• Why China’s top spy agency is stepping out of the shadows
• Trump would impose tariffs on China again if re-elected in November: ‘We have to do it’
• Russia, China and Iran could target UK via Irish ‘backdoor’, thinktank warns
• Russia and China compare notes on ‘military use of artificial intelligence’
• China vows to boost farm output, seed research in renewed food security, tech self-reliance push
• Chinese firms agree to raise investment in Democratic Republic of Congo copper-cobalt mining deal
• Is it time for ‘developing’ China to start funding UN climate aid?
• Testing, testing … China to try out new satellite tech for Chang’e 6 lunar mission
• China hospital in firing line over fears that mythical wealth gathering ‘fortune beast’ statues could harm patients
• ‘What’s next’ as China’s Pacific island diplomatic wins mount?
• Chinese nuclear fuel engineer Li Guangchang latest in corruption net as clean-up drive in ‘high-risk’ areas continues
• Hot and spicy: China cafe sells 300 cups of pepper-chilli coffee a day as quirky drinks craze sweeps country
• South China Sea: how Beijing uses pinyin translations to double down on territorial claims
• As China’s ‘Year of the Widow’ threatens marriage rate, can ‘dragon babies’ boost births?
• Is Vietnam’s restrained approach to maritime issues the key to fewer, muted confrontations with China?
• Scary traditional Chinese treatments from tongue acupuncture and bone hammering, to ‘hotpot’ cupping and blood ‘sucking’ that cure most ills
• Samsung-Baidu partnership unlikely to bolster appetite for Galaxy S24 smartphones in China
• Should China stop blaming Mongolia for severe dust storms? A study suggests yes

Why China’s top spy agency is stepping out of the shadows

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3250701/why-chinas-top-spy-agency-stepping-out-shadows?utm_source=rss_feed

Until recent years, the Ministry of State Security, China’s top spy agency, was one of the most secretive organisations in the country. For decades, the name plaque displayed at the front gate to a high-wall compound off Tiananmen Square in downtown Beijing was the only public sign of its existence even though reports suggested its real headquarters were based elsewhere.

Soon after President Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012, and particularly after he started to emphasise national security, the Ministry of State Security – which performs roles roughly equivalent to those of both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency – has started to step into the light.

In 2015, on the one-year anniversary of the promulgation of the Counterespionage Law, the ministry launched the hotline 12339 for residents to report suspicious activities, offering up to 500,000 yuan (US$70,000) for tips which lead to arrests. This was followed by the launch of an internet reporting platform. Still, the ministry was largely on the receiving end of information and kept its thoughts private.

In August last year, however, the ministry suddenly thrust itself into the limelight. It launched an official account on WeChat one month after the revised Counterespionage Law came into effect. Since then, it has boldly asserted itself not only on espionage matters but also on national and international topical issues ranging from China-US relations to economic subjects, including one in which it warned against badmouthing China’s economic growth prospects.

The ministry’s daily musings and the way it asserted itself in public affairs have become a source of considerable interest among China watchers and media but also raised concerns and apprehensions among investors and business owners in the country.

For instance, on Tuesday, the ministry for the first time laid out 10 conditions – mainly concerning national security, state secrets and anti-espionage law – that could lead to questioning by its agents, known in slang as “an invitation to tea”.

‘10 cups of tea’: China’s top intelligence agency lays out reasons for summons

Why does China’s most secretive spy agency no longer wish to remain clandestine? First, China’s leadership has shifted its focus towards national security since 2018 when US President Donald Trump launched the trade war against China. Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of trying to contain and suppress China through its network of allies.

In his keynote speech at the 20th Communist Party national congress in 2022, Xi devoted significant time to talking about national security and social stability, highlighting “political security as our fundamental task, economic security as our foundation, military, technological, cultural and social security as important pillars and international security as a support”.

China’s revised anti-espionage law, approved in April last year and taking effect last July, has significantly expanded the scope of activities that can be considered espionage amid a surge of raids on US-linked consultancy and due diligence firms. This has given the Ministry of State Security a perfect opportunity to make its mark in the public arena.

Second, China’s new spy chief Chen Yixin is believed to have pushed for the ministry to take a high-profile role. Chen, 64, was appointed as the state security minister in October 2022 and is regarded as a member of Xi’s inner circle. He served in various senior positions in Zhejiang province when Xi was the provincial party secretary.

Before Chen became the spy chief, he was the secretary general of the powerful Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission in charge of law and order from 2018 to 2022. Among other things, he is known as a skilful writer for distilling and propagating Xi’s thoughts.

Third, the party leadership is believed to be working on a Xi Jinping Thought on National Security, to add to the overall political doctrine, “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, which has been enshrined in both the party charter and the state constitution.

China has already announced six pillars to expand Xi’s doctrine – his thoughts on economy, diplomacy, military, environment, legal affairs and culture. Now, national security is believed to be one of several new pillars to come in the months or years ahead, and the Ministry of State Security might be intending to drum up support for the new pillar.

To be fair, the ministry is a latecomer to exploring social media to expand its public reach. The CIA launched its Twitter and Facebook accounts in June 2014. Richard Moore, the head of the UK Secret Intelligence Service also known as MI6, has a personal account on Twitter, dispensing words of wisdom and reposting government press releases.

But China’s heightened efforts to scrutinise businesses and investments with foreign connections have already made overseas investors very nervous. The ministry’s forceful comments could make them even more so.

For instance, following China’s annual meetings on economic and financial situation late last year, the ministry put out posts blasting those people with ulterior motives who were bearish about China and “badmouthing” China’s economic growth prospects, saying all those attempts were aimed at undermining the confidence of international investors and triggering financial turmoil in China. It also said those activities posed new challenges to China’s efforts to uphold financial security.

The ministry is expected to take an active role in the formulation of national security safeguards in the economic and financial arenas. What do all these comments mean? Is the ministry trying to hint that it is prepared to go after those people who have misgivings about China’s economic policies? There are too many of them, to begin with.

The ministry has every reason to expand its public reach, but it needs to be more mindful of the potential impact of its daily musings. After all, it is a clandestine service.

Trump would impose tariffs on China again if re-elected in November: ‘We have to do it’

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3250911/trump-would-impose-tariffs-china-again-if-re-elected-november-we-have-do-it?utm_source=rss_feed

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would impose tariffs on China again if he is elected in November and they could exceed 60 per cent.

“We have to do it,” the former US president said in an interview broadcast on Sunday with the Fox News programme Sunday Morning Futures. “I mean, look, the stock market almost crashed when it was announced that I won the Iowa primary (sic) in a record. And then when I won New Hampshire, the stock market went down like crazy,” he said.

Asked about a report that he is considering imposing 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods if elected, Trump said: “No, I would say maybe it’s going to be more than that.”

Trump is the front runner for his party’s nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 US election.

Trump imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods in 2018 and 2019 amid a bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The Biden administration retained the tariffs and added new restrictions prohibiting the export of advanced semiconductors and the equipment to make them, citing security concerns.

The US trade representative is conducting a review of the tariffs.

Trump dismissed the notion that he would start another trade war with China.

“It’s not a trade war. I did great with China with everything,” Trump said in the interview, taped last week.

“I want China to do great, I do. And I like President Xi a lot. He was a very good friend of mine during my term,” he said.

Meanwhile, Trump shared a strange post on social media asking his followers if they think he resembles Elvis Presley.

In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump shared a photo of half of his face spliced with the late singer’s face.

He wrote: “For so many years, people have been saying that Elvis and I look alike. Now this pic has been going all over the place. What do you think?”

It is unclear what inspired the post, but the former president has often likened himself to prominent historical figures including Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln and even Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa painting

Trump Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis admits relationship, says no misconduct

Many took to social media to mock Trump for the random comparison.

One X account called Republicans against Trump simply posted a definition of narcissistic personality disorder in response.

Democratic strategist Johnny Palmadessa also took to X, formerly Twitter, to question Trump’s state of mind.

“Donald Trump clearly has dementia,” he wrote.

Palmadessa listed a series of blunders Trump has made on the campaign trail, including speaking about former president Barack Obama as if he is still in office and mixing up his Republican rival Nikki Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“He just compared himself to Elvis because he believes they look alike. He needs to seek help,” Palmadessa said.

Ben Meiselas, the co-founder of anti-Trump political action committee MediasTouch, said Trump’s recent behaviour, including the Elvis post, “has people finally seeing just how delusional, cognitively impaired, and utterly weird Trump’s campaign is”.

Some responders on Trump’s platform, Truth Social, validated his suspicion that he does resemble Elvis – although some mocked him by editing photos to compare his face to Adolf Hitler and an oompa loompa character from the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Biden said on Saturday that this has been “the weirdest campaign I’ve ever been engaged in”.

He took a swipe at Trump, saying his behaviour is “even worse” than when he last ran in 2020.

Trump’s Republican presidential nominee rival, Nikki Haley, has also been ramping up her attacks on Trump’s cognitive abilities in recent weeks.

Additional reporting by Business Insider

Russia, China and Iran could target UK via Irish ‘backdoor’, thinktank warns

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/04/russia-china-iran-could-target-uk-irish-backdoor-thinktank-warns

Britain faces a “backdoor” threat to its security from a Russian, Chinese and Iranian presence in the Republic of Ireland, according to a report by an influential thinktank that accuses Dublin of “freeloading” when it comes to European defence.

The UK should also expand its air and naval presence in Northern Ireland, to counter a growing Russian threat on the UK’s western flank, according to the Policy Exchange report, which is backed by two former defence secretaries, Michael Fallon and George Robertson.

The UK and Ireland are at risk from an “acute maritime menace” posed by a Russian doctrine of targeting undersea networks and pipelines and the presence of Russian warships, they say in a foreword to the paper.

Concerns about Russian intelligence operations in Ireland and its vulnerability to cyber-attack are also highlighted in the report, which cites what it describes as an “inordinately large Russian diplomatic outfit in Dublin”.

The embassy had 30 members of staff in 2022, which was more than many other European states with which Russia had closer ties at the time.

Other evidence cited included Russian attempts to expand the embassy significantly, a move blocked in 2020 when the Irish government revoked planning permission on the grounds it was “likely to be harmful to the security and defence of the state”.

China is another significant concern due to its rapid technological advancements and global influence.

Meanwhile Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, has said Iran stands out as the state that “most frequently crosses into terrorism”. UK authorities uncovered at least 10 potential threats last year related to kidnapping or harming UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the Iranian regime.

It was an “unavoidable fact” that Ireland had “freeloaded” off the investment of others who were part of Nato, said the report, which added that this “home truth” had been admitted last year by the then taoiseach, Micheál Martin, as a discussion about Irish neutrality deepened.

Discussions about neutrality among Ireland’s political classes have sharpened in the era of Russian aggression under Vladimir Putin, the arrival of Ukrainian refugees, incursions by Russian ships that are suspected of mapping underwater cables, and a 2021 ransomware attack by suspected Russian gangs on the health service.

Ireland’s president has rebuked the government for launching a debate about the country’s longstanding military neutrality and the possibility of joining Nato, saying ministers were “playing with fire”.

The report tried to sound an alarm bell about the consequences of Sinn Féin winning Irish elections in 2025.

“If Sinn Féin wins in 2025, the UK is therefore looking at many more years of an uncooperative, and likely hostile, neighbour in the face of growing external threats,” it said. While Sinn Féin had been on the rise in the Republic and now holds the post of first minister in Northern Ireland, it has slumped in polls south of the border.

Fallon and Lord Robertson, a former Nato secretary general, welcomed the fact that Ireland had been reviewing its defence outlook – as Sweden and Finland have also moved away from neutrality – and called on the UK to encourage its neighbour to strengthen defences and build on a UK-Ireland defence agreement signed in 2015.

Russia and China compare notes on ‘military use of artificial intelligence’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3250893/russia-and-china-compare-notes-military-use-artificial-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Russia have agreed to consult and coordinate with each other on the military use of artificial intelligence, a technology that is becoming a new front in Beijing’s rivalry with Washington.

During talks in Beijing on Thursday, departmental officials from the two countries had “a detailed exchange of assessments” of the use of AI technology for military purposes, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

There were also discussions over “the doctrinal guidelines and initiatives of Russia and China” on the issue, the Russian statement said, without saying which officials were involved.

In particular, the two sides agreed to step up coordination under the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) of the States Parties to the Convention on Inhumane Weapons on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), an UN-backed forum on the 1981 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

“The meeting confirmed the closeness of the Russian and Chinese approaches to this issue,” the Russian statement said.

“It was noted that there is a need for further close cooperation in this area both in the bilateral format and in the relevant multilateral platforms, primarily within the framework of the GGE on LAWS.”

The Chinese statement about the meeting did not refer to military use of AI, but said consultations were held over “outer space security, biosecurity and artificial intelligence” – some of the emerging technologies that could define geopolitical rivalries in the future.

Time to set global rules for AI warfare, China tells UN weapons reviews

Thursday’s meeting is part of broader strategic coordination between Beijing and Moscow on traditional and emerging areas – from military and foreign policy to space security and critical materials.

Major world powers, including the United States, China and Russia, are investing heavily in AI but there are no agreed rules for the technology, particularly its military use.

In an effort to set international norms, Washington launched the Political Declaration on the Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy a year ago.

The declaration calls for the establishment of a new legal and diplomatic framework, and has been endorsed by 46 countries, mostly US allies and partners such as Australia, Britain, Canada, Singapore and South Korea.

However, China and Russia have not signed on.

Beijing launched its own Global AI Governance Initiative in October, calling on major powers to take “a prudent and responsible attitude” on military use of artificial intelligence technologies.

Unlike the US and Russia, China has repeatedly declared its support for a legal ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems, which could be significantly improved with AI.

Artificial intelligence is an ability for machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, for example, recognising patterns, translating languages, learning from experience, drawing conclusions and making decisions.

In recent years, cutting-edge technology has been increasingly integrated into a range of military applications, for example, identifying threats, gathering intelligence and guiding crewed and unmanned combat aircraft and vehicles, as well as in cyber and information operations.

There have also been talks over military AI capabilities in decision support systems to help commanders to make better or timelier decisions.

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has drawn intense debates, particularly over the lethal autonomous weapons systems.

In November, the United Nations adopted a resolution on LAWS for the first time, stressing concerns about the possible negative consequences and impact of autonomous weapons systems on global security and regional and international stability.

This included the risk of an emerging arms race, and a lower threshold for conflict and proliferation, especially for non-state actors.

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China vows to boost farm output, seed research in renewed food security, tech self-reliance push

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3250889/china-vows-boost-farm-output-seed-research-renewed-food-security-tech-self-reliance-push?utm_source=rss_feed

China will boost agricultural output and press ahead with seed research to achieve the top rural policy goals of food security and agritech self-reliance, a key government blueprint says.

The annual rural policy document, released by the State Council on Saturday, vowed to stabilise the country’s grain-planting area and focus on “significantly increasing per-unit yield”.

The latest blueprint, usually the first one released by China’s cabinet each year, underscores the strategic importance of food security for the country of 1.4 billion people.

China is the world’s biggest grain producer and consumer, and has vowed to boost grain self-sufficiency over the next decade. Grain harvests last year hit a record 695.41 million tonnes, according to official data. Output has remained above 650 million tonnes since 2015, and is also the target set for this year.

However, the country also depends on imports for certain crops, due to changing consumer demands and cheaper alternatives for animal feed such as soybeans and corn.

The blueprint vowed to expand the plantation of soybean and other high-yield oilseed varieties this year.

China vows to boost crop yields, Xi calls for investment in ‘lifeblood’ land

Last year, the area under cultivation for rice saw a slight drop but that for soybeans increased, thanks to farmer incentives. But the yield per unit of key products such as soybean and corn has long lagged behind the world average.

Beijing has in recent years ramped up seed research efforts. The sector is seen as a weak link in China’s food security goals, especially amid tensions with the US-led West.

Policymakers have also increasingly focused on food security amid uncertainties in a global market hit by geopolitical tensions, climate change and supply chain worries over the war in Ukraine.

Several varieties of genetically modified corn and soybeans have been approved since last year in a drive to raise production and reduce reliance on the overseas market.

Saturday’s document also pledged to “step up efforts” to produce urgently needed “independent and superior” seed varieties.

According to the blueprint, national and provincial investment subsidies will be increased, and diverse channels sought to expand food sources and build a diversified supply system.

“Efforts will be made to enhance both the quantity and quality of arable land, decisively rectify illegal activities such as unauthorised occupation and damage to farmland,” a Central Rural Work Leading Group official was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua. The group is the party organ responsible for rural and agricultural affairs.

Boosting farmers’ incomes will also be prioritised to prevent a large-scale return to poverty, as part of rural revitalisation efforts after Beijing announced the eradication of rural poverty in early 2021.

This comes as a slower-than-expected post-Covid economic recovery hits the living standards for many rural low-income groups as job opportunities dry up.

The blueprint vowed to step up industrial and employment support for workers, and “to stabilise the scale of employment for those who got lifted out of poverty”.

Chinese firms agree to raise investment in Democratic Republic of Congo copper-cobalt mining deal

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3250881/chinese-firms-agree-raise-investment-democratic-republic-congo-copper-cobalt-mining-deal?utm_source=rss_feed

Two Chinese companies have agreed to increase their investment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a minerals-for-infrastructure deal.

The agreement has been described by analysts as a political victory for President Félix Tshisekedi, who announced the agreement as he was sworn in for his second term in office last month.

Is Chinese mining joint venture becoming a political pawn in Congo?

Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Group will now invest up to US$7 billion in infrastructure as part of a new agreement over the Sicomines copper and cobalt joint venture.

Tshisekedi had been pushing for an overhaul of mining contracts he said had been “poorly negotiated” under his predecessor Joseph Kabila, and raised the issue during a visit to China last year.

The Chinese companies had previously agreed to invest US$3 billion in infrastructure, funded from the mine’s revenue, and another US$3 billion to develop a copper and cobalt mine, in exchange for a 68 per cent stake in the joint venture with the state-owned Congolese company Gecamines.

But in February last year, the DRC’s General Inspectorate of Finance released a report saying the ­country had not been adequately compensated for the copper and cobalt reserves it contributed to the deal.

The report said Chinese firms had exploited mineral resources worth US$10 billion, but had only built infrastructure estimated to be worth US$822 million.

Under the new deal, the companies have agreed to increase their spending on infrastructure from US$3 billion to US$7 billion.

Sicomines said the deal would promote the achievement of win-win cooperation and “constitute a significant step to promote new development in cooperation between China and the DRC”.

The DRC supplies more than 60 per cent of China’s cobalt, a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and electronics, making it a key player in China’s transition to green energy.

Christian-Geraud Neema, a Congolese mining and policy analyst, described the revised deal as “an important political victory” for Tshisekedi, who in 2021 criticised the Sicomines contract as unequal and called for its renegotiation.

However, Neema, who is also the francophone editor at the China Africa Project, noted that the DRC had initially wanted US$17 billion in infrastructure investment and remained the minority shareholder in Sicomines despite calls to increase its stake from 32 per cent to 70 per cent.

Sicomines has already invested US$1.5 billion in infrastructure and the remaining US$5.5 billion will be funded from its profits.

Neema said that since “Gécamines holds a 32 per cent stake [in Sicomines] the DRC will finance 32 per cent of the total remaining US$5.5 billion. The Chinese party is not the only one to bear the burden”.

The initial Sicomines contract that agreed to invest US$3 billion in infrastructure had itself been scaled back under pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which forced the DRC to reduce its demands as a precondition for debt relief.

“Forcing the Congolese government to cut back on infrastructure investment was clearly tantamount to the international financial institutions preventing the country’s sovereign will to build the roads, railways and hydroelectric dams its people needed,” Isabelle Minnon, an independent researcher on Chinese-Congolese relations, said.

“Today, this US$4 billion increase in infrastructure investment appears to be a success in the face of the country’s immense needs.”

Other deals signed between the Congolese government and foreign companies have also come under scrutiny.

China’s cobalt mines in spotlight as DRC seeks to renegotiate deals

One such case is Katanga Mining and Mutanda Mining, which are both 100 per cent owned by Glencore – sparking calls for the government to renegotiate the deal to end the Anglo-Swiss company’s monopoly and allow the state to share in the profits and revenues.

Sicomines also said last month that the DRC’s stake in the US$660 million Chinese-built Busanga Hydropower Station had increased from less than 10 per cent to 40 per cent.

“This increased stake ensures that the Congolese government does not allow private companies to take too large a stake in a key sector, such as the production of electricity from a dam,” Minnon said.

Is it time for ‘developing’ China to start funding UN climate aid?

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3250631/it-time-developing-china-start-funding-un-climate-aid?utm_source=rss_feed

The Cop28 UN climate summit held in Dubai last year concluded with an agreement that, for the first time, commits countries around the world to transition away from the use of fossil fuels.

On the first day of the meeting, a new climate fund for loss and damage was established. The host country, the United Arab Emirates, has pledged to contribute US$100 million, and many other states have also agreed to chip in. The funds are intended for the countries most severely affected by climate change.

China, accounting for 29 per cent of global emissions, is the world’s largest emitter but will not contribute to the fund. Why not?

Climate change is a great concern for China, and the country has implemented numerous measures to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. China has set targets for peak emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.

Its coal-based economy is the reason for its high emissions and local pollution. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, in 2022 about 56 per cent of all energy still came from coal, despite the major development of renewable energy.

The loss and damage fund emerged from an agreement at the 2022 climate summit in Egypt. After much back and forth between developed countries and G77 and China, agreement on the fund was thrashed out. China supported its establishment, but said it would not pay into the fund. The absence of any Chinese contribution to the climate fund, or other financing, has been criticised.

If one is not familiar with China’s status in the UN climate convention (UNFCCC), it’s easy to misunderstand the country’s position. Some clarity on this is central to understanding Chinese attitudes towards its financial contributions.

Under the UNFCCC, China is considered a developing country, not an Annex 1 country. Annex 1 countries include the industrialised countries that were members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1992 when the UNFCCC was adopted, plus countries with transitional economies (EIT parties), including Russia, the Baltic states and several central and eastern European states.

According to the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), China is still classified as a developing country. It is on the list of upper middle-income countries (those with a per capita gross national income of US$4,096-US$12,695 in 2020). Therefore, China does not contribute directly to the Green Climate Fund, or the new loss and damage fund. Contributions here are based on the principles and provisions of the UNFCCC. China is not obliged to provide climate financing in the same way that Annex 1 countries are.

Nevertheless, a shift has occurred. For years, China was a recipient of climate financing, but it has increasingly become a donor country.

The country’s role as an aid provider has strengthened in recent years, as it has gained experience. China adheres to the principles of the UNFCCC, but to show solidarity with developing countries that have not progressed as far as itself, it finds other ways to help.

For instance, China allocated US$3.1 billion to the South-South Climate Cooperation Fund in 2015 to support developing countries in combating climate change. Around that time, the United States also pledged US$3 billion to the Green Climate Fund.

No deadline was set for the goals of the South-South Climate Cooperation Fund, but China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said at COP27 that 2 billion yuan (US$310 million) had been given to developing countries to address climate change.

China steps up climate fight with belt and road green finance partnership

But some sources express uncertainty about how much the fund has contributed so far. Reasons mentioned include coordination challenges among Chinese actors and the coronavirus pandemic, which has resulted in slower implementation.

A recent post in Carbon Brief concluded that China contributes significant sums of money to developing countries, and in direct climate financing to developing countries it can even compete with the largest donors from developed countries.

Furthermore, China has pledged around US$230 million to a global fund to support biological diversity conservation in developing countries and has invited other countries to contribute.

As the world’s second-largest economy and the largest carbon emitter, China faces growing expectations to increase climate financing to support developing countries. Many argue that the categories under the climate convention are outdated and that major emitting countries like China and India should contribute to the UN funds.

China has no formal obligation to participate but emphasises solidarity with, and often speaks on behalf of, developing countries.

Should we expect more from China? Many countries, including China itself, point out that the wealthy developed countries have not delivered on what they promised over the years, either in terms of money or reduced emissions.

China’s financial contributions outside the climate convention could perhaps be seen as a form of pragmatism, expressed in climate support to developing countries. Countries believe it is not possible to deliver what is needed on climate if we continue to stick to decades-old categories. But changing the categories is likely to be very difficult.

Debates on structural changes and fairness must be held while all countries continue to work to both limit emissions and adapt to the consequences of the climate changes we are experiencing.

Testing, testing … China to try out new satellite tech for Chang’e 6 lunar mission

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3250884/testing-testing-china-try-out-new-satellite-tech-change-6-lunar-mission?utm_source=rss_feed

China is readying two experimental satellites for launch into lunar orbit to help test a communication and navigation system for the country’s mission to explore the far side of the moon.

The two satellites, the Tiandu 1 and Tiandu 2, will lift off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern province of Hainan in the first half of the year along with the Queqiao 2 lunar relay satellite, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The Tiandu satellites will arrive at site on Wednesday while the Queqiao 2 has already been delivered.

The Queqiao 2 is designed to relay signals from Earth to equipment on the far side of the lunar surface as part of the Chang’e 6 mission, which will launch in May to collect samples and return them to Earth.

But the complexity and weaker signals associated with the Queqiao 2’s lunar orbit require extensive testing.

The report said the two Tiandu satellites would be used to test and verify the design of the Queqiao constellation for lunar communication, navigation and remote sensing, offering valuable insights and foundational data for the network’s development.

Chen Xiao, chief commander of the Tiandu project, said the satellites would work together to test new technology to make sure messages were sent and received reliably and distances were measured accurately.

Upon reaching lunar orbit, the satellites would execute a near-moon braking manoeuvre to enter a lunar elliptical orbit, Xinhua quoted Chen as saying.

“In that orbit, the two satellites will conduct high-precision lunar orbit measurement and other technology verifications using inter-satellite microwave ranging and laser ranging from the satellite to the moon,” Chen said.

China and US are aiming for same area of the moon. Could they work together?

Development of the satellites is spearheaded by the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, a collaboration set up in 2022 between the China National Space Administration, Anhui province, and the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei.

The laboratory’s broader role is to research the major engineering tasks related to the country’s deep space exploration missions.

The Tiandu satellites are named after the main peak in the Huangshan mountain range in Anhui.

The Tiandu 1 weighs 61kg (134 pounds) and has a Ka-band microwave communication system, among other payloads. The Tiandu 2 is 15kg and equipped with navigation and communication payloads.

China launched the first Queqiao relay satellite in 2018 for its Chang’e 4 mission which made the first soft landing on the far side of the moon.

Future plans for the Queqiao 2 include orbit adjustments to support the Chang’e 7 mission, scheduled for 2026 to explore the southern lunar pole’s environment and resources, and the Chang’e 8 mission, which aims to establish an international lunar research station at the pole.

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China hospital in firing line over fears that mythical wealth gathering ‘fortune beast’ statues could harm patients

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3249846/china-hospital-firing-line-over-fears-mythical-wealth-gathering-fortune-beast-statues-could-harm?utm_source=rss_feed

A hospital in China has attracted controversy for placing two black pixiu statues at the entrance of its inpatient department.

Pixiu is a mythical Chinese beast and a feng shui symbol said to attract and keep wealth. It has a big mouth that mostly eats gold and silver, yet it has no anus, which indicates a great fortune coming in but not going away.

Some online observers have expressed concern about the statues being placed outside a hospital because they think that implies the patients will not be discharged.

On January 23, staff at Yuzhou Second People’s Hospital in central China’s Henan province, told the mainland media outlet, Guoshequ, that the statues had been there for more than two decades, and in all that time no one had shown concern.

They said the statues have now been removed.

Pixiu, which is also known as “fortune beast”, is one of the five auspicious Chinese mythological creatures, along with the dragon, phoenix, turtle, and qilin.

The earliest depictions of the creature can be found in Han dynasty (206BC-220AD) books.

The story goes that pixiu is one of the Dragon King’s children, who was favoured by its father and also the Jade Emperor due to the noble temperament it gained from consuming treasure.

However, the creature once ate too much at the Jade Emperor’s birthday feast, and relieved its bowels in his palace. The emperor was so angry that he hit pixiu on the bottom, accidentally removing its anus.

Pixiu statues are now commonly seen in front of restaurants and the homes of business owners, they are also added to bracelets, to attract greater fortune.

There are rules about the placing of pixiu statues to maximise their effect.

For example, they must always be in pairs and should be placed in front of gates facing away, so their huge mouths can suck in wealth from outside.

It is also common for businesspeople to wear pixiu charms made of gold, silver or jade on a bracelet.

They should be worn on the left wrist because feng shui states that the energy force, chi, flows into the left side of the body and out of the right.

However, some believe children and the elderly should avoid wearing pixiu as the beast has a strong energy that can overpower the physically vulnerable.

‘What’s next’ as China’s Pacific island diplomatic wins mount?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3250761/whats-next-chinas-pacific-island-diplomatic-wins-mount?utm_source=rss_feed

At the start of 2019, Taiwan counted six diplomatic allies among the Pacific Island nations. Barely five years later, that number has been halved as a growing number of small island states switch their diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, a symbolic move, but one that is widely seen as a sign of Beijing’s growing influence in the region.

Within days of Taiwan’s presidential election last month, the Pacific nation of Nauru, an island in Micronesia northeast of Australia, announced it would switch diplomatic recognition to China, following Kiribati and the Solomon Islands, which flipped in 2019. Speculation is rising that Tuvalu, whose pro-Taiwan leader, Kausea Natano, failed to hold on to his seat in last week’s parliamentary election, could follow suit.

But even as Beijing has welcomed these developments, analysts say Beijing’s path to increasing its foothold in Oceania – where Washington is also jockeying for influence – is not straightforward.

For the remote and financially struggling Pacific nations, switching diplomatic allegiance merely reflects their long-standing strategy of weighing what benefits they can extract from the diplomatic tussling rather than having definitively chosen to side with China.

The view from Beijing is clearer.

“From China’s side, I think it can be called a diplomatic victory,” said Professor Izumi Kobayashi of Osaka Gakuin University in Japan, who is president of the Japan Pacific Islands Association.

Australia pledges aid to East Timor in bid to boost diplomatic ties in region

But for an island country, he added, “power relations exist based on geographical and blood ties, and there are no political parties or political ideologies within the country”.

“Therefore, whether it’s Taiwan, [mainland] China, or any other country, it favours the country that provides the most aid,” he said.

This is not the first time that Nauru has swapped diplomatic relations from Taiwan. The nation of fewer than 13,000 people – which has also recognised other disputed regions in southern Europe – had formal ties with Taipei until 2002, then switched to Beijing until 2005, before changing again.

Its recent about-face, however, was preceded by financial difficulty. Last year, Australia announced it would cut the funding it gives Nauru to host an immigration detention centre, blowing a A$125 million (US$82.5 million) hole in its budget.

In January, Taiwanese media reported that Nauru had sought Taipei’s help to plug the gap, but switched to recognise Beijing before Taipei gave an answer.

Beijing’s aid to Pacific Ocean states has been declining, according to an analysis by the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. The fall reflected “a strategic shift to reduce risk, cement political ties, and enhance capital returns”, rather than a departure from the region.

Chinese grants and loans to island nations fell to US$241 million in 2021 from a peak of US$384 million in 2016, although Australia remained their biggest donor by some measure, according to the institute.

That money has nonetheless weighed heavily on the foreign policies of Pacific nations, creating openings for the US and China to step in with so-called dollar diplomacy.

Beijing was said to have offered the Solomon Islands US$8.5 million in development funding in return for cutting ties with Taipei, and Beijing’s aid to both Kiribati and the Solomon Islands increased after they switched allegiances, according to the institute’s report.

In October, the Marshall Islands, north of Nauru, which has historically allied with Washington, signed a major agreement that would allow the US to increase its regional footprint – including military access to land, air, and sea – in exchange for US$2.3 billion in economic aid. The amount was four times what the Biden administration had initially said was its maximum offer.

“Switching diplomatic ties in exchange for promised development, trade or other assistance, can make sense,” Mihai Sora, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, said.

‘Taiwan card’: island’s rising strategic value tests Beijing’s diplomacy tactics

Beijing’s policy of not officially engaging with countries that recognise Taiwan was “a roadblock” to its ambitions in the Pacific, given that Pacific countries had usually acted with regional consensus, he said.

“As Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the Pacific dwindle, there will be fewer obstacles for China’s regional engagement,” Sora said.

“The concern for Pacific countries’ traditional security partners like Australia and the US is: what comes next? There is potential for the switch to be a precursor to closer relations in other sectors, such as security, which has immediate consequences for the regional balance of power.”

China has been trying to grow its security presence in Oceania, although the overtures have not always been welcomed or successful. In 2022, Beijing signed a controversial police cooperation pact with the Solomon Islands that alarmed both Washington and Canberra.

This week, Papua New Guinean Foreign Minister Justin Tkachenko confirmed that China had approached it with a similar offer of security cooperation and that the countries were in early talks.

China, Papua New Guinea in talks on policing, security cooperation after riots

But while China has had some success with bilateral agreements with individual countries, it has found it harder to engage the island nations as a bloc. In 2022, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi failed to clinch a collective buy-in from the Pacific nations for a wide-ranging agreement that would have covered everything from military policy to fishing.

In 2021, Chinese businesses in the Solomon Islands were targeted when protests over the decision to end diplomatic relations with Taiwan turned violent. Beijing’s ongoing talks with Papua New Guinea come after riots in the Papuan capital, Port Moresby, in January, in which two Chinese nationals were hurt and several Chinese-owned properties were looted.

“China needs to have police cooperation with Pacific countries to protect its citizens living there, as it does with European countries,” said Yu Lei, chief research fellow at the Research Centre for Pacific Island Countries at Liaocheng University.

But instead of getting embroiled in hegemonic competition, China’s foreign policy goals in the region aimed “to serve its national interest arising from economic cooperation, investment and trade”, he said.

He added that there was a “vast platform” for this, with 10 of the 14 Pacific states being members of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and China being the region’s largest trading partner.

Kobayashi, in Osaka, said Australia was also a loser in Nauru’s shifting alliance to China.

“Islands do not like the way Australia still looks down on island countries as if they were colonies. Therefore, instead of relying solely on support from Australia, they would like to accept support from other countries,” he said, citing the US and Japan along with China.

“However, no matter how diplomatically China infiltrates the island nations, the foundation of its existence as a nation that cooperates with the United States and Australia will not collapse.”

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Chinese nuclear fuel engineer Li Guangchang latest in corruption net as clean-up drive in ‘high-risk’ areas continues

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3250877/chinese-nuclear-fuel-engineer-li-guangchang-latest-corruption-net-clean-drive-high-risk-areas?utm_source=rss_feed

A leading Chinese nuclear fuel engineer has become the latest senior official to be placed under investigation as Beijing continues its sweeping crackdown on corruption in “high-risk” areas such as energy and state-owned enterprises.

Li Guangchang, a member of the science and technology committee of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), is suspected of committing serious violations of discipline and law, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement on its website.

He is undergoing disciplinary inspection and supervision, the ruling Communist Party’s top corruption watchdog said, but did not offer details of the violations.

Li is a former director of the nuclear fuel division of CNNC, a state-owned enterprise that oversees China’s civilian and military nuclear programmes.

He also played a key role in the innovation and development of China’s hi-performance “CF series” fuel assemblies, according to publicly available information.

Domestic development of nuclear fuel assemblies is essential for “realising the dream of a strong nuclear power country” and exporting China-made nuclear power, Li said in a report in 2017, when he was chief of key science and technology projects under the CF programme.

The following year, as a deputy director of CNCC’s science and technology committee, Li took part in drafting the “China Nuclear Energy Development Report”. Last April, he participated in an atomic energy research conference as a senior consultant to the committee, according to Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper.

CNNC is mainly engaged in research and development, construction, production and operation in the fields of nuclear power, fuel cycle and applications, environmental protection and nuclear engineering, according to the company website.

The investigation into Li comes less than a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered the country’s anti-corruption forces to focus on “high-risk areas” including state-owned businesses, energy and finance.

Xi’s call to deepen the clean-up drive came as he warned that the battle against corruption remained “severe and complex”. There should be “absolutely no mercy” in rooting out the problem, he told the CCDI’s third plenary session on January 8.

Li’s case follows a series of crackdowns in China’s military-industrial sector that has targeted senior executives, such as in aerospace-defence enterprises.

In December, three senior aerospace-defence executives were stripped of their titles as members of the top national political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

They are Wu Yansheng, chairman of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation; Liu Shiquan, chairman of the board of the China North Industries Group Corporation, or Norinco Group; and Wang Changqing, deputy manager of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.

Last week, state media reported that prominent rocket scientist Wang Xiaojun would also be expelled from the CPPCC, as Beijing continues its corruption investigation into leaders of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, a key component of China’s nuclear arsenal and deterrence power.

Hot and spicy: China cafe sells 300 cups of pepper-chilli coffee a day as quirky drinks craze sweeps country

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3249701/hot-and-spicy-china-cafe-sells-300-cups-pepper-chilli-coffee-day-quirky-drinks-craze-sweeps-country?utm_source=rss_feed

A coffee shop in China has raised eyebrows by putting fried chilli and hot pepper powder in their lattes.

Jingshi Coffee, a shop in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, eastern China, launched the spicy latte in December last year, it is now selling up to 300 cups a day, Pear Video reported.

A viral video clip on Douyin showed the outlet’s employees putting sliced peppers in a cup of iced latte then pouring hot pepper powder into the drink before serving it.

The new flavoured coffee costs about 20 yuan (US$2.80) a cup and is called Jiangxi Spicy Latte. It is well known that people from the region eat the spiciest food in China.

“I don’t think it is very spicy. On the contrary, it tastes fine,” one employee said, adding: “This coffee is not as weird as people might think.”

He said they asked for customer feedback on the new addition to the cafe’s coffee menu and almost all gave positive comments.

“The new pepper latte is not bad. It tastes slightly spicy and a little sweet,” said one person on the consumer products review app, Dianping.

Mainland social media sizzled with news of the hot new coffee flavour.

“I am stunned. It is absurdly abnormal,” one person commented on Douyin.

“I guess there might be back end issues after consuming the spicy stuff],” another person quipped.

“It is creative. But I dare not try it because I fear it might upset my stomach,” said another.

Innovative combinations of coffee flavours have emerged across China in recent years.

In September 2023, customers queued for hours to buy a new coffee drink infused with the Chinese liquor, Moutai.

Last year, a cafe in eastern Zhejiang province mixed crushed preserved egg with latte and many other shops soon followed suit.

In 2021, a coffee outlet in the northern province of Shanxi, added vinegar to its Americanos. The region is famous for its vinegar products, and the people who live there like to dip their food in the condiment.

South China Sea: how Beijing uses pinyin translations to double down on territorial claims

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3250673/south-china-sea-how-beijing-uses-pinyin-translations-double-down-territorial-claims?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has ramped up efforts to use pinyin – the romanisation of Mandarin script – when referring to disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea in English, seeking to bolster its territorial claims to the waterway.

It comes amid worsening relations between China and its Southeast Asian neighbours, particularly the Philippines, following a run-in between the Chinese coastguard and four Filipino nationals on a fishing boat last week.

In statements and articles, the Chinese foreign ministry and state media have dramatically increased their use of pinyin. For instance, they have replaced “Nansha Islands” with “Nansha Qundao” to refer to the Spratly Islands.

Similarly, throughout 2023, Second Thomas Shoal, which has been the focal point of the tensions between China and the Philippines, was increasingly called “Renai Jiao” instead of “Renai Reef”. The reef is referred to as Ayungin Shoal by the Philippines.

The term “Nansha Qundao” appeared nine times in 2023 out of 29 times in total. Before 2023, it was used intermittently, mostly in July 2016 when Beijing strongly rejected The Hague’s ruling that China had no historical rights to obtain resources in the South China Sea within the “nine-dash line”.

Searches on the foreign ministry website showed more than 700 results for Nansha Islands. However, the frequency of its use in its statements has been falling each year. It was only used nine times in 2023 – and has been all but abandoned since August.

Meanwhile, “Renai Jiao” showed up in a total of almost 30 entries on the website, with 14 of those appearing last year, while “Renai Reef” had almost 50 results but only appeared four times in 2023.

On the English website of People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, “Nansha Qundao” and “Nansha Islands” were used interchangeably in 2023, but the use of “Nansha Qundao” rose sharply, with 16 appearances on its search results out of 30.

English websites of state news outlets Xinhua and China Daily have followed a similar line to People’s Daily in recent months.

Back in 2016 after The Hague ruling, China used “Nansha Qundao” in a white paper to reassert its claims over the resource-rich waterway. The foreign ministry has used the term since then but opted for “Nansha Islands” more often in recent years.

Last year, though, heightened tensions between Beijing and Manila saw the two countries engaged in several stand-offs – involving lasers, water cannons and collisions. And the latest flare-up between the two came on January 28, when the Chinese coastguard said it drove off four Filipinos who “illegally intruded into” Scarborough Shoal, around 200km (124 miles) off the Philippines’ northwest coast.

The growing number of disputes has attracted international scrutiny, and, according to experts, has also seen Beijing’s territorial claims reflected in the adjustments to its English translations. They added this would have the practical implication of standardising how these islands and reefs were called in English among government lines.

Ding Duo, an associate research fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies in Hainan, said the change in English names was “a technical adjustment” by Beijing to further assert its claims over the South China Sea.

He said the practice of using words such as “islands” and “reef” for English translations had been followed for decades, and it is only in recent years that Beijing had started using the pinyin transliteration instead.

“The 2016 white paper already started using pinyin to refer to the Spratly Islands, but the past few years have seen a mixture of using various translations, which has caused confusion,” Ding said, adding that the mixed usage had also attracted criticism from Chinese scholars.

Asean, Beijing must address cyber threats in South China Sea talks

“More recently, the growing use of pinyin for the English translation when addressing islands and reefs can help reinforce China’s sovereign right in the South China Sea more cohesively.”

He said the term “Nansha Islands” failed to indicate the legal status of the Spratly Islands “as a single unit”, which is considered by China as an offshore archipelago of its own. Therefore, using “Nansha Qundao” helped to justify China’s maritime entitlements of the archipelago.

Ray Powell, director of SeaLight, a Stanford University project focused on grey zone activities in the South China Sea, said the growing use of the pinyin terms fitted into Beijing’s long-term strategy of normalising the idea of Chinese sovereignty over its maritime claims. But, he added, it was unlikely to make any difference to its South China Sea rivals.

“At present, China’s neighbours have resisted adopting Beijing’s terms, and perhaps even more assiduously have kept to their own local terms as a means of countering China’s expansionism,” Powell said.

Since territorial tensions between the Philippines and China flared up more than a decade ago, Manila has almost entirely stopped referring to the waterway as the South China Sea. Instead, it regularly refers to it as the West Philippine Sea. Meanwhile, Vietnam and Indonesia have also adopted their own terms. Vietnam calls it the East Sea while Indonesia refers to it as the North Natuna Sea.

However, Ding said Beijing might want to guard itself against accepting the traditional Western names of islands and reefs in the South China Sea.

“To hedge against how the Western world has named these features, China has to use and advocate its own customary names in the field of international public opinion,” he said.

In the past, Beijing has had several instances of naming a number of geographical features in the South China Sea to assert its claims. The last exercise came in 2020, when it gave names to features in the Paracel and Spratly islands, including 25 islands, shoals and reefs and 55 oceanic mountains and ridges, which drew protests from Vietnam and the Philippines.

This is not the first time that Beijing has increased its use of pinyin for English names of controversial geographical regions.

Last year, Chinese official media stopped using the term “Tibet” when referring to the autonomous region in western China in English articles, opting instead to use “Xizang” to emphasise its sovereignty.

As China’s ‘Year of the Widow’ threatens marriage rate, can ‘dragon babies’ boost births?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3250753/chinas-year-widow-threatens-marriage-rate-can-dragon-babies-boost-births?utm_source=rss_feed

A folk belief that getting married in the coming lunar year could bring bad luck has garnered enough attention that central authorities have taken notice as Chinese people debate the traditional notion while Beijing struggles to bolster marriage rates.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said it was keeping an eye on the issue after a web user flagged potential ramifications from a worrisome perception that the “Year of the Widow” is looming.

“This seriously deviates from common sense in life and scientific sense,” read the message from an unidentified citizen, posted to the public advice section of the ministry’s website on January 11.

The warning came as young adults in China have become increasingly reluctant to start families and have kids, contributing to a more rapidly ageing society in which the total population has shrunk for the past two years.

China divorce mediator tells wives to endure infidelity, but not husbands

“We are giving attention to the suggestion you raised,” the ministry replied on January 22.

The “Year of the Widow” worries derive from the fact that lichun – which falls around February 4 every year and is said to mark the start of spring in East Asian cultures – takes place before the February 10 start of the Lunar New Year in 2024, and will be after the January 29 lunar year start in 2025. Therefore, folk customs dictate that the coming year is regarded as one without spring.

Spring is thought to be the most vibrant time of the year, as it represents birth and rebirth, but a “no-spring year”, also considered a “widow year”, results in marriage being seen as unlucky.

The posting implored the ministry to speak out against the irrational belief so “people are not disturbed by superstitions and folk rumours, as long as they wish to get married”.

China’s marriage rate has been on the decline over the past decade, with 6.83 million marriages recorded in 2022, which was nearly half the record-setting 13.47 million in 2013, according to official figures.

The number for 2023 has yet to be released, but suggestions indicate that it could have rebounded due to pent-up demand that had been suppressed amid China’s pandemic-induced lockdowns in 2022.

In an effort to educate the public and allay fears, state television CCTV said in a report last week that there was no association between bad fortune and a “no-spring year”.

A lunar year without lichun isn’t a rare occurrence, the broadcaster said, pointing to 2019 and 2021, which also lacked this particular solar term in the lunar calendar.

Traditional customs still play an important role in China’s marriages and births, but authorities have called in recent years for the elimination of such impactful practices, including traditional high “bride prices” paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family.

Perhaps paradoxically, some believe 2024 is a great year to have babies, despite being considered a bad time for tying the knot.

Having a child born in the coming Year of the Dragon is often considered a blessing. “Dragon babies” tend to be associated with greater achievements, as the dragon – the only mythical beast in the Chinese zodiac – represents power and greatness in traditional culture.

This could potentially spur an uptick in the number of births, which hit a record low of 9.02 million in 2023.

Is Vietnam’s restrained approach to maritime issues the key to fewer, muted confrontations with China?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3250699/vietnams-restrained-approach-maritime-issues-key-fewer-muted-confrontations-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Vietnam’s low-key approach to maritime issues and its non-ally status with the United States have ensured that ongoing naval rows with Beijing in the South China Sea are on a more even keel compared with confrontations over similar disputes between the Philippines and China.

Hanoi also has the ability to isolate maritime issues from other bilateral ones, analysts say.

Abdul Rahman Yaacob, a research fellow in the Southeast Asia programme at the Lowy Institute in Australia, said Vietnam’s approach to its relations with China was not framed entirely by South China Sea disputes.

Vietnam, Philippines agree to boost South China Sea coastguard cooperation

Vietnamese officials he had spoken to pointed to the many positive aspects in China-Vietnam relations, in which maritime disputes constituted only “a small aspect”.

This allows Hanoi “to manage and isolate these from other bilateral relations”, according to Rahman, who added that Vietnamese officials privately informed Beijing when Chinese coastguard ships had harassed fishing vessels, for example.

“These incidents are not publicised as Vietnam prefers to deal with them privately,” Rahman said, noting that such an approach was likely to have influenced China’s approach to its maritime disputes with Vietnam, leading to fewer confrontations with Hanoi.

In recent months, tensions have risen between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, with forces on both sides engaging in numerous confrontations while officials traded accusations of sowing conflict.

But despite ongoing patrols by Chinese vessels near Vietnam’s oil and gas fields in the South China Sea, these incidents have not resulted in high-profile confrontations between Beijing and Hanoi.

Earlier this month, the Chinese coastguard conducted an “intrusive patrol” to assert its claims over Vietnam’s oil and gas fields near Vanguard Bank in the southern position of the disputed waterway.

A Vietnamese fisheries surveillance vessel was tracked shadowing the Chinese ship, maritime security expert Ray Powell of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Centre for National Security Innovation wrote afterwards on social media.

Powell earlier reported that another Chinese coastguard ship had been near Vietnam’s oil exploration blocks at Vanguard Bank since early December.

The Chinese ship had mostly been running “dark”, or not broadcasting its automatic information system, which “violates the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, of which China is a signatory”, Powell wrote in an article published by SeaLight on January 8.

The online platform, which was started by volunteers from the Gordian Knot Centre for National Security Innovation, tracks and reports harassment related to legal activities, illegal incursions, intimidation measures and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, among others.

New stand-off between Vietnam and China reported in South China Sea

In March last year, a Chinese coastguard ship and a Vietnamese fisheries patrol boat came within 10 metres of each other while traversing the South China Sea, according to data from Marine Traffic, a ship-tracking website.

Khang Vu, a doctoral candidate in the political science department at Boston College, said Vietnam and China could remain “on a friendlier basis than the Philippines” as Hanoi is not an ally of Washington.

Despite their maritime disputes, Vietnam has constantly assured China that it “will not ally with another power to balance against China so long as [Beijing] does not significantly threaten Vietnam’s territorial integrity”, Vu noted.

“Such an assurance helps detach the South China Sea issues between China and Vietnam from the US-China rivalry”, resulting in Beijing not viewing its maritime disputes with Hanoi “in the shadow” of its competition with Washington.

“China thus sees Vietnam’s moves in the South China Sea as more of Vietnam’s own initiatives and not of the US encouragement as in the case of the Philippines,” Vu said.

“This is not to say that Vietnam does not appreciate US opposition to Chinese expansion at sea, but there is a huge difference between Vietnam’s support for the US naval presence in the South China Sea and the Philippines’ alliance with the US.”

Vietnam’s policy has been to welcome the US’ naval presence in the South China Sea as long as it contributed to regional peace. Last June, US aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan, along with the guided missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Robert Smalls, arrived in Da Nang for a visit.

The Philippines, meanwhile, is not only a US treaty ally but has granted Washington military access to nine sites across the country under an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement.

Rahman of the Lowy Institute said another reason China had taken a harder line on the Philippines than on Vietnam was due to Manila’s strategy of publicising Beijing’s provocative actions in the South China Sea, which researchers refer to as an assertive transparency campaign.

The name was coined by Stanford University’s Powell and the campaign aims to reveal China’s “grey zone activities” – assertive actions at sea that are not necessarily a declaration of war but could be harmful to another country’s national security.

Benjamin Blandin, maritime security expert and network coordinator at the non-profit Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies, noted that Vietnam reacted strongly towards stand-offs with China in 2014 and 2019.

“Chinese authorities may have felt that there was no gain in keeping pressure on a fellow communist country where it had a lot of economic interests,” he said.

In July 2019, a Chinese coastguard contingent accompanied a Chinese survey vessel operating within Vietnam’s waters, causing a diplomatic outcry and a months-long stand-off between the two countries. Vietnam deployed up to 30 ships to confront Chinese vessels despite sustaining severe damage due to ramming and water cannoning.

In the 2014 oil rig crisis, tensions rose after the Chinese state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation moved an oil platform to waters near the disputed Paracel Islands, resulting in Vietnamese efforts to prevent the platform from establishing a fixed position.

The incident triggered an unprecedented wave of anti-China protests in Vietnam and there were widespread calls to re-evaluate Vietnam’s diplomatic, security, and domestic policies towards China.

Vietnam is China’s largest trading partner within Asean, with annual bilateral trade exceeding US$200 billion in 2021 and 2022. In the first 10 months of 2023, bilateral trade stood at US$185.1 billion.

On Powell’s use of the term “intrusive patrols”, Blandin said though such events have been recently made public, they actually happened “on a regular basis” in the exclusive economic zone of the different countries bordering the South China Sea.

“It is just that most countries would not report such incidents in order not to make the situation worse, nor do they want to anger or jeopardise their economic interests with China, which still remains their main investor, and source of tourists and foreign direct investment,” Blandin said.

During Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s state visit to Vietnam late last month, Manila and Hanoi signed a coastguard agreement to boost cooperation between their coastguards and to prevent untoward incidents in the South China Sea.

Chinese tabloid The Global Times said on Monday that while Beijing is open to cooperation among Southeast Asian countries that contributes to regional development and stability, it strongly opposes “cooperation” that targets a third party and harms others’ interests.

“If Vietnam and the Philippines cooperate in certain areas to the detriment of China’s interests in the South China Sea, it will only irritate the situation in the South China Sea and make the risk of conflict higher,” it said.

Rahman added that China may want to avoid provoking Vietnam and the Philippines concurrently.

“This makes sense at the operational level, as China may not want to overstretch its naval resources by confronting two Southeast Asian parties at the same time,” he added.

Scary traditional Chinese treatments from tongue acupuncture and bone hammering, to ‘hotpot’ cupping and blood ‘sucking’ that cure most ills

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3249603/scary-traditional-chinese-treatments-tongue-acupuncture-and-bone-hammering-hotpot-cupping-and-blood?utm_source=rss_feed

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practices like cupping, acupuncture, and gua sha, have gained global recognition for their purported effectiveness in activating meridians, dispelling dampness and enhancing blood circulation.

Despite their ancient roots, such practices continue to evolve and adapt.

In May 2023, a video featuring a man from Anhui province in eastern China calmly enjoying a special form of cupping therapy went viral.

The process involved a stack of ignited “hot-pot styled” big copper cups being placed on his back.

While many online observers likened the scene to an exorcism ritual, the man seemed to be comfortably relishing the benefits of such an innovative adaptation of TCM therapy.

Today, the Post guides you through some of these evolving practices.

While at first glance, they may appear daunting, they are widely celebrated for their healing powers.

The tongue, a mirror to the body’s internal state, is highly valued in TCM for diagnostic purposes. Its colour, texture and coating can offer clues about a person’s overall health.

A slightly greenish coating suggests poor blood circulation, a swollen, red tongue may indicate excessive internal heat or potential heart issues, while a purple tongue with black spots is indicative of cold limbs and irregular blood flow.

Discovering the close relationship between the tongue and the brain, Dr Sun Jieguang, a therapist and researcher from Hong Kong, invented the practice of tongue acupuncture.

He identified 49 acupoints on the tongue and developed the method of applying a needle to a patients’ tongue and going through the acupoints swiftly as a form of therapy.

The treatment is relatively quick as patients simply need to stick their tongue out for a few seconds to receive it.

While this unique treatment may seem daunting to the uninitiated, it is acclaimed for its efficacy in addressing brain disorders such as paralysis, autism, or damage caused by epilepsy.

Bone-setting in TCM employs a range of manual techniques such as pushing, pulling, pressing and kneading.

Traditionally used to treat fractures and dislocations, these methods have evolved to address misaligned or slightly dislocated bones, which have become common due to the sedentary lifestyles of modern society.

For instance, cervical spine bone-setting involves the practitioner firmly gripping the recipient’s neck with both arms and swiftly rotating it to realign the bones.

Despite the “click-click” sounding frightening during the procedure, many patients report a significant sense of relief and rejuvenation afterwards.

Some people even claim to “grow” taller after undergoing a full-body bone-setting treatment.

A specialised form of this practice, known as “hammer bone-setting,” has emerged from these traditional techniques, where practitioners use a small hammer-like tool to precisely strike the patient’s back, neck or coccyx, like hammering a nail.

In a trending online video that attracted widespread attention, a woman lies down with her legs elevated while her coccyx is struck in this manner, making her scream.

Although some people found the video scary, others defended the practice, with one person saying: “My lumbar disc hernia was cured by this big hammer.”

Cupping therapy, a time-honoured Chinese healing technique, involves placing several glass cups on the skin of a patient for a few minutes.

The treatment is known for alleviating pain, promoting blood circulation and inducing relaxation.

However, an inventive practice in the Chinese folk community, the use of a variety of unconventional vessels, such as cans, water jars, vases and even animal horns, have been employed.

One of these is hot-pot-style cupping, where therapists arrange a series of copper cups, like those used in traditional Beijing-style hotpot dishes, across the patient’s back.

Pots of various sizes are heated from inside as part of the process.

The novel appearance of this treatment which some say makes the patient look like an “alien monster” adorned with various sizes of copper pots on their backs, has led some observers to humorously compare the therapy to an exorcism ritual.

Some online observers even recalled ancient punishments, saying: “This reminds me of ancient torture methods like boiling people alive.”

This traditional Chinese therapeutic practice, typically involves pricking the skin at specific acupoints, followed by placing cups on the skin to create suction.

Used for a range of ailments, including neck, shoulder and back pain, colds and digestive issues, as well as for enhancing general health, the process is thought to boost circulation and improve organ function.

However, moderation is crucial in its application.

In January, a woman from Wenzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang was hospitalised with severe anaemia after undergoing bloodletting sessions during which 200ml of blood was drawn weekly over a period of six months.

Samsung-Baidu partnership unlikely to bolster appetite for Galaxy S24 smartphones in China

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3250746/samsung-baidu-partnership-unlikely-bolster-appetite-galaxy-s24-smartphones-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Samsung Electronics’ move to integrate its latest flagship smartphones with artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Chinese search giant Baidu has drawn lukewarm interest from consumers in mainland China.

The South Korean firm’s China division and Baidu AI Cloud in late January announced a strategic partnership, which will see Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series – released in China on January 25, a week after debuting in the US – deploy Baidu’s Ernie large language model (LLM) and search engine to support the handsets’ AI search functions.

Many of those functions, tailored for the Chinese market, mirror features provided by Google’s Gemini AI, which supports the global version of the Galaxy S24 series but is unavailable in China.

But many Chinese consumers have taken to social media to express concerns that the search features on the local version of the Galaxy S24 series may not be as good as those on the international version.

“The overseas version is a completely different world than the mainland version,” said Weibo user “Sun Weilun”. He said he had visited a Samsung store in Hong Kong to test various models and found that the “Circle to Search” feature powered by Baidu provided much fewer results than the overseas version supported by Google.

Richard Zhang, a 30-year-old Beijing resident, said he was planning to buy an overseas version of the Galaxy S24 to get the best AI services. “I started considering this after I saw that the [mainland] system recognises Samsung’s own phones as other brands.”

Baidu is considered one of the top AI players in China, being the first major tech firm in the country to launch its own ChatGPT alternative when its Ernie Bot debuted in March 2023.

Last September, the company unveiled the latest version of its LLM, Ernie 4.0, which Baidu said was “by no means inferior compared to OpenAI’s GPT-4” in general capabilities.

Still, the Baidu-Samsung partnership is not expected to significantly boost the South Korean firm’s standing in the Chinese smartphone market, where its share has slumped to less than 1 per cent from 20 per cent over the past decade.

One major challenge faced by Samsung is the rise of Chinese vendors from Huawei Technologies to Oppo and Vivo, which are also releasing their own LLMs or integrating generative AI features in their latest handsets.

“Within the Chinese market, AI alone is unlikely to trigger immediate changes,” said Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research. However, he added that the partnership with Baidu “signifies Samsung’s dedication to long-term, consistent operations in China”.

In China, Samsung has set prices for the S24 and S24+ at between 500 yuan to 800 yuan (US$70 to US$112) more than the previous S23 and S23+ models, according to a recent analysis by Peng Peng, wireless smartphone strategies analyst at TechInsights. By comparison, Samsung kept the same price tags in the US and reduced prices in Europe.

“It seems that Samsung is not intensively competing with domestic vendors in terms of value for money in the world’s largest smartphone market,” Peng said.

Should China stop blaming Mongolia for severe dust storms? A study suggests yes

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3250734/should-china-stop-blaming-mongolia-severe-dust-storms-study-suggests-yes?utm_source=rss_feed

When strong dust storms have swept across China, the people and the government have often pointed the finger at neighbouring Mongolia, accusing it of not protecting its grasslands.

But in a new study, a group of Chinese scientists found that increasing wind speeds – and not degradation of Mongolia’s vegetation – is likely to be the main culprit.

During the spring of 2023, northern China was hit by at least 10 dust storms and sandstorms – the highest number in a decade.

At the time, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment largely attributed the severe sandstorms to Mongolia.

A ministry official said Mongolia’s reduced rainfall was not conducive to vegetation growth and higher temperatures had melted snow, leaving large areas of exposed sand. Winds then blew sand across the border.

To tackle the problem, a delegation of Mongolian officials visited China for six days in early May at the invitation of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. The decision was then made to form a joint working group to establish the China-Mongolia Cooperation Centre for Combating Desertification in Mongolia.

But now some Chinese scientists say a bigger factor may be in play.

Looking at past weather data, Zeng Zhenzhong, an associate professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, and his colleagues suggested that the correlation between the number of dusty days in China and Mongolia’s rainfall and vegetation was less significant than that between dusty days and wind speeds.

The results of their study appeared on Wednesday in Science Bulletin, an academic journal jointly published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

One piece of evidence supporting the scientists’ finding was that Mongolia’s normalised difference vegetation index, a measure of vegetation cover and vigour, was actually at normal levels last spring.

The scientists’ analysis suggested that the above-average number of sandstorms in northern China last year was probably caused by strong winds.

To verify this, they compared the average wind speeds in the first seasons of 2022 and 2023, using data from monitoring stations in China’s northern cities. This showed the 2023 figures were “significantly higher” than the previous year.

According to the paper, the average wind speed in northern China showed a downward trend between 1973 and 2012. Over the same time period, the number of dusty days also decreased each year.

Conversely, since 2013, both wind speed and the number of dusty days have increased.

“Therefore, if wind speeds continue to increase, dust and sand events may become more frequent in northern China,” the scientists wrote in the paper.

Sandstorms are a common meteorological hazard in arid and semi-arid regions that can harm air quality, affecting daily life, the environment and agriculture.

Sandstorms require powerful winds and a concentration of sand and dust to form, with the latter being influenced by factors such as ground vegetation, precipitation and air temperature.

In China, sandstorms typically strike Beijing and surrounding areas in the spring. In such weather, strong winds suck large amounts of sand and dust from the ground into the atmosphere, carrying the particles hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.

With more than 1.7 million sq km (656,000 square miles) of desert in northern China and more than 300,000 sq km of desert in southern Mongolia, China is one of the world’s most severely affected countries by sandstorms.

Trade, trains, sandstorms in focus as China vows closer ties with Mongolia

But while decades of investment has seen significant progress made in reducing the number of sandstorms, in more recent years, this weather phenomenon has once again become a public concern.

According to the China Meteorological Administration, the average number of dusty days in northern China was only 3.7 in 2013. This then began to fluctuate, though, increasing to seven days by 2021.

Despite their new focus on wind speed, the researchers also stressed that Mongolia’s influence on China’s intensifying sandstorms could not be completely ignored.

“Mongolia’s natural environment has an impact, although it is uncertain whether it is a dominant factor,” said a researcher at the CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics, who wished to remain anonymous.

But he cautioned against blaming Mongolia, adding that ecological and environmental problems should be viewed as a global issue – and should be solved from a global viewpoint.