• For China, Taiwan’s elections are a looming crisis | China
• Chinese hospital finds new genetic sequence for rare blood type p during routine tests
• The Chinese Communist Party wants (a bit) less consumer internet | Business
• In China’s Jilin City, a giant billboard stands as a monument to how corrupt officials fall
• Chinese naval scientists say they can use other countries’ military radar to locate, track ships in new research
• Motor home: soaring rents in China’s big cities see Shanghai man turn car into money-saving digs
• Taiwan braces for ‘big deal’ presidential election as China’s shadow looms
• China sanctions US defence companies over Taiwan arms deal
• ‘Education deprivation’: China mother accuses school of violating fevered son’s right to learn by separating him from classmates
• Argentina’s snub may strain China ties but Brics has ‘dodged a bullet’
• ‘Likely to agitate China’: European powers step up their Indo-Pacific presence – to a mixed Southeast Asian reaction
• ‘Now I want to kill’: smart woman in China fakes manic depression to stop sexual advances of ride-hail driver, says she always carries a knife
• China’s youth shun diamonds in favour of gold, seeking safe-haven investment amid economic downturn
• Why Taiwan arms sales, in place for decades, will remain a source of US-China tensions

For China, Taiwan’s elections are a looming crisis | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/01/04/for-china-taiwans-elections-are-a-looming-crisis

XI JINPING HAS a lot riding on upcoming elections in Taiwan. Those polls will do more than choose the island’s leaders for the next four years. The results may clarify whether politics can still resolve the “Taiwan question”, or whether only force can compel the island to submit to Chinese Communist Party rule.

In an address on December 31st, Mr Xi called Taiwan’s unification with China “a historical inevitability”. Logically, the party chief would rather fulfil that promise without betting his regime on an all-out invasion of Taiwan, which would risk war with America. A safer option involves some mix of blandishments and strangulation, both economic and military, leading to capitulation by Taiwan’s political and business elites. Peace has long rested on America deterring Chinese aggression, and on China deterring Taiwan from declaring independence. It also rests on party bosses being able to plausibly maintain that such a negotiated settlement is possible, not least to China’s people, schooled to believe that most in Taiwan long to return to the motherland.

It is nearly 75 years since China’s civil war ended with Communist Party control of the mainland, and with exile on Taiwan for the Nationalist, or Kuomintang (KMT), regime. Today the island is a raucous democracy, marked by divisions about ties to China. If on January 13th Taiwanese voters hand the presidency to William Lai Ching-te, the candidate of Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), they will cast fresh doubt on the prospects for a peaceful, negotiated unification.

Victory for Mr Lai would mark the DPP’s third presidential win in a row. Chinese officials and scholars have issued warnings—notably to counterparts in America, Taiwan’s superpower protector—that they have no trust in Mr Lai, whom they call a dangerous, lifelong campaigner for Taiwanese independence. According to Chinese warnings, there would be “no wait and see” period after a Lai victory. To deter a President-elect Lai from radical moves, the People’s Liberation Army can be expected to stage exercises that threaten Taiwan in new ways, it is said. These would aim to show resolve to the Chinese public and to teach the island’s voters that they have rejected the path of peace. New provocations could include unmanned Chinese aircraft flying over Taiwan, or China’s navy or coastguard finding a pretext to search island-bound ships. China recently reimposed tariffs on some Taiwanese goods, arguing that the current DPP-led government had trampled commitments needed to preserve a cross-strait trade deal, the Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA). Victory for Mr Lai could see the ECFA suspended in its entirety.

Worryingly, the Chinese side has (or pretends to have) unrealistic expectations that President Joe Biden and his administration would help to constrain a Lai presidency. In part, that nods to China’s scornful insistence that the DPP—and indeed Taiwan’s voters—are America’s hapless pawns in a superpower game to hold China down. In part, it reflects a Chinese hunch that America does not trust Mr Lai, either. When the DPP candidate visited America last August in his capacity as Taiwanese vice-president, his meetings were strictly controlled by his American hosts, and Chinese diplomats briefed in advance on his itinerary. China should be realistic, though. True, over the past 20 years American officials have offered bruising, public rebukes to DPP leaders, urging them not to provoke China. But Washington politics have changed. If China bullies Mr Lai, America will have to back him up.

China sees Taiwan’s election as a test of American sincerity. Mr Biden insists that he does not support Taiwanese independence, but muddles that message with unconditional pledges to defend the island in a crisis, says Xiang Lanxin of the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. For China, Taiwan’s election is “an opportunity for America to clarify what its position really is”, he suggests. Against that, several Chinese scholars suggest that their country has few incentives to stoke a big crisis over Taiwan before America’s presidential contest in November. Mr Xi needs to know whether he will face Mr Biden again or the transactional Donald Trump, who talks tough on China but has no great love for Taiwan.

Mr Lai’s victory is not assured, with the presidential vote split three ways. In reality, a win for the second-ranked candidate, Hou Yu-ih of the KMT, might also offer its own painful clarity about the prospects for peaceful unification. Mr Hou, a mayor and former police chief, urges dialogue with the mainland. But Taiwan has changed. Today’s KMT cannot offer Mr Xi the same concessions that the party did just a decade ago. For China, a Hou presidency could be as frustrating as another DPP term, just in a different way.

A peace offer backed with threats

Along with Taiwan’s presidential race, China’s leaders will be watching parliamentary elections held on the same day. Quite possibly the KMT and a newer, centrist outfit, the Taiwan People’s Party, may do well and secure a majority in the Legislative Yuan and significant control over the agenda of the next president, even if that is Mr Lai of the DPP. In that case, Taiwan’s rambunctious democracy would be keeping alive Communist Party hopes of imposing its rule without a war, for now at least.

If both presidential and legislative elections are a rout of the KMT, that will trigger heated debate on the mainland about whether that party has a future, scholars predict. Over the past century China’s Communist Party and the KMT have been variously comrades in arms, enemies in a civil war and now uneasy partners in cross-strait dialogue, bound by a shared hostility to Taiwanese independence. Familiarity has not bred respect. When KMT leaders visit the mainland and complain that aggressive Chinese policies make it hard to woo Taiwanese voters, Communist Party bosses hear the KMT whining about its own political incompetence. China is learning that elections have consequences. For Mr Xi’s party, that is always someone else’s fault. ■

Read more from Chaguan, our columnist on China:
Why China’s rulers fear Genghis Khan (Dec 20th)
China’s cities compete for kids (Dec 14th)
China and the EU risk a trade war (Dec 7th)

Also: How the Chaguan column got its name

Chinese hospital finds new genetic sequence for rare blood type p during routine tests

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3247582/chinese-hospital-finds-new-genetic-sequence-rare-blood-type-p-during-routine-tests?utm_source=rss_feed

A new combination of some of the molecules essential for human life has been detected in a sample of an extremely rare blood type at a hospital in eastern China, according to a Chinese news report.

Modern Express Post reported on Saturday that the previously unknown nucleotide sequence in a person with the rare blood type p, a subtype of the P blood group, was found during routine blood tests last year at a hospital in Taizhou, Jiangsu province.

There are only about a dozen documented cases of people in China with type p blood, a variety that has a frequency lower than one in a million, according to the report.

It said staff at the Taixing People’s Hospital submitted the genetic sequence to the GenBank sequence database, an open access collection maintained by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information in the United States.

In December, the US centre said the nucleotide sequence present in the sample had not been detected previously anywhere in the world. Nucleotides are one of many small molecules that form DNA and RNA, nucleic acids that carry genetic information.

The sequence has been assigned the serial number OR900206 in the human gene database.

The P blood group was discovered in 1927, and samples can be categorised into five subtypes, depending on the antigens on the surfaces of its red blood cells.

P1 and P2 are more frequent and while P1k, P2k, and p are extremely rare.

In testing, it is easy to miss the P blood group because it cannot be picked up by existing reagents for the ABO and Rh blood types.

Cao Guoping, the transfusion specialist who detected the rare sample, was quoted as saying that for individuals with this uncommon blood type, early detection helped them to prepare better for blood transfusions and related potential crises.

For instance, p blood types can only receive transfusions of the same kind.

This is particularly the case during pregnancy.

“In the case of female individuals with this blood type, the presence of ‘anti-Tja’ antibodies attacking the placenta directly can lead to recurrent miscarriages and stillbirths,” he said, referring to the naturally occurring antibody against the P blood group.

Certain blood types less likely to contract coronavirus, 23andMe shows

Most of the world’s population falls into the ABO and Rh blood group systems, but there are other less common blood types, such as the Hh/Bombay antigen system as well as the P blood group.

The Rh null blood group, also known as the “golden” blood type, contains no Rh antigens in the red blood cells.

In China, Rh-negative blood, also known as “panda blood”, accounts for about 0.4 per cent of the population.

About 100 people in China have the Hh/Bombay blood type.

The Chinese Communist Party wants (a bit) less consumer internet | Business

https://www.economist.com/business/2024/01/04/the-communist-party-wants-a-bit-less-consumer-internet

INVESTORS IN CHINESE tech stocks might feel like characters in an online “party game”, a type of multiplayer activity that became all the rage in 2023. The latest addition to the genre is “DreamStar”, released on December 15th by Tencent, China’s biggest digital giant, with a big gaming business. Players speed around a track as cartoon sheep and pandas, dodging cannon balls and grabbing magic clouds, sometimes plummeting through chasms only to end up back where they started.

Tencent’s share price jumped on hopes the game would challenge the wildly popular “Eggy Party”, a similar offering from NetEase, a rival developer. A week later it fell off a cliff, as did that of NetEase, after the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) published draft rules capping spending on online games. The next day the NPPA seemed to proffer one of those magic clouds, declaring that it desired “prosperous and healthy” development for the online-gaming industry. Tencent and NetEase shares have returned almost to where they were at the start.

The incident hints that President Xi Jinping has little appetite for another harsh tech crackdown of the sort that torched about $1trn in shareholder value between early 2021 and late 2022; on January 2nd Reuters reported that an official behind the draft gaming rules had been fired. But it is also a reminder that the government dislikes Chinese big tech’s big presence in citizens’ everyday lives—and that it would anyway prefer entrepreneurs and investors to focus on serious things like chipmaking, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) for industry.

The signal from Beijing, cacophonous though it may be, is being heard. On January 1st Baidu, the country’s search giant, said it had scrapped a $3.6bn purchase of a local live-streaming platform called JOYY. Baidu said only that conditions of the deal, originally signed in 2020, were not fulfilled. These may have included regulatory approvals for expansion, insiders reckon. Tencent and Alibaba, China’s biggest e-emporium, have been divesting some assets. (On December 29th a court also ordered Alibaba to pay 1bn yuan, or $140m, in damages to JD.com, a rival e-merchant, which had accused the company of forbidding sellers to use other platforms.)

The travails of China’s domestic digital darlings stand in stark contrast to a boom in state-favoured “hard tech”. Companies trying their luck in industries which the government deems to be critical to its strategic contest with America can count on helpful policies and generous subsidies. They are also flush with money. Over the past three years, even as capital for the consumer internet has all but dried up, hard-tech developers have collectively raised about 550bn yuan through initial public offerings.

No company embodies this trend more than Huawei. The maker of telecoms gear appeared doomed after America blacklisted it in 2019 out of fear that Chinese spooks could use its equipment to eavesdrop on Western mobile communications (an allegation which Huawei vociferously denies). American sanctions deprived it of components, including advanced semiconductors, needed for its handsets and data centres. In September Huawei shocked the world, including security hawks in Washington, by unveiling a 5G smartphone powered by sophisticated silicon manufactured by SMIC, China’s biggest chipmaker. Huawei and SMIC are also shipping similarly advanced server chips for data centres, which could be used to train AI models. On December 29th Huawei said its revenues in 2023 hit nearly $100bn, 9% more than the year before. Mr Xi couldn’t have hoped for a clearer signal as to where there is money to be made. ■

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In China’s Jilin City, a giant billboard stands as a monument to how corrupt officials fall

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3247576/chinas-jilin-city-giant-billboard-stands-monument-how-corrupt-officials-fall?utm_source=rss_feed

A giant billboard in downtown Jilin City attracted attention not just because of its prominent position in the northeastern Chinese urban centre.

The advertising screen was also a lucrative source of illicit income for the city’s former Communist Party boss, according to the first episode of a three-part series that started airing on state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday night.

The billboard on an overpass in the commercial heart of Jilin City, in the northeastern province of the same name, was owned by the son of local party secretary Zhang Xiaopei, who rose to become vice-chairman of the Jilin provincial political advisory body before retiring in 2018.

He was expelled from the party in June last year, seven months after being placed under investigation for taking bribes.

Once business owners learned of the Zhang connection, they “took the initiative to spend huge sums of money [on renting the billboard], even though there was no demand for advertising”, the CCTV programme showed an official from the party’s top anti-corruption body as saying.

“[The businesspeople] were actually covering up [means] to funnel benefits to Zhang in this way,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection official said.

“His son’s billboard was an ‘overpass’ to Zhang’s power,” the documentary said, and Zhang “allowed his family to gain wealth” on the back of his power and influence.

Zhang, 66, is among four Jilin City party secretaries in a row to face corruption allegations. The four were in office between 2006 and 2017.

A CCDI notice in June said he had been “disloyal to the party” and involved in the buying and selling of official positions.

Revealing fresh details of the case, the CCTV programme said Zhang had accepted “tens of millions of yuan” in property and cash from businessman Liu Youcai.

The pair, who met as lower-ranked workers in a machinery factory affiliated to Jilin Chemical Group in the 1980s, had been friends for 40 years. Over that time, their relationship turned from one based on “brotherhood” to one revolving around “naked power and money deals”, a voice-over said.

Zhang rose to become manager of the chemical group, while Liu, formerly a chef at the factory canteen, prospered as his friend directed company banquets to be held there. The canteen flourished, enabling Liu to set up restaurants elsewhere in the city.

After Zhang took over as party leader of Jilin City, Liu reportedly asked that he help him secure new projects, with his business soon expanding to catering, logistics and transport, fire equipment supply and other fields.

Liu is alleged to have repaid the favour in kind, from cash to gold bars and equity.

In November 2022, state news agency Xinhua reported that Zhang had turned himself in and was under investigation by the CCDI and the National Supervisory Commission, a super agency set up in 2018 to extend the corruption fight beyond the ruling party to cover all public servants and village officials.

‘Tiger hunt’: China’s war on corruption sees record purge of senior officials

The CCTV programme also outlined corruption cases against three successive public security chiefs from neighbouring northeastern Liaoning province.

Li Wenxi, who was in office between 2002 and 2011, embezzled 541 million yuan (US$75.5 million), while Wang Dawei took 555 million yuan during his 2011-2013 term. Wang’s successor, Xue Heng, took 135 million yuan while in office between 2013 and 2022, according to the report.

The CCDI detained a record 45 senior officials last year, the highest number since President Xi Jinping launched his corruption crackdown in 2013, according to a tally by the South China Morning Post.

The commission will meet from Monday to set priorities for the country’s legions of discipline inspectors and supervisors in the new year.

Chinese naval scientists say they can use other countries’ military radar to locate, track ships in new research

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3247214/chinese-naval-scientists-say-they-can-use-other-countries-military-radar-locate-track-ships-new?utm_source=rss_feed

Borrowing a blade to slay, an old Chinese proverb, speaks of using another’s weapon against them. Now, scientists from China’s navy say they have applied this ancient wisdom to today’s technology-driven wars.

The team, from China’s eastern Shandong province, says it has developed a technology that could use the signals emitted by the radars, warships or even early warning planes of other countries, to track cargo ships on the high seas. And it only requires simple gear such as a laptop and small antenna.

“The images were clear as day,” wrote Song Jie, a scientist at the PLA Naval Aviation University, in a peer-reviewed paper with his colleagues from Yantai University, both based in the coastal city of Yantai. Their findings were published in the Chinese-language journal Radio Science and Technology on December 20.

This feat was once considered impossible. Since the invention of radar in 1935, only the sender or their allies could use its signals. Using electromagnetic waves to locate targets requires knowledge of detailed physical parameters that are known only to the transmitter – and these are constantly changing.

To outsiders, these signals appear as a tangled mess, and extracting valuable information from them would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

But Song’s team managed to use potentially non-friendly radar signals to detect ships going into and out of ports, an unprecedented feat.

“Our system works well for slow-moving targets at sea,” the team said. “It can track ships with ease.”

For countries like China, with vast radar networks, this might not be a game-changer. But for smaller nations or forces whose radars are destroyed or not affordable at all, this could be a lifesaver. By hijacking enemy signals, they could gain a crucial advantage with little effort.

Imagine the Houthis in Yemen, attacking cargo ships with drones or missiles. The United States blames Iran for passing intelligence about these ships, but what if the Houthis used American radar signals instead? Song’s team has proved this is technically possible.

In Yantai, the scientists chose a residential building as the base for their experiment. By the window, a receiving antenna – not much larger than a clothes-drying rack – stood ready. Connected to this antenna was an electromagnetic wave analyser, about the size of a microwave oven, which processed the signals received. These signals were then fed into an ordinary laptop for further analysis.

The set-up was simple: all the equipment could be sourced easily and transported in the boot of a car.

Detecting targets at sea using radar is notoriously challenging due to the constant flux of electromagnetic waves reflecting off the waves, which often drown out crucial information amid the noise. But Song’s team was still able to locate and track all commercial ships sailing within 20km of the shore – a distance comparable to that between the Red Sea shipping lane and Yemen’s coast.

Moreover, they gathered vital intelligence on the direction and speed of the ships, invaluable for potential drone or missile attacks.

Although the signal source in the experiment came from a Chinese military radar, Song’s team did not use any technical parameters related to the radar.

This meant that, in real-world scenarios, their system could harness signals from any country’s military platforms.

Chinese scientists unveil design for new electronic warfare weapon to the world

In their paper, Song and his colleagues shared their powerful algorithm, explaining how they used it to reverse-derive the operating parameters of a military radar from the received spectrum.

But practical applications presented their own set of hurdles. For instance, the direct signal from the radar to the receiving antenna was significantly stronger than that reflected off a ship’s hull, often masking the latter’s distinct characteristics. Both signals are crucial for accurate positioning. Also, disentangling them required a unique processing approach not typically found in standard radar stations.

Song’s team meticulously detailed these processes and precautions in the paper, along with insights on data compression and accumulation techniques that enhanced the speed and accuracy of the computer analysis.

The researchers believe their work could also assist the Chinese military in electronic warfare, with potential applications in electronic reconnaissance, anti-radiation weaponry, ultra-low altitude penetration missions and stealth technology.

Motor home: soaring rents in China’s big cities see Shanghai man turn car into money-saving digs

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3246616/motor-home-soaring-rents-chinas-big-cities-see-shanghai-man-turn-car-money-saving-digs?utm_source=rss_feed

A Shanghai man has been living in his car for the past three months, highlighting how soaring rents in major Chinese cities have become a burden for the country’s metropolitan workforces.

Wang Hong, who is in his 30s and makes “decent money” said he did not want his salary to support a landlord’s family.

Before moving into his car he was paying 3,000 yuan (US$420) a month for a room.

When Wang’s lease expired in September he did not look for another flat and transformed his small vehicle into his home.

He told the mainland media outlet Shangyou News that the vehicle fills 99 per cent of his daily needs, including keeping warm in winter.

Wang bought a portable battery to power light and heat, insulated foam sheets for a bed and a portable cooking stove. He even purchased a small ventilator to improve the air quality in his makeshift home.

The car dweller said he parks up on unused roads in suburban areas to save parking fees and does not order food deliveries because he lacks a proper address.

As for personal hygiene, in a video posted on Douyin, Wang said he sets up a tent beside his car and runs a few kilometres before having a shower using an electric pump.

All of this, he says, has not only saved him money, but improved his health.

Wang estimates he has saved more than 10,000 yuan thanks to his new living arrangements. He also said he has a shorter commute to work because he strategically parks closer to the office.

According to the mainland media outlet Yicai, the rent for an average-sized room in first-tier cities in China ranged from 2,200 to 4,000 yuan per month.

Meanwhile, the median monthly salary for workers in first-tier cities was between 10,000 and 11,000 yuan, according to the latest data from Chinese recruitment platform Zhilian Zhaopin.

Wang’s story struck a chord on mainland social media.

“Not only have young people stopped buying flats, they have stopped renting,” said one online observer on Douyin.

“Living in a car is a nice idea. That way, I could live wherever I wanted,” said another person.

A third said: “I admire his optimistic attitude and his ability to live as comfortably as he could in a difficult situation. I also admire like the way he sticks to his lifestyle no matter what other people say about it.”

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Taiwan braces for ‘big deal’ presidential election as China’s shadow looms

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/07/taiwan-braces-for-big-deal-presidential-election-as-chinas-shadow-looms

Deep in the mountains of Hsinchu county in north Taiwan, a few dozen residents of Smangus are holding their daily morning meeting in a weatherboard hut, overlooking the towering peaks nearby.

The remote Indigenous village, home to about 200 Atayal people, is preparing for Saturday’s presidential election. They take it very seriously, running their own polling station since 2008, and discussing candidates with all the residents.

“We normally don’t talk about politics [at the meeting] but the presidential election is a big deal,” says Lahuy Icyeh, a community leader. “The village elders encourage the tribe to choose who is best for Taiwan.”

The vote will be Taiwan’s eighth direct presidential election since martial law ended in the late 1980s. The current president, Tsai Ing-wen, must step down due to term limits, and her current deputy, Lai Ching-te, is running to keep the Democratic Progressive party (DPP) in power. He’s up against Hou Yo-ih of the national opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which ruled during the decades of authoritarianism, and the Taiwan People’s party (TPP), led by founder Ko Wen-je.

The campaign has been dominated by the Chinese Communist party’s threat to annex Taiwan, but surveys have shown it is economic issues that are the main concern of voters, including low wages, housing affordability, energy security and inflation. In 2022, wages had the steepest yearly decline in 10 years, while housing in some Taiwanese cities ranks among the world’s most expensive relative to income.

Inflation was lower than many other countries in 2023 – 2.48% – but a series of extreme price rises on individual products such as eggs worsened perception of the cost of living.. There are also Care for children and the elderly, corruption, judicial reform, education and rights for minorities are also immediate concerns.

All three presidential candidates have made pledges addressing most big-ticket items but many of them are quite similar.Dafydd Fell, director of the Centre of Taiwan Studies at Soas University of London, says this has neutralised most debates except on the contentious future of Taiwan’s nuclear power plants. Publication of polling – which could show any potential impact of these pledges – is banned in the 10-day blackout period prior to the vote.

The Smangus community has clear asks: better assistance for elderly care, road improvements, and land rights and transitional justice for Indigenous tribes. But the village, which operates a kibbutz-style economy, including shared land and housing, and a flat-salary jobshare system, is protected from some of the economic issues.

For them, the presidential election is about big picture themes, says Yarah Pihu, Smangus’s Presbyterian minister and a community leader. “We want a president with an international perspective and a sense of Taiwanese identity.”

Masay Sulung a Smangus community leader, said: “I expect 90% of Smangus to vote for Lai Ching-te. We have high expectations for Lai, he has a clear vision for the country.”

At a DPP rally in Taipei, 20-year-old university students surnamed Huang and Chen say they supports the DPP’s stance on gender issues, Taiwanese identity, and care for the elderly. But there are signs that young people – who make up about 16% of the voting public – are moving away from the DPP, which is now seen by them as the establishment.

At a KMT rally, a 34-year-old man surnamed Liu says he’s switching from the DPP because he thinks governments should change frequently. In Guanxi township, Hsinchu province, one woman surnamed Lee, feels the same, but she doesn’t like Hou or Ko, so she’s just not going to vote.

Corruption is another major issue for most Taiwanese voters. Fell says political corruption is often the “most stressed issue in Taiwanese elections and has been the most influential issue in a number of local and national elections”.

“After eight years in office, you would expect the DPP to be threatened by this issue, and the KMT has made a number of accusations. But it is not entirely clear which side owns this issue.”

Candidates have flung a dizzying range of accusations at each other, from plagiarism to illegal housing structures, dodgy income streams, and other forms of corruption. Past local elections have seen allegations of vote-buying, bribery, voter intimidation and political links with organised crime.

“Taiwan’s local politics has been long dominated by ‘electoral machines’ - a system of voter mobilisation through networks of patronage and local political factions – ever since the authoritarian era,” says Kevin Luo, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. “The entrenchment of the KMT party machine in Miaoli is a good example.”

According to the Taiwan Anti-Corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association, 11.6% of 1,677 city councillor candidates in 2022 had criminal records – more than 20% of them in the county of Miaoli, New Bloom Magazine reported.

On a Friday night, independent candidate Tseng Wen-hsueh is rallying a crowd of people at a temple in Miaoli county on Taiwan’s west coast, on a platform of anti-corruption and political change. Party loyalty runs deep here among a diverse mix of ethnic groups and a high proportion of state-run employers in its large natural resources sector. In 72 years, Miaoli has never voted against the KMT, regardless of national trends. A popular joke refers to it as “Miaoli Nation”.

“Miaoli’s closed political environment allows those in power to do whatever they want,” Tseng tells the Observer. Most people struggle to imagine change after so long without it, he says. “So most of the people tend to continue to choose KMT for the sake of stability in their own lives.

“[But] if someone wins for the first time, the public will have confidence when they vote, this is the most important thing. The public will understand that this vote in hand can really bring about changes.”

Once known as Taiwan’s most remote village, Smangus only got electricity in 1980, and a road to neighbouring villages in 1995. That road – a trail of switchback turns and fuel-sucking inclines, punctuated by the remnants of frequent landslides – is now busy with campaign trucks and candidate advertising.

But in Smangus the vote is largely decided. Since at least 2008, the village has voted for the DPP in almost direct inverse proportions to the pro-KMT region it sits in. But the main thing is that they will vote.

“We enjoyed democracy later than other places,” says Icyeh. “ It’s important to choose someone who can protect and lead Taiwan and appreciate our hard-won democracy.”

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China sanctions US defence companies over Taiwan arms deal

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3247554/china-sanctions-us-defence-companies-over-taiwan-arms-deal?utm_source=rss_feed

China has announced fresh sanctions on five American defence companies in a furious response to last month’s US arms sale deal with Taiwan.

The Chinese foreign ministry said on Sunday the five sanctioned companies were BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operations, AeroVironment, Viasat and Data Link Solutions.

Beijing said Chinese companies and individuals were banned from doing business with the sanctioned firms and all property in China owned by the firms would be frozen under China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law.

The decision was made in response to “gravely wrong actions” by the United States, the ministry said.

Final Pentagon bill features Taiwan, Aukus and counters to China’s influence

“[The latest arms sales and sanctions] seriously harm China’s sovereignty and security interests, undermine the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and violate the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals,” the statement said.

“We urge the United States to abide by the one-China principle … stop arming Taiwan, and stop targeting China with illegal unilateral sanctions.

“Otherwise there will be a strong and resolute response from China.”

The action follows US approval in mid-December for a US$300 million deal with Taiwan to upgrade the island’s tactical information system.

The Pentagon said the “follow-on life cycle support” for the command, control, communications and computers (C4) capabilities would improve Taiwan’s ability to “meet current and future threats by enhancing operational readiness” and sustain existing system capabilities that provide a secure flow of tactical information.

Beijing did not specify which US sanctions it was referring to when announcing the latest measures against American companies.

However, the US imposed sanctions last month on more than 250 individuals and entities, including several in China, for what it said was facilitating Russia’s evasion of sanctions imposed by the West over the war in Ukraine.

In November, 130 entities, including three in China, were sanctioned by the US for allegedly sending high-priority dual-use goods that Moscow relies on for its weapons systems.

China expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the US decisions, which it said were based on “so-called Russia-related excuses”.

Why Taiwan arms sales, in place for decades, still spark US-China tensions

Several US companies, including Northrop Grumman and a unit of Lockheed Martin, have been sanctioned by Beijing in the past over weapons sales to Taiwan.

Beijing views Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Washington is a strong supporter of Taiwan but like most countries does not recognise the island as an independent state. However, it is opposed to any attempt to take the island forcibly.

Washington is also legally bound under its 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help the island protect itself by providing “arms of a defensive character”.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said the transaction would enable the joint combat command and control systems to maintain a common operational picture.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s frequent military operations around Taiwan present a serious threat to us,” the ministry said, adding that US arms sales were essential to maintaining regional stability and peace.

Raymond Kuo, director of the Taiwan Policy Initiative and a senior political scientist at US-based think tank Rand Corporation, said an improved military communication network was critical for the island to have an effective defence.

“The C4 upgrade will allow Taiwan to distribute its forces more effectively while still maintaining command and control, as well as hardening those communications against disruption or interception,” he said.

‘Education deprivation’: China mother accuses school of violating fevered son’s right to learn by separating him from classmates

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3246598/education-deprivation-china-mother-accuses-school-violating-fevered-sons-right-learn-separating-him?utm_source=rss_feed

A mother in China has accused a school of depriving her son of his right to an education after a teacher asked her to take him to hospital because he was running a high fever.

In a social media post on December 26, an unidentified secondary school principal in Zhejiang province in eastern China said the student was “so weak he could not lift his head from the desk”.

“The teacher noticed his symptoms were similar to other students who have had the flu. The student was moved to a separate classroom with air conditioning and water to avoid spreading the illness and to provide comfort to the boy,” the post said.

After calming the child, the teacher called his parents and asked them to take their son to hospital.

Rather than expressing gratitude, the mother flew into a rage, accusing the school of impeding her son’s right to an education.

“A fever is not a serious illness. Who made the rule that he cannot attend school with the flu? Just wearing a mask should be enough. You are depriving my child of his right to learn,” she said.

The boy’s mother then threatened to lodge a complaint against the school and demanded an explanation for her child being singled out.

In response, the principal said that the school offers online classes with playback options for sick or absent students, ensuring they can keep up with their studies once they recover.

He said: “We had been very considerate, and I did not anticipate such a negative reaction from a parent. Child development should be a collaborative effort among family, school, and society, not just dropping a child off at school and leaving.”

The incident, reported by the newspaper Dushikuaibao, sparked a vigorous online discussion, with many people siding with the principal.

One comment said: “The parent is careless, focusing only on studies. What’s more important, health or study? The parent should be grateful for the teacher’s prompt action.”

“If the parent prioritises health over study, they should sign a waiver. It should state that the school bears no responsibility if the child’s health worsens from attending school while ill.

“If the flu spreads, the school can coordinate with other parents for accountability,” said another.

A third online observer said: “If the school separated the child due to a fever, parents complain about unfair treatment. But if the school had done nothing and something bad had happened, the parent would also blame the teacher.”

Argentina’s snub may strain China ties but Brics has ‘dodged a bullet’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3247532/argentinas-snub-may-strain-china-ties-brics-has-dodged-bullet?utm_source=rss_feed

Argentina’s snub of the Brics developing economies may further strain relations with China but the bloc has “dodged a bullet”, according to analysts.

There has been uncertainty over the relationship between China and Argentina since far-right economist Javier Milei was elected president of the Latin American nation in November. While Milei has softened his tone recently, he had campaigned on breaking ties with China, stating that its people were “not free” and that Argentina would no longer work with nations “ruled by communism”.

Milei’s China policy is a stark contrast to that of his centre-left predecessor Alberto Fernandez, who in 2022 signed onto Beijing’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative. His attendance at the Beijing Winter Olympics that year and the belt and road forum in October were seen as signs of growing ties.

But Milei has made clear that his country’s “geopolitical alignment” is with the United States and Israel, whose ongoing attack on Gaza has alienated much of the Global South.

Milei – whose letter to Brics leaders in December said the moment was not “opportune” for Argentina to join as a full member – is seemingly fulfilling his pledge to ditch Fernandez’s efforts to seek closer ties with developing economies.

According to Josef Gregory Mahoney, a politics and international relations professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai, Beijing had anticipated that Argentina would join Brics, so its withdrawal was “a source of some embarrassment”.

But he said it would be Argentina that lost out over the decision.

Argentina, which is facing a deepening economic crisis, was among six countries invited in August to join Brics – made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – to form an 11-nation bloc. Fernandez had endorsed joining the alliance as an opportunity to reach new markets.

“I wouldn’t really describe Argentina’s decision as a setback for Brics or China – it’s a setback for Argentina,” Mahoney said.

He added that Beijing had been eager to grow the bloc “in ways that balance different regional interests without alienating current members”, given that some were “less enthusiastic about expansion”.

“Given the poor state of the Argentine economy and the damage that’s being done to it by Milei’s economic policies, his withdrawal is a blessing in disguise for the other Brics members – they’ve dodged a bullet,” Mahoney said, adding that the radical libertarian was pursuing “shock therapy policies” such as a move to slash the value of the Argentine peso by over 50 per cent against the US dollar.

Argentina looks to veteran diplomat to mend ties with China: reports

According to Zhang Chi, associate lecturer of international relations at the University of St Andrews, Milei’s decision on Brics reflects a broader concern among developing countries being pressured to choose between the US-led world order and alternative systems.

“In the short term, Argentina’s decision to pivot towards the West and align with the US, despite receiving goodwill from Chinese President Xi Jinping, may lead to a decrease in diplomatic and economic engagement with China,” Zhang said.

In November, Xi sent a congratulatory message to Milei on his election, saying he was ready to work with the new leader to “continue the China-Argentina friendship, help the development and revitalisation of our respective countries through win-win cooperation, and promote steady and far-reaching development of China-Argentina relations”.

“In the long term, if other Latin American countries follow Argentina’s lead in re-evaluating their involvement in Brics, where China plays a major role, it could potentially weaken the bloc’s regional economic influence and undermine China’s growing influence in Latin America,” Zhang said.

“China has emerged as South America’s foremost trading partner, wielding substantial influence through extensive foreign direct investments and lending, particularly in energy and infrastructure sectors via the belt and road,” she said, noting that 21 South American nations had joined the initiative.

Those links have worried Washington, while for Milei it has become imperative to “convey a more pronounced alignment with the US, particularly following his recent meetings with US officials”, according to Zhang.

“This shift signifies a deliberate departure from prior policies and a renewed emphasis on aligning with the US while taking a more assertive stance against China,” she added.

Mahoney likened Milei’s style to that of former US president Donald Trump, especially his stated goal of strengthening bilateral ties with nations without going through international organisations like Brics.

“Milei is a right-leaning populist who ran against the previous government’s policies, which had pursued Brics members, and he also used Trump-style dog whistle tactics to demonise the Chinese government,” said Mahoney, adding that his election victory “surprised pundits”.

Mahoney said Milei, like Trump, used “radical, populist messaging to appeal to deeply frustrated, polarised electorates who are fed up and willing to try something new”.

Argentina’s Milei warns of ‘shock’ austerity as he takes office

Xu Qinduo, a political analyst at the Chinese think tank Pangoal Institution, argued that had Argentina joined Brics it might have made the bloc more attractive to other Latin American countries.

“Argentina is the second-largest economy in [South America] and remains a major agricultural power, despite its chronic economic crisis,” Xu said. “Having it join Brics would make it more influential as a bloc of emerging economies and perhaps more representative of the Global South.”

Xu said some Latin American countries were concerned about being seen as “anti-West” by taking part in Brics, while others were focused on economic opportunities. Members benefit from loans from the New Development Bank established by Brics in 2014, and from more access to regional economies.

Despite rejecting Brics and attempting to “demonstrate his loyalty to Washington”, Xu said Milei was open to developing trade and investment ties in other ways.

“There are reasons for Argentina to maintain trade ties with the Brics countries,” Xu said. “Brazil, China and India are among its top five trading partners.”

‘Likely to agitate China’: European powers step up their Indo-Pacific presence – to a mixed Southeast Asian reaction

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3247451/likely-agitate-china-european-powers-step-their-indo-pacific-presence-mixed-southeast-asian-reaction?utm_source=rss_feed

As China flexes its muscles in the region, European powers have increasingly made their presence felt through defence arrangements and naval port calls, prompting questions on whether their presence is helpful or a hindrance to safety in contested waters.

But experts do agree that common interests in ensuring access to secure maritime routes mean that European powers will continue to extend their outreach into what is now known by many as the Indo-Pacific.

In 2021, a German warship sailed into the South China Sea for the first time in almost two decades. Since then, there have been a series of other smaller engagements by other European powers, often at the invitation of Western countries invested in the region.

John Hemmings, senior director of the Indo-Pacific foreign and security policy programme at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum, said European powers were coming to the region because “Chinese behaviour is concerning for them” and because regional players including the US, Japan, and Australia were asking for their involvement.

China’s island-building efforts since 2014 in the South China Sea – which Beijing claims almost in its entirety – “marked the beginning of the end of European trust in China”, Hemmings said, referring to the waterway which carries one-third of all global shipping.

“It was unilateral, done without consultations, and directly threatened European supply lines to the industrial economies of Northeast Asia”, he said, adding that “without exception”, European navies had responded by strongly supporting national Indo-Pacific strategies aimed at countering China’s growing influence.

As the US and China woo with military drills, who will Southeast Asia choose?

But the increased presence of European powers will not make the region safer, Hemmings said, as these countries were currently only able to offer “low-level commitments to the region – a naval group, an alignment, or a growing military footprint”.

“There are serious economic, resource, and distance limitations on what they can commit to the region,” he said.

“Their willingness to defend Taiwan, for example, is unclear should the US commit to defending [the island].”

Last month, French and Philippine defence officials met in Manila to discuss ways to strengthen military cooperation, including negotiations on allowing troops from each country into the other’s territory for joint exercises.

The visiting forces agreement will reportedly open new avenues for more sophisticated military-to-military cooperation and improve both countries’ interoperability and maritime domain awareness.

Earlier in the year, Italian offshore patrol vessel the Francesco Morosini undertook a five-month deployment to the region, including a port call to Yokosuka, home to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force.

Lasting from April to August, the Morosini called at 15 ports in 14 countries including Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea.

The Italian Navy is also expected to send its flagship aircraft carrier Cavour, along with its battle group, to the region early this year.

Describing the growing presence of European powers as “interesting yet not really surprising”, Aristyo Rizka Darmawan, an international law lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said this was due to a growing geopolitical shift to the region and the importance of navigation and security.

“But on top of that is the increasing role of China in the region,” he said, adding that the European countries’ growing presence will “not necessarily be productive”.

“Indonesia traditionally has always been cautious with extra-regional military presence in the region, Malaysia is also critical to this presence,” Aristyo said.

“Maybe the Philippines is the country which mostly welcomes those extra-regional naval presence in the region, considering its stand-off with Beijing.”

Instead of sending warships, Aristyo suggested that European powers’ help to increase the capabilities of navies and coastguards in the region, such as through the Garuda Shield exercises, would be a better approach to avoid the risk of increasing tension with China.

The annual US-Indonesia Garuda Shield joint drills have expanded since their inception to include troops from Australia, Japan, Singapore, France and Britain.

In recent months, relations between the Philippines and China have declined precipitously over naval skirmishes in the South China Sea where both sides have traded blame over a spate of run-ins.

Manila and Washington on Wednesday began a two-day joint patrol in the disputed waterway, involving four vessels from the Philippine navy and four ships from the US Indo-Pacific command that include an aircraft carrier, a cruiser and two destroyers, according to the Philippine military.

Joshua Bernard Espena, a defence analyst and resident fellow at the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank in Manila, said the presence of European powers could help deter China’s “aggressive moves” in the South China Sea.

But their presence is also “likely to agitate China” as Beijing sees these powers as “external players” or “extra-regional actors”, he said, adding that regional countries can “shape” the presence of such powers.

Naval cooperation with European countries need not be limited to non-traditional threats such as piracy, smuggling and natural disasters, but can also include ways of dealing with “a war on the high seas against a regional power such as China”, Espena said.

If only one or two vessels are sent, this indicates only “goodwill”, he said, “but the real thing is when a country sends a naval task force composed of warships with multiple spectrum fighting roles that are logistically capable of operating on the high seas for a long duration.”

Dr Gabriele Abbondanza, an international relations expert at the University of Madrid, said that the presence of European powers like Italy and Germany – not traditionally associated with the region – indicates that Europe has “finally acknowledged the sheer importance of the Indo-Pacific”.

With their large navies, economies, trade links and diplomatic ties with regional countries, these European powers “seek to uphold the international law where it is being challenged”, said Abbondanza, who is also affiliated with the University of Sydney and the Italian Institute of International Affairs.

Recent deployments by the Italian navy and air force are only one component of a larger equation, he said, adding that Rome was currently undertaking a parliamentary discussion on a potential strategy for the Indo-Pacific aimed at pursuing stronger ties with the region.

“The unfolding Italian approach could lead to a new chapter in terms of cooperation with Indo-Pacific countries and institutions,” Abbondanza said.

China accuses US of threatening peace after warship passes disputed reef

Jacob Ross, a research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said Italy and Germany share a common interest in the region’s security as their economies depend on “open and safe maritime trading routes” and Asian factories and markets.

Whether the presence of European powers ensures a safer region will depend on whether regional countries “trust middle powers like France to be able to offer credible alternatives to the increasingly tense relations between the US and China”, Ross said.

“French and EU positions have at times been analysed as less confrontational than US positions,” he said, adding that a difference should be made between France and other European powers as Paris “clearly considers itself an Asia-Pacific or Indo-Pacific power”.

France administers overseas territories in both the South Pacific and Indian Ocean with some 1.5 million residents and where about 7,000 to 8,000 soldiers are permanently stationed.

While Italy and Germany have sent ships to the region, Ross noted that only France has sent vessels through the Taiwan Strait, possesses nuclear submarines and is willing to send them on regional missions.

In April, French surveillance frigate Prairial transited through the strait, according to the Taiwanese government.

Fabio Figiaconi, a PhD candidate in the Brussels School of Governance, said that the growing presence of European powers will not “revolutionise the security environment of the Indo-Pacific, nor change its power balance in a substantial way”.

He noted that except for France, no European power possesses a permanent military presence in the Indo-Pacific, as their deployments take place on an occasional and temporary basis.

French territories in the region include the islands of Mayotte and Réunion near Madagascar, and New Caledonia and French Polynesia in the Pacific, among others.

South China Sea: Beijing, Asean claimant states risk further conflicts in 2024

Figiaconi said the naval deployments and security-related initiatives put forward by the European Union and its member states are important “in terms of strategic signalling”, especially in conveying the message that European powers wish to see the region “remain open and free from coercion”.

“The continuation of such naval missions and joint exercises … sends the message to like-minded regional partners that Europeans are not fully absorbed in terms of attention and resources by the war in Ukraine,” he said.

“They do also care about other strategic theatres that are indeed crucial for their economic security.”

‘Now I want to kill’: smart woman in China fakes manic depression to stop sexual advances of ride-hail driver, says she always carries a knife

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3246408/now-i-want-kill-smart-woman-china-fakes-manic-depression-stop-sexual-advances-ride-hail-driver-says?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman who pretended to suffer from manic depression to repel a ride-hailing driver who verbally harassed her late at night has won praise on mainland social media.

The quick-thinking woman, surnamed Zhang, from Zhejiang province in eastern China, employed the trick to protect herself from the driver as he drove her home on December 24.

As soon as she realised her driver could be problematic, she quickly told him that she was “mad” and recorded the subsequent conversation on her phone, Chao Video reported.

It is unclear why the driver does so, but he asks Zhang: “Does he have sex with you?”

This immediately scared fast-thinking Zhang who replied: “No, because I’ve done the killing. Every time someone comes close to me, I want to kill him. Do you know what I mean?

“I’m not afraid to die, do you know that?” Zhang adds.

The driver failed to answer her questions and tried to steer the conversation back to men approaching her but Zhang stopped him by changing the topic.

“Ah, now I want to kill. I suffer from manic depression,” she told him.

In an effort to convince the driver her condition was real, Zhang told him her mother was doctor and her father a forensic expert, adding that she had a medical certificate to prove it.

“Say no more that provokes my feelings. I also have mental problems. master, how can I solve them master?” Zhang said, to which the driver replied: “You can drink some wine every night.”

“Every time I have wine, I want to get a knife. I just don’t know why,” Zhang told him.

The driver continued to try to get her to talk about drinking wine, but Zhang stopped him again and said: “I have a knife in my bag now. Master, stop talking. I’m very emotional.”

The conversation ebbed and flowed from there and ended when the driver returned to Zhang’s earlier remarks about having “done the killing”, a sign that he believed her story about being “mad”.

The driver asked her if the person had died to which she replied “nearly”.

Both then agreed they needed to calm down and stop talking, after which Zhang was dropped off safely at her destination.

The story struck a chord on mainland social media and at the time of writing had attracted 46,000 comments on Douyin.

One person said: “Wow, she is so smart and brave. I really admire her.”

“The driver totally freaks out,” said another, while a third added: “She proves that by pretending to be crazy we can protect ourselves.”

Another online observer who claimed to have had a similar experience said: “I pretend to be a police officer and tell my colleague in a call that I’m heading to the crime scene.”

China’s youth shun diamonds in favour of gold, seeking safe-haven investment amid economic downturn

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3247422/chinas-youth-shun-diamonds-favour-gold-seeking-safe-haven-investment-amid-economic-downturn?utm_source=rss_feed

While the iconic tagline once made the diamond ring an indispensable symbol of matrimony worldwide, young people in China are no longer subscribing to the theory that it is forever.

After becoming engaged in December, Emma Huang and her fiancé decided to allocate most of their budget to purchasing gold jewellery from China’s largest jewellery retailer, Chow Tai Fook.

“Although the diamond ring is visually appealing, the importance of retaining value takes precedence,” said 26-year-old Huang, a primary school Chinese teacher in the southern province of Guangdong.

In China today, many identify with Huang’s consumption mentality, with domestic gold prices reaching new highs last year, and the retail market witnessing a gold rush.

And as China’s stock market struggles to recover, denting investor expectations, consumers with limited access to overseas investment products have turned to gold as a safe-haven investment, even though purchasing bars or jewellery at retail outlets would incur extra processing fees.

The retail gold buying spree is particularly seen in lower-tier cities and less affluent counties, said Fred Qu, a business development manager of a jewellery brand focusing on the east China market.

And with houses in smaller cities and counties not selling well and experiencing a significant decline in prices, gold has been favoured by young people despite its soaring cost, he added.

Why a weak yuan is spurring a retail gold rush in China

The annual consumption level of gold jewellery per capita in third-tier cities and below increased from 460.7 yuan (US$65) in 2017 to 617.5 yuan in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 6 per cent, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The growth rate surpassed the increase seen in first- and second-tier cities, as well as the national average level, the channel added.

During the global economic downturn, gold, with its strong wealth preservation characteristics tends to be valued by more investors, said EqualOcean analyst Zhuang Jinglun.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to November last year, retail sales of gold and silver jewellery increased by 11.9 per cent, year on year, surpassing overall retail sales of consumer goods, which grew by just 7.2 per cent.

In recent years, jewellery businesses recognising the purchasing power of the lower-tier markets ramped up their investment in third- and fourth-tier cities.

Along a street less than 200 metres (656 feet) long in Quzhou, a prefecture-level city in the eastern province of Zhejiang, most of the 15 gold jewellery stores have opened in the past two to three years, CCTV reported.

According to Chow Tai Fook’s interim report for April to September, the expansion into lower-tier cities aligns with its overall brand strategy.

As of the end of September, the distribution of its point-of-sale locations in China had increased to 7,699 from 3,835 in March 2020.

Reluctance to marry, have kids continued in 2022 amid China’s population woes

Of all its locations, 45.5 per cent were located in third and fourth-tier cities and below, up from 33.3 per cent in March 2017.

“Gold jewellery and products continued to be buoyed by consumers, despite the strength in gold price,” the report said.

From April to September, its revenue from gold jewellery and products increased by 12.8 per cent, the report added.

In contrast, as a weak macro environment weighed on discretionary purchases, revenues for gem-set, platinum and k-gold jewellery had declined by 18 per cent during the same period, it added.

Gold also has a well-established recycling mechanism, while diamonds face difficulties and have a high depreciation rate, EqualOcean analyst Zhuang added.

And amid the current sociocultural shift, there is a waning belief in the myth that diamonds are forever, resulting in a noticeable decline in demand for diamonds, Zhuang said.

The improvement in the craftsmanship and the more exquisite design of gold jewellery influenced primary school teacher Huang, she added, along with the high price of diamonds.

Due to the approaching Lunar New Year, many young people are returning home for blind dates and to get married, resulting in a high demand for gold jewellery, with many designs focusing on wedding and marriage themes, added jewellery brand manager Qu.

“At the end of the year, those who buy gold jewellery mainly focus on pieces with larger weights,” he said, pointing to gold bracelets and necklaces.

In mid-September, the retail price for gold from main brands, including Chow Tai Fook and Chow Sang Sang, had risen to 600 yuan (US$84) per gram before peaking at around 630 yuan per gram around the beginning and end of December.

The price declined slightly in the last two days of 2023, but it has fluctuated around 625 yuan per gram since the beginning of the new year.

Why Taiwan arms sales, in place for decades, will remain a source of US-China tensions

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3247421/why-taiwan-arms-sales-place-decades-will-remain-source-us-china-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing and Washington appear set to remain at loggerheads over weapons sales to Taiwan, given US approval for a US$300 million tactical systems upgrade in its latest defence support for the island.

The December 15 announcement came a month after a much-awaited summit in San Francisco between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who pointed out that Taiwan remained “the most important and most sensitive issue in China-US relations” and urged that the US “stop arming Taiwan”.

Observers said the latest sale might be “less provocative” or “low-key” as it involved systems support, but would still be viewed by Beijing as a challenge to its national reunification efforts.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary. The United States, like most countries, does not recognise self-governed Taiwan as independent, but is opposed to any attempt to take the island by force.

Washington is also legally bound under its 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help the island protect itself, by providing “arms of a defensive character”, and is its top international supporter and weapons supplier.

The act, passed three months after Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in January 1979, aimed to demonstrate that the US was not abandoning its old ally. But it is deliberately ambiguous about Washington’s commitment to directly defend the island against an attack from Beijing – seen as aimed at discouraging supporters of Taiwan independence.

Fallout from Taiwan elections may ‘heighten risk of US-China missteps’

According to the Pentagon, the tactical systems sale would include follow-on life cycle support to maintain Taiwan’s C4 capabilities – involving command, control, communications and computers.

Dean Chen, a professor of political science at Ramapo College of New Jersey, compared the latest deal to those announced under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.

“The nature of the arms sale this time – to merely do a follow-on life-cycle support of Taiwan’s C4 capabilities – is relatively less provocative than, say, the Trump 2019 sales,” Chen said.

Trump’s approval in 2019 for an US$8 billion arms sale to Taiwan involving 66 F-16 fighter jets was one of the largest single such transactions. It also came five months ahead of presidential elections in Taiwan in January 2020, when Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party was re-elected for a second and final term.

Li Nan, a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute, also said the software upgrade was a “low-key and less eye-catching” move than selling fighter jets, ammunition and warships, but was still likely to incur Beijing’s wrath.

A similar warning was sounded by Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University. “The latest arms sale … will inject negative energy into bilateral relations despite the fact that [both sides] have wanted to bring about a thaw or momentum of detente to the relationship after the Xi-Biden summit,” Xin said.

US arms sales to Taiwan have also long been a sore point, but did not take the centre stage in its relations with Beijing in the decades when mainland China remained focused on economic development.

It was only in the late 2000s that things began to change, as Beijing’s military modernisation drive started to take off.

The quick shift in military balance in favour of Beijing raised concerns over Taiwan’s ability to defend against a cross-strait attack. US arms sales to Taiwan began to be ramped up, to not only boost the island’s defence capacity but also counter the rise of Beijing as Washington’s geopolitical rival.

After stagnating in the early 2010s, arms sales have speeded up since the Trump presidency.

According to Taipei, the C4 equipment deal is the 12th weapons sale to the island in the three years since the Biden administration took over.

During Trump’s four years in office, the US approved 11 arms sales to Taiwan. In comparison, there were three arms deals reached during Barack Obama’s two terms.

“[The latest arms sale] is compatible with the Biden administration’s intent to compete intensely with the PRC while avoiding derailing their fragile relationship that was so painstakingly mended last month in San Francisco,” Chen said, using the acronym for mainland China’s official name – the People’s Republic of China.

As with previous US arms transfers, Beijing has steadfastly condemned the spate of weapons sales under Biden. Increasing US-Taiwan security cooperation has also left Beijing nervous, seeing it as a signal that the US is opposed to China’s peaceful rise.

The US has supported Taiwan’s military aims under Tsai to develop a “porcupine strategy” – involving asymmetric warfare and “smaller, cutting-edge technologies, and more agile military strategic concepts and weapon platforms” to exploit the vulnerabilities of a stronger adversary, Chen said.

“This would be different from past US administrations’ arms sales packages which laid more emphasis on large-ticket items like fighter jets and tanks.”

Li at NUS said the C4 upgrade would strengthen Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare capacity involving highly dispersed and decentralised events.

It would enable the different armed services to share a common battlefield picture in real time, to ensure a “seamless sort of coordination” and achieve interoperability among land, air and navy forces, he said.

Zhang Zhizhou, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said Beijing was likely to view the sale as part of Washington’s strategy to obstruct reunification efforts, and be spurred to step up its efforts towards achieving that goal.

“Beijing will view it as Washington’s [move] … to intentionally suppress China, making its peaceful reunification with Taiwan more difficult,” Zhang said.

“The US’ arming of Taiwan not only limits the mainland’s options in its peaceful policy towards Taiwan, but also reinforces the urgency for Beijing to achieve reunification by force.”

Both Xin and Zhang said the timing of the move, just a month after the breakthrough San Francisco summit, would also undermine strategic trust as the two sides try to rebuild ties following months of heightened tensions over issues including Taiwan, Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, and US-led tech curbs on Beijing.

“From Beijing’s point of view, the US is playing the Taiwan card by stepping up military security cooperation,” Xin said. “It will deal a blow to the fragile strategic mutual trust between the US and China, deepening China’s worries that the US is hindering China’s reunification plan.”

Robert Sutter, a professor of practice of international affairs at George Washington University, said while the US-China divide over the arms sales issue had existed since 1979, it had now become “irreversible”.

Such sales “will continue after Taiwan’s elections [this month],” Sutter forecast.

“The US government today is strongly committed to supporting Taiwan and to using such sales and other efforts to deter China from using coercive means against Taiwan and thereby changing the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”

More than 19 million Taiwanese are expected to vote in presidential and legislative elections on January 13, with the outcome expected to shape both cross-strait and US-China relations.

Vice-President and DPP candidate William Lai Ching-te is the favourite in the race, with almost all opinion polls placing him ahead of the mainland-friendly Kuomintang’s Hou Yu-ih and Ko Wen-je of the smaller Taiwan People’s Party.

Beijing has urged Taiwanese voters to “stand on the right side of history … and advance the process of the peaceful reunification of the motherland”.

This came two days after Xi in his New Year’s Eve address said “reunification” with Taiwan was inevitable, a point he also highlighted to Biden when they met in November.

Continued US arms sales could also undermine Beijing’s charm offensive approach towards eventual reunification, said Raymond Kuo, director of the Taiwan Policy Initiative and a senior political scientist at US-based think tank Rand Corporation.

“International support simply makes it harder [for Beijing] to entice or coerce the people [in Taiwan] back into the mainland,” Kuo said. “Providing the Taiwanese with an independent defensive capability means that China must rely more on attraction. Beijing has struggled with that approach.”

Taiwan’s increased engagement with Washington under Tsai has seen Beijing step up military and economic pressure on the island. The People’s Liberation Army has frequently staged exercises around the island in recent years, including major live-fire drills after then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited in August 2022 and Tsai met Pelosi’s successor Kevin McCarthy in the US in April. PLA warplanes now also regularly cross the Taiwan Strait median line, once an unofficial barrier between the two sides.

Mainland China airs documentary signalling preparation for Taiwan attack

The US says its aim in selling arms to Taiwan is to credibly deter Beijing from taking military action against the island, and also seeks to assure Beijing that the arms sales do not contradict Washington’s 1979 “one-China policy” – which recognises the PRC government as the sole, legitimate government of China.

A memo sent by then-US president Ronald Reagan in 1982, declassified in 2019, reaffirmed this commitment, and said the quantity and quality of the arms provided to Taiwan should depend entirely on the threats posed by Beijing.

However, the current cross-strait situation had made the US double down on such sales, Chen said.

“The US message is essentially that these arms sales must go forward in response to China’s escalated and more sophisticated military threats towards Taiwan.”

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