• China rights activist goes on trial for ‘inciting subversion of state power’
• Could China’s dispute with the Philippines derail plans to resume military talks with US?
• China-Europe container shipping rates soar as Red Sea attacks push firms to skip Suez Canal
• China and Russia can inject ‘stability and positive energy’ into the world, says Premier Li Qiang
• Australian court finds ethnic Chinese man guilty of foreign interference, in first of its kind verdict
• China still has a long way to go to make the ‘rural dream’ a reality
• Chinese navy in Yellow Sea drills after joint air patrol with Russia
• In photos: An earthquake in northwestern China kills over a 100 people
• Could China’s top legislative body soon shed new light on the fates of 2 sacked ministers?
• Woman puts late-stage cancer father in hospice ward, believes no need ‘to let a dying person live in pain’, triggering taboo end-of-life debate in China
• Elf Bar and other e-cigarette makers dodged US customs and taxes after China’s ban on vaping flavors
• China, Russia pave even stronger ‘financial track’ with a new deal enhancing trade vitality
• ‘Can’t spend it all’: China lottery winner gives away bulk of US$12 million as scrap collector donates US$140,000 life savings to education
• South China Sea: Philippines’ Marcos Jnr calls for ‘paradigm shift’ in diplomacy with Beijing
• UAE seeks closer China ties through Africa, South Pacific investments as Middle East nation eyes ‘global player role’
• Singapore restricts remittances to China after US$10 million in funds frozen
• China gives green light for 5-year plan to cut digital red tape, ‘meaningless labour’
• 111 dead and hundreds hurt after 6.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Gansu in northwestern China
• Earthquake in north-western China kills at least 111 people
• Earthquake in northwestern China kills at least 111 people in Gansu and Qinghai provinces
• Earthquake in north-west China kills at least 111
• Man makes granddaughter, 5, wear dog cone collar to stop her playing on phone gets effective results divides China social media
• [World] Earthquake kills more than 100 in northwest China
• Lawmakers want Biden to reject export licenses for Chinese drone maker DJI
• US and EU trade barriers not only hurt China, they also derail climate action

China rights activist goes on trial for ‘inciting subversion of state power’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/19/china-human-rights-activist-li-qiaochu-trial

Li Qiaochu, a human rights activist detained for nearly three years in China, has gone on trial in Shandong province charged with “inciting subversion of state power”.

On the eve of the trial the chairs of the US congressional commission on China called for Li’s unconditional release, citing reports that the labour rights and feminist activist needed urgent medical treatment.

Li’s charges carry a sentence of up to five years, or potentially longer if she is deemed a ringleader.

Li’s lawyer Li Guobei said she had been blocked from entering the Linyi intermediate people’s court, where the trial was due to be held, by two security guards.

One of Li’s other lawyers was allowed to enter the court.

Li’s trial concluded at 3pm local time with no public judgment, according to the Facebook page FreeLiqiaochu李翘楚.

Li is the partner of the imprisoned human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, one of the leaders of China’s embattled civil rights movement. In November, a court in Shandong upheld the conviction of Xu and a fellow human rights lawyer, Ding Jiaxi, for subversion of state power, sentencing them to 14 and 12 years in prison respectively.

When Li was able to meet her lawyer in April, she said her feelings for Xu “had never changed”, according to an account from her supporters, who also said Li’s family had been denied repeated requests to meet her.

Li was arrested on 14 March 2021, having previously spent several months under “residential surveillance at a designated location”, a form of detention used by China’s police to hold someone outside of a normal prison without access to family or lawyers. After her release from that period of detention, Li described her experience as “black hoods and handcuffs, closed rooms, 24-hour white lights”.

Previously employed in Tsinghua University’s sociology department, Li had worked as a researcher and activist since at least 2017, when she worked with other volunteers to support migrant workers who had been evicted from their homes in Beijing in 2017. She later supported various MeToo campaigns and helped Xu maintain the website Beautiful China, where they published articles about China’s civil rights movement.

On Monday, Li’s supporters said they were very concerned about her physical health. She previously said she was denied access to anti-depressants while in detention. In 2020, she wrote that she was secretly weaning herself off the medication in anticipation of a future arrest.

Sarah Brooks, the head of Amnesty International’s China team, said: “Li’s trial highlights the deeply repressive environment for anyone who tries to advocate for human rights in China, even when their activities are entirely peaceful and protected under international law.”

Could China’s dispute with the Philippines derail plans to resume military talks with US?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3245607/could-chinas-dispute-philippines-derail-plans-resume-military-talks-us?utm_source=rss_feed

Tensions between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea underscore the need for Beijing to resume military-to-military talks with the United States, analysts have said.

Washington, a long-time ally of Manila, has stressed that its commitments to the Philippines are “ironclad” and criticised Beijing for “dangerous and destabilising” behaviour following a string of recent incidents, including collisions between ships and the use of water cannons against vessels trying to take supplies to Philippine troops stationed on the Second Thomas Shoal.

Is Beijing warming to South China Sea code of conduct?

But China has, in turn, accused the US of being a troublemaker and inciting “provocative” actions from the Philippines.

Collin Koh, a researcher from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the US wanted to establish what China’s intentions were and possibly warn against escalating things further. “But my question is whether the other side will pick up the call – that’ll demonstrate whether the Chinese are indeed seeking to deliberately escalate,” Koh said.

Last month in San Francisco, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden agreed to restore military communication channels, which had been put on ice after the then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year, a trip that Beijing said violated the one-China principle.

Officials from both countries recently claimed the resumption of the channels was still on track, with the Pentagon insisting the two sides had been in “active coordination”.

Zhu Feng, an international relations professor at Nanjing University, said he believed recent confrontations between China and the Philippines would not disrupt the restoration of China-US military talks.

In the past, Beijing had blamed Washington, Zhu said, but it was unlikely to adopt this strategy now because it might undermine the agreement between Xi and Biden.

“On the other hand, it also shows the importance of resuming military exchanges between China and the United States to avoid accidental collisions … and amplifies the significance and role of military exchanges between China and the United States,” Zhu said.

However, some analysts warned that Beijing’s disputes with Manila over the Second Thomas Shoal could worsen.

“There are two factors that could impact the communications between the two militaries, one is accidental encounters in the air and sea, the other is third party factors,” said Hu Bo, director of the Centre for Maritime Strategy Studies at Peking University.

“If [Manila] insists on making trouble, it might increase the distrust and confrontations between China and the US.”

The Philippines and the US have improved their security alliance in the past year.

In May, Washington and Manila said their mutual defence commitments would be invoked if there were an armed attack on either country “anywhere in the South China Sea”.

In addition to issuing diplomatic statements in support of the Philippines, the US is also reported by the online platform BenarNews to have deployed P-8 Poseidon aircraft near the Second Thomas Shoal providing “eye in the sky” support for a resupply mission in September.

“I don’t think any of the concerned parties seeks a premeditated armed conflict but the risks of an inadvertent clash cannot be dismissed and looking at how events unfolded recently, the chances of such risks have become elevated,” Koh said.

Manila risks Beijing’s wrath with ‘non-starter’ South China Sea mini pact plan

Referring to a public satellite image which showed 11 Chinese vessels inside the Second Thomas Shoal while dozens more clustered around its exterior last week, Koh said that development would “represent a serious escalation”.

“The Chinese have done this even before the Americans started to more proactively support their Filipino allies. Essentially, what the Chinese are doing might potentially force the hand of the Americans.

“This may mean the US directly helping to escort future Philippine rotation and resupply missions to the shoal,” Koh said.

He added that Beijing “probably bet that the Americans wouldn’t up the ante, but this is a risky gamble since US credibility is at stake if it fails to respond in a resolute manner in supporting the Philippines against this latest move”.

If the Americans failed to respond, Koh said, there was a greater likelihood of China establishing de facto control of the shoal.

“So the risk of a clash may emanate from a Sino-Philippine clash, which may possibly draw the Americans into the fray since the mutual defence treaty could be invoked,” Koh warned.

However, despite the rising risks of accidents in the disputed waterways, analysts also believe it is not in the interest of either Beijing or Washington to let the situation spiral into a bigger conflict.

“I don’t think Beijing wants to take any action that might invoke the ‘armed attack’ clause out of the US-Philippine Mutual Defence Treaty, so it will need to calibrate its escalations,” said Ray Powell, director of the SeaLight project, which studies maritime “grey zone” activities.

Beijing flexes muscles in South China Sea as Manila puts it on the defensive

Hu said that despite the mutual defence clause, the US was “unwilling to cause huge trouble” but warned that if things escalated it “will face a dilemma whether to meet its commitments or lose credibility”.

Washington’s support for Manila has so far been “limited” to protests through diplomatic statements, according to Chen Xiangmiao, assistant research fellow at the China National Institute for South China Sea Studies.

“The United States just made diplomatic statements, but in reality, the frontline support of the Philippines and the US is relatively limited. Therefore, what the Philippines is worried about is whether the US will reduce its support for Manila because of Sino-US relations,” Chen said.

Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesman for China’s defence ministry, warned the US on Thursday to “act with caution” in the South China Sea.

Additional reporting Laura Zhou

China-Europe container shipping rates soar as Red Sea attacks push firms to skip Suez Canal

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3245638/china-europe-container-shipping-rates-soar-red-sea-attacks-push-firms-skip-suez-canal?utm_source=rss_feed

As global shipping giants are forced to divert container ships via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa in the wake of attacks by the Houthi militants in the Red Sea, shipping prices between China and Europe have shot up amid concerns over supply chain disruptions.

“The price of the Mediterranean route is soaring now,” said Xia Xiaoqiang, a Tianjin-based freight forwarder.

“The freight rate of early January may double that of early December.”

The Iran-aligned Yemeni anti-government group has stepped up their involvement in the Israel-Gaza war, and has increasingly targeted vessels navigating the Red Sea in recent months, warning of attacks on all Israel-bound ships.

Major freight firms, including Europe’s CMA CGM, Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping, as well as Chinese state-owned giant Cosco and Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine, have suspended transits through Egypt’s Suez Canal, according to media reports.

The 193km (120-mile) canal, which is one of the world’s busiest waterways and the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, accounts for 12 per cent of global trade, including 30 per cent of all container movement, according to Egypt’s State Information Service.

Taking the alternative route via the Cape of Good Hope would add around 10 days to the westbound trips on the Asia-North Europe route, and lead to further spikes in shipping costs, according to industry insiders.

“It will all depend on how navies take this up,” said Christian Roeloffs, co-founder and CEO of Container xChange, an online container logistics platform.

“Egypt has a significant commercial interest in the functioning of the Suez Canal as it is one of the main revenue drivers and if the diversion happens then it will have a significant impact there.”

The Suez Canal Authority said on Sunday that 55 ships have diverted via the Cape of Good Hope since November 19, while 2,128 ships had travelled through the waterway during the same period.

On Monday, the United States announced a 10-nation coalition to quell the attacks in the Red Sea.

“We are closely monitoring the impact of the current tensions in the Red Sea and studying their impact on navigation via the canal,” Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie said in a statement.

But Roeloffs said that while the traffic in the Suez Canal and on the Red Sea looked healthy, it could turn around very quickly.

“If we go by history, then the situation of the Ever Given did create a lot of traffic jams a few years ago, the repercussions of which were felt for months,” Roeloffs added.

In March 2021, the Suez Canal was blocked for six days after the 400 metre (1,312-foot) container ship ran aground.

Ocean rates between China and Europe had already been on the rise in the recent months, reflecting a traditional uptick at the end of the year as Chinese exporters rush to send out goods ahead of Lunar New Year and ocean carriers push up prices during long-term contract negotiations.

The spot rate for sending a 40-foot container from China to the Mediterranean increased by over 70 per cent in the past month to US$2,414 as of Friday, according to the Freightos Baltic Index.

The rate for routes from China to Northern Europe also increased by 55 per cent compared to a month earlier to US$1,467, the index showed.

But despite the increase in shipping prices, Chinese exports to Europe have remained subdued recently amid weak demand.

Rail routes between China, Europe go off track as freight operators skip Russia

The number of inquiries about the China-Europe Railway Express have increased significantly in the past few days, according to Lois Mo, commercial manager at New Silk Road Intermodal, a Sichuan-based railway freight forwarder.

The intercontinental railway network, which serves as an alternative to sea and air freight, has been shunned by European traders since the Ukraine war began due to fears of sanctions or of being perceived as friendly with Russia – which is an unskippable part of the all rail routes.

“In fact, there is no need to worry too much about the extra 10 days for ships to go around the Cape of Good Hope,” Mo said.

“Judging from the current high inventory level and weak consumption in Europe, [the disruption in Red Sea] will not cause another exponential growth in demand for China-Europe freight trains, like the one in 2021.”

China and Russia can inject ‘stability and positive energy’ into the world, says Premier Li Qiang

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3245652/china-and-russia-can-inject-stability-and-positive-energy-world-says-premier-li-qiang?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Russia will expand economic and energy cooperation as they bring “stability and positive energy” to the world, Premier Li Qiang told his Russian counterpart on Tuesday.

According to China’s state broadcaster CCTV, both sides agreed at the annual meeting between the two heads of government to “expand bilateral trade and agricultural cooperation, jointly safeguard the energy security of the two countries, strengthen interconnection, enhance exchanges and local cooperation, and ensure industrial and supply chains are safe and stable”.

Li told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin: “China is willing to work with Russia to take the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries next year as an opportunity to implement the important consensus reached by our two heads of state … to promote China-Russia relations to achieve new and major development, and inject greater stability and more positive energy into the world.”

According to a transcript from the Russian side, Mishustin said relations between the two countries were at the “highest level”.

He added that 90 per cent of bilateral deals would be settled in either roubles or yuan this year, and he hoped to bring economic cooperation with China to the “next level”.

“In the current geopolitical conditions, relations between Russia and China have successfully passed the test of strength, [demonstrating] a high degree of stability,” he said.

Chinese military in Yellow Sea drills after joint air patrol with Russia

“The main thing is to bring our trade and economic cooperation and investment cooperation to an even higher level and ensure the quality of our trade turnover has achieved higher quality by diversifying its structure.”

Mishustin also expressed condolences and offered assistance to China after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Qinghai, killing at least 120 people and injuring hundreds.

The two signed a joint communique and a number of cooperation documents after listening to briefings from intergovernmental committees on energy and investment, development in Russia’s Far East and China’s northeastern region, and people-to-people exchanges, according to CCTV.

Mishustin, who arrived on Monday for a two-day visit, is expected to meet President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, according to the Russian government.

According to Russian media, Mishustin’s delegation included senior ministers overseeing the country’s energy, science and technology, finance and culture sectors.

On Monday, the two sides held a financial dialogue, where they signed audit and supervision deals to facilitate capital flows and bond issuance.

Russia is keen to step up economic and energy cooperation with China – one of its biggest buyers of oil and natural gas – in the face of international sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine last year.

Trade volume between the two surpassed US$200 billion for the first time this year, a figure Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said on Monday would reach US$300 billion by 2030.

Meanwhile, China’s ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui told Russian media outlet RIA Novosti that the countries would strengthen contacts at “all levels” next year, while Xi and Vladimir Putin would maintain a “close dialogue”.

Xi and Putin met twice this year, with the Chinese leader travelling to Russia in March before his Russian counterpart attended the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on a rare trip outside Russia in October.

The pair agreed to expand economic cooperation while strengthening coordination through multilateral frameworks, including the Brics group and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, to safeguard “common interests”.

What’s behind Russia’s hard power play in the Indian Ocean?

China’s close ties with Russia have faced intense scrutiny from the West, although Beijing says it is neutral in the Ukraine war.

However, it has said that it will not allow third parties to define its relations with Russia, while Zhang said “no force will be able to cause discord” in the relationship between the two.

Australian court finds ethnic Chinese man guilty of foreign interference, in first of its kind verdict

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3245640/australian-court-finds-ethnic-chinese-man-guilty-foreign-interference-first-its-kind-verdict?utm_source=rss_feed

An Australia court on Tuesday found a Melbourne man who held prominent positions in Chinese community associations guilty of planning an act of foreign interference, the first verdict of its kind under a law introduced in 2018.

Police in Victoria state had charged Di Sanh Duong, a former member of the Liberal Party, in 2020 with preparing or planning an act of foreign interference, and the court found him guilty of these charges, the Australia Federal Police (AFP) said in a statement.

Local media reported prosecutors had told the court that Duong had been in regular contact with Chinese intelligence and had sought to influence a federal government minister to further the aims of the Chinese Communist Party.

Ethnic Chinese is first person charged under Australia’s espionage act

Duong, an ethnic Chinese from Vietnam who immigrated to Australia in the 1970s, pleaded not guilty. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Duong, who also goes by the name Sunny, served as deputy chairman of the Museum of Chinese Australian History, a popular tourist attraction in Melbourne’s Chinatown, and was also president of the Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations, which represents ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Geoff Wade, a historian who has studied Sino-Asian ties and Chinese influence efforts, posted on X, when it was still known as Twitter, that the federation is a member of the United Front network, which promotes Beijing‘s interests overseas, such as its stance on the unification of mainland China and Taiwan.

Under the law, a foreign interference activity undermines Australia’s national interests and is secretly carried out on behalf of a foreign government.

“Foreign interference remains a significant national security priority for the AFP,” the police statement said.

When the law was introduced to parliament, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull cited allegations of Chinese government interference in Australian politics and universities, sparking an angry response from Beijing.

---

China still has a long way to go to make the ‘rural dream’ a reality

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3245644/china-still-has-long-way-go-make-rural-dream-reality?utm_source=rss_feed

As China struggles with slow economic recovery and high youth unemployment rate, state media is now painting a rosy picture about the prospects for educated young people who want to move to the countryside to farm or start their own businesses.

Beijing stopped announcing the unemployment rate among young people after it reached a staggering 21.3 per cent in June this year.

But other signs of the pressures young people face can be found everywhere – such as the scramble among graduates to get jobs on the government payroll because of the stability these careers offer, or warnings to parents that their children may need months, or even years, to get on the career ladder.

Life in cities is also getting more difficult due to the high cost of living, a meltdown in the property market and the relatively low salaries on offer for those who can secure jobs.

Videos recording the day-to-day struggles of ordinary city dwellers have proved enormously popular on social media, including an account that attracted more than 400,000 followers on Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok – by a couple from Zhengzhou in the central province of Henan.

Zhang Yiliang and his wife Dong Lijun, both in their 30s, have documented how they are spending most of their earnings on paying the mortgage on a flat that has not yet been finished and have been forced to skimp on food after Dong’s salary was cut.

They also recorded how work on the apartment had been halted when the developer went bust and how they had been beaten up by the developer when they asked for a rebate.

Property woes loom large over China’s 2024 outlook: economist

Last month, the couple said they were considering returning to their hometowns though they seemed to change their minds and stay in Zhengzhou.

Their short videos attracted enormous sympathy from online because a large number of people can identify with their hardship.

Meanwhile, state media has been trying to paint a rosy picture about the prospects for urbanites who return to the countryside, describing it as a “rural dream”.

For example, a report in people.cn published on Monday said that 12 million people had moved from the cities to the countryside between 2012 and 2022, including increasing numbers of university graduates, entrepreneurs and overseas returnees who are starting businesses.

But while mechanisation, better transport links and internet infrastructure makes it more viable to start a business than before, there are still many hurdles for the country to overcome to make the “rural dream” a reality.

These include problems such as low incomes for most farmers – in 2022, the annual disposable income of farmers was 20,133 yuan (US$2,824), according to agriculture ministry figures– and the persistent gap in the quality of healthcare services available in the countryside and cities despite government pledges to improve the former.

As for education, many rural schools have been closed down in recent years due to the exodus of young people to the cities, while many of the remaining schools are struggling with a shortage of teachers and lack of resources.

But most significant is the long-standing gulf in the status of cities and rural areas.

In previous decades the household registration system has given city dwellers a greater entitlement to social welfare services such as pensions and medical insurance.

Although such disparities have narrowed in recent years with reforms to services such as health insurance, rural residents are still treated as inferior and priority is still given to cities.

No makeup: top China influencer Sister Yu prefers snaring pigs to cosmetics

For example, during this year’s flooding in northern China, rural homes in Hebei province were sacrificed to protect Beijing when the floodgates on reservoirs were opened to release the build-up of water.

China still has a long way to go to bridge the yawning rural-urban economic divide, and speeding up reforms to improve social welfare services for rural dwellers and treating them the same as their city counterparts would be the first step.

Chinese navy in Yellow Sea drills after joint air patrol with Russia

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3245647/chinese-navy-yellow-sea-drills-after-joint-air-patrol-russia?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese navy has been conducting drills in the Yellow Sea that separates China and the Korean peninsula, the country’s defence ministry said on Tuesday.

The announcement came just days after South Korea and Japan said they had scrambled fighter jets in response to a joint patrol by Chinese and Russian aircraft.

A navy fleet from the People’s Liberation Army Northern Theatre Command took part in “multiple days of continuous at-sea training”, the Chinese defence ministry said in the statement.

It said the fleet included a guided-missile destroyer and three frigates with air defence and anti-submarine missiles.

China’s defence ministry did not disclose the date or location of the drills but said they involved missile and naval gunfire attacks, air and marine defence exercises, and reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance training to “strengthen the cooperation capabilities” of the vessels.

China’s coastguard blames Philippine boats for ‘collision’ near disputed shoal

It follows the joint exercise on December 14 by Chinese and Russian aircraft in the Sea of Japan, or East Sea.

South Korea’s military said two Chinese and four Russian aircraft had entered its air defence identification zone, remaining there for 17 minutes. The warplanes had entered from the north and flew southeast before leaving the air defence zone.

The same day, Japan said it also detected two Chinese and two Russian bombers in a joint flight over the Sea of Japan before they flew to the East China Sea.

China’s defence ministry later confirmed that Chinese and Russian fighter jets and a PLA transport plane were also involved in the joint patrol.

China and Russia began holding annual joint air and sea drills in Northeast Asia – which they call “joint strategic cruises” – in 2019. In 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they started carrying out the exercises twice a year. The two militaries also conducted joint patrols in June.

“Joint air strategic cruises between the Russian and Chinese armies have become a regular feature twice a year,” China’s defence ministry said of the joint military patrol held last week.

The Russian defence ministry also said that military aircraft from the two countries had not “violated foreign airspace during the cruise” on December 14. Its statement said the aircraft were operating “in strict compliance with international regulations, and had returned to their respective stations at the end of the cruise”.

The PLA’s Northern Theatre Command is usually involved in operations in the Sea of Japan and collaboration with forces from neighbouring Russia.

The Chinese and Russian militaries held one of their biggest joint air and naval exercises in the Sea of Japan – dubbed Northern/Interaction-2023 – over four days in July.

China’s defence ministry said the exercises aimed to strengthen the two countries’ ability to “jointly safeguard regional peace and stability”.

In photos: An earthquake in northwestern China kills over a 100 people

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/photos-an-earthquake-northwestern-china-kills-over-100-people/2023-12-19T11:21:23.506Z

A major earthquake rocked a mountainous area of northwestern China just before midnight on Monday, bringing buildings crashing down on people as they slept.

At least 116 people were confirmed dead and 300 injured on Tuesday morning after the 6.2-magnitude quake, according to state media reports.

Could China’s top legislative body soon shed new light on the fates of 2 sacked ministers?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3245622/could-chinas-top-legislative-body-soon-shed-new-light-fates-2-sacked-ministers?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top legislative body will review a report on the qualifications of some members of its legislature, a process that could shed more light on the fate of two recently dismissed officials – former foreign minister Qin Gang and former defence minister Li Shangfu – who both disappeared from public view earlier this year and were subsequently removed from their posts.

The next five-day session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee starting next Monday will examine a report from an NPC review committee on the membership of “certain individual representatives”, as well as relevant dismissal and appointment cases, according to a report by Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily on Tuesday.

The report did not elaborate on either of the two agenda items.

The meeting could provide a glimpse into the scrutiny that might result in both Qin and Li being removed from the body, which has close to 3,000 members.

What haze around Qin Gang says about inner workings of China’s Communist Party

After being hand-picked by Chinese President Xi Jinping, both men were abruptly removed from their senior posts over the past five months after vanishing from public view earlier this year. Beijing’s typically secretive political machinery has provided no explanation for their removal or details on their whereabouts, and has not confirmed if they are under investigation.

Removal from the NPC could signal serious wrongdoing and grim prospects for what remains of their political careers.

According to a report on the NPC website, ending a membership could be a result of violations of discipline or ethics, involvement in criminal activities, or significantly failing to perform duties, deeming one no longer fit for the position.

Revoking the membership of an NPC representative is the “most important and stringent form of supervision by constituents or electoral units and this concerns the representatives’ political life”, the report said.

The NPC also accepts resignations in cases concerning violations of law and regulation, resignations ordered by authorities, or voluntary resignations due to “self-blame”, it said.

Qin and Li were both removed from their state positions during previous NPC sessions, weeks after they had each disappeared.

Once a rising political star, Qin was dismissed as state councillor, which had conferred upon him a rank higher than other ministers in China’s cabinet, the State Council, in during an NPC session in October.

Before that, Qin had been sacked as China’s foreign minister in July, seven months after he took the post, following his last public appearance in late June in Beijing.

Exit Qin Gang, enter Wang Yi — what is behind China’s foreign minister switch?

In the same October NPC session, Li was dismissed from his positions as defence minister and state councillor, and expelled from the powerful Central Military Commission. His last public appearance was in late August in Beijing.

Qin has since been replaced by China’s top diplomat – and his predecessor – Wang Yi, but no one has been named as the new defence minister.

Both men remain in the 205-member Central Committee, the ruling Communist Party’s top decision-making body.

US invites new Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi to Washington

Qin was appointed as foreign minister last December, after serving just 17 months as China’s ambassador to the United States.

He was made a state councillor during the annual legislative sessions in March, when the party completed a twice-a-decade leadership transition – with a reshuffle of top government jobs and confirmation of Xi’s third term as China’s president.

Li was appointed as a state councillor in March, as well as defence minister, making global headlines as the country’s first defence minister on a US sanction list.

---

Woman puts late-stage cancer father in hospice ward, believes no need ‘to let a dying person live in pain’, triggering taboo end-of-life debate in China

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3245441/woman-puts-late-stage-cancer-father-hospice-ward-believes-no-need-let-dying-person-live-pain?utm_source=rss_feed

The experience of a woman in Shanghai who sent her cancer-stricken father to a hospice ward, facing pressure from relatives for not arranging further medical treatment, has triggered a debate about dealing with the end-of-life process in China where discussions about death remain taboo.

The woman, identified as Erika, and born in the 1980s, was an only child. Her mother passed away nine years ago after a long battle with lung cancer that spread to her lymph nodes, according to a report on the streaming app Pear Video.

At the beginning of this year, her father was diagnosed with prostatic carcinoma and intestinal cancer. After arranging for him to have a range of medical consultations, Erika made the difficult decision to send him to a hospice institute in May, where he died two months later.

“I have made adequate preparations for treating my father, including the fund for medical costs. But medicine can’t save him. It is not my fault,” Erika said at the time.

She said she took her father to several appointments where he was given a variety of physical checkups at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Centre, one of the best medical centres in China.

Doctors told Erika that her father was in the advanced stage of cancer, with tumour cells already spreading to many parts of his body.

“Doctors said his condition was so serious that they could not do any surgeries or apply chemotherapy. It equalled a death penalty for my father,” said Erika. “I concluded that I should find a place where he would endure less pain. It is a hospice, and patients staying there are made as comfortable as possible while waiting for the moment of death.”

During that difficult time, she received no support from her relatives when it came to making the hospice arrangements. In fact, they called and urged her to seek more medical treatment.

“They told me to spare no effort to keep my father alive. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have anyone in the world to care about. I told them, ‘What’s the point of letting a dying person live in pain’,” Erika said.

The difference of opinion about what was in the best interests of Erika’s father caused a rift in the family and Erika says she is now estranged from her relatives.

She believes they have described her as a “white-eyed wolf”, a Chinese term for an ungrateful person, but she is defiant.

“I don’t care about what my relatives say about me behind my back. It doesn’t matter to me,” she said.

Erika’s decision to send her father to a hospice for palliative care has been hotly debated since the story was viewed 4 million times on Weibo in mid-November.

“It’s the most correct decision. If I were the patient, I would also prefer to stay in a hospice ward,” said one internet observer.

“If a person doesn’t hope to bear the anguish any longer and wants to die as soon as possible, sending him to the hospice facility is a form of filial piety,” another said.

“If the offspring doesn’t consider the old man’s pain but insists on spending a lot of money on medical treatment such as inserting tubes in his body and doing surgeries and chemotherapy time and again, with the sole aim of exhibiting filial piety, then that is not genuine love,” the observer added.

“She did a good job... and is the person who feels saddest,” another said.

Others disagreed with one saying: “I admire her but I won’t do what she did. My mum is in the mid-stage of lung cancer. I will do whatever I can to save her.”

Last month, the interaction between a father and a daughter at a hospital in northern China’s Hebei province captivated social media.

The father was filmed walking away from the hospital determinedly, insisting he did not want further medical treatment because it would be a financial burden for his daughter.

The daughter was seen chasing after him before kneeling down to beg him to have the treatment. “Dad, I only have you left in this world,” the woman was heard shouting tearfully.

---

Elf Bar and other e-cigarette makers dodged US customs and taxes after China’s ban on vaping flavors

https://apnews.com/article/vaping-elf-bar-ecigarettes-china-teens-77033584983ad47fc5795baa46b4705eFILE - Elf Bar disposable vaping pod devices are displayed, Monday, June 26, 2023, in Washington. In December 2023, U.S. authorities publicly announced the first seizure of some of the company’s shipments, part of an operation confiscating 1.4 million illegal, flavored e-cigarettes from China. They pegged the value of the items at $18 million, including brands other than Elf Bar. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

2023-12-19T05:01:06Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — In only two years, a small, colorful vaping device called Elf Bar has become the most popular disposable e-cigarette in the world, generating billions in sales and quickly emerging as the overwhelming favorite of underage U.S. teens who vape.

Last week, U.S. authorities publicly announced the first seizure of some of the company’s products, part of an operation confiscating 1.4 million illegal, flavored e-cigarettes from China. Officials pegged the value of the items at $18 million, including brands other than Elf Bar.

But the makers of Elf Bar and other Chinese e-cigarettes have imported products worth hundreds of millions of dollars while repeatedly dodging customs and avoiding taxes and import fees, according to public records and court documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Records show the makers of disposable vapes routinely mislabel their shipments as “battery chargers,” “flashlights” and other items, hampering efforts to block products that are driving teen vaping in the U.S.

“The steps toward regulating disposables have been very weak and that has enabled this problem to get bigger and bigger,” said Eric Lindblom, a former Food and Drug Administration official.

Fruit-and-candy-flavored disposables began pouring into the U.S. shortly before Chinese regulators banned vaping flavors last year. Officials there said they were acting to protect children’s health, but vaping executives and health experts note the ban came only after e-cigarettes began threatening sales of traditional cigarettes, which generate $200 billion annually for China’s state-run tobacco monopoly.

Disposable e-cigarettes may soon become the victim of their own success. From Australia to England, governments are moving toward banning the single-use products, citing underage use and environmental impact.

The global backlash could lead vaping entrepreneurs to focus even more on the U.S., where loopholes and lax enforcement make it easy to disguise e-cigarettes among the thousands of daily shipments arriving by sea and air.

‘DISCREET’ SHIPPING

Elf Bar is the lead product of Shenzhen iMiracle, a privately held company based in Shenzhen, the sprawling Chinese manufacturing hub that produces more than 95% of the world’s e-cigarettes.

Elf Bar, Lost Mary and several other iMiracle brands are expected to generate $3.5 billion to $4 billion globally this year, according to industry analyst ECigIntelligence.

In the U.S., iMiracle recently abandoned the Elf Bar name due to a trademark dispute and efforts by regulators to seize its imports. Instead, its products are sold as EB Create in flavors like watermelon ice and frozen creamsicle.

A spokesman for iMiracle said the company stopped shipping Elf Bar to U.S. earlier this year and is trying to comply with regulators.

“All the Elf Bar-branded products you see in the U.S. are counterfeit, I’m pretty sure about this,” said Jacques Xiang Li, who added that he’d only worked for iMiracle for three months and was still learning about its business.

When asked about EB Create e-cigarettes he said: “I can’t tell you anything about that.”

Details on the company’s U.S. sales and activities are beginning to emerge in court documents.

Earlier this year, iMiracle was forced to drop the Elf Bar name after losing a trademark case to a smaller company that already sold its own products as Elf vapes.

At a 2022 court hearing in the case, U.S. distributors described skyrocketing sales.

Jon Glauser, of Demand Vape in Buffalo, N.Y., told a federal judge his company had sold more than $132 million worth of Elf Bar products, accounting for a third of its yearly profits.

“We were selling it faster than we could get it in,” Glauser said, according to the court transcript.

Glauser attributed Elf Bar’s quick rise to its profit margin. Sellers make about a 30% profit, double that of other disposable e-cigarettes, he said.

IMiracle’s parent company, Heaven Gifts, previously described how it could help customers evade import fees and taxes. Heaven Gifts’ website advertised “discreet” shipping methods to buyers, including not mentioning e-cigarettes or its company name “anywhere on the package.” Instead, the company said contents would be labeled as “atomizer, coil, tube, etc.”

“We also mark a lower value to avoid tax,” the website stated, adding that customers could suggest their own value for the shipment.

In June, Heaven Gifts announced on it would “go offline,” shortly after the FDA directed customs officials to begin seizing shipments from the company.

Despite the update, the company’s spokesman indicated Heaven Gifts remains in business and staffers continue using email accounts bearing its name. The spokesman did not respond to numerous follow-up questions about the company’s business.

Neither Heaven Gifts nor iMiracle appear in customs data reviewed by the AP and compiled by ImportGenius, a global trade analytics company.

The seizure announced last week suggests part of the answer: The shipments arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, and air carriers are not required to disclose the same details about their cargo as ocean vessels. The e-cigarettes were mislabeled as toys, shoes and other items.

Ships docking in the U.S., which account for most Chinese imports, must provide information on suppliers, recipients and types of cargo they are carrying. But importers can obscure their identities and products.

For example, U.S. recipient information is listed as “not available” for roughly 45 of over 100 shipments of e-cigarettes from China this year, according ImportGenius data. U.S. companies can avoid disclosure by using third-party shippers, called freight forwarders, who handle foreign goods on behalf of importers.

“All of this suggests that these companies are incredibly sophisticated, they know how to game this system and they are intentionally doing so,” said William George, research director for ImportGenius.

It’s likely most disposable e-cigarettes coming into the U.S. aren’t even declared as vaping products.

Esco Bars, one of Elf Bar’s chief U.S. rivals, imported 30 shipments from China this year labeled “atomizers,” a generic type of hardware that turns a liquid into a spray. The Texas-based company received the shipments, weighing about 25,000 pounds each, under its shipping arm, Affiliated Imports LLC. The shipments stopped in May, after the FDA placed Esco Bars on a list of banned imports.

Another disposable maker, Magellan Technology, routinely labeled its imports as “battery chargers,” records show.

Neither company responded to AP’s inquiries.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not make officials available for interviews, but pointed to the agency’s recent operation in Los Angeles with the FDA.

“The rise in illicit e-commerce demands that our agencies remain vigilant in intercepting shipments that could pose serious health risks to the public,” Troy Miller, a senior official with the border agency, said in a release.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said that agency is “committed to continuing to stem the flow of illegal e-cigarettes into the United States.”

U.S. tobacco companies say their e-cigarettes — which undergo FDA review and don’t come in fruity flavors — can’t compete with lower-priced disposables. In recent weeks both Reynolds American and Altria filed separate legal actions against iMiracle, Esco Bars and other disposable makers.

Documents filed by Reynolds with the U.S. International Trade Commission describe elaborate techniques for smuggling disposables into the country.

In a sworn affidavit, a former FDA investigator now working for Reynolds describes vape exhibitors at a recent conference removing hidden e-cigarettes from flashlights, “which is consistent with the fraudulent practice of Chinese manufacturers declaring the product as flashlights.”

Last week, the commission announced it would open an investigation into the matter.

‘NO FUTURE’ FOR VAPING IN CHINA

The rise of disposable e-cigarettes in the U.S. can be traced to actions by Chinese regulators.

China’s vaping sector is estimated to be worth $28 billion, and the U.S. accounts for nearly 60% of the country’s vape exports, according to the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce.

Chinese authorities have encouraged those exports while at the same time drastically curtailing the country’s domestic vaping business, which is controlled by several hundred private companies.

The government brought vaping companies under control of its state-run tobacco administration, beginning with a prohibition on online sales in 2019 and culminating in a sweeping ban on all flavors except tobacco.

The flavor ban sent domestic sales for large Chinese manufacturers like RLX Technology plummeting over 50%. Many vape shops and smaller producers also closed, unable to obtain government-issued licenses needed to operate.

Authorities cited concerns over “unsafe additives, leaky e-juice and shoddy batteries.” But experts who have spent years in the country point to another cause: vaping’s encroachment on government tobacco sales.

The China National Tobacco Corp., the state-run monopoly, is the largest tobacco company in the world. In cooperation with its regulatory arm, the Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the pair controls the manufacture, marketing and pricing of all cigarettes made in China.

Between 2017 and 2020, e-cigarette sales increased more than 254%, according to data firm EuroMonitor. Those sales accrued exclusively to vaping entrepreneurs, not the government.

“The tobacco administration says, ‘Well, every e-cigarette sold means one less cigarette smoked,’ so they are going to regulate the hell out of them now,” said Dr. Ray Yip, a public health consultant and former director of the Gates Foundation’s China program.

Euromonitor expects e-cigarette sales of $822 million this year inside China, down more than 70% from a nearly $3 billion peak.

“Everyone in the industry has suffered from the government’s ban because people like flavored vapes,” said Lin Jian, who owns a vape shop in Shenzhen. Jian said he can no longer afford to hire employees to help at the shop, which barely covers his expenses.

Hu Leng, manager of a contract vape manufacturer in Shenzhen said: “There is no future in the domestic market. All of our products are sold to Europe and we’re doing well for the time being.”

EXPLOITING LOOPHOLES

Elf Bar-maker Shenzhen iMiracle is among the companies that have built their entire business on exports.

In late 2021, the company began shipping to the U.S. to exploit a regulatory loophole: The FDA had prohibited kid-appealing flavors from reusable vapes, such as Juul, but not disposable ones.

An entrepreneur, Zhang Shengwei, founded Heaven Gifts in 2004 as an e-commerce platform for e-cigarettes. Over the years he invested in companies up and down the supply chain — makers of batteries, nicotine solutions and other components. Around 2018 the company began manufacturing its own vapes, according to iMiracle’s spokesman. (Heaven Gifts and iMiracle share the same building address in Shenzhen.)

Shengwei’s holdings now include more than a half-dozen companies, including a Hong Kong subsidiary, iMiracle HK Limited and VapeOnly Technology, which is listed as Elf Bar’s manufacturer on some products. The company spokesman declined to make Shengwei available for an interview.

Vaping analysts are quick to separate companies like iMiracle from more established Chinese manufacturers like Smoore International, which have longstanding relationships with regulators and vaping brands around the world.

“This is much more of an opportunistic attempt to generate revenue quickly using the capacity that’s there in Shenzhen,” said Shane MacGuill, head of nicotine research for Euromonitor. “I would guess that a long-term view is not part of the strategic play here.”

A spokesperson for China’s tobacco administration did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but the country’s tobacco regulations state that exported vapes “should comply with the laws, regulations and standards of the destination country.” Since the FDA has declared Elf Bar illegal, iMiracle would seem to be violating Chinese law by shipping to the U.S.

But experts say such rules go unenforced.

“China basically couldn’t care what happens to the products if they’re selling for export,” said Patricia Kovacevic, an attorney specializing in tobacco regulation. “If it’s something for export, you are not held to any standard.”

GLOBAL BACKLASH

As brands like Elf Bar have traveled around the world, more governments are introducing measures to block their use, often citing the environmental toll of electronic waste.

Australia announced a ban on disposables over the summer. This month, French lawmakers unanimously approved a bill to prohibit disposables.

Perhaps nowhere has the backlash been more drastic than in the U.K., where health authorities have long promoted vaping as a less harmful alternative for adult smokers.

In October, the country’s conservative government called for legislation aimed at reducing underage vaping, including a potential ban on disposable products.

Vaping advocates say disposables have “massively” damaged the industry’s reputation.

“Six months ago, I had a government that was very pro-vaping. Now I have a prime minister spending his time railing against vaping,” said John Dunne, of U.K. Vaping Industry Association. “That to me is a tsunami of change and the only thing that’s changed is disposables.”

Dunne blamed some of the missteps on “very small, inexperienced teams of employees.” He sees an improving picture, noting that iMiracle recently hired regulatory staffers to oversee compliance in Europe and the U.K. The company also recently said it would drop some of its dessert and soft drink-based flavors.

But even as iMiracle appears to be pulling back on disposables in the U.K., the company is already pushing new products.

Last month, vape shops began promoting a new offering from iMiracle’s U.K. subsidiary: TACJA nicotine pouches.

The pouches are similar to nicotine gum and less messy than traditional chewing tobacco. They come in colorful, plastic containers displaying their flavor, strength and the tagline: “powered by Elf Bar.”

One Instagram post is typical of the new advertising pitch: “Enjoy next level of satisfaction and unrivalled convenience, all with the same great Elf Bar taste you know and love.”

___

Associated Press researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report. Follow Matthew Perrone on X: @AP_FDAwriter

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

China, Russia pave even stronger ‘financial track’ with a new deal enhancing trade vitality

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3245606/china-russia-pave-even-stronger-financial-track-new-deal-enhancing-trade-vitality?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Russia have signed audit and supervision deals to facilitate bilateral capital flows and bond issuance, in a prelude to a two-day annual leader’s meeting to discuss bilateral cooperation against the backdrop of American sanctions.

On Monday, the neighbours signed a memorandum of understanding on aligning the process of audit monitoring while sharing more experience in public finance, taxing and budgeting, according to China’s Ministry of Finance.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang was scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, on Tuesday and Wednesday in Beijing. It is Mishustin’s second visit to China this year, following one in May. And it came only two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin participated in a belt and road summit in Beijing.

As part of China and Russia’s “no-limits” strategic partnership, Li and Mishustin were set to “exchange views on bilateral relations, pragmatic cooperation and mutual concerns”, according to a statement by China’s foreign ministry.

‘I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic’ about state of China relations: US ambassador

At Monday’s signing, Chinese finance minister Lan Foan talked with his Russian counterpart, Anton Siluanov, about tapping into the cross-border financial potential between their countries.

“The coordination of Sino-Russian cooperation in multipronged formats once again confirms our mutual interest in strengthening cooperation on the financial track,” Siluanov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency Tass.

And Siluanov said Russia and China should enhance financial cooperation with their fellow members of Brics – an association of five emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

In a separate meeting on Monday, Vice-Premier He Lifeng and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko pledged to push forward key projects and expand areas of cooperation.

He Lifeng hailed the “strong vitality” of bilateral cooperation in finance, production capacity, science and technology, communications, customs, environmental protection and urban construction.

“We’ll effectively solve the difficulties and problems encountered in our cooperation in a timely manner and create a better cooperation environment,” he was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

The two also “reached a variety of consensus and results”, though no details were provided.

Dong Jinyue, a senior China economist at BBVA Research, said that the financial cooperation between both countries is mutually beneficial.

“For Russia, [there is] some immediate relief in its economic and financial malaise from when the US froze Russian assets … Russia can always use [the yuan] to settle its foreign trade payments and to ensure the safety of its foreign reserves by using [the yuan] as its reserve currency,” she explained.

‘A decent level’: Putin extols China trade as US$200 billion target shattered

While for China, Dong added, financial cooperation can help promote the yuan’s internationalisation by using it in trade settlements, and from being the main reserve currency of Russia.

Official figures from China’s customs authorities showed that bilateral trade between the two countries grew 26.7 per cent, year on year, to US$218.2 billion between January and November.

China is now Russia’s biggest energy buyer.

Speaking at an annual news conference last week, Putin estimated that the value of trade with China could reach a record US$230 billion this year.

‘Can’t spend it all’: China lottery winner gives away bulk of US$12 million as scrap collector donates US$140,000 life savings to education

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3245203/cant-spend-it-all-china-lottery-winner-gives-away-bulk-us12-million-scrap-collector-donates-us140000?utm_source=rss_feed

The extraordinary kindness and generosity of two quite different individuals from China have captivated observers on social media.

One is a lottery winner who donated the bulk of his fortune to a charity, and the other is a scrap collector who has given a chunk of his earnings from the last 15 years to children in need.

A man, whose surname is Guo, from Henan province in central China, gave 53 million yuan of his 86 million yuan (US$12 million) winnings to the Henan Sports Development Foundation.

“It’s not a big deal. I just feel that the amount of money is too huge. I can’t spend it all,” he said.

Guo, whose job and financial status were not divulged, has insisted on making his own money instead of using the lottery windfall to live on.

He wore a cartoon character costume that covered his face when he went to collect the winning cheque, a common thing to do in China where lottery winners often conceal their identity.

After considering how best to spend the money, he decided to keep a relatively small portion for investing in some real estate, such as flats and shops, while giving the majority to a charity.

“I need to work to make my own money,” Guo said.

Unsurprisingly, the story sparked a heated discussion on Chinese social media.

One person said: “Wow, he is a great man”, while another commented: “If I were the lottery winner, I wouldn’t donate so much.”

Meanwhile, Hu Lei, from Gansu province in north-central China, who makes his money by collecting scrap and selling handicraft on the street, has donated more than a million yuan (US$140,000) during the past 15 years to help home-school children who can’t afford a formal education.

Hu, who suffered from polio in his childhood, has provided financial aid to about 20,000 youngsters with illnesses and conditions who would otherwise have missed out on an education because they could not attend school.

In a video on social media, he is seen kneeling on the ground and taking a carton of milk from a little girl who has benefitted from his generosity, and who becomes emotional with gratitude.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry,” Hu says, touching her head to comfort her and telling her to thank her parents and teachers rather than him.

Hu grew up an orphan and said he was helped a great deal by the kindness of others and felt compelled to do the same.

“I just hope that I can help more children in need,” Hu said.

Hu’s good deed has warmed hearts online.

“Oh my God, what a selfless and great soul,” one person said.

South China Sea: Philippines’ Marcos Jnr calls for ‘paradigm shift’ in diplomacy with Beijing

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3245553/south-china-sea-philippines-marcos-jnr-calls-paradigm-shift-diplomacy-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said a “paradigm shift” was needed in how his country approaches the South China Sea issue, as diplomatic efforts with Beijing were headed “in a poor direction”.

In an interview with Japanese media on December 16, parts of which were shared with Philippine media on Monday, Marcos Jnr said traditional diplomatic efforts were being disregarded by China, according to a presidential palace release.

“To this point, we have resorted to the traditional methods of diplomacy … but we have been doing this for many years now, with very little progress,” said Marcos Jnr, who was in Japan for Tokyo’s commemorative summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“It’s time that the countries that feel that they have an involvement in this situation, we have to come up with a paradigm shift,” Marcos Jnr said, while reiterating the Philippines wants to avoid violent conflict.

He added his government will continue talking to its partners and come up with a joint position stating their responsibilities as far as the West Philippine Sea is concerned.

The Philippines refers to the part of South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone as the West Philippine Sea.

Beijing flexes muscles in South China Sea as Manila puts it on the defensive

China and the Philippines have been locked in an escalating territorial dispute in the South China Sea. The Philippines has filed diplomatic protests, summoned China’s envoy after increasingly tense encounters and called out China’s coastguard.

Last week, Manila and Beijing traded accusations over a collision of their vessels near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea as tensions over claims in the vital waterway escalate.

Marcos Jnr, who discarded his predecessor’s non-confrontational approach in the South China Sea when he took office last year, suggested increased involvement among other stakeholders that will promote peace and also resolve the issue sooner rather than later.

The Philippine leader said the situation in the disputed sea will not improve if his nation continues to deal with China in the same way. The nation must also move quickly in resolving the issue as it’s already affecting the livelihood of its fishermen.

At the weekend, Marcos Jnr also said energy exploration in the West Philippine Sea must start before the country’s Malampaya gas field is commercially depleted in the coming years. China for its part said it will conduct sea trials for deepwater drilling vessel.

In addition to the Philippines, Asean members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims with China in parts of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than US$3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China’s claims had no legal basis, a ruling the United States supports but Beijing rejects.

There was no immediate comment from the Chinese embassy in Manila.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg

UAE seeks closer China ties through Africa, South Pacific investments as Middle East nation eyes ‘global player role’

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3245469/uae-seeks-closer-china-ties-through-africa-south-pacific-investments-middle-east-nation-eyes-global?utm_source=rss_feed

The United Arab Emirates, a key node for China’s growing economic relations in the Middle East, is using its Chinese connection to co-invest in Africa and the South Pacific, while considering more transactions in the yuan, an Emirati official said.

The ventures follow a decade of the UAE working together with China on ports, export zones and other infrastructure, said Hong Kong-based consul general Shaikh Saoud Ali al-Mualla.

“Both countries are expanding their cooperation through joint investments in the Pacific islands and on the African continent,” Mualla told the Post.

China has invested in Africa for nearly a quarter of a century, lured by its natural resources and chance to form closer relations with the region seen as relatively overlooked by the United States.

Much of Africa and the Middle East have hooked into China’s Belt and Road Initiative – Beijing’s trade initiative to link economies into a China-centred network.

The UAE, a wealthy economic hub in the Gulf region widely known for the high-rises of its biggest city Dubai, is the fourth largest global investor in Africa, according to investments database fDi Markets. It says that investment reached about US$60 billion over the past decade, including ports and other infrastructure.

“Of all the [belt and road] nations situated within the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates is strategically positioned to consolidate its role as the primary facilitator of trade and investment in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region,” Mualla said on Wednesday.

The UAE has already invested US$10 billion in a China-led fund for Africa.

China-Middle East to step up trade amid strained ties with Western partners

In the South Pacific, China’s trade, commerce and diplomacy have grown in recent years, while the UAE has allocated at least US$50 million to projects in the region where it can develop low-carbon technologies and grow foreign relations.

More than 4,000 Chinese companies already operate in the UAE, targeting the 100 million-population in the Gulf region, Mualla added.

The state-owned Cosco Shipping, which is the largest container operator in the world, uses Khalifa Port in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi as its centre for Middle East operations, Mualla said.

He said Cosco’s presence has allowed for more trade between East Asia and the Gulf, while raising the port’s overall annual cargo capacity.

Chinese investors see their UAE bases as a “springboard” to build inroads in other countries, said Naubahar Sharif, head of the public policy division at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

“This is in line with the UAE’s ability to be a more global player, sort of like Hong Kong,” he said.

Mualla said use of the yuan would “definitely” increase in the UAE and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative over “the coming years”.

A bigger role for the yuan would track with China’s efforts for more countries to conduct trade in its currency to reduce dependence on the US dollar.

China renewed a currency swap deal with the UAE in November to expand financial and economic relations.

More yuan traffic would play into the UAE’s “global aspirations”, Sharif said.

“We stand to potentially gain from more favourable agreements or consistently stable pricing on our acquisitions in Chinese yuan,” Mualla said.

He said currency swaps or other “structured” yuan terms could “mitigate currency risks given high trade volumes”.

But the consul general said that “the extent to which the UAE may embrace the use of yuan remains uncertain”.

China and the UAE are also eager on “enhancing collaboration” between the Shanghai Stock Exchange and UAE-based international financial centres, Mualla said.

Bilateral trade has “significant” potential for growth and expansion, especially in green technologies and professional services, he added.

For China, the UAE ranks eighth of 80 countries as key locations for investment, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit.

The UAE offers China access to natural resources and opens a gateway to the rest of the Middle East, along with Africa, said Xu Tianchen, senior China economist with The Economist Intelligence Unit.

“And at a time when Chinese enterprises attach increasing importance to risk aversion, the UAE also stands out as a safe destination, with relatively low levels of operating risks and diplomacy risks,” Xu said.

Singapore restricts remittances to China after US$10 million in funds frozen

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3245536/singapore-restricts-remittances-china-after-us10-million-funds-frozen?utm_source=rss_feed

Singapore’s financial regulator has ordered remittance companies in the city state to halt the use of nonbank and non-card channels when sending money to people in China from January 1.

The three-month suspension follows reports of remittances through Singapore being subsequently frozen in beneficiaries’ bank accounts in China by law enforcement agencies, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement late on Monday. It is unclear why these funds had been frozen.

Remittance companies have been directed to use only bank and card channels when transferring money to China, according to the MAS statement.

As of December 15, Singapore police had received more than 670 reports of remittances being frozen, with about S$13 million (US$9.8 million) of funds affected, Singapore Police Force and MAS said in a joint statement. Some 430 of the reports were against Samlit Moneychanger Pte Ltd.

To keep transaction costs low, the remittance companies had processed the affected outward remittances through overseas licensed agents and not through a direct bank transfer from Singapore to China, according to the joint statement.

“In recent months, for a very small proportion of such remittances, the monies received in beneficiaries’ bank accounts have been frozen by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] law enforcement agencies,” MAS said. “It is not clear why these funds had been frozen.”

IMF chief urges adoption of central bank digital currencies at Singapore event

MAS said it might terminate or extend the suspension after March 31, 2024 or take further measures as appropriate.

“This suspension is necessary for the immediate protection of consumers, and to stem the number of reported new cases of beneficiaries’ accounts in China being frozen,” it added.

MAS said people should use other channels for remittances into China, such as through banks or card networks such as China’s payment services firm UnionPay International, to prevent any inadvertent freezing of monies or accounts.

The central bank also warned people against rushing to remit money to China via overseas third-party agents before January 2024.

China gives green light for 5-year plan to cut digital red tape, ‘meaningless labour’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3245489/china-gives-green-light-5-year-plan-cut-digital-red-tape-meaningless-labour?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s cyberspace regulator has launched a long-term campaign to cut down on red tape and excessive formalities across government apps and social media.

The directive was issued on Monday by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission (CCAC), the Communist Party oversight body that sits at the top of the State Council’s Cyberspace Administration, which was set up to manage internet-related issues.

The document said that government apps, social media accounts and WeChat groups need to be regulated to make tools more user-friendly for the public, instead of being used by officials in evaluations and for departments to show off their levels of digitalisation.

Chinese president seeks keen eye on AI and regard for cyber sovereignty

“The prevention and control of ‘formalism on the fingertips’ matters to the image of the party, the popularity among people, the modernisation of the national governance system and governance capacity. It is of great significance in promoting the party’s style of government and social atmosphere,” the directive said.

The campaign, which could last up to five years, came on the heels of President Xi Jinping’s remarks about preventing formalism and bureaucracy last week.

“New versions of formalism and bureaucratism” were on the rise, he warned, adding that grass-roots cadres had to sign in on all sorts of software and accounts, and too many government forums were a waste of money and time.

“This is formalism in the digital new age, and it’s another way to increase burdens at the grass roots,” the CCAC said.

The directive called for a reduction in “meaningless labour” for local cadres, so that they could focus more of their time and energy on doing actual work to increase convenience and efficiency for the general public.

According to the directive, a mechanism must be built within two years that evaluates digital tools, collects feedback and allows cancellations. Within five years, measures must be in place “to prevent formalism from rebounding or mutating”.

Software to govern the system must be designed to enhance convenience, and apps should not have duplicated functions, the directive said, adding that those that are not used frequently or are not practical should be scrapped.

The document said government social media and apps should be used because they are practical, not because they are required by superiors, and the usage of online tools should not be included in daily evaluations, such as the number of shares or the length of time used.

Numerous reports have previously appeared in state media about useless online and social media tools that create extra work for local cadres.

China’s cyberspace chief raises concerns over the power of generative AI

One community official told party mouthpiece People’s Daily they had dozens of WeChat groups for work projects and needed to check in every day. Another official said bosses had asked them to help to urge the public to install government software on their phones, so that download quotas could be met for particular departments.

The report did single out one city for praise. A campaign in Zhangye in the northwest province of Gansu was able to cut workloads for cadres by reducing government WeChat work groups by 45 per cent and QQ groups by 47 per cent. Other cities had called for removing criteria such as online voting or following WeChat accounts to evaluate cadres, and instead assessing them by the actual, practical work they did, the report said.

111 dead and hundreds hurt after 6.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Gansu in northwestern China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3245535/111-dead-and-hundreds-hurt-after-62-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-gansu-northwestern-china?utm_source=rss_feed

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the northwestern province of Gansu on Monday night has left 111 people dead and 140 injured, state news agency Xinhua said.

The quake killed 100 people in Gansu province and 11 in neighbouring Qinghai province, according to Xinhua.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked authorities on Tuesday morning to “make every effort” to treat the injured, repair infrastructure and resettle affected residents.

The quake’s epicentre is in Jishishan county, an autonomous ethnic minority county with a population of nearly 240,000.

The quake caused houses to collapse in the area and damaged utility infrastructure.

The Ministry of Transport, which monitors the operation of roads, said on Tuesday morning that a bridge across the Yellow River had cracked because of the quake.

China’s top healthcare authority, the National Health Commission, has sent medical experts from top hospitals to the disaster area to provide support, state broadcaster CCTV said on Tuesday morning.

Gansu province’s top two officials – provincial party secretary Hu Changsheng and governor Ren Zhenhe – also headed to the disaster area early on Tuesday.

Earthquake in north-western China kills at least 111 people

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/18/china-earthquake-death-toll-magnitude/2023-12-19T01:10:46.297Z

A major earthquake rocked a mountainous area of northwestern China just before midnight on Monday, bringing buildings crashing down on people as they slept.

At least 111 were confirmed dead and 300 injured on Tuesday morning after the 6.2 magnitude quake, according to state media reports.

The death toll is expected to rise as a frantic rescue effort continued Tuesday in freezing temperatures in the remote Jishishan county, near the border between Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

Chinese state media posted video of firefighters digging through debris in search of survivors, warning that the bitter cold and high-altitude terrain were making it difficult to find people.

Xi Jinping, China’s powerful leader, on Tuesday morning called for an all-out search and rescue effort and urged vigilance against “secondary disasters” from the changing weather or aftershocks.

Basic infrastructure including water, electricity, and communication and transportation networks had also been damaged, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

This is a developing story.

Earthquake in northwestern China kills at least 111 people in Gansu and Qinghai provinces

https://apnews.com/article/chine-earthquake-gansu-qinghai-6255dcb3ce03a570f6aaaf565230afb1People watch as the night sky is illuminated caused by the eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland seen from the capital city of Reykjavik, Monday Dec. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gunnarsson)

2023-12-18T23:43:06Z

BEIJING (AP) — At least 111 people were killed in a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in a mountainous region in northwestern China, the country’s state media reported on Tuesday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said that 100 people died in the province of Gansu and another 11 in the neighboring province of Qinghai in the quake, which occurred just before midnight on Monday.

More than 200 people were injured, Xinhua said, 96 in Gansu and 124 in Qinghai. The quake struck in Gansu’s Jishishan county, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the provincial boundary with Qinghai.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 5.9.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that there was damage to water and electricity lines, as well as transportation and communications infrastructure.

The earthquake was felt in Lanzhou, the Gansu provincial capital, about 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) southwest of the capital of Beijing.

University students in Lanzhou rushed out of their dorms, according to a social media post that had images showing young people standing outside.

Tents, folding beds and quilts were being sent to the disaster area, CCTV said. It quoted Chinese leader Xi Jinping as calling for an all-out search and rescue effort to minimize the casualties.

Last year in September, at least 74 people were reported killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that shook China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, triggering landslides and shaking buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, where 21 million residents were under a COVID-19 lockdown.

China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The temblor devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.

Earthquake in north-west China kills at least 111

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/19/china-earthquake-death-toll-magnitude-gansu-qinghai

At least 111 people have been killed in a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in north-west China’s Gansu and Qinghai provinces, according to the state news agency.

Xinhua said that 86 people had died in the province of Gansu and another nine in neighbouring Qinghai province in the quake, which occurred late on Monday evening. The total toll was later updated to 111.

Another 96 were injured in the province after the strong, shallow earthquake struck.

The quake caused significant damage, bringing down houses, and sent people running into the street for safety, the agency said. Power and water supplies were disrupted and debris could be seen in videos posted to social media.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 10km at 11:59pm local time on Monday, according to the USGS, which revised the magnitude downward after initially reporting 6.0.

Officials launched an emergency response and dispatched rescue personnel to the area just after the quake, and provincial leaders were also en route.

According to USGS, the quake occurred some 100km south-west of Gansu province’s capital, Lanzhou, and was followed by several smaller aftershocks.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in China. In August, a shallow 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck eastern China, injuring 23 people and collapsing dozens of buildings.

With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

Man makes granddaughter, 5, wear dog cone collar to stop her playing on phone gets effective results divides China social media

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3245038/man-makes-granddaughter-5-wear-dog-cone-collar-stop-her-playing-phone-gets-effective-results-divides?utm_source=rss_feed

A grandfather, who put a dog cone on his five-year-old granddaughter to prevent her from spending so much time on her mobile phone, has been congratulated for his ingenuity by viewers of Chinese social media.

The man from Xian, in the central province of Shaanxi, stumbled upon the solution on December 7 when he noticed the little girl persistently playing games on the phone during a car journey.

In the car was a new dog cone of the type that is usually used to stop dogs licking their wounds after injury or surgery, which he placed carefully around her neck.

The girl’s mother, surnamed Yuan, said: “The kid was initially very resistant because she couldn’t look at the phone, and because she knew the collar was meant for dogs. Even though it was new, she was still very opposed to it.”

Her daughter’s reluctance is captured in a trending online video, which shows the little girl sitting in the car holding a phone, with a pink dog cone collar around her neck, refusing to leave the car.

When her grandfather finally removes her phone and takes her out of the car, she protests with a sad face: “No, no! This is for dogs!”

“No, it’s specially bought for you. It’s pink. It’s yours,” her mother humorously reassures her.

Yuan later revealed that the approach was surprisingly effective at curbing her daughter’s “addiction”.

“For the next two days, whenever she wanted to use the phone, I put the collar on her. After wearing it for two or three days, she no longer wanted the phone, so we don’t use it anymore,” Yuan told BaiLu Video.

The creative solution has entertained many online viewers and sparked broader discussions about its application.

“This dog collar is even pink. Are you sure the grandfather didn’t prepare it on purpose?” One person commented.

“Actually, if you hold the phone a bit higher wearing this collar, you can still see it... so I also recommend it to young adults with neck problems as a result of being addicted to phones,” another noted.

Not everybody is a fan of the unusual tactic with one saying: “We have used this method at home, but it didn’t work for my kid. It would be more effective if adults lead by example and did not use phones.”

“This is more for laughs, it’s not really practical. To get children off phones, you need to divert their attention and cultivate their interests,” remarked another.

Parents in China have creatively adopted other pet accessories to educate and protect their children.

In October 2022, a tech blogger recommended using GPS-equipped pet collars to track and ensure the safety of children, gaining widespread support among online viewers.

---

[World] Earthquake kills more than 100 in northwest China

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-67756228?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Lawmakers want Biden to reject export licenses for Chinese drone maker DJI

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3245519/lawmakers-want-biden-reject-export-licenses-chinese-drone-maker-dji?utm_source=rss_feed

More than a dozen Republican lawmakers on Monday asked the Pentagon to block export licenses for US components for Chinese-drone manufacturer DJI, citing national security concerns.

The Commerce Department in 2020 added DJI, the world’s largest drone maker, to the government’s export control list. The lawmakers in a letter to Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said a recent tear down of a DJI drone found US-manufactured components, which suggests government approval of export licenses.

The letter said the defence department “should not be recommending approval of export control licenses for US technology that advances DJI capabilities.”

US and EU trade barriers not only hurt China, they also derail climate action

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3245291/us-and-eu-trade-barriers-not-only-hurt-china-they-also-derail-climate-action?utm_source=rss_feed

As the world tackles climate change with a heightened sense of urgency and renewed determination following the Cop28 United Nations climate conference in Dubai, it is critically important for nations to guard against restrictive trade measures.

Seemingly unrelated and thus often treated as a separate issue, trade restrictions can significantly affect global climate goals and threaten to derail the transition to a greener economy.

An example of this is the European Union’s carbon border tax, which came under heavy fire at Cop28 from developing countries. Intended to protect the European domestic industry, the measure requires that the difference between the carbon price of the product in the EU and that in the country it is being imported from has to be paid.

Viewed as discriminatory by BASIC, a grouping that includes Brazil, South Africa, India and China, the EU’s border tax will work to deter carbon-intensive imports, such as aluminium and steel.

BASIC sees the tax, and rightly so, as opposed to the Paris Agreement’s principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”. This provides that while all countries are responsible for addressing global environmental destruction, the developed countries cumulatively responsible for the bulk of emissions are duty-bound to do more.

But the EU’s carbon border tax, in essence, demands that developing countries cut their emissions to the bloc’s level to avoid being punished. It ignores the wide differences between Europe’s economic development and that of developing nations, and their contributions to, and abilities to address, climate change.

Rather than creating a level playing field, as the EU claims, its tax is akin to pitting a heavyweight boxer against a featherweight. Unsurprisingly, the move is increasingly viewed in the developing world as the EU’s failure to face its historical responsibility and an attempt to shift the burden of cleaning up after itself to poor countries, calling into question Europe’s climate change pledges.

The EU’s tax is undermining trust and creating a rift with the Global South when global cooperation is most needed. It could ignite a tariff war and divert attention and energy away from urgently needed emission cuts.

The EU’s cleantech trade battle with China also casts doubt on its decarbonisation goals. The bloc has opened an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicle imports, and is reportedly contemplating a similar probe into the Chinese wind energy sector – even though European manufacturers account for 85 per cent of bloc’s market.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has called China’s overcapacity in renewable energy products “a cause for concern”.

Yet China’s development of renewable industries is a boon for climate action, especially in view of Cop28’s goal of tripling renewable energy capacity globally by 2030.

China has not only embarked on its green energy transition but also contributed in no small measure to the EU’s decarbonisation. Take solar power for example. The expansion of China’s silicon production in recent years has led its price to drop by as much as 80 per cent from last year’s peak, making wafers and other solar components much cheaper.

This in turn makes solar-based electricity more economical to produce than coal-fired power. With new capacity this year set to double last year’s, China’s carbon emissions are likely to peak well ahead of its 2030 target.

Governments must act decisively on the climate or we’re all doomed to boil

In the EU, thanks to cheaper photovoltaic components from China, solar power is fast becoming the cheapest form of electricity to generate. Consequently, at least 40GW of solar capacity is expected to be installed in the EU this year. Many are asking: could the EU achieve its climate goals without China?

Meanwhile, the US Inflation Reduction Act, which excludes Chinese companies from the subsidies, could slow the US’ transition away from petrol.

More detrimental to global decarbonising goals are Washington and Brussels’ efforts to reshape global supply chains in renewable industries and electric vehicles to exclude China.

China dominates the cobalt, rare earth and graphite industries, and processes more than half of these materials, all crucial inputs for renewable energy and electric cars. China is also a major producer of electric vehicles and their batteries.

To transition away from fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions globally by 2050, it makes sense for China to play an increased role in supplying the needed green energy products, from electric vehicles to solar and wind energy.

It would take years, if ever, for the United States and EU to build their own supply chains, during which time they have no way to make up for lost supply from China. It is highly likely that the ability of the US and EU to deliver their climate objectives would be severely impaired.

Critical minerals are the new front line of US-China rivalry

Moreover, the reworking of supply chains is almost certain to create supply uncertainty and disruptions globally, and increase the competition for resources. Attempting to shut out China’s renewable industries imperils climate action globally.

Despite the serious consequences however, Washington and Brussels are determined to reshape supply chains. They see it as a way to contain the rise of China, which they view as a strategic adversary. This geopolitisation of supply chains will complicate and hamper global cooperation on climate action.

It is unfortunate that global climate goals are being sacrificed on the altar of narrow self-interest. Given the spirit of Cop28, and for the sake of the home on Earth we share, isn’t it time that Washington and Brussels abandoned their restrictive trade practices?