With production suspended, staff who opt to remain employed by Golden World Innovation Aluminum have been told they will only receive 80 per cent of the minimum monthly salary of 1,900 yuan (US$266) allowed under the labour laws in Foshan, representing a third or less of their regular income, until the start of April.

“We can’t find the owner,” said a 50-year-old migrant worker surnamed Tong from the neighbouring Guangxi province, who has been working for the factory for nearly 10 years but has not been paid since September.

Golden World Innovation Aluminum did not respond to requests for comment.

Since 2008, Chinese provinces and cities have set up systems to monitor job position changes within enterprises, making public releases each quarter. But no statistics are available to gauge the overall scale of production suspensions or extended unpaid leave, except from company statements or media reports.

A labour market report by the Foshan government released at the start of November said the demand from manufacturing sectors in the city rose in the third quarter from a year ago, but still fell behind the services sector for two consecutive quarters.

“It indicated hefty pressure in operation for the manufacturing industries due to economic headwinds at home and abroad,” the local government said in the report.

The private sector has long been the backbone of China’s economic growth and job creation, but it has yet to fully recover, with its fixed-asset investment contracting by 0.5 per cent in the first 11 months of the year, in contrast with a rise of 6.5 per cent for the state sector.

During the heyday of the property sector, Golden World Innovation Aluminum enjoyed strong orders, according to Tong, with the domestic market enough to offset external shocks, including tariffs imposed by the United States since 2017.

Skilled workers in their 40s could still earn over more than 7,000 yuan a month for working about 60 hours per week, he said.

But now, amid declining orders, the producer, which has a capacity to produce about 400 tonnes per month, is struggling to break even.

“When real estate was the most profitable industry in China, aluminium goods were needed everywhere and exported to all over the world,” Tong said.

“However, the real estate crisis seemed overwhelming this year. Fewer and fewer workers are needed.”

Will China’s youth-jobless figures ever look the same after abrupt data halt?

The slump in the real estate market has deepened, despite Beijing’s move to loosen the reins, representing a major drag on the economy across a wide range of sectors.

Property investment fell by 9.4 per cent in the first 11 months from a year earlier, after contracting by 9.3 per cent in the previous 10 months.

In the central province of Henan, Yaxin Iron and Steel Group in Tangyin county also announced a suspension of production from last month until after the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February, according to a female staff member, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Yaxin Iron and Steel Group did not respond to requests for comment after the news of the suspension was reported by China Industrial Securities Futures, an industrial analysis institution.

And Raymond Zheng, owner of a small piling company which drills foundations for buildings in Guangdong, had already placed most of his staff on unpaid leave since June.

“The funding chain is broken, and many companies, upstream and downstream, are facing solvency problems,” said Zheng, who also warned that a shortage of funds would compromise the quality of construction projects.

But despite the widespread issues, China is still on track to meet its “around 5 per cent” growth target for this year, thanks to supportive policies and also a low base of comparison.

At the central economic work conference last week, which laid out key economic tasks for 2024, China’s top leadership said development was the biggest political priority, and pledged to exhaust all efforts to consolidate economic growth, including more policies to stabilise the job situation, support the private sector and increase household incomes.

China’s development biggest political priority at key economic meeting

Insufficient demand is one of the major risks hampering economic growth and external markets have been increasingly complicated and uncertain, but favourable conditions still outweigh unfavourable factors in development, the meeting said, urging for confidence.

Challenges, though, which also include high youth unemployment, weak business expectations, a drop in exports, a bleak recovery in the manufacturing sector and rising local government debts, are set to test future growth prospects.

And Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform, a Guangzhou-based think tank, said many small and medium-sized enterprises may not be able to survive this winter despite some signs of export recovery.

“The authorities should pay attention to the severity of the economic situation,” he said. “It is urgently needed to increase the supportive policies.”

The slowdown has also been felt in other sectors, including electronics and plastics producers, as well as the printing industry.

In August, Simatelex, a Hong Kong-headquartered electronics producer, closed its Shenzhen factory after 38 years, affecting hundreds of workers, according to a report by the Securities Times.

Plastics manufacturers Shenli and Forward, as well as Good Printing, have also closed their Shenzhen factories, hitting thousands of jobs, local media reported earlier this year.

Promotion manager Liang Lu encountered the problem first hand at the start of December after attempting to visit three shoe companies in Dongguan, but finding out they had all suspended production.

The closures also affect nearby shops, restaurants and hotels that rely on workers for their incomes.

“It feels like many communities have become quiet in the city,” Liang said.

The problem, Paris-based investment bank Natixis said at the end of November, is that China has yet to find any emerging industries that are powerful enough to replace real estate as a pillar for the national economy.

And the government should guard against risks of further deterioration of investment conditions and funding difficulties for private business in 2024, according to a report by the Guangzhou Institute of Greater Bay Area.

How much employment pressure is China facing?

“If confidence is unable to be revived, private entrepreneurs are likely to continue to lay flat,” said the report by the think tank, which is led by prominent political economist and government adviser Zheng Yongnian.

A protracted weakness in private investment would result in a contraction of demand that may dent hopes for a solid economic recovery, said the report which was released at the end of November.

Xu Qiyuan, vice-director of Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an article in October that the urban surveyed unemployment rate is likely to underestimate the current job pressures, with more gauges needed to better reflect the real situation.

“China still has sufficient policy room to grow the economy and realise high-quality growth,” said Xu.