• [World] William Lai: Taiwan just chose a president China loathes. What now?
• Taiwan elects Lai Ching-te, who rejects China’s territorial claim, as president
• Taiwan elects Lai Ching-te as president. China calls it a dangerous choice.
• Talking shop: Frenchman in China invites random passers-by to enjoy cup of tea in street with him and discuss their personal problems
• Beijing hits out at German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s ‘unwarranted’ attack on its actions in South China Sea dispute with Philippines
• Costco crowds decrease, but Hong Kong shoppers still keen to snap up cut-price food, sets of luggage at new mainland China store
• Vote counting starts in key Taiwan election amid threats from China
• A comical effort by China’s intelligence agency | China
• Can global car makers fend off competition from China? | Podcasts
• China’s military graft-busters told to ‘scrutinise the key few’ powerful officials
• Taiwan voters choosing next president in poll weighing China’s threat and island’s stability
• Chinese man jailed for stealing from passengers on Vietnam-Singapore Scoot flight
• Tearful China boy distressed about after-school classes reports unlicensed tutor to police, becomes online sensation
• Not just Forest City: a look at Malaysia’s Chinese-backed projects that have faced uncertainty, controversy
• Loving children in China: girl’s heartwarming birthday speech to mother, daughter, 6, becomes grief counsellor, anxious boy fears for sleepy parent
• South Korea’s dog meat ban a signal to China to follow suit
• Malaysia seeks to revive China-backed Forest City megaproject – never mind the stray dogs, crocodiles and day drinkers
• Senator Jon Tester calls for ban on Chinese land purchases after billionaire Chen Tianqiao becomes one of US top foreign owners
• Top China envoy and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meet in Washington ahead of Taiwan elections
• China nurtures indigenous seed industry to reduce import reliance, secure food supply
• Anti-Chinese laws take a toll in Florida even as Ron DeSantis falters in his presidential run
• Why Philippines will struggle to forge South China Sea alliance with Vietnam

[World] William Lai: Taiwan just chose a president China loathes. What now?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67920530?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Taiwan elects Lai Ching-te, who rejects China’s territorial claim, as president

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/13/taiwan-ruling-partys-lai-ching-te-wins-presidential-election

Taiwan has voted for Lai Ching-te to be its next president, ushering in a historic third term in power for the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive party (DPP), in a result that will anger Beijing and heighten tensions across the Taiwan strait.

The victory of Lai, who since 2020 served as vice-president to Tsai Ing-wen, marks the continuation of a government that promoted a sovereign Taiwan and a national identity separate to China, and oversaw some of the deepest cross-strait tensions in decades as Beijing pushed towards its goal of annexation.

Early results showed Lai had won more than 40% of the vote, ahead of Hou You-yi from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), and a third placed Taiwan People’s party. Pre-election polls had shown Lai with a much narrower lead.

While the DPP has retained power, it is without the majority mandate of Lai’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, and most likely without a majority in the legislative yuen.

The entry of a third party candidate into the race had upended traditional voting expectations. Ko Wen-je, a former surgeon and mayor of Taipei City, ran offering a “third way” for voters sick of the two major parties. His detractors said the TPP’s campaign was populist and inconsistent, and light on detail in his plans to deal with China.

Lai, who comes from a more radical wing of the DPP, has pledged to follow Tsai’s careful balancing of the US and China, in which she avoided formalising Taiwan’s de facto independence – and antagonising Beijing – by saying Taiwan was already a sovereign nation, and defending the status quo. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to “re-unify” it with China, and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve that aim.

It has called the DPP a party of separatists, detests Lai, and has twice sanctioned his new vice-president, Hsiao Bi-khim, who until recently served as Taiwan’s envoy to the US.

The DPP had presented itself to voters as the party of cautious resistance, avoiding provocation but building defences and strengthening international relationships, particularly with the US and its allies.

The KMT, which also opposes Chinese rule, had accused the DPP of increasing the danger, and said that if it won the election it would seek to restore dialogue and friendly relations with China to reduce tensions.

Amanda Hsiao, a senior China analyst with the International Crisis Group, said Lai’s win was not necessarily an endorsement of his cross-strait policies.

“I think it reflects more on the inability almost of the KMT to convince voters that they have an approach that has been updated to fit the new geopolitical circumstances, updated since they were last in power,” she told the Guardian.

Hsiao said Beijing was likely to react to Lai’s victory with increased pressure, particularly in the lead-up to his inauguration in May.

“They labelled Lai as a troublemaker, so there is some expectation that they respond,” she said.

“The objectives are to get Lai to characterise the cross-strait relationship in a way that comes as close to what Beijing wants as possible, to adopt a more moderate vibe. Another is to signal to their own domestic audience that things are in control.”

But the acts of pressure were likely to be more discrete than large-scale military drills seen in recent years, Hsiao added, such as more punitive trade decisions, and military or grey-zone activities such as the recent increase in meteorological balloons flying through Taiwan’s sovereign airspace.

The election was also fought on domestic issues, such as the economy and the DPP’s reputation as the vanguard of progressive values. “I am gay, and the DPP is really supportive of human rights, gay rights, and friendly to LGBTQIA,” said Chou Yutao, a DPP supporter, before the vote. “The most important thing is to respect ourselves as Taiwanese,” he said.

Taiwan is a relatively young democracy, emerging from decades of authoritarian rule in the late 1980s and holding its first entirely free elections in the mid-1990s. The freedoms of voting – in stark and conspicuous contrast to those denied in China – are a point of pride and enthusiasm.

Competing parties travelled Taiwan for weeks, holding large public rallies in cities and towns for thousands of attendees. Voters, including many from Taiwan’s large international diaspora, made the journey back to their home neighbourhoods to vote in person.

Vivi Lin, a 25-year-old student, travelled back from the UK to cast her ballot in Yilan, a city in northern Taiwan. The plane ticket cost about 40,000 new Taiwan dollars (£1,000). “It was just such a miraculous moment. I voted along with my grandma and grandpa. I’m the first generation of a democratic Taiwan. Growing up, my grandparents and parents were always telling me how precious the freedom and democracy we have right now is.”

Lai’s win largely followed what polls had been predicting before the blackout period began 10 days ago, but internally the campaign had grown increasingly worried in recent days. While the presidency was assured just a few hours after polls closed, the DPP looked in danger of losing its majority in the 113 seat parliament.

Taiwan elects Lai Ching-te as president. China calls it a dangerous choice.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/13/taiwan-president-lai-ching-te/2023-12-28T20:57:34.436Z

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan has elected as its president Lai Ching-te, once a scrappy advocate for Taiwanese independence, now a key proponent of the Democratic Progressive Party’s efforts to maintain peace with Beijing while repelling its aggression.

During the closely-fought race, Lai promised to work closely with the United States to build up Taiwan’s defenses at a time when trust between Beijing, Taipei and Washington has frayed and when escalating Chinese military harassment is threatening to tumble into outright conflict.

Lai, who has been vice president since 2020, was confirmed Taiwan’s next president just before 8pm local time Saturday, after Hou Yu-ih, the candidate from the opposition Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, conceded in a speech.

The 64-year-old Harvard-educated former doctor, who also goes by William, will take office in May, extending the eight-year rule of his party for an unprecedented third term.

Internationally, Lai’s presidency will likely be judged by how well he manages an increasingly bellicose Beijing and whether he can avert a major crisis in the region.

The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but claims the self-governing island of 23 million as part of its territory and regularly threatens to take control by force if Taipei ever formally rules out “unification.”

Xi Jinping, the strongman leader of China who promotes grand narratives of national “rejuvenation,” has dramatically escalated military activity around Taiwan in recent years and ruled unification an “inevitability.”

In the campaign, Lai cast himself as the safe and familiar choice to fend off Hou, who advocated compromise with Beijing to ease tensions. He repeatedly promised to continue the approach of President Tsai Ing-wen, who is stepping down having fulfilled a two-term limit, underscoring how influential his predecessor has been in shaping Taiwan’s defense and foreign policy debate.

Like Tsai, Lai maintains he is open to talking with Xi but only as equals. He has urged Beijing to rethink the pressure tactics but says he “harbors no illusions” about its intentions.

Instead of trying to please Beijing, Lai has said he will focus on securing Taiwan’s global status by strengthening ties with United States and other friendly democracies. He wants to continue military reforms, protect politics from interference and secure the economy from coercion.

Beijing has made abundantly clear its dislike of Lai. Chinese officials consider him a “separatist” for his views on Taiwan’s sovereignty and has said he would bring “severe danger" to cross-strait relations.

“The Chinese Communist Party leadership will definitely say that Lai is worse than Tsai,” said Shelley Rigger, an expert on Taiwanese politics at Davidson College.

China’s leaders are wedded to a strategy of “perpetual escalation,” she said, and “for them to acknowledge that any DPP leader is not an existential threat would feel like stepping back from commitments they made.”

China’s military pressure campaign has fueled concerns of miscalculation that could spark conflict and draw in the United States. Analysts are watching closely to see if Beijing responds to Lai’s victory with large-scale drills that could send tensions spiraling.

4 ways China is trying to interfere in Taiwan’s presidential election

Experts on Taiwanese politics fear Beijing has long ago made up its mind about Lai, despite his efforts to distance himself from his past advocacy for formal independence.

Taiwan exists in a kind of gray zone — it has its own government, its own passport and its own distinct identity. But because of objections from China, it has diplomatic relations with only 13 countries and doesn’t have a formal seat at the United Nations or other international bodies. Many governments, including the United States, however, maintain robust unofficial ties with Taipei.

It has enjoyed de facto sovereignty for 75 years without pushing for the outright separation that Beijing strongly objects to.

Unlike Tsai, who was a career bureaucrat and international trade negotiator originally considered an outsider by many in the DPP, Lai rose to prominence in the days when the party openly supported Taiwan’s formal independence.

‘Pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence’

Lai’s political career began and took off in Tainan, a seaside city in south Taiwan that has long been a stronghold for the party.

As a young lawmaker and then the popular mayor of Tainan from 2010 to 2017, Lai became a prominent figure in the party’s “new tide” faction that once pushed for a clause on Taiwan independence to be included in the party charter.

When appointed premier in 2017, he described himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence” and that he would always hold that goal.

Through the campaign, his past statements have been used by Beijing and the main opposition party Kuomintang to claim he will upend the fragile agreements between Beijing, Taipei and Washington that for decades kept the peace.

Taiwan’s election explained: What’s at stake, and how will China react?

But his supporters say these critics misread Lai’s stance by focusing on the “independence” part of that formulation. “He was just saying that he is a very pragmatic person and views cross-strait relations in a pragmatic way,” said Yeh Tse-shan, deputy mayor of Tainan, who worked alongside Lai for seven years there.

On the campaign trail, Lai stressed that he has no plan to declare independence. Taiwan, he says, is already sovereign under its official name, the Republic of China, and there is no need to formalize the separation and risk a Chinese invasion.

Beijing — and, to a lesser extent, Washington — might be concerned about Lai’s early advocacy, but he isn’t seen as likely to push the envelope among the elders of the hardcore Taiwan independence movement.

The DPP has “changed from an organization leading political reforms to an election machine,” said Yao Chia-wen, chairman of the party from 1987 to 1988. “Those in office don’t want to cause trouble. Neither will Lai,” he said.

Even if younger generations increasingly identify as Taiwanese — not Chinese — and take democratic freedoms as a given, the overwhelming majority support “maintaining the status quo” when it comes to relations with Beijing, surveys show.

Some analysts worry Lai will lack the discipline Tsai demonstrated when talking about relations with Beijing.

“One of the things that helped Tsai a lot was her extreme steadiness,” but Lai’s background in political campaigning makes him “more of a talker” and could undermine his ability to stay on message, said Rigger.

A history of challenging authoritarian regimes

Born in a poor neighborhood of New Taipei City, Lai’s life began with tragedy. The youngest of five children, his father died in a mining accident when he was three months old.

After attending the prestigious National Taiwan University and moving to Tainan to become a doctor, he was caught up in the intellectual ferment of the 1990s, a heady time in Taiwanese politics that close associates say left him with a quiet determination to challenge perceived injustices.

The Kuomintang had ruled Taiwan as a one-party state for four decades after losing the Chinese civil war to the Communists and fleeing to the island in 1949. When martial law ended in 1987, the democracy movement took off, and Lai decided he couldn’t sit on the sidelines.

“Intellectuals at that time were passionate about overthrowing the Kuomintang’s authoritarian system,” said Lu Wei-yin, a Tainan city councilor who worked with Lai in the 2000s.

The Taiwan party toughest on China has a strong lead as election nears

Early on, Lai was idealistic and quite serious about his work. Close associates from his Tainan days describe him as solemn and focused on the minutia of policies.

He almost always wore a suit and would call out colleagues for underdressing. The only time he really seemed to relax was when talking about his — and arguably Taiwan’s — favorite sport: Baseball.

Despite being softly spoken, he didn’t shy away from fights as a young lawmaker. In 2005, when the Kuomintang blocked his party’s proposal for Taiwan to buy more weapons from the United States, Lai was filmed hurling insults on the floor of parliament.

“When he thinks something isn’t right, he has to do something,” Lu said.

That need to remonstrate has occasionally landed Lai in hot water. In 2014, on his first trip to China, he caused a stir by openly defending his party’s position on Taiwan independence to his Chinese hosts.

A Chinese scholar suggested the DPP freeze the Taiwan independence clause in the party charter to facilitate talks with Beijing — a proposal resurfaced in recent months by the Kuomintang and prominent American academics.

His party didn’t create the desire for separation from China, Lai replied, and suspending the clause wouldn’t help Beijing resolve the core reason Taiwanese don’t want to be ruled by Beijing. “Support for Taiwan independence in society came first,” he said, “then came the DPP.”

Talking shop: Frenchman in China invites random passers-by to enjoy cup of tea in street with him and discuss their personal problems

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3247239/talking-shop-frenchman-china-invites-random-passers-enjoy-cup-tea-street-him-and-discuss-their?utm_source=rss_feed

A French blogger in China invites passers-by to enjoy a cup of tea with him while they have a personal problem exchange has gone viral on mainland social media.

Ruelle Olivier Herve, who lives in Hangzhou city in Zhejiang province in eastern China and runs a Weibo account @tealovinglaolu, set up a street stall to randomly invite young people to exchange their problems while enjoying a cup of tea, Tieji Video reported.

In a viral video, Herve is seen setting up his stall with two chairs and a table before listening to their personal problems after brewing Chinese tea for them.

One such interlocutor called Xiaofang tells him: “I have postponed my graduation.”

The details of her studies are unclear, but Xiaofang appeared to be concerned about them, to which Herve asks her: “So is this the problem that now troubles you most?”

After answering him in the positive, the pair have a conversation about her situation.

Another woman, Yi Tong, a trainee designer, tells him that she feels anxious about her application for graduate school and another woman explains that she feels pressured by the burdens her mother imposes on her.

A third person, photographer Chun Zhen tells Herve his parents put pressure on him to get married, after which the Frenchman also engages him in a discussion.

After listening to his passer-by tea-drinking friends, Herve asks them to write down the nature of their problems.

“I forward the letters to those who have been through the problems,” Herve said in the video.

He takes the letters he collects to a local nursing home for old people and seeks their advice based on their life experience.

The Frenchman has been sharing videos about his chats on his Weibo account which now has 111,000 followers.

His story has trended on mainland social media, striking a chord with many people online.

One person said: “I can really feel those young people.”

Another commented: “It’s a really nice tea talk.”

“This is a very creative idea. Everyone needs a good listener,” a third person agreed.

“The answers from the elderly people are very cool,” said another.

Beijing hits out at German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s ‘unwarranted’ attack on its actions in South China Sea dispute with Philippines

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3248326/beijing-hits-out-german-foreign-minister-annalena-baerbocks-unwarranted-attack-its-actions-south?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing on Saturday accused German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of “making unwarranted accusations” about China’s actions during recent confrontations with Philippine ships in the South China Sea.

“The recent maritime incidents between China and the Philippines were not caused by China and China has taken necessary measures to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” the Chinese embassy in Manila said in a statement on its Facebook page.

China says ‘special arrangements’ allow Manila to supply Second Thomas Shoal

It also said: “No non-regional country has the right to interfere in the maritime disputes between China and the Philippines.”

The statement added that China should not be blamed for recent incidents and is “committed to properly handling disputes with the Philippines through dialogue and consultation with the aim of jointly maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea”.

During Baerbock’s recent visit to the Philippines – the first by a German foreign minister in about a decade – she said China was threatening freedom of navigation in the disputed waters and the dispute was a matter of concern for Germany and other European countries.

In recent months there have been repeated face-offs between Chinese and Philippine ships in the South China Sea, including several collisions that each side blamed on the other.

In some cases, Chinese ships used water cannons against vessels trying to resupply Philippine troops stationed on a disputed reef.

There are concerns that the dispute could escalate further and draw in the United States. Manila has moved to strengthen military ties with its long-term ally in recent months, including more joint exercises.

At a press conference with her Philippine counterpart Enrique Manalo on Thursday, Baerbock said: “[China’s] risky manoeuvres violate the rights and economic development opportunities of your country and other neighbouring countries.

“For countries around the world, they call into question the freedom of the sea routes guaranteed under international law in an area through which a third of global maritime trade flows.”

Will Manila’s plans to build in South China Sea escalate tensions with Beijing?

On Saturday, the Chinese embassy said there was “never any issue” with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and blamed “the deliberate intervention of external forces intending to sow discord among regional countries”.

Baerbock said it was “crystal clear” that China’s claims “are not covered by international law”.

But the Chinese embassy defended Beijing’s decision to reject a 2016 ruling by an international arbitration panel that invalidated China’s extensive territorial claims on historical grounds.

The embassy said it was “in essence a dispute of territorial sovereignty, which is beyond the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and does not concern the interpretation or application” of the law.

“The so-called ‘rules-based international order’ is essentially a set of ‘house rules’ established by a few Western countries to contain and suppress other countries,” the embassy said.

“China does not accept or recognise it, and will never accept any claim or action based on the [ruling].”

Costco crowds decrease, but Hong Kong shoppers still keen to snap up cut-price food, sets of luggage at new mainland China store

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3248334/costco-crowds-decrease-hong-kong-shoppers-still-keen-snap-cut-price-food-sets-luggage-new-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong bargain hunters snapped up cheap deals on everything from sets of luggage and stuffed toys to liquid detergent as well as strawberries and croissants at Costco’s new Shenzhen megastore as a bulk-buying spree continued into the second day of the store’s opening.

City shoppers who made the cross-border day trip on Saturday said they were keen to explore the warehouse-style store, which opened in Shenzhen’s Longhua district the day before.

They added lower prices, as well as a pleasant overall shopping experience, would encourage them to return.

A Post reporter at the scene identified foodstuffs as some of the most sought-after items.

These included a pack of 30 strawberries for 95.90 yuan with up to three boxes each shopper, a 2.5kg (5.5lbs) box of Chilean cherries at 249.90 yuan, and a box of 30 fresh eggs sold for 18.80 yuan.

Australian raw black tiger prawn at 139.90 yuan a kilogram and Atlantic salmon fillet for 199.90 yuan a kilogram, as well as 12 butter croissants for 47.90 yuan, were also popular with shoppers.

Among the items sold out within minutes after the branch opened at 9am were sets of Samsonite luggage and the large-size purplish-pink stuffed Disney teddy bear Lotso.

Day-to-day necessities such as two 3.25-litre bottles of liquid detergent for 59.90 yuan and clothing, including a set of three Calvin Klein men’s boxer shorts for 125.90 yuan were also popular.

The store on Saturday was not as packed as it had been a day earlier.

There were no long queues outside the store before opening time, but there were still hundreds of people waiting in zigzag queues in part of the multistorey car park above the shop floor.

A security guard said some of the car park had been pressed into service to cope with the large numbers of shoppers on a temporary basis for a few days after the opening.

But the queues moved smoothly and it took about 15 minutes for shoppers to get into the store early in the day. But more people arrived in droves at noon, which led to half-an-hour waiting times for entry.

Hongkongers queue for more than 2 hours as they flock to new Shenzhen Costco

Hongkonger Hugo Chow and his wife drove for about three hours and arrived at the store about opening time.

The 28-year-old service adviser in the car industry said he set out early to avoid the crowds.

Chow added he was keen to explore the store and explained he had previously had a pleasant shopping experience at a Costco branch in Seattle in the US.

“I came here to explore the store as I like the livelier shopping atmosphere on the mainland compared with Hong Kong,” he said.

Chow added the lower retail prices across the border were also an attraction.

The couple spent three hours at the store and filled two trolleys with items, including two large-sized stuffed toys at 399 yuan each, baked goods, strawberries, drinks and glass cleaner, and spent about 2,000 yuan.

Chow, who said he planned to return once or twice a month, said he estimated the items would have cost double that amount in Hong Kong.

Tyler Yip travelled with his wife from their home in Kwai Tsing in the New Territories, to the store on Saturday morning.

Yip, in his 30s and who works in banking, said they earlier planned to dine in Shenzhen, so they decided to spend the morning shopping at Costco as well.

“The overall shopping experience is good, except for the large number of shoppers, but the crowds are already smaller than we expected,” he said.

The couple spent about 1,000 yuan on a pack of two Calvin Klein bras, a set of three men’s boxer shorts from the same designer as well as a box of croissants and three boxes of organic shiitake mushrooms and other goods before they called it a day about noon.

Yip said he was pleased that they had saved about 1,000 yuan on their buys compared with Hong Kong.

“We can save much money shopping here as the prices of many products are lower than those in Hong Kong,” he said.

He added he also planned to return to the store in the future for more cheap deals.

It took about two hours for Hong Kong retiree Wong Yuen-sun, 68, to travel with her husband and son from their home in Sai Kung to the Costco store on Saturday morning.

The trio bought three boxes of strawberries, a box of oats and a roast chicken, which cost about 350 yuan in total.

“The strawberries are much cheaper here and we also don’t have these brands of oats and roast chicken in Hong Kong,” she said.

She said she had shopped at Sam’s Club, another warehouse-style store in Shenzhen owned by American supermarket giant Walmart, before and reckoned Costco had a wider range of brands on offer.

Bulk buying megastores in Shenzhen may lure even more Hongkongers over border

“I’m exploring the new store and I will take my grandson and other family members and relatives next time,” she said.

The Post found that 2-litre and 630ml containers of Walch disinfectant cost HK$119 (US$15.22) at Hong Kong health and beauty chain Watsons.

That compared to a price of 118.60 yuan for two 2-litre containers of the same brand at Costco.

A box of three Calvin Klein men’s boxer shorts sells for HK$343 in Hong Kong, but the same item is priced at 125.90 yuan at the Shenzhen Costco.

A two-piece hard-sided set of Samsonite luggage had a price tag of 769.90 yuan at Costco. The same cases cost between HK$1,888 and HK$1,980 at Hong Kong retailers.

The Shenzhen store is Costco’s first in south China and the sixth on the mainland.

The four-storey branch, with a floor area of 44,500 square metres (478,994 sq ft), features about 4,000 brand name products sourced from Chinese and international manufacturers.

Massive members-only bulk retailers across the border have become increasingly popular among Hongkongers because of the cheap deals on offer.

The stronger Hong Kong dollar value against the yuan has also helped make shopping on the mainland more attractive.

Additional reporting by Lilian Cheng

Vote counting starts in key Taiwan election amid threats from China

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/13/vote-counting-starts-in-key-taiwan-election-amid-threats-from-china

Vote counting got under way on Saturday in Taiwan’s presidential election, held under the shadow of threats from China that choosing a leader it disapproves of could set the stage for war on the self-ruled island.

Beijing criticised frontrunner Lai Ching-te, the current-vice president, as a dangerous “separatist” in the days leading up to the poll and, on the eve of the vote, its defence ministry vowed to “crush” any Taiwanese independence attempts.

Communist China claims democratic Taiwan, separated from the mainland by a 180-km (110-mile) strait, as its own and says it will not rule out using force to bring about “unification”, even if conflict does not appear imminent.

Polls closed at 4pm (8am GMT) after the electorate of nearly 20 million cast ballots in fine, sunny weather.

Results are expected on Saturday evening, with the outcome watched closely by Beijing and Washington, Taiwan’s main military partner, as the two superpowers tussle for influence in the strategically vital region.

Lai, of the Democratic Progressive party (DPP), pitched himself during a raucous campaign as the defender of Taiwan’s democratic way of life.

“This is Taiwan’s hard-won democracy. We should all cherish our democracy and vote enthusiastically,” Lai told reporters as he voted in a school gymnasium in the southern city of Tainan.

His main opponent, Hou Yu-ih, of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), favours warmer ties with China and accuses the DPP of antagonising Beijing with its stance that Taiwan is “already independent”.

The KMT has said it will boost economic prosperity while maintaining strong relationships with international partners, including the US.

“I hope that no matter how turbulent it was during the election process, everyone will unite after the poll to face Taiwan’s future,” Hou told reporters after voting in New Taipei City.

Taiwan bans the publishing of polls within 10 days of elections but political observers say the 64-year-old Lai is expected to win the top job, although his party is likely to lose its parliamentary majority.

Strict election laws also effectively prevent media from asking voters about their specific choices on polling day.

The race has also seen the rise of the upstart populist Taiwan People’s party (TPP), whose leader, Ko Wen-je, has drawn support with an anti-establishment offer of a “third way” out of the two-party deadlock.

Located on a key maritime gateway linking the South China Sea to the Pacific Ocean, Taiwan is home to a powerhouse semiconductor industry producing precious microchips – the lifeblood of the global economy powering everything from smartphones to cars and missiles.

China has stepped up military pressure on Taiwan in recent years, periodically stoking worries about a potential invasion.

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, said in a recent New Year’s address the “unification” of Taiwan with China was “inevitable”.

As voters cast their ballots across the strait, AFP reporters spotted a fighter jet in the skies above the island of Pingtan, the nearest point in China to Taiwan’s main island.

The hashtag “Taiwan election” was among the top trending items on China’s social media platform Weibo before it was blocked at around 9.45am local time (1.45am GMT).

Chinese warplanes and naval ships probe Taiwan’s defences almost daily and Beijing has also staged massive war games in recent years – simulating a blockade of the island and sending missiles into its surrounding waters.

The Chinese military said the night before the polls that it would “take all necessary measures to firmly crush ‘Taiwan independence’ attempts of all forms”.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met a senior Chinese official in Washington hours before the vote and stressed the importance of “maintaining peace and stability” across the Taiwan strait.

Under Taiwanese law, President Tsai Ing-wen could not run again because she has served the maximum two terms.

As well as a president, voters will also elect lawmakers to Taiwan’s 113-seat legislature.

A comical effort by China’s intelligence agency | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/01/11/a-comical-effort-by-chinas-intelligence-agency

FOREIGN SPIES are lurking everywhere! So says the Chinese government. Officials were ruffled by the CIA’s claim, made last year, that it was rebuilding its spy networks in China a decade after most of its sources disappeared. But China’s reaction seems defined more by paranoia than vigilance. The national intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), wants the entire population to be on the lookout for spies.

To improve public awareness, the ministry has launched an online comic strip called “Shenyin Special Investigation Squad”. It will feature heart-pounding action, say China’s spooks. The first instalment, released on January 7th, shows the capture and interrogation of a blond-haired man, seemingly foreign, who is suspected of breaking the country’s counter-espionage law.

It also introduces the members of the Shenyin team. Among them are a tech geek named A Zhe (he wears glasses and enjoys bubble tea) and a martial-arts whizz named Dan Dan (she is a long-haired police officer). An agent named Lao Tan has 20 years of experience in the field of security and an unspecified set of skills (one imagines they are very particular, a nightmare for certain people).

The first instalment ends with the team investigating suspicious activity in the Xishan mining area. According to the MSS, the story is inspired by actual counter-espionage cases.

The intelligence agency is working hard to help “the seeds of national security to take root and sprout” in the minds of young people. Last year it joined WeChat, a popular messaging app, where it shares stories of devious foreign spies at work. Now it is creating comics. But such propaganda efforts, with their predictable themes and lack of subtlety, are usually met with indifference—or even derision—from the intended audience.

Still, the comic strip serves a purpose, reinforcing the impression that any interaction between Chinese people and foreigners will be viewed with suspicion by the government. Last year it expanded the counter-espionage law, banning the transfer of information related to security and national interests, which it did not define. The European Chamber of Commerce in China cited uncertainty over the scope of the law as one reason why its members were losing confidence in China’s business environment.

Other moves by the government have added to the febrile atmosphere. In 2015 officials set up a hotline that ordinary citizens could use to report their suspicions. Some local governments offer big rewards for tips on espionage cases. China established an annual National Security Education Day years ago. Though, according to the MSS, publication of the comic was timed to coincide with Police Day on January 10th.

To some Chinese, the comic is a worthwhile piece of propaganda. One of the country’s best-known nationalist commentators, Hu Xijin, wrote on social media that the security services should speak more about the threat of espionage and highlight the cases they’ve cracked. But he also warned that they shouldn’t go too far, lest China cut itself off from the world. That, he said, “would be like not eating for fear of choking”.■

Subscribers can sign up to Drum Tower, our new weekly newsletter, to understand what the world makes of China—and what China makes of the world.

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Can global car makers fend off competition from China? | Podcasts

https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2024/01/11/can-global-car-makers-fend-off-competition-from-china

China is the world’s largest car market. Volkswagen depends on the country for more than half its profits. But VW’s best customer could be about to become its biggest competitor. Data suggest that China overtook Japan last year to become the world’s largest exporter of cars. Are global manufacturers ready for the fight?

Hosts: Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: The Economist’s Don Weinland; Tu Le, an analyst for Sino Auto Insights; and trade specialist Sam Lowe.

Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Podcast transcripts are available upon request at [email protected]. We are committed to improving accessibility even further and are exploring new ways to expand our podcast-transcript offering.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

China’s military graft-busters told to ‘scrutinise the key few’ powerful officials

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3248319/chinas-military-graft-busters-told-scrutinise-key-few-powerful-officials?utm_source=rss_feed

A top People’s Liberation Army commander has called for more discipline and better oversight of powerful officials as part of efforts to root out corruption in China’s military.

It comes amid a sweeping investigation into the procurement of military equipment, and following a purge of nine PLA generals from the country’s top legislature last month.

General He Weidong, a Politburo member and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the call at an annual meeting of the PLA’s disciplinary inspectors on Friday, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“[We must] always adhere to a strict tone, use stricter standards to scrutinise the key few, and show determination to get to the bottom of long-standing [corruption] problems,” he was quoted as saying.

He was referring to the “key few” top officials with power and big budgets.

On eve of Taiwan election, PLA warns it’s ready to ‘crush’ separatism

It was the first time the PLA leadership has called for tighter disciplinary supervision at the top since the ruling Communist Party’s national congress in 2022.

He also stressed the need for the CMC’s Commission for Discipline Inspection to keep an eye on political loyalty and support for President Xi Jinping – who heads the CMC – within the military.

Strengthening the PLA has been a focus for Xi since he took power in 2012. He has poured billions of dollars into upgrading the PLA’s weapons and equipment, with a goal of transforming the military into a modern fighting force to rival that of the United States by 2027.

The military has also been a key target of Xi’s far-reaching anti-corruption campaign and on Monday he told the annual meeting of the party’s top graft-busters that they should “show absolutely no mercy” in the battle.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection vowed to push forward “relentlessly” with the campaign this year, with the finance sector, state-owned enterprises, energy, tobacco, healthcare and infrastructure all in the cross hairs.

Friday’s remarks follow the abrupt dismissal of nine generals from China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress, on December 30.

No reason has been given for their removal, nor has Beijing confirmed whether any of the nine men were under investigation for corruption.

Five of the dismissed senior military officers were either past or current top commanders in the PLA Rocket Force, which manages the country’s nuclear arsenal. They include Li Yuchao, commander of the rocket force from January last year until he was replaced in July, and his former deputy, Zhang Zhenzhong. The South China Morning Post reported in July that Li and Zhang had been caught up in a graft probe.

In November, a Rocket Force major general was also quietly removed from Beijing’s municipal legislative body, according to a Caixin report.

General Li Shangfu – who led the CMC’s equipment division from 2017 to 2022 – was also sacked as defence minister in October with no explanation given. He had not been seen in public since August.

The anti-corruption drive’s biggest military scalps so far – former CMC deputy chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou – were announced during Xi’s first term as president.

Taiwan voters choosing next president in poll weighing China’s threat and island’s stability

https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-china-election-cbf44565b771cddfb60c2a26d2014b0cTaiwanese people cast their ballots at a polling station in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. Taiwanese are casting their votes Saturday for a new president in an election that could chart the trajectory of its relations with China over the next four years. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

2024-01-13T00:02:23Z

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese are casting their votes Saturday for a new president and legislature in an election that could chart the trajectory of the self-ruled democracy’s relations with China over the next four years.

At stake is the peace and stability of the island 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of China that Beijing claims as its own, to be retaken by force if necessary. Domestic issues such as the sluggish economy and expensive housing also featured prominently in the campaign.

Vice President Lai Ching-te, representing the governing Democratic Progressive Party, known as the DPP, seeks to succeed outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen and give the independence-leaning party an unprecedented third term.

Lai cast his vote in his hometown of Tainan. He remarked on the sunny weather, suggesting it’s a good time for Taiwanese people to go out and vote.

“I encourage everyone around the country to vote with enthusiasm and show the vitality of Taiwan’s democracy,” he said.

Hou Yu-ih, the candidate of Beijing-favored Kuomintang, also known as the Nationalist Party, cast his ballot in New Taipei City, a municipality bordering the capital, Taipei. Hou is the mayor of New Taipei, a position from which he took leave to run for president.

“What we need during the election campaign process is chaos,” Hou told reporters after casting his vote. “But after the vote, we must be united and face the future of Taiwan together.”

Alternative candidate Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party, who has shown popularity among young voters seeking an alternative to the two major parties, voted in Taipei.

Asked by journalists how he felt, Ko, in his well-known dry manner, said he aimed to try his best every day “and plan for the next stage when we get there.”

Voting began at 8 a.m. (0000 GMT) Saturday and was to wrap up eight hours later.

Candidates concluded their campaigns Friday night with stirring speeches, but younger voters were mostly focused on their economic futures in a challenging environment.

Speaking in his hometown of Tainan in the island’s south, Lai reflected on why he left his career as a surgeon because of China’s missile tests and military exercises aimed at intimidating Taiwanese voters before the first open presidential election in 1996.

“I wanted to protect the democracy that had just gotten underway in Taiwan. I gave up my well-paid job and decided to follow the footsteps of our elders in democracy,” Lai said.

Hou, a former head of Taiwan’s police force, said Lai’s view on relations with Beijing could push the two sides to war.

“I advocate pragmatic exchanges with China, the defense of national security, and protection of human rights. I insist that Taiwan’s future will be decided by the 23.5 million (people of Taiwan), and I will use my life to protect Taiwan,” Hou said.

China’s military threats could sway some voters against independence-leaning candidates, but the U.S. has pledged support for whichever government emerges, reinforced by the Biden administration’s plans to send an unofficial delegation made up of former senior officials to the island shortly after the election.

Taiwan’s election is seen as having “real and lasting influence on the geopolitical landscape,” said Gabrielle Reid, associate director with the global intelligence consultancy S-RM.

“The outcome of the vote will ultimately determine the nature of ties with China relative to the West and will have strong bearing on the state of play in the South China Sea,” she said.

Besides the China tensions, domestic issues dominated the campaign, particularly an economy that was estimated to have grown just 1.4% last year. That partly reflects inevitable cycles in demand for computer chips and other exports from the high-tech, heavily trade-dependent manufacturing base, and a slowing of the Chinese economy.

But longer-term challenges such as unaffordable housing and wage stagnation topped voters’ concerns.

The candidate with the most votes wins, with no runoff. The legislative races are for districts and at-large seats.

Chinese man jailed for stealing from passengers on Vietnam-Singapore Scoot flight

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3248315/chinese-man-jailed-stealing-passengers-vietnam-singapore-scoot-flight?utm_source=rss_feed

A man who stole from three passengers during a Scoot flight from Vietnam to Singapore was sentenced to eight months’ jail on Friday and called the sentence “a bit harsh”.

Zhang Xiuqiang, a 52-year-old Chinese national, pleaded guilty to one count of theft, with another two charges taken into consideration.

The court heard that the incident took place on Scoot flight TR305 from Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore on December 16 last year.

The plane had landed in Singapore and the crew were preparing to disembark passengers when a few passengers claimed they had lost money from their carry-on bags.

A 62-year-old South African woman, Graham Valmai Hope, sat in seat 11B, next to Zhang, who was in 11C.

During the flight, Hope saw Zhang walk down the aisle and take a grey bag from the overhead compartment above seat 7E.

Zhang returned to his seat with the bag, removed something from it and placed it in his jacket, before returning the bag.

Chinese man charged with trying to steal from bags on Singapore flight

When the plane landed, Hope noticed that it was a 29-year-old Korean man who retrieved the grey bag Zhang had been rummaging in earlier.

Hope told the Korean man to check the contents of his bag, and the man confirmed that he had lost an envelope containing cash of US$1,000 and S$930 (US$700).

Hope told the victim that it was Zhang who had taken it. At this point, Zhang was not in his seat but was standing along the aisle, waiting to disembark.

Another man, 60-year-old Singaporean Richard Khoo Hye Koon, overheard the conversation and saw Zhang trying to rush to exit.

Khoo stopped Zhang from leaving and saw that Zhang had thrown an envelope on seat 7D.

The victim then took the envelope and counted the cash inside it – it tallied with the amount of money he had lost.

Hearing this commotion, two other passengers also checked their bags and realised the cash was also missing.

One of them lost S$50 and 5.16 million Vietnamese dong (US$210). This amount had previously been reported to be S$50 and 510 million Vietnamese dong based on Zhang’s charge sheet at the time.

The charge sheet has since been amended to reflect the lower value.

Singapore jails Chinese tourist who tried to bribe her way onto Amsterdam flight

The third victim had lost S$600 and 3 million Vietnamese dong.

Another passenger said Zhang had thrown more cash on the floor of the aircraft. He had done this to get rid of evidence, the court heard.

The plane captain requested police help and Zhang was arrested. Despite eyewitnesses seeing what he had done, he denied the offences at first.

All the cash belonging to the three victims was recovered.

Deputy Public Prosecutor R Arvindren sought six to nine months’ jail, saying the sentence imposed must send “an unstinting message to both the accused and other foreigners that Singapore will not tolerate foreigners boarding Singapore-bound flights to commit crimes”.

He cited a case from 2013, when there was a spate of offences committed by Chinese nationals targeting Singapore-controlled aircraft.

According to the judge at the time, the starting point for the jail term regardless of the amount stolen was nine months, said Arvindren.

However, he accepted that this was likely for a scenario where the accused claimed trial and gave an “appropriate sentencing discount” for the term he sought for Zhang.

Arvindren said passengers on a plane cannot be monitoring their belongings at all times. Many passengers sleep on flights or do their own activities, and it “cannot be incumbent on them to be watching their own baggage all the time to ensure nobody else takes them”, said the prosecutor.

Scoot throws Australian off flight for slapping passenger, trying to fight others

Zhang was remanded. He pleaded for leniency for a lighter sentence via a Mandarin interpreter, saying he was remorseful and had returned all the money to the victims.

The judge said these offences are easy to commit but difficult to detect.

“In this case, the accused had actually taken monies, and the only reason why he was not successful in [completing the theft] was because of the vigilance of others, and this is not something that cannot be credited to him,” said District Judge Ong Luan Tze.

Upon hearing the sentence interpreted to him in Mandarin, Zhang exclaimed in Mandarin: “It’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?”

The judge responded that this was her decision and that he can choose what to do next, referring to the possibility of an appeal.

For theft, an offender can be jailed up to three years, fined, or both.

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Tearful China boy distressed about after-school classes reports unlicensed tutor to police, becomes online sensation

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3247351/tearful-china-boy-distressed-about-after-school-classes-reports-unlicensed-tutor-police-becomes?utm_source=rss_feed

An anguished secondary school student in China who told the police about unlicensed after-school tutoring classes he was forced to attend has sparked a heated debate about the academic pressure the country’s children face.

The mainland authorities banned private tutoring for kindergarten, primary and secondary students on October 15 last year.

The decision followed the controversial “double reduction” policy issued two years ago, which placed strict limitations on homework and the scope of after-school tutoring.

However, parents who fear their children will be left behind in a highly competitive academic environment, now pay “underground” tutors who generally charge higher fees.

Last month, a teenage boy went to a police station in Xiangyang, Hubei province, central China to report an after-school class he was forced to attend by his parents, according to a report by Jiupai News.

He told the officers how he spends his weekends doing homework in the mornings and having tutoring sessions in the afternoons.

“I am under a lot of stress. I don’t want to attend those classes any more,” the distressed boy told police.

Surveillance footage that later went viral, shows the boy dressed in his school uniform and weeping as he complains bitterly about his workload, while an officer passes him a tissue to wipe away his tears.

He said he is ranked number eight in his class and number 25 in his grade at school and his parents want him to achieve better scores.

The police officers are seen trying to comfort and reassure the youngster and spending time helping him with his maths homework.

“You have already performed excellently at your studies and your parents just wish you would work a bit harder,” an officer told him.

When an officer asks the boy if he talks with his parents about his workload and what happens at school, he shakes his head.

The boy’s story has become an online sensation, with many people feeling sympathy for him.

“How tired this boy is. What a poor and helpless kid,” one online observer wrote.

“Why do parents force their kids so much? It is harsh,” said another.

Another commentator took a more pragmatic view.

“When enterprises hire new employees, they require candidates to have degrees from top universities. So if you don’t study hard, you won’t have a bright future. Yes, the academic pressure is great, but you must bear it,” the person said.

In October, a student in northwestern Shaanxi province called the local education authority more than 10 times in an hour to report that his school held extracurricular classes during the week-long National Day holiday.

The school was then ordered by the authorities to stop the additional tutoring activities.

Not just Forest City: a look at Malaysia’s Chinese-backed projects that have faced uncertainty, controversy

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3248263/not-just-forest-city-look-malaysias-chinese-backed-projects-have-faced-uncertainty-controversy?utm_source=rss_feed

The Forest City mega-project in Johor has faced years of scrutiny over project delays, low uptake and controversy. But in the see-sawing fortunes of Chinese investment in Malaysia, it is by no means the only one.

The country saw billions of dollars of Chinese investments – some pledged, some real – during the tenure of jailed former prime minister Najib Razak, who sought to bolster Malaysia’s flagging fortunes by pulling in foreign funds for major infrastructure projects, chiefly via China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

But several of those projects ended up facing long periods of uncertainty, with some ultimately cancelled, after Najib’s previously undefeated Barisan Nasional coalition suffered a shock loss in a 2018 general election on the back of the multibillion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal.

Malaysia lures Singapore’s expats as Chinese-built Forest City homes ‘sit empty’

Domestic politics aside, the projects also faced stumbling blocks from strict capital controls imposed by Beijing since 2017 and onerous red tape in Malaysia, according to Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

Despite the troubles, China remains a key source of investments for Malaysia. Last year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim secured nearly 200 billion ringgit (US$43 billion) in pledged investments from Chinese firms covering everything from manufacturing to green technology, energy and the digital economy.

Long before any government intervention, the Melaka Gateway port and special economic zone plan was already riddled with delays. First mooted in 2014, it took a further three years before a deal was struck with the Melaka state government to get the project off the ground.

While not strictly a belt and road project, the 43 billion ringgit (US$9.3 billion) Melaka Gateway rode on the wave of Chinese infrastructure investments pouring in.

Back in bloom? Malaysia seeks to revive China-backed Forest City megaproject

Funded primarily by Chinese state-owned energy firm PowerChina, the 246.7-hectare maritime development envisaged new port facilities, economic parks and tourist attractions constructed across three artificial islands.

The port and cruise terminal segments of the project, however, were cancelled in 2018 by the federal government, before being reinstated a year later. Then in 2020, the Melaka state government terminated the project on grounds that the developer, KAJ Development, had failed to complete it.

But it was not the end for the Melaka Gateway. In September last year, KAJ Development, which is backed by the Sultan of Johor, announced in a statement that the project “has been revitalised” with support from both state and federal governments.

In 2018, Malaysia’s then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad ordered the suspension and eventual cancellation of three oil and gas pipeline projects being built by China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP).

The three projects – two in the peninsula and one in eastern Sabah state – would have cost nearly US$1.8 billion to complete. The cancellations were part of severe cost-cutting measures that Mahathir implemented soon after starting his second stint as prime minister, to deal with a 1 trillion-ringgit debt pile that he blamed on state debts accrued via the scandal-riddled 1MDB fund, crafted under Najib.

A year later, Mahathir said the country had taken back over US$243 million from CPP for the unfinished pipelines, which the government said were only 13 per cent complete when the projects were suspended.

Anwar announced in October that his government would take over the Bandar Malaysia project, after a slew of aborted attempts by the previous developer to get the railway scheme going over the past decade.

The project, proposed by Najib’s administration in 2011 as the country’s terminus point for the now-shelved Malaysia-Singapore high-speed railway, was awarded nine years ago to a consortium that included local developer Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) and its Chinese partner, China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC).

The government, however, cancelled the deal in 2017 following disputes over payment. Attempts were made to revive the project, which held an estimated gross development value of 140 billion ringgit (US$30 billion) and at one point drew interest from Chinese property giant Dalian Wanda.

Malaysia’s PM Anwar ‘can’t be distracted’ amid economic woes, US-China rivalry: analysts

It was later revived in 2019 under Mahathir, with IWH-CREC again winning the tender, but this attempt also failed, after the consortium was unable to meet conditions for a 7.41 billion ringgit acquisition of 60 per cent equity from the government, the two companies said in a joint statement in 2021.

In its latest incarnation, Anwar said Bandar Malaysia’s development would now focus on providing affordable public housing and green spaces for residents of capital city Kuala Lumpur.

The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is arguably the only belt and road project in Malaysia that has seen significant progress. But it has not been without its fair share of troubles amid the multiple changes in government over the past five years.

As with other China-linked mega-projects, Mahathir suspended the ECRL not long after returning as prime minister in 2018.

It was allowed to resume a year later after the China Communications Construction Company agreed to restructure the cost of the 640km-long rail line to 44 billion ringgit, down nearly a third from the initial 65.5 billion-ringgit price tag.

A change of administration in 2020, however, led to yet another review of the ECRL under new prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, after he had led a political coup that brought down Mahathir’s government.

The project will now cost an estimated 50 billion ringgit.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in December that the ECRL was 56 per cent complete. The entire line is expected to be fully built by December 2026, and is scheduled to start operations in January 2027.

Loving children in China: girl’s heartwarming birthday speech to mother, daughter, 6, becomes grief counsellor, anxious boy fears for sleepy parent

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3247121/loving-children-china-girls-heartwarming-birthday-speech-mother-daughter-6-becomes-grief-counsellor?utm_source=rss_feed

Everyone loves a story about cute and loving children, so the Post has put together a selection of some of the most enchanting and recent tales to go viral on mainland social media.

A two-year-old girl in China has captivated mainland social media by making a heartwarming speech on her mother’s birthday.

On December 24, the little girl, nicknamed Niu, started her cute blessings speech by saying: “It is my mother’s birthday today. Thank you for being born 400 years ago.”

In a viral video, the surprised and slightly embarrassed mother jokingly chided her daughter by saying: “It is not that long ago”, Jiupai News reported.

Undaunted little Niu then said: “You came to this world first so I can come too. Thanks for waiting for me after you were born.”

Her mother’s instinctive response was simply: “I love you!”

The girl then uses her hands to make a heart in front of her face as she says: “Happy birthday mum! This heart is for you.”

Their exchange between the mother and daughter from Beijing has received more than 1 million likes on Douyin alone.

“I cried when hearing the girl say ‘thanks for waiting for me after you were born’,” one online observer said.

“So adorable! I’ve watched the video dozens of times,” said another.

A calm and mature-for-her-age six-year-old girl in China has warmed hearts on mainland social media by comforting her mother when she was missing her dead father.

On seeing her mother crying, the girl, from southwestern Chongqing municipality, came to console her, Chongqing TV reported.

“Grandpa has passed away. We are also sad. I know he is your father and is also my grandfather,” the girl told her mother.

Then she added: “I understand your mood. You must be feeling great grief. There is one thing I can do right now. Do you know what it is?”

Before her mother could answer, the girl said: “It is to look after you well,”

Seeing her mother was still in tears, the girl moved closer and whispered: “Next time you miss your father, I will draw a portrait of him. Is that OK?”

“Thank you,” said the sobbing mother.

Many people online praised the girl’s empathy and ability to ease her mother’s distress.

“Good job! What a sensible girl! She has tears in her own eyes,” one person said.

A two-year-old boy in central China’s Hunan province has moved mainland social media by repeatedly trying to wake up his sick and sleepy mother because he was worried about her condition.

An online surveillance video clip on December 28 shows the boy calling out “mum” and “wake up” multiple times while she is asleep in bed, according to the news outlet, Chen Video.

When the boy gets no response he anxiously turns to the home surveillance camera and repeatedly calls out for his father.

The woman later explained to the media that she was simply a little ill and kept nodding off.

“I was aware that my son was calling me. But I was too tired to answer him,” the woman was quoted as saying.

“When he resorted to his father, I knew he was really worried about me. So I got up and hugged him,” she added.

The video has gone viral and garnered 1.1 million likes on the social media platform, Douyin.

“He is an angel,” one online observer said.

South Korea’s dog meat ban a signal to China to follow suit

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248175/south-koreas-dog-meat-ban-signal-china-follow-suit?utm_source=rss_feed

On January 9, South Korea’s National Assembly adopted a special bill outlawing the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs for human consumption. The vote was historic.

It started a three-year grace period for South Korea’s dog farmers, slaughter operators and dog meat restaurant owners to transition to alternative livelihoods with government compensation and assistance. When the law takes effect in 2027, acts that violate it could result in a jail term of up to three years and a fine of 30 million won (US$23,000).

The adoption of the bill was no small accomplishment. By the end of 2023, some 1,150 farms had raised 2 million “meat dogs”, supplying the country’s 1,600 restaurants. For decades, domestic and international voices have persistently called for the trade to be outlawed. The country’s dog meat traders have faced and survived waves of domestic and international pressure that started with the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic Games.

While the renewed pressure during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics seemed to be the last straw, Korea’s dog meat traders stood defiant. For decades, international criticism was rejected as Western cultural bias against Korean tradition. Helping the trader’s “cultural tradition” claim was the uncertain legal status of dogs and dog meat.

In 2023, when multiple bills against the dog meat trade were introduced, the traders organised what turned out to be their last-ditch effort to turn back the tide of history. They staged a protest before the presidential palace and threatened to set free all the “meat dogs”.

The January 9 vote will have an effect beyond South Korea. It might not, in the immediate future, trigger a similar act in North Korea, but the move will certainly send shock waves across Southeast Asia where dog meat sales remain buoyant in several countries. As the world’s largest dog meat market, mainland China has come to a crossroads and should take a serious look at its dog meat sales.

China has long been criticised for its dog meat trade, particularly the staging of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, a commercial event created by Yulin’s dog meat dealers.

Zhao Wanping, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, last year submitted the most recent of many similar proposals for outlawing the trade. Zhao’s proposal went viral in a TikTok video. To undermine the criticism, traders and their supporters have resorted to claims such as “dog meat is a traditional food”, “eating dog meat is a human right” and “Western criticism has ulterior motives”.

In at least two provinces, dogs are included on the list of livestock that can be legally slaughtered for food. The inclusion of dogs under these provincial slaughter regulations is likely to be based on these claims.

But such claims are as absurd as those of their South Korean counterparts. Dog meat is not a household food in China. A 2016 survey by Beijing’s Capital Animal Welfare Association and Humane Society International found that 72 per cent of Yulin residents did not regularly eat dog meat while only 12 per cent ate it weekly.

The dog meat trade is not common business in China. The country does not have dog farms. A significant portion of the dogs that are slaughtered are stolen, an act of unlawful deprivation of other people’s property. The trans-provincial shipment of sick and dying dogs, meanwhile, violates laws governing live transport and animal disease control and prevention.

China’s soft-power struggle: to eat or not to eat dog meat

The killing of dogs, which often occurs in public places, is shocking and cruel for all who witness it. Dog meat that is untraceable and lacks the required vaccination records is a threat to public health. Outlawing the dog meat trade will thus help to safeguard the country’s law and order.

Banning the dog meat trade would have other benefits, too. It could help increase China’s soft power as, to many people around the world, dogs are – like pandas – supposed to be loved and protected. Ending the trade would also remove another barrier between the mainland and the dog-meat-free societies in Taiwan and Hong Kong. More importantly, ending the trade would encourage the rise of a more compassionate, harmonious society. It is time for China to take action.

Malaysia seeks to revive China-backed Forest City megaproject – never mind the stray dogs, crocodiles and day drinkers

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3248272/malaysia-seeks-revive-china-backed-forest-city-megaproject-never-mind-stray-dogs-crocodiles-and-day?utm_source=rss_feed

By day, the Chinese-funded Forest City development is a picture of lost promises and decay: stray dogs patrol an empty beach dotted with “Danger Crocodiles – No Swimming” signs, after the reptiles colonised the area in the absence of human residents.

But it is at night when the true costs of the failed US$100 billion punt on the purchasing power of China’s middle class reveals itself, in the lonely lights of the few occupied units of the 30-storey tower blocks that have been built.

Launched to much fanfare in 2016, the joint venture between Malaysia and a giant Chinese property developer was meant to look very different: a beacon of new homes and office buildings built around manicured gardens, beaches, golf courses and a water park a stone’s throw away from Singapore – but without the congestion and high prices of the city state.

Instead, Forest City is for now a flop, another gut-punch to embattled developer Country Garden, which is sinking under billions of dollars of debt as China’s economy slows and fewer buyers take up its developments at home and abroad.

The malaise starts on entering the wedge of reclaimed land in Johor where cars have to navigate a partially collapsed motorway that was built just a few years ago, while dense tropical undergrowth reclaims buildings and boulevards lined by closed shops.

“People in JB don’t go there,” said Darren Lim, a quantity surveyor in Johor Bahru a short drive away. “There is really nothing to do.”

‘Unprecedented’: Malaysia, Singapore to push ahead with special economic zone

In a bid to revive interest in the beleaguered development, Singapore and Malaysia on Thursday approved a new special economic zone that aims to enhance the cross-border flow of goods and people. Passport-free QR code immigration clearance is set to be introduced under plans for the zone, which would also see a one-stop business/investment centre be established and pave the way for cooperation on renewable energy.

In many ways, Forest City is a victim of forces outside of Malaysia’s control. It was built as China’s banks poured money into the expansion plans of the nation’s biggest developers.

But in 2020, worried by the dangers posed by a property bubble, China’s government imposed tight controls over the amount of capital held by highly-leveraged home builders.

Now in a slowing Chinese economy, the banks want their cash back, leaving those same developers struggling to make repayments on a debt-funded gamble that once seemed intertwined with the irresistible rise of China’s vast middle class.

But Malaysia’s government has not given up on Forest City.

It is hoping new tax and visa incentives for expatriate workers – as well as strong backing from Malaysia’s next king, Johor state’s monarch Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar – may revive the megaproject’s flagging fortunes.

But there is still much work to be done and that will take new investment.

The master plan for the project envisioned four artificial islands dotting the waters between Malaysia and Singapore at the point where the narrow Strait of Johor that divides the two nations widens as it meets the busy Strait of Malacca, a key international shipping lane.

Is it too costly, too late for Malaysia-Singapore high-speed rail link?

However, so far only one island has emerged from the sea, built on sand dredged from Ramunia Shoal, off the east coast of Johor, by a sand extraction business with links to the Sultan of Johor, according to research by Joseph Marcel R. Williams at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The sultan appears to be involved at every stage of the value chain,” Williams said in a 2016 report on the project.

Meanwhile, a new pool of non-Chinese investors may be needed.

Initially, developers bypassed the Malaysian market and aimed straight at upper-middle-class citizens from China looking to park some of their wealth abroad.

That became a talking point in the 2018 election campaign with Mahathir Mohamad criticising then-Prime Minister Najib Razak for “selling the country” to China.

Then, after he returned as prime minister in that year’s election, Mahathir promptly banned the sale of Forest City properties to foreign nationals, saying Malaysia did not want to give visas to people to come and live in the country just for buying a property.

“Our objection is because it was built for foreigners, not built for Malaysians. Most Malaysians are unable to buy those flats,” Mahathir said.

Property agents remain bullish over the prospects of the site.

Four-bedroom condos are selling off-plan for US$1.6 million and upwards on some websites, with a prominent “negotiable” tag next to listings and completion dates of January 2026.

Around 28,000 condominium units have been built so far under the project’s first phase. But only about 9,000 people currently call Forest City home – a fraction of the total project’s 700,000 population target.

In September, Forest City developers claimed that more than 100,000 people had visited its water parks and international golf courses in just the previous month.

Yet, when This Week in Asia visited on a recent Sunday, the water park and the beach overlooking Singapore’s industrial district of Tuas were empty, except for some wild dogs weaving between dozens of sculptures of sea lions.

Ramesh, a Nepali security guard at one of the condominiums, confirmed that residents are far and few in between.

“These people walking around here are workers tending the place,” he said, giving one name fearing for his job if he fully identified himself.

Other sweeteners to new buyers include making the whole area a duty-free zone.

Yet that appears to have backfired as the “ghost town” is now infamous as a spot for day drinkers who buy cheap alcohol for a guzzle along the city’s empty beaches, while rumours of rampant smuggling are getting louder.

Unregulated medicines are also being openly peddled there, with one doctor posting on X saying that he found azithromycin – an antibiotic not available over the counter, to treat bronchitis, pneumonia, and some sexually transmitted diseases – at a pharmacy there.

In the absence of Chinese expatriates, the small number of occupied units in Forest City appear to be filled by Malaysian workers at the nearby Port of Tanjung Pelepas, a container port that is the only major industrial site in this corner of the state.

One port worker said they had chosen to live in Forest City due to the cheap rent of just 800 ringgit (US$172) for a studio unit that retails for between 300,000 and 1.3 million ringgit.

“It’s a new property and it’s cheap,” said port worker Ahmad Razif. “The only hassle is food, there’s very limited options.”

Proximity to the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link bridge also makes it a handy location for some Malaysians who are working in Singapore.

“I work in Tuas, just across from Forest City. The Second Link is much more convenient for me to get to work,” said another worker called Arjun Nair.

But Nair is not who Country Garden and its partners got into business for.

The ailing project received a shot in the arm in August last year after Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim signed tax breaks and easy visa access to lure expatriates from across the causeway to settle in the city’s vacant apartments.

This came in the form of a new special financial zone for Forest City and the Iskandar Malaysia economic zone in the southern state of Johor, with low income tax bands and multiple entry visas aimed at Singaporeans.

‘A ghost town’: Malaysia’s Country Garden Forest City struggles to sell units

“The synergy that exists in Johor is different from other states and we can take advantage of Singapore’s achievements,” Anwar said.

At the same time, the government has slashed the entry price to qualify for the Malaysia My Second Home programme from a lofty US$539,000 to just US$100,000, hoping to ignite a surge of interest from potential expatriates, including from China.

More recently, Johor’s sultan floated the idea that the previously scrapped Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail project could be brought back, with its track realigned to cross through Forest City before entering Singapore.

The sultan, who has stakes in the Malaysian joint venture company that built Forest City, will become the next head of state in February under Malaysia’s unique form of rotational constitutional monarchy.

Experts however are sceptical about the line-up of incentives, saying that Chinese buyers are more worried by their domestic economy than overseas home ownership.

Hard-pressed Chinese citizens “won’t be making big investments like real estate,” said analyst Angeline Tan from the Institute Of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia. “This has more to do with the problems in China than the incentives Malaysia can offer.”

Changing domestic politics in Malaysia may also weigh against the project as the government comes under increasing pressure to provide for its own middle class after the gruelling years of pandemic and cost of living crisis.

“There will be little interest to exclusively focus on the needs of the Chinese real-estate investors,” analyst Collins Chong from University of Malaya told This Week in Asia.

Malaysia clamps down on ‘inhumane’ Hong Kong-style coffin homes

“Pressure and policies will be mounting on developers and industry players to focus predominantly on local needs.”

For now, buyers of any kind are being welcomed, if the posts planted at regular intervals in the ground reading “land to be developed” are anything to go by.

“There used to be a popular Chinese restaurant there,” Darren Lim, the Johor Bahru local said, grasping for Forest City’s positives. “But it didn’t survive the pandemic.”

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Senator Jon Tester calls for ban on Chinese land purchases after billionaire Chen Tianqiao becomes one of US top foreign owners

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3248309/senator-jon-tester-calls-ban-chinese-land-purchases-after-billionaire-chen-tianqiao-becomes-one-us?utm_source=rss_feed

Montana Senator Jon Tester renewed his demands for the White House to clamp down on sales of US farmland to China following a report this week that a Chinese billionaire is among America’s biggest landowners.

Tester, a Democrat, issued a statement on Friday calling for Congress to block “foreign adversaries” from buying US farmland and agribusinesses. The Land Report on Monday listed Chinese billionaire Chen Tianqiao as the country’s 82nd-largest land owner and second-biggest foreign owner.

Chen, 50, who made his fortune from a company that made online video games, owns 80,127 hectares (198,000 acres) of Oregon timberland that he bought in 2015.

“While we learn more about the specifics around this unfolding situation, it highlights the need for Congress to do more to protect American agricultural security,” Tester said in the statement.

A call to Chen’s California office seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.

US judge declines to block Florida law restricting Chinese from buying property

He said he issued a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking them to review Chen’s purchase and suggest ways to strengthen the tracking and vetting of large land sales to foreign buyers.

Tester co-sponsored a bill last year with Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, to ban entities from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from buying US agricultural land or businesses. The legislation was added to the defence spending bill and passed the Senate by a wide margin but was stripped out of the final version by House Republicans.

Foreign ownership of US land, particularly land used for farming, has become an increasingly contentious topic in recent years. About 40 million acres of American agricultural land was owned by non-US interests as of 2021, according to the most recent Department of Agriculture data, with entities from China owning the equivalent of 0.03 per cent of all US farmland.

Top China envoy and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meet in Washington ahead of Taiwan elections

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3248307/top-china-envoy-and-us-secretary-state-antony-blinken-meet-washington-ahead-taiwan-elections?utm_source=rss_feed

A top Chinese Communist Party envoy met senior US officials at the State Department in Washington, hours before voters in Taiwan elect their next leader and government as the two sides seek to restore dialogue and stabilise ties.

Liu Jianchao, who leads the CCP’s diplomatic arm, joined US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in closed-door discussions on Friday morning as part of his ongoing American visit to promote what he described as “common understanding” on contentious issues.

Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US, also attended the meeting, as did US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert.

Neither side has yet to issue a statement concerning what the officials discussed.

The meeting on Friday came at highly sensitive time for both countries as they wait to see how voters in self-ruled Taiwan cast their ballots for a new president and parliament on Saturday.

The high-level diplomatic talks also coincided with a delicate moment in Sino-American relations, with both sides of late eager to make headway in what had been a deteriorating trajectory.

Since taking office, US President Joe Biden on multiple occasions has said America would defend Taiwan if mainland China were to try to invade.

Yet in recent months Biden has sought to stabilise ties with Beijing, without ceasing actions that hobble China’s technology advances on fears of inadvertently empowering the People’s Liberation Army.

Beijing hits out over Washington’s plan to send unofficial delegation to Taiwan

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Like most countries, the US does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state.

But Washington maintains robust unofficial ties with Taipei, opposes any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons – positions that anger Beijing.

Bilateral tensions have risen amid what Washington describes as Beijing’s military aggression in the Taiwan Strait. In the run-up to the polls, the island has reported spotting Chinese aircraft and balloons crossing the sensitive median line.

On Friday, China’s defence ministry pledged to take “all necessary measures” to defeat Taiwan separatism.

Why does Taiwan matter so much to both mainland China and the US?

Liu on Thursday “stated China’s positions on issues like Taiwan” at a meeting with US deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer, according to a Chinese readout.

And during an event in New York this week, Liu said Beijing’s stance on Taiwan remained “clear, strong and unchanged”.

Still, communication between the world’s two largest economies has improved after Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in San Francisco in November.

This week Chinese and American officials held their first formal talks at the Pentagon since 2021. Next week senior officials from both countries are slated to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

China nurtures indigenous seed industry to reduce import reliance, secure food supply

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3248214/china-nurtures-indigenous-seed-industry-reduce-import-reliance-secure-food-supply?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing’s pledge to keep China’s “rice bowl” firmly in the hands of its people – a common refrain from President Xi Jinping – has been backed with numerous actions, including the protection of arable land, expansion of farming acreage and more widespread use of technology.

The seed industry is one that has been deemed “strategic and fundamental”, and the vitalisation of seeds is a major feature of the country’s quest to ensure its food security.

After an eight-month round of inspections organised by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s highest legislative body, several areas of focus have been enumerated for the sector. These are the issues they raised, as well as the overall state of development for China’s indigenous seeds.

Chinese leaders regularly refer to seeds as the “chips” of agriculture – a form of intellectual property (IP) that is also essential for preserving the food security of 1.4 billion people.

The country’s Seed Law, which went into effect in March 2022, was implemented to address “choke points” created by a dependence on international imports and a lack of innovative breeding technologies.

The law vowed, among other pledges, to keep the country’s germplasm resources “independent and controllable”.

It mandates the protection of IP rights in the seed industry, such as expanding protective mechanisms for new plant variety rights, establishing the Essential Derivation Variety system and improving the rights infringement compensation system.

‘Mine are authentic’: how China’s counterfeit seed problem stalls innovation

Government officials had already sounded the alarm about “over-reliance” on seed imports from major exporters like the United States last year.

About 70 per cent of China’s seed corn comes from the US, agricultural scientist Jia Yinsuo has estimated.

Crops like tomatoes and broccoli also have proportionally heavy imports of their seeds, and the cumulative total for seed imports in 2022 was nearly 11,000 tonnes.

Seeds for forage grasses like perennial ryegrass, alfalfa and sheep fescue also are highly imported, to the tune of more than 70 per cent of high-quality grasses.

Chinese seed firms were found to be small compared to Western giants like Monsanto, and lacking their counterparts’ capability for innovation.

The country has 8,159 seed companies, but only 2 per cent have the facilities for concurrent seed breeding, production and operations. China’s top five seed enterprises also invested less than 10 per cent of their revenues into breeding technology.

Foreign corn varieties bred in the domestic market were found to account for 8 per cent of supply, and the yield level of soybean varieties, legislators said, still needs to be further improved.

Planting acreage for hybrid corn is also on the decline, as is the number of varieties of hybrid rice being presently used.

The authorities also found evidence of fabrication and misconduct in seed trials, with 2,057 varieties untested or not tested fully during a previous round of inspections in 2021.

The world’s second-largest economy has pursued the development of high-quality seeds through a variety of methods, and will continue to do so.

Efforts will be made to solve the major choke point – the lack of technologies to develop high-quality seeds – by making breakthroughs in genome editing, genomic selection and artificial intelligence, the legislators said.

Mergers and restructurings among leading seed enterprises will also be encouraged.

Breeding innovation capacity will be considered as an important criterion for government support, especially for those who vertically integrate industry chains.

Crackdowns on the fabrication of test and trial results were also mentioned as a means of quality control.

Anti-Chinese laws take a toll in Florida even as Ron DeSantis falters in his presidential run

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3248304/anti-chinese-laws-take-toll-florida-even-ron-desantis-falters-his-presidential-run?utm_source=rss_feed

A two-decades-old joint US-China hospitality programme. Researchers across all academic disciplines. Scholarship recipients at a prestigious private elementary school. Chinese purchases of homes in Florida. College students who want to talk to family members in China.

These are some of the early victims of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ recent anti-Chinese influence legislation in the state – moves observers believe he made to help secure his 2024 presidential bid, and moves that he touted in at least three of the Republican primary debates.

As the 2024 presidential campaign season picks up, and candidates face pressure to be tough on China, DeSantis’ targeting of Chinese influence is unlikely to win him the Republican nomination, but may ultimately upend more lives.

In December, Florida International University – the state’s second largest, in terms of enrolment – ended its long-standing partnership with China’s Tianjin University of Commerce.

The two schools have hosted a joint campus for hospitality and tourism studies in Tianjin since 2003, but were compelled to discontinue in light of a foreign education entities bill DeSantis signed into law in May.

Also in December, the university paused hiring of Chinese and citizens of six other “countries of concern” – Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela – also in an effort to comply with the same law.

The same month, nearly 300 faculty members and researchers at the University of Florida, the state’s third largest, signed a petition pushing for greater clarity on hiring guidelines, arguing that restrictions on hiring from those countries would devastate research activities, dampen Florida’s economic competitiveness and hurt the university’s long-term development, reputation and leadership.

“Try to imagine a successful Fortune 500 company that refuses to hire or do business with 1.73 billion people – over one-fifth of the world’s population. It’s simply unconscionable,” said Greg Webster, a psychology professor who signed the petition.

“Florida’s universities should be promoting the free exchange of people, ideas, and capital, not squandering them.”

Ron DeSantis lashes out at China and corporate power in campaign speech

Faculty members were also quick to point out that students from China and Iran were some of their strongest, and that their contributions outweighed any perceived security risks.

DeSantis’ new law does not explicitly ban hiring staff or researchers from those “countries of concern” but its vague language has led universities to limit hiring as they await clearer instruction.

Latest guidance from the State University System of Florida board of governors said that universities must obtain its approval before hiring a citizen of one of the countries for academic, administrative, research purposes.

The guidance does not discriminate between academic disciplines that are related to national security and those that are not.

The law also prohibits state colleges and universities from accepting grants from or participating in agreements or partnerships with any college or university based in these countries – though a waiver can be obtained through the state university system’s board of governors or the state’s education department.

According to faculty, however, getting a waiver would add extra burden to exchange and research activities. In addition, members on the two bodies considering waivers are appointed by DeSantis, and critics worry these appointees would block approvals.

In September, in line with provisions in the same bill, DeSantis announced the suspension of scholarship programmes to four private elementary and secondary schools part of Spring Education Group, an education network controlled by Primavera Holdings, a major private equity firm based in Hong Kong.

“The Chinese Communist Party is not welcome in the state of Florida,” said DeSantis. “We will not put up with any attempt to influence students with a communist ideology or allow Floridians’ tax dollars to go to schools that are connected to our foreign adversaries.”

Parents were furious about the disruption, challenging the governor to demonstrate evidence of links to the Communist Party or Chinese ideology. State Representative Anna Eskamani, a Democrat whose district is home to some of the affected schools, characterised the bill as mere political posturing and said it was only hurting DeSantis’ voter base. She added that at least one school has appealed the decision.

But this thicket of restrictions on Chinese influence do not appear to be enough for DeSantis’ political opponents. Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador battling him for second place for the Republican presidential nomination – both trail former president Donald Trump by double-digit percentage points – last week accused DeSantis in a campaign video of being too soft on China.

The video lambasts DeSantis for calling China “Florida’s most important trading partner” (which the website of a now-defunct, quasi-government agency that DeSantis chaired did, as of 2021) and allowing a Chinese military contractor to expand near a US naval base (which was done by a US subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned aerospace firm in October 2022, but without government incentives).

The attacks come days ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Monday, considered the first test for Republicans in the 2024 election cycle. DeSantis and Haley are both slated to attend the caucuses.

Some observers have framed DeSantis’ China bills as largely an attempt to shore up foreign policy credentials for his presidential run but others stress that it’s to appeal to certain voters.

“DeSantis’ political strategy to target China is driven, in part, by a desire to pick up some of Trump’s base who gravitated to him in 2016 because of his anti-China rhetoric and his anti-globalism sentiment,” said David Macdonald, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Florida.

Macdonald said that DeSantis was sticking with “being an education ‘culture warrior’” as it’s what has allowed him to stand out among “ambitious Republicans”, noting how DeSantis built his national profile when advocating against mask mandates and school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic.

DeSantis has taken aim at Chinese influence in Florida’s education system since 2021, when he signed a bill requiring state universities to disclose foreign grants over US$50,000 and limiting intercultural agreements between Florida schools and schools from countries of concern.

As part of a package of bills in May, DeSantis also blocked the use of Chinese-owned apps like TikTok and WeChat on public devices and servers, and restricted Chinese individuals and entities from purchasing property in Florida.

The effects of the technology ban have been felt hardest by Chinese students at Florida’s public universities, thousands of whom attend schools like Florida International University and the University of Florida.

In April, two UF Chinese student associations issued a rare statement about the restrictions on WeChat and QQ, Chinese messaging apps that censor keywords that Beijing deems politically sensitive.

“For the vast majority of students living on campus, these apps are the only means of staying in touch with their loved ones who are thousands of miles away,” they wrote.

“We are proud Gators,” the statement continued, referring to the mascot of the University of Florida. “But at this moment we feel excluded and targeted as if we do not belong here.”

Trump rivals DeSantis and Haley face off in last debate before Iowa vote

Neither the governor’s office nor the DeSantis campaign responded to requests for comment about the laws’ impact.

Meanwhile, DeSantis’ property and agricultural land restrictions law, similar to other legislation being introduced in states across the country, has continued to cause headaches for investors, real estate agents and ordinary homebuyers in Florida.

The law prevents citizens from the seven countries of concern from purchasing or holding a controlling interest in property within 10 miles of any military installations, with exceptions made for those buyers holding non-tourist visas. It is particularly restrictive for Chinese citizens, who are limited to purchasing one residential property under two acres that is not within five miles of any military installation.

As a result, developers have reportedly been forced to delay projects, causing business groups to argue that the law’s broad language may have unintended and negative consequences for Florida’s economy. “Property taxes contribute over 18 per cent of Florida’s overall tax revenue,” wrote Jeffrey DeBoer, president of The Real Estate Roundtable, a Washington-based think tank.

In October, China disappeared from the list of top 10 countries that searched MiamiRealtors.com, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Earlier in the year, it was consistently in the top 10, cracking the top three in several months.

Chinese-Americans and civil rights groups say that the law has already had discriminatory effects, citing mortgage lenders who have rejected applications from eligible Chinese buyers to avoid extra paperwork and other complications.

Chinese residents in Florida sue state over property ownership ban

In August, a Florida judge denied a request to temporarily block the law’s implementation. Plaintiffs argued that the law legitimises housing discrimination and is unconstitutional. The ruling is under appeal.

Bethany Li, a legal director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund who is supporting the plaintiffs, said, “I don’t think there’s any good way to implement this type of unconstitutional law.”

“One of the things that real estate agents have said to us is, what does this mean practically? Does this mean that anytime someone who looks vaguely Asian who walks into our office, we need to start asking for passports?”

What is for certain, however, is that regardless of the national political outcomes, residents are already ready to vote with their feet.

As one Chinese student told the University of Florida’s campus newspaper: “I will definitely not stay in Florida.”

Why Philippines will struggle to forge South China Sea alliance with Vietnam

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3247990/why-philippines-will-struggle-forge-south-china-sea-alliance-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed

Just before Indonesia’s chairmanship of Asean ended, it mobilised the region’s foreign ministers for an unusual diplomatic act. On December 30, they issued a stand-alone statement on the South China Sea, amid escalating tensions, particularly between the Philippines and China.

Expressing “concern”, the statement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations called on rival claimant states to “exercise self-restraint” and “avoid actions that may further complicate the situation”.

Crucially, the grouping’s chief diplomats referred to “our maritime sphere” and reaffirmed the “unity and solidarity” among members – which include the Philippines, a founding Asean state that has been involved in several run-ins with Chinese maritime forces around the hotly disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the past few months alone.

Few in Manila, however, were consoled. After all, Asean has neither criticised China, a major trading partner, nor provided any concrete help beyond reiterating a commitment to the seemingly never-ending negotiations with China for a code of conduct in the South China Sea.

If anything, some Asean leaders seem subtly critical of the Philippines’ more assertive stance in the disputed waters.

With little hope of tangible Asean support, the Philippines appears to be banking on strategic alliances with like-minded neighbours, in particular Vietnam. President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is scheduled to visit Hanoi this month, and by all indications, will want to explore a potentially consequential alliance.

Yet, while the Philippines is likely to gain some economic and diplomatic benefits from warmer ties with Vietnam, it will struggle to forge any robust military cooperation in the South China Sea.

Philippine-Vietnam relations have come a long way. At the height of the Cold War, the Philippines was a major logistical base for US military operations against Vietnam’s communist forces. In one of the darkest periods of Asean history, the Philippines and other states aligned with the West backed the ousted Khmer Rouge regime after Cambodia was invaded by Vietnam.

Up until the 1980s, a major concern for Asean’s founding members was the potential rise of Vietnam as an aggressive hegemonic force. But the collapse of the Soviet Union, a key ally of Vietnam, dramatically altered the geopolitical landscape. The Philippines not only came to be a major proponent of Vietnam joining Asean, it has also come to see the communist nation as an unlikely ally in the face of a rising China.

In 1995, when China took over Mischief Reef, the Philippines and Vietnam, which both also claim the reef, pushed for an Asean response. The upshot was the 2002 non-binding Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. In 2005, the Philippines and Vietnam took relations to another level when they teamed up to negotiate an oil exploration deal with China in the disputed waters.

By the early 2010s, prospects for a full-blown alliance were emerging as Vietnam and the Philippines welcomed the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia. They quietly coordinated their legal warfare strategy against China, while Vietnam began to deploy warships to Manila and conduct joint exercises with Filipino troops on South China Sea disputed islands.

The election of Beijing-friendly Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, however, effectively ended any hopes of a robust alliance. If anything, pro-Duterte elements in Manila began portraying Vietnam, which occupies the most land features in the Spratlys of all the claimants, as the primary threat in the South China Sea.

Now, amid rising tensions with China, Marcos Jnr seems determined to rekindle strategic ties with Vietnam, which is also the Philippines’ top rice supplier. Philippine foreign secretary Enrique Manalo billed Marcos Jnr’s visit to Vietnam as a major step towards raising “bilateral ties to even greater heights”. Realistically, however, Marcos Jnr should temper his expectations.

Amid US-China rivalry, Vietnam’s sweet spot diplomacy is a master class

Vietnam’s communist leadership is likely to resist any fully fledged alliance. Ideologically, Hanoi is not only wary of alliances but also deeply sceptical of Western influence, and will aim to keep a healthy distance from US-allied liberal democracies such as the Philippines.

Vietnam’s military, meanwhile, is largely dependent on Soviet-Russian systems. This complicates prospects for any major defence technology cooperation with the largely US-armed and trained Philippine military, which also happens to be generally wary of communist regimes.

Perhaps most crucially, Vietnam has become increasingly dependent on Chinese technology, capital and inputs for its booming export industries. As a result, Hanoi is currently more interested in keeping relations with Beijing on an even keel than provoking its powerful, fellow communist neighbour.

Nevertheless, there is significant room for mid-level strategic cooperation. On the economic front, Marcos Jnr is expected to seek Vietnam’s help in ensuring the Philippines’ food security with agreements to develop its agricultural sector. He is also likely to seek advice on developing the Philippines’ manufacturing sector, especially in attracting high-quality investments through legislation and infrastructure development.

On the South China Sea, the Philippines and Vietnam share a very similar outlook, most notably their advocacy for a legally binding Asean-China code of conduct in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Accordingly, Marcos Jnr may push for greater strategic solidarity during his visit, and even explore a maritime agreement.

This is likely to involve delimiting overlapping claims to facilitate joint energy exploration deals in the Spratlys, regular joint naval drills and intelligence-sharing in the disputed areas, and help in coordinating potential South China Sea arbitration cases based on the 2016 arbitral tribunal award.

Overall, however, Marcos Jnr’s trip to Vietnam is likely to be heavier in strategic symbolism than substance.