• How monumental is China’s challenge to build its own jet engine for the C919 as it seeks aviation self-reliance?
• China-Russia relations: Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will have ‘several’ meetings, including visit to China this year, says ambassador
• Chinese banks ‘refrained’ from dealing with Russia over sanctions fears
• Top China actress in shock after finding bloodstained sheet, dirty toilet in US$560 a night 5-star hotel room
• Warning lights are flashing red over China’s economy | Podcasts
• Video of China girl, 5, inserting acupuncture needles into hand under guidance of TCM grandmother stuns social media
• Chinese travellers back with a roar in Year of the Dragon, with 195 million trips marking Lunar New Year’s Eve
• Year of the Dragon: most popular of the Chinese zodiac signs dominates corporate lai see packets again
• South China Sea: Philippine coastguard accuses Chinese vessels of ‘dangerous, blocking manoeuvres’
• China tipped to keep Mali ties strictly economic as UN peacekeeping mission wraps up
• Tourism booms for China’s ice sculpture city Harbin in post-Covid revival
• [World] Bad economy, nosy relatives: Young Chinese put off by Lunar New Year
• Protests are soaring, as China’s workers demand their wages | China
• 10 weird dishes from China and Asia: the choice is yours – spicy head of cow, roast pig eyeballs, steamed hedgehogs or octopus ice cream
• China’s well-to-do are under assault from every side | Briefing
• What cost love: are China’s efforts to stamp out expensive caili betrothal gifts aiming at the wrong traditions?
• Republican China committee chairman Mike Gallagher retiring from US Congress

How monumental is China’s challenge to build its own jet engine for the C919 as it seeks aviation self-reliance?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3251482/how-monumental-chinas-challenge-build-its-own-jet-engine-c919-it-seeks-aviation-self-reliance?utm_source=rss_feed

A review of China’s first turbofan commercial engine for the home-grown C919 passenger jet is set to be given priority by the Chinese aviation regulator this year as the world’s second-largest economy strives to become self-reliant in aviation amid rising advanced technology export restrictions from the United States.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has outlined its key tasks to promote “Made in China” this year, including the certification of the narrowbody C919 in Europe this year, as well as prioritising the review of CJ-1000 engine.

The CJ-1000 is a high-bypass turbofan jet engine being developed by the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) at its base in Shanghai, which is also home to the C919.

The CJ abbreviation comes from Chang Jiang, the Chinese name for the Yangtze River.

The engine has been designed to replace the imported Leap engine produced by CFM International – a joint venture between American firm GE Aerospace and France’s Safran Aircraft Engines – which currently powers the C919.

The C919, China’s first domestically developed narrowbody passenger jet, has been in commercial service since May 2023 after 15 years in development.

According to Liu Daxiang, deputy director of the science and technology committee at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic), China lacked experience in the research and development of an engine for commercial aviation.

But after China decided to build the C919 in 2008, the Chinese government set up a company to develop parts and a jet engine for the narrowbody passenger jet that is designed to compete with Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’ A320.

AECC was formally established in 2016, with Chinese defence contractor Avic and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) – the manufacturer of the C919 – among its stakeholders.

While China has made significant progress in engine development in recent years, the design and production of a commercial jet engine is still lagging behind the leading manufacturers in the world.

Avic’s Liu described the ability to make high-bypass turbofan engines as crucial to China’s success in aerospace manufacturing.

But after making a late start to its research and development, Liu acknowledged China has had to catch up with the technology that has already been around for a few decades.

“It’s like leaping from the first generation to the fifth generation [in one go],” Liu said in Shanghai in 2017.

Mechanical failures are among the most common problems seen in Chinese made jet engines, according to research released in 2022 by the Hunan civil-military integration of public service platform, an information provider under the Military-Civilian Integration Development Committee of the Hunan provincial government.

Poor design, a low level of manufacturing and a lack of experience in testing and assembly are also common problems, the research said.

Research by the China Construction Bank last year also suggested weakness in designing turbofan engines could slow China’s progress in making competitive products compared to its Western counterparts.

“China’s aerospace engine industry, represented by AECC, basically has the development and production capabilities for various types of aero engines, but there is still a certain gap compared with [those produced by] advanced Western countries,” the state-owned bank said.

According to Chinese media reports, AECC has said that it expects the CJ-1000 engine to be certified between 2022 and 2025.

But the US, which holds the lead in aviation technology, has stepped up its export controls on technologies that support the production of advanced semiconductors and gas turbine engines that it said are critical to its national security in the last two years.

And these measures may restrict Chinese companies’ access to using such technology.

A number of AECC subsidiaries have been designated as military end users by the US Bureau of Industry of Security as Washington grows wary of China’s aerospace manufacturing ambitions, and its push for a civil-military fusion strategy.

Exporters of US technology need a licence to sell to companies that have been classified as military end users.

In the long term, competition between China and the US in advanced technology is likely to play a significant part in Beijing’s quest to reach aerospace self-reliance.

The administration of former US president Donald Trump had considered blocking the sale of the Leap engine to Comac, according to a report by Wall Street Journal in 2020, citing unnamed sources, posing a major risk to the C919.

And the Berlin-based think tank, the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics), believes China’s “strongest efforts to displace foreign entities centre on engine development” to mitigate against the risks of foreign sanctions.

The aviation supply chain has relied on an international division of labour, Merics argued in October, and as a result, it would be a “monumental challenge for China to master all technologies as well as production processes and build an economically efficient plane”.

“Due to these industry features, Comac is cautious about shifting to domestic suppliers too early to avoid reputational damage as safety standards are far more stringent and the stakes higher for the commercial aircraft industry.”

China-Russia relations: Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will have ‘several’ meetings, including visit to China this year, says ambassador

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3251683/china-russia-relations-xi-jinping-and-vladimir-putin-will-have-several-meetings-including-visit?utm_source=rss_feed

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit China this year, according to China’s ambassador to Moscow, as the two countries forge a stronger front against the West.

In an interview with Russian state news agency Sputnik on Saturday, ambassador Zhang Hanhui said the two sides were preparing for “several meetings” between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin this year.

“Putin’s visit to China [this year] will definitely be a success,” he said. “China looks forward to his arrival.”

This will be Putin’s 19th visit to China since he became the president in 2000.

Putin said earlier that he would host the 2024 Brics summit of emerging economies in Kazan in October.

China and Russia are among the founding members of the group, which now has nine members, including Brazil, India, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia is still considering an invitation to become a member, but Argentina’s new President Javier Milei has pulled his country out.

Russian election officials reject anti-war politician’s bid to oppose Putin

Amid tensions with the West, Beijing and Moscow have moved closer in recent years.

Xi and Putin declared a “no-limits” partnership between their countries in Beijing in February 2022, three weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which soon drew a raft of sanctions from the United States and its allies.

In March last year Xi flew to Moscow for a state visit. In October, Putin, who has been shunned by the West since the war, returned Xi’s gesture by attending the Belt and Road Summit in Beijing.

The summit was his second overseas trip since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March on charges of illegally deporting Ukrainian children.

The two presidents have also spoken over the phone from time to time, most recently on Thursday to mark Lunar New Year, when the pair pledged to keep close communication and join efforts to create a “multipolar, fairer world order”, according to the Kremlin.

In his recent interview with the US broadcaster Tucker Carlson, Putin said Russia and China had a balanced trade turnover and the two countries were helping each other in areas such as high technology, energy and science

The two countries have increased their economic relationship, while also boosting cooperation in areas such as the military, artificial intelligence and space.

Last year, China’s total trade with Russia hit a fresh record high of US$240 billion, up 26 per cent from the previous year, making Russia mainland China’s sixth-largest trading partner, after the United States, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

China has been Russia’s biggest trading partner since 2010.

Chinese banks ‘refrained’ from dealing with Russia over sanctions fears

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3251675/chinese-banks-refrained-dealing-russia-over-sanctions-fears?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Russia are in “close dialogue” over international payments processing after a Chinese bank was reported to have stopped transactions with Russia for fear it would be sanctioned.

Russian deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko said problems regarding payments between China and Russia “will be solved”, Russian news agency Tass reported on Friday.

Rudenko said a number of Chinese banks had “refrained from banking activities” with Russia due to “fears of sanctions” but he did not think China would limit transactions through the Financial Messaging System, the Russian equivalent of the Swift transfer system.

When asked to comment on reports of problems with payments between the two countries, including transactions through the Financial Messaging System, he told reporters: “No, we don’t have such an issue. A couple of Chinese banks refrain so far as precaution, over fears [of being] sanctioned. But we are confident that this problem will be solved.”

Trade between the two countries is expanding successfully, he added. “And this is the first demonstration of the fact that we solve such problems,” he said.

“We have a close dialogue with our Chinese friends and, of course, we will solve all the problems that arise,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a briefing call on Wednesday.

‘We’ve weathered many storms’: Xi, Putin vow deeper ties in Lunar New Year call

Russia’s Vedomosti business daily reported last week that Zhejiang Chouzhou Commercial Bank had informed clients that it had suspended all transactions with Russia and Belarus.

Chouzhou Commercial Bank is based in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu, the world’s largest wholesale market of small commodities, and has been one of the main banks for Russian exporters, according to Vedomosti.

Trade with China and the Chinese yuan have become an economic lifeline for Russia since it was expelled from the Swift financial messaging system in February 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.

According to Russian Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina, a third of all Russian exports are now settled in renminbi.

Some of China’s major financial institutions have already announced plans to restrict ties with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.

Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and two Chinese-led development institutions – the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank – have all reportedly restricted Russia’s access to their financing.

UnionPay, a Chinese payment system once a lifeline for Russians after the exit of Visa and MasterCard in March 2022, has cut its exposure to sanctioned banks in Russia.

However, some smaller Chinese banks with no other international business ties, have been willing to finance Russia and assist in service payments.

But the role of Chinese financial institutions – especially smaller banks with no ties to places such as the US or European Union – as the main channels for Russia’s overseas activities is being tested following the introduction of further US sanctions last month.

The restrictions mean banks run the risk of secondary sanctions and being cut off from investors in the West if they do business with sanctioned Russian entities.

At least two state-owned Chinese banks have ordered a review of their Russian businesses, Bloomberg reported last month without naming the institutions.

Russian drones kill 7, including children and baby, in petrol station fire

Beijing has not condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine and repeatedly said it will not join what it calls illegal and unilateral Western sanctions on Russia, but it has also said it will not deliberately circumvent sanctions.

China and Russia have grown increasingly close both politically and economically in recent years.

China-Russia trade reached US$240.1 billion in 2023, up 26.3 per cent from a year earlier, with Russia serving as a major provider of oil, gas, coal and agriculture commodities, according to official Chinese customs data.

Top China actress in shock after finding bloodstained sheet, dirty toilet in US$560 a night 5-star hotel room

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3250659/top-china-actress-shock-after-finding-bloodstained-sheet-dirty-toilet-us560-night-5-star-hotel-room?utm_source=rss_feed

The experience of a Chinese actress who was shocked to find a bloodstained bedsheet and dirty toilet in a luxury hotel room in southern China has attracted widespread attention on mainland social media.

Tian Pujun released a video clip on Douyin at the end of January in which she exposed a five-star hotel in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, with a room rate of 4,000 yuan (US$560) a night, for its poor sanitary conditions and appalling service, reported the news outlet thecover.cn.

As well as the stained sheet and the dirty toilet which had a used tissue left in it, the star of hit Chinese drama Empresses in the Palace, also found a broken tap and a smeared drinks glass.

When she called room service to report the problems, an employee told her they could provide free afternoon tea as compensation.

“The worker told me I was welcome to have afternoon tea anytime. I was stunned by her response. Was that a sincere apology?” Tian said. “Are people who can afford to stay in such a hotel really interested in a gratis afternoon tea?

“We guests expect a hotel to make us feel safe and comfortable. The bedsheets and toilets should be clean. Does the current sanitary condition match its five-star status?” she asked.

Tian told a similar story of dissatisfaction when she asked to send her friend to send items by courier to the same hotel.

Her friend asked a courier to leave a package at the reception desk, but when Tian went to collect it there were no members of staff around and she waited half an hour.

When Tian complained again, a different employee accused her of making the blood stains on the sheet herself in an attempt to wangle a complimentary stay at the hotel.

“I’ve travelled around and stayed in hotels for many years. Would I do this just for a free room stay?” the actress asked.

“I’ve stayed in plenty of five-star hotels and none of them have had issues like this,” she added.

The 42-year-old is an actress, producer and writer in China, whose husband Wang Shi is the founder of the country’s largest property development company, Vanke.

Although Tian did not mention the name of the hotel, online observers speculated it was the Rosewood in Guangzhou, and the hotel confirmed the incident happened at its premises, according to mainland media.

“We are carrying out an internal investigation and are liaising with this guest,” a spokesperson said. “We are aware of the problem and will definitely make adjustments.”

Warning lights are flashing red over China’s economy | Podcasts

https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2024/02/08/warning-lights-are-flashing-red-over-chinas-economy

In China, investors are feeling the pain everywhere you look. The housing market has seized up and more than $1trn in market value has been wiped from exchanges in China and Hong Kong since the start of the year. And no government rescue package seems to be on the way. So how worried should people be?

Hosts: Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood. Guests: The Economist’s China business and finance editor, Don Weinland; Yuen Yuen Ang from Johns Hopkins University and Ben Fanger, founder of ShoreVest Partners.

Get a world of insights for 50% off—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+

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

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Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Video of China girl, 5, inserting acupuncture needles into hand under guidance of TCM grandmother stuns social media

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3250526/video-china-girl-5-inserting-acupuncture-needles-hand-under-guidance-tcm-grandmother-stuns-social?utm_source=rss_feed

The incredible story of a five-year-old girl who applied acupuncture needles to the hand of a family member like an expert, has stunned mainland social media.

The girl’s mother, surnamed Yu, said her daughter had learned the technique of inserting fine needles in patients to treat their health problems, from her grandmother, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor, every weekend for years.

Yu said her daughter had mastered how to sterilise the needles, and smoothly and steadily insert them in the correct points. She had also learned other TCM therapies such as cupping and Tui Na massage.

TCM is based on the belief that the human body has more than 2,000 acupuncture pressure points connected to meridians, which form channels through which a person’s energy, or qi, flows.

Stimulating these points helps manage a person’s health.

Both acupuncture and cupping are used on the points to stimulate the patient’s qi.

Cupping is a therapy in which the practitioner creates a flame inside a round cup to create pressure then places it on the body to create a sucking force that is believed to remove “blockages” and restore the flow of energy.

From pop diva Lady Gaga to Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps, many celebrities outside China have become fans of the treatment.

In recent years, the therapy has been widely embraced by a younger generation of Chinese as a way to relieve stress, but also as a fashion statement.

Some like the red circular marks on their bodies that are left by cupping, calling them the “coolest tattoos”, and intentionally wearing revealing clothing to flaunt the marks.

Tui Na, which involves using fingers, hands, elbows or other body parts to massage the patient, again to help with energy flow, also requires knowledge of acupoints, plus a mastery of the appropriate pressure.

As news of the five-year-old “practitioner” from Shandong province in eastern China went viral in January, some people expressed safety concerns because acupuncture requires accuracy in the depth and angle of the needles.

“The girl who applied acupuncture on another person is a daredevil, and the person who received the treatment was even more so,” a person on Douyin said.

Yu said her daughter’s treatments were always carried out under the supervision of her grandmother.

In China, to be a licensed TCM professional, a person is required to have either studied it at university or have learned from a licensed TCM doctor with at least 15 years experience.

They should learn from the doctor for at least three years before assisting at a professional TCM practice for an average of eight years, and have their apprenticeship notarised.

Chinese travellers back with a roar in Year of the Dragon, with 195 million trips marking Lunar New Year’s Eve

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3251661/chinese-travellers-back-roar-year-dragon-195-million-trips-marking-lunar-new-years-eve?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese travellers are back on the move for the festive season, with the number of trips around the country up by more than a quarter on the eve of the biggest holiday of the year.

Domestic passenger traffic on Friday, Lunar New Year’s Eve, was up by 26.7 per cent compared to the same time last year, with 195.24 million trips taken across the transport system, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The bulk of the traffic was on the highways, with more than 184 million trips made on Friday. Rail traffic roughly doubled to 8.2 million trips, while the number of people taking flights was up by nearly 1.5 times, rising by 137.7 per cent to 1.8 million, the report said.

Ctrip, China’s biggest travel company, reported higher demand for transport on Saturday as well. It said ticket orders more than doubled year on year to exceed pre-pandemic levels, during the start of the 2019 Lunar New Year, Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper reported.

Warmer destinations in the south such as Hainan, Guangdong and Yunnan provinces were popular choices among holidaymakers from China’s colder northern regions, while southerners were keen to head north to snowy destinations, according to the report.

Ctrip was quoted as saying that bookings for Harbin in Heilongjiang province, a trending travel destination this winter, rose by 40 per cent from the first day of the last Lunar New Year.

Orders for attraction and sightseeing tickets on Ctrip also rose by 300 per cent from the same day last year, the first Lunar New Year after China lifted its strict zero-Covid travel restrictions.

Tourism booms for China’s ice sculpture city Harbin in post-Covid revival

Many of its Lunar New Year’s Eve “meal and hotel room” packages were also sold out, the site said. It added that requests for pet-friendly accommodation were up by 72 per cent from last year and bookings for private hot spring hotel rooms had risen by 46 per cent.

Online booking service Tongcheng Travel said it registered both a “volume and price increase” for domestic flights, The Paper reported.

Tickets cost nearly 1,000 yuan (US$140) on average, about 20 per cent higher than before the holiday season – also called Spring Festival in China – while the number of bookings for popular routes increased by 77 per cent from last year, the company said.

Blizzards and freezing rain had earlier sparked warnings that this Lunar New Year holiday could be the most “complex” since 2008. But the China Weather Network forecast on Saturday that the worst of the conditions had passed and temperatures were expected to rise in most parts of the country.

National immigration authorities have predicted that customs clearances over the Spring Festival will be about the same as the 2019 festive season. But Ctrip said on Saturday that its outbound bookings were already higher than the pre-pandemic year.

Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore were among the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists, with travel orders on Ctrip increasing by 30 per cent compared to the same period in 2019. All three countries have introduced mutual visa-free agreements with China.

Travel bookings for Belt and Road Initiative nations also rose, with orders for tickets to the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan up by more than half compared to the same period in 2019, The Paper reported.

On Lunar New Year’s Eve, iconic landmarks across the world joined in on the festivities, with the London Eye, Empire State Building, Sydney Opera House and Tokyo Tower lighting up red to ring in the Year of the Dragon.

In China, the annual Spring Festival Gala TV gala set a live broadcast record, with 1.689 billion total views for the event, according to state broadcaster CGTN.

At the Chinese box office, comedy-drama Pegasus 2 led the pack with its premiere on Saturday, Xinhua reported, citing data from the China Movie Data Information Network.

The film earned 416.23 million yuan on Saturday while Chinese comedy YOLO was next, grossing 410.54 million yuan.

Year of the Dragon: most popular of the Chinese zodiac signs dominates corporate lai see packets again

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3251660/year-dragon-most-popular-chinese-zodiac-signs-dominates-corporate-lai-see-packets-again?utm_source=rss_feed

The Year of the Dragon is under way, and the mythical, fire-breathing creature is everywhere to be seen. In fact, images of the legendary beast are more ubiquitous than any of its fellow zodiac animals are when their turn comes round on the Chinese calendar.

In particular, lai see envelopes – red paper packets filled with “lucky money” – are abundant with pictures of dragons, as financial companies from UBS to Julius Baer, and KGI Asia make the most of the creature’s popularity with the public.

“About 30 per cent more corporate customers demanded to use the zodiac animal to design their lai see packets this year than usual,” said Cyrus Cheung, co-founder of Eco-Art, a Hong Kong company that designs and manufactures over 15 million lai see packets for some 600 companies in Asia every year.

“This is because the dragon is the most popular zodiac animal of them all. Everybody likes dragons, so the companies want to deliver dragon-designed lai see packets to their customers.”

It is Chinese tradition for married couples to hand out lai see, or blessing money, to unmarried friends and family members, including children, during the first seven days of the new year, which this year started on February 10.

Companies often use more generic designs symbolising good fortune, such as flowers, fish, or birds for their lai see envelopes because any unused zodiac animal packet cannot be re-used for another 12 years.

Only the dragon has the power to defy this trend.

“We do not consciously set out to align our lai see packages with zodiac animals, but the Year of the Dragon holds special significance in markets like Hong Kong and Singapore,” said Geraldine Walsh, head of marketing for Asia at Janus Henderson, a global fund management firm with headquarters in London and Denver in the US.

“There is hope that dragon years will be more auspicious and just looking at some statistics, some countries in Asia experience an uptick in birth rates during dragon years, which is quite an interesting sign for how dragon years are perceived.”

The Year of the Dragon is the fifth in the cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The 12 creatures, which follow in the order of rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig, represent a cycle of 12 years according to the Chinese lunar calendar.

Other banks that have opted for the creature of folklore on their lai see envelopes include the US giant Citigroup, Swiss lenders UBS, and Julius Baers, France’s Societe Generale, Singapore lenders OCBC and UOB, Bank of Communications Hong Kong, and the brokerage firm KGI Asia.

“The theme for UBS is an auspicious dragon that is soaring and rising to new heights,” a spokeswoman for the bank said.

Julius Baer’s lai see packets feature a dragon and a phoenix, representing harmony, vitality and auspiciousness, a spokeswoman said. The firm also added a luxury lai see handbag and gift box set to its offerings for customers.

Some banks actively avoid using zodiac animals for environmental reasons. More generic designs can be recycled in any other year.

HSBC, Hong Kong’s largest bank, has gone with fish on its lai see packages this year, signifying surplus and riches, while Standard Chartered has opted for flowers and cranes. Its subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank, has red packets featuring a new “God of Wealth”.

Bank of East Asia is sticking with its popular “God of Longevity” design lai see packets, which it has used for over half a century. It also offers a tangerine and pear-designed lai see which represents “good fortune and prosperity”.

Bank of China (Hong Kong) and ICBC Asia use the peony for their lai see envelopes. It is a hugely popular flower in Chinese culture, believed to bring prosperity to customers.

Eco Art’s Cheung said even though many banks these day opt for electronic forms of lai see, the demand for traditional lai see envelopes has also been on the rise – particularly the ones featuring fancy designs.

“Many banks and companies take the lai see envelopes as a means of marketing to promote their brands. Each lai see envelope costs between HK$3 and HK$5, while the most expensive ones we have made are HK$15. Still, it is an affordable and reasonable cost of marketing,” Cheung said.

South China Sea: Philippine coastguard accuses Chinese vessels of ‘dangerous, blocking manoeuvres’

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3251664/south-china-sea-philippine-coastguard-accuses-chinese-vessels-dangerous-blocking-manoeuvres?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippine Coast Guard on Sunday accused Chinese vessels of “dangerous” manoeuvres during a nine-day patrol near a reef off the coast of the Southeast Asian country.

The Philippine vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua was deployed in early February to patrol the waters around Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground in the South China Sea, and deliver provisions to Filipino fishermen and ensure their safety.

The reef has been a flashpoint between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.

Since then, Beijing has deployed patrol boats that Manila says harass Philippine vessels and prevent Filipino fishermen from reaching the lagoon where fish are more plentiful.

During the patrol, Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels “performed dangerous and blocking manoeuvres at sea against BRP Teresa Magbanua four times, with the CCG vessels crossing the bow of the PCG vessel twice”, the Philippine Coast Guard said in a statement.

The Philippine Coast Guard said its ship was also “shadowed” by four Chinese Coast Guard vessels “on more than 40 occasions”.

PLA patrols South China Sea amid strained ties with the Philippines

The coastguard also observed what it described as “four Chinese Maritime Militia vessels”.

Videos released by the Philippine Coast Guard show a Chinese Coast Guard vessel metres from the port beam of the BRP Teresa Magbanua, before it crosses the path of the Filipino boat.

“Nevertheless, the PCG vessel professionally engaged both the CCG and CMM vessels through radio reiterating the clear and principled position of the Philippines in accordance with international law,” the statement said.

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scarborough Shoal is 240km (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China helped negotiate, countries have jurisdiction over the natural resources within about 200 nautical miles (370km) of their shore.

The Philippine coastguard also distributed food and groceries to a hundred Filipino fishermen in 14 boats, the statement said.

The incidents came two months after tense stand-offs between China and the Philippines around disputed reefs in the South China Sea that saw a collision between vessels from the two countries and Chinese ships blasting water cannon at Philippine boats.

‘Show our swords’: Beijing must harden stance in the South China Sea, expert says

China claims almost the entire sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis.

It deploys boats to patrol the busy waterway and has built artificial islands that it has militarised to reinforce its claims.

Chinese and Philippine officials last month agreed on the need for closer dialogue to deal with “maritime emergencies” in the waterway.

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China tipped to keep Mali ties strictly economic as UN peacekeeping mission wraps up

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3251351/china-tipped-keep-mali-ties-strictly-economic-un-peacekeeping-mission-wraps?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese peacekeepers returned in December after completing their United Nations-led mission in Mali, as the international organisation ended its 10-year peacekeeping mission at the request of the Malian military junta.

Observers have said it is likely that China’s future dealings with the troubled West African nation will be strictly non-military.

The former French colony has been battling a jihadist insurgency in the north of the country since 2012. It has also been hit by two military coups since 2020.

Now, with the exit of French troops in 2022 and UN peacekeepers at the end of last year, the Malian junta is endearing itself to China and Russia, with the latter contributing troops or mercenaries under the Wagner Group, now known as the Africa Corps.

Meanwhile, China hosted a delegation in December which included Mali’s ministers of finance, commerce and foreign affairs. During their visit, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised Beijing would deepen cooperation with the African nation in education, training, medical care and agriculture.

Wang also said China would help implement more schemes such as the Mali Digital project and the African Solar Belt programme to “help promote the peace and development process in Mali”.

But although Malian junta leaders have approached China for both development assistance and help with conflict resolution, observers have said it is likely that Beijing will provide only non-military aid.

Russia recruiting Africa army to replace Wagner’s mercenaries

“So far we are seeing Beijing reinforcing its diplomacy in Mali and expanding in various sectors,” said Lina Benabdallah, an associate professor in the politics and international affairs department at Wake Forest University in the US.

The pledge to bankroll Malian projects points to a key Chinese diplomatic approach to conflicts – preferring its long-standing policy of promoting economic development as a solution to most problems, and avoiding direct intervention in complex conflicts.

“We see more development projects and people-to-people relations, and the Chinese embassy in Mali posted about several education-related projects conducted in rural areas,” Benabdallah said. “I don’t think we are seeing a massive change of Chinese diplomacy in Mali; if anything, it might be gradual.”

In her recent study published by the Stimson Centre, Benabdallah argued that China seeks to avoid diplomatic entanglements with Western powers while protecting its economic and security interests.

“Focusing on non-military aspects such as development has the potential to create opportunities to add value,” she wrote in the study.

Her analysis showed the likelihood of Beijing being involved in mediation was high where Chinese commercial interests were high. This was the case in Darfur, Sudan, where China has oil and energy security interests.

China’s commercial interests in the Sahel countries – those south of the Sahara – have been limited. But it is making inroads into countries such as Niger, where Beijing has energy and mining interests.

While trade and investments by Chinese enterprises are growing in Mali, energy investments and trade relations have yet to bloom in significant ways in Chad and Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso only normalised relations with Beijing a few years ago.

David Shinn, a professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, said when it came to supporting mediation and dialogue in Africa, China talked a good game and did provide some financial support for other organisations, but its own efforts were strictly limited.

Shinn said except for UN peacekeeping operations, China did not engage its own personnel in active warfare in Africa, as the United States and France were willing to do. Nor did China have any interest in participating in a military response that was either led by or had significant involvement of a Western government.

“Consequently, I don’t envisage China trying to replace France in Mali or anywhere else in the Sahel,” Shinn said.

However, he said this was a task that Russia’s now Africa Corps was willing to do.

“It will be interesting to see if China is publicly supportive of Russia’s military intervention in Mali, the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso and possibly Niger.”

Benjamin Barton, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus, said the conflict in the Sahel region was not China’s, in the sense that its involvement in the region had always been indirect or driven by economic interests.

“China has not been militarily involved in the Sahel since the region’s instability spiked after the collapse of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011, unlike France, the European Union and the countries of the region themselves,” Barton said.

Barton said China neither had a strong anti-terror presence nor appeared to be involved in paramilitary activity.

And while China did have military-to-military exchanges with countries in the region, he said its footprint could be considered secondary in relation to countries such as the United States and France.

China is only ever going to have a diplomatic approach in seeking to help bring about a sustainable exit out of the conflict, Barton said, as Beijing was not willing to dispatch its military to foreign conflicts or get involved in a combat far from China.

“[China’s] involvement will likely mirror its diplomatic endeavours as seen in other hotspots revolving around promoting dialogue, raising the issue within relevant multilateral settings, outreach to both conflicting parties and offering economic sweeteners as drivers to fostering interaction among the warring parties.”

Tourism booms for China’s ice sculpture city Harbin in post-Covid revival

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3251556/tourism-booms-chinas-ice-sculpture-city-harbin-post-covid-revival?utm_source=rss_feed

When Anson Li and his postgraduate friends were planning a winter break, Harbin – the city in northeastern China renowned for its ice sculptures – was at the top of his mind.

This year’s Ice and Snow World – spread over 80 hectares (200 acres) – is the city’s largest, and also claims the title of the biggest theme park of its kind on Earth.

Harbin, in Heilongjiang province, caught Li’s attention when his social media feed filled with reports of an angry crowd shouting for refunds as they stood in a long queue on the first day of the festival.

The 25-year-old’s sympathies were not with the disappointed visitors. “Their demand wasn’t very reasonable, but Harbin still satisfied their requests, so everyone [online] thought Harbin handled it very well and started to pay attention to Harbin,” he said.

Li and his friends spent three days in the city last month, keen to see the festival that had been trending for weeks, as well as Harbin’s other tourist attractions which have been lighting up social media platforms in China.

The seven young adults walked along the busy cobblestones of Central Street and took pictures in front of the Russian-style orthodox Saint Sophia Cathedral as they followed the top recommendations on Xiaohongshu, China’s equivalent of Instagram.

“The Russian style [of architecture] is quite refreshing to me,” said Li, who is based in Beijing but hails from southern China, like many of Harbin’s visitors.

Tourism accounted for about a third of Harbin’s GDP in 2019 before it crashed with the arrival of Covid-19. The city’s efforts to revive the industry have this year met with unprecedented enthusiasm.

The hype was further boosted with the start of chun yun, the 40-day period wrapped around the Lunar New Year holiday and China’s busiest time of year for travel.

On January 26, the first day of chun yun, more than 78,000 passengers went through Harbin’s airport, breaking previous records, according to local newspaper Harbin Daily.

As well as domestic visitors, the festival has also drawn a handful of diplomats, including US ambassador Nicholas Burns. Harbin also hosted the opening ceremony in January of the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism.

Determined to win back domestic and overseas visitors a year after pandemic restrictions were dropped, the Heilongjiang government released a “100-day mission” to guide provincial-level promotions, campaigns and reforms ahead of the season.

Harbin revamped the management of its tourist attractions and told tourism representatives to use this winter as a “practice season” to improve their services and reputation ahead of next year’s Asian Winter Games, which the city is hosting.

The Heilongjiang capital is in the middle of China’s “rust belt”, which includes Liaoning and Jilin provinces. Rich in oil, coal, and iron, the area experienced rapid industrialisation in the 1950s

But the region, also known as “Dongbei”, or Northeast, was largely left behind by the country’s southern coastal provinces, which took off during China’s decades of economic boom after opening up in 1978. A population outflow – especially of the young and talented – followed.

Harbin’s transformation into a tourism hotspot has led to a personality flip in Dongbei, according to one tour operator. The region has had a reputation among visitors from the south – called “little southern potatoes” on the internet – for coarse accents and attitudes.

This year, alongside the city’s Russian heritage – brought by settlers who built the China Eastern Railway in the 1910s – the accommodating and welcoming hospitality of Dongbei has stood out for visitors commenting online.

Videos of “spoiled” tourists treated to free car rides by locals, as well as the city government raising a photo-friendly inflatable “moon” behind Saint Sophia Cathedral, went viral on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

“Dongbei was quite barbaric originally, but we northeastern Chinese have become much more polite … since the hype of Harbin this year,” said Hua Zi, manager of regional tour company Xiangbei Travelling.

To attract and retain travellers, services had become comparable to “nanny care”, he said. “Whatever you request, we will be able to provide.”

Hua said his business had seen a surge of inquiries this year, prompting him to operate some 30 tours to Harbin, on top of around 100 that the company organises each year during the chun yun period.

“It was more than you can imagine,” he said, adding that inquiries had jumped by more than 20 times on the previous year.

Surge in winter tourism boosts tepid economy in China’s north

But for all of Harbin’s charm, the sustainability of its tourism revival – if not the region’s – is still an open question.

Northeast China has been a more convenient option for snowy holidays than outbound destinations that require a visa. But the distance and limited winter season remain challenging for the region’s tourism industry.

The diversity of Harbin – which has a unique cultural history and natural landscapes – is also yet to be fully explored.

China’s northeast is turning ice and snow into silver and gold

Lithography engineer Tim Lin, who visited Dongbei with his family from Xiamen, on China’s southern coast, said he found Harbin too crowded and that it was mainly known for historical monuments.

While Lin, 25, visited Central Street and the cathedral, he preferred going to the mountains and lakes.

“I might not revisit Harbin again, but might consider coming back for the [snowy] natural scenery in other parts [of Dongbei],” he said, but was unsure of when he might make another journey across the country to the north.

[World] Bad economy, nosy relatives: Young Chinese put off by Lunar New Year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-68224750?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Protests are soaring, as China’s workers demand their wages | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/02/08/protests-are-soaring-as-chinas-workers-demand-their-wages

“Whether you’ve got money or not, do go home for lunar new year.” So goes a sentimental Chinese pop song. This year’s Spring Festival, as the occasion is also known, begins on February 10th. In recent weeks millions of China’s migrant workers, who spend most of the year toiling in cities, have been travelling back to their villages to celebrate with their families. Some are returning with hard-earned cash, which they might stuff into red envelopes (per tradition) and give to their children. Others, though, are coming home empty-handed—not because they are lazy, but because they have not been paid.

Unpaid wages are a chronic problem in China. Migrant workers are rarely given formal employment contracts. China’s state-run labour unions (independent ones are banned) often side with management in disputes. So companies are under little pressure to pay workers in a timely manner. Sometimes, when business is bad, they refuse to pay them at all. Tensions typically come to a head in the period before the Spring Festival, when migrant workers scramble to get months of back pay before going home.

The central government says it wants to help. In December officials launched a campaign to “eradicate” the problem of unpaid wages, threatening to punish recalcitrant firms. But previous efforts have had little effect. Although the government can force state-owned companies to cough up, it has little sway over the private contractors that are at the heart of the problem, says Aidan Chau of China Labour Bulletin.

In any case, the government is more concerned about social stability. That means it often targets workers, too. Officials fume about “illegal gatherings” aimed at shaming companies. A county in the western province of Gansu has threatened to punish workers for the dangerous act of displaying banners during protests.

At an informal labour market in southern Beijing, two dozen workers recently waited in the cold, hoping to earn a little extra money before heading home for the holiday. Few jobs are on offer, though. It has been a tough year, they say. The workers at least take some comfort in their shared hardship. Going home with no money would usually be humiliating. But this year, says Mr Zhang, many of his neighbours have no money either. ■

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10 weird dishes from China and Asia: the choice is yours – spicy head of cow, roast pig eyeballs, steamed hedgehogs or octopus ice cream

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3250453/10-weird-dishes-china-and-asia-choice-yours-spicy-head-cow-roast-pig-eyeballs-steamed-hedgehogs-or?utm_source=rss_feed

Renowned for having rich and adventurous culinary cultures, China and its Asian neighbours boast an array of “quirky” yet delicious dishes that are definitely not for faint of heart, or stomach.

With unusual ingredients and distinctive flavours they often appear intimidating at first, but turn out to be surprisingly addictive.

The Post has compiled a tasty-ten list of eye-popping Asian dishes. Which are you willing to try?

People in western China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region like their beef and lamb, and cow head meat is a particular favourite.

This dish involves cooking the entire head of a cow and serving it with a complex array of condiments, including as many as 15 different sauces like chilli, soy sauce and vinegar. It is also accompanied by onions.

Despite its intimidating appearance, and the fact that the meat is typically torn off by hand, the dish is celebrated for its “spicy and delicious” flavour and a “melt-in-the-mouth” texture.

This specialty of Yunnan province in the southwest of China requires dragonfly larvae to be caught from the water before they are fried until golden brown.

While the appearance of dragonflies lined up on a plate may seem daunting to the eye, their crispy and delicious taste is hard to resist.

The prickly appearance and colourful bodies of these critters, which typically indicates toxicity, have become a delicacy in the northeast of China.

Prior to cooking, they are soaked in water to remove impurities, and their bellies carefully sliced open to extract the innards.

During cooking, the caterpillars are flash-fried on a high heat for just 30 seconds.

Usually accompanied by spring onions, ginger and diced coloured peppers, some experienced chefs coat them with egg and breadcrumbs.

Another speciality of Yunnan province is Pig’s Feet Hot Pot with Black Ants.

The soup base is made from pig’s trotters, black chicken, ribs and beef offal.

Its distinctive sour flavour comes from the formic acid released when ants are burned and mixed into the hot pot.

These are a traditional delicacy in Guangxi, an autonomous region in southern China bordering Vietnam.

Fresh pig eyes are skewered and roasted over an open fire, then seasoned with a variety of spices, such as salt, sesame, and chilli.

You will be glad to hear that this dish, originally from Guizhou province in southwestern China, does not use actual dung, but rather the digestive liquid from a cow’s stomach as the soup base.

Before preparing the dish, cows are fed premium grass and herbs, after which the undigested grass and liquid from their stomachs are extracted to make the hot pot.

Notably, the broth is often consumed as a favoured part of the meal after enjoying the food.

A famous snack from Fujian province, southeastern China this stemmed from the waste-not, want-not attitude of farmers in the area who captured field mice to protect their crops.

The dried mice are not only tasty but also high in protein and are believed to have medicinal properties, such as helping stem frequent urination or bed-wetting in children.

This prickly sounding dish is traditionally served at Chinese Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year time.

No, it is not dangerous to eat, the “hedgehogs” are actually steamed buns shaped like the spiky mammals.

In folklore, hedgehogs are often regarded immortal and are seen as lucky charms, believed to bring wealth and prosperity to homes in Lunar New Year.

Thai papaya salad with crickets is a classic dish claimed by both Laos and the northeastern region of Thailand.

The crunchy offering is made with shredded under-ripe papaya mixed with dried crickets, tomatoes, peanuts, chilli and other dressings.

This multi-leg-themed desert is unique to and popular in Japan and is celebrated for its distinct taste and texture.

Fresh octopus is first chopped and cooked, then blended with an ice cream mix that includes milk, sugar and vanilla essence.

China’s well-to-do are under assault from every side | Briefing

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/02/08/chinas-well-to-do-are-under-assault-from-every-side

It was a year ago that the woman who asked to be referred to as Xue Li entered the minefield, although she did not know it at the time. It was only when a mine detonated that she realised the risk she had been running—and by then it was too late.

Chinese call an investment that has gone bad a “landmine explosion”. In Ms Xue’s case, the blast came from a wealth-management product that had promised an annual return of about 8%. It had been recommended by a friend and was sold by Hywin, a big firm based in Shanghai but listed in both Hong Kong and New York. She put in 300,000 yuan ($42,000) last February and a further 500,000 a few months later. In December, however, it became clear that the firm was struggling to meet its obligations. It is uncertain how much of her original investment, if any, Ms Xue will ever see again.

Across China hundreds of thousands of the well-to-do have suffered landmine injuries in recent months. Zhongzhi, an investment firm which went bust in December, owes its 150,000 clients $36bn. And explosions are not confined to wealth-management firms. By far the most common investment in China is property, and property values have been falling for almost three years. The stockmarket, too, is sliding: the Shanghai Composite, one of the most prominent indices, has dropped by over 20% since its peak in 2021. And whereas the government has in the past stepped in to help investors hit by plunging asset prices, this time it shows little inclination for a bail-out. Ms Xue will have to try to stanch the bleeding on her own.

China publishes almost no official data about the distribution of wealth, perhaps for fear of revealing just how unequal it is. But The Economist has analysed nationwide surveys from 2018 and 2020 that asked participants about their income and investments, weighting the responses to reflect China’s demography. That has yielded a rough breakdown of who owns most of the financial assets that are losing value so fast, and so allowed us to infer what the swooning markets might mean for China’s economy and society.

Year of the drubbing

A huge share of the country’s wealth, it turns out, is in the hands of people like Ms Xue. The drubbing the markets have been giving them, and the government’s apparent indifference, is reshaping their investment preferences, in all likelihood for years to come. That, in turn, will impede the authorities’ plans to develop the financial system and thus slow China’s future growth. Ms Xue and investors like her will suffer the most, but China’s economy will also end up scarred by the detonations.

Dragon mire

Such expectations are looking ever less plausible. During Xi Jinping’s first term as China’s leader, in 2013-18, the average annual growth in personal income from investments was 10.8%. That fell during Mr Xi’s second term to 7%. Over the past two years it has sunk below 5%.

In part, this reflects Mr Xi’s determination to prevent bubbles and thus make the financial system more stable. To that end, he has tried to dispel the assumption that the state will come to the rescue of any struggling financial firm. In 2018, for example, he instigated a crackdown on online-lending platforms, wiping out an industry with 1trn yuan in outstanding loans. That was part of a broader campaign to restrict lending outside banks, which has shrunk by more than half since 2016.

The authorities still seem keen to shield the poor from turmoil in the financial system. This year, for instance, the central government will attempt to merge more than 2,000 rural banks with more than $6trn in assets, to strengthen institutions catering mainly to people on the lowest rung of China’s economic ladder. But the rich are a different story. When several small banks collapsed in 2022, deposits in excess of 500,000 yuan were not reimbursed by the state. By the same token, as property developers have gone bust the state has dragged its feet about rescuing those who paid for apartments that were never built, many of whom are relatively affluent. Wealthier investors, the logic runs, can afford to absorb the losses and should understand the risks.

But the risks are often opaque, and different investments more closely related than they at first appear. A search for “landmine investment” on Chinese social media reveals endless posts about trusts and other wealth-management products. These typically funnel cash from China’s rich to risky borrowers willing to pay high interest rates. The trust industry alone has raised $2.9trn from 1.3m people and companies. About 30% of its loans are used to buy bonds, equities and investment funds. Another quarter is lending to conventional businesses. More than 7% has gone to property developers, almost all of whom are on the ropes.

Wang Yong’s parents, who are got-rich-first types, were assured they were not investing in property when they bought a trust product last year. The family lives in a prosperous coastal port city. Mr Wang’s father has long invested in stocks. His mother in recent years has dabbled in wealth-management products, often taking the recommendations of an adviser at an asset-management company. Last year she went big, buying a 3m yuan trust product issued by a state-owned industrial enterprise. She later discovered that her money had been lent to a property developer that had defaulted. The state firm said the problem would be resolved in 60 days. That deadline came and went in early January. That’s when Mr Wang (a pseudonym) began posting complaints on social media.

Tens of thousands are doing the same. Trust defaults are rising at an alarming rate. The product Mr Wang bought was issued by a firm with about 740bn yuan ($100bn) in assets. Many other trust firms are expected to miss payments in the coming months. The government has so far refused to bail them out. Most clients have no way to recoup their money. Lawyers tend to advise that lawsuits are futile.

Property has also become a landmine for many investors. For years Chinese media celebrated the “explosive expansion” of urban apartment prices and urged people to cash in. Ms Xu, a finance executive in her 50s who did not want her full name published, made sure that she did. She moved to Shanghai 20 years ago but often returns to her hometown inland, where she bought two investment flats. (Her parents live in one of them.) By 2021 their value had more than doubled. Last year, as the downturn deepened, she put both flats on the market in the hope of realising some gains before prices fell further. But she has not been able to sell them. Developers have cut the prices of new flats in her city by more than 10%. Potential buyers are holding back in expectation of further drops. She fears all her gains will be wiped out.

Half of China’s housing wealth belongs to the got-rich-first. There are no nationwide data on house prices and the official figures for individual cities seem to understate falling prices. The government’s numbers claim that prices have barely budged in Shanghai. Local economists, in contrast, reckon they have crashed by 20-30% in some central districts and could fall further in 2024. People in smaller cities talk of 30-40% “discounts” on new flats.

Chinese spent about 16.3trn yuan buying homes in 2021. Analysts believe that up until that year about 30% of residential property was purchased as an investment, rather than to live in. That means punters pumped some 5trn yuan into investment properties at the top of the market and will have lost a big part of their savings.

Again, the government does not seem too concerned. The central bank declined to cut rates in January, despite months of deflation. The authorities have long wanted to quell speculation in property and prevent bubbles forming. They worry that too much of China’s household wealth—some 80%—is concentrated in housing, compared with about 30% in America, for example. There is little systemic risk: banks are well capitalised and mortgages form a relatively small share of their assets. Local governments, meanwhile, see a chance to acquire lots of apartments on the cheap, to be used as low-income housing.

But this blasé view disregards the gloom that is spreading fast among the got-rich-first. On top of everything else, many are seeing their wages fall. About a third of white-collar workers say their salaries were cut last year, the highest proportion for several years, according to Zhaopin, a job-search firm. Many senior bankers’ pay has been slashed by 30%, one claims, as part of Mr Xi’s push to rid the financial industry of Western-style extravagance. Wage growth in the private sector slowed to just 3.7% in 2022, down from double digits just a few years ago, the National Bureau of Statistics reports.

Financial reversals among the rich tend to reverberate through the economy. In an article entitled “My middle-class dream died in wealth management”, published late last year in a local newspaper, a 40-year-old woman named Zhou Ning described how she had lost millions of yuan to landmines. She explained how she has gone from holidaying in Europe and America to asking relatives for money. She has been forced to sell her luxury handbags and find part-time work. She can no longer pay for her mother-in-law’s cancer treatment. She has moved her child from a fancy international kindergarten to one with nearly triple the number of pupils.

As their income declines and their assets atrophy, the got-rich-first are becoming more cautious about spending. This “negative wealth effect” is hurting the economy. Oxford Economics, a research firm, estimates that household savings jumped to 32.4% of disposable income in the last quarter of 2023. Excess savings that could be used to consume or invest probably hit around 4trn yuan, or 3.2% of GDP.

None of these efforts has been successful. Ms Xue’s visits to the police have resulted only in a warning not to “incite” others to complain. Mr Xi is keen to make financial markets more stable, but he does not want the Communist Party to be blamed when they malfunction. Protesters are usually safe if they stick to complaining about deadbeat firms, but if their actions could be construed as criticism of the government, they risk detention.

Dragon’s denigrators

Even if most got-rich-first keep quiet, however, the current turmoil is unwinding decades of goodwill between the government and its most productive citizens. Whereas previously China’s thriving strivers and the authorities appeared to be on the same side, often in contrast to pampered young people, the state now appears indifferent if not hostile to the problems of the well-to-do. The got-rich-first, says an investment manager, “are just starting to realise that they have become the enemy”. That is a shift that will have grim consequences not just for them, but for all of China. ■

What cost love: are China’s efforts to stamp out expensive caili betrothal gifts aiming at the wrong traditions?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3251619/what-cost-love-are-chinas-efforts-stamp-out-expensive-caili-betrothal-gifts-aiming-wrong-traditions?utm_source=rss_feed

“Our love cannot be measured in terms of a betrothal gift,” Cao Fengfeng and Shi Xiaoqiang declared in their wedding vows to each other in front of hundreds of people in eastern China last month.

In a wedding live-streamed on more than 40 television channels and website, they stood with 57 other couples in the first “zero-caili group wedding” organised by the government of Fuyang in Anhui province to promote “the reform of marriage customs and new, civilised trends”.

The other couples echoed the sentiments offered by Cao and Shi. One proclaimed that in a marriage, tolerance and respect mattered more than money paid to each other’s families.

Local governments have frequently hosted events like this public wedding in recent years to try to change a long-running Chinese wedding tradition – the , or betrothal gift.

Caili is a sum of money paid by the groom-to-be to the bride’s family as a way to secure the marriage and show wealth. It has been around for thousands of years and has been hard to ban because of the skewed gender ratio – in modern China a significant number of men are competing to find wives.

But the Chinese government has been trying to stop the tradition to make weddings more affordable and encourage births. In the past, local governments held “zero-caili weddings” and sought out “the most beautiful mother-in-law” to reward a bride’s family for not seeking money They even had women volunteer to sign letters declaring they would only marry for love.

In a fresh legal push, China’s Supreme People’s Court issued a document on how to solve conflicts involving betrothal gifts, with changes coming into effect this month.

The court said extorting money and property using the excuse of marriage was banned. It also defined what qualified as a betrothal gift and what did not, such as birthday gifts and daily expenses.

Will China’s ‘Year of the Widow’ quell ‘dragon baby’ boom amid demographic woes?

It said the amount of money paid had continued to rise in recent years, placing a heavy burden on families.

“It creates a hidden danger in the stability of the marriage and goes against promoting a civilised social trend,” it said.

The court said that whether the man could be reimbursed depended on the how long the couple had lived together, whether they had children and who was more at fault in the break-up.

However, experts say that any regulation of betrothal gifts is an acknowledgement that marriage can be traded for money, and does nothing to solve the problem.

“The Civil Code already bans ‘using marriage to extort property’, there’s no need for the court to have a new set of rules,” said Feng Yuan, co-founder of a women’s hotline based in Beijing.

The existence of betrothal gifts in practice “sells” women to the men’s families, Feng said, and it priced women based on how long they were married or whether they had children.

The new regulation came after years of public complaints about high caili. According to an article last year on the official news agency, Xinhua, it can be as high as 380,000 yuan (US$53,000) – about 10 times China’s average annual salary.

Women are often blamed for “being greedy”, even though the money more often goes to their families, not the bride.

And the exchange of money for marriage has caused physical conflict. In some extreme cases, a high betrothal gift that does not end in marriage has led to the groom-to-be killing the would-be bride.

But even with government bans, as well as the new legal rule, there are few signs the tradition can easily be curbed.

Yang Jing, a woman from the central province of Henan, said the tradition was still going strong in her village. Men must pay an average 100,000 yuan (US$14,000), as well as buy a flat before marriage, she said. In fact, when she gets married, her family will still expect a sum of money.

“It won’t change just because the government asked you to. The men have to compete in giving caili, otherwise they can’t even find a date,” she said.

The root of the problem lies in the skewed gender ratio forged by years of preference for sons, according to Lin Lixia, a lawyer from Qianqian Law Firm which specialises in women’s rights advocacy.

“In our work, we sometimes see more than a dozen men waiting to get married at a village, while there were only three women,” she said.

“Furthermore, even if they have a house, cars and money, they couldn’t find wives, because they were spoiled … some had drinking and gambling problems and didn’t respect women.”

At the end of 2023, there were 30 million more men in China than women, according to national statistics.

China’s top women’s affairs official vows to promote marriage and family

With the new regulation, it is more likely that more women – especially women in rural areas – will choose not to get married, according to Lin. She has represented many rural women who lost their right to collective land just because they were married and were no longer considered part of the clan.

Online, she often sees comments saying, “This is exactly why I didn’t get married” or “I wish I had never had children”.

“To solve the issue at the root, the government needs to achieve gender equality in family inheritance, village collective property distribution, access to education, employment and political participation,” Lin said.

“There needs to be more propaganda educating people so they change their wrong ideas [about gender preference].”

Republican China committee chairman Mike Gallagher retiring from US Congress

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3251646/republican-china-committee-chairman-mike-gallagher-retiring-us-congress?utm_source=rss_feed

US congressman Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House select committee on competition with China, said on Saturday he will not run for re-election, four days after he was one of only four House Republicans to buck party leadership and vote against impeaching President Joe Biden’s top border official.

Gallagher, 39, a four-term House member and former Marine Corps intelligence officer, issued a statement noting that the authors of the US Constitution had not intended elective office to be for a lifetime.

“Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career and, trust me, Congress is no place to grow old. And so, with a heavy heart, I have decided not to run for re-election,” he said in the statement.

Gallagher on Tuesday joined three other Republican House members in voting against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

As the effort failed by one vote, Gallagher was surrounded on the House floor by members of his party urging him to flip his vote.

Gallagher said in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece afterward that impeachment would not only fail to resolve problems at the border with Mexico but “also set a dangerous new precedent that would be used against future Republican administrations”.

US homeland security chief survives House impeachment vote

Gallagher, a member of both the House Armed Services and intelligence committees, has spent much of his time this year chairing the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, a bipartisan panel charged with investigating US relations with China and developing strategies to help improve the country’s ability to compete with China.

Republicans formed the select committee when they took control of the House in January 2023, part of an effort to raise awareness about issues behind growing tensions with China.

A hard line toward China is one of the few policies with bipartisan support in the deeply divided US Congress and Gallagher has been praised for smoothly working with Democrats on the panel.