• South China Sea: return to dialogue vital for China-Philippines ties
• Chinese scientists display new-generation electronic warfare weapon design to the world
• New photos displayed in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s office during New Year’s address offer glimpses of key moments
• Chinese archaeologists find well-preserved 2,200-year-old Western Han dynasty tomb and can pinpoint exact date it was sealed
• [World] Taiwan and China will 'surely be reunified' says Xi in New Year's Eve address
• Hong Kong welcomes 223,000 tourists on New Year’s Eve, but thousands stranded overnight at train station while returning to mainland China
• Kinetic energy weapon can break an American tank apart with a single shot: Chinese study
• New Zealand dairy products can enter China duty-free, last tariffs removed under FTA
• China, US leaders Xi and Biden exchange greetings on 45th anniversary of ties
• China, Russia test ‘hack-proof’ link, South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun’s suicide sparks outrage: 5 weekend reads you may have missed
• ‘It’s from my dad’: happy China boy, 6, shows off new coat gift from single, migrant worker father which proves ‘he still loves me’
• Mini series have sparked a new gold rush in China’s short video scene but tacky plot lines risk regulator ire
• Despite a bleak Chinese job outlook, positions for overseas workers are rising as businesses tap new markets
• Communist Party diplomat Liu Jianchao steps up role in China’s foreign policy drive

South China Sea: return to dialogue vital for China-Philippines ties

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3246759/south-china-sea-return-dialogue-vital-china-philippines-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

With China-Philippines relations at a crossroads, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Philippine counterpart, Enrique Manalo, during a December 20 telephone call, that “faced with the choice of what path to follow, the Philippines must act with caution”. He added: “China has always been committed to resolving disputes through dialogue and consultation and jointly safeguarding maritime stability.”

Wang also emphasised that, should the Philippines misjudge the situation, persist in its course or collude with external forces to foment trouble, China would “defend its rights in accordance with law and respond resolutely”.

Wang’s statement conveyed two explicit messages. First, it served as a warning to the Philippines that any escalation or persistence in provocation in the South China Sea would not be tolerated. China will respond with full vigour and take all necessary countermeasures.

Water cannon attacks, for instance, criticised by the Philippines as a dangerous manoeuvre, might become customary in disputed waters should the Philippines persist in increasing tensions or attempt to involve external actors in maritime disputes.

The second message is that Beijing will strengthen its relations with other claimant states and Asean members such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia – leaving the Philippines to fight a lonely battle.

China has been drawing closer to these three countries as part of efforts to foster a community with a shared future. There were three significant state visits: Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Beijing in March, Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Beijing in October, and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hanoi in December. Importantly, these high-level diplomatic engagements occurred after tensions erupted between China and the Philippines in February.

Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia have all expressed their willingness to work with China towards the maintenance of peace and stability in the South China Sea.

It is worth noting that these three countries have neither responded to the Philippine proposal for a separate code of conduct in the disputed waters nor become part of the Philippines’ recent provocative actions against China. This is significant because all three also have separate contesting claims with China.

It is evident that the other claimants harbour no intention of provoking China in the South China Sea. Instead, they are committed to fostering economic cooperation and diplomatic engagement with China, aiming to advance economic growth and social stability within their respective territories.

In addition, positive trends have emerged in China‒US relations in recent months, exemplified by the China-US summit in San Francisco in November and restoration of full military communication in December. The underlining of non-confrontation and non-conflict as foundational principles for China‒US relations also underscores expectations that both countries will pragmatically manage their competition, preventing tensions from escalating.

Against this backdrop, the Philippines’ aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea would be discouraged by the United States to some extent. As Manalo said during his call with Wang, he hoped to manage disputes in a way that is acceptable to both sides, to relieve tensions and prevent conflict in the South China Sea.

More recently, in an interview with Japanese media, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr pointed out that despite US assistance, the maritime dispute with China is “a purely Filipino concern” and that Manila considers it “a Philippine problem and we intend to solve that problem ourselves”.

Perhaps the Philippines has come to realise the serious consequences of US military involvement in the South China Sea and is trying to keep some distance between itself and the US in its territorial disputes with China.

Notably, China has not closed the door to dialogue. If the Philippines is willing to return to the right track and jointly manage maritime disputes, China can reopen consultation with the Philippines.

In response to Wang’s advice on dialogue, Manalo said he hoped to strengthen dialogue with China in good faith, give full play to the role of communication mechanisms in maritime issues between the two countries, and jointly seek solutions to problems, according to the Chinese readout. In his short official statement, Manalo described his conversation with Wang as a “frank and candid exchange”.

Both sides also agreed to soon hold a meeting of the bilateral consultation mechanism on the South China Sea.

Manila’s South China Sea ‘name and shame’ policy has Beijing on the back foot

While the phone call between the two foreign ministers was significant in breaking the ice, improved bilateral ties will depend on the outcome of the coming dialogue between the two sides.

Despite the thaw, several Philippine actions continue to concern China, such as the activation of a newly installed Japanese-made radar system by the Philippine navy on the day of the phone call, to monitor vessel activities in the South China Sea. At the ceremony, Philippines’ defence minister Gilberto Teodoro strongly refuted China’s criticism that the Philippines had provoked tensions.

It would appear that while the Philippines is worried about growing tensions with China, it is not softening its position on the South China Sea to avoid appearing weak.

To conclude, it is too early to say if China-Philippine relations will improve as a result of the Wang-Manalo phone call. Factors including factionalism within Marcos Jnr’s cabinet and the role of the US could affect the Philippines’ China policy, putting relations on an uncertain trajectory. Hopefully, both sides can minimise internal and external interferences, and expedite the normalisation process.

Chinese scientists display new-generation electronic warfare weapon design to the world

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3246608/chinese-scientists-display-new-generation-electronic-warfare-weapon-design-world?utm_source=rss_feed

The intricate design of a new type of electronic warfare weapon has been revealed by a group of scientists from China – and it is something military forces across the globe are keen to get their hands on.

They say the weapon can launch multiple focused beams of electromagnetic waves from a single antenna, simultaneously targeting various objects in the sky, sea or on land to disrupt their operations.

Laboratory tests conducted on a miniaturised version of the weapon have shown its ability to operate at high power and emit electromagnetic waves across a broad frequency range.

Even if enemy radar or communication devices employ anti-jamming techniques like frequency hopping, they will still be unable to evade suppression by the weapon.

Led by Professor Jiang Weixiang of Southeast University in Nanjing, the research team published the design concepts, key algorithms and manufacturing methods of the weapon in a peer-reviewed paper featured in the November issue of the Journal of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

In the paper, the scientists predict future warfare will undergo significant changes, primarily characterised by “increasingly fierce competition between opposing sides in the electromagnetic spectrum battlefield”.

In such a battle, some less advanced nations may lose control of the electromagnetic spectrum even before losing territorial ground.

“Losing control of the electromagnetic spectrum will inevitably lead to the loss of air and sea control,” Jiang and his colleagues wrote in the paper.

“To adapt to high-intensity confrontational environments, electronic countermeasure systems must possess multifunctional, multi-target countermeasure and broadband capabilities.”

Presently, most electronic warfare equipment in use can only aim high-power, continuous suppression against targets in more or less the same direction. Notable examples include electronic warfare pods deployed on US F-15 and F-16 or Russian MiG-27 and MiG-29 fighter jets.

Only a handful of nations have acquired the new generation electronic warfare weapon technology, with Israel Aerospace Industries leading the pack with its Scorpius-SP pod. This compact device is roughly the size of an air-to-air missile and can be mounted under a fighter jet’s wing. It can identify and simultaneously suppress targets in multiple directions, including fighter jets, ground radars and even incoming missiles, according to the company. This capability shields friendly fighter jets from harm.

In June 2022, Israel announced that an undisclosed Asian country had acquired this “most advanced” aerial electronic warfare equipment in a multimillion-dollar deal. However, the design and technology underlying this equipment are closely guarded by Israel.

Based on the prototype images released by Jiang’s team, the technological approach taken by the Chinese scientists appears distinctly different from Israel’s. For instance, their antenna features a honeycomb-like, open-ended, waveguide structure, whereas Israel’s antenna comprises numerous sharp cones.

Modern electronic warfare systems rely on transmitting and receiving antennas composed of many individual units, each governed by a computer.

While theoretically, these units can engage distinct targets, practical applications often result in the antenna being fractured into smaller segments with limited power and narrow frequency ranges for emitting electromagnetic waves.

This approach, commonly referred to as multi-target digital array technology, has primarily been confined to radars with modest power and bandwidth demands.

However, Jiang’s team claims it has developed a novel control method that permits a structurally simple antenna array, composed of cost-effective components, to operate at maximum capacity while concurrently suppressing multiple targets in varying directions through sophisticated manipulation of the electromagnetic waves emitted by each unit.

2 years after US killed the rail gun, Chinese scientists bring it back to life

Furthermore, the frequency of suppression can be adjusted for each target. However, there is a trade-off: the amount and complexity of numerical processing information increases exponentially with the number of targets, which can overwhelm military computer chips.

Nonetheless, the researchers have unveiled an algorithm in their research that significantly reduces the computational load, paving the way for the widespread adoption of this technology globally.

Despite its relative obscurity on the international stage, Southeast University ranks among China’s elite institutions in electronic engineering technology and maintains close ties with the country’s hi-tech industries, notably Huawei Technologies.

According to data from the Southeast University website, 414 graduates from the 2022 cohort joined Huawei, outnumbering any other company.

Earlier this year, Huawei honoured 23 teachers from Southeast University who helped solve significant technical problems, more than any other Chinese university.

Although Jiang’s team did not elaborate on why it chose to disclose this technology in the paper, the researchers underscored its “extensive application prospects” in radar, communications and electronic countermeasures.

In recent years, Chinese scientists have published many papers on cutting-edge military technologies including drones and hypersonic weapons. Some experts have attributed China’s rapidly advancing military technology to the country’s burgeoning hi-tech industry, and these new technologies can also give smaller nations’ armed forces a chance to challenge major military powers.

For instance, Iran and North Korea have recently unveiled hypersonic weapons that have the potential of penetrating US missile defence systems, while Houthi rebels in Yemen have leveraged drone technology to wage guerilla warfare against the US-led coalition fleet in the Red Sea.

The Chinese government has said that it was not involved in the spreading of these technologies.

New photos displayed in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s office during New Year’s address offer glimpses of key moments

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3246885/new-photos-displayed-xi-jinpings-office-during-new-years-address-offer-glimpses-key-moments?utm_source=rss_feed

The annual New Year’s address by Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday evening featured a few extra details for sharp-eyed viewers – a handful of new pictures appeared in the video, including an image taken during a forum for the Belt and Road Initiative, family portraits, as well as one of Xi taking an oath in March for his third presidential term.

The speech – recorded inside Xi’s office in Beijing’s Zhongnanhai, the political centre of China – gives viewers a rare glimpse inside the presidential office.

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledges reform in future-focused New Year’s address

As in previous years, Xi delivered his speech from behind a desk, with the national flag and an image of the Great Wall of China behind him, as well as bookshelves that displayed framed photographs. The photos are selected to spotlight key events and highlight progress or achievements made during the previous year.

Among this year’s photos was a group shot that included Xi posing with foreign leaders who attended the third Belt and Road Forum in October, which marked the 10th anniversary of his signature infrastructure strategy.

The two-day event – the first Belt and Road Forum to be held after the pandemic – attracted representatives from 130 countries and 30 global organisations to Beijing.

In his address to the forum, Xi said China wanted to strengthen infrastructure cooperation and interconnectedness by promoting more high-level development with other countries.

Xi Jinping’s year in photographs revealed in New Year broadcast

“While pursuing its development, China has also embraced the world and fulfilled its responsibility as a major country,” Xi said in his speech carried by state broadcast media on Sunday night.

Another photo captured a key moment as Xi began his unprecedented third presidential term in March.

After receiving an endorsement from the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, Xi held up his right fist for a constitutional oath and placed his left hand on a red leather copy of China’s constitution.

During the oath, Xi said he would work hard to build a “prosperous, democratic, civilised, and harmonious socialist country”.

At the party congress in October 2022, Xi was reconfirmed as ead of the Communist Party and the military. The reappointment as head of state in March last year made him the country’s most powerful leader in decades.

Several family portraits were also seen for the first time, including a photo of his father Xi Zhongxun, who was a Politburo member and vice-premier, an older photo of Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan, as well as a photo of Xi with his wife with his parents. A group photo showing Xi, his wife and his daughter at a very young age, was also added to the collection.

Under Xi, the Communist Party has pledged to strengthen family education and foster traditional family values.

Xi has delivered a New Year’s address every year since 2013. The photographs seen in the videos are carefully selected to project an image of a man who is capable of steering the country, as well as a leader who interacts directly with the people.

Compared with the photos that appeared during last year’s New Year’s speech, some of this year’s pictures appeared to focus on economic and development themes, as the country faces a sluggish post-pandemic recovery and worsening trade relations with the West.

A photo of Xi’s September trip to Yiwu in eastern Zhejiang province showed him waving to people as he touted the city’s achievements in becoming the world’s largest export centre for small manufactured goods.

China’s Sinopec signs second 27-year natural gas supply deal with Qatar

Another photo from an October trip showed Xi visiting a branch of the oil firm Sinopec in Jiangxi province, where he stressed the role of petrochemicals in China’s economy and the importance of energy security.

Other images highlighted trips to Guangdong and Guangxi provinces to learn about local rural agriculture development, and visits to flood-stricken areas in Beijing and Hebei.

Chinese archaeologists find well-preserved 2,200-year-old Western Han dynasty tomb and can pinpoint exact date it was sealed

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/environment/article/3246377/chinese-archaeologists-find-well-preserved-2200-year-old-western-han-dynasty-tomb-and-can-pinpoint?utm_source=rss_feed

Archaeologists in China recently discovered a well-preserved burial site in southwest China from the early Western Han dynasty (202 BC – 25 AD), which contained enough evidence that the team could confidently say the tomb was sealed in 193 BC.

The site was found during the construction of a hydropower project in Chongqing municipality in southwestern China.

The high quality of the site was primarily because it was underwater, but the chamber had not been breached, meaning the wooden coffin and funerary objects sat undisturbed for millennia without discovery or deterioration, according to state-owned newswire Xinhua.

The wooden coffin remained exceptionally well preserved, and scientists found 600 artefacts during the first excavation, which included various items made out of lacquer, wood, bamboo, bronze, and pottery.

Huang Wei, who led the excavation project, said in the report: “What is exciting about this discovery is not just the large number of unearthed artefacts but also a list of burial items that indicate a precise record of burial, which has been verified as 193 BC, providing clarity on the tomb’s date. A piece of unearthed jade ware shows the prominent position of the tomb owner.”

The date makes the tomb the earliest known Western Han burial site discovered in China.

One significant discovery was finding ganzhi, which are ancient pieces of wood used to represent the sexagenary cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The sexagenary cycle is a 60-year cycle with more specific zodiac representations, such as the “fire horse” or “water pig”.

These wooden slips were how ancient Chinese civilisations communicated through writing before the invention of paper. The ganzhi, or wooden slips, are the first time that the specific artefact has been discovered in China.

Huang told China News Network: “This set of dry branch wooden slips is well preserved, with circular perforations on the sides. We believe ropes probably connected them, but since this was the first time these objects have been discovered, we still need to verify their uses and burial purposes.”

In addition, the tomb contains one of the largest collections of wares made of bamboo, lacquer and wood in the upper regions of the Yangtze River. The scientists will use the artefacts to learn about burial rituals during the Western Han period, and they will also be leveraged for comparative analysis to more famous artefacts from the period.

Some objects included a wooden lian, which was used to hold cosmetics and mirrors. The archaeologists also discovered bamboo spoons, bows, and pan flutes, along with bronze and pottery utensils.

The Western Han tomb is the most important site in a collection of tombs discovered in the area that range from the Han dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) to the Six Dynasties period (222 - 589).

Huang said the team plans to excavate those other tombs and try to identify the owner of the Western Han tomb.

The site will eventually become the last of a cascade hydropower project along the Wujiang River in Chongqing.

[World] Taiwan and China will 'surely be reunified' says Xi in New Year's Eve address

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-67855477?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Hong Kong welcomes 223,000 tourists on New Year’s Eve, but thousands stranded overnight at train station while returning to mainland China

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3246851/hong-kong-welcomes-223000-tourists-new-years-eve-thousands-stranded-overnight-train-station-while?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong welcomed 223,000 tourists on New Year’s Eve, marking the highest number of single-day arrivals in 2023, but thousands were stranded overnight at a train station while trying to return to mainland China.

The Tourism Board revealed on Monday morning the number of visitors in the city as of 10pm on Sunday, and attributed the influx to what it called the biggest-ever New Year’s Eve fireworks.

The fireworks, a 12-minute display themed “New Year New Legend”, drew 479,000 revellers on both sides of Victoria Harbour, the board said.

According to the Immigration Department, 195,888 visitors from the mainland came to the city on Sunday, accounting for 87 per cent of total tourist arrivals.

Despite MTR train services operating throughout the night, services to the border stations of Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line checkpoints were not available overnight, resulting in crowds of people gathering at Sheung Shui MTR station awaiting the first train to cross the border on Monday morning.

Some internet users complained on mainland social media platform, Xiaohongshu, that they had to wait for five hours at the border before they could go home.

“From Tsim Sha Tsui MTR [station] to Huanggang, it took me five hours to leave the checkpoint after watching the fireworks,” an internet user with the account name Coco963 said at 6am and also shared videos showing the crowds. “What a new year celebration!”

Hong Kong’s New Year countdown party to bring back harbour fireworks

As the MTR services between Sheung Shui and the checkpoints at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line commenced after 5.30am, crowds gathered at the concourse of Sheung Shui railway station, spilling over into outdoor areas before dawn.

Road traffic was busy before the train services started.

At the Sheung Shui MTR station, people with babies and luggage were seen sleeping or sitting on the ground.

Many were waiting for the first train to the Lo Wu control point. The checkpoint only runs between 6.30am and midnight. Others were trying to catch the first train to the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line connecting Shenzhen’s Futian, with the control point operating from 6.30am to 10.30pm.

At the Lok Ma Chau control point, which links Shenzhen’s Huanggang and operates around the clock, overnight shuttle bus services struggled to cope with the large number of people.

Last month, the National Development Reform Commission, the mainland’s planning agency, said it intended to have more land checkpoints with the city that operated 24 hours a day to boost connectivity with the Greater Bay Area, a new economic zone combining Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong.

Out of Hong Kong’s 14 control points, only four work around the clock, namely Hong Kong International Airport, Lok Ma Chau control point, Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.

Kinetic energy weapon can break an American tank apart with a single shot: Chinese study

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3246588/kinetic-energy-weapon-can-break-american-tank-apart-just-one-shot-chinese-study?utm_source=rss_feed

Detailed tests on the damage capability of kinetic energy weapons against US military armour have found it could be possible to take out a tank in one shot – even if it does not look like any damage has occurred.

That was the conclusion of Chinese scientists who conducted the in-depth assessment of kinetic weapons through experiments and numerical simulations.

They found that a solid sphere, weighing 20kg (44lb) and hurtling towards its target at about four times the speed of sound, could spell disaster for advanced tanks manufactured to US military standards.

The kinetic energy carried by such a projectile would be around 25 megajoules. This value may seem large, but when converted into electrical energy it is less than 7 kilowatt-hours, scarcely more than the energy it takes to cook two turkeys for Christmas.

It may seem unlikely that such a small amount of energy could disable an advanced tank weighing around 40-60 tonnes and protected by thick layers of armour, especially one built under stringent US military standards.

But the research team, led by Huang Jie of the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre’s Hypervelocity Aerodynamic Institute, discovered during simulations that while the tank might have appeared unscathed on the outside, its inner workings were irreparably damaged.

In particular, it was found that bolts connecting important equipment to the inner cabin wall could fracture. Even if the crew survived the impact, they would be unable to return the tank to its normal combat state.

Published on December 8 in the peer-reviewed journal Equipment Environmental Engineering, the team’s findings were a sober reminder of the fragility of traditional military hardware in the wake of new weapons technology.

“Under high-speed kinetic projectile impact, certain typical locations in the armoured target exhibit impact response spectrum lines with amplitudes at certain frequencies exceeding the safety limits recommended by the US military standard MIL-STD-810,” Huang’s team wrote.

“Components at these locations have a high probability of failure due to overload damage,” they said.

The research institute where Huang works is in Mianyang, Sichuan province, a hub for the development of hypersonic weapons – those that travel at speeds exceeding Mach 5. In the face of such high-speed attacks, enemy defence systems often do not have time to react.

Hypersonic weapons were originally designed to target high-value assets such as large military installations or aircraft carriers. However, with technological advancements and cost reductions, countries such as China are beginning to consider using this cutting-edge weaponry in a broader range of scenarios.

Traditional anti-tank weapons do not have much need for speed. They primarily rely on gunpowder to explode upon hitting a tank, which generates tremendous thrust that propels a hard alloy rod or metal jet to penetrate the armour at a very small point, causing damage to personnel and equipment inside. However, if the armour is thick or the projectile hits the wrong location, the effectiveness can be greatly reduced.

But high-speed kinetic projectiles have the potential to achieve lethal damage even upon grazing contact, and their launching methods can be diverse.

Chinese naval scientists recently claimed that they have installed an electromagnetic coil gun on to a land-based wheeled platform and conducted rapid consecutive firing tests. This coil gun has the ability to accelerate heavy spheres to incredible speeds in the blink of an eye. Photos of this new weapon circulated on Chinese social media, sparking much speculation and excitement.

While the mobile coil gun might have appeared primitive, just as the early tanks did, some military experts believed it to be a game-changer. If electricity replaces gunpowder as the driving force behind lethal weapons, the landscape of future warfare will never be the same.

China can find and kill the B-21 ‘Raider’ with hypersonic missiles: study

During their research, Huang’s team discovered that assessing the damage caused by kinetic projectiles was a far cry from evaluating conventional armour-piercing rounds. The latter can be tested using a piece of alloy armour, but kinetic projectile testing required consideration of the entire tank. That is because the shock wave generated by the impact travels through the entire vehicle in a highly complex manner, causing stress to concentrate in areas like bolts and leading to distortion or even fracture.

Tank crews often point the front of the vehicle towards the energy, as this section is designed to be the most rugged and able to withstand the most firepower. But a kinetic projectile hitting this section would send destructive stress into the tank’s interior, potentially causing catastrophic damage to its firepower capabilities.

“The grip of the tank gun stabiliser console can be shaken off, the wiring base of the console pulled out completely, all connections between the fire control computer and the turret severed, resulting in a substantial loss of firepower,” the researchers said.

Huang’s team did not discuss the impact on tank crews in their paper. However, according to a numerical simulation study conducted earlier this year by Dalian University of Technology, if an American M1 tank is hit head-on by a 10 megajoule hypersonic kinetic projectile that travels at seven times the speed of sound, the loader may suffer minor wounds, the gunner moderate wounds and the commander severe wounds, rendering them unable to execute combat operations.

The driver may even succumb to fatal wounds due to a chest impact of over 60 times the Earth’s gravitational force.

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New Zealand dairy products can enter China duty-free, last tariffs removed under FTA

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3246840/new-zealand-dairy-products-can-enter-china-duty-free-last-tariffs-removed-under-fta?utm_source=rss_feed

New Zealand said on Monday all its dairy products were now able to enter China duty-free as safeguard duties on milk powder ended on December 31, marking the removal of all remaining tariffs agreed upon in the free trade deal between the two countries.

New Zealand was the first developed country to sign a free-trade agreement with China in 2008, with the imports of milk powder subjected to the longest phase-out. An upgraded trade deal was entered when former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met President Xi Jinping in 2022.

“This is good news for our dairy sector. The removal of these remaining tariffs is expected to deliver additional annual tariff savings of approximately NZ$350 million [US$221 million],” Trade Minister Todd McClay said in a statement.

Why New Zealand joining Aukus may be seen as retreat ‘towards the Anglosphere’

“The [free trade agreement] continues to deliver benefit to the New Zealand economy and to underpin the New Zealand-China trade relationship.”

China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade exceeding NZ$37 billion (US$23.40 billion) in 2021. Annual dairy exports to China have averaged 1.4 million tonnes, worth about NZ$8 billion each year over the past three years, around half of which was milk powder, official data showed.

Safeguard duties are emergency tariffs that countries use to shield domestic industries against intense competition from a sudden surge in imports of a particular product.

European milk makers hurting over tariffs look to leave Thailand

The so-called special agricultural safeguards mechanism in the free trade deal was designed as a temporary measure. The tariff preferences are applied up to a designated volume and China’s standard tariff applied to imports above the safeguard trigger.

Safeguards duties on milk and cream, butter, and cheese ended in 2021, while those on milk powders ended on December 31, 2023.

China, US leaders Xi and Biden exchange greetings on 45th anniversary of ties

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3246842/china-us-leaders-xi-and-biden-exchange-greetings-45th-anniversary-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden exchanged congratulatory messages on Monday, the first day of 2024 and also the 45th anniversary of their official ties.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported the exchange on Monday morning.

More to follow …

China, Russia test ‘hack-proof’ link, South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun’s suicide sparks outrage: 5 weekend reads you may have missed

https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3246797/china-russia-test-hack-proof-link-south-korean-actor-lee-sun-kyuns-suicide-sparks-outrage-5-weekend?utm_source=rss_feed

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

‘It’s from my dad’: happy China boy, 6, shows off new coat gift from single, migrant worker father which proves ‘he still loves me’

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3246212/its-my-dad-happy-china-boy-6-shows-new-coat-gift-single-migrant-worker-father-which-proves-he-still?utm_source=rss_feed

The story of a six-year-old boy in China who proudly showed off a new coat bought for him by his single, migrant worker father to his classmates and teacher has delighted mainland social media.

His teacher, surnamed Wei, at a countryside primary school in central China’s Hunan province posted the moment of his happiness on Douyin, the mainland version of TikTok, using the account @Yaoyaofadainao on December 20.

“Check out my new coat. It’s from my dad,” the boy says in a video clip.

He then excitedly shows off the shiny black coat his father brought him during a short trip home. The boy adds that he got two new items of clothing and had put the other one in the room where he sleeps.

Wei said the child’s mother had remarried and left, adding that while his father is working the boy and his little sister live with their grandparents.

In China, youngsters in this position are known as “left-behind children”.

The country is home to more than 41 million such children, according to a 2020 report by Unicef based on data from the 2020 National Population Census.

The report highlighted that they are more inclined to suffer from hardship and discrimination in education and medical services, as well as experience mental health issues because their parents are not around to give them emotional support.

The boy’s happiness moved many people online.

“It was not the new coat he was flaunting. He was showing to his teacher and classmates that ‘my dad still loves me’,” said one person on Douyin.

“The parents migrated for work to provide their children with a better life,” said another.

Another recalled her own experience as a left-behind child.

“My classmate said to me one day that ‘people called you an orphan’. I was really sad. I knew my parents were working far away to make money, but I was really lonely,” she said.

In March, a migrant worker mother surprised her son at an event at his primary school.

She recorded and posted online the moment her son’s face lit up when he saw her, warming the hearts of many.

The mother from southwestern China’s Guizhou province said she had been working in another city for two years, and tried to come back home as often as possible.

She said she was a left-behind child herself, knows what it is like to miss your parents, adding that she did not want her children to experience what she went through.

Mini series have sparked a new gold rush in China’s short video scene but tacky plot lines risk regulator ire

https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3246706/mini-series-have-sparked-new-gold-rush-chinas-short-video-scene-tacky-plot-lines-risk-regulator-ire?utm_source=rss_feed

On November 21, the hit Chinese web series Rise of the Dark Lotus, which had racked up millions of views in less than a week, disappeared from the country’s internet.

The short-lived show, which depicts the retribution taken by a wronged woman in 120 bite-sized episodes, became a viral hit before it was taken off the air due to what popular short video platforms Douyin and Kuaishou Technology described as an “extreme depiction” of revenge.

Within 24 hours of release, the show – made by little-known production company Tinghuadao – took in 20 million yuan (US$2.8 million) in subscription fees, according to local media reports. The first episode achieved 10 million views, making it one of the most popular examples of the genre.

The mini TV series is part of a gold rush for online video producers in China, where a new trend of binge watching very short shows from mobile devices has emerged. However, the sector has been subject to increased regulatory scrutiny, with the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) in November launching action to review the production, marketing and social values involved in such content.

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Despite these risks, local production companies have been rushing to churn out these mini series – which are typically composed of 100 or more episodes, each about one to five minutes long – under tight timelines and budgets. Filming for an entire series can be completed within a week.

Production budgets are typically low, ranging between 200,000-300,000 yuan, according to Cai Juntao, vice-chairman of Hixi Media Group, a Beijing-based content production company. Online literature company iReader said that it has been able to release between 15 and 18 different shows each month.

Despite the low budgets and rapid-fire release of such shows, Chinese netizens are lapping them up as many of them borrow heavily from themes popular within Chinese literature and culture, helped by aggressive marketing, according to industry experts.

Yan Min, founder of industry consultancy Duanju Insider, said the format has become a savvy means of converting popular online fiction to the screen.

Common themes include a billionaire who falls in love with a house cleaner or a lowly clerk, or a person from an underprivileged background suddenly waking up with superpowers. The often tacky but fast-moving plots, with numerous twists and regular sexual or violent scenes, have quickly grabbed eyeballs.

Spending on marketing, which involves buying exposure on short video and social media platforms, can easily climb into the tens of millions of yuan, according to Hixi’s Cai. “[They are] turning the content business into a marketing or traffic-purchasing game,” he said.

Mini series use the “freemium” business model, which offers basic features of a service to users at no cost and charges a premium for supplemental or advanced features.

In this case, clips of the shows are promoted through short video platforms like ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and its rival Kuaishou to hook China’s mobile device-obsessed audience, many of whom are from the country’s less affluent segments.

The first 10 or so episodes of the shows are made free to watch, with the remainder requiring a payment to unlock, which can be done for single episodes or for the entire remainder of a season.

A single episode typically costs less than 4 yuan, with many priced around 1 yuan. However, over the course of an entire season, viewers could easily wind up paying 100 yuan a month, nearly the price of a standard Netflix subscription in the US.

That is also much more than a typical streaming subscription in China, where services like Baidu’s iQiyi and Tencent Video charge around 25 yuan per month.

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The gold rush has earned the freshly-minted sector monthly sales of 60 million yuan, a 50 per cent jump in the five months through November, from 40 million yuan in June, according to equities research house CSC Financial.

CSC Financial estimates that the mini series market in China will reach a value of 20 billion to 30 billion yuan this year. By comparison, China’s film industry made 30 billion yuan at the box office in 2022, weighed down by lingering Covid-19 restrictions that shuttered many cinemas.

But regulators are constantly on the lookout for any content that breaches the country’s strict moral and political codes.

The NRTA’s November review of mini series content, production and marketing – which came before Rise of the Dark Lotus aired – also established a blacklist system to block inappropriate shows, such as those that contain violence, pornography or vulgar content.

Niu Hui, founder and art director at production studio Red Box based in Xian, capital of northwestern Shaanxi province, said the crackdown could help push the sector to start making higher quality shows.

“The regulatory tightening, along with a more crowded market, has pushed the mini series industry to upscale, with better special effects, content and artistic expression,” he said.

Niu added that in its recent production, Supreme Dragon King, Red Box eschewed cheap special effects and used those commonly seen in online films.

Despite a bleak Chinese job outlook, positions for overseas workers are rising as businesses tap new markets

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3246670/despite-bleak-chinese-job-outlook-positions-overseas-workers-are-rising-businesses-tap-new-markets?utm_source=rss_feed

Wilson Liu is currently torn between two employment offers, despite the bleak job market.

Both, however, are keen to use his expertise overseas, a trend that has been rising due to Beijing’s “going global” ambition to secure material supplies, tap new markets or bypass tariffs imposed by the United States.

The 28-year-old’s first job offer comes from a large state-owned enterprise to work as a manager for its infrastructure projects in Russia. The compensation for relocating to the cold northern neighbour would be an above-average salary, a “quite generous” bonus and a “promising” career path.

The other offer is for a role in Europe promoting new energy storage for a private firm.

Liu, who majored in Russian and international trade, has already spent several years on business trips across the world to promote Chinese-made medical devices.

In China, the current outlook for the job market is quite gloomy; many firms are downsizing their domestic workforce amid the economic slowdown, while a record high of 11.7 million new graduates are expected in 2024. But despite this, overseas vacancies for Chinese workers are rising.

China’s non-financial outbound direct investment rose 12.7 per cent year on year to US$115.7 billion in the first 11 months of 2023. The investment in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative rose 20.7 per cent from a year earlier to US$28.6 billion.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, overseas Chinese-funded companies employed a total of 4.1 million people in 2022, over half of them locals, not to mention state-owned contractors which hire many Chinese workers abroad.

Currently, there are several million Chinese people working overseas in oilfields, infrastructure construction sites or Chinese-invested factories.

“We are busy recruiting for branches in the European and American markets for [2024],” said Ray Luo, a human resources manager with a Guangdong-based company that focuses on providing lithium-based battery technology solutions globally.

“We have now grown from dozens a few years ago to currently hundreds of global employees to service the worldwide market,” she said.

According to a white paper released by consultancy iiMedia in August, 29.5 per cent of large enterprises surveyed had already set up an offshore business presence, while 19.9 per cent said they planned to go overseas.

Among the enterprises that have already invested overseas, 39.4 per cent of them are medium-sized firms.

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Industry insiders say many small and medium-sized Chinese businesses are forced to expand overseas by intense domestic competition, while there is also a strong need to tap new markets for such sectors like the lithium battery, photovoltaic and automotive industries.

“Lot of industrial robots-related companies are also developing overseas markets, since domestic demand is becoming weak, suppliers are increasing too fast, and the only way to survive is to go overseas,” said James Yang from Shenzhen, who has recently been hired as a sales engineer to penetrate the European market this year.

Chinese jobseekers have shown a great interest in working overseas, with more than two-thirds of interviewees agreeing to opportunities abroad when they have been offered, according to a survey conducted by Chinese human resources and job search provider 51job earlier last year.

Respondents from the internet, automotive, consumer and energy industries were particularly interested in the overseas positions.

However those who accept overseas roles face many challenges such as cross-cultural communication and business localisation.

Not all job locations abroad are equal, either. In the 51job survey, 38 per cent of interviewees were set to work in Europe, 16.7 per cent were going to North America, 15.7 per cent were heading to Japan and Korea, and 9.3 per cent were off to Southeast Asia.

Although Russia is not a preferred destination, Liu was promised to be well compensated should he accept the job.

The package offered by the state-owned enterprise includes considerable social insurances and housing fund contributions, a base salary of 14,000 yuan (US$1,973), and a promising career path as the company’s Russian team is set to be doubled or even tripled this year.

“The project bonuses are also expected to be quite generous as you can see the oncoming significant investment in infrastructure in Russia, like the Far East area,” he said he was told.

Tom Wang, who previously worked as an engineer specialising in North Africa for a Shenzhen-based tech giant, found that salaries and subsidies of such overseas job offers are not as high now as they were in pre-pandemic times.

However, working overseas will become an increasingly popular option as many middle-class families need a stable cash flow to pay their mortgage instalments and family bills.

“The competition in such a sector will become fierce soon,” he said.

Communist Party diplomat Liu Jianchao steps up role in China’s foreign policy drive

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3245602/communist-party-diplomat-liu-jianchao-steps-role-chinas-foreign-policy-drive?utm_source=rss_feed

As Beijing grapples with a new reality of growing international scrutiny and resistance, the Communist Party’s diplomatic arm under veteran diplomat Liu Jianchao has become increasingly active in bolstering the country’s image abroad.

Traditionally responsible for China’s ties with other socialist countries, the party’s international liaison department has been taking a more frontline position in courting ties with foreign parties and governments.

Since taking the helm in June last year, Liu has toured Asia, Europe and Africa. He has also met more than 200 foreign dignitaries and diplomats in Beijing, including two meetings this year with Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China.

It is a significant step up for the ministerial-level agency, which usually concentrates on intraparty relations and fellow socialist countries such as North Korea and Vietnam, leaving state-to-state diplomacy to the foreign affairs ministry.

But with China locked in an acrimonious cold war-style confrontation with the US and its Western allies, Liu’s department has taken on a greater role in helping to foster a more benign international environment for the country.

Observers described Liu, 59, as a trusted aide to Xi. They generally spoke positively of his high-profile engagement and activities.

In October, shortly before President Xi Jinping met his US counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco last month, Liu chaired a “Track 1.5 dialogue” – talks that typically involve governmental officials, speaking in a non-official capacity, and non-government figures – with the Asia Society, an American think tank.

Neil Thomas, a Chinese politics fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Centre for China Analysis, described the event as “candid and constructive”.

“Party-to-party diplomacy is a useful complement to traditional diplomacy because it attracts less media scrutiny and allows Beijing to cultivate ties with foreign politicians who are both in government and opposition,” he said.

According to Thomas, Liu’s background as “a tactful diplomat who speaks sophisticated English made him well-suited to play a supporting role in Xi’s attempt over recent months to ease diplomatic tensions with the West”.

“Liu appears to be a trusted diplomatic lieutenant of the Xi era, having previously spearheaded Xi’s campaign to track down corrupt officials abroad, then working in Xi’s old power base of Zhejiang province, and now holding a seat on the [Communist Party] Central Committee,” he said.

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Liu’s busy travel schedule is in contrast to his predecessor Song Tao, who made only a few trips outside Asia – to France, Norway, Canada, South Africa and Cuba – during his tenure between 2015 and 2022.

Of the 18 countries Liu has visited, 11 were outside Asia, including Britain, Italy, France, Germany and South Africa. Last month, he became the most senior Chinese official to visit Australia since 2017.

In a speech at the University of Technology Sydney, Liu said China respected “the role and the influence of Australia in the Pacific Island countries”, in a softened tone that signalled Beijing’s willingness to reset ties with Canberra after years of friction.

But he also commented on the recent row involving Chinese and Australian warships, calling for Australia to exercise “great prudence” during its naval operations in the South China Sea, which he said were viewed by Beijing as attempts to “contain China”.

China not targeting Australia’s Pacific Island ties: Communist Party official

During visits to Britain and Italy in June, and again in October while in France and Germany, Liu called on European countries to reject all forms of decoupling and “de-risking” from China.

He also urged European countries to maintain strategic autonomy and distance themselves from Washington’s anti-China coalition.

Earlier this month, against the backdrop of the prolonged Israel-Gaza war, Liu visited Iran, a top military backer of Hamas, and pledged Beijing’s support for Tehran’s regional role, as well as to “strengthen communication and cooperation”.

A mainland-based diplomatic analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Liu is notably more proactive when it comes to courting ties with countries that are not ideologically aligned with China, compared with Song.

“Liu is generally not viewed as a Wolf Warrior diplomat and he still has considerable room to rise, which partly explains his willingness to actively communicate and cultivate relations with foreign political parties and governments,” he said.

Wolf Warrior diplomacy, named after a series of ultra-nationalistic action movies, is characterised by its outspoken and hawkish defence of the country’s positions.

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Liu and the department’s portfolio were thrown into the spotlight after the replacement of Qin Gang, who was appointed foreign minister in late December and disappeared suddenly from the public eye at the end of June.

Qin was removed as minister in July and then as State Councillor in October, but his whereabouts and the reasons for his fall from grace remain unknown.

Qin’s successor in the role was the more senior diplomat Wang Yi, 70, the foreign minister who was promoted to the Politburo last year and then director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission.

Liu, who briefly studied foreign relations at Oxford University in the 1980s, was foreign ministry spokesman from 2001 to 2009 and headed the information department from 2006, until his appointment as China’s ambassador to the Philippines and Indonesia.

In a surprise move, he was promoted in 2015 from assistant foreign minister to a vice-ministerial position as head of the international cooperation department of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s top anti-corruption body.

The role made Liu Beijing’s point man in its efforts to hunt down corruption suspects outside the mainland. It was followed by a move in 2017 to one of Xi’s power bases in Zhejiang, where he become the province’s anti-corruption chief.

In 2018, Liu returned to Beijing as a deputy to Xi’s former top foreign policy aide Yang Jiechi, then a Politburo member and head of the general office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs.

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Zhu Feng, a professor of international affairs at Nanjing University, described Liu as a seasoned veteran with strong diplomatic skills and background.

Thomas, from the Asia Society, said he believed Liu was a leading candidate to become the country’s next foreign minister when Wang steps down.

“[Liu]’s conspicuous diplomacy in the West could be something of an audition for this more high-profile and high-ranking role,” he said.

Thomas noted that Xi has positioned Liu’s department “at the forefront” of the party’s greater efforts to train foreign officials to win approval for Chinese policies and encourage other countries to learn from China’s governance experience.

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Xi gave a further boost to the international liaison department’s profile, with the launch of a series of high-level briefings and dialogues between the party and more than 600 political parties and groups in over 160 countries, Thomas said, citing official data.

Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia Programme and director of the Washington-based Stimson Centre’s China Programme, said Liu’s department was “generally more active in China’s diplomacy in recent years, especially in engaging with political parties in non-communist countries”.

“This is to serve Xi’s diplomatic agenda and to ‘tell the CCP’s story well’,” she said, quoting an interview given by the department’s spokesman Hu Zhaoming to state news agency Xinhua early this year.

Liu’s busy schedule could also be attributed to Beijing’s scramble to reconnect with the world after three years of Covid-19 isolation, according to Sun. “Active diplomatic engagement was [intended] to show that China is back on the world stage.”

Sun said it was not surprising that Liu has a different leadership style to Song, 68, who is chief of the Taiwan Affairs office and widely seen as a Xi protege.

“Song was a domestic bureaucrat who joined the foreign service at the age of 46,” she said, noting that his fewer overseas trips in the role were partly due to the pandemic lockdowns.

“Liu is a career diplomat, having served as foreign ministry spokesman as well as [holding] multiple ambassador positions. Song has not been famous for keeping a high profile. In comparison, Liu appears more accustomed to high-profile engagement and activities,” Sun said.