• Scientist fed classified information to China, says Canada intelligence report
• The return of panda diplomacy: what it suggests about China-US relations
• US to take ‘unprecedented action’ and investigate Chinese vehicles over national security data risks
• China, US flights continue rebound, but weekly round trips still a fraction of pre-pandemic levels
• ‘Wrong path’: China warns New Zealand over Aukus security cooperation
• Chinese businesswoman’s arrest after demanding US$30 million in arrears from local government triggers investigation, public outcry
• Philippine envoy says South China Sea is the ‘real flashpoint’ in Asia, not Taiwan
• Hong Kong customs seizes HK$6.4 million in dried shark fins from shipping container possibly intended for mainland China
• Hongkonger duped out of HK$4.8 million by phone scammers posing as mainland Chinese officials, accusing him of endangering national security
• Deepfake: influencer from Ukraine slams generators of AI clones which turned her Russian to sell goods on Chinese social media
• In Africa, China needs ‘donkey diplomacy’
• Alibaba’s cloud computing unit cuts prices on 100 core products in China to capture more users involved in AI development projects
• China’s Communist Party orders cells to make Xi Jinping Thought a priority, cadres must study president’s speeches
• U.S. launches investigation of Chinese vehicles, citing security risks
• ‘No role’ for China in policing Pacific islands, Australian minister says
• ‘Two sessions’ 2024: China signals more fiscal pump-priming for the economy
• What are ‘Wandering Gods’? Find out how people in China celebrate them in search of a smooth, prosperous year
• The ‘two sessions’: what to watch for during China’s biggest political event of the year
• Next stop: Serbia? Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to visit Europe on trust-building tour
• How Chinese science fiction went from underground magazines to a Netflix blockbuster
• China’s BYD looking for Mexico EV plant location, Americas CEO Stella Li says
• China’s Wang Yi invited to Australia as Beijing, Canberra ties thaw after prolonged frost
• Man in China violently assaulted over ‘cultural taboos’ after he helped child pull beard of dragon during traditional festival procession
• International scientific prize for Chinese researcher highlights efforts to lure scientific talent back home
• South China Sea: Marcos says Philippines will not cede ‘one square inch’ of territory
• China’s vulnerable small businesses have had it up to arrears – they need to be paid as policies fall short, survey finds
• Canada fired scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng for sharing information with China, report says
• Bitcoin remains fast-trending topic on Chinese social media as cryptocurrency’s surging price overcomes stigma of government ban

Scientist fed classified information to China, says Canada intelligence report

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/29/canada-scientist-classified-information-china-wuhan

A leading research scientist at Canada’s highest-security laboratory provided confidential scientific information to Chinese institutions, met secretly with officials and posed “a realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security” according to newly released intelligence reports.

The dismissal of Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng has been shrouded in mystery ever since the couple were escorted from Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory in 2019 and formally fired two years later.

Intelligence assessments released late on Wednesday afternoon alleged that Qiu’s “close and clandestine relationships” with Chinese institutions which showed a “reckless judgment” could have harmed Canada’s national security. The assessments were among more than 600 documents released after a long fight with opposition legislators who had demanded information behind the sackings.

CSIS, Canada’s intelligence agency, concluded that in security-screening interviews, Qiu repeatedly lied about about her relationship with research institutions linked to the Chinese government. Even when confronted with contradictory evidence, “Ms Qiu continued to make blanket denials, feign ignorance or tell outright lies.”

In one instance, Qiu told investigators a 2018 trip to China was a personal vacation. But she eventually admitted the trip was paid for by Wuhan Institute for Virology and that she met the a senior member of the organization during the trip. Investigators also found evidence of application from Qiu agreeing to work for the Wuhan Virology Institute for at least two months each year, with the aim of augmenting China’s “biosecurity platform for new and potent infectious disease research”, according to the CSIS report.

Qiu admitted she sent an Ebola sample to China’s national institute for food and drug control, which was attempting to develop an inhibitor to the virus. But she did so without a material transfer agreement or collaboration agreement.

Qiu also allowed two employees of a Chinese institution, “whose work is not aligned with Canadian interests” access to the lab.

Both Qiu and Cheng filed grievances for their dismissal but have not commented on the allegations in the documents. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

In a letter to Cheng, the public health agency said there were “serious concerns” over his “close personal and professional relationship with Xiangguo Qiu” and his “awareness and lack of candour regarding your own activities and those of Xiangguo Qiu with individuals and entities of a foreign government”.

Qiu was told by the health agency that “during the entire [investigative] process, you did not express remorse or regret” and at times tried to deflect blame onto the public health agency.

“You cannot be relied upon not to abuse the trust accorded to you and to perform your assigned duties in a manner that will reflect positively on PHAC and not pose a security risk to the government of Canada and PHAC,” the agency said.

Canada’s Liberal government has fought the release of the documents for years. The government initially released heavily redacted documents, which left opposition parties frustrated with what they felt was a lack of candour by Justin Trudeau’s government. A recent unified motion by opposition parties finally compelled the release of the investigation.

Health minister Mark Holland acknowledged “a lax adherence to the securities and protocols” at the lab, which is overseen by the public health agency of Canada.

But Holland said “at no time” were there breaches of national secrets or information from the lab.

The Conservative party, which is currently polling far ahead of the Liberals, accused the Trudeau’s government of permitting the Chinese government to infiltrate Canada’s highest-security lab.

“This is a massive national security failure by Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government, which he fought tooth and nail to cover up,” said Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

The return of panda diplomacy: what it suggests about China-US relations

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3253682/return-panda-diplomacy-what-it-suggests-about-china-us-relations?utm_source=rss_feed

Molly Tobin stood near the entrance of Washington’s Smithsonian National Zoo, pleased that the US capital may see giant pandas return after its last pair was called back to China days before the November summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden.

“I have a two-year-old. My son waved as the truck left,” she said, adding that he would be delighted when he found out.

Forget celebrity missions, embassy-hosted parties or other attempts at warming American hearts. Last week, Beijing played its ace card in its bid to rekindle US-China people-to-people relations with the announcement that it was putting its black-and-white diplomats on the job even as some wonder how effective they will be.

News that Beijing would be shipping pandas to the San Diego Zoo in California as early as August, after calling an earlier pair home in 2019, went viral on US media, cheering millions of panda fans.

Behind the warm, fuzzy imagery, however, are some careful Chinese calculations on timing and the bears’ expected reception, befitting a country //that has// used panda diplomacy for centuries to ingratiate itself, reward friends and punish adversaries.

“The Chinese famously tend to take the long view. Pandas are a symbol of their country with a proven record of effectiveness in softening its image and developing foreign constituencies for cordial relations,” said Chas Freeman, a veteran diplomat who interpreted for then-president Richard Nixon during his historic 1972 Beijing trip to meet Mao Zedong.

“The hullabaloo that followed their withdrawal of pandas from Washington and elsewhere was a potent reminder of this.”

Shipping female Mei Xiang, 25, male Tian Tian, 26, and three-year-old cub Xiao Qi Ji back from Washington last November when their leases expired – foreign zoos are charged up to US$1 million annually to borrow them – let China demonstrate its displeasure after the US shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had sailed across North America. Many in China felt the action was an excessive show of force and an embarrassment, sending ties into a tailspin.

Pandas coming back to US as China’s ‘envoys for friendship’

“The withdrawals were clearly part of a toughening stance against the United States, intended to reciprocate and penalise the increasingly strident hostility of American politicians toward China,” said Freeman, who interpreted for first lady Pat Nixon when the inaugural Washington pandas, female Ling-Ling and male Hsing-Hsing, arrived in April 1972 in return for a pair of American musk oxen.

US headlines in recent days about the bears’ expected return provided some rare positive imagery for bilateral relations that have cratered.

“The pandas are an excellent symbol of goodwill that supports people-to-people connections. For many Americans – especially children – seeing the pandas in person is their first experience with something that is uniquely Chinese,” said Rorry Daniels, managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“I can’t speak to why the Chinese system does what it does, but I take Xi Jinping at his word that he sees people-to-people connections as an important stabilising element in the US-China relationship and is responding to feedback from Americans that would be sad to see the pandas leave.”

Analysts said the news – following top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi’s trip to Spain, where he highlighted the past popularity of Spain’s “Song of the Giant Panda” nursery rhyme – underscored the value China places on relations with the West. It came despite growing tensions with the European Union over China’s alleged dumping of electric vehicles in the market as well as China’s support for Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

“This is a positive signal that China continues to value its relations with the US and Europe, despite obvious friction points,” said Jeremy Chan, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group consultancy. “It also coincides with China announcing unilateral visa-free travel arrangements with multiple countries in Europe, in a sign that Beijing will lean more on cultural and people-to-people ties to improve its relations with Western countries.”

While it is unclear how directly tied panda decision-making was to the Biden-Xi summit in November, their return suggests that US-China relations remain on a reasonably stable trajectory three months later, notwithstanding irritants, Chan added.

Those include Taiwan’s presidential election in January, last week’s visit to Taipei by the US House select committee on China and mid-February’s drowning of two Chinese fishermen near Taiwan’s Quemoy island, also known as Kinmen.

Tobin and her son Charlie, who live opposite the National Zoo, now walk past the empty panda cage on their visits. But she plans to keep their possible return from her son.

“He will expect instant gratification and he will be disappointed if he goes to the zoo and they are not there yet,” she said. “It’ll be a pleasant surprise – hopefully!”

Despite Tobin’s affection for the bears, they are unlikely to change her mixed view of China, she added, echoing analysts who say their reappearance is not likely to move the public opinion needle significantly.

Some 83 per cent of Americans expressed an unfavourable view of China in a March 2023 Pew Research poll, a record high and 38 percentage points more than 2018 levels. A Chicago Council of Global Affairs survey taken in September found that 46 per cent of respondents believed US leaders needed to do more to strengthen competition, citing China’s economic and military power, Communist Party-led system and human rights policies.

“Panda diplomacy is probably the best soft-power instrument China has at its disposal, the very antithesis of ‘wolf-warrior diplomacy’ and similar ham-fisted propaganda campaigns, and I suspect they know this,” said Ethan Paul, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute.

“However, I would caution that a ‘vibes-based detente’ can only go so far and last so long. Ultimately, for any detente to have real teeth and staying power, both sides must be willing to make serious, tangible compromises.”

‘Sad to see them go’: UK’s only pandas return to China after 12 years

Among those compromises, Paul added, would be progress on: escalating military competition in the Asia-Pacific; economic sanctions; tech rivalry; and rising tension over Taiwan.

“We hope that the new round of international cooperation on giant panda conservation between China and the US will further enrich scientific research in protecting giant panda and other endangered species, and forge closer bonds between our peoples,” Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said.

San Diego was chosen as the first venue for new US pandas, analysts said, in part to signal appreciation for policies in California, an American state with GDP of US$3.89 trillion, the world’s largest subnational economy.

“The return of pandas to San Diego is, in part, an effort to reward California, the state that has remained most visibly engaged with China in recent times,” Freeman said.

“China does not want to foreclose an improvement in relations with the United States,” he added. “If the withdrawals were a tactical reminder of the costs of a poor relationship with China, the reinstatement of panda exchanges is a strategic move to preserve the possibility of friendlier ties when this becomes politically possible.”

Another factor: California Governor Gavin Newsom’s well-received visit to Beijing weeks before the summit and his explicit comments that he did not envision US-China relations as a zero-sum game. Nor did it hurt that Newsom appears to have presidential aspirations and could be a useful contact in the future.

Xi Jinping and Gavin Newsom strike positive tone on US-China climate cooperation

The San Diego Zoo has also been without pandas for longer than Washington’s; was an early partner in panda conservation and is credited with providing good care for them amid online Chinese criticism that some of its bears were mistreated at the zoo in Memphis, Tennessee.

But some say Beijing’s decision to call back pandas shortly before the November summit – a potential hedge should it founder – was mishandled.

“Not renewing the panda agreement before the last Biden-Xi summit was a missed opportunity. In retrospect, one of China’s goals at that meeting was to calm relations, and announcing renewal of the panda agreement was an obvious way to further that goal significantly,” said Jeffrey Moon, head of the China Moon Strategies consultancy.

“Those who are most concerned about improving US-China relations will see the return of pandas as a gesture of friendship,” added Moon, a former US consul general in Chengdu, where China’s main panda breeding centre is based. “Cynics will see the announcement as a return to the old sweet-and-sour Chinese playbook for managing relationships by alternatively charming and threatening foreigners.”

Sourabh Gupta, senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington, said he wouldn’t be surprised if China drags out negotiations for the Washington pair until after the November US presidential election, a likely showdown between Biden and former president Donald Trump.

“If Trump wins, the negotiations will get stuck in the mud and the DC panda enclosure will stay empty,” he predicted.

Others said that pandas could become a pointed political signal if China decides to retrieve them prematurely under a second Trump administration.

China’s use of its bears as foreign policy signalling tools is hardly new. China’s first recorded case of panda diplomacy occurred in 685 AD when two live bears and dozens of pelts were dispatched to imperial Japan.

Panda exports have dovetailed with major trade deals, diplomatic initiatives and foreign statements on Tibet or Taiwan that Beijing views favourably, said researcher Linda Zhang in an American Enterprise Institute report “Pandas: China’s Most Popular Diplomats”.

Significant panda exports and reversals took place during China’s opening to the West; following the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown as it tried to burnish its reputation; and during periods linked to President Xi’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.

As tourists Kim Gray, a teacher, and her 11-year-old son Harrison, emerged from Washington’s Woodley Park metro stop heading for the National Zoo, they greeted the news of more US pandas enthusiastically.

As residents of Atlanta in the state of Georgia, they live in the only remaining US city that has pandas, which are scheduled to return to China this year. The Grays hope their zoo can extend its panda lease and are pleased that others can also enjoy the beloved bears. “They should be in every zoo,” Harrison said.

US to take ‘unprecedented action’ and investigate Chinese vehicles over national security data risks

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3253719/us-take-unprecedented-action-and-investigate-chinese-vehicles-over-national-security-data-risks?utm_source=rss_feed

The White House said on Thursday the United States is opening an investigation into whether Chinese vehicle imports pose national security risks and could impose restrictions due to concerns about “connected” car technology.

The US Commerce Department probe is because Chinese assembled smart vehicles could collect sensitive data about US citizens and infrastructure and send the data to China, the White House said.

“China’s policies could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

“I’m not going to let that happen on my watch.”

White House officials told reporters it was too early to say what action might be taken, and said no decision about any potential ban or restrictions on connected Chinese vehicles had been decided.

Officials said on a call with reporters the US government has wide authority under the law and an administration action could “potentially have a large impact.”

Biden kept Trump tariffs on China because they help create US jobs: trade envoy

Biden called the effort an “unprecedented action to ensure that cars on US roads from countries of concern like China do not undermine our national security” and directed the Commerce Department “to take action to respond to the risks.”

There are relatively few Chinese-made light duty vehicles being imported into the United States. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the administration was taking action “before Chinese manufactured vehicles become widespread in the United States and potentially threaten our privacy and national security.”

Chinese EV makers have been counting on Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe as their largest exporting markets. BYD, the world’s largest EV maker by sales, has repeatedly said it has no plan to sell its cars in the US market.

Separately, the Biden administration is considering imposing new tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles and officials face new pressure to restrict Chinese electric vehicle imports from Mexico.

The White House said threats could arise because vehicles “collect large amounts of sensitive data on their drivers and passengers [and] regularly use their cameras and sensors to record detailed information on US infrastructure.”

The White House also said vehicles could “be piloted or disabled remotely” and added the investigation will also look at autonomous vehicles.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington has repeatedly criticised Biden administration proposals to impose new restrictions on Chinese trade, urging the agency to “stop hyping up the ‘China threat’ theory and its unwarranted suppression of Chinese companies.”

In November, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers raised alarms about Chinese companies collecting and handling sensitive data while testing autonomous vehicles in the United States.

The Commerce Department will seek comments for 60 days on the potential risks of Chinese connected vehicles and then consider drafting regulations to address concerns.

The notice being released Thursday also seeks details about current US assembled vehicles, including where carmakers license software.

“We need to understand the extent of the technology in these cars that can capture wide swathes of data or remotely disable or manipulate connected vehicles,” Raimondo said.

The United States previously barred Chinese telecoms companies from its market citing concerns about data and designated Huawei and ZTE as threats, requiring US carriers to remove their equipment from US networks.

The White House said China poses significant restrictions on US autos and other foreign autos operating in China. “Why should connected vehicles from China be allowed to operate in our country without safeguards?” Biden said.

China has in recent years strengthened its oversight over data management within the country and requires most industries to store data generated locally and apply for permission before it can be transferred abroad.

In May, authorities tightened data rules for the auto industry and proposed to ban smart vehicles in China from transferring data directly abroad, pushing them instead to use domestic cloud services.

China, US flights continue rebound, but weekly round trips still a fraction of pre-pandemic levels

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3253701/china-us-flights-continue-rebound-weekly-round-trips-still-fraction-pre-pandemic-levels?utm_source=rss_feed

The number of round-trip passenger flights between China and the United States will increase to 100 per week from March 31, China’s civil aviation authority confirmed on Thursday.

The reciprocal policy by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which allows American airlines to increase their weekly round trips from 35 to 50, came three days after the US Department of Transportation announced the same flight volume growth from China.

The measures will bring the number of flights back to one-third of the pre-pandemic level, following promises by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden during their November meeting in San Francisco “to work toward a significant further increase in scheduled passenger flights”.

US-China flight increase good for tourism, but can it mend business ties?

In response to the policy, Dai Jun, deputy director of the CAAC’s monitoring centre, said the aviation body would continue to promote the resumption of international flights to “better meet the needs of people travelling to and from China”.

Before the pandemic, airlines from China and the US flew about 300 round trips combined per week, but that number was slashed during the pandemic.

After China cancelled most of its pandemic restrictions last year, the nations’ aviation bodies began to ramp up the number of weekly flights.

The number of round trips increased from 24 per week in May to 70 last November with each country’s airlines accounting for half the number of the trips.

However, flight recovery between China and the US lags compared to resumed flights between China and other countries.

Dai said flights between China and major global economies such as Australia, Britain, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and New Zealand had rebounded to levels last seen before the pandemic. The total number of international flights during the Lunar New Year period from February 12 to 18 was 70 per cent of the pre-pandemic level, he said.

China leading Asia’s air traffic boom: Airbus

The US also saw international travel rebound to pre-pandemic levels in December, the country’s National Travel and Tourism Office said, with flights to European and South American countries leading the increase.

The office said travel to Asia countries remained the hardest hit, with air travel still down nearly 30 per cent compared before the pandemic.

In 2019, Chinese travellers made 2.8 million trips to the US, the fifth-largest source of inbound tourism. Around 1.3 million Chinese tourists were expected to visit the US this year, according to China Trading Desk, a marketing technology company.

Last February, the National Travel and Tourism Office predicted that trips by Chinese to the US would not reach the 2019 level until 2027.

China still accounts for the most foreign students at US universities, according to a study released by the US State Department last year.

Both Beijing and Washington have indicated a will to ease tensions between the two nations by increasing the number of people-to-people exchanges.

China’s top carriers trim losses on domestic travel rebound

In November, during the meeting between Xi and Biden, Xi directly called for promoting such exchanges, mentioning the “flight increase” as one of the priorities.

During a visit to China in August, Gina Raimondo, the US secretary of commerce, also welcomed Chinese tourists as Beijing restored approvals for group travel to the US. She called it “a significant win” for the US travel and tourism industry, and “an important step forward to promote the type of people-to-people exchange that is crucial for our bilateral relationship”.

‘Wrong path’: China warns New Zealand over Aukus security cooperation

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3253716/wong-path-china-warns-new-zealand-over-aukus-security-cooperation?utm_source=rss_feed

China has urged New Zealand not to “harm its own security interests” after Wellington said it had engaged the Aukus security partnership about cooperation on cyberwar, AI and hypersonic weapons.

Chinese defence ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said on Thursday that Aukus was established for “selfish geopolitical interests” that “undermined the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and triggered arms races” in the region.

“We urge the parties … to refrain from going further and further down the wrong and dangerous path, and refrain from sabotaging international and regional peace and stability to the detriment of their own security interests,” Zhang said.

A day earlier Australian officials gave their New Zealand counterparts a “background briefing” on “Pillar II” of the trilateral security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom, according to the New Zealand Ministry of Defence.

Pillar I is the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines and technology to Australia while Pillar II is collaboration on emerging technology.

The meeting was “not intended to address the issue of New Zealand joining Pillar II”, and there was “not yet a time frame on when Pillar II might be opened to others”, the New Zealand ministry said.

Nevertheless, China expressed its “strong concerns” and objections against the Aukus partnership and its potential expansion in the Indo-Pacific.

Aukus was formed in September 2021, with the US, Britain and Australia agreeing to develop a range of advanced abilities, such as cyberwarfare, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons, to share technology and increase interoperability among their armed forces.

China sees Aukus as part of US efforts to contain and confront Beijing’s growing power in the region, and has repeatedly accused the alliance of encouraging nuclear proliferation and arms race.

New Zealand, a member of the “Five Eyes” Anglosphere intelligence alliance along with the Aukus nations and Canada, has expressed an interest in joining Pillar I.

It held its first “2+2” foreign and defence ministers’ meeting with Australia earlier this month and showed interest in learning more about the alliance’s non-nuclear cooperation.

“Officials will continue regular engagement with the Aukus partners, as we build our understanding of Pillar II,” New Zealand deputy secretary of defence Anton Youngman said.

On Thursday, Zhang also said that the Chinese military was “always on alert, resolutely counteracting and firmly defending China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests”.

He hit out at the US and the Philippines over recent joint military exercises, saying the US, which is not a direct stakeholder in the South China Sea disputes, should stop its “malicious acts of interfering and meddling, instigating conflicts and creating troubles”.

Zhang also defended Chinese coastguard staff over their handling of run-ins with Philippine coastguard vessels, accusing the Philippines of “hyping up” “fake” stories of the encounters.

Chinese businesswoman’s arrest after demanding US$30 million in arrears from local government triggers investigation, public outcry

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3253705/chinese-businesswomans-arrest-after-demanding-us30-million-arrears-local-government-triggers?utm_source=rss_feed

The fervent backlash reverberated through social media after it was revealed that city-level authorities in an indebted Chinese province had arrested entrepreneur Ma Yijiayi for trying to recoup millions in back payments from the government.

Since 2016, her construction firm had been contracted by Liupanshui city in Guizhou province to build 10 local projects, including kindergartens, primary schools, museums, resorts and hotels, according to a report on Monday by the Beijing-based China Business Journal, which has since removed the story.

But reposts have continued to circulate online, outlining how the local government was alleged to have owed the businesswoman 220 million yuan (US$30.6 million) and had previously tried to settle all of the debt for 12 million yuan – merely 5.4 per cent of what her firm was said to be owed.

She refused their lowball offer and continued pressing for payment, taking the government to court, the news site reported. But the arrears remained unpaid, so she persisted.

Small firms are ‘capillaries’ of China’s economy. So why are they struggling?

In November, Ma, 46, was accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an arbitrary and controversial charge that had become so broadly defined and levelled against aggrieved victims in China that the nation’s top court admitted in August that it was being “excessively used” at local levels.

But that was not enough to deter Liupanshui police from arresting both her and some of her defence lawyers on the same charge just three months later.

Following Monday’s report, authorities in Liupanshui, with a population of 3.6 million, contended on Tuesday that they had paid off nearly 90 per cent of the money owed to Ma, “up to now”. And they offered an explanation for her arrest.

“We arrested Ma for using GPS to illegally track and obtain citizens’ personal information, and for hiring eight people to post false information online and distribute leaflets and large-character posters in public,” it said in a statement on its official WeChat account.

On Wednesday, provincial prosecutors intervened, setting up a special investigative team to get to the bottom of what had transpired.

Analysts say Ma’s story vividly illustrates how the central government has its hands full in trying to deal with what has seemingly become an insurmountable mountain of debt among local-level governments – with 40.7 trillion yuan confirmed, and likely more implicit debt hidden in financing vehicles, state-owned enterprises and other entities.

Public discourse over the case also comes at a particularly sensitive time, in the lead-up to next week’s annual parliamentary sessions known as the “two sessions”, when economic agenda items will be front and centre.

Beijing is expected to announce a gross domestic product (GDP) growth target of around 5 per cent for this year when Premier Li Qiang delivers his first government work report to lawmakers.

But the widely discussed case is seen highlighting outsized threats to financial stability, economic growth and waning confidence among investors who observe how many businesses are struggling across the country.

“The incident is not only the tip of the iceberg of the local financial and economic crises in Guizhou, it is likewise a serious problem facing many provinces” in central and western parts of China, said Wang Mingyuan, a researcher with the Beijing Reform and Development Commission, in an article by finance and business magazine Caixin on Wednesday.

“If we don’t accelerate a solution to the problem of high local debt, soon we’ll see more businesses being dragged down and employees being owed wages,” he warned.

Guizhou, a mountainous southern province, had been a front-runner in economic growth after the turn of the century, owing to its massive infrastructure investment. But its debt-driven model proved unsustainable in recent years as revenue fell short of repaying contractors such as Ma.

Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform, said Ma’s case also exposes the challenges facing Chinese entrepreneurs when local governments themselves become the biggest players in the debt game.

Given current economic growth targets, “Beijing doesn’t seem to have too many options other than further debt issuance,” he said.

China debt crisis: 8 cases of financial misconduct, as Beijing names and shames

Since the fourth quarter of last year, local governments have been stepping up plans to issue refinancing bonds to tackle off-balance-sheet debt – known as “hidden” debt – that is concentrated largely in local government financing vehicles (LGFVs). Additionally, more funds have been transferred from central government coffers to help municipalities.

Guizhou said in late January that it planned to issue 32.5 billion yuan worth of refinancing bonds.

And last week, state-owned Guizhou Hongyingda Construction Project Management issued a five-year non-public bond worth 1.8 billion yuan to help repay government debt, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

However, on Wednesday, S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Laura Li and her team issued a report saying: “The move is essentially replacing an old problem with a new one, in our view. The deal could be a step backwards for LGFV reform and one that exacerbates moral hazard by adding yet another safety net when troubles arise for incautious borrowers.”

Her team estimated that the debt held by Guizhou’s district- and county-level financing vehicles was above 400 billion yuan, accounting for more than a third of the province’s total LGFV debt.

Philippine envoy says South China Sea is the ‘real flashpoint’ in Asia, not Taiwan

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3253672/philippine-envoy-says-south-china-sea-real-flashpoint-asia-not-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines’ top envoy in the United States has said the South China Sea, not Taiwan, is the “real flashpoint” for an armed conflict in the region, warning “all hell would break loose” if Washington decides to invoke a mutual security treaty to defend Manila in the disputed waterway.

Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said the threat of growing maritime tension between his country and China turning into a military campaign was more alarming than the prospect of Beijing invading the island.

“The real problem and the real flashpoint, which is why I’m telling you how critical it is for us. The real flashpoint is in the West Philippine Sea,” Romualdez said.

How many submarines does Philippines need to deter Beijing in South China Sea?

The West Philippine Sea is the term Manila uses to describe the eastern parts of the South China Sea that are within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and territorial waters.

The diplomat also said Chinese President Xi Jinping was “not going to make a move unless he is absolutely sure that he can militarily take over Taiwan”.

Beijing sees Taiwan a breakaway province to be eventually reunited, by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the existing status quo.

The Philippines has in the past accused the Chinese coastguard of confronting its ships in the hotly-contested sea, including firing water cannons at them.

In the latest incident, a vessel belonging to the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources received a radio challenge from a Chinese warship on February 21 as it sailed towards the Beijing-controlled Scarborough Shoal.

The disputed shoal lies 240km (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.

“The aggression that we are now facing is very real,” Romualdez said. “Never in our lifetime, even during World War II, did we face such a challenge because this country will not let up on their claim in many of our territorial waters.”

The diplomat added the frequent stand-offs in the South China Sea could trigger the 1951 mutual defence treaty, which obliges Washington to come to Manila’s defence in case of an armed attack, but its implementation comes at a cost.

“All of these skirmishes that are happening, there can be one major accident and either one of our countries, the US or the Philippines, can invoke the [treaty] and when we do, a commitment made by the US or the commitment we made will happen, and then all hell breaks loose,” Romualdez said.

He also pushed for diplomacy to douse tension between the Philippines and China, saying the Southeast Asian nation was working on preventing a situation where the allies could be forced to use the military pact.

“We hope it will never happen,” GMA News quoted him as saying.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entirety of the South China Sea – where the Philippines and several other Southeast Asian nations have competing claims – and has rejected a 2016 international ruling that ruled in favour of Manila and found China’s assertions have no legal basis.

Hong Kong customs seizes HK$6.4 million in dried shark fins from shipping container possibly intended for mainland China

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3253679/hong-kong-customs-seizes-hk64-million-dried-shark-fins-shipping-container-possibly-intended-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong customs officers have seized a HK$6.4 million (US$817,664) haul of dried shark fins from protected species, believed to have been intended for mainland China, hidden inside a shipping container.

Inspector Shirley Woo Suet-yi of customs’ syndicate crimes investigation bureau on Thursday said the 1.2-tonne shipment was possibly on its way to Macau before it was to be smuggled to the mainland.

Customs officers intercepted the Macau-bound vessel in the city’s northwestern waters at 12.10am on Tuesday, according to the Customs and Excise Department. The boat had six mainland crew members on board.

Inspector Chan King-fung of customs’ ports and maritime command said the vessel was then escorted to the River Trade Terminal in Tuen Mun for inspection.

“The suspected scheduled shark fins were found mixed with declared goods such as electronic products, dried seafood and household items in one of the containers aboard the vessel,” he said.

He said the boxes of shark fins, which were placed on top of three pallets, were positioned at the far end of the container in an attempt to avoid detection.

Chan said officers confiscated the shark fins as the crew members were unable to provide an associated export permit.

Woo said samples of the seized shark fins were tested by staff from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, confirming that they were from endangered species.

She said the investigation into the origin of the shark fins and the final destination of the haul was still under way. So far, no arrests have been made.

Hong Kong customs nets HK$4 million haul including aquarium animals

“We don’t rule out the possibility that the haul would have been smuggled into the mainland after reaching Macau,” she said.

In Hong Kong, import, export or possession of endangered species without a licence is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a HK$10 million fine.

Woo said that customs would continue to employ a risk assessment approach, gather intelligence, and spare no efforts to combat smuggling activities.

She also appealed to the public to report any suspected smuggling activity on its 24-hour hotline, 2545 6182, or email: [email protected].

Hongkonger duped out of HK$4.8 million by phone scammers posing as mainland Chinese officials, accusing him of endangering national security

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3253683/hongkonger-duped-out-hk48-million-phone-scammers-posing-mainland-chinese-officials-accusing-him?utm_source=rss_feed

A Hong Kong accountant has been conned out of HK$4.8 million (US$613,248) in a phone scam involving swindlers impersonating mainland Chinese officials who accused him of endangering national security by disseminating seditious messages on waste water treatment in Japan, the Post has learned.

A source familiar with the case on Thursday said the victim, 53, received a phone call from a scammer claiming to be a mainland national security officer on November 22.

“The ‘officer’ accused him of distributing provocative messages regarding the treatment of Japanese nuclear waste water, which violated national security,” the insider added.

He also said the call was transferred to another scammer who provided the victim’s personal information in an apparent move to gain his trust.

The call was then passed to a third scammer disguised as an investigator. The latter instructed the victim to buy a new mobile phone and communicate through Telegram messaging service, providing regular updates on his whereabouts.

The accountant was later accused of being involved in an international financial fraud case and paid a “guarantee fee” for investigation purposes, according to the source.

“As instructed, the victim set up two bank accounts and deposited more than HK$4.4 million into these accounts between November 2023 and January 2024,” he said.

“The victim was also ordered to reveal the details of the bank accounts and related passwords.”

The man was also asked to transfer an additional HK$400,000 as a surety to another bank account to prove his innocence.

Hong Kong police round up 1,200 people in crackdown on online, phone scams

He realised he had been scammed when he discovered all the Telegram messages between him and the “mainland officials” had been deleted. He filed a report to police earlier this month.

The fake-official ruse is one of the three most common phone scams in the city. The other two are bogus kidnappings and the “guess-who-I-am” deception where scammers usually impersonate relatives.

The fake-official scam involves swindlers posing as mainland security officers and accusing victims of breaking the law. They then ask for money as surety or make other excuses to get their targets to hand over cash or surrender bank details.

Separately, another Hongkonger, aged 60, has been scammed out of HK$9.5 million after being lured into investing in cryptocurrency via a sham trading platform.

The man fell victim to the online investment scam when he was approached by a scammer posing as an investment expert via Linkedln in mid-December.

He was then coaxed into downloading a fake investment app before he started putting money into virtual currency on January 5.

The source said the man received HK$303,900 as “profit” bait for his first two days of investments involving HK$800,000.

Between January 13 and February 21, he was lured into transferring another HK$9 million to more than 10 bank accounts for his investments.

2 arrested on suspicion of cheating Hong Kong elderly woman out of HK$3.3 million

He found out it was a scam on February 22 when he was unable to withdraw the money from the trading platform and contact the “expert”. He then called police on Saturday.

Police handled 5,105 reports of online investment fraud last year, an increase of 170 per cent from 1,884 cases logged in 2022. Financial losses involved also rose by 250 per cent to HK$3.2 billion last year from HK$926 million.

Police advise the public to use the force’s Scameter search engine, accessible through the CyberDefender website, to check for suspicious or fraudulent schemes.

The search engine has information to help users identify suspicious web addresses, emails, platform usernames, bank accounts, mobile phone numbers and IP addresses.

Deepfake: influencer from Ukraine slams generators of AI clones which turned her Russian to sell goods on Chinese social media

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3253247/deepfake-influencer-ukraine-slams-generators-ai-clones-which-turned-her-russian-sell-goods-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed

A Ukrainian YouTuber says her face and voice have been cloned using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to present her as a Russian person to sell products on a prominent social media platform in China.

The different virtual versions of Olga Loiek are marked as Russian on Xiaohongshu, with most of them claiming she lives in China.

The fake depiction has angered the woman because her homeland is at war with Russia.

At the beginning of February, Loiek released a video on YouTube saying she had received a message from someone telling her that her photos and videos had been stolen and were being used on Xiaohongshu, China’s Instagram.

With the help of the person who informed her, Loiek found dozens of social media accounts using her image that she had not been aware of.

Each account had accumulated between 1,000 and 150,000 fans.

Their contents are similar and show the cloned Loiek speaking fluent Mandarin, singing China’s praises and celebrating its good ties with Russia.

Loiek said she does not speak Mandarin.

“I love China. I love Chinese culture. I hope to live in China for the rest of my life,” a fake Loiek said in Mandarin in one of the videos.

Another video talks about marriage customs in Russia and another says Chinese men are the best boyfriends for Russian women.

One account, @Natasha Imported Food, shows a fake Loiek says in Mandarin: “While everyone else is moving away from Russia, only China is being quietly supportive. China and Russia are good neighbours. The China-Russia friendship will last forever.”

This account advertises Russian confectionery and displays product links.

“It’s kind of crazy, because I haven’t even made one dollar from YouTube at the moment, but she is using my face to make a profit, which is very funny to me,” Loiek said in her YouTube video.

After browsing hundreds of the accounts, she said: “The main narrative behind these clones is to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, presenting me or my clone as a Russian POV.

“As a Ukrainian, this has obviously been infuriating for me. After all, my family has to hide during air raids in Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow Ukrainians are getting displaced, injured, or killed because of Russian attacks.

“Now I am seeing the copy of myself, my clone, advocating and sympathising with the Russian Federation,” Loiek said.

She said she does not know who is behind the accounts nor the reason they have chosen her face to generate content, adding that no one has contacted her to seek her permission.

The “face-changing” technology, known as deepfake in the AI industry, has caused controversy on the mainland for its wide array of applications in e-commerce.

Last year, a China clothes brand came under fire for using the technology to change the face of a salesperson during a live-streaming session with the Chinese actress and singer Yang Mi.

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In Africa, China needs ‘donkey diplomacy’

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3253468/africa-china-needs-donkey-diplomacy?utm_source=rss_feed

On February 18, the African Union, an intergovernmental organisation that encompasses the continent’s 55 states, approved a 15-year moratorium on the trade in donkey skins.

For years, donkey hides have been shipped to China to make ejiao, a gelatin used in an alleged traditional Chinese medicine “cure-all”. The decision to stop the slaughter of Africa’s donkeys, a means of production for some of the poorest on the continent, is a significant milestone.

The China-bound trade is threatening the donkey population worldwide. Having exhausted domestic donkeys, ejiao businesses have in the last decade or so turned to the animals on the African continent. A 2016 study by The Donkey Sanctuary, a UK-based charity, found that the trade resulted in the death of up to 4.8 million donkeys worldwide a year, largely in African countries.

The number of donkeys slaughtered globally rose to 5.9 million in 2021 according to The Donkey Sanctuary. Without preventive action being taken, some 6.8 million donkeys could be butchered in 2027 for the skin trade, the charity’s report this year predicted.

The increase in donkey slaughter in Africa coincided with a 160 per cent increase in China’s production of ejiao, which is said to be good for strengthening the body, prolonging life and enhancing beauty. Unsurprisingly, the rise of the donkey skin trade has followed the expansion of Sino-African trade.

Few realise that every part of the donkey skin trade is flagrantly inhumane. Indiscriminate sourcing, including wanton theft, often send young and old, fit and sick, and even pregnant donkeys to slaughter. Transport often involves moving the donkeys on foot for days under the blazing African sun often without food, water or rest. Holding facilities are deplorable. Slaughter happens in front of other donkeys in cruel ways.

While the policy elites in China might not be very concerned about the well-being of donkeys, the economic and reputational costs of the trade should serve as a warning.

The trade is depriving some of the poorest communities in Africa of a crucial means of livelihood. At least 13 million of the world’s 42 to 53 million donkeys live and work in Africa. Despite technological advancement and modern farming tools, donkeys remain a key source of income there.

Not only are donkeys used to transport life’s necessities, draught animals in food production are a stepping stone for families out of hunger. Donkeys and horses play important livelihood roles for 300-600 million people globally, 158 million in Africa alone. The China-bound trade has reportedly reduced about half of Kenya’s donkey population between 2009 and 2019.

It is in China’s national interest to join the African Union in stopping donkey skin imports. The cruelty of the trade is such that no “panda diplomacy” can mend the damage it has caused to China’s reputation. It does not project the “lovable” image that the Chinese leadership would like to cultivate.

The donkey skin trade could overshadow or diminish the significance of China’s debt relief efforts in favour of some African countries, instead creating or reinforcing the image of Chinese businesses which, while capitalising on their country’s massive business presence on the continent, cannot care less about the livelihoods of the poor in their efforts to grab African resources to create demand for high-end products.

Ejiao, like other “cure-all” remedies made from wild animal parts or bodily fluid, is a supply-driven product. Produced to meet “demand” that never existed in China on today’s scale, ejiao is a textbook example of how demand can be artificially inflated by the business interests concerned.

The framing of ejiao as a “traditional” remedy for all kinds of ailments with a 3,000-year history has helped one producer in Shandong experience a meteoric rise in profit.

Recent oversupply of donkey skin has driven producers to diversify their products from medicine to luxury cosmetics and cake with ejiao ingredients. But the medicinal effects of the products have been questioned by doctors in China.

It is time that China seriously looks at ejiao, its alleged medicinal effects, and, importantly, its impact on the livelihood of donkey-dependent communities in Africa and elsewhere. China should not just investigate the biggest ejiao producers. It should also look into the roots of the myth of ejiao to end profit-seeking schemes in the name of traditional culture, stopping a trade that hurts the poor.

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Alibaba’s cloud computing unit cuts prices on 100 core products in China to capture more users involved in AI development projects

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3253690/alibabas-cloud-computing-unit-cuts-prices-100-core-products-china-capture-more-users-involved-ai?utm_source=rss_feed

Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud computing unit has cut prices by up to 55 per cent on more than 100 core products – the largest discount offering in the company’s history – to attract more enterprises and software developers as users in mainland China, as the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) picks up steam across various industries.

This new campaign, which offers an average 20 per cent reduction in prices, took effect on Thursday and includes the unit’s elastic compute service (ECS), object storage service (OSS) and database product categories, Alibaba Cloud said in a statement. Hangzhou-based parent Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The initiative seeks to “lower the threshold of cloud services for more enterprises and developers”, according to Liu Weiguang, the president of public cloud business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

“With the rapidly increasing amount of data in China, businesses will need robust, high-performance and cost-effective computing power to help handle and analyse the data before turning them into actionable intelligence,” Liu said. “This is where we can help, as we aim to become the most open cloud [platform] and help our customers to turn AI into productivity.”

Cloud computing technology enables companies to distribute, manage or process over the internet a range of software and other digital resources as an on-demand service, just like electricity from a power grid. These resources are stored inside data centres.

Prices of Alibaba Cloud’s ECS, which provides users with virtual cloud servers, has been cut up to 36 per cent, while those for OSS – a service to store and access any amount of data from anywhere – was slashed up to 55 per cent. For database product categories, prices were reduced up to 40 per cent. Both existing and new customers can avail of the discounted prices, according to Alibaba Cloud.

Founded in 2009, Alibaba Cloud currently serves 80 per cent of technology companies on the mainland, including half of firms involved in AI large language model (LLM) development, Alibaba co-founder and chairman Joe Tsai said last October at the annual Apsara Conference. LLM is the technology used to train generative AI services like ChatGPT.

Alibaba Cloud’s latest initiative reflects the market opportunity to address growing demand for high-performance computing resources on the mainland, where AI development efforts have rapidly expanded amid Washington’s sanctions on the export of advanced semiconductors to the country.

Alibaba’s cloud unit now serves 80% of Chinese tech companies

Lowering prices, however, could also trigger a price war among China’s major cloud services providers, as competition intensifies among vendors to support the development and deployment of innovative AI services in the country.

Alibaba Cloud, which continues to have the biggest share of cloud infrastructure services spending on the mainland, initially slashed prices on a number of its core products and services on May 7 last year after announcing the initiative in April.

A number of Chinese cloud firms have already made their self-developed LLMs and online platforms available to third-party developers, so they can build AI applications for a range of traditional industries.

Cloud infrastructure services spending in mainland China grew 18 per cent year on year to US$9.2 billion in the third quarter last year, with Alibaba Cloud recording a 39 per cent market share, according to a report in December by research firm Canalys. The cloud units of Huawei Technologies and Tencent Holdings had shares of 19 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, in the same period.

Alibaba seeks growth from AI co-development programme, cloud price cuts

Earlier this month, Alibaba reported that revenue from its Cloud Intelligence Group in the December quarter rose 3 per cent year on year to 28.06 billion yuan (US$3.95 billion) on the back of efforts to cut sales from low-margin, project-based contracts.

Alibaba chief executive Eddie Wu Yongming said in a statement at that time that the company’s top priority is to “reignite the growth of our core businesses, e-commerce and cloud computing”.

At present, Alibaba Cloud operates 89 availability zones – where it operates data centres – in 30 regions globally, supporting more than 4 million customers worldwide.

China’s Communist Party orders cells to make Xi Jinping Thought a priority, cadres must study president’s speeches

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3253700/chinas-communist-party-orders-cells-make-xi-jinping-thought-priority-cadres-must-study-presidents?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s ruling Communist Party is making the study of President Xi Jinping’s political thoughts a top priority for all party cells across the country, ordering them to conduct regular sessions to learn his speeches and instructions.

The general office of the party’s decision-making Central Committee issued a notice to all party organs across China on Wednesday, detailing compulsory learning activities to be conducted regularly in the latest bid to embed the Chinese leader’s doctrine into the minds of more than 98 million party members and cadres.

The document came less than a month after the party convened a top-level meeting to conclude a sweeping and intense ideological campaign – known as the “thematic education” programme on Xi’s latest political thought – which lasted 10 months.

The latest notice from Beijing tells all party committees and groups that their first priority is learning Xi’s speeches, and they should benchmark all their major strategies and policies against the party chief’s instructions.

“[Party groups] at all levels shall hold their standing committee meetings or theoretical study focus groups regularly … to conscientiously study Xi Jinping Thought,” it said, adding that they should discuss ways to “implement them in light of reality”.

Known as “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” and enshrined in the constitution since 2018, the philosophy of China’s paramount leader has grown in recent years into a total of seven pillars covering Xi’s instructions on the economy, diplomacy, the military, the environment, legal affairs, propaganda and party discipline.

The notice ordered leading cadres at or above the county level to check their responses to outstanding problems and major events under their jurisdiction, to find the causes and rectify the issues, all according to what they have learned from Xi’s instructions.

Adopting from the earlier 10-month party-wide thematic education campaign, the notice also lines up a series of mandatory study sessions to be regularly carried out by the party’s more than 5 million cells.

It ordered party committees and groups at all levels to form reading groups once a year for the party leadership team to “sit down together calmly, to read the original works, learn the original texts” of Xi’s doctrines.

The instruction also wants party leaders at all levels to give at least one special party class every year to grass-roots units under their jurisdiction, to share their experiences in learning and applying the party’s latest ideological theories.

The ‘simple’ guide to Xi Jinping Thought

It stressed that secretaries of the grass-roots party organisation must focus their efforts on young party members by leveraging new technology platforms, especially Xuexi Qiangguo, a propaganda smartphone app popular among party members that aggregates articles, video clips and documentaries about President Xi Jinping’s political philosophy, and provides a daily quiz for users.

The notice orders party groups to organise its members to help the Communist Party further dominate and sabre-rattle in Chinese cyberspace to ensure the party’s “positive energy” remains the dominant trend in national internet traffic.

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U.S. launches investigation of Chinese vehicles, citing security risks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/29/us-investigation-chinese-vehicles/2024-02-28T23:10:48.513Z

The Biden administration on Thursday announced an investigation into possible security risks of Chinese-manufactured autos, saying that modern vehicles are full of sensors, cameras and software that China could use for espionage or other malign purposes.

The investigation comes as Chinese automakers become more powerful on global markets, exporting a flood of high-tech vehicles and posing new challenges to Western manufacturers.

Chinese-made vehicles aren’t yet widespread on U.S. roads but are becoming more common in Europe, Asia and other markets.

Would you buy a made-in-China electric car? They’re coming.

Launching the probe, President Biden likened modern cars to smartphones, saying they collect and share with the cloud a host of data about drivers and their everyday commutes.

“These cars are connected to our phones, to navigation systems, to critical infrastructure, and to the companies that made them. Connected vehicles from China could collect sensitive data about our citizens and our infrastructure and send this data back to the People’s Republic of China,” Biden said in a statement. “These vehicles could be remotely accessed or disabled. … Why should connected vehicles from China be allowed to operate in our country without safeguards?”

The investigation, led by the Commerce Department, won’t place any immediate restrictions on the import or sale of Chinese-manufactured automobiles, administration officials said in a call with reporters Wednesday evening, speaking on the condition of anonymity to preview the probe. But the agency does have the authority to prohibit or restrict sales if it finds serious risks, they said.

Many of the vehicles in question are electric, but it’s not their electric motors that pose a concern — it’s their use of high-tech software, cameras and sensors that could be exploited to collect data or sabotage vehicles, the officials said.

The probe could wind up echoing the long-running U.S. campaign against the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which the United States accused of posing security risks to communications infrastructure. The United States has banned the import or sale of Huawei’s telecom-network gear and has urged allied nations not to use it. Huawei has long accused the U.S. of using national security as an excuse to clobber a globally competitive rival.

Detroit automakers have sounded increasing alarms about the onslaught of Chinese vehicles hitting the global market. Ford chief executive Jim Farley has said Chinese automakers such as BYD pose the biggest competitive threat in the new electric vehicle market.

Recent reports that BYD and other Chinese manufacturers are scouting for factory locations in Mexico have increased concerns among U.S.-based automakers, which worry about such vehicles entering the U.S. market with few trade restrictions, under the free-trade zone created by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the successor to NAFTA.

Ford to build U.S. battery plant with Chinese tech as political tensions rise

Biden’s statement announcing the investigation stressed his desire to protect American automakers. “With this and other actions, we’re going to make sure the future of the auto industry will be made here in America with American workers,” he said.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the probe will help the agency determine whether to take action under a Trump-era executive order that gave the president new powers to protect domestic information and communications technology from national security threats.

“Imagine if there were thousands of Chinese vehicles on American roads that could be immediately disabled by somebody in Beijing. It’s scary to contemplate,” Raimondo said in a call with journalists. “We are doing [the investigation] now before Chinese-manufactured vehicles become widespread in the United States and potentially threaten our national security.”

‘No role’ for China in policing Pacific islands, Australian minister says

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3253656/no-role-china-policing-pacific-islands-australian-minister-says?utm_source=rss_feed

Australia’s Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said there should be “no role” for China in policing the Pacific Islands, and Australia will train more local security forces to fill gaps, after Reuters reported Chinese police are working in Kiribati.

The United States on Monday cautioned Pacific Islands nations against assistance from Chinese security forces, after Kiribati’s acting police commissioner Eeri Aritiera told Reuters last week that uniformed Chinese officers were working with its police in community policing and a crime database programme.

Chinese police work in Kiribati as Beijing widens Pacific ties to counter US

There are no Australian police in Kiribati, although Canberra has pledged to fund a new police radio network, police barracks and two maritime security advisers are supporting Kiribati police to maintain a donated patrol boat.

Kiribati is a nation of 115,000 people whose closest island is 2,160km (1,340 miles) south of Honolulu, and the news of Chinese police working there comes as Beijing renews a push to expand security ties in the Pacific Islands in an intensifying rivalry with the United States.

“We are aware that they are seeking a greater security role in the Pacific, and we have been consistent in our view that there is no role for China in policing, or broader security, in the Pacific,” Conroy said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

Pacific Island leaders had agreed in 2022 at a meeting of the Pacific Island Forum regional bloc to fill any security gaps from within the “Pacific family”, he said.

Chinese police have been deployed in the Solomon Islands since 2022.

Conroy said Australia would like to see police from Papua New Guinea, Fiji and other Pacific nations play a greater role in assisting island neighbours with security, as they had done for December’s Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands.

Canberra is funding a regional police training centre in Papua New Guinea for this purpose, he said.

“That is a model going forward – when the Pacific comes together to support the security needs and aspirations of other Pacific countries. Australia plays a role, but we may not always lead it,” he said.

The US State Department on Monday cautioned Pacific Island countries against importing security forces from China, which “risks fuelling regional and international tensions”, and several US Senators also expressed concern about Chinese police in Kiribati.

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

China has not responded to a Reuters request for comment on the role of its police in Kiribati.

China’s ambassador to Australia said last month that China had a strategy to form policing ties with Pacific Island countries to help maintain social order, and this should not cause Australia anxiety.

‘Two sessions’ 2024: China signals more fiscal pump-priming for the economy

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3253666/chinas-communist-party-signals-it-will-double-down-fiscal-measures-support-economy?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s Communist Party leadership has signalled it intends to double down on more fiscal instruments to support the economy.

The Politburo, the primary decision-making body, also vowed to improve the consistency of policies and make the policy environment “transparent and predictable” during their gathering on Thursday, according to a statement issued by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The meeting marked the final gathering of the 24-member team of top officials before China’s annual parliamentary meetings, also known as the “two sessions”, which start next week.

The message comes amid lingering weak expectations about the business climate of the world’s second largest economy.

More to follow...

What are ‘Wandering Gods’? Find out how people in China celebrate them in search of a smooth, prosperous year

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3253212/what-are-wandering-gods-find-out-how-people-china-celebrate-them-search-smooth-prosperous-year?utm_source=rss_feed

In February, towering and majestic deities walk through the streets of villages in southern China, receiving devout worshippers amid a cacophony of gongs and drums.

This is one of China’s most famous folk religious events, you shen, which literally means “Wandering Gods”.

As a part of Taoist culture, you shen is an annual event of blessing in the southern regions of China and is typically held within the first two weeks of the Lunar New Year.

Specially trained individuals carry custom-built deity statues and receive offerings and prayers from the public along the way.

The procession can stretch up to 10km and the number of participants can number tens of thousands, including vanguard teams, deities, percussion ensembles and flag bearers.

Originating 600 years ago, the event typically operates on a village-by-village basis, flourishing particularly in Fujian province in southeastern China.

The festival is recognised by the government as an intangible piece of cultural heritage.

During this year’s Lunar New Year, videos of you shen in Fujian’s Houfu village attracted 4 million views on Douyin, of particular interest were the five princes of the you shen procession thanks to their eye-catching and handsome appearance.

Among the five, Prince Zhao, or Zhao Shizi in Chinese, is revered as a guardian of regional peace as it is considered to ward off evil and disasters.

On Douyin, a slow-motion video of Prince Zhao walking garnered 3.25 million likes.

“He is a lively and charming deity. I hope he becomes an idol,” said one person on Weibo.

The statue of the divine generals, known as ta gu, which literally means “Tower Bones”, is a type of large hollow bamboo frame representing the deity.

Each ta gu weighs around 40kg and stands about 3.5m tall.

Before you shen begins, the ta gu is blindfolded with red cloth for training and rehearsals, symbolising that the deity has not yet been invited.

On the day of the event, villagers select one person to go to the temple and perform divination using bamboo shoots, this process acts as an invitation to the gods to descend and participate.

The event symbolises the descent of deities into the mortal realm, bestowing blessings and well-being upon the people.

Residents show their respect for the gods, hoping they will bless them with peace, favourable farming weather and good fortune.

Any interference with the deity’s progress during the parade is considered “offending the gods” and may bring “misfortune” to those who perpetrate it.

On February 19, a viral video showed an influencer with 550,000 fans on Weibo cosplayed as the deity Prince Zhao during you shen in Houfu village and walked alongside the divine generals.

The leading deity ma fu, which means “horseman”, continuously whipped the influencer as a warning, but he did not leave.

Two days later, the influencer was criticised by mainland state media for pursuing online traffic in a manner that was disrespectful to traditional culture, adding that his actions would have consequences.

The influencer was banned from Weibo on the same day.

In China, which is officially an atheist country, Fujian is renowned as the “Province of a Thousand Gods”, with at least 100,000 folk religious sites, according to the local government.

The faith of Fujian people in deities is unique.

The sea goddess Mazu is regarded as the protector of fishermen in the southern provinces of Fujian and Guangdong.

Chen Jinggu is known as the protector of women and children in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces in eastern China.

The God of Wealth, cai shen, is worshipped by merchants in pursuit of prosperous business ventures.

The ‘two sessions’: what to watch for during China’s biggest political event of the year

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3253627/two-sessions-what-watch-during-chinas-biggest-political-event-year?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s political elite and lawmakers will descend on the capital next week for the annual “two sessions”, or lianghui.

The meetings of the top political advisory body and legislature have traditionally been an occasion to preview the government’s policy agenda for the year ahead.

At a time of economic headwinds and political uncertainty, the focus this year is expected to be on how Beijing interprets and plans to address issues like the rapidly ageing population and deflationary risks.

It begins on Monday, when more than 2,000 members of the CPPCC – the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – will gather in Beijing to hear the annual work report of the advisory body.

The first day of the legislative session on Tuesday will get more attention, when Premier Li Qiang will deliver his maiden government work report in front of nearly 3,000 National People’s Congress deputies.

Li will outline how the economy has performed in the past year, including the closely watched GDP growth rate, and set out the new growth target, policy agenda and budgets for the year ahead.

In the days that follow – it is not yet known how long the meetings will run for – the work report, budget and other bills in the legislative session will be deliberated and generally rubber-stamped.

Other events to watch will be the foreign minister’s press conference, President Xi Jinping’s speech to wrap up the event, and the premier’s news briefing after the closing ceremony.

The premier made an early and unexpected disclosure at the World Economic Forum in January when he revealed that China’s gross domestic product grew by 5.2 per cent in 2023 – the target was 5 per cent.

Li was seeking to boost confidence in the world’s second-largest economy after a choppy year of recovery from the pandemic that has seen property developers defaulting on debt, sluggish domestic consumption and weak overseas demand.

China also faces an ageing population and a shrinking workforce as a result of the notorious one-child policy from the late 1970s, and a low birth rate, even after the policy was relaxed in 2016.

Analysts are expecting China to set a similar target growth rate of 5 per cent for the coming year. But which policy tools the government uses to achieve this – such as fiscal stimulus or structural reform – remains to be seen.

Neil Thomas, a Chinese politics fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Centre for China Analysis, said this year’s two sessions would be significant.

“China’s trajectory has never seemed more uncertain during the Xi era, so people inside and outside the country are looking to the leadership for reassurance that they understand China’s economic problems and know how to solve them,” he said.

The premier’s report is likely to talk about boosting “new productive forces” – a term used by the leadership to refer to home-grown innovations in technology and services that it believes could boost the economy and self-reliance.

Li will also hand down the budget. Annual financial reports are usually deliberated on the first day of the NPC and released later in the week.

Defence spending will be closely watched at a time when tensions are soaring over self-ruled Taiwan and the South China Sea. The People’s Liberation Army has stepped up its military activities in the region and the 2027 target to achieve its modernisation goals is not far off.

Analysts expect steady growth in the defence budget in line with economic growth and last year’s increase of 7.2 per cent.

Li will wrap up his first year as premier with a policy address and press conference that will give more insight into his role and style.

A tally of Li’s inspection trips and meetings found that his focus has been more on domestic issues than foreign affairs compared to his predecessor.

And Li’s say on economic affairs within the party-state system appears diminished compared with previous premiers, according to Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

That was especially the case after China’s cabinet amended its work rules to focus on the “implementation” of party decisions, Wu said, adding that Li’s role “is actually not comparable to his predecessors”.

He expects Li to deliver a shorter work report than previous premiers.

The focus of the two sessions is largely domestic, but the foreign minister’s briefing will set the tone for diplomacy.

Thomas from the Asia Society Policy Institute said Beijing could be expected to “avoid antagonism” ahead of key elections in the West.

He said the foreign minister was also likely to “emphasise stability” as Beijing seeks to improve the business confidence of foreign investors.

The briefing could also touch on relations with the US, which have improved since last year’s meetings that took place soon after the US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon.

There is also the matter of who will be the next foreign minister. Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, went back to the role in July after Qin Gang – who has been absent from public view since June – was abruptly dismissed from the job without explanation.

Liu Jianchao, head of the ruling Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, is seen as the leading contender to replace Wang and it could happen during the two sessions if Beijing opts for a high-profile announcement.

There are other uncertainties, and announcements could be made during the legislative meeting.

The third plenary session of the Central Committee – the party’s biggest decision-making body – usually takes place in autumn, shedding light on the economic direction and key appointments ahead of the two sessions.

But it has not been held this year and observers suggest that could be because there are decisions pending over a purge of military officials and the foreign minister’s sacking.

Li Shangfu was removed as defence minister without explanation in October, and nine generals were ousted from the legislature in December. They were accused of “violations of discipline and law”, a euphemism for corruption.

Dong Jun has been named the new defence minister but he has yet to be appointed as a state councillor – a title usually also given to the foreign minister.

A “dismissals and appointments” bill was approved during a meeting of the NPC Standing Committee this week, but no further details were given, though it did confirm that Qin had resigned as a member of the legislature.

For now, Qin and Li Shangfu both remain full members of the Central Committee.

Next stop: Serbia? Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to visit Europe on trust-building tour

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3253632/next-stop-serbia-chinese-president-xi-jinping-expected-visit-europe-trust-building-tour?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s possible trip to Europe is seen as another step towards rebuilding trust with the continent, as both sides eye pragmatic cooperation despite geopolitical frictions, according to observers.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s announcement of Xi’s coming visit to his country offered the first confirmation of the Chinese leader’s trip to Europe this year, after months of speculation about his plan to visit the continent. Beijing has not confirmed Xi will visit Europe this year or indicated a potential itinerary.

France is also expected to be a stop on his trip after Xi accepted Emmanuel Macron’s invitation to visit during the French president’s visit to China last year.

If the trip to Europe is confirmed, it would mark Xi’s first Europe tour since resuming in-person diplomacy following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ding Yifan, a Europe specialist at the State Council’s Development Research Centre, said a trip by Xi would be a chance for China and Europe to reduce “misperceptions” about each other.

“The mass media in China thinks Europe is a follower of the US … the mainstream media in Europe also thinks China supports Russia [in the Ukraine conflict],” he said.

“The main thing is that the two sides are caught in tensions and do not trust each other. Therefore, these political leaders want to strengthen communication through these political exchanges.”

China’s relations with Europe have been largely strained in recent years over the Ukraine conflict and escalating rivalries between Beijing and Washington. While many European countries remain suspicious over Beijing’s ties with Moscow, they are also under immense pressure to join US efforts to limit China’s access to critical material and technologies over national security concerns.

Time could be ripe for a China-led peace proposal to end Ukraine-Russia war

Both sides have also traded accusations of unfair competition and protectionism about the EU’s trade imbalance of about €400 billion (US$433 billion).

Tensions have been rising since the EU started an investigation into Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers over state subsidies in October and China last month launched an anti-dumping inquiry into brandy sales.

Beijing and Brussels have been engaging in high-level exchanges since China reopened after the pandemic, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visiting China in November 2022 and planning to visit again in April. EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel as well as Macron all visited China last year.

Sebastian Contin Trillo-Figueroa, an EU-Asia analyst with the Asia Global Institute of the University of Hong Kong, said the EU-China summit held in Beijing in December and co-chaired by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, marked a “significant mutual shift in perspective”.

“Both sides aimed for deeper mutual understanding and made efforts to prevent conflict,” Trillo-Figueroa said.

He said both sides now acknowledged the importance of strategic dialogue to focus on core issues such as their trade relations, which indicated a shift towards “pragmatic realpolitik rather than symbolic disputes”.

The summit in December saw the EU leaders stand firm on the long-standing economic imbalances between Beijing and Brussels, and China’s business links in aiding Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. Both sides rejected the idea of decoupling from each other and agreed to continue pragmatic cooperation in areas such as climate change and artificial intelligence.

Trillo-Figueroa added that while China was moving to revive in-person diplomacy with Europe, it prioritised Germany and France. But if Serbia was chosen as a first nation to visit in Xi’s Europe tour, it would send a “strategic message” to other European leaders.

“Selecting Serbia for this first visit makes a bold diplomatic statement, potentially reshaping the priorities of European leaders in their future engagements,” he said.

China has long had strong ties with Serbia, which supports Beijing’s sovereignty over Taiwan and is an important partner of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the Balkans. Beijing did not recognise Kosovo – which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 – as a country.

Belgrade has also maintained close ties with Moscow during the Ukraine war, frustrating many European nations.

Ding said France was likely to be a destination on Xi’s potential Europe tour because this year marked the 60th anniversary of China-France bilateral ties, and “France’s stance is very critical in the West”.

Macron has long advocated for Europe’s “strategic autonomy” and urged the continent not to become a “vassal” of the US or get caught up in its escalating tensions with China. China has often echoed his idea, urging Europe to adhere to this principle amid geopolitical complexities.

Fear of Trump presidency ‘may boost China’s chances’ at winning Europe’s trust

Victor Gao, vice-president of the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation and chair professor of Soochow University in Jiangsu province, said China was expected to make the same call again if Xi went to Europe.

“China is very willing to dance a tango with Europe, to focus on economic and technological cooperation … but not engage in ideological [confrontation],” he said.

How Chinese science fiction went from underground magazines to a Netflix blockbuster

https://apnews.com/article/china-science-fiction-censorship-three-body-chengdu-9040ca9084fc8ec07935d461e4e65ac0A child watches a video depicting the science fiction universe from a trilogy by Chinese author Liu Cixin in Chengdu, Sichuan province on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. The series that began with "The Three-Body Problem" helped Chinese science fiction break through internationally, winning awards and making it onto the reading lists of the likes of former U.S. President Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

2024-02-29T02:42:53Z

CHENGDU, China (AP) — For a few days in October 2023, the capital of the science fiction world was Chengdu, China. Fans traveled from around the world as Worldcon, sci-fi ’s biggest annual event, was held in the country for the first time.

It was a rare moment when Chinese and international fans could get together to celebrate the arts without worrying about the increasingly fraught politics of China’s relationship with the West or Beijing’s tightening grip on expression.

For Chinese fans like Tao Bolin, an influencer who flew from the southern province of Guangdong for the event, it felt like the world finally wanted to read Chinese literature. Fans and authors mingled in a brand new Science Fiction Museum, designed by the prestigious Zaha Hadid Architects in the shape of a huge steel starburst over a lake.

But three months later, much of that goodwill turned sour as a scandal erupted over allegations that organizers of the Hugo Awards — sci-fi’s biggest prize, awarded at Worldcon — disqualified candidates to placate Chinese censors.

The event embodied the contradictions that Chinese science fiction has faced for decades. In 40 years, it’s gone from a politically suspect niche to one of China’s most successful cultural exports, with author Liu Cixin gaining an international following that includes fans like Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. But it’s had to overcome obstacles created by geopolitics for just as long.

With a big-budget Netflix adaptation of his “The Three-Body Problem” set to drop in March, produced by the same showrunners as “Game of Thrones,” Chinese sci-fi could reach its biggest audience yet.

Getting there took decades of work by dedicated authors, editors and cultural bureaucrats who believed that science fiction could bring people together.

“Sci-fi has always been a bridge between different cultures and countries,” says Yao Haijun, the editor-in-chief of Science Fiction World, China’s oldest sci-fi magazine. “Every author can have their own vision of the future, and they can coexist and be respected even if they clash.”

A SMALL STEP FOR A PROVINCIAL BUREAUCRAT

Chinese sci-fi’s journey abroad started with another convention in Chengdu three decades ago, but politics nearly derailed that one before it could get off the ground.

Science Fiction World planned to host a writers’ conference in the city, known for its panda sanctuary and countercultural bend, in 1991. But as news of the brutal crackdown on student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square circled the globe in 1989, foreign speakers were dropping out.

The magazine sent a small delegation to Worldcon 1990, hosted in The Hague, to save the conference.

Its leader was Shen Zaiwang, an English translator in Sichuan province’s Foreign Affairs Department who fell in love with sci-fi as a child after reading Jules Verne books like “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” He packed instant noodles for the weekslong train journey across China and the fragmenting Soviet Union.

In The Hague, Shen and former magazine editor Yang Xiao used toy pandas and postcards of Chengdu to make the case that the city — more than 1,800 kilometers (1,000 miles) from Beijing — was friendly and safe to visit.

“We tried to introduce our province as a safe place, and that the people in Sichuan really hope the foreign science fiction writers can come and have a look and encourage Chinese young people to read more science fiction novels,” Shen says.

In the end, a dozen foreign authors attended the conference. It was a small start, but it was more than anyone could have imagined a few years earlier.

A GIANT LEAP FOR THE GENRE

Chinese sci-fi had faced decades of suspicion at home.

The genre flourished in China in the first half of the 20th century, fueled by an interest in new technology and translated stories from abroad. But it disappeared during the Cultural Revolution, a tumultuous decade beginning in 1966 when Maoist radicals targeted “bourgeois” elements including both scientists and many types of literature.

Sci-fi saw a resurgence as China began opening to the world after the Mao era in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Authors like Zheng Wenguang and Ye Yonglie wrote stories about traveling into space, while China’s nascent space program launched its first satellites into orbit. Regional magazines such as Chengdu’s Science Fiction World mushroomed.

But in the early 1980s, Beijing initiated a nationwide “spiritual pollution cleaning” campaign to quash the influence of the decadent West, and sci-fi was accused of being unscientific and out of line with official ideology. Most of the young publications were shuttered.

Down in Chengdu, Science Fiction World’s editors kept going.

“They believed if China wanted to develop, it needed to be an innovative country — it needed science fiction,” Yao, the editor, said in a recorded public address in 2017.

The magazine set out to change negative public perceptions about sci-fi. In 1997, six years after the Chengdu conference, it organized another international event in Beijing, headlined by American and Russian astronauts. The conference got attention in the Chinese press, giving sci-fi a cool new aura of innovation, exploration and imagination, Yao says. It also paved the way for an international liftoff.

LIU CIXIN’S BIG BANG

China’s growing sci-fi fandom was devouring translated works from abroad, but few people abroad were reading Chinese stories. Liu Cixin was going to change that.

A soft-spoken engineer at a power plant in the coal-dominated province of Shanxi, his stories — which mixed massive engineering projects capable of moving whole planets with moments of quiet human emotion — were hits with genre fans.

But “The Three-Body Problem,” first serialized by Science Fiction World in 2006, reached a level of popularity unseen by other Chinese works, says Yao, who edited the novel.

When it came out as a book, fans in Chengdu mobbed the release at a local bookstore, says Yang Feng, the founder of local independent publisher Eight Light Minutes Culture. They encircled the building, holding signs with “I love you, Liu Cixin!”

Authorities took note. The China Educational Publications Import & Export Corporation, the state-owned publications exporter, picked up the novel and its two sequels.

The trilogy’s plot, ironically, centers on the disastrous consequences of sending a message to a distant alien world. “The Dark Forest,” the second volume, is named for a view of the universe as a dog-eat-dog struggle for survival in which the best way to survive is to hide.

The translations were intended from the start as “a big cultural export from China to the world, something very highly visible,” says Joel Martinsen, who translated “The Dark Forest.” But no one could have anticipated the critical and popular success: In 2015, Liu became the first Asian author to win a Hugo Award for a novel.

“There was something quite fresh and raw and eye-catching, and even sometimes very dark and ruthless in his work,” says Song Mingwei, a professor of Chinese literature at Wellesley College. “That made readers feel like, ‘Wow, this is impressive.’”

Song says Liu hit a sweet spot between familiar Western genre tropes and references to China’s difficult history. The trilogy is now “a classic,” he added.

The next year, Beijing-based writer Hao Jingfang beat Stephen King to win a Hugo for short fiction with a story she originally published on a university web forum, about social inequality in a surreal version of China’s capital.

INTERCEPTED BY BEIJING

Liu’s translations were also a political breakthrough for the genre: In two decades, it had gone from barely tolerated to a flagship export of China’s official cultural machine.

The government encouraged the growth of an industry spanning movies, video games, books, magazines and exhibits, and set up an official research center in 2020 to track its rise. A blockbuster set in the world of Liu’s short story “The Wandering Earth” broke domestic box office records and spawned two sequels; however, it saw limited distribution and mixed reviews abroad.

Worldcon Chengdu was to be the crowning achievement of these efforts.

When the location was announced, some international fans criticized the choice, citing human rights, censorship and concerns about the voting process.

The event itself was seen as a success.

But in January, when the Hugo committee disclosed vote totals, the critics’ suspicions seemed to be confirmed. It turned out several candidates had been disqualified, raising censorship concerns. They included New York Times bestselling authors R. F. Kuang and Xiran Jay Zhao, both politically active writers with family ties to China.

Leaked internal emails — which The Associated Press could not independently verify — appeared to show that the awards committee spent weeks checking nominees’ works and social media profiles for statements that could offend Beijing, and sent reports on these to Chinese counterparts, according to an investigation by two sci-fi authors and journalists. They don’t show how the reports were used or who made the decisions about disqualification.

The Hugo awards organizers did not respond to requests for comment by the AP.

Liu himself is not a stranger to controversy. He faced backlash for defending the Chinese government’s oppressive policies toward the Uyghur ethnic minority in Xinjiang in a 2019 interview with The New Yorker magazine. Netflix has faced calls to cancel the series over the controversy. Netflix representatives have not answered emailed questions by the AP.

NEW HORIZONS

Despite the frictions, Chinese sci-fi remains poised to continue its international rise. Netflix’s adaptation of the “The Three-Body Problem” could bring it to a vast new audience, a coming-out orders of magnitude bigger than Shen Zaiwang’s trip to The Hague.

And insiders like Song and Yao are looking forward to a new generation of Chinese sci-fi authors that’s starting to be translated into English now.

It’s led by younger, female writers who were educated abroad, such as Regina Kanyu Wang and Tang Fei. Their works explore themes that resonate with younger audiences, Song says, including gender fluidity and environmental crises.

“When doing anything with the endorsement of either the market or the government, imagination can dry up very quickly,” Song says. “I think often the important thing happens on the margin.”

Yao continues to believe in sci-fi’s role as a bridge between cultures, even in turbulent times.

“As long as there is communication,” he says, “we’ll be able to find some things in common.”

___

AP researcher Wanqing Chen contributed to this report.

SIMINA MISTREANU Mistreanu is a Greater China reporter for The Associated Press, based in Taipei, Taiwan. She has reported on China since 2015. twitter mailto

China’s BYD looking for Mexico EV plant location, Americas CEO Stella Li says

https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3253600/chinas-byd-looking-mexico-ev-plant-location-americas-ceo-stella-li-says?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) maker BYD is looking for a location in Mexico to set up a factory aimed at boosting the company’s share of the local market, BYD Americas CEO Stella Li said on Wednesday.

The company expects to choose a location for the plant, which is set to have a production capacity of 150,000 cars annually, at the end of the year, Li said.

BYD’s push into Mexico foreshadows a competitive threat the Shenzhen-based EV maker and others from China may pose to companies already operating in the US market, industry officials say.

A US manufacturing advocacy group, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, this month warned low-cost Chinese cars and parts could threaten the viability of car companies in the US. The group called on Washington to block the import of low-cost Chinese cars and parts from Mexico.

“The introduction of cheap Chinese autos – which are so inexpensive because they are backed with the power and funding of the Chinese government – to the American market could end up being an extinction-level event for the US auto sector,” the alliance said in a report.

Analysts say Chinese carmakers have been rapidly improving their vehicles and are even moving faster than global rivals in some areas, such as infotainment systems and autonomous driving.

BYD has been meeting officials from different Mexican states, Li said, while sharing that sales in Mexico are doubling monthly.

The Chinese company has been selling cars in Mexico for less than a year.

BYD aspires to take on Ferrari, Lamborghini with a US$233,000 super EV

BYD is particularly cost-competitive and aggressive among Chinese players, according to executives from its Chinese rivals already selling cars in Mexico. BYD may bring aggressive price cuts to Mexico, just as it has done in its home market, forcing rivals to slash costs to keep up.

Cost advantages for BYD come from its early investment in EV technology and a high degree of vertical integration the company has achieved over the years, experts say, not unlike Tesla.

Like its American EV rival, BYD produces an array of automotive components and systems on its own, from batteries to motors to power management chips to dashboard screens.

BYD launches low-price plug-in hybrid, sparking price war in China

BYD outpaced Tesla in EV sales in the fourth quarter of 2023 and has cut prices considerably on its latest models in China.

BYD executives announced earlier on Wednesday that the carmaker will begin selling its Dolphin Mini EV in Mexico at a starting price of 358,800 pesos (US$20,990), less than half the price of the cheapest Tesla.

At a launch event in Mexico City, Li said the car aims to mix technology and a price point in reach of Mexican consumers.

“It’s affordable … so every Mexican can bring their first electric car home,” she said.

China’s Wang Yi invited to Australia as Beijing, Canberra ties thaw after prolonged frost

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3253590/chinas-wang-yi-invited-australia-beijing-canberra-ties-thaw-after-prolonged-frost?utm_source=rss_feed

Australia has invited Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, for a two-day visit in the second half of March. He is expected to discuss a range of thorny issues on the table after bilateral relations warmed last year, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

The trip will take place as bilateral trade, often the smoothest segment of talks, has largely normalised following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s China visit in November.

But other issues – the signing of a new science and technology agreement, the Aukus security alliance with the United States and Britain, and the sentencing of an Australian writer on espionage charges – are unlikely to see a speedy resolution.

“[Australian foreign minister] Penny Wong issued a formal invitation to Wang,” one source explained, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.

“The invitation was the formal conclusion of discussions between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and [the Chinese] embassy over a couple of weeks.”

Wang is expected to spend one day in Canberra and another day in Sydney, according to another source.

The trip will follow the “two sessions”, China’s annual gathering of its top legislature and political advisory body, where Wang will deliver a press conference on China’s diplomacy.

The second source added that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has been pushing for a lifting of sanctions on Australian wine and lobsters during Wang’s visit. The two goods have been blocked from import into China since 2020.

In return, the second source said, China is pushing for Australia to sign a new Science and Technology Agreement. The agreement, which the source said has been held up by Canberra due to pressure from the United States, will be an “outstanding issue” for Wang’s visit.

The request comes at a delicate time, as the renewal of the 40-year-old US-China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement faces hurdles. A six-month extension ended on Tuesday, with no announcement of additional time for negotiations.

At a press briefing on the day of expiration, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry said the two countries were communicating on the subject – and continued to criticise Washington’s “small yard, high fence” strategy of strenuous tech controls.

“Of course, Aukus will see Australia tighten research cooperation with the US and UK, and shrink cooperation with China in technologies with clear military applications,” said James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

“But that still leaves enormous opportunities for joint scientific research that delivers benefits for both sides – renewable energy, adapting to climate change, medical advances and so on.”

He noted that Canberra is also “pragmatic enough” to recognise that Australia’s limited scale makes international collaboration “a necessity”, while cutting Australian scientists off from Chinese talent and resources “would be a massive own goal that Canberra wouldn’t want to kick”.

Hoping the door to China opens, Australian winemakers up Hong Kong shipments

A third source with knowledge of the matter said Premier Li Qiang could visit Australia in June or July.

DFAT told the Post that “any visits by senior officials of foreign governments will be announced at the appropriate time”.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet declined to comment on potential official visits and events until formal announcements are made.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, had yet to reply to the Post’s request for comment.

Albanese visited Shanghai and Beijing in November – the first visit from an Australian leader in seven years – cementing a turn towards warmer relations after a frosty period for both countries.

DFAT data showed that China is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner, accounting for 26 per cent of the country’s goods and services trade in the 2022 and 2023 financial years.

China’s General Administration of Customs reported US$229.2 billion in total exports and imports between both countries for 2023, an increase of 4.1 per cent from a year earlier.

Australian coal, barley, cotton, beef and dairy products – all of which were under official and unofficial bans – have gradually returned to the Chinese market since last year. Wine and lobsters, however, remain sticking points.

Zhang, an Australian wine company owner who chose to give only their surname, said as a tariff review by the Chinese government is scheduled to complete in March, it would be better to wait and see whether Beijing will officially lift the heavy taxes – some of which carry a top rate of 218.4 per cent.

“So far we don’t see any changes on the ground regarding imports to the Chinese market,” Zhang added. “It’s still quiet.”

Live lobsters from Australia, still under an unofficial ban, have yet to return to Chinese tables.

“One changing opportunity in China since the Australian live lobster ban is the emergence of the frozen market,” said Andrew Ferguson, managing director at seafood provider Ferguson Australia.

“Frozen Australian lobster is allowed into China, and our work has seen the development of a premium packaged product that we provide to other parts of the world.”

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Man in China violently assaulted over ‘cultural taboos’ after he helped child pull beard of dragon during traditional festival procession

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3253204/man-china-violently-assaulted-over-cultural-taboos-after-he-helped-child-pull-beard-dragon-during?utm_source=rss_feed

A man in China was beaten because he tried to help a little boy yank on the beard of a dragon prop during a local festival, an action that is considered a cultural taboo.

The centuries-old Cannon Dragon Festival is little known across China but is popular in Binyang county in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region of southern China.

Touching the dragon’s body is considered good luck, but people cannot yank either the beard or the scales.

The attack started when a man was holding a little boy and trying to help the child yank the beard of the dragon, which is usually held up by people carrying wooden sticks while dancing around fireworks.

A member of the “dragon protection squad” told the man to stop several times but was ignored and became outraged when the man nearly knocked over the dragon’s head.

One of the dragon protectors knocked over the man, who was still carrying the child, and several other men of the team began to kick and beat him.

The police arrived quickly and detained both the dragon protector and the victim.

“The assault case is under investigation and it is not appropriate for me to release more details. We will announce in due course,” an information officer from the county’s government said.

The Cannon Dragon Festival, held on February 20 this year, originated from the Song Dynasty around 1,000 years ago and prospered during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912).

Experts say it is an excellent example of the cultural blending of the Han and Zhuang ethnic groups.

The annual event was included on China’s intangible cultural heritage list in 2008.

The incident has trended on mainland social media, sparking a debate about the protection of traditions.

One online observer wrote: “As a native of Binyang, let me introduce this festival. The dragon dancers will never allow the dragon’s head to drop to the ground because it means bad luck will linger at the location for three years.

“This is our belief as Binyang people. You cannot drag the dragon’s head!”

But others thought the beating went too far.

“It’s not right to resort to violence, plus he was holding a child. It’s not good for the kid,” said one person.

“Why not dispatch police officers to safeguard order at the site? They are more professional,” another said.

International scientific prize for Chinese researcher highlights efforts to lure scientific talent back home

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3253480/international-scientific-prize-chinese-researcher-highlights-efforts-lure-scientific-talent-back?utm_source=rss_feed

Hao Jihua, a geochemistry professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, has been awarded a prestigious international prize, with his rapid academic rise highlighting China’s efforts to lure bright talents back home.

Earlier this month Hao, who studies the origin of life on Earth and the chemical signals of habitable planets in the universe, became the first winner of the Geochemical Society’s FW Clarke Award to be affiliated with a Chinese research institution.

The prize is awarded by the society – an international organisation based in Washington – each year to an early-career scientist for their outstanding contribution to geochemistry or cosmochemistry.

After spending four years in tenuous postdoctoral employment abroad, Hao returned to China and joined the department of geochemistry and planetary sciences USTC, one of the leading institutes in mainland China, in 2021.

Over the past three years he has been promoted to professor, received substantial funding and his academic work is now internationally recognised and honoured.

Although an isolated case, his career to some extent reflects China’s efforts to lure back and support outstanding overseas talent in a bid to become more self reliant in science and tech

Hao started his undergraduate studies at USTC in Hefei in Anhui province in 2008 before heading to the United States in 2012 where he received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 2016.

He then spent nearly three years at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in France and 15 months at Rutgers University in the US.

It is not an easy life as overseas postdoctoral scholars face pressures such as visa renewal and uncertain prospects. A commentary published in Science journal in 2022 said “such positions are transient, offering little by way of financial stability or certainty for the future”.

Tenure is increasingly difficult to achieve in academia, as the number of positions dwindles. According to a survey conducted by Nature in late 2020, postdoctoral scholars who cannot find a permanent job often end up taking another postdoctoral position.

Wu Jun, an associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, said that in the US, a postdoctoral position was temporary; annual contract renewals were not a problem but life was stressful because of the smaller pay cheques.

Renewal of US-China science pact likely to be delayed again

Postdoctoral positions usually act as a stepping stone between the student experience and full-time work. But according to Wu, to grow into an independent principal investigator some may choose to stay in the position for longer, say four to five years, to publish more articles in top journals.

But not all postdoctoral careers had to last that long. Feng Yu, a recently appointed assistant professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University who returned from the US this year, had just over six months of postdoctoral training there.

Influenced by factors such as deteriorating Sino-US relations and the increasing difficulty of obtaining full-time, stable academic positions, Western-trained Chinese scholars may find their home country an attractive destination.

“China’s massive investment in basic science allows postdocs to have a positive view of their future career prospects if they are willing to return to work in China,” said an astronomer in the Nature survey.

An increasing number of young scientists such as Hao and Feng are choosing to look for a job in their home country.

“There is not much difference between China’s research environment and that of Western countries, and the pressure for returnees to apply for grants is relatively lower than abroad,” Feng said.

After returning to China, Hao’s academic career seemed to take off. In 2021, he was selected for the Anhui Province overseas high-level talent programme and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ young talent programme.

In 2023, he was selected for the Changjiang Scholars Programme, the highest academic award given to an individual in higher education by China’s education ministry. Hao is now in charge of a 4 million yuan (US$555,000) national key research project for the Ministry of Science and Technology.

He was a special researcher when he joined the USTC. Employees were evaluated during their six-year contract and only the top performers gained permanent faculty positions, said a scientist at the institute. In February, just three years later, Hao was promoted to professor.

That is a surprisingly fast ascent, according to Feng. He said that after around three or so years of postdoctoral research abroad it takes about a further five to six years to get on the tenure track and become an associate professor. That is usually shorter if returning to China, but to be promoted to professor in three years is unusual, especially at a top university.

Hao’s rapid rise may have something to do with his areas of research, which include nutrient cycling in the early Earth, the origin of life and the habitability of extraterrestrial oceans, topics that are a priority for China.

“The exploration of the habitability of solar system objects and exoplanets, and the search for extraterrestrial life have become one of the five major scientific themes for the future development of space science in China,” said a report by state news agency Xinhua in April.

For example, in 2022 a team of Chinese researchers proposed launching a space telescope called the Closeby Habitable Exoplanet Survey mission to search for a nearby “cousin” of Earth.

Hidden ocean found in Saturn’s smallest moon by Chinese and European scientists

Hao’s latest accolade, the Clarke Medal, is named after Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, a founding father of geochemistry.

The Geochemical Society website said Hao was recognised “for his work on quantification of early Earth and planetary geochemical conditions and processes”.

“In particular, he developed models of late Archaean weathering, river-water chemistry and the availability of phosphorous on the early Earth and Enceladus [a moon of Saturn],” the citation read.

Hao declined to be interviewed for this article.

South China Sea: Marcos says Philippines will not cede ‘one square inch’ of territory

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3253589/south-china-sea-marcos-says-philippines-will-not-cede-one-square-inch-territory?utm_source=rss_feed

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr told the Australian parliament on Thursday he would not allow any foreign power to take “one square inch” of the country’s territory, and that Manila was firm in defending its sovereignty.

Australia and the Philippines began their first joint sea and air patrols in the South China Sea in November, aimed at countering an increasingly assertive China, which claims the entire sea as its own.

“I will not allow any attempt by any foreign power to take even one square inch of our sovereign territory,” Marcos said in the address.

“The challenges that we face may be formidable, but equally formidable is our resolve. We will not yield.”

Is the Philippines becoming a US ‘proxy’ against Beijing in the South China Sea?

The South China Sea is a conduit for more than US$3 trillion worth of ship-borne commerce each year, and is a major source of tension between the Philippines and China.

Manila accuses Beijing of committing aggressive acts inside its exclusive economic zone (EEZ); an international arbitration tribunal in The Hague said in 2016 that China’s claims inside the Philippines’ EEZ had no legal basis – a decision Beijing has rejected. China has chided the Philippines for encroaching on what it says is its territory.

Protecting the area is important to global stability, Marcos said on Thursday.

“The protection of the South China Sea as a vital, critical global artery is crucial to the preservation of regional peace and, I dare say, of global peace,” he said. “We have an abiding interest in keeping our seas free and open, and in ensuring unimpeded passage and freedom of navigation.”

The Philippines and other countries – backed by the United States – have argued the waterway should be free and open.

China has rapidly grown its naval forces in recent years, and snatched vast tracts of maritime territory, hoping to project its military and political power well beyond the country’s shores.

Marcos is in Australia on an official visit, before he attends a special summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Melbourne next week.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

China’s vulnerable small businesses have had it up to arrears – they need to be paid as policies fall short, survey finds

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3253537/chinas-vulnerable-small-businesses-have-had-it-arrears-they-need-be-paid-policies-fall-short-survey?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s small businesses say shrinking market demand is their biggest pain point, while payment delays are also compounding the challenges facing their daily operations, according to recent findings by Peking University.

The results, based on a survey of 9,252 small and micro-sized firms across the country in December, reflect how the country’s beleaguered economy has yet to elevate the employment-vital sector to its pre-pandemic levels.

“A significant factor contributing to the operational challenges of small and micro-sized enterprises is the substantial proportion of outstanding receivables,” said the quarterly report, which has been tracking the operations of small businesses since 2020.

Among the surveyed enterprises, 71 per cent reported having outstanding receivables, with construction and manufacturing industries being most seriously affected.

A third of China’s small firms financially unwell, affecting 180 million: survey

The average value of arrears reached 103,000 yuan (US$14,300), representing around two-thirds of the quarterly income for small and micro-sized businesses.

Failing to receive timely payments, which the report largely attributed to high debt levels among local governments, has led to “insufficient cash flows and disruptions in the supply-chain funding”, and businesses said this was “exacerbating their operational challenges”.

The percentage of small and micro enterprises reporting unsustainable cash flows saw a slight increase to 10.8 per cent in the last three months of 2023, up from 9.9 per cent in the third quarter, the report said. Meanwhile, the proportion of enterprises whose cash-flow sustainability had dwindled to less than one month rose from 20.6 per cent to 30.4 per cent.

The virtual survey was conducted in collaboration with MYbank, the online bank backed by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post.

Although the classifications for business sizes differ between industries, in the case of retail enterprises, 10-50 employees and annual revenue of 1 million to 5 million yuan classify them as small enterprises, while those with fewer than 10 employees and less than 1 million yuan in annual revenue yuan are considered micro-sized.

“When state-owned enterprises or developers delay payments for our projects, it creates a domino effect where we, in turn, are unable to settle our debts with downstream suppliers,” said Mason Deng, who operates a construction company with more than 20 employees in Wuhan, Hubei province. “Without seeing effective measures to address overdue payments, many businesses are reluctant to take risks.

“Some companies, even if they’re willing to take on projects, face the risk of getting stuck in a rut if those payments keep dragging on.”

The long-standing issue of late payments plaguing the private sector has worsened over the past few years amid an economic and real estate downturn, prompting Beijing to roll out several rounds of campaigns to spur repayments.

China vows to break down barriers to aid recovery, stimulus call continues

But Deng said that business owners like him still “feel at sea”, as they have not seen the central policies effectively implemented. And he added that he had not observed any cases in which penalties were imposed due to payment arrears.

Sustained weakness in market demand also continues to haunt small and micro-business operators, with more than 52.4 per cent of the small businesses citing it as a pressure point, up from 50.1 per cent in the quarter before, according to the survey.

The confidence index of small business operators for the first quarter of 2024 was 49.3 per cent, down by 1.2 percentage points on a quarterly basis, and the survey showed that figures concerning market demand and business revenue were down-trending the most.

Consumers’ pessimistic outlook and structural mismatches between supply and demand have led to household consumption falling short of expectations, which has “directly contributed to small and micro businesses’ operational difficulties and increasing focus on costs”, the report said.

“We’re receiving fewer orders. Our turnover is only about half of what it was before the pandemic,” said Lin Jianbo, who runs an auto-repair store in southeastern Fujian province.

He said corporate orders accounted for the bulk of his clientele, but because their profitability has taken a hit, so has Lin’s business, which is facing more delayed payments.

“Now, the only way to survive is to reduce costs,” said Lin, who has moved his store to a more affordable area and is offering fewer services to save on labour costs.

The Peking University report called for supportive measures aimed at “addressing the root causes” of weakening demand and the substantial outstanding receivables hindering small businesses.

“Small and micro-sized enterprises serve as a reservoir for employment in our country and act as the capillaries of the national economy,” it said.

It suggested that the central government should launch favourable policies for low-income groups with higher consumption flexibility to boost consumer confidence and address debt issues through fiscal measures, such as issuing long-term bonds.

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Canada fired scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng for sharing information with China, report says

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3253586/canada-fired-scientists-xiangguo-qiu-and-keding-cheng-sharing-information-china-report-says?utm_source=rss_feed

Canada fired two scientists working at a high-security infectious disease laboratory in 2021 because they provided confidential information to China, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Officials concluded that the husband and wife team were “a realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security”, the paper said, citing a mass of documents that the government released after a long fight with opposition legislators who had demanded information behind the sackings.

Health Minister Mark Holland, decrying what he called unacceptable security lapses at the lab at the time, said there had been no risk to national security.

Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg in 2019 and their security permits revoked. They were fired in 2021.

Canadian police said in 2019 they were launching a probe into the matter but Wednesday’s revelation was the first time that details of the sackings were revealed.

The documents show the Canadian Security Intelligence Service concluded Qiu “had intentionally transferred scientific knowledge and materials to China”, the Globe said.

It is not clear whether the couple is still in Canada.

The news is likely to worsen already chilly ties with Beijing, especially since Ottawa has set up an investigation into alleged Chinese interference in domestic Canadian affairs.

Viral security drama of Chinese-Canadian scientist who helped cure Ebola

The Winnipeg laboratory’s work includes research on the most dangerous human and animal pathogens, such as Ebola.

“At no time did national secrets, or information that threatened the security of Canada, leave or enter the lab,” Holland told reporters, saying the couple had not been transparent about their dealings with China.

Bitcoin remains fast-trending topic on Chinese social media as cryptocurrency’s surging price overcomes stigma of government ban

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3253562/bitcoin-remains-fast-trending-topic-chinese-social-media-cryptocurrencys-surging-price-overcomes?utm_source=rss_feed

The surging price of bitcoin has sparked increased attention from internet users in mainland China, where some cryptocurrency-related activities persist in spite of a sweeping government ban.

The world’s largest and most valuable cryptocurrency, bitcoin gained more than 16 per cent over the past five days to surpass US$59,000 on Wednesday, which made it a fast-trending topic on all major Chinese social media platforms.

At one point on Wednesday, bitcoin ranked as the 11th most-searched term on microblogging service Weibo.

Bitcoin’s popularity also increased more than 358 per cent from a day ago on Chinese super app WeChat, according to Tencent Holdings’ official WeChat Index, which tracks keyword traction across in-app search, videos, live streams and blog posts.

That followed a 676 per cent jump in bitcoin’s popularity on WeChat on February 13, the same day bitcoin reached the US$50,000 mark for the first time in more than two years.

Bitcoin has climbed 40 per cent since the beginning of February after staying below US$30,000 for the most part of last year, following a crypto market rout in 2022.

Fuelled by the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States in January, bitcoin is now trading at its highest level since reaching a historic high of US$69,000 in November 2021.

The strong interest in Chinese social media of bitcoin prices’ ascent reflects how a community of cryptocurrency enthusiasts on the mainland continues to thrive, despite Beijing’s rigid stance against all crypto-related activities.

Bitcoin hits US$50,000 for first time in 2 years as ETF approval drives demand

Investing in cryptocurrencies has recently become more attractive to some people on the mainland, as the country’s stock market continues to plummet amid its economic woes, according to a Reuters report in January.

Cryptocurrency trading via a number of major exchanges has also remained active in mainland China, as traders employ a range of workarounds to skirt loosely implemented restrictions.

Despite warnings on its site, Binance allows mainland users to create accounts and trade on the exchange via some workarounds, according to tests conducted by the South China Morning Post.

Still, the Chinese government has ramped up its scrutiny of all activities related to cryptocurrencies over the years, citing risks to financial stability.

China’s back-door crypto traders look more important than ever to Binance’s future

Beijing is now tackling money laundering risks associated with cryptocurrencies, even though it endorses Hong Kong’s ambitions to become a major hub for virtual assets.

In research firm Chainalysis’ ranking of cryptocurrency adoption in 20 major countries, mainland China took the No 11 spot last year after placing tenth in 2022.

While mainland China’s ranking in terms of trading volume on centralised crypto exchanges dropped to the No 10 spot last year after placing second in 2022, Chainalysis said the country ranked 13th in peer-to-peer trading volume last year, up from No 144 in 2022.

Before cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed in 2022, mainland Chinese traders made up 8 per cent of the platform’s user base, according to the company’s bankruptcy filings.