• Taiwan, US elections and South China Sea tensions could make 2024 even more geopolitically perilous
• Mandarin immersion programmes persist in American schools despite high-level US-China tensions
• US extends tariff exclusions on some Chinese goods till May
• Canada in talks for multimillion dollar settlements with Michael Spavor, Michael Kovrig over China imprisonment: report
• [World] Chinese chess: Xiangqi champion suspended for bad behaviour
• Men still being favoured over women for Chinese government jobs, study warns
• Indonesia probes deadly blast at Chinese-owned nickel plant that killed 18 workers, including 8 Chinese employees
• Xinjiang: China adds US risk intelligence firm Kharon and researchers to sanctions list over human rights ‘excuse’
• More Hong Kong border checkpoints with mainland China to operate around clock in bid to boost business in Greater Bay Area, new action plan says
• Chinese leader Xi Jinping leads tributes to Mao Zedong on chairman’s 130th birthday
• South China Sea: Philippines says it is not provoking conflict, accuses China of ‘extremely dangerous’ behaviour
• Heartbroken Chinese woman dies after marathon boozing session, friends ordered to pay compensation for failing to stop her
• Vietnam’s partnership with China is ‘window dressing’ as it aims for flexibility in international relations
• NetEase and Blizzard said to reach new deal set to bring World of Warcraft back to China
• Israel appeals to Chinese president to help free hostage Noa Argamani
• China unveils plan to boost business environment in the Greater Bay Area
• China names submariner Hu Zhongming as top PLA Navy commander
• Anti-China push in US Midwest a symptom of Biden’s dilemma
• Chinese-led team reveals secrets of giant star’s explosive death after boost from citizen scientists
• ‘Hit him’: bullying Chinese father orders young son to beat up classmate in school, triggers police probe and shocks social media
• China’s middle class does not ‘dare to spend’ until post-Covid economy shows clear signs of recovery
• ‘OK to fail’: praise for China teacher’s speech that encourages students to embrace failure and be down-to-earth
• ‘Extra pair of eyes’: Chinese University of Hong Kong team says AI helps junior doctors better spot colon tumours in cancer fight
• China’s ‘first coffee village’ brewing up change amid digital transformation as jobseekers give it a shot, tourists take a sip

Taiwan, US elections and South China Sea tensions could make 2024 even more geopolitically perilous

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3246254/taiwan-us-elections-and-south-china-sea-tensions-could-make-2024-even-more-geopolitically-perilous?utm_source=rss_feed

“We have to do something that we have not done before. We have to come up with a new concept, a new principle, a new idea,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said in response to escalating tensions in the South China Sea.

“We do not want to go to the point where there are incidents that might cause an actual violent conflict. Maybe from a mistake or a misunderstanding, and these things happen all the time,” he added, emphasising the need for nothing less than a “paradigm shift” in the country’s foreign policy.

The stark comments by Marcos came shortly before an exchange between top diplomats of China and the Philippines. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned “China-Philippines relations are at a crossroads” in a call with Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo and called on the Philippines to act with caution.

The situation is increasingly dire. In the past three months alone, the Philippines and China have been involved in multiple dangerous encounters in the South China Sea, particularly over the Second Thomas Shoal. Both sides have taken an uncompromising stance on the maritime dispute, raising the risk of unwanted conflict.

To make matters worse, rising Philippine-China tensions have coincided with deteriorating relations between the world’s two superpowers. Elections next year, first in Taiwan and later in the United States, could further inflame tensions in the region.

As Marcos correctly pointed out, we need a “paradigm shift” which allows each side to preserve their core interests while instituting sufficient guardrails to prevent unwanted conflict.

In terms of the geopolitical landscape in the Indo-Pacific, the past year was troubling. Not long after a seemingly promising meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali last year, the two superpowers quickly reverted to an antagonistic relationship.

China has cried foul over a new series of US sanctions against its strategic industries, especially semiconductor companies. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has doubled down on military cooperation with a host of nations around China under an “integrated deterrence” strategy. The Biden administration has simultaneously strengthened multiple regional alliances, including the trilateral US-Japan-South Korea and Australia-United Kingdom-US (Aukus) groupings.

In addition, the US has increased its engagement with non-aligned nations such as India and Vietnam to counteract China. In response, Beijing has accused the US of trying to contain the rise of China by embracing a Cold War mentality.

Meanwhile, China has pressed ahead with a more assertive stance in adjacent waters, particularly in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. Emboldened by its deepening alliance with the US and growing support from like-minded Indo-Pacific powers, the Philippines has doubled down on its own patrols in the disputed areas and promised to fortify its facilities on features which China also claims.

The upshot is a dangerous escalatory dynamic which saw Chinese vessels using water cannons against Philippine resupply ships, including one that had the Philippine military chief on board, while a Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of a US B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea. But we could face an even a more geopolitically perilous year ahead.

First, Taiwan’s elections could end up cementing the position of pro-independence elements. The latest polls suggest the Democratic Progressive Party ticket of William Lai Ching-te and former Taiwanese representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim is still in the lead.

Next year will also see a particularly heated US election, likely pitting the incumbent Biden against former president Donald Trump. Notwithstanding partisan polarisation, an anti-China bipartisan consensus has emerged in Washington.

This seems to reflect broader public opinion in the US, with four out of five Americans holding unfavourable views of China and two-thirds viewing China as a “critical threat” in a Gallup poll earlier this year. As a result, Biden is likely to come under growing pressure to maintain a tough line on China to fend off hawkish Republican rivals.

Consensus no more? Democrats start to split from Republicans on China policy

The US is also likely to face growing pressure to stand with Taiwan as well as the Philippines. China has warned the Philippines against building structures over the Second Thomas Shoal, but Manila insists on full sovereign rights over the shoal based on a 2016 arbitral tribunal decision.

Should the Philippines press ahead with building permanent structures over the shoal and insist on US military assistance to ward off China, a military clash in the area would become a distinct possibility. With anti-China sentiment gaining ground in the Philippines, especially ahead of the 2025 midterm elections, Marcos is under growing pressure to do something drastic to reinforce his country’s claims in the South China Sea.

However, there is sufficient strategic maturity as well as responsible statesmanship on all sides to avoid disaster. This was on display during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, on the sidelines of which Xi met his American and Filipino counterparts to discuss de-escalation mechanisms.

It goes without saying that the West shouldn’t underestimate China’s resolve to reinforce its claims in adjacent waters. However, Beijing should realise that smaller claimant states such as the Philippines are not pushovers. Aside from establishing robust guardrails and communications channels, it’s necessary for the US and its regional allies to pursue firm yet productive diplomacy with China.

The ultimate aim should be a mutually acceptable compromise on high-stakes issues coupled with a commitment to sustained de-escalation, especially in the South China Sea. Otherwise, the world’s most dynamic region could sleepwalk into a cataclysmic conflict.

Mandarin immersion programmes persist in American schools despite high-level US-China tensions

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3246088/mandarin-immersion-programmes-persist-american-schools-despite-high-level-us-china-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed

What does Washington, DC, have in common with Provo, Utah? Or Greenville, Michigan? Or Overland Park, Kansas?

All are home to publicly funded Mandarin immersion programmes, where kids as young as three years old spend half of each school day taking their regular classes – like math, science or physical education – entirely in Chinese.

Most of the programmes began during a period of American engagement with China under the administration of Barack Obama, when Mandarin was increasingly seen as a language of global business, optimism for bilateral cooperation was the norm and federal grants for Chinese language learning were more abundant.

In 2015, Obama pledged that by 2020, 1 million American students would be learning Mandarin.

Eight years later, to say the dynamics have shifted would be an understatement.

Sino-US tensions now cast doubt over business opportunities in the mainland, while record-high proportions of Americans view China negatively.

American students – whose numbers in China have declined from over 11,000 five years ago to about 700 in 2023 – are warier about starting a China-focused career due to shrinking research access in the country and the perceived security risks of travelling there.

And Washington’s rhetoric about Beijing is forcing American schools to weigh tough questions about partnerships with the country, affecting their access to resources and teachers to support language programmes.

Can China-US people-to-people cooperation resume if academic swaps are curbed?

The acrimony has all but wiped out Chinese government-funded language and culture programmes like Confucius Institutes at US colleges and their K-12 counterparts, known as “Confucius Classrooms”.

In September, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis went beyond targeting direct Chinese government support and cut scholarship funding to four K-12 schools part of a network controlled by a Hong Kong investment firm.

Yet Mandarin immersion at elementary, middle and high schools across the US appears largely insulated from geopolitical dynamics.

While Mandarin classes are not uncommon at US schools, immersion programmes are another matter, allowing students to develop a longer-term and more intimate connection with Chinese language and culture.

Demand has proved strong, with about a third of the some 340 publicly funded immersion programmes founded in the post-Obama era. In some school districts facing cutbacks, parents have fought passionately to retain the programmes.

For parents pursuing the option, Mandarin immersion offers their children a unique identity, fostering a more open-minded, globally aware and academically accomplished student in the process.

For school districts, the programmes help them stand out and attract families who might not otherwise come to their district.

In fact, only a few miles from Capitol Hill, where congressional scrutiny of China has intensified in recent years, one of America’s more established immersion programmes has flourished.

Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School launched in 2008 after a group of parents sought to combine tuition-free, Chinese-language learning with a globally-oriented and rigorous curriculum.

Interest in its K-5 education has run so high that a campus expansion is planned for next year; at full enrolment, nearly 1,000 students will learn Mandarin daily.

Leading Chinese academic and cultural figures urge Sino-US ‘friendship’

In the eyes of new Yu Ying parents Saagar Thakkar and Pearl Zheng, the school was an obvious choice.

Having lived abroad, including in Singapore, Thakkar said he believes in the importance of possessing business-proficient Mandarin – a skill he views as even more precious amid fraught US-China relations.

Zheng, a Taiwan native, considers immersion a way for her children to remain connected to their heritage.

But many Yu Ying parents have no ties to China and Asia, and simply deem the school an opportunity for their child to have more options in life.

“My reasons are simple: take advantage of a unique opportunity to have our kids be more open-minded,” explained Yu Ying parent Sam White, adding that he and his wife grew up in a part of the American Midwest where diversity was limited.

“Maybe it’ll be a marketable skill, maybe he meets a significant other because he can speak Mandarin, I don’t know! But he’s gonna have those opportunities,” said White of their son’s future.

White noted that career possibilities were not top of mind when he ranked Yu Ying first in the lottery-based school admissions system Washington uses.

Yu Ying parents generally did not harbour specific career aspirations for their young children. They instead seized on the cognitive benefits of learning a challenging language early in life.

Some would have been happy with any difficult language, while others described learning Mandarin as affording an extra dimension of value.

“China’s not going anywhere any time soon as an emerging force worldwide,” said one Yu Ying parent. “We need to equip our kids with the tools to deal with probably the pre-eminent economic force in the world for the next millennium.”

Why Mandarin is a must for overseas talent seeking a start in Hong Kong

Despite its proximity to Washington’s corridors of power, Yu Ying opts not to market itself as a pathway into the US foreign-policy establishment.

It has, however, occasionally rubbed shoulders with high-level Chinese and American officials.

In 2014, then-first lady Michelle Obama sought tips from the school’s sixth-graders ahead of her trip to China. The following year, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s wife, Peng Liyuan, was photographed embracing a Yu Ying student during Xi’s state visit to the US.

In October, Yu Ying students performed at the Chinese embassy in Washington as ambassador Xie Feng quizzed the audience on Chinese idioms and touted friendship between the two countries’ peoples as the “impetus” in the bilateral relationship.

Yu Ying sees such public engagements as enriching educational experiences for their students, rather than political statements.

International politics have hardly affected the school, said Carlie Fisherow, its executive director, who noted that enrolment has stayed consistent since 2008 and wait-lists have been the norm in recent years.

“But you can feel the indirect effects coming … recruiting for teachers takes more effort now,” Fisherow said, adding that the coronavirus pandemic had also affected teacher recruitment nationwide.

The US government crackdown on Chinese government-funded groups has hampered the recruitment of Mandarin teachers across America, according to Elizabeth Weise, California-based founder of the Mandarin Immersion Parents Council and author of A Parent’s Guide to Mandarin Immersion.

This was especially true in states where Chinese speakers were fewer in number, Weise said.

Hanban, an entity under China’s education ministry that oversees Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms, “had provided a lot of teachers from China who would come over on a three-year contract”, she explained.

University shutting Confucius Institute after US House panel raises concerns

But while parents may be aware of high-level shifts and changing business fortunes, Weise said they still regard learning Mandarin as exceptionally good at instilling academic discipline in their children.

“Families are looking for something that will push their kids.”

Outside the nation’s capital, Mandarin immersion programmes can be found in 32 US states, according to the Mandarin Immersion Parents Council. Those that are publicly funded can be found in 31 states.

As of December, there were about 407 programmes in total.

The numbers are constantly in flux. While school districts in California, Minnesota and Oregon launched new programmes this year, a Kansas school district is downscaling its offerings and Oklahoma is phasing out Chinese immersion altogether.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Stacy Lyon of the Utah State Board of Education said Washington politics had yet to seep into the state’s programmes.

Utah’s 95 public immersion programmes emerged from a business decision made in 2008 by then-governor, and later US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, according to Lyon. “It was a very economically driven decision and still is,” she said.

Since 2018 and despite the downturn in bilateral relations, the volume of Utah goods exported to China has grown. As of 2022, China still ranked in the state’s top four export markets among foreign countries.

Utah, a pioneer in America’s state-driven model for such language learning, accounts for about a quarter of publicly funded Mandarin-immersion programmes in the US.

In total numbers, it trails only California, a wealthy state with a substantial heritage community fuelling demand for its approximately 107 public, charter and private programmes.

Lyon said she expects Utah to be insulated from national political headwinds because many in its Mormon community – which accounts for about two-thirds of the state’s population – recognise the importance of languages, having lived abroad for mission work.

For Lyon, Utah was “part of a solution” to a better Sino-US relationship.

Chinese scientists build mind-reading device that turns thought into Mandarin

The immersion programmes represent a “living microcosm” of larger-scale relations, she said, giving students ample experience working through cross-cultural issues.

“We have plenty of horror stories where parents, students and teachers are trying to figure out relationships … except we’re working through everything all together in a way that’s culturally appropriate.”

Delaware has adopted Utah’s state-driven model, while other states like Arizona have struggled to do so. But regardless of state support, grass-roots efforts are often essential to keeping programmes alive.

In rural Michigan, parents earlier this year successfully rallied to save a programme facing a phase-out by Greenville Public Schools.

Similar efforts in Kansas, Delaware and Arizona – involving online petitions, door-to-door canvassing and physical protests – have yielded different degrees of success.

Being part of Mandarin immersion “has begun to shape local community identity”, said Shuhan Wang of the Asia Society, who supported various efforts to revive programmes. “They are very proud of it.”

As US-China ties hit new lows, are diplomatic backchannels still effective?

For Kansas’s Blue Valley School District, difficulties finding licensed and high-quality teachers who also spoke Chinese was a major factor in its decision to discontinue one of its two elementary immersion programmes.

Other districts faced obstacles like budgetary shortfalls, enrolment reductions and concerns that immersion students were falling behind their non-immersion peers.

Several pullback efforts came with the arrival of new district leaders, whom many parents have said did not understand the immense positive impact Mandarin immersion has had on their communities.

Yanna Free, who sent the first of her four children to Yu Ying 13 years ago, told the Post that while her children may not always keep Chinese as a central part of their lives, the virtues of Mandarin immersion were much broader than simply acquiring a language.

“I see the experiences that my daughter has had. I know the experience that my son has had. I directly have lived experience with seeing how xenophobia was squashed with them in their interactions with others,” said Free, who now works at the school.

For parents like Free, enrolment is driven not by politics but by the lives they want for their children. “Parents are not politicians,” Weise said. “They just want their kid to have a good education and have as many opportunities as they can.”

US extends tariff exclusions on some Chinese goods till May

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3246325/us-extends-tariff-exclusions-some-chinese-goods-till-may?utm_source=rss_feed

The office of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Tuesday announced a further extension of China “Section 301” tariff exclusions on 352 Chinese import and 77 Covid-19-related categories till May 31, 2024.

The administration of former US president Donald Trump used Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a statute aimed at combating trade partners’ unfair practices, to launch the China tariffs in 2018 and 2019.

The import tariff exclusions include industrial components such as pumps and electric motors, some car parts and chemicals, bicycles and vacuum cleaners.

The Covid-related exclusions include medical products like face masks, examination gloves and hand sanitising wipes.

The exclusions were previously scheduled to expire on December 31.

The extension till May 31 will allow for further consideration under a statutory four-year review, Tai’s office said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden has retained additional tariffs placed on a plethora of Chinese exports under the previous Trump administration and added new restrictions prohibiting the export of advanced semiconductors and the equipment to make them, citing security concerns.

Trump imposed tariffs in 2018 and 2019 on thousands of imports from China valued at some US$370 billion at the time, after a “Section 301” investigation found that China was misappropriating US intellectual property and coercing US companies to transfer sensitive technology to do business.

US, China militaries talk for first time in over a year

China has called US 301 tariffs on Chinese imports “discriminatory”.

Tariffs are only one component of strains in US-China relations of late. Other contentious issues include Taiwan, spying allegations, human rights and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last week, China also extended tariff exemptions for some imported products from the United States until July 31, 2024, according to the Chinese finance ministry.

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Canada in talks for multimillion dollar settlements with Michael Spavor, Michael Kovrig over China imprisonment: report

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3246324/canada-talks-multimillion-dollar-settlements-michael-spavor-michael-kovrig-over-china-imprisonment?utm_source=rss_feed

Canada’s government is willing to sign off on multimillion-dollar settlement packages for Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig to compensate them for the near three years they were incarcerated in Chinese prisons, the Globe and Mail reported on Tuesday, citing government sources.

Federal lawyers are in compensation talks with the two men, who were detained in 2018, and are hoping to conclude financial settlements early in the new year, the media outlet said, adding that Canada was concerned by a potential lawsuit from Spavor that could put a spotlight on a government security reporting programme.

The Canadian government has offered around C$3 million (US$2.27 million) to each but Spavor’s lawyer sought C$10.5 million, alleging gross negligence on how Ottawa handled security reporting operations in China, the report added.

Chinese tabloid says ‘two Michaels’ allowed bail for medical reasons

The Globe and Mail said the government was not prepared to offer C$10.5 million and that it was going to make the same offer to both men.

The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The two Canadian men could not immediately be reached.

Spavor and Kovrig were taken into custody in China shortly after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, on a US warrant.

China had detained the two Canadian men for more than 1,000 days in a step that was at the centre of Ottawa and Washington’s dispute with Beijing.

The men were released in 2021 on the same day the US Justice Department dropped its extradition request for Meng and she returned to China.

Canada and the United States say that the detention of the Canadian men – dubbed by Canadian media as “the two Michaels” in a case followed closely – was illegal and arbitrary, an accusation Beijing denies.

[World] Chinese chess: Xiangqi champion suspended for bad behaviour

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-67822137?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Men still being favoured over women for Chinese government jobs, study warns

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3246303/men-still-being-favoured-over-women-chinese-government-jobs-study-warns?utm_source=rss_feed

Men have a significant advantage over women when applying for Chinese government jobs, according to new research.

A data analysis by the Inspection Squad for Workplace Gender Discrimination looked at the annual recruitment drive for the national civil service and found more government positions were reserved for men than for women.

The report, first published earlier this month, looked into the job requirements for all government positions advertised in October, a month before the annual civil service exam all candidates must pass if they want a permanent government job.

The team found that of the nearly 40,000 jobs being advertised many specified that they were “men-only” or “women-only” jobs – but there were 10,981 jobs earmarked for men compared with only 7,550 for women.

The difference between the two sexes of 3,431 equates to nearly 8.7 per cent of all the jobs being advertised.

A further analysis of the data found that gender discrimination is worst in the provincial bureaus of central government agencies, such as the Ministry of Railways or the People’s Bank of China, where more than 40 per cent of the positions have gender preferences.

Are rural China’s women on the brink of ‘no land, no money, no house’?

Among all the positions, only the revenue service, customs and census and statistics agencies have an even gender split, with the others all hiring more men than women.

“Those who do not take part in the exam or do not sign up for particular positions may not realise the obvious gender restrictions in the exam,” said the report’s author, who uses the alias Wang Lin. “We wanted to give an objective description of the situation.”

Wang is part of a group of volunteers who have been trying to improve workplace gender equality in the past nine years, filing complaints to government departments and using social media to publicise examples of discrimination.

A record 2.83 million applicants applied to sit the exam this year amid the country’s sluggish economic recovery, topping the 2.5 million that signed up in 2022.

The Post looked into the requirements for this year’s applications on the government’s website, and found that many “remarks” listed under the postings include additional job requirements that are not found in the official job description.

Some of these requirements state that the jobs are for fresh college graduates or for people with particular skill sets, but many others state the jobs are “men only” or “women only”.

But Wang warned there was an additional catch for the “women-only” jobs. These were often listed alongside an equal number of “men-only” posts, indicating the government department in question was only trying to ensure it recruited the same number of men and women.

“But for many more positions marked ‘men-only’, women really had no way to apply,” she said.

There is also a dearth of women occupying senior positions at the top levels of Chinese politics. Last year’s Communist Party congress finished with the first all-male Politburo in 20 years.

‘Gender-equal wedding’: Chinese bride shuns old rituals at marriage ceremony

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said in a report in May that the absence of women among China’s top leadership was concerning.

China’s Labour Law says employers cannot discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender or religious belief – but the Chinese government is often accused of failing to uphold the law and provide remedies for victims of discrimination.

Indonesia probes deadly blast at Chinese-owned nickel plant that killed 18 workers, including 8 Chinese employees

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3246298/indonesia-probe-deadly-blast-chinese-owned-nickel-plant-killed-18-workers-including-8-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed

A nickel-processing facility in Indonesia linked to Chinese metals giant Tsingshan Holding Group has halted operations as police investigate an explosion that left 18 workers dead.

Ten Indonesian workers and eight Chinese workers were killed in the accident.

PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel, or ITSS, stopped operations after the blast early Sunday at a furnace in the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, a representative of the park said. ITSS is under investigation, said Morowali police chief Suprianto, who uses a single name.

ITSS is 50 per cent owned by Tsingshan Holding Group, which spearheaded the expansion of Indonesia’s nickel industry in the past decade, building plants that process ore and use it to make stainless steel or battery-grade chemicals. The incident was at a blast furnace which produces a semi-processed form of nickel.

The park’s representative said other businesses at the site – which hosts 52 companies – were operating normally. The latest number of deaths was confirmed by police chief Suprianto on Tuesday.

Officials from Indonesia’s industry ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Monday and Tuesday are public holidays in Indonesia. A Tsingshan representative in China didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The incident occurred around 5:30am local time on Sunday morning at a furnace that was under maintenance, according to a statement released on the same day by the park’s management. Residue leaked out of the furnace and came into contact with flammable items, causing a fire.

This was the third deadly accident this year at Chinese-owned nickel smelting plants in Central Sulawesi province, which has the largest nickel reserves in Indonesia.

Two dump truck operators were killed when they were engulfed by a wall of black sludge-like material following the collapse of a nickel waste disposal site in April.

In January, two workers, including a Chinese national, were killed in riots that involved workers and security guards at a Indonesia-China joint venture in North Morowali regency.

Additional reporting by Kyodo

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Xinjiang: China adds US risk intelligence firm Kharon and researchers to sanctions list over human rights ‘excuse’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3246309/xinjiang-china-adds-us-risk-intelligence-firm-kharon-and-researchers-sanctions-list-over-human?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has sanctioned US risk intelligence firm Kharon and two researchers in response to the latest Xinjiang-related sanctions by Washington, its foreign ministry announced on Tuesday.

The firm, which provides analysis on investment risks – including those regarding Xinjiang – has been sanctioned by the Chinese government in a tit-for-tat response to US Treasury sanctions earlier this month on Chinese entities over their links to alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The ministry said Edmund Xu, a research director at Kharon, and Nicole Morgret, a human rights analyst at the Washington-based Centre for Advanced Defence Studies, were also sanctioned. They will be banned from entering China and the assets of all three entities in the country will be frozen.

The two authors have published several reports on the human rights situation and alleged forced labour in Xinjiang.

The ministry said it had lodged a firm protest to the United States over the December sanctions and warned that more countermeasures would follow if Washington did not lift the bans against Chinese entities.

“The United States [is] using the so-called human rights issue in Xinjiang as an excuse to impose illegal sanctions on Chinese officials and enterprises, seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs, seriously violating international law and the basic norms of international relations,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

“We once again urge the United States to stop slandering and smearing China, lift illegal unilateral sanctions on Chinese officials and companies, and stop implementing the so-called Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act and other wrong bills.

“If the United States persists in its own way, China will definitely accompany it to the end.”

International campaign launched to support Ilham Tohti for Nobel Peace Prize

China’s countermeasures came as Washington added more Chinese entities into its sanction list under the act, legislation enacted in 2021 banning imports made by “forced labourers” in Xinjiang.

The three Chinese companies targeted this month were Cofco Sugar, Jingweida Technology and Xinya New Materials, which were accused of recruiting and exploiting people of ethnic minority groups through their labour practices.

Some 30 Chinese entities are now on the sanction list under the UFLPA

Two Chinese officials were also targeted. They were Gao Qi, a former police chief in the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture in northern Xinjiang, and Hu Lianhe, an official from the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department responsible for shaping ideology and ensuring social stability in the region.

US President Joe Biden expressed concerns over human rights in Xinjiang while meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco last month for talks aimed at stabilising relations between the two rival powers.

China has long denied allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses in Xinjiang, saying measures taken by Western countries in restricting trade with the region have disrupted international trade.

More Hong Kong border checkpoints with mainland China to operate around clock in bid to boost business in Greater Bay Area, new action plan says

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3246300/more-hong-kong-border-checkpoints-mainland-china-operate-24-hours-bid-boost-business-greater-bay?utm_source=rss_feed

More border checkpoints between Hong Kong and mainland China will be open on a 24-hour basis in line with “actual needs”, the country’s top economic planning body said in a three-year action plan designed to boost business in the Greater Bay Area.

The National Development and Reform Commission also promised to “achieve breakthroughs” in measures to attract Hong Kong talent across the border, such as in occupational qualification recognition and commercial medical insurance.

The 24-point action plan, unveiled on Monday, was released just before the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s launch of its plan to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland Chinese cities into an economic powerhouse.

The document focused on alignment of business rules and standards in the bay area with international norms and the setting up of a market-oriented, law-based and global business environment.

“[We will] adopt new customs clearance models such as the ‘co-location arrangement’ and the ‘collaborative inspection and joint clearance’ mode at more control points,” the action plan said.

The document added authorities wanted to “promote the implementation of ‘24-hour customs clearance’ at more crossings based on actual needs.”

Just two of Hong Kong’s 14 mainland border checkpoints, the Lok Ma Chau Control Point and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Hong Kong Port, open round the clock, which lawmaker Lau Kwok-fan thought was “not enough” to achieve the action plan’s goals.

Hong Kong to welcome second batch of doctors, nurses from Guangdong province

He suggested that another three border checkpoints – Shenzhen Bay Port, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and Heung Yuen Wai – should be open 24 hours a day to ease the flow of people and goods.

“It is important for different local governments to enhance communication, remove facilities and artificial barriers at checkpoints, and eliminate the influence of territorial boundaries between Hong Kong and Shenzhen,” Lau said on Monday.

He predicted 24-hour access through any checkpoint would help Hong Kong’s integration into national development and allow it to take part at a higher level.

The plan also said it wanted to increase the bay area’s international competitiveness and take it to a leading position worldwide.

It asked bay area authorities on the Chinese side to lure Hong Kong talent to the other cities through measures such as equity incentives, cross-border recognition of occupational qualifications and the provision of private medical insurance.

Hong Kong leader ends duty visit vowing to boost ties with mainland neighbours

The document added it wanted more effort to be made to end differential treatment faced by Hong Kong enterprises to better promote the implementation of fair competition policies in the nine mainland bay area cities.

Areas of differential treatment highlighted were bidding and tendering, government procurement and protection of rights and interests, which would only apply to industries not covered in the mainland’s “Negative List” on foreign investment access.

Other priorities listed in the plan include a streamlined visa system for foreign nationals with Hong Kong permanent resident ID cards to conduct scientific, educational, cultural, and health exchanges in mainland China.

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping leads tributes to Mao Zedong on chairman’s 130th birthday

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3246302/chinese-leader-xi-jinping-leads-tributes-mao-zedong-chairmans-130th-birthday?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping paid tribute to Mao Zedong and hailed his political teachings on Tuesday, the 130th anniversary of the late leader’s birth, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Xi led the Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s most powerful decision-making body, in “remembering Mao Zedong’s achievements” at Mao’s mausoleum in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where his embalmed body is on display.

Xi and his delegation bowed three times in front of Mao’s marble statue to honour the day, the report added.

Xi also delivered a speech at the Great Hall of the People to honour Mao’s birthday, following a once-a-decade Communist Party tradition.

Xi’s tribute to Mao come as China faces intensifying competition with the United States and a sluggish economic recovery at home.

The strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington has been high on the party’s agenda in recent years, although the meeting in November between Xi and US President Joe Biden in San Francisco has injected some positive momentum into the relationship in the short run.

Earlier this year, Xi had told cadres to prepare for the “worst-case and most extreme scenario” at a time when Beijing and Washington struggled to manage their disputes over issues such as Taiwan, South China Sea, technology and trade.

The 130th anniversary of Mao’s birth is the second time Xi has led the once-a-decade ceremony.

The event has always been a major commemoration event for Chinese leaders, when they reflect on Mao’s legacy, call for solidarity and address the challenges of the day.

Xi has frequently hailed Mao’s teachings in recent years.

A series of state-backed events to commemorate Mao have also been held across the country.

The party’s leading theoretical journal, Qiushi, published an article this month about Mao’s legacy, adding that it was the country’s “good fortune” to have another “core of the party and leader of the people” in Xi.

State-run television stations have also been broadcasting programmes about Mao, while Marxist study institutes at universities have held a series of conferences about the late leader’s legacy this month.

South China Sea: Philippines says it is not provoking conflict, accuses China of ‘extremely dangerous’ behaviour

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3246292/south-china-sea-philippines-says-it-not-provoking-conflict-accuses-china-extremely-dangerous?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines is not provoking conflict in the South China Sea, the country’s military spokesperson said on Tuesday, in response to China’s accusation that Manila is encroaching on Beijing’s territory.

“Philippines is not provoking conflict. We follow international law and we are only implementing our domestic law, meaning the limits of our territorial waters and exclusive economic zone where we have sovereign rights,” Medel Aguilar told state-run broadcaster PTV.

The comments come a day after the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, wrote that the Philippines has relied on US support to continually provoke China, with “extremely dangerous” behaviour seriously harming regional peace and stability.

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

Aguilar said the Philippines is not conducting activities that will put vessels and seafarers in danger, and instead accused China of performing dangerous manoeuvres that sometimes result in collisions at sea.

“They are the ones committing all the violations,” Aguilar said.

Tensions between Manila and Beijing have risen in recent months with both sides trading accusations over a series of maritime run-ins, including China allegedly ramming a ship this month carrying the Philippines’ military chief.

On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in Manila said the Philippines is causing tensions by sending construction supplies to its grounded navy vessel in the Second Thomas Shoal.

“The Philippines, bolstered by external support, has brushed aside China’s goodwill and restraint and repeatedly challenged China’s principles and red line,” the embassy said, citing the Chinese foreign ministry.

The Philippines regularly deploys resupply missions for Filipino soldiers living aboard an ageing warship deliberately run aground in 1999 to protect Manila’s maritime claims.

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

Mainland China claims almost the entire South China Sea with its so-called nine-dash line that overlaps into the exclusive economic zones of rival claimants Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam.

A 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling invalidated China’s claim in the strategic waters, which Beijing did not recognise.

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Heartbroken Chinese woman dies after marathon boozing session, friends ordered to pay compensation for failing to stop her

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3246134/heartbroken-chinese-woman-dies-after-marathon-boozing-session-friends-ordered-pay-compensation?utm_source=rss_feed

Three women in southeastern China have been ordered to pay tens of thousands of yuan (several thousand US dollars) in compensation after their friend died when she drank half a litre of strong alcohol at a dinner gathering with them.

A court in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, reached the verdict after concluding that the trio failed to carry out their “reasonable obligation” to stop their friend from drinking excessively and for not trying to save her life.

On May 21, the woman identified by the nickname Xiaoqiu, went to her friend Wang Qi’s home for a dinner party, and they were joined by two other friends Xu and Chen. The purpose of the gathering was for the women to support Xiaoqiu who was upset after her boyfriend broke up with her.

The lovesick Xiaoqiu consumed a total of half a litre of Chinese baijiu liquor, known for its high alcohol content. Wang drank 0.25 litre while the other two women did not drink any.

Accompanied by Xu, Xiaoqiu went to her car to rest after the dinner. But Xu fell asleep and when she woke at about 5am the next day, she realised her friend was not breathing.

She called an ambulance and doctors announced Xiaoqiu’s death an hour later. They said she had died of cardiorespiratory arrest caused by alcohol poisoning.

Xiaoqiu’s parents took the three women to court in June as they believed they were responsible for their daughter’s death. The court agreed and decided they should pay compensation based on different levels of fault.

Wang was ordered to pay 60,000 yuan (US$8,500) because she did not attempt to stop her distraught friend from drinking too much alcohol, then failed to help her when the effects became obvious.

The court said the two other women who drank no alcohol both had an obligation to ensure Xiaoqiu got to the hospital after she had vomited and was unable to take care of herself. They were told to pay 20,000 yuan each.

Alcohol poisoning is serious and sometimes deadly and is the result of drinking large amounts over a short period of time. Drinking too much too quickly can affect breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and gag reflex. In some cases, this can lead to coma and death.

After the tragic story was reported in the Chinese mainstream media, it was swiftly followed by numerous discussions on social media, with Douyin getting 12.6 million views.

“If a person who just got dumped by a boyfriend or girlfriend, or lost his or her job, and wanted to drink with you, you should refuse,” one person advised.

“We should pay attention to our own health,” commented another user.

News of people dying from excessive alcohol consumption is major headline news in mainland China.

Earlier this year, a 34-year-old online celebrity died after drinking two litres of booze during an hours-long live-streaming session.

Vietnam’s partnership with China is ‘window dressing’ as it aims for flexibility in international relations

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3246262/vietnams-partnership-china-window-dressing-it-aims-flexibility-international-relations?utm_source=rss_feed

Following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vietnam in mid-December, Beijing and Hanoi said they agreed to deepen their partnership, which is already considered among the closest bilateral relationships in the region.

However, analysts said the joint statement by the two countries on a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership does not indicate a significant shift in their alliance. Rather, it is an attempt by Vietnam to diversify its foreign policy options, given that it already has signed comprehensive strategic partnerships with five other countries namely Japan, South Korea, the US, India and Russia, they added.

“The joint statement is not a commitment to a new alignment with China so much as window dressing on initiatives that have been under way for several years,” said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

According to Thayer, Vietnam’s alliance with its powerful neighbour and the statement’s commitment to building a “community with a shared future that carries strategic significance” could be seen as “making a virtue out of necessity”.

“Vietnam must maintain manageable good relations with China because of their geographical proximity and economic interdependence,” he said.

Vietnam warms towards Belt and Road Initiative as Laos, Cambodia reap benefits

The joint statement says the two countries agreed to increase cooperation in several areas, including security, economic issues, the construction of cross-border rail connectivity and joint patrols between their defence ministries in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Despite ongoing skirmishes between the two countries in the South China Sea, their economies are interdependent with much of Vietnam’s exported goods built using Chinese-made parts.

Bilateral trade between the two nations exceeded US$200 billion annually over the past two years and reached US$202.07 billion from January to November. It accounts for 25 per cent of China’s trade with Asean, according to China’s General Administration of Customs, the biggest proportion within the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc.

Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said that adding the “community with a shared future” concept in the statement does not necessarily elevate China above Vietnam’s other partners.

“China’s advantage lies in its close party-to-party relationship with Vietnam, a by-product of their ideological alignment. However, this dynamic hasn’t changed significantly with Xi Jinping’s recent visit,” Giang said.

The two countries’ communist parties share a common history of fighting Western imperialism and foreign invaders. From 1946 to 1954, former Chinese leader Mao Zedong extended ideological, political and material support to Vietnam in the latter’s struggle for independence from the French. Chinese troops were also involved in Vietnam’s war against the US over several years in the 1960s.

Noting that Vietnam was one of the last Southeast Asian countries to partner with China in the “community with a shared future” concept, Giang said that Hanoi’s initial hesitation likely stemmed from its desire not to appear aligned with either China or the US.

Hence, embracing the concept might be a concession made by Hanoi in response to its recent diplomatic upgrades with the US and Japan to comprehensive strategic partnerships.

Derek Grossman, a senior defence analyst at the Rand Corporation, noted that, over the past year, Vietnam has forged three comprehensive strategic partnerships – with Japan, South Korea and the US. This showed that Hanoi has “devalued” the distinction, Grossman said.

Xi’s Vietnam visit set to focus on rail link, rare earths amid rising US clout

But Thayer said Vietnam has not downgraded such partnerships. Rather, Hanoi has removed “long-standing rigidities” in its 2003 policy of “cooperation and struggle” that privileged China, Russia and India over the US, Japan, Australia and South Korea, he added.

Noting Vietnam’s proposed comprehensive strategic partnership with Australia that is expected to be effective in March 2025, Thayer argued that the designation suits Hanoi’s policy of diversification of relations.

Describing the comprehensive strategic partnerships as the “apex” of Vietnam’s bilateral diplomatic relationships, Giang said the framework gives the country greater flexibility to collaborate in any area and at any level with its partners.

“However, the practical extent of this cooperation is contingent upon Vietnam’s priorities and capabilities, as well as prevailing international conditions,” he said.

Citing India as an example, Giang said Vietnam’s relationship with the South Asian country under the comprehensive strategic partnership is not on the same level as that with China or the US.

Bich Tran, a postdoctoral fellow in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore said it is difficult to compare the comprehensive strategic partnerships among different countries as they emphasise different aspects such as trade, investment, or maritime security.

Vietnam has been flexible in calibrating its partnerships in different areas such as arms supply and security.

One of the world’s 20 biggest buyers of weapons, Vietnam has an annual budget for arms imports estimated at US$1 billion that is set to grow, according to GlobalData, a provider of military procurement intelligence. Most of that money has historically gone to Russia but in recent years, Hanoi has also turned to suppliers from India and the US.

When the US and Vietnam upgraded their ties in September amid long-standing tensions over conflicting claims in the South China Sea between China and Vietnam, Washington and Hanoi pledged to further cooperation in maritime law enforcement and maritime security.

In due course, Vietnam might also look to elevate its partnerships with some Asean members to the level of comprehensive strategic partnerships, Bich said.

“Doing so, however, requires more resources to carry out a higher level of cooperation. Hanoi will need to balance between its goal and capacity,” she added.

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NetEase and Blizzard said to reach new deal set to bring World of Warcraft back to China

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3246277/netease-and-blizzard-said-reach-new-deal-set-bring-world-warcraft-back-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Reports that US video gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment has struck a new deal with NetEase to bring its flagship title World of Warcraft back to China sparked online speculation that the two companies may have reached a detente after the American firm suspended services in the market in January.

Blizzard has sought to work with other Chinese publishers to bring its best-known game back to the country, but ultimately renewed its partnership with NetEase, Chinese technology media outlet 36Kr reported on Monday. Blizzard initially picked NetEase to run World of Warcraft in China in 2009 until the deal collapsed earlier this year.

Once the new deal is signed, it will take at least half a year for the game to return, as the companies must rebuild the operations team and test servers, according to the report.

Blizzard and NetEase did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

China approves Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal, bucking US, UK opposition

After the news broke late on Monday, #NetEaseBlizzardReunion became a top-trending topic on microblogging platform Weibo, and it remained among the top 10 topics through Tuesday morning.

to gamers in the world’s largest video gaming market by revenue owing to the title’s long-term presence in China. Its popularity has been declining, however. It had 5 million active players in the country in 2009, but that had dropped to just 350,000 by January this year, when Blizzard suspended service, according to state media Xinhua News Agency and gaming information provider Wowdata.top.

Before their partnership expired, the two companies had tussled over terms for extending the deal. Blizzard said a week before the expiration that NetEase had rejected its proposal for a six-month extension, but NetEase described the offer as unfair.

NetEase filed multiple lawsuits against Blizzard, including one in April demanding US$45 million as compensation for refunds it paid to affected gamers. In a separate case, the Chinese firm complained about Blizzard and The9 – the domestic operator of World of Warcraft before the NetEase deal in 2009 – over rights infringement.

Blizzard reacted with two lawsuits in June against NetEase that allege intellectual property infringement and unfair competition, as the Chinese firm’s self-developed game Justice launched an initiative to woo World of Warcraft fans, according to Chinese media Yicai.

Without a local partner, Blizzard had to discontinue support for many popular titles in China, including Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft and Diablo III. China’s strict video gaming regulations require that foreign titles only be published via local distributors to ensure they have proper licensing – a process that often involves sanitisation to appease censors. Regulator the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) this year approved 98 imported games, it said on Friday.

Blizzard’s potential China comeback is on the heels of Microsoft’s US$68.7 billion acquisition of the studio’s parent company Activision Blizzard, which cleared its biggest regulatory hurdles this year. Bobby Kotick – the gaming behemoth’s CEO who, as The New York Times reported, was seen by NetEase as a tough person to deal with – will step down on December 29.

China’s video gaming industry has undergone considerable tumult in the last couple of years after a 2021 crackdown limiting how long minors can spend playing – now one hour a day only on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays. Things looked to be on the upswing after the end of an eight-month licensing freeze last year, but game company stocks tanked again over the weekend when Beijing unveiled a new draft regulation that would limit spending on online games.

Following the market upheaval, the NPPA moved to reassure the market that it was listening to concerns. It approved 105 new titles for monetisation in China on Monday, in the agency’s largest monthly batch of approvals since July 2022, bringing the total for 2023 to 1,076.

Israel appeals to Chinese president to help free hostage Noa Argamani

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3246290/israel-appeals-chinese-president-help-free-hostage-noa-argamani?utm_source=rss_feed

Israel has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help secure the release of an Israeli hostage whose mother is a former Chinese national.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset on Monday that he summoned Chinese ambassador Cai Run to request Xi’s intervention on behalf of Noa Argamani, one of roughly 250 people taken hostage during Hamas’ October 7 attack.

“I told the ambassador: I would like you to tell Xi Jinping that, beyond the protocols and rules, there is a girl here with a Chinese mother, and I personally ask that you personally involve yourself in her case, because her mother is not only pleading for Noa’s life, but also for her own,” Neyanyahu said, adding that Argamani’s mother was battling cancer.

Human rights groups have, too, intensified calls on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and detainees as ceasefire deals shed light on a practice that allows Palestinians to be detained for indefinite periods without trial or charge.

Argamani, 26, an engineering student from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in southern Israel, was initially identified by the Israeli embassy in China as a Beijing-born Chinese-Israeli woman.

Her mother, Liora Argamani, who was born in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, later told the Post that her daughter was “not Chinese”, “does not have a Chinese passport” and had never lived in China.

Liora Argamani also said China had “very good reasons to refuse” interfering, given that neither she nor her daughter were Chinese nationals.

Neyanyahu said on Monday that Cai “assured” him that the message had been delivered, adding that “in my years as prime minister … I cannot remember another time when I summoned the Chinese ambassador – they usually arrive of their own accord”.

Meanwhile, human rights groups have called for the release of more than 8,000 Palestinians held in jails, many without charge.

According to data from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group that keeps a tally of detainees from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, there were about 7,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the highest total for at least 14 years.

Kadura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Commission on Prisoners, said Israel used administrative detention, inherited from the British mandate regime and prohibited by international law, as a tool of revenge against Palestinians.

Fares said 80 per cent of those detained after October 7 were arrested without charges, and Palestinian prisoners were “subjected to brutal interrogation, hunger, cold and torture every hour of the day”, which “most frequently” led to death.

As of Monday, 20,674 Palestinians – around 70 per cent of them children and women – had been killed and 54,536 wounded in the Israeli attack on Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

Beijing has repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, with Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, warning that more civilian casualties would “not help security or rescue hostages”. Last week the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to send more aid to the Gaza Strip, but fell short of a call for an immediate ceasefire.

Israel has defended its actions as self-defence in response to Hamas’ attack on October 7, which is believed to have killed around 1,200 Israelis. China said Israel’s actions went beyond self-defence.

Israel says 129 hostages remain in the Palestinian territory after more than 100 were released. According to an NBC News analysis, it is possible that Noa Argamani was abducted by random individuals or another group and is not in Hamas’ custody.

Liora Argamani released a video in November calling on US President Joe Biden and the Red Cross to bring back her daughter. “I have cancer, brain cancer. I don’t know how long I have left. I wish for the chance to see my Noa, at home,” she said.

Families of hostages heckled Netanyahu as he addressed the Knesset on Monday, chanting “Now! Now!” as the leader promised “a long war that’s not close to ending”.

“I just came back from Gaza … we’re not stopping, we’re continuing to fight and we’re intensifying the fighting in the coming days,” he told members of his Likud party according to a statement.

China unveils plan to boost business environment in the Greater Bay Area

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3246282/china-unveils-plan-boost-business-environment-greater-bay-area?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has drawn up a blueprint designed to foster a world-leading business environment in its Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.

The release of the three-year action plan by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner, comes as the world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a dip in foreign investment as the economy slows and external de-risking efforts.

In the plan, the commission pledged to further ease restrictions for investors and attract multinational companies and international organisations to establish their headquarters in the technology and innovation hub.

“We must increase [our] attractiveness for inward investors,” the document, published on Monday, said.

“We must align to high-standard international trade rules such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement.”

The Greater Bay Area consists of nine cities in the southern province of Guangdong, along with Hong Kong and Macau – an area that is home to more than 68 million people.

Hong Kong leader ends duty visit vowing to boost ties with mainland neighbours

It is positioned as a world-class city cluster to rival those surrounding Tokyo, New York and San Francisco and is one of President Xi Jinping’s three key regional development areas along with Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in the north and the Yangtze River hub centred around Shanghai.

Also, it is hailed as a region with the highest degree of openness and economic vitality as both Hong Kong and Macau, once colonies of Britain and Portugal, enjoyed a high degree of autonomy after returning to Chinese rule.

Beijing has been trying to increase regional connectivity and integrate business rules as a way of leveraging the role of Hong Kong and Macau to help the Chinese mainland develop.

The action plan said the country will deepen cooperation within the area and “enhance the level of market integration and international competitiveness”.

It also aims to attract investment from developed countries in advanced manufacturing, modern service industries and strategic emerging industries.

China reported a quarterly deficit in foreign direct liabilities in July-September period, the first since 1998, fanning fears that weak sentiment will persist. Meanwhile, the country also faces growing tech curbs and reshoring pressure from the United States.

The new action plan pledged to optimise market access and said measures to remove or reduce requirements on Hong Kong or Macau investors would be considered.

The two special administrative zones can act as the driving force for the Belt and Road Initiative and lead companies in the region to further integrate into global industrial and supply chains, it said.

Hong Kong, mainland China to launch pilot scheme to make data sharing easier

Companies can promote their products, equipment, technology, standards, inspection and certification, and management services to “go global”, the plan said.

As part of efforts to enhance regional exchange, Chinese citizens in Hong Kong and Macau will be allowed to take civil servant positions in mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area.

China names submariner Hu Zhongming as top PLA Navy commander

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3246281/china-names-submariner-hu-zhongming-top-pla-navy-commander?utm_source=rss_feed

China has appointed a submarine expert as its new top naval commander, a job that includes overseeing the contested waters of the South China Sea.

State news agency Xinhua confirmed the appointment indirectly on Monday in a report that said People’s Liberation Army Navy commander Hu Zhongming had been promoted to admiral.

It was the first time Hu had been referred to as the navy’s top officer.

Wang Wenquan, political commissar of the Southern Theatre Command, was also promoted to admiral, replacing Wang Jianwu.

The appointments were approved by President Xi Jinping, who also heads the Central Military Commission, which oversees the PLA.

Hu joined the PLA in 1979 and captained a submarine. Mainland media reported that he had extensive experience at sea, having taken part in the navy’s first global mission and numerous exercises.

Hu’s submarine detachment was awarded a rare first-class merit in 2013. Huanqiu.com, the website of nationalist tabloid Global Times, said it could be a nuclear submarine unit.

Little else has been said publicly about the unit except that Hu avoided a serious accident during a test run of an unspecified “new type of submarine”, according to a 2008 report by Beijing-based China Youth Daily.

Hu’s previous positions include deputy chief of staff of the navy, deputy commander of the Northern Theatre Command and commander of the theatre’s navy. He was chief of naval staff for two years before Monday’s confirmation of the new role.

Beijing has not disclosed the fate of Hu’s predecessor, Dong Jun, but state broadcaster CCTV showed Dong also attending the promotion ceremony and sitting in the front row.

The appearance suggests that Dong, a long-serving navy general, is still in active service and likely to take on a new position as well.

China’s naval power has grown significantly in recent years, with Beijing aiming to have at least six aircraft carrier battle groups in service by 2035.

The navy also plays an important diplomatic role, making more overseas port calls in recent years.

The PLA has three major fleets. The South Sea Fleet has significantly increased its presence in the South China Sea, where China’s sovereignty claims overlap with those of several other Southeast Asian countries.

The East Sea Fleet would play a major role in conflicts involving Taiwan or Japan. Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must eventually be reunited with mainland China – by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, do not see Taiwan as an independent state but many are opposed to a change of the status quo by force.

The North Sea Fleet takes part regularly in joint drills with Russian forces, including in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

China’s military leadership has undergone several changes this year.

Former defence minister Li Shangfu was abruptly removed from his post and expelled from the Central Military Commission in October.

Beijing gave no reason for the move, and the position of defence minister has remained vacant since.

Anti-China push in US Midwest a symptom of Biden’s dilemma

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3246049/anti-china-push-us-midwest-symptom-bidens-dilemma?utm_source=rss_feed

A horse farm in the American Midwest is an odd place for US-China competition to play out. However, that is where protesters gathered with signs reading “No Go on Gotion” and “Don’t Sell Us to China”, expressing their displeasure with the proposed investment by the Chinese battery company Gotion in Mecosta County near Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The residents of Green Charter Township voted out five of the seven members of their board after months of mounting controversy relating to the battery manufacturer’s plans to set up facilities there. The subsidiary of Chinese battery maker Gotion Inc planned to build a US$2.3 billion battery parts plant in Michigan with the support of the state government in the form of a US$715 million investment package that included a 30-year tax break for US$540 million and grants totalling US$175 million.

However, the project has faced resistance from both residents of the county and Republican lawmakers over concerns about the environment and Chinese state involvement in the project. As it happens, the federal investment screening authority – the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – had reviewed the proposed project and cleared it.

Not far away, in the small town of Manteno, Illinois, the opposition to a Gotion plant there has been even fiercer and partisan. Local Republican state representatives have accused the Biden administration, the state leadership of Governor J.B. Pritzker and China’s Communist Party of working together to build a plant that they say would cost taxpayers millions.

Electric vehicle (EV) and battery supply chains are front and centre in US-China economic competition. Taking into account Chinese companies’ practice of using intermediaries such as Mexico, the Biden administration has proposed amendments to the criteria to be met to avail subsidies offered under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The US Department of Energy has proposed guidance for what constitutes a “foreign entity of concern” under the Inflation Reduction Act’s electric vehicle tax credits, which provide up to US$7,500 in relief for each vehicle sold to consumers. EV manufacturers won’t qualify for the credits if any company in their battery supply chain has 25 per cent or more of its equity, voting rights or board seats owned by a Chinese government-linked company.

Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, has spearheaded the campaign to scrutinise investments by Chinese companies in sectors deemed strategic by the US government such as batteries, semiconductors and critical minerals. While there appears to be bipartisan consensus on the “China challenge”, Republicans along with the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, which released a report offering 150 recommendations to address the challenge, are at the forefront of this campaign.

The recent decision by Duke Energy to disconnect batteries manufactured by CATL, the world’s largest EV battery manufacturer, at US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina was a result of intense campaigning by a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

The issue has gone so far that US Representative Austin Scott, a Republican from Georgia, has sought language in the 2024 annual defence spending bill that would bar the Pentagon from purchasing or using battery technology made by CATL and other Chinese suppliers. National Counterintelligence and Security Centre director Mike Casey, whose agency coordinates with the US private sector over security threats, said companies should think twice before installing Chinese batteries.

These actions towards Chinese companies appear to run counter to the foundations of the Biden administration’s championing of a “foreign policy for the middle class”. The administration’s industrial policies aimed at reducing reliance on China and reviving manufacturing at home have faced roadblocks with limited options for reshoring in strategic sectors such as batteries, calling for increased reliance on allies and partners to friend-shore supply chains or at times settling for Chinese options.

The treatment of proposed plants in the US is a symptom of a larger phenomenon. For example, CATL has announced deals to supply batteries for commercial energy projects around the US, including in Texas.

To further complicate the issue, Wall Street continues to be invested in Chinese companies. JPMorgan Chase and UBS have invested in Chinese battery companies such as CATL. These firms do not view the US and China as zero-sum markets.

Recently, the US government reportedly raised its concerns with Mexico over its hosting EV plants from Chinese companies. Meanwhile, American companies have not decoupled from China. Ford, Tesla and others continue to expand their presence in China and follow the words of Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius: “for us, de-risking doesn’t mean reducing our presence in China but increasing it.”

Moreover, the Biden administration has attempted to dial back tensions by restarting talks at the highest levels with the Chinese government. Such moves could come at a cost. As the Biden administration, his predecessor’s policies and the Republican Party primary debates suggest, Democrats and Republicans are aware that the path to the Oval Office goes through middle America. The Biden administration is under even more pressure since these disputes are largely in swing states that could cost him electorally in the coming election.

Nonetheless, given China’s control over several nodes of the EV value chain and large American corporations being driven by shareholder interests over national security, the conflicting interests of various interest groups in Washington could make it challenging for the US – and particularly the Biden administration – to fight this multi-front war.

Chinese-led team reveals secrets of giant star’s explosive death after boost from citizen scientists

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3245982/chinese-led-team-reveals-secrets-giant-stars-explosive-death-after-boost-citizen-scientists?utm_source=rss_feed

For the first time, a China-led team has revealed images of the immediate aftermath of a giant star’s explosive death, challenging the standard theory of stellar evolution.

Using professional and amateur telescopes based in China, the US, Europe and Russia, the researchers were surprised to find that the star – some 85 million times the size of the sun in the Pinwheel galaxy – was surrounded by thick layers of dust as it ran out of fuel and blew up.

This “veil of death”, which was formed using materials expelled by the star during its final years of life, prevented the explosion’s shock wave from quickly breaking out into open space, they reported in the prestigious journal Nature on December 13.

“While the shock wave was expected to be very hot and short lived, our study showed that it was not the case within the first hours the star went supernova,” said the paper’s lead author Wang Xiaofeng from Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“It showed that the death of a massive star can be much more complex than previously thought,” he said.

Scientists have relatively well matched theories and observations on how stars of small or medium mass live and die, according to Wang. However, the evolution mechanism of massive stars, which by definition have eight times the mass of the sun or more, remain unclear.

When a star of around 18 solar masses was first discovered to have exploded by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki in May, it immediately became a treasure trove of observation data for scientists thanks to its extreme brightness and proximity to Earth.

As one of the most beautiful galaxies in the night sky, the Pinwheel galaxy is constantly photographed by amateurs around the world. Wang collected pictures from both professional observatories and amateurs to reconstruct the entire explosion process.

His team reached out to astronomy enthusiasts who had captured the galaxy before and after the supernova. Then the researchers retrieved information for each colour band, including red, green and blue bands, and did intensive calibration and comparison to obtain reliable multicolour photometry data.

To their surprise, the shock wave immediately after the explosion seemed to have a much lower temperature than expected.

“In the first couple of hours the shock wave appeared to be red, which corresponds to a few thousand degrees Celsius,” Wang said. Then it turned blue, or tens of thousands of degrees as predicted by the standard theory.

The shock wave was also observed to have lasted several hours – much longer than the predicted duration of about 30 minutes.

China casts ‘belt and road’ spell on world’s largest telescope project

Wang said these observations provided direct evidence for the giant star to have emitted a considerable amount of gas and dust to form dense surroundings, which ended up absorbing much of the shock wave’s energy.

Meanwhile, the dust layers are probably asymmetrical, leading to the wave’s prolonged travel from the core to open space, he added.

“Our work wouldn’t be possible without the help of amateur astronomers in and outside China,” he said. “I really hope such collaboration will happen more often, and even open up a new paradigm in astrophysics research in the future.”

Eliot Herman, an emeritus professor of plant biology at the University of Arizona in the US, was one of the amateur astronomers contacted by Wang’s team.

Herman said he happened to notice the alert about the supernova, and he stayed up much of the night to grab images using a remote network of telescopes in Utah as the supernova became brighter and brighter.

When he was asked to share the original data set with Wang’s group, Herman happily agreed. His data and that from other amateurs was merged, resulting in the analyses and conclusions outlined in the Nature paper.

Compared with professional observatories, which often operate based on schedules, amateurs have more flexibility, Herman said.

“Amateurs can change their minds and jump on the alert of new objects of interest,” he said.

Astronomy was a unique discipline in which amateurs played a significant role, Herman said. Historically, the science was done largely by amateurs and academics funded by rich people before it became government-funded.

Today, there is no other mainstream discipline like astronomy.

“I was at one time a programme manager at the National Science Foundation (in biology), and I never saw a grant or project with an amateur participating,” he said.

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Astronomy welcomes amateurs, including people from all walks of life who love the search for the wonders of the universe.

“This synergy is science at its best. I’m so thrilled to be included in this project and its publication,” Herman said.

‘Hit him’: bullying Chinese father orders young son to beat up classmate in school, triggers police probe and shocks social media

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3246130/hit-him-bullying-chinese-father-orders-young-son-beat-classmate-school-triggers-police-probe-and?utm_source=rss_feed

A video of a father ordering his child to beat up a classmate in school has shocked mainland social media.

The father, from Jilin province in northeastern China, was filmed instructing his son to violently attack his fellow student on December 14.

The ages of the two pupils are unclear, but they study in the same school and were attending an after-school class at the time of the incident.

In the surveillance footage, the father is seen shouting as a classroom full of children looks on in shock, when he orders his son to hit a classmate.

“Come over here, and take your coat off,” he bellows.

The son does as he is told and the father tosses the coat on to the desk. At that moment a female teacher feels compelled to intervene.

“What are you doing?” She asks.

“Hit him,” the father demands, ignoring the teacher.

The son stands with his back to the wall, looking hesitant, but the father grabs his arm and pushes him forward. The boy then hits the other child as frightened classmates stare in disbelief.

When a male teacher tries to stop the fight, the father blocks him.

The principal of the school said the incident was reported to the police and that the victim’s mother had been informed.

The mother, who has mental health issues, agreed to a settlement, apparently without knowing the extent of any injuries her son may have sustained during the altercation.

The father’s behaviour sparked outrage on Chinese social media.

“He was teaching his little son to fight. Is he insane?” Asked one observer.

“Does the mother have the mental capacity to make an informed decision about a settlement? The father bullied the schoolmate, and his mother too,” commented another.

“The violent father is teaching his son to become like him,” another said.

Stories of assault and bullying in schools regularly cause concern in China.

In April, a grandfather in southern China who helped his young grandson physically assault a classmate as revenge for an earlier argument sparked an online backlash.

In July last year, a female secondary school student in northwestern China was brutally beaten up by a male schoolmate in the classroom after he lost at the Japanese board game of Gobang.

China’s middle class does not ‘dare to spend’ until post-Covid economy shows clear signs of recovery

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3246222/chinas-middle-class-does-not-dare-spend-until-post-covid-economy-shows-clear-signs-recovery?utm_source=rss_feed

Millions of middle-class Chinese are tightening their belts, not “daring to spend” until a solid economic recovery is in sight.

Easing unemployment pressures and lifting prospects for public wealth growth are among key tasks mapped out by top Chinese leaders for the new year, as the post-Covid economy struggles against persistent deflation risks amid a property market slump and bleak business sentiment.

But despite robust savings and the lure of VIP services from wealth managers at the banks, even relatively affluent Chinese are not keen to invest or spend like before.

“The stock market and real estate are in a slump and almost all kinds of investments are shrinking, no one dares to spend,” a small-business owner named Huo from China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen said.

“The economy is not doing well so everyone is worried about the future, so why should I spend money? Consumption can’t be boosted by a few more purchases of clothes or jewellery.”

How China’s lottery boom reflects a ‘long and challenging’ economic recovery

Official data bears out Huo’s pessimism. Property sales by floor area in the first 11 months of 2023 fell by 8 per cent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Compared to 2019, the slide was more than 32 per cent.

Retail sales rose by 10.1 per cent in November amid a continued rebound following a dismal second quarter, though this was mainly thanks to low base of comparison last year due to massive lockdowns in many cities under China’s strict zero-Covid restrictions.

For Luo, the owner of a textile and furniture export firm also in Shenzhen, a glimmer of hope has emerged in the past few months. But “it is still early and [the rebound] won’t be quick as it will take several months to place an order and deliver the products”, Luo said.

Daniel Zipser, McKinsey senior partner in China, said the sentiment was “around an all-time low”, though the outlook for the consumer market was cautiously optimistic.

“The days of double digit growth of China consumption are over,” he said. “At the same time, we have seen very strong growth when it comes to food service, restaurants, bars and entertainment, and we also see a massive increase in terms of travel.”

Household savings countrywide rose by 17.8 trillion yuan (US$2.49 trillion) in 2022, with bank deposits increasing by about 26.3 trillion yuan, the People’s Bank of China said.

Economists said it was a hopeful sign that consumers would have money to spare when confidence is restored. But the important question is when that would happen, as so far it has not, said Zipser, though he expected a slight recovery in consumption next year.

Yao Yao, a project manager in Shanghai, said she could not help but be more careful with her spending despite her stable job and steady income. Social media platforms flooded with posts on joblessness and hopeless job hunting were fuelling her concerns, the 28-year-old said.

“Even if I want to buy clothes, I will hesitate and think there are actually a lot of clothes in my wardrobe, and I don’t need similar ones,” Yao said.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate in China has stabilised around 5 per cent in recent months. More than one out of every five persons aged 16 to 24 were unemployed when the government stopped releasing age-wise breakdowns in July.

The former director of an institute under China’s top policy research body pointed to the need to create a “positive cycle” in the economy.

“Consumption is not about emptying the pockets of consumers; more importantly, it is about fostering a positive cycle among industrial development, increased employment, enhanced income, and consumption,” Wang Wei, who until recently headed the market economy institute under the Development Research Centre of the State Council, told an economic forum hosted by Renmin University in Beijing last week.

“Therefore, unlocking consumption potential requires the support of the manufacturing and service industries. At the same time, it is necessary to create new industrial and consumption industries based on emerging demands.”

Jeongmin Seong, a partner at McKinsey Global Institute, also pointed to the importance of business confidence.

“If businesses can spot market opportunities, they will increase their investments, leading to a favourable job market. As consumers see this trend, they will gain confidence and start spending, and so forth. Therefore, we need to establish this positive cycle.”

China’s largest state-owned banks lowered their deposit rates again on Friday, the third time this year, partly in a bid to boost consumption.

But according to Xu Tianchen, a senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, the move was unlikely to have a big impact, and “could even work to the contrary, as lower expected returns on deposits could encourage people to save even more”.

The EIU expects consumption to expand by 5.5 per cent in real terms next year, meaning it would continue to outstrip headline growth.

“However, there is unlikely to be any ‘big stories’ for consumption next year,” Xu said. “The purchasing power of low-income households will grow as their financial situation recovers. However, leaders must try their best to bridge the widespread ‘confidence gap’ before the rich and the middle class are mentally ready to spend more.”

‘OK to fail’: praise for China teacher’s speech that encourages students to embrace failure and be down-to-earth

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3246127/ok-fail-praise-china-teachers-speech-encourages-students-embrace-failure-and-be-down-earth?utm_source=rss_feed

A realistic and heartfelt speech by a Chinese secondary school teacher, encouraging her students to learn to accept failures and live a “down-to-earth” life, has garnered widespread approval.

The teacher from northwestern China’s Shaanxi province, surnamed Zhu, made a video of her speech and sent it to her students to motivate them before they take their gaokao university entrance exams in 2024.

The video posted on Douyin on December 13 attracted 4 million views.

Zhu said she did not only want to wish her students good luck, she also wanted to try and convey to them that it is OK to fail in life and to face that prospect with acceptance and ease.

“You might need to retake the gaokao exams or be unemployed or divorced in the future. Some of you might have a romantic relationship that the world does not understand,” Zhu said.

She then raised the coffee mug in her hand and said: “No matter how worn out the coffee mug in your hand is, it is a good mug as long as it can hold coffee.”

“I hope you live life with strength and also lightness. Accept and open up yourself,” she said, going on to share a summary of her life, which she described as “mediocre but delightful.”

The teacher also quoted renowned Chinese poet Hai Zi’s poem Facing the Sea with Spring Blossoms, adding her own interpretation.

“How can you see spring blossoms while facing the sea?” She said, and advised the students to be “down-to-earth”.

Zhu’s words have inspired many online.

“The teacher’s words are more meaningful than a thousand best wishes. No one can succeed every time. The important thing is to have the courage to face our failure and accept ourselves as who we are,” commented a person on Douyin.

“A lot of people’s pain comes from not understanding this truth,” another agreed.

“The teacher is great. Being mediocre is not scary. What’s really scary is not accepting that,” said a third.

The gaokao has often been deemed as the most competitive exam in a Chinese student’s life and the sole chance for a person from a humble background to achieve future success.

In 2023, a record 12.91 million people were reported to have sat the exams.

Inspiring speeches by teachers are favoured content on Chinese social media platforms.

In early December, a primary teacher from northeastern China gave a vivid anti-bullying talk to her students by asking a child to squeeze a pack of crispy instant noodles and hit a rock. The noodles crumbled easily but the rock remained steady.

“Do not be crispy instant noodles. Be a rock,” the teacher said to her students, encouraging them to stand up to bullies.

‘Extra pair of eyes’: Chinese University of Hong Kong team says AI helps junior doctors better spot colon tumours in cancer fight

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3246232/extra-pair-eyes-chinese-university-hong-kong-team-says-ai-helps-junior-doctors-better-spot-colon?utm_source=rss_feed

Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s medical faculty have found that artificial intelligence (AI) can help less experienced doctors spot tumours more accurately during colonoscopies.

AI was especially good at helping them identify smaller growths called adenomas, which might otherwise go undetected, said Dr Louis Lau Ho-shing, an assistant professor of medicine and therapeutics.

He said the team hoped using AI would reduce the “miss rate” in spotting such lesions.

In a traditional colonoscopy, an endoscope, a device with a tiny camera, provides video footage for the doctor to examine the state of the patient’s large intestine, or colon.

Lau said traditional colonoscopies required “a high level of multitasking”, and doctors who were fatigued or less experienced risked missing smaller lesions.

“If these are missed, there is a chance they can progress to cancer in future,” he said.

The AI tool acted like “an extra pair of eyes” by identifying potential tumours in the video footage, he added.

Colorectal cancer is both the second most common form of the disease and the second-highest cause of all cancer deaths in Hong Kong after lung cancer.

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In 2021, the city logged 5,899 new cases, accounting for 15.3 per cent of all new reported occurrences of the disease that year. The government runs a subsidised screening programme for residents aged between 50 and 75.

The medical faculty, which has studied ways to use advanced technology in cancer treatment for nearly 20 years, began using AI in colonoscopies in 2021.

While previous studies showed AI could help experienced doctors improve their tumour detection rates, none had explored whether the technology might benefit those who were less experienced.

Between April 2021 and July 2022, the research team recruited 22 junior doctors – those who had done fewer than 500 colonoscopies each – to perform the procedure on 766 patients, with 386 using the AI tool and the rest done conventionally.

Their results, published earlier this year, showed that the group using AI had an overall adenoma detection rate of 57.5 per cent, compared with 44.5 per cent for the others.

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The tool was especially helpful for detecting small tumours under 5mm in diameter. The doctors who used AI had a roughly 40 per cent detection rate compared with just 25 per cent for the others. For medium-sized tumours, the detection rates were about 36 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.

Newer doctors who had performed fewer than 200 colonoscopies benefited especially, with those using AI attaining a 60 per cent detection rate compared with around 42 per cent for the others.

So far, a few of the city’s public hospitals have bought the AI detection tool, but no guidelines have been issued governing its application, according to Lau. He hoped the findings would result in its wider use.

The medical faculty has also developed an AI-based platform called AI-Endo to help train doctors to perform early stage gastrointestinal cancer surgery.

Cancer-causing toxins found in several suitcase brands: Hong Kong watchdog

The procedure allows patients with stage one tumours to have them removed without undergoing invasive surgery, but it is tricky to perform and demands a high level of skill.

At present, a doctor might need to do nearly 100 such operations before becoming competent, according to Dr Yip Hon-chi, an assistant professor of surgery.

He hoped AI-Endo would reduce the time or number of operations needed for less experienced doctors to master the procedure.

The tool, which took about two years to build, helps doctors accurately predict the steps needed for the surgery in real time and can also generate a post-operation report.

The university’s medical and computer science and engineering departments collaborated to develop AI-Endo, using 12 years’ worth of surgical data, which the team said they believed might be among the largest such sets of information in the world.

Yip said the team aimed to begin using AI-Endo in clinical trials next year.

China’s ‘first coffee village’ brewing up change amid digital transformation as jobseekers give it a shot, tourists take a sip

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3245970/chinas-first-coffee-village-brewing-change-amid-digital-transformation-jobseekers-give-it-shot?utm_source=rss_feed

Wang Jiawei has long been proud that his small village in southwest China boasts some of the country’s best Arabica coffee beans. But for many years, that distinction was not enticing enough to prevent local adults from leaving.

The problem was that the coffee-bean output and price were too low to support the 2,200 people living in Xinzhai in the city of Baoshan, Yunnan province, which promotes itself as “the first coffee village in China”.

Like many Chinese people from relatively poor agrarian regions, farmers were generally more inclined to migrate to southern coastal factories to make a living.

In recent years, however, Wang said a change has been brewing in the mountainous region, and now, not only are adults beginning to return, outsiders have begun flowing in.

“You can earn as much as what you make in [a top-tier city such as] Shenzhen,” Wang explained at a seminar on the local economy in Xinzhai in November.

“And there are affluent job opportunities. Returning young people can easily find work.”

Xinzhai has also become an example of what can happen when a region undergoes a digital transformation – including a buildout of 5G infrastructure and an embrace of live streaming – to modernise farming practices, promote rural entrepreneurship, enhance social services and lift people out of poverty.

For policymakers, a bigger consideration is how to narrow the digital gap and empower tens of thousands of similar villages to realise President Xi Jinping’s vision for rural revitalisation and common prosperity.

“The idea is to bring digital infrastructure to remote areas to empower local development,” Su Ruiping, a director with the Yunnan Provincial Communications Management Bureau, said during a media round table in November.

The seminar and round table were organised by the Yunnan provincial government and telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies.

Huawei, having joined the International Telecommunication Union’s Partner2Connect digital alliance last year, said in November it has helped advance the digital transformation for around 90 million people living in remote areas in nearly 80 countries.

China had 3.21 million 5G base stations by the end of October, covering more than 90 per cent of the population, while three out of every five 5G users in the world are in China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

New infrastructure and the digital economy are key areas being prioritised by Beijing. Currently, China has the world’s second-largest digital economy after the United States, accounting for 41 per cent of its gross domestic product.

A solid digital infrastructure enables people, even from the most remote villages, to participate in China’s booming digital economy, from e-commerce to live-streaming sales.

Liao Yongsong, a rural policy researcher at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that digital infrastructure would certainly shorten the rural-urban information gap, but the key to success lies in the development of local specialities or industries.

“Only when a village has strong support from certain industries, and integrates the application of digital technology into the overall development of rural industries, can it become replicable,” he added.

In the case of Xinzhai, its small-grain coffee has become a nationally known brand and sold at a high price comparable to imported beans. Last year’s sales of its coffee and related products reached 120 million yuan (US$16.8 million), including 10 million yuan sold via live streaming.

Moreover, the village is becoming a draw for hordes of tourists.

Liao, however, warned that there are many other factors to consider, including the construction and operation costs of digital infrastructure, to ensure that success can be extended nationwide and be sustainable.

Huo Peng, a researcher with China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that a significant portion of grass-roots governments, including organisations in China and elsewhere, lack the capacity to advance digital deployment or implement innovative digital solutions.

“Digitalisation and innovation rely on market-driven entities, while a predominant number of enterprises are concentrated in the coastal regions in eastern China, in comparison to a relatively limited digital presence in rural areas,” Huo said during Huawei’s Sustainability Forum, held in Dongguan last month, with a subforum also taking place in Yunnan.

“This poses several major challenges that need to be addressed in the future.”

Long-term cooperation between governments and corporations is seen as a key framework in the development of digital infrastructure, and authorities need to continue policy support, while companies need to better understand the needs of the rural population, he added.

“[Local governments] should provide subsidies to telecom operators so that they have the motivation to invest in infrastructure developments throughout rural areas,” added Yunnan official Su.