• Runner who died after Hong Kong marathon was ‘mainland Chinese engineer who came via talent scheme’
• Red Sea crisis: China firms eye Plan B ahead of Lunar New Year as container prices soar further
• Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng meets HSBC Group chairman Mark Tucker in Beijing, urges deeper cooperation: state media
• China single mother friends become ‘divorce partners’ sharing life, resources under one roof, dividing public opinion
• Look out for Russian moves to ‘muddy waters’ at China’s doorstep, noted analyst warns as Moscow boosts North Korea ties
• China jobs: new energy, automation sectors shine as employment growth belies broader economic downturn
• Chinese scientists bring US Navy’s ‘dream bullet’ to life
• Indonesia aims to avoid ‘poking China’s eye’ over weapons trade with Philippines, walk ‘political’ tightrope
• Google software engineer from China charged with murder after allegedly beating wife to death in US home, shedding light on domestic violence
• Alibaba’s online flea market Xianyu launches bricks-and-mortar store in China in latest innovation
• China rallies G77 countries for major reform of WTO and Bretton Woods at Kampala summit
• China father drops US$140,000 jade ring from high-rise window into drainage ditch, successful 4-day search sparks firework party
• Landslide in mountainous southwestern China buries 47 people
• [World] China: At least 47 buried after landslide in Yunnan - state media
• China landslide: dozens buried in Yunnan province, state media report
• More than 40 trapped as landslide buries 18 homes in southwest China village
• China’s attack simulation, Philippine constitution change, public nudity in Taiwan: 5 weekend reads you may have missed
• China is moving up the rare earth value chain. The West is trying to catch up
• France visit offers ‘margin of manoeuvre’ in Cambodia’s bid to ease reliance on China
• Woman in China sues ‘husband’ of 10 years with whom she has 8 children for US$28 million in maintenance after finding out he is married
• ‘Gutter talk’: is Manila overcorrecting its China policy post-Duterte?
• China’s vulnerable middle class must work harder to maintain status quo, Beijing seeks urgent fix for indispensable cohort

Runner who died after Hong Kong marathon was ‘mainland Chinese engineer who came via talent scheme’

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3249397/runner-who-died-after-hong-kong-marathon-was-mainland-chinese-engineer-who-came-talent-scheme?utm_source=rss_feed

A 30-year-old man who died after joining the Hong Kong Marathon on Sunday has been identified as a mainland Chinese engineer who came to the city via a talent admission scheme two years ago, the Post has learned.

A source said the man who collapsed near a platform escalator at the Tin Hau MTR station near the finish line at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay had been identified as Zhang Zhichong.

He was discovered around noon, still wearing his running clothes and with his number bib, after running the half marathon.

He was immediately taken to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai but was pronounced dead on arrival just after 1pm on the same day.

The insider said Zhang had been in Hong Kong for two years after arriving through one of the talent admission schemes administered by the Immigration Department.

Hong Kong marathon returns to pre-pandemic size, runner dies after taking part

The Hong Kong, China Association of Athletics Affiliates, one of the co-organisers of the race, confirmed that Zhang had participated in the half-marathon but did not disclose his identity.

Lobo Louie Hung-tak, associate head of the health and physical education department at the Education University of Hong Kong, earlier said the likelihood of a fatality among marathon runners was about one in 100,000.

Marathon runners should get heart checks before races, Hong Kong experts say

Most of the deaths were related to hidden and congenital heart issues, he added, and suggested that runners have a thorough heart examination before a race.

The incident marks the sixth fatality in the history of the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, which began in 1997. Deaths occurred in 2018, 2017, 2015, 2012, and 2006.

Red Sea crisis: China firms eye Plan B ahead of Lunar New Year as container prices soar further

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3249350/red-sea-crisis-china-firms-eye-plan-b-ahead-lunar-new-year-container-prices-soar-further?utm_source=rss_feed

Shipping prices between Europe and China have continued to soar amid the Red Sea crisis, weighing on China’s fragile export growth and pushing its companies to seek contingency plans to fortify their supply chains ahead of the Lunar New Year.

The average rate for the second week of January was about US$5,400 for a 40-foot container, up from US$1,500 a week earlier, according to Container xChange, an online platform for container logistics and operations in Germany.

In the 10 days leading up to January 7, the number of cargo ships passing through the Suez Canal – which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea – decreased by 30 per cent for cargo and 19 per cent for tankers, figures from international insurance company Allianz Trade showed.

As one of the busiest global shipping routes, the waterway accounts for one-third of worldwide container traffic and 40 per cent of trade between Asia and Europe, while also connecting China’s major investment projects in Egypt and the Middle East.

Houthi militants have launched attacks in the vital shipping lane around Yemen since the Israel-Gaza war erupted in October, forcing some shipping firms to suspend transits through the Suez Canal.

Pan Guang, a senior researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that the ongoing Red Sea crisis could add risks to China’s investment in the region.

“The shipping route of the Red Sea is crucial for China’s belt and road projects,” Pan said in an interview with Shanghai-based news website Guancha on Wednesday.

“It is not just a responsibility to be shouldered by one single country to keep smooth and safe international shipping ways.”

An index gauging containerised freight for export complied by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange had soared by 25.4 per cent this year as of Friday, having spiked by 77 per cent in December.

China has called for a joint effort to restore and ensure the security of the shipping lanes in the Red Sea to avoid disruption to the global supply chain and international trade order.

“We will intensify coordination with relevant departments, closely monitor developments and offer support and assistance to firms,” Ministry of Commerce spokesman He Yadong said at a press conference on Thursday.

With the notable rise in demand for containers in China ahead of the Lunar New Year in February, an increase in the use of rail and air “is clearly an option”, said Ulf Bergman, senior economist at the London-headquartered data platform Shipfix.

But he also noted that air and rail alternatives are also more relevant for high-value goods.

“[For] rail transportation from China to Europe, the war in Ukraine is likely to weigh on the feasibility,” he added.

“Transport through Russia may be considered high-risk by many importers.”

Based on data up to 2022 by Allianz Trade, nearly 75 per cent of trade by volume, excluding the European Union, was transported by sea, while rail accounted for just 3.4 per cent and air 0.4 per cent.

Other options are “far from sufficient” to make up for the volume of goods transported by sea, said Francoise Huang, senior economist for Asia-Pacific at Allianz Trade.

“Furthermore, [the] growth in rail freight during the pandemic suggested that the China-Europe Railway Express could potentially be considered a viable option for supply chains, but the war in Ukraine has put the rail lines (which pass through Russia) at risk,” she said.

From the coronavirus pandemic to the Ukraine war and the recent Red Sea attacks, global trade and supply chains have gone through several rounds of “shocks”, analysts said, and companies are becoming more aware of developing mitigation plans.

“Our customers are actively pursuing backup solutions such as sea/air via Dubai to Europe, railway transportation to Europe, and direct air freight services into Europe,” said Catherine Chien, head of digital marketing at the Taipei-headquartered Dimerco Express Group.

“Notably, customers are displaying flexibility by accepting longer transit times via the Cape of Good Hope.”

Information from Dimerco Express Group showed that diverting shipping around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa would add around 10 to 14 days for transits between Asia and Europe, as well as for the westbound route connecting Asia and the east coast of the United States.

The diversion could also add about 15 to 19 days for the westbound route between Asia and the Mediterranean.

‘Prices are soaring’: Red Sea attacks push up China-Europe container rates

“It’s unlikely we’ll see prices return to the [highs witnessed] in 2021-22, when supply-chain snarls were at their worst,” said Nick Marro, lead analyst on global trade at The Economist Intelligence Unit.

“[At] least for the immediate outlook, higher transport costs – as well as delays in getting critical components necessary for production, particularly for Europe-based companies sourcing from Asia – look likely to persist … but really the main factor here will be how the security situation develops in the Red Sea.”

Hoe Ee Khor, chief economist at the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office, said last week that the Red Sea crisis had not yet led to overall inflation.

“But if the crisis continues to escalate, it can lead to a bigger disruption to supplies,” he added.

Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng meets HSBC Group chairman Mark Tucker in Beijing, urges deeper cooperation: state media

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3249386/chinese-vice-president-han-zheng-meets-hsbc-group-chairman-mark-tucker-beijing-urges-deeper?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng met HSBC Group chairman Mark Tucker in Beijing and urged the bank to deepen cooperation with China and make contributions to Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre, according to a report by official state news agency Xinhua on Monday.

“We welcome HSBC Group and other international financial institutions to continue to actively participate in China’s financial reform and opening-up and achieve better development in China,” Han said in the report.

The Chinese central government fully supports Hong Kong in promoting the building of an international financial centre, Han said, according to Xinhua.

Han expressed hope that HSBC will make good use of its own advantages to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China and make new contributions to consolidating and upgrading Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre.

The meeting comes as Hong Kong stocks slumped to near their lowest level in 15 months, adding to a three-week rout, as investors continued to feel let down by a lack of stimulus to fuel China’s economic recovery.

The Hang Seng Index slid 2.3 per cent to 14,961.18 on Monday, a psychological threshold seen during the October 2022 slump, before China abandoned its zero-Covid policy the following month.

On the mainland’s bourses, the declines were sharper. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.7 per cent to a level not seen since April 2020, while the all-share Shenzhen Composite Index plunged 4.5 per cent.

Speaking highly of China’s economic and social-development achievements, Tucker said HSBC has “firm confidence in investing in China”, according to Xinhua.

He added that HSBC would actively participate in China’s high-quality development and opening-up, support Hong Kong’s efforts in the building of an international financial centre, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation between the UK and China to achieve more results, Xinhua reported.

China single mother friends become ‘divorce partners’ sharing life, resources under one roof, dividing public opinion

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3248430/china-single-mother-friends-become-divorce-partners-sharing-life-resources-under-one-roof-dividing?utm_source=rss_feed

A news story about two single mothers who have decided to share a home and all domestic responsibilities after divorcing has sparked widespread debate on mainland social media.

Zou and Guo, both 28, from Guizhou province in southwestern China, call themselves “divorce partners” and they live like a family with the children from their marriages.

They say they are thoroughly enjoying the arrangement, and the lifestyle suits them both very well.

Zou, who has a three-year-old daughter, said she has been divorced for three years, and Guo has raised her five-year-old son alone for four years.

They came up with the idea of living together after they agreed they did not want to marry nor live with a man any more.

Both have jobs, and they share a flat and a car. They began the co-living arrangement in December last year.

“Although the flat is not big, it is full of freedom,” Zou said in the video. “I feel like our life is just beginning with this fresh start after getting divorced.”

While both admitted they were deeply traumatised by divorce, they say they are more content with their life as it is now.

Married life meant they were constantly exhausted by conflicts with in-laws and other family affairs on top of the housework and cooking.

Now they are able to focus more on their children and also have time for themselves.

In the video, Zuo and Guo are seen shopping in a supermarket with the children.

When they get home, they cook dinner then show the children how to dance afterwards. They also make time for themselves with pampering sessions at a beauty salon.

“Though we’re living a busy and hard life, we have found inner peace and happiness,” Zou said.

The two friends are excited about their future and are making plans for themselves and their children.

“This year our goal is to buy a better car so we can take the kids travelling,” Zou said.

Their story has divided opinion on mainland social media while attracting more than 6 millions views.

Many were captivated by their choice, but a few could not agree with it.

“Life does not get any better than that,” said one online observer.

“Girl helps girl. That is really good,” said another.

“Someday they will fall out,” wrote one pessimist.

“What will happen if one of them falls in love again?” Another asked.

In November last year, data released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, showed that 1.97 million couples registered for a divorce in the first three quarters of 2023, an increase of 330,000 from a year before.

The regions with the highest divorce rate were Guizhou, Tianjin and Chongqing.

Before that, the divorce rate in China rose from 0.096 per cent in 2000 to 0.31 per cent in 2020, but dropped to 0.2 per cent in 2021 after the government introduced a divorce cooling-off law that requires couples to wait for 30 days before finalising the paperwork.

Look out for Russian moves to ‘muddy waters’ at China’s doorstep, noted analyst warns as Moscow boosts North Korea ties

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3249358/look-out-russian-moves-muddy-waters-chinas-doorstep-noted-analyst-warns-moscow-boosts-north-korea?utm_source=rss_feed

China should be on the alert this year for potential moves by Russia to stir up trouble at its doorstep, a prominent Chinese political analyst has warned, while urging Beijing to carefully manage its ties with Washington.

The note of caution from Fang Ning, former director of the political science institute at China’s leading state-backed think tank, comes as Russia and North Korea step up cooperation, with Pyongyang’s state media saying Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected to visit at an “early date”.

Nearly two years into its war in Ukraine, Russia was likely to try its best to “muddy the waters” beyond the battlefield and trigger more flashpoints, Fang told a forum at Renmin University in Beijing.

He said the Kremlin’s aim in this would be to distract the West and cause it to cut aid to Ukraine, thus taking the pressure off Moscow.

Why North Korea-Russia military ties could become a ‘burden’ for China

Fang, a chair professor at Sichuan University, formerly headed the Institute of Political Science at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“It’s worth noting that there are already indications that Russia is likely to play out such a strategy in Northeast Asia in 2024. That will be very close [to us],” Fang said, without elaborating.

“This is something we need to be highly aware of and careful in dealing with.”

Beijing-based think tank Taihe Institute has also warned that “more tangible cooperation” between Russia and North Korea this year could lead to “twofold pressure” on China.

“On the one hand, North Korea and Russia would likely move to further tighten their relationship with us to enhance their capability to counter the US and the West,” it said in a note published on Friday.

“On the other hand, the US and the West would try to hype up and create a ‘cold war’ atmosphere of [China] allying with North Korea and Russia.”

Increased exchanges between Russia and North Korea have fuelled allegations of mutual military support, as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine nears its two-year mark and tensions flare in the Korean peninsula over Pyongyang’s weapons tests and belligerent rhetoric against Seoul, a close US ally.

North Korean foreign minister Choe Son-hui was received by Putin when she visited Moscow last week. The Kremlin said the two sides agreed to develop relations in “all areas”, including “sensitive” ones, but did not give details.

Choe’s ministry said the two countries had agreed to set up a “new multi-polarised international order”, seen as a reference to building a united front against the US, North Korean state media reported.

Washington on January 11 imposed sanctions on “one individual and three entities” it said were involved in the transfer and testing of North Korea’s ballistic missiles for Russia’s use against Ukraine.

This came a day after the US and 47 other countries, as well as the European Union, issued a joint statement to condemn such arms deals “in the strongest possible terms”.

Asked about the alleged weapons transfers earlier this month, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said: “I do not know of the cooperation”.

However, China has vowed to work with North Korea to help protect stability on the peninsula, as the nuclear-capable country steps up missile tests to challenge the US and its regional allies South Korea and Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has declared South Korea to be an “invariable principal enemy”, while abandoning his country’s long-standing goal to achieve peaceful unification.

The war in Ukraine, the conflicts in the Middle East and the US trade war would also pose challenges for China this year, Fang said, warning of “serious negative consequences” if it did not respond properly.

He said conflicts between the “Shia Crescent” of Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran on the one side, and Israel and its Western allies on the other, would be “a major test” for China’s diplomacy in 2024.

Fang also expects US policy towards China to remain essentially unchanged after the presidential election in November, regardless of the outcome.

“For China, the most important and the most difficult thing is that under the incessant China-US economic and trade frictions, it must do its best to safeguard the overall China-US relationship, maintain economic and trade exchanges as far as possible, and minimise the pressure and losses caused by the US and other Western countries,” he said.

“It will be good for China if just the China-US relationship does not worsen again in 2024.”

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China jobs: new energy, automation sectors shine as employment growth belies broader economic downturn

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3249372/china-jobs-new-energy-automation-sectors-shine-employment-growth-belies-broader-economic-downturn?utm_source=rss_feed

Recruitment in automation and new energy is outshining other sectors in China, with robust performances at a time when Beijing is steering growth toward digital and green industries, and the findings come as the broader job market is under pressure amid a slow economic recovery.

The number of jobs posted in the new-energy industry grew by 36 per cent in the first half of last year, compared with the same period a year prior, while job postings in industrial automation grew by 7 per cent, according to a report published last month by Zhilian Zhaopin, an online recruitment platform in China.

“It’s worth noting that … the hiring growth in industrial automation is not only an indicator of the robust development in advanced manufacturing, it also reflects the popular trend of digitisation across all industries,” the report said.

Resilient job demands in the sectors sharply contrast the difficulties faced by many jobseekers in China, as the private sector, China’s major job creator, has largely cut investment amid dwindling profits and dimming hopes of a quick economic turnaround.

How are China’s young graduates and universities coping with high unemployment?

Observers added that the outlook for China’s job market will also be clouded by a record high 11.79 million students expected to graduate from university this year, in addition to many jobseekers who have remained unemployed since the pandemic.

According to the Zhilian report, the demand for technical positions in the new-energy industry was especially prominent. For instance, the number of recruitment positions for windpower engineers increased by 738 per cent, year on year.

“Under the policy guidance, the demand for clean energy – especially the number of windpower projects – is growing rapidly, requiring more windpower engineers to participate in research and development, design, construction and maintenance,” the report added.

“At the same time, the intensive growth of new-energy projects also gave rise to the rising job openings for engineering supervision positions, which increased by 322 per cent in the first half of 2023, year on year.”

Among the hiring jobs in industrial automation, tech positions were also among the most ample, accounting for six of the 10 jobs with the most positions, including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mechanical design, and quality management/testing.

While first-tier cities still lead in terms of job-market growth, second-tier cities have shown an obvious rise, the report said.

In the industrial-automation industry, Guangzhou in the major manufacturing hub of Guangdong province had the highest proportion of job openings in the country and the fastest growth rate, with the industry’s job openings accounting for 10.3 per cent of the total in the first half of 2023, up from 4 per cent in 2022.

Second-tier cities such as Foshan, Guangdong, also showed strong potential in the field of industrial automation, with the number of job openings in the industry increasing from 1.3 per cent in 2022 to 3.5 per cent in the first half of 2023.

China’s AI gains will fuel economy as windfall swells into trillions: McKinsey

Policies such as the “Implementation Opinions on the Development of the General Artificial Intelligence Industry”, and the “Foshan Robot and Related Industries Development Plan (2023-30)“, provided strong support for the development of the advanced manufacturing industry, the report pointed out.

Zhilian’s survey data also showed that more young people were gravitating towards emerging industries.

Among those cross-industry jobseekers eyeing positions in industrial automation, the share of those aged 16 to 25 increased from 21 per cent to 31 per cent in the past three years, and the proportion of jobseekers with less than 3 years of work experience increased from 5.9 per cent to 25.2 per cent.

Chinese scientists bring US Navy’s ‘dream bullet’ to life

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3249048/chinese-scientists-bring-us-navys-dream-bullet-life?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese naval scientists claim to have created a smart shell for kinetic energy weapons that could reshape the military landscape.

This shell, propelled by a formidable electromagnetic gun, soars through the sky at a staggering speed of Mach 7. Throughout this dramatic process, it can stably receive signals from the BeiDou satellite navigation system and continuously adjust its flight path, maintaining an error of less than 15 metres until it hits its target.

Achieving such high accuracy at such high speeds is not easy, as the shell can travel 2,500 metres in just one second.

While its precision may still be insufficient for small moving targets like tanks, it is more than enough for larger targets such as warships or ports.

The concept of a “dream shell” was first introduced by the US Navy in 2012 as a means to solidify its global dominance. Envisioned as a projectile launched by electromagnetic rail guns or coil guns, the idea was that it would navigate through the air at a speed of Mach 5, guided by GPS signals.

The US military planned to develop and test-fire the shell within five years. But that deadline came and went. According to some US media reports, in 2017, research on the shell was still ongoing. However, by 2021, the US military had given up on the electromagnetic gun programme, and there is no publicly available information on the fate of the GPS-guided shell project.

The Chinese team said that while the West may have had a head start in the research, they received no help from abroad.

“We had no guidance, not even a cursory introduction to guided missile navigation systems, especially the satellite navigation component,” wrote the team led by Feng Junhong with the National Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Energy at the Naval University of Engineering in a paper published in the Journal of Naval University of Engineering in November.

Electromagnetic launch weapons represent a potential game-changer on the battlefield. They offer the promise of delivering a barrage of cost-effective shells while maintaining the long-range and precision capabilities of missiles.

However, during launch, these weapons generate an intense electromagnetic field that can wreak havoc on delicate electronic components such as chips and antennas.

At the same time, these “smart” shells need to be able to receive weak satellite signals, which creates a contradiction with their electromagnetic shielding capabilities.

This dilemma has vexed scientists and engineers worldwide, including those in China.

In the paper, Feng and his colleagues disclosed a novel antenna design that can resist strong electromagnetic radiation while receiving high-precision positioning signals from the BeiDou military frequency band.

US lawmakers urge end to decades-old China agreement feared of aiding PLA

They also provided detailed information on the special internal structure of the BeiDou signal receiver. During the launch of a shell, this receiver endures a force exceeding 25,000 times that of Earth’s gravity. Any flaw in its construction, such as the disconnection of wire interfaces, could lead the shell astray.

Also, as the shell hurtles through the air, it generates intense heat due to friction. To counter this, the Chinese scientists used a cost-effective, mass-produced aerogel – a remarkable feat of engineering – as a thermal barrier.

The navigation software for the weapon posed another significant hurdle. Unlike the steady course a vehicle takes on a road, shells whirl and sway erratically during flight, especially when altering course in varying air densities. To mitigate this issue, the team devised a straightforward, yet potent, algorithm that ensures uninterrupted satellite communication throughout the shell’s trajectory.

Papers published by Chinese military scientists in open academic journals undergo rigorous security checks. It is unclear why China chose to disclose this progress at this time.

Recently, the Chinese navy has announced a series of breakthroughs in the field of electromagnetic weapons, including cutting-edge energy storage systems, extreme environment-resistant alloy material coatings, complex control and monitoring systems, and large-scale continuous firing tests.

Although the actual combat performance of these weapons remains to be confirmed, some war game simulations suggest that they may challenge the traditional military advantages of Western countries.

Indonesia aims to avoid ‘poking China’s eye’ over weapons trade with Philippines, walk ‘political’ tightrope

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3249361/indonesia-aims-avoid-poking-chinas-eye-over-weapons-trade-philippines-walk-political-tightrope?utm_source=rss_feed

Defence ties between Indonesia and the Philippines have grown steadily under the radar over the past decade, but Jakarta’s offer to sell anti-submarine aircraft to Manila has shone the spotlight on the former’s burgeoning defence industry and regional solidarity amid the South China Sea row.

Analysts have also pointed to Indonesia’s interest in acquiring Chinese naval missiles, a move some suggest is “political” to assure Beijing that it is not a threat and to avoid “poking China in the eye”.

On January 10, during a visit to the Philippines, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the two countries should boost political and security ties “through concrete steps”. He also asked his counterpart Ferdinand Marcos, Jnr to buy anti-submarine aircraft from Indonesia.

The Philippine military said last year that it would deploy anti-submarine aircraft in the South China Sea, given what Manila sees as increasing threats from Chinese ships.

Military analyst Yokie Rahmad Isjchwansyah said Indonesia has huge potential in marketing its defence industry under Defend ID, the country’s state-owned enterprise company launched in 2022.

Indonesia’s support for genocide case against Israel tainted by its dark history

Defend ID’s units produce equipment ranging from propellants for munitions, rockets, and weapons to various types of aircraft for military operations and special missions.

The Philippines had previously acquired Indonesia-made weapons such as armoured personnel carriers, CN-235 and NC-212i multipurpose aircraft, and landing platform docks and strategic sealift vessels at sea, Yokie Rahmad said.

Some of these Indonesian weapons were also used by other Southeast Asian countries including Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, according to Yokie Rahmad.

Given Manila’s status as “a loyal customer” and buyer of several of Indonesia’s defence equipment, it was unsurprising Widodo made the offer to Marcos Jnr, he added.

The AS565 Panther helicopters can also be configured to perform anti-submarine missions, said Yokie Rahmad, who is also a master’s student in international relations at the Paramadina Graduate School of Diplomacy in Jakarta. The French-origin helicopters are produced in Indonesia and other countries.

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

“The acquisition could strengthen the armed forces of the Philippines, especially the navy,” he said.

“The offer from Widodo is not only purely economic but also shows solidarity among Asean countries in addressing the South China Sea conflict,” he added, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc.

In recent months, China and the Philippines have been involved in several confrontations in the South China Sea, with both sides trading accusations of provoking conflict in the disputed waterway, including charges that a Chinese coastguard vessel rammed a ship last month carrying the Philippine armed forces chief of staff.

Indonesia last year issued a joint statement with the United States to express concerns over Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea. Its military is also wary about China’s incursions in waters around Indonesia’s Natuna Islands.

Muhammad Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman, a research fellow on regional security at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore said that as a small arms exporter, Indonesia has been boosting its defence industry’s manufacturing capabilities.

This is mainly to support its military modernisation in light of “rising geostrategic competition”, Muhammad Faizal said, adding that as a “regional middle power”, Indonesia also wanted to show “indirect support” to the Philippines.

“[Manila] is now the frontline Asean state actively challenging China’s expansive maritime claims,” he said. Nonetheless, greater intra-Asean military support against conventional security threats is unlikely for now, he added.

“Member states have disparate policy views and approaches to tensions involving the major powers,” Muhammad Faizal said, adding that Asean would not undertake any action that could create an impression of an alliance given China’s warning against the creation of an “Asian Nato”.

Last year, China’s former defence minister Li Shangfu said that any attempts to push for Nato-like alliances in the Asia-Pacific region “is a way of kidnapping regional countries and exaggerating conflicts and confrontations”.

China has continued to assert claims to a wide swathe of the South China Sea, asserting that over 80 per cent of the disputed waterway is its sovereign territory.

Separately, the Indonesian navy is said to be showing interest in acquiring the Chinese-made YJ-12E coastal missile system, the Asia-Pacific Defence Journal reported.

The publication said that the research and development service of the Indonesian navy had certified that the system could be acquired and even produced locally.

The YJ-12E has a range of 290km and possesses an advanced flight speed and strong penetration ability, which makes it “an effective weapon to break through hostile missile defence system”, according to China’s nationalistic tabloid The Global Times.

RSIS’ Muhammad Faizal said that while other countries chose arms suppliers in a way that prioritised strategic alliances and interoperability between different systems, Indonesia might be making choices based on the aim of reducing its dependence on a few suppliers.

Indonesia imports military weapons primarily from Italy, Sweden, South Korea, Belgium and the United States.

“Procuring Chinese arms may be less of a military modernisation move, but more of a political move to assure China that Indonesia is not a threat,” he said pointing to Malaysia which has procured Chinese patrol vessels as a way “to show determination to repel maritime incursions, but without poking China in the eye”.

Military analyst Yokie Rahmad said that while Jakarta’s stance is to be open to all available options in strengthening the country’s defence posture, acquiring the Chinese-made system is “not a wise decision” given escalating tensions in the region.

“[And besides] there are many coastal defence missiles [available from other countries] that the Indonesian government can explore,” he said.

These include the BrahMos jointly manufactured by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between India and Russia, and the Naval Strike Missile – an anti-ship and land-attack missile – developed by Norway’s Kongsberg defence & Aerospace.

Will China concerns prove decisive in Indonesia’s presidential race?

Yohanes Sulaiman, associate professor of international relations at the Jenderal Achmad Yani University in West Java said it is unlikely that Indonesia would purchase the Chinese system as “China is currently seen as a threat to regional stability” due to its so-called “nine-dash line” that indicates its maritime sovereignty claim.

While China accepts that the Natuna Islands belong to Indonesia, a part of the “nine-dash line” overlaps with Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone, which has previously led to stand-offs between legal enforcement agencies of both countries.

“Chinese missiles are [also] seen as having reliability issues,” Yohanes said, noting that in 2016, Chinese C-705 anti-ship missiles failed to hit their targets during an Indonesian exercise in front of Widodo.

According to Yohanes, the move by the Indonesian navy to certify the YJ-12E system is “simply a face-saving gesture to the Chinese”.

Google software engineer from China charged with murder after allegedly beating wife to death in US home, shedding light on domestic violence

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3249334/google-software-engineer-china-charged-murder-after-allegedly-beating-wife-death-us-home-shedding?utm_source=rss_feed

A 27-year-old Google engineer from China has been charged with murder after allegedly beating his wife to death in the United States in a case that has shocked mainland social media.

The suspect, Chen Liren, is alleged to have repeatedly punched his wife Yu Xuanyi in the head at their home in Santa Clara, a city in the centre of Silicon Valley where Google headquarters are located.

On January 16, the police found Yu, 27, dead on the floor in the bedroom of the home with “severe blunt force injuries to her head”, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney.

Chen was found standing near her staring “blankly”, with an “extremely swollen and purple” right hand, scratches on his arm, and covered in blood splatters.

The police found them after responding to a welfare check request made by Chen’s friend, who said Chen was refusing to answer his phone or the door.

Chen has been charged with the murder of Yu, but by the time of writing had not been arraigned due to his hospitalisation.

According to the San Francisco Standard, if convicted, Chen faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Both Chen and Yu worked as software engineers at Google.

They both studied Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University from 2014 to 2018 and went to study Computer Science at the University of California San Diego in 2018.

The couple bought their house on the Valley Way for US$2.05 million last April, according to the San Francisco Standard.

News of the tragedy quickly spread across mainland social media, with the suspect and victim’s acquaintances sharing their memories of them.

Yu was the top scorer in the national college entrance examinations in her hometown Songyuan city in northeastern China’s Jilin province in 2014.

Her secondary school teacher Zhang Guoliang told the mainland media outlet Hongxing News she had a “sweet and shy” character and grew up in a peaceful family.

Yu told the media she wanted to be “an electronic engineer and apply novel technologies in real life in the future”.

Chen was also an elite student in a top-notch secondary school in southwestern China’s Sichuan province.

A former classmate of his told Hongxing News that he was shocked to learn the news as his ex-girlfriend said he had never beaten her.

According to the World Journal, the largest-circulated Chinese-language newspaper in the US, the charges indicate Chen’s alleged attack involved “extremely cruel, malicious or cold-hearted behaviour”.

Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen noted a rise in domestic violence-related 911 calls, and highlighted the importance of calling the police if people feel “they or someone else is being abused by their partners”.

A Chinese-American attorney in California, Liu Longzhu, said he had represented many Chinese engineers working in Silicon Valley and knew the cohort very well.

“Many of them were elite students and had successful careers, but some have high IQ but low EQ and do not have very good emotional management skills,” Liu said.

The tragedy also renewed concerns about the psychological resilience of elite Chinese students, with many questioning the established educational system that puts academic excellence above mental health.

Alibaba’s online flea market Xianyu launches bricks-and-mortar store in China in latest innovation

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3249335/alibabas-online-flea-market-xianyu-launches-bricks-and-mortar-store-china-latest-innovation?utm_source=rss_feed

Alibaba Group Holding’s online second-hand goods trading platform Xianyu will open its first “all-category” bricks-and-mortar store, as several businesses under the e-commerce giant undertake what CEO Eddie Wu Yongming described as strategic-level innovations.

Xianyu Recycle Shop will launch this coming Sunday in an industrial estate renovated from an abandoned factory in the Gongshu district of Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province and home to Alibaba’s headquarters, according to a post on the platform’s official WeChat account. Alibaba owns the Post.

Described as Xianyu’s first “all-category second-hand store”, it adopts a consignment model. Customers can leave their used items for sale at the shop or buy what is on offer there.

The store accepts a wide range of goods including shoes, apparel, fashion accessories, watches, toys, kitchenware, home decor items, home appliances, musical instruments, books and certain luxury goods. However, the trading of gold and jewellery are banned, as are food, pets and plants, according to Xianyu’s post.

Taobao to be more tech focused as Alibaba CEO takes over, analysts say

In November, Wu named Xianyu one of four “strategic-level innovation businesses” at Alibaba during his first post-earnings conference call with analysts. The other units include online wholesale marketplace 1688, office collaboration and app development tool DingTalk and search and cloud storage product Quark.

These businesses will “in organisational terms, operate as independent subsidiaries and will not be constrained to their previous positioning within the group, enabling them to face the larger market with their own strategies”, Wu said, adding that the group expects Xianyu to become a lifestyle platform for Chinese consumers.

Xianyu said its physical store can provide a convenient and hassle-free experience for resellers, who would otherwise have to constantly check and reply to inquiries from interested buyers through the app.

User numbers on Xianyu have been growing in recent quarters, with daily active users rising 20 per cent in the September quarter from a year earlier, according to Alibaba’s most recent financial report.

The platform had more than 500 million users, making it one of the largest Alibaba apps by users, said Ji Shan, general manager at Xianyu, at a corporate event in May.

China rallies G77 countries for major reform of WTO and Bretton Woods at Kampala summit

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3249336/china-rallies-g77-countries-major-reform-wto-and-bretton-woods-kampala-summit?utm_source=rss_feed

China is rallying the Group of 77 developing countries to push for reform of the global governance system which – according to some leaders in Africa, Asia and Latin America – disproportionately favours the West.

Chinese vice-premier Liu Guozhong said on Sunday that developing countries “should jointly support the reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the international financial system”.

Liu was speaking in Kampala at the third South Summit – the decision-making body of the 134-country G77 and China, which does not consider itself a member of the grouping. Uganda also assumed chairmanship of the group at the meeting, taking over from Cuba.

China joins a growing list of countries, especially from Africa and Asia, that have been piling on the pressure for a reorganisation of the global political and economic order – especially the UN Security Council and the WTO, as well as the World Bank and the IMF.

The increasing calls for a review of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are based on concerns that the structure, location and mandate of the Bretton Woods institutions are no longer fit to deal with changing global trends.

The US played an outsize role in the creation of the IMF and World Bank and continues to command considerable influence, as one of the largest shareholders in both organisations, which are also headquartered in Washington.

Liu’s call to reform the WTO comes a few months after Chinese President Xi Jinping urged more effort in reforming the organisation, which has become the world’s largest goods trader and a key partner for more than 140 countries since China joined in 2003.

Liu, who is attending the summit as Xi’s special representative, said that it was crucial to make international development agencies more efficient in supporting countries in the Global South – broadly categorised as Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

“The collective rise of the countries of the Global South is unstoppable, yet the unjust and inequitable international political and economic order from the past continues to have lingering effects.”

Liu said that, as part of China’s initiative to reform the global financial system, Beijing had helped to establish the New Development Bank, the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund.

These institutions are providing alternative lending for countries that cannot access international financial markets, and have funded multibillion projects in Asia and other overseas markets, he said.

Liu said developing countries, especially those in the Global South, should raise their representation and voices in meaningful ways to tackle the age-old problems of international governance.

At the same time, he urged developed countries to deliver on their development and climate financing commitments, and to speed up implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Goals Development (SGD) agenda.

“China supports countries of the south to realise common development,” Liu said. He added that his country was doing its part, with investments through initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative.

Liu highlighted the more than 3,000 belt and road projects, worth more than US$1 trillion, that China has bankrolled around the world in the past decade.

Xi in whirlwind of meetings with Global South leaders on Brics sidelines

Xi had “underlined that China is a developing country and one of the Global South countries” and had stood with fellow developing countries “through thick and thin”, Liu said. He added that South-South cooperation would continue to be a priority.

Liu’s sentiments won support among the leaders present, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was also encouraged by Liu to nominate a special envoy for poverty eradication.

In his address, Guterres said the international system is “out of date, out of time, and out of step, reflecting a bygone age when many of your countries were colonised”.

“The United Nations Security Council is paralysed by geopolitical divisions. Its composition does not reflect the reality of today’s world. It must be reformed,” he added.

The UN chief said the global financial system, including the Bretton Woods institutions, had failed to provide a global safety net for developing countries in distress.

But he added that the Summit of the Future, taking place in New York in September, would be considering “deep reforms” to the international financial architecture.

Dennis Francis, president of the UN General Assembly, told the gathering that multilateral organisations – including the United Nations and international financial institutions – must undergo urgent reforms to better recognise and leverage the significance of the Global South.

“We need an international financial system rooted in inclusion and equity, inspiring full commitment to multilateralism, fostering SDG-aligned investments, and breaking the vicious cycles of debt and interest for developing countries,” Francis said.

China, India court Global South in competing bids to lead developing countries

In his first speech as chairman of the G77 and China, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni rallied the leaders to remain united in their demands to the international community – to support developing countries to urgently address global challenges such as poverty, hunger, the digital divide and climate change.

“As the G77 and China, we should continue to work collectively to ensure that we achieve an international economic order that is just and equitable, as envisaged 59 years ago at the founding of the group,” Museveni said.

He added that Uganda supports the urgent reform of the international financial architecture to ensure that it is fit for purpose to respond to the financing needs of developing countries.

Since its inception in 1964 as a group of 77 developing countries, the G77 has promoted economic cooperation among its member states. Beijing has provided political and financial support to the grouping since 1994.

China sends senior Communist Party envoy on G77 mission to Cuba

Seifudein Adem, an Ethiopian global affairs professor at Doshi­sha University in Japan, said that the G77 and China, like the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), seeks to represent the interests of developing countries.

“China has almost ceased to be a part of the Third World. It is regarded today as a superpower. Yet some observers see China’s interests as aligning or at least intersecting with the interests of G77,” Adem said.

“Unlike the NAM, which suffered a crisis of purpose with the end of the Cold War, the raison d’être of G77 remains valid,” he said, pointing out that the international political and economic conditions which led to the G77’s formation are still there.

China father drops US$140,000 jade ring from high-rise window into drainage ditch, successful 4-day search sparks firework party

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3248185/china-dad-drops-us140000-jade-ring-high-rise-window-drainage-ditch-successful-4-day-search-sparks?utm_source=rss_feed

A beautiful jade ring rumoured to be worth one million yuan (US$140,000) and intended for a bride-to-be in China has been accidentally dropped out of a window into a drainage ditch nine floors below.

The incident had residents of Guangdong, southeastern China collectively holding their breath for three days during a salvage operation.

The ring slipped through the fingers of a jeweller’s customer as he was trying to film it in natural light by a window, according to his son who posted the information on Douyin.

He said it was a custom-made gift his father was intending to present to his future daughter-in-law on their imminent wedding day.

The anxious man quickly hired a salvage team to search for the ring, which fell into the drainage ditch below.

A member of the team, surnamed Fan, said he and his colleagues were each paid 500 yuan (US$70) a day to search for it.

The hunt took more than 72 hours and attracted hundreds of onlookers.

When the ring was finally retrieved on the fourth day, there were cheers all round as the ecstatic owner set off fireworks to celebrate.

The neighbourhood committee said the ditch was undergoing desilting work which made the salvage process easier.

A committee member, surnamed Luo, who saw the ring after it was found, told Guangdong Television that its dazzling design incorporates green jadeite and diamonds and it is worth hundreds of thousands of yuan.

The ring’s owner said it meant to him more than its monetary value, and he was very happy the retrieved jewel was still in perfect condition.

Jade has been used in jewellery since the Neolithic period in China.

The stone was seen by ancient people as a holy symbol representing the deity – the supreme ruler of heaven, known as the Jade Emperor – and was later used by royal families as an emblem of their noble status.

It is as prized today as it has always been, and is often used in societal events to mark their importance.

In 2008, the Beijing Olympics mounted jade in the medals to symbolise nobility and virtue, and as a visual representation of Chinese culture.

While the type of jade used in the Olympic medals was called nephrite, the jadeite embedded in the lost ring is the harder and rarer type, known as Fei Cui in Chinese.

Colour, transparency, texture and size are all factors that influence the quality of jadeite. Only the best jadeite is used in rings.

Landslide in mountainous southwestern China buries 47 people

https://apnews.com/article/china-landslide-yunnan-5c04d0b5352f103c0489a1b796df754bIn this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, rescue workers search through rubbles in the aftermath of a landslide in liangshui village in southwestern China's Yunnan Province on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. The landslide in southwestern China's mountainous Yunnan province early Monday buried dozens and forced the evacuation of hundreds. (CCTV via AP)

2024-01-22T03:22:42Z

BEIJING (AP) — A landslide in southwestern China’s mountainous Yunnan province early Monday buried 47 people and forced the evacuation of 200 more amid freezing temperatures and falling snow.

The disaster struck just before 6 a.m. in the village of Liangshui in the northeastern part of Yunnan province. Rescue efforts were underway to find victims buried in 18 separate houses, the Zhenxiong county publicity department said.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. The cause of the landslide wasn’t immediately known, although photos showed snow was on the ground and continuing to fall.

Luo Dongmei, 35, was sleeping when the landslide struck, but she survived and was relocated to a school by local authorities.

“I was asleep, but my brother knocked on the door and woke me up. They said there was a landslide and the bed was shaking, so they rushed upstairs and woke us up,” Luo said.

Luo, her husband and their three children, along with many other residents, have been provided with food at the school but are still waiting for blankets and other protection from the cold weather, she said.

Luo said she’s been unable to contact her sister and aunt, who lived closer to the site of the landslide. “The only thing I can do is to wait,” she said.

Rescuers evacuated tourists last week from a remote skiing area in northwestern China where dozens of avalanches triggered by heavy snow trapped more than 1,000 people for a week. The avalanches blocked roads, stranding both tourists and residents in a village in Altay prefecture in the Xinjiang region, close to China’s border with Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Landslides, often caused by rain or unsafe construction work, are not uncommon in China. At least 70 people were killed in landslides last year, including more than 50 at an open pit mine in the Inner Mongolia region. In 2021, 14 workers were killed when a tunnel under construction was flooded.

The landslide in Yunnan also came just over a month after China’s most powerful earthquake in years struck the northwest in a remote region between Gansu and Qinghai province. At least 149 people were killed in the 6.2-magnitude temblor that struck on Dec. 18, reducing homes to rubble and triggering heavy mudslides that inundated two villages in Qinghai province.

Nearly 1,000 people were injured and more than 14,000 homes were destroyed in China’s deadliest earthquake in nine years.

[World] China: At least 47 buried after landslide in Yunnan - state media

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-68052676?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

China landslide: dozens buried in Yunnan province, state media report

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/22/china-landslide-yunnan-province-buried-updates

Forty-four people have been buried in a landslide in China’s south-western Yunnan province, state media reported on Monday.

State broadcaster CCTV said a preliminary investigation showed 44 people from 18 households had been buried after a slide in Zhenxiong county at 5.51am.

More than 200 people have been “urgently evacuated” from the region, CCTV reported.

Landslides are common in Yunnan, a remote region of China where steep mountain ranges butt against the Himalayan plateau.

An unknown number of villagers were buried in a landslide in China's Yunnan early Monday. Search and rescue for the missing is underway. #China pic.twitter.com/QkrTkKwViY

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 22, 2024

The broadcaster CCTV said authorities had launched an emergency response involving more than 200 rescue workers as well as dozens of fire engines and other equipment.

Footage posted on social media by a local broadcaster showed emergency workers in orange jumpsuits and helmets picking through piles of collapsed masonry amid towering mountains dusted with snow.

Please check back for updates

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More than 40 trapped as landslide buries 18 homes in southwest China village

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3249288/more-40-trapped-landslide-buries-18-homes-southwest-china-village?utm_source=rss_feed

A landslide has buried 18 households and 47 people in a village in China’s mountainous southwest Yunnan province on Monday morning, according to a preliminary report by state broadcaster CCTV.

The landslide happened at 5:51am in Liangshui village, in Zhaotong city’s Zhenxiong county, CCTV said.

More than 200 people have been evacuated and a level three emergency response initiated. China has a four-level disaster relief system.

According to the state media report, more than 200 rescue personnel, 33 fire trucks and 10 loaders have been mobilised to carry out search and rescue operations.

More to follow

China’s attack simulation, Philippine constitution change, public nudity in Taiwan: 5 weekend reads you may have missed

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3249282/chinas-attack-simulation-philippine-constitution-change-public-nudity-taiwan-5-weekend-reads-you-may?utm_source=rss_feed

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

China is moving up the rare earth value chain. The West is trying to catch up

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3249249/china-moving-rare-earth-value-chain-west-trying-catch?utm_source=rss_feed

Last month, a Chinese firm acquired the entire stockpile at Canada’s first and only operating rare earth mine. Shenghe Resources also bought a 9.9 per cent stake in Vital Metals, the Australian company that owns the project.

Shenghe has been importing rare earths from American and Australian miners and processing them in China since 2016.

Rare earths are used in clean-energy technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines, and China has had a leading position supplying the world with these elements since the 1980s. But it is also well ahead on the technologies used to process rare earths.

And as Western countries develop their own rare earth supply chains to reduce reliance on China, acquisitions like Shenghe’s show how China is seeking to import upstream products from the West, then export value-added products back to these countries.

So while China used to provide cheap raw materials to Western nations to make high-end products for clean energy, it is now attempting to reverse that production flow in the global value chain.

In the rare earth supply chain, upstream production involves the mining of the elements and the extraction and separation of their oxides. Downstream is mainly the production of permanent magnets, used for electric vehicles.

Rapid exploration and mining of rare earth deposits and a leading position on separation and extraction technologies saw China dominate exports of raw ores and other upstream products.

Prices were extremely low and there were serious environmental concerns, prompting efforts to improve the industry, with exports of raw ores banned in 2009, and controls imposed on domestic rare earth production.

Duan Xiaolin, assistant professor of global studies at Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shenzhen, said China was attempting to make its use of rare earth resources sustainable.

“These efforts include environmental regulations, production control, and industrial restructuring to consolidate rare earth production among state-owned enterprises, which has led to an undersupply of rare earth raw ores within China,” Duan said.

China tightens controls over rare earth exports, imports of key commodities

Meanwhile, Western countries led by the United States, Australia, the European Union and Canada have sought to develop a new rare earth supply chain so they are less dependent on China.

That has seen China’s share of total rare earth exports drop from some 90 per cent a decade ago to about 70 per cent in 2022, according to the US Geological Survey.

And with an undersupply at home, China’s rare earth industry has had to rely more on imports of upstream products to process.

Imports have grown significantly – from 14,274 tonnes overall in 2016 to about 10 times that volume in 2022.

The industry imported 2,759 tonnes of rare earth oxides, an upstream product, in 2016 – and 10 times more in the first half of 2023.

It also went from importing just 2 tonnes of raw ores in 2016 to imports of more than 70,000 tonnes annually in the last three years.

“Chinese companies are importing raw materials from abroad and actively seeking to diversify to meet their need for raw materials, with Shenghe Resources being a notable pioneer in this regard,” Duan said.

EU agrees rules to secure critical raw materials amid race with China and US

In recent years, Shenghe has acquired stakes in two Australian companies that own rare earth mines in Greenland and Tanzania, as well as a stake in the owner of the largest such mine in the US. That mine, named Mountain Pass, produces about 15 per cent of the world’s rare earths, according to its website.

These deals have given Shenghe exclusive rights to buy rare earth concentrates produced at the mines.

From 2017 to 2022, the company, which is partially state-owned, has spent about US$248 billion annually on rare earths from foreign mines – far more than its purchases of domestic rare earths.

In the December deal, the Chinese company acquired the Canadian mine’s stockpile and it will also work with Vital Metals to develop another mine in Tanzania.

Shenghe’s recent acquisitions are part of a broader Chinese strategy to move up the rare earth value chain.

As China buys more upstream products from abroad, its exports of rare earth permanent magnets – a high-demand and high-value-added downstream product – have roughly doubled from 2016 to 2023. They are exported to countries including the US, Germany, Italy, Poland and Vietnam.

Kevin Ansdell, a geological sciences professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, noted that the West was behind when it came to the refining part of the rare earth supply chain.

“So if you develop a new rare earth mine in Europe, for example, there is a pretty good chance that the ore, processed to a certain degree, would then have to be sent to China for refining to the pure metal,” he said.

According to Antonio Helio Castro Neto, a professor and materials scientist at the National University of Singapore, it will take at least a decade of heavy investment for the US to catch up with China’s rare earth processing technologies.

China is meanwhile seeking to retain its dominance in downstream processing. It banned the export of the technology used to make rare earth permanent magnets in December, adding to a ban on exporting upstream processing technologies in place since 2020.

Cheap labour and low production costs fuelled China’s rapid economic growth in the past four decades, but more recently it has been trying to upgrade manufacturing more broadly to move up the value chain. That process has been accelerated by Western countries moving some supply chains out of China.

The value-added output of China’s manufacturing industry jumped from 16.98 trillion yuan in 2012 to 31.4 trillion yuan a decade later, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China has already moved up the clean energy supply chain, and not just in rare earths. According to the International Energy Agency, it is also the world’s largest processor of four other renewable energy sources – copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium – with most of their production done outside China.

Wang Guoqing, director of the Lange Steel Information Research Centre in Beijing, said converting raw materials or upstream products into high-value-added ones brought higher profits and more benefit to the country’s economic development.

China now dominates production of electric vehicles, a key application for rare earth materials, accounting for more than half of all new electric car registrations globally in 2022, according to an IEA report.

Wang said many other industries in China were trying to upgrade to more high-value-added activities.

“In the steel industry, for example, China has been encouraging the import of pig iron [the raw material used for steel] and the export of higher-end products,” she said.

Castro Neto from NUS said China had been importing upstream products and exporting downstream ones for a long time.

“For instance, China buys iron and niobium ore from Brazil and resells it as steel with a profit,” he said. “It reinforces the commodity dependence and keeps the money coming.”

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France visit offers ‘margin of manoeuvre’ in Cambodia’s bid to ease reliance on China

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3249083/france-visit-offers-margin-manoeuvre-cambodias-bid-ease-reliance-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Cambodian leader Hun Manet’s visit to France this week to discuss defence cooperation, among other issues, gives the Southeast Asian nation “a margin of manoeuvre” of counterbalancing its over-reliance on China, analysts have said.

Together with Cambodia’s increased security cooperation with Japan, foreign policy experts said the Paris trip represented Phnom Penh’s tilt “towards diversification” as it sought to hedge its bets among the great powers vying for dominance in the region.

During Manet’s state visit to France on Thursday and Friday, he met French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, where Paris confirmed that it would provide €200 million (US$217 million) in support of Cambodia’s vocational training, energy, and water treatment sectors.

France is the first country in Europe and outside Asia that Manet has visited since assuming office in August.

While the trip largely focused on economic cooperation, as well as clean water, energy, and education initiatives, Macron also discussed Cambodia’s role in France’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

Following the release of the Indo-Pacific Strategy by the United States in February 2022, many mainly Western countries have come up with similar strategies, widely seen as blueprints to countering China’s growing dominance in the region.

In a letter to Manet on December 31, Macron said France hoped to work with Cambodia on defence, adding that the two nations ought to “develop new projects in an Indo-Pacific space which is open, and regulated by international law”.

Sophal Ear, associate professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, said Paris was suggesting opportunities for defence sales and even joint military exercises.

“While the details are sketchy, the language [used in the letter] is inclusive,” Ear said, noting Macron’s mention of the rule of law and the respect for international norms were “very much the verbiage of the US and the West”.

“It sounds like magical thinking to believe Cambodia would be on board with that,” he added, referring to the kingdom’s official neutral foreign policy stance but increasingly close ties with China.

In recent years, China has often been accused of violating international norms and treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea through its routine harassment of civilian vessels, most notably in the South China Sea.

The world’s third-biggest arms exporting nation after the US and Russia, France’s weapons exports totalled US$30 billion in 2022, with two-thirds going to the Middle East, 23 per cent to Europe and 8 per cent to Asia and Oceania.

While France had offered arms to Cambodia back in the 1960s, it also played an active peacekeeping role in Cambodia in the early 1990s. Under the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, Paris sent peacekeeping forces and supported the disarmament of different Cambodian armed factions.

In recent years, the French army has trained Cambodian soldiers at the kingdom’s Thmart Porng Military Academy and the National Center for Peacekeeping Forces, Mines and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance.

Last March, the French military ship Le Prairial anchored at the Sihanouk Autonomous Port for four days, the first stop in Cambodia by a French Navy vessel in seven years.

‘No hope’ for Cambodians as poll walkover hands Hun Sen succession moment

Sophie Boisseau du Rocher, associate research fellow at the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations’ Center for Asian Studies, said France’s position in Cambodia had shrunk dramatically over the past three decades under former leader Hun Sen.

With Cambodia’s closest ally being a “proactive China”, the best approach for Paris would be to develop a “position of counterbalancing” as having a partner in Paris would give Phnom Penh “a margin of manoeuvre”, du Rocher said.

“Phnom Penh will not be against a potential but marginal diversification,” she said, adding that Manet was unlikely to be impressed by any Indo-Pacific strategy “but the term is fashionable and resonates with French higher officials”.

Cambodia, which has increasingly come under China’s orbit, is heavily dependent on its giant neighbour for trade and investments, as well as funding for infrastructure and developmental projects. According to the kingdom’s Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade reached over US$12 billion by the end of 2023.

Cambodia is equally reliant on China militarily. It receives weapons, equipment and military training from its neighbour, which also helps develop the kingdom’s naval capabilities, including infrastructure development at the Ream Naval Base in Sihanoukville.

Part of those developments are a deepening of the water around the base, which will allow larger warships, including those from China, to dock and operate in the area. In 2019, reports first emerged of a secret agreement that would give China basing rights at Ream, a claim that Phnom Penh denies.

Last month, Chinese naval ships including the Wenshan, a Type 056A corvette, were seen moored at the base, said to be the first for any ship from a foreign navy.

Cambodia and China also routinely conduct the Golden Dragon joint exercises, most recently in March, in which both sides train for security operations around major events and humanitarian rescues.

To the extent that its “paramount and ironclad friendship with China allows”, Cambodia is increasingly eager to diversify its foreign relations, according to Astrid Norén-Nilsson, senior lecturer at the Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies at Sweden’s Lund University.

Cambodia and Japan last month agreed to take steps to deepen security cooperation, including launching sub-cabinet level defence talks.

Chhay Lim, a visiting fellow at Cambodia’s Institute for International Studies and Public Policy’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies, said that as one of Cambodia’s largest sources for both Overseas Development Assistance and foreign direct investment, Japan was a vital “hedge” for Cambodia.

“Cambodia has been utilising Japan to maintain a strategic equilibrium amid US-China tensions,” Li said, adding that among Cambodia’s policy elites, Tokyo was seen as a more comfortable partner compared to the assertiveness of the US, especially on human rights and democracy.

In recent years, the US and rights groups have taken the Cambodian government to task for intensifying its onslaught on political opposition, civil society, and the few remaining independent media outlets in the country.

‘No hope’ for Cambodians as poll walkover hands Hun Sen succession moment

“Cambodia cannot overly rely on China and truly understands the risks,” Lim said, noting that the Japanese Self-Defence Forces’ port visit to Cambodia in March and April, as well as the first senior defence officials’ talks in November, did more than strengthen defence ties between Phnom Penh and Tokyo.

“[They also] helped Cambodia a lot in terms of dispelling suspicions on possibly hosting the Chinese Navy in Ream Base,” Lim said.

Norén-Nilsson said Cambodia was wary of ending up in one camp in a divided world and “as global security deteriorates, it tilts towards diversification”.

“The central problem for the new generation of Cambodia foreign policy pundits and practitioners is that of a small state hedging between great powers,” she added.

Woman in China sues ‘husband’ of 10 years with whom she has 8 children for US$28 million in maintenance after finding out he is married

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3248045/woman-china-sues-husband-10-years-whom-she-has-8-children-us28-million-maintenance-after-finding-out?utm_source=rss_feed

The story of a 33-year-old woman in China who sued her 61-year-old ex-lover, with whom she has eight children, for maintenance of 200 million yuan (US$28 million) after finding out he was married has trended on mainland social media.

Before learning that her lover of 10 years had a wife, the unnamed woman, from Sichuan province in southwestern China, had built a family with him, raising five sons and three daughters, Star Video reported.

The woman, who comes from a wealthy family, met him online when she was 23, and although he lied to her about how he earned a living, decided to start a romantic relationship with him.

“He said he was single, so our relationship is legal,” the woman told Star Video.

In the video, she shows a certificate, the validity of which is unclear, saying that they got married in 2015, after which they decided they were going to have 10 children.

“He told me that at least one of the children would be successful,” the woman said.

She then showed birth certificates which revealed the children were born in the United States to a surrogate mother.

The woman estimated that they spent more than 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) to have five sons and three daughters.

However, her dream life was shattered last year when she discovered that the man she assumed was her “husband”, who had moved overseas, was suing her to get back all the assets he claimed he gave her.

Things got even worse when she learned that he has another wife.

The woman left him and he has to look after the eight children for the time being.

She is suing her ex-lover and his family to obtain child support of about 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) per month because she cannot afford to take care of the children.

His family replied that they could raise the children if she was willing to hand all of them over, otherwise they would seek a legal remedy.

“I can’t give my children to him,” the woman said.

She then accused him of bigamy and demanded 200 million yuan in maintenance. The case came to trial in October last year and a decision is pending.

The story shocked mainland social media.

One online observer said: “Oh my god, this is ridiculous” while another person said: “A poor woman and her eight children.”

Stories involving huge divorce settlements regularly start heated debates in China.

In June last year, a woman in southwestern China who showed up at her ex-husband’s wedding with a banner which read: “Accepting concubines on my husband’s behalf” over an unpaid divorce settlement of one million yuan.

In March last year, a housewife in Beijing who discovered her husband – who claimed to have savings of just 100,000 yuan – but actually earned as much as three million yuan (US$422,000) a year – launched a divorce lawsuit to get her husband to hand over 60 per cent of his assets.

‘Gutter talk’: is Manila overcorrecting its China policy post-Duterte?

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248946/gutter-talk-manila-overcorrecting-its-china-policy-post-duterte?utm_source=rss_feed

In the latest sign of increasing Sino-Philippine tensions, the Philippine defence secretary has hit out at Beijing for criticising President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s congratulating of Taiwan’s newly elected leader.

“It is unfortunate that [China’s] ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson stooped to such low and gutter-level talk,” Gilbert Teodoro said accusing Beijing of “resorting to insulting our president and the Filipino nation”. This was in response to the ministry warning that Manila should abide by the one-China principle and “refrain from playing with fire”.

Last September, a Philippine military spokesman called China’s coastguard a “misplaced bully” after maritime encounters in disputed South China Sea territory. Ahead of midterm elections next year, top Filipino legislators have joined the fray, adopting increasingly bellicose statements against China amid rising tensions.

As if that weren’t enough, the military has announced that the Philippines will fortify its facilities on disputed features in the South China Sea.

After six years of Beijing-friendly foreign policy under former president Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine political and defence establishment has embraced an uncompromising stance on maritime disputes with China.

While they may see this as a justified response and a noble attempt at preserving their country’s sovereign rights, the Philippines should also be wary of overcorrecting its China policy. Otherwise, the two rival claimants may sleepwalk into dangerous waters.

Of all the regional states, the Philippines has arguably had the most chaotic foreign policy in recent memory. A staunch US ally up to the early 2000s, the Southeast Asian nation suddenly pursued a “golden era” of relations with China under the Arroyo administration.

Things radically changed under the succeeding Aquino administration, which openly embraced a growing American military presence in Asia and, crucially, took China to international court over the South China Sea disputes.

There was, once again, a 180-degree policy shift when Duterte took the reins in the mid-2010s. Even by Philippine standards, he was a major geopolitical shock. For the first time in Philippine history, a sitting president threatened to sever the alliance with America in favour of a new one with China and Russia. Aside from cussing at then-president Barack Obama, Duterte blocked the Pentagon from pre-positioning weapons systems on Philippine bases.

Duterte often expressed his “love” for the Chinese leadership, saying in 2018 that he needed China “more than anybody else at this time of our national life” and calling China his “protector” (against any Western-backed coup).

Insisting that his country should remain “meek” and “humble” in exchange for China’s “mercy”, Duterte repeatedly refused to criticise China despite multiple incidents in the South China Sea, most notably when a suspected Chinese militia vessel rammed into a Filipino fishing boat in the Reed Bank area in 2019.

A charismatic populist, Duterte largely managed to defy both the Western-trained Philippine defence establishment and broader public opinion on the South China Sea disputes. Since his departure from power, however, the Philippine elite has adopted a China-sceptic foreign policy with a vengeance.

The Philippines is simultaneously publicising its encounters with China in the disputed waters and stepping up its resupply and construction efforts on disputed features.

This has coincided with unprecedented joint patrols and war games with Western allies in the South China Sea as well as an expanded American military presence on Philippine soil. Top Philippine officials are even openly questioning the wisdom of diplomatic engagement with China.

Though the Philippines’ new-found strategic assertiveness is understandable against the backdrop of the Duterte era’s passivity, it also risks adding fuel to fire. The Philippines should first and foremost maintain the diplomatic high ground by letting professional diplomats do their job.

Foreign secretary Enrique Manalo, a veteran diplomat, has adopted a very measured and calibrated language on China and the South China Sea disputes. The foreign affairs department has also worked to diffuse tensions, most recently reaffirming the country’s one-China policy after President Marcos Jnr’s surprise congratulatory message for newly elected Taiwan president William Lai Ching-te.

It is crucial that Manalo and the foreign affairs department remain the primary and predominant source of major policy pronouncements; top defence officials should rather focus on matters regarding national defence. As for Filipino politicians, most of whom remained mum during the Duterte years, they should shun anti-China demagoguery ahead of elections, in favour of responsible statesmanship.

Philippine bilateral agreements are poor legal umbrella in South China Sea

The Philippines should also calibrate its defence strategy. Facing a far more militarily superior China, which boasts the world’s largest naval force, the Philippines has leaned on traditional Western allies to enhance its leverage and deterrence capacity. But this should be part of a broader diplomatic strategy that both serves Philippine national interests and preserves regional security.

Manila should explore a common understanding with Beijing, whereby each side helps avoid unnecessary confrontation without compromising core interests. For its part, the Philippines can assuage China’s concerns by not granting the Pentagon full access to prized bases near Taiwan’s southern shores.

Under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), the Philippines has the prerogative to determine the size and nature of the American military presence in facilities across northernmost provinces such as Cagayan, Isabela and Batanes.

In exchange, China should not aggressively interfere with Philippine efforts to fortify its position on areas already under its control, including Second Thomas Shoal, Thitu island and Nanshan island. Once a measure of mutual trust has been restored, both sides can explore concrete initiatives such as a joint development of energy and fisheries resources in the South China Sea.

The ultimate goal for the Philippines is to diplomatically manage the disputes and preserve its sovereign rights from a position of strength.

China’s vulnerable middle class must work harder to maintain status quo, Beijing seeks urgent fix for indispensable cohort

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3249132/chinas-vulnerable-middle-class-must-work-harder-maintain-status-quo-beijing-seeks-urgent-fix?utm_source=rss_feed

For China’s middle class, things have never looked harder as they reflected on 2023 and peered ahead to the second year of what should be a post-pandemic economic recovery in 2024.

No signs have yet emerged to upend their frustration as the property market meltdown and free-falling stock market have continued to wipe out their wealth.

The troubles are endangering the world’s largest middle class, as economists have warned that the group that numbers an oft-cited 400 million may shrink in the absence of a strong economic recovery.

A continued decline would also threaten Beijing’s efforts to double the size of China’s middle-income group as part of its common prosperity push, which lies at the centre of the ambition to become an advanced economy by the middle of the century.

While there is no definition of the middle class in China, the commonly used phrase of middle-income group is defined by the National Bureau of Statistics as a three-person household earning between 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) and 500,000 yuan a year.

In a rare warning, an editorial commentary by the state-run Economic Daily last month noted the risk of a declining middle-income group, and called for “necessity and urgency” to foster its growth.

“Middle-income groups matter greatly to economic growth, social stability and countering external challenges,” said the commentary published on December 27.

“But a bulk of the groups are lower-middle-income ones. Some are faced with unstable jobs, and under threat of dropping out of the middle-income group.”

China has said it has about 400 million middle-income earners, or 140 million families, constituting around 30 per cent of its 1.4 billion population.

A large proportion of the group are seen to be still close to the lower limit, which therefore warrants policy support to raise their incomes and enhance their sense of gain, said Chinese central bank policy adviser Wang Yiming.

“A majority of the group just passed the threshold of the middle income. This group is among the most vulnerable ones to economic shock, such as the pandemic, which may affect their income and jobs,” the former vice-director of the Development Research Centre of the State Council said in an interview with the state-backed CCTV earlier this month.

“They’ve had to shoulder the burden of child education, medical care and taking care of elderly family members, while trying to increase savings. As a result, they dare not to spend.”

Li, a sales manager who turned 40 last year, was laid off two weeks ago as his employer, a content management website, downsized its marketing department.

“I would suffer losses from whatever I invest in. It is not easy to find a new job at the current payroll level,” said Li, who only provided his surname due to the sensitivity of the issue.

“It is hard for me to shift to a new sector as a middle-aged man,” added Li, who said his income had mainly been used to repay a mortgage and both a car and personal loan for his four-person family.

China’s benchmark stock index, the CSI 300, lost 11.4 per cent in 2023 and another 5.9 per cent in the first two weeks of 2024.

‘No one dares to spend’: why China’s middle class is tightening its belt

The expected average yield for one-year online wealth management products also stood at 2.79 per cent in the second week of 2024, down from 4.41 per cent almost two years ago, according to Chinese data provider Wind.

And property sales in China by floor area have fallen, dropping by 8.5 per cent in 2023 to 112 million square metres (1.2 billion sq ft), hitting the lowest level in a decade.

Sales by value also plunged to the lowest since 2016, as the protracted property crisis remains the biggest drag on the economic recovery.

Winnie Liu, a manager at a foreign-invested company in Shenzhen, bought a one-bedroom flat in 2015 for an investment, seen as the most favoured wealth accumulation method for Chinese households.

The price peaked at 6.3 million yuan (US$882,000) in 2021, but it has fallen to less than 4 million yuan.

“My assets have shrunk a lot over the last two years, either properties or financial investments,” Liu said.

“I certainly hope there won’t be another big drop this year.”

But despite also losing about 40 per cent of her investment in the domestic stock market last year, Liu still considers herself lucky compared to those who invested in real estate after 2018.

“Many of them have started turning into negative asset holders,” Liu added.

A survey of the middle-class group aged between 31 and 40 by finance and economic writer Wu Xiaobo indicated that wealth growth slowed last year, which led to an increased reluctance in spending.

Less than one fifth, or 17.5 per cent of the middle-class group polled, said the value of their assets expanded in 2023, citing bottlenecks in increasing their wealth, according to the “2023 White Paper on the New Middle Class” released via Wu’s independent financial media company, Wu Xiaobo Channel.

Nearly half of the people polled had a pre-tax personal annual income of between 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) and 500,000 yuan, and household assets of between 3 million yuan and 10 million yuan.

Middle-class Chinese shun luxury spending amid hazy outlook

According to Wu’s report, 11.4 per cent of middle-class families reported their wealth had shrunk by more than 30 per cent last year, with 28.9 per cent mentioning a decrease in wealth ranging from between 10 and 30 per cent.

Only 24.8 per cent said their wealth had increased in 2023, compared to 29 per cent a year ago and 55 per cent in 2021, according to the white paper.

Former senior telecommunications engineer Lawrence Huang was forced to close his kindergarten, which had offered English and music classes, last year amid China’s falling births and disruptions caused by three years of coronavirus controls.

He had been unable to break even for the last six years, having opened the kindergarten in his hometown in the central province of Henan after being laid off by a tech company in Shenzhen.

“Previously we had charged 15,000 yuan a year for each kid, but later we had to cut it to 10,000 yuan as many parents’ incomes dropped. Even so, enrolment was still nowhere near where it once was,” said Huang, who owes hundreds of thousands of yuan in bank loans, having also borrowed from friends and relatives.

Huang returned to Shenzhen last summer and took an offer from a Chinese company to work overseas at a lower salary.

“Better income is no longer a given. We need to work harder to maintain a middle-class life,” he said.

The US-based Pew Research Centre said in 2021 that due to the coronavirus, China’s middle-income tier likely decreased by 10 million in 2020, although the decline only represented only a small share of the 504 million who were in the middle class before the pandemic.

Pew estimated that 247 million people moved up to China’s middle-income tier in the 2010s, when the upper-middle income population had nearly quadrupled from 60 million to 234 million.

Research by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in 2021 said the middle-income tier in China had swollen to roughly 707 million in 2018, or 50.8 per cent of the population.

Most of the growth has accrued within the lower-middle income band, with 68 per cent of the middle class falling into the echelon in 2018, CSIS said, compared to 18 per cent in Sweden.

Household wealth and income have continued to improve, but recovery has still remained subdued, according to the third-quarter Chinese Household Financial Survey by the China Household Finance Survey and Research Center at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.

The survey said households’ total liabilities continued to increase in the third quarter of last year, while the rate of returns from wealth management products fell to minus 0.3 per cent, worse than minus 0.1 per cent in the previous three months.

But a subindex on family wealth and income expectation stood at 102.1, the second-lowest reading since the second quarter of 2020.

A subindex measuring employment outlook also remained below 100 – representing a contraction – for the third consecutive quarter despite a slight improvement.

Pianos are the latest to suffer from a lack of spending within the middle class. Sales had soared, especially in Beijing and Shanghai, but a number of dealers and shops were forced to close last year

And according to a report by Chinese digital media outlet Jiemian News last week, sales have tumbled since April last year, falling to around 15 per cent of the peak in 2019.

“Consumption downgrading is the way to go. I used to shop for affordable luxury brands a lot. Now I only choose national brands for myself and my family,” added Liu in Shenzhen.

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