• EU sees 200% surge in imports from China’s Xinjiang region despite human rights concerns
• UK woman Wen Jian guilty of laundering bitcoin from US$6.3 billion China fraud
• Eyeing China, US House unanimously passes bill prohibiting ‘sensitive data’ transfers to foreign adversaries
• [Sport] O'Sullivan wins in China but world champion Brecel out
• Apple CEO Tim Cook goes on a charm offensive in China amid weak iPhone sales in the world’s largest smartphone market
• China ups the ante in hunt for foreign investment, hi-tech firms, but will Beijing follow through with actions?
• International lobby group backed by Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai pressured US and UN to take action against mainland China and city, court told
• Beijing protests to Philippine ambassador over ‘recent negative China-related remarks’ from Manila
• Solomon Islands PM praises China’s governance while criticizing democracy as immoral
• Australia, China should take ties ‘far’, Wang Yi says, as he urges more bilateral cooperation
• China actress-director whose latest movie and drastic physical transformation make headlines, becomes 4th in mainland to gross over US$1.4 billion
• Chinese Premier Li Qiang to visit Australia as Canberra continues push to lift trade barriers
• Officials in China’s Guizhou face corruption investigation weeks after launch of probe into arrest of businesswoman
• How I learned to stop worrying and embrace going cashless in China
• China has ‘bigger fish to fry’ despite Japan upping interest rates for first time in 17 years
• China starts international manhunt saying it will rid belt and road programme of graft and bring corrupt officials home
• It’s not rocket science: Hong Kong needs to jump on Chinese space bandwagon
• Warily eyeing China’s Pacific influence, US talks up US$7.1 billion in aid
• Ukraine war: China has ‘great potential’ to help end the conflict, Kyiv’s top diplomat says
• Ancient mystery: netizens captivated by pyramid formations in southern China
• Tech war: US said to weigh sanctions against Huawei’s secretive Chinese semiconductor supply network
• South China Sea: Philippines’ Marcos denies ‘poking the bear’ with Beijing
• China man uses deepfake technology to disguise himself as late father in videos to save frail grandmother from heartbreak
• Hong Kong welcomes 19 companies from mainland China, US to set up or expand locally in latest deal to promote I&T development
• Doing business in China is growing tougher, more uncertain, European business group says
• China Vanke secures US$194 million loan from Industrial Bank in brief respite for troubled property developer
• China allows more durian from Vietnam as surging trade underpins new ‘codependency’ in ties
• In Indonesia, Beijing’s South China Sea presence seen as ‘threat’ to national interests, survey shows
• [World] Chinese children held over classmate's brutal death
• How ultranationalists undercut China’s efforts to win world’s love
• China’s recalibration of energy efficiency target could increase emissions, put climate goal at risk, analysts say
• China-based Canadian stole Tesla secrets, US prosecutors say
• New Zealand and China still have ‘significant differences’, despite Wang Yi’s ‘charm offensive’ visit
• Hong Kong, mainland China office-leasing outlook bleak even as mood brightens across Asia-Pacific: CBRE
• What is a lucky face? Woman in China told by many online that her face suggests a personality that will help husband get rich
• EU chamber warns of ‘slow-motion train accident’ with China, says something needs to change
• China launches relay satellite to allow communication with far side of the moon and further nation’s lunar ambitions
• Singapore pulls ahead in Southeast Asia’s race to lure back Chinese tourists
• China’s relaxed entry rules bring more travel, but would-be tourists wary of remaining barriers

EU sees 200% surge in imports from China’s Xinjiang region despite human rights concerns

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3256144/eu-sees-200-surge-imports-chinas-xinjiang-region-despite-human-rights-concerns?utm_source=rss_feed

The European Union’s imports from the Chinese region of Xinjiang surged in the first two months of the year, even as the bloc moved to finalise two laws aimed at tackling human rights complaints there.

Exports from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to the EU’s 27 members rose 217.8 per cent in January and February compared with the same period last year, according to the Post’s calculations based on new Chinese trade data released on Wednesday.

While the total value of those shipments – US$312 million – was small in the grand scheme of things, it represented a huge increase on just US$98 million a year prior.

The biggest buyers of goods from Xinjiang were in Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The most popular goods were lithium-ion batteries, tomato paste and miscellaneous low-value goods that fall below the threshold for customs duties, according to Chinese customs data.

The statistics emerge as Brussels puts the finishing touches on a ban targeting goods made using forced labour. While the ban does not name China, it was written with Xinjiang in mind.

Also in its final stages is a new law requiring EU businesses of a certain size to routinely audit their supply chains for human rights and environmental abuses.

Observers have said the law will be tricky for businesses operating in Xinjiang to comply with as independent audits are thought to be impossible to attain in the region.

EU passes recycling and rights laws that may sharply affect trade with China

China has been accused of operating a systemic campaign of forced labour in Xinjiang, where the UN’s top human rights body said it might have committed “crimes against humanity”.

Beijing has repeatedly denied all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Broadly, the data showed a 4.1 per cent dip in overall EU-China trade.

China’s imports from the EU fell by 9.4 per cent over the first two months of the year, for which Beijing traditionally combines official data, while Chinese imports to the union slipped by 1.3 per cent.

Significant declines came in the shipments of goods that have drawn political attention in Europe over the alleged prevalence of state subsidies in China’s industrial sector.

Among these, electric vehicle shipments tumbled by 32 per cent to US$1.98 billion over the two-month period, while exports of solar photovoltaic cells from China plummeted by 54.3 per cent to US$1.73 billion, according to calculations.

The EU has railed against what it sees as a flood of imports of these products. It believes the products create unfair competition in Europe for local operators.

The bloc is proceeding with an investigation into subsidies in the EV sector, although this month it introduced a requirement that such products made in China must be registered with customs authorities in the EU so that it can apply retroactive tariffs.

EU fails to pass supply chain law that would require audits on Chinese firms

The registration requirement can be viewed as a way to deter imports, which the EU says are “massive”, and were 11 per cent higher between October and January compared with before the launch of the investigation.

Brussels last month launched an investigation into China’s state-owned train manufacturer CRRC in the first use of its foreign-state subsidies regulation.

The European Commission said it was looking at CRRC unit Qingdao Sifang Locomotive over its bid for a contract to provide electric trains to the Bulgarian government.

More probes loom. An investigation into unreciprocated market access in China’s medical devices sector is expected to be launched in the coming period.

No urgent EU help for European solar industry to fight cheap China imports

The head of the EU’s chamber of commerce in Beijing on Wednesday likened the trade tensions to observing a “slow-motion train accident”.

“Something will need to change because Europe cannot just accept that strategically viable industries constituting the European industrial base are being priced out of the market,” said Jens Eskelund.

“It is hard for me to imagine that Europe will sit by quietly and witness the accelerated deindustrialisation of Europe because of the externalisation of low domestic demand in China,” he added.

“In terms of alleviating some of this pressure, there needs to be perhaps a little bit more focus on the demand side in China to create that demand that will make China less of a perceived threat.”

---

UK woman Wen Jian guilty of laundering bitcoin from US$6.3 billion China fraud

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3256145/uk-woman-wen-jian-guilty-laundering-bitcoin-us63-billion-china-fraud?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman accused of converting bitcoin into cash and property to help hide the proceeds of a £5 billion (US$6.3 billion) fraud was this week convicted of one count of money laundering after a trial in a London court.

Prosecutors said Wen Jian helped hide the source of money allegedly stolen from nearly 130,000 Chinese investors in fraudulent wealth schemes between 2014 and 2017.

She was not alleged to have been involved in the underlying fraud, which prosecutors said was masterminded by a woman known to Wen as Zhang Yadi, whose real name is Qian Zhimin.

As part of their investigation, British police seized wallets holding more than 61,000 bitcoin – making it one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures by law enforcement worldwide.

The 61,000 bitcoin was worth around £1.4 billion when police gained access in 2021, prosecutors said during Wen’s trial. It is now worth over £3 billion.

Wen, 42, denied three counts of money laundering, giving evidence that Zhang – who fled Britain in 2020 and whose whereabouts are unknown – told her she was independently wealthy and that Wen did not have any knowledge of criminality.

She was found guilty by jurors of one count on Monday following a trial at Southwark Crown Court. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two other counts. On Wednesday, prosecutor Max Baines said Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service was not seeking a retrial of Wen on those two counts, meaning the guilty verdict could be reported.

Wen will be sentenced next month for the single count of money laundering of which she was found guilty.

US seizes US$500,000 in crypto from Chinese man in Asian ‘pig butchering’ scam

Prosecutor Gillian Jones said at the start of the trial that Zhang had arrived in Britain on a false St Kitts and Nevis passport in 2017, shortly after Chinese authorities began to investigate the fraud.

Zhang needed to convert the stolen money, which was converted into bitcoin to take it out of China, back into cash and used Wen as her “front person”, Jones said.

Prosecutors said Wen should have known Zhang’s money was illegally obtained, including due to her aversion to travelling to countries which had an extradition treaty with China.

Wen, however, said she was simply trying to provide a better life for her son. Her lawyer Mark Harries described Zhang as an “expert criminal supervillain”, who constantly lied to Wen about the source of the money.

Zhang “used her and abandoned her because she was dependable and expendable”, Harries said, when she disappeared in 2020.

Eyeing China, US House unanimously passes bill prohibiting ‘sensitive data’ transfers to foreign adversaries

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3256146/eyeing-china-us-house-unanimously-passes-bill-prohibiting-sensitive-data-transfers-foreign?utm_source=rss_feed

The US House of Representatives unanimously passed a bipartisan bill on Wednesday that would prohibit commercial vendors from transferring Americans’ “sensitive data” to foreign adversary countries including China.

After clearing the House by a 414-0 vote, the legislation now needs to be passed in the Democratic-controlled Senate and signed by US President Joe Biden to become law.

Sponsored by Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the bill would block the sale of government-issued identifiers, financial account numbers, genetic information, precise geolocation information and private communications like emails.

The committee’s chair, Washington Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, co-sponsored the bill.

“The breadth and scope of sensitive personal information aggregated by data brokers makes the sale of that data to our foreign adversaries a unique threat to national security and individual privacy,” Pallone said on Tuesday.

Countries like China could use that information “to launch sophisticated influence campaigns [and] conduct espionage”, he added.

Pallone’s legislation was introduced in conjunction with a bill that would force the Beijing-based owner of popular short-video platform TikTok to divest the app or face a ban from operating in the US.

Lawmakers are concerned that the Chinese government would compel TikTok to provide US user data for surveillance or influence campaigns.

US House vote on TikTok ban suggests broader prism than just pro- or anti-China

Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the Democratic co-sponsor of that bill, which passed last week in the House, said the two bills complemented each other as limiting data brokers’ access “prevents our foreign adversaries from buying American data through other sources” if they cannot directly access data through TikTok.

Tuesday’s targeting of data brokers follows a White House executive order in February that similarly restricts the sale of Americans’ sensitive information to “countries of concern” – which is likely to include China and Russia.

It also follows several stalled attempts to enact national data privacy legislation.

Pallone on Tuesday said his bill represented the beginning of that process.

[Sport] O'Sullivan wins in China but world champion Brecel out

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/68619892

Apple CEO Tim Cook goes on a charm offensive in China amid weak iPhone sales in the world’s largest smartphone market

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3256130/apple-ceo-tim-cook-goes-charm-offensive-china-amid-weak-iphone-sales-worlds-largest-smartphone?utm_source=rss_feed

Apple chief executive Tim Cook on Wednesday met Chinese video game developers, a filmmaker and the billionaire founder of BYD in Shanghai, ahead of the company’s new store opening in the city, as the US tech giant goes on a charm offensive amid weak iPhone sales in the world’s largest smartphone market.

This marks the latest visit to mainland China by Cook, who is expected to take part in the state-organised China Development Forum in Beijing over the weekend.

Cook met developers from Papergames, the studio behind the Nikki and Love series of romance games, and welcomed the Shanghai-based outfit’s plan to bring their popular titles to the Mac and new Vision Pro headset, according to the Apple chief’s post on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo on the same day.

Separately, Cook had a meeting with Wang Chuanfu, the founder, chairman and chief executive of the world’s largest electric vehicle maker BYD, at the Apple office in Shanghai, according to a report by China Daily.

In a photo opportunity at The Bund, Cook early on Wednesday took a walk along Shanghai’s famous waterfront area with Chinese actor Zheng Kai, who managed to take selfies with the US executive.

On the same day, Cook also visited the studio of director Mo Lyu who uses various Apple products to develop, create storyboards, shoot and edit her short films, according to another Weibo post by the company’s chief executive.

Cook also arranged to check products from Apple suppliers such as Lens Technology and Shenzhen Everwin Precision Technology during the Shanghai leg of his latest trip to China.

He was also expected to lead the opening of a new Apple Store in Shanghai’s Jing’an district, the centre of China’s financial hub, on Thursday.

The packed itinerary of Cook reflects his continued optimism about Apple’s long-term prospects in the world’s second-largest economy, despite increased competition from Huawei Technologies and other major domestic handset vendors in the nation’s vast smartphone market.

Cupertino, California-based Apple announced last week plans to expand its research centre in Shanghai to support all of its product lines and the opening of a new lab in southern tech hub Shenzhen later this year.

Apple’s Greater China region – covering the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau – is the firm’s third-largest geographic market behind the Americas and Europe, based on its December quarter results.

“There’s no supply chain in the world that’s more critical to us than China,” Cook said in an interview with China Daily on Wednesday.

Cook added that Apple has been expanding its supply chain in China and increasing investment over the past 30 years.

Apple to expand applied research operations in Shanghai and Shenzhen

The pressure for Apple, however, has ratcheted up in China, as its iPhone sales on the mainland fell 24 per cent year on year over the first six weeks of 2024, according to a report by Counterpoint Research. Total mainland smartphone sales declined by 7 per cent owing in the same period because of increased competition and muted consumer spending.

The company “faced stiff competition at the high end [of the market] from a resurgent Huawei, while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing by the likes of Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi”, the Counterpoint report said.

Apple’s authorised retailers on the mainland started offering steep discounts on the latest iPhone 15 series since early March in an effort to revive sales.

China ups the ante in hunt for foreign investment, hi-tech firms, but will Beijing follow through with actions?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3256114/china-ups-ante-hunt-foreign-investment-hi-tech-firms-will-beijing-follow-through-actions?utm_source=rss_feed

As the world’s second-largest economy is facing an important juncture of battling against US-led supply chain decoupling and other derisking measures, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a clear signal of courting foreign investment and hi-tech firms this week.

During his first field inspection since the conclusion of the ‘two sessions” parliamentary meetings earlier this month, Xi visited BASF Shanshan Battery Materials – a Chinese-German joint venture producing lithium battery materials – in the central province of Hunan on Monday.

And while promising to further open up China’s market to foreign investors, Xi also promoted the so-called new quality productive forces that are intended to introduce a technological and innovation-fuelled economic transformation and provide development opportunities for foreign firms, according to the state-backed Xinhua News Agency.

A second visit to a foreign firm in less than 12 months – after Xi toured a Guangzhou-based display company in April that had received investment from South Korean conglomerate LG – was touted by Xinhua as a “further and clearer declaration of expanding high-level opening up to the world”.

China’s Xi wants market-ready scientific research – and singles out 2 provinces

Xi’s visit was followed by a circular from the State Council on Tuesday, which provided new measures aimed at foreign investors and expats living in China.

China’s cabinet said it would increase the lengths of visas for foreign managers and experts, as well as their spouses and children, from one year to two years.

The National Immigration Administration added on Wednesday that it would extend residence permits to five years, or even offer permanent residency if foreigners meet certain criteria.

China would also waive reapplication requirements if foreign personnel working for the same employer change their work locations or pursue tertiary degrees.

The State Council also said it would scrap all remaining access restrictions limiting foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, and said it would also begin pilot schemes to allow foreign investors to access medical and value-added telecommunication services.

It also pledged to open up its financial sector, promising to tackle areas such as data flow and participation in government procurements that are often criticised by foreign firms.

China is seeking to ensure its economy grows by Beijing’s stated target of “around 5 per cent” this year, while also retaining foreign companies amid Western-led containment efforts.

The foreign business community in China, though, has long demanded action rather than lip service.

“We are pleased to see the Chinese government’s continued efforts to focus on issues of major concern for foreign-invested companies, including clearer standards for cross-border data transfers, working towards a clear definition of ‘Made in China,’ equal treatment for foreign companies in government procurement and making the visa and resident permit process more efficient,” the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said on Wednesday.

The chamber added it looked forward to seeing more details on how the measures would be implemented and also working with government departments to help foreign companies benefit from their roll-out.

“This is a specific step forward,” said a former manager who left Shanghai after his visa expired at the end of last year.

The expat, speaking under the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, also hailed Beijing’s “small yet measurable” progress, including easier mobile and credit card payments for overseas visitors.

However, “such documents from Beijing have many measures but few come with actionable details and a long wait will always follow even if a promise is made”, he added.

Foreign direct investment in China dropped by 13.7 per cent year on year to US$163.3 billion last year.

But in a sign of improving business activity, industrial output by foreign, Hong Kong and Taiwan-invested manufacturers edged up by 6.2 per cent in the first two months of the year, outpacing the 5.8 per cent growth by state-backed firms.

International lobby group backed by Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai pressured US and UN to take action against mainland China and city, court told

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3256124/international-lobby-group-backed-hong-kong-tycoon-jimmy-lai-pressured-us-and-un-take-action-against?utm_source=rss_feed

An international lobbying group alleged to have been backed by Hong Kong media tycoon pressured the US and the United Nations’ top human rights body into taking action to counter what was said to be mainland China’s encroachment on the city’s freedoms, a court has heard.

Andy Li Yu-hin, a detained activist, on Wednesday told West Kowloon Court the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK) group had tried to convince the United Nations to set up an independent panel to examine alleged human rights violations in Hong Kong during the city’s in 2019.

The court heard Li had also met US Senator in September that year because he wanted to trigger an American reaction to the Hong Kong government’s crackdown on the unrest.

The programmer turned activist said the meeting was arranged by Lai’s right-hand man and former US naval intelligence operative , who arranged for Li and another front-line protester to meet Scott and a US consulate staff member in Mid-Levels.

But he added no concrete ideas on what Washington should do in relation to Hong Kong were proposed at the meeting.

Li, the most prominent figure among arrested in mainland Chinese waters in 2020, continued his court testimony as Lai’s national security entered its 49th day.

The 76-year-old mogul denies two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed , and a third alleged offence of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications under .

The founder of the now-closed newspaper was accused of in a bid to trigger international sanctions and other hostile actions by Western nations.

Li on Wednesday rejected prosecutors’ claim that SWHK, which he said was a loose alliance of Hongkongers who campaigned for freedom and democracy, was set up to promote sanctions against Hong Kong and China.

‘Group allegedly backed by Hong Kong’s Lai lobbied UK for action against Beijing’

But he admitted, however, that some of its members encouraged foreign countries to adopt punitive measures.

“[The group’s] main goal was to fight for freedom and democracy for Hong Kong,” Li said. “Sanctions were but a means.”

Li said the group had appealed to the city public to donate to it with the use of “flowery” expressions in its promotional material, such as dubbing the city government the “Hong Kong Communist regime”.

Anthony Chau Tin-hang, for the prosecution, highlighted a screengrab of SWHK’s webpage, which described as an achievement the group’s successful invitation to British parliamentarian Bob Seely to visit Hong Kong in August 2019 to observe the protests.

Li said the visit’s goal was to boost an advocacy campaign by UK-based activist in which he was not involved.

Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai’s PA said to have handled HK$14 million in donations

He added he had explained to Seely that the 2019 demonstrations were triggered by Hongkongers’ dissatisfaction with their limited freedom and declining democratic institutions.

He added Wilson Li Chung-chak, a freelance videographer, was responsible for handling the logistics of the trip and was later involved in arranging Western politicians to observe that year’s .

Chau asked the witness to elaborate on the establishment of a campaign group called Hong Kong Story, in which the latter was listed by the company registry as sole director and shareholder.

Li told the court the group was at first designed as a political platform for his lobbying efforts, but he later found it more effective to act under the title of SWHK and Hong Kong Story was unused.

The trial continues on Thursday.

Beijing protests to Philippine ambassador over ‘recent negative China-related remarks’ from Manila

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256082/beijing-protests-philippine-ambassador-over-recent-negative-china-related-remarks-manila?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has protested to Manila about “recent negative China-related remarks” and comments on issues such as Taiwan and the South China Sea, at a time when the Philippines is upgrading its security ties with the United States.

Liu Jinsong, head of the Asian affairs department at the Chinese foreign ministry, delivered the message at a meeting with Jaime FlorCruz, the Philippine ambassador to China, on Tuesday, according to a readout from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Liu made solemn representations over recent negative statements involving China by the Philippines side, as well as on issues related to Taiwan and the South China Sea. Liu expressed China’s strong dissatisfaction and firm position,” the readout said.

Also on Wednesday, Beijing lashed out at the US after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country’s commitment to defend the Philippines was “ironclad”.

“We have a shared concern about the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] actions that threaten our common vision for a free, open Indo-Pacific, including in the South China Sea and in the Philippines exclusive economic zone,” Blinken said.

These actions included “repeated violations of international law and the rights of the Philippines: water cannons, blocking manoeuvres, close shadowing, other dangerous operations”, he said.

Blinken also made it clear that the US-Philippine 1951 mutual defence treaty would be invoked if the Philippine armed forces, public vessels, aircraft or coastguard came under armed attack in the South China Sea.

Philippines’ Marcos denies stirring up conflict in South China Sea

In response, the Chinese embassy in the Philippines said in a statement on Wednesday that Washington should refrain from “instigating trouble” in the South China Sea and that the US was to blame for stirring up trouble in the region.

“The US is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to interfere in the maritime issues between China and the Philippines. The recent tension in the South China Sea would not have occurred without the US egging on the Philippines,” the Chinese embassy in the Philippines said on its website.

Calling its activities in the disputed waterway “legitimate and lawful”, Beijing said Blinken’s remarks “ignore the facts” and groundlessly accuse China.

It also said Blinken had “again threatened China” by citing the mutual defence pact, which China firmly opposed.

“It is exactly the US and not anyone else that’s threatening peace and stability in the South China Sea,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr told Bloomberg this week his government had not instigated any conflict or confrontation in the South China Sea.

However, he said: “China has taken some very aggressive actions against our coastguard.”

On several occasions, Marcos said his country was firm in defending its sovereignty and would never allow any foreign power to take “one square inch” of its territory.

The latest collision between the Chinese and the Philippine coastguards came on March 5, with Manila accusing China of “dangerous manoeuvres” that damaged its vessels and left four Filipinos injured. Beijing said Manila had “resorted to deception”.

China previously summoned the Philippine ambassador after Marcos congratulated William Lai Ching-te, the winner of Taiwan’s presidential election in January.

The Philippine president had expressed hopes for “close collaboration [with Taiwan], strengthening mutual interests, fostering peace and ensuring prosperity for our peoples in the years ahead” in the congratulatory message.

Later, he clarified that his country was committed to the one-China policy and he did not endorse Taiwanese independence.

China-Philippine ties have sourced amid frequent maritime face-offs in the past year, especially around the contested Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila has been conducting resupply missions for a small group of troops stationed there. Officials from both countries have often traded barbs.

After taking office in 2022, Marcos reversed the Beijing-friendly policy adopted by his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, instead stepping up security ties with Washington and its allies.

White House to host first-ever US-Philippines-Japan summit to counter China

The Philippines granted access to more military bases for Washington and resumed their joint patrols. Manila is also negotiating a reciprocal access agreement with Tokyo, paving the way for future joint military exercises and training.

Leaders of the US, Japan and the Philippines will also hold their first trilateral summit at the White House next month, with discussions on the South China Sea likely to top the agenda.

Solomon Islands PM praises China’s governance while criticizing democracy as immoral

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3256118/solomon-islands-pm-praises-chinas-governance-while-criticizing-democracy-immoral?utm_source=rss_feed

In a fiery campaign speech, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare criticised democracy for promoting LGBTQ culture and lauded China’s system of governance for its economic success.

It comes at a time when Beijing is vying with Australia and the US for influence over the Pacific nation, with Sogavare being the foremost proponent for closer ties with China.

The prime minister, who is widely expected to win reelection on April 17, told a campaign rally in Auki, the capital city of Malaita Province, that democracy allows you to “do whatever you want”.

“Men can marry men, women can marry women – [those] are the principles associated with the values of democracy,” he said.

Solomon Islands’ pro-China leader pledges to continue Australia balancing act

“You have to ask yourself, what values are you comfortable with as a Christian country?”

The Solomon Islands is a highly conservative Christian-majority nation in which same-sex relations are illegal for both men and women.

Sogavare also said China had embraced a “socialist system of government” that was “Chinese style”, which fuelled its economic progress.

“You don’t see beggars in China asking for money … [you] see that in every major city in the United States [and] it’s supposed to be the number one economy in the world,” he said.

Sogavare added his decision to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China “put the Solomon Islands on the map”.

The Solomon Islands established a bilateral relationship with Beijing in 2019 after cutting ties with Taiwan, attracting large amounts of aid and investment from the economic giant.

Last year, China rolled out the red carpet for Sogavare and signed a raft of deals, including one allowing it to maintain its police presence in the island nation until 2025.

The two sides also signed a security pact in 2022, alarming the US and Australia, who feared that China could use it to establish a military foothold in the South Pacific.

During his speech in Malaita, which opposed switching ties in 2019, Sogavare touted the economic benefits of aligning with China.

“For the past 45, years we have been struggling to make headway in development under [the previous] arrangement [with Taiwan],” he said.

The four-time prime minister said the ruling party’s “superior understanding of the new political reality has allowed him to make astute foreign policy decisions”.

The country hosted the 2023 Pacific Games in a new China-funded stadium that Sogavare projected as a key achievement of his government.

Solomon Islands hosts China-funded Pacific Games amid big-power rivalry

In 2021, he announced plans to suspend the 2023 election to manage the event, triggering anti-government riots that resulted in the capital city of Honiara’s Chinatown being torched.

Peter Kenilorea Jnr, Sogavare’s main rival, has pledged to revoke the security agreement with Beijing if he takes office.

“The burden to develop our beloved Solomon Islands does not rest on the shoulders of any of our development partners, no way, [it] rests squarely on the shoulders of the government and people of Solomon Islands themselves,” Australia’s public broadcaster ABC quoted him saying.

Meanwhile, Sogavare’s party last week accused the electoral commission of not being “impartial” and claimed Australia, a major donor for the agency, was trying to influence the next month’s poll.

Chief electoral officer Jasper Anis rejected the allegations, saying the commission was an independent body.

Australia, China should take ties ‘far’, Wang Yi says, as he urges more bilateral cooperation

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3256117/australia-china-should-take-ties-far-wang-yi-says-he-urges-more-bilateral-cooperation?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has asked Australian businesses and academics to visit China more and increase partnerships with Chinese counterparts, particularly in green energy, while reaffirming the two countries’ relations are back on track after a successful reset.

In a first visit by a Chinese foreign minister to Australia since 2017 amid thawing relations, Wang met Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong for the seventh Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue in Canberra on Wednesday before speaking privately to a group of Australian leaders.

These include Australia China Business Council (ACBC) president David Olsson, Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Simon Trott, and defence expert and Australia National University professor Hugh White.

Wang told the group China was committed to transforming its economy into one with a “green, high-quality, growth model”, according to a statement from the ACBC.

Olsson said this would offer significant upside to Australian exporters and help “Australia’s own decarbonisation efforts and the longer-term industrial transformation of Australia’s economy”.

Wang and the group also discussed investments, education and digital trade, as well as China’s engagement with the United States and Asia.

“It was a free-ranging discussion reflecting a diverse range of views and voices from the Australian side, reflecting the conversations that are taking place in Australia about the future direction of the bilateral relationship,” Olsson said, adding that the tone of the meeting was “positive”.

Wang also said both countries had more in common than differences and thus should always seek to be partners than opponents.

China to end wine tariffs in ‘coming weeks’, Australia says, as ties improve

Bilateral relations sank to an all-time low at the start of the pandemic following frictions stemming from a rise in Sinophobia in Australia, suspicions of Chinese foreign interference in Australia, the banning of China’s Huawei in Australia and Beijing blocking Australian exports in recent years.

Wang proposed that Australia and China respond to global challenges such as climate change together, and said the stability of bilateral relations contributed to global certainty.

With relations clearly moving in the right direction, both countries must keep up the momentum and “strive to continue to move well together and steadily, taking the journey far”, Wang said.

At the meeting with Wong, Wang said he was willing to increase high-level exchanges between the two countries and support cooperation in all fields.

Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the “Group of Eight Australia” university coalition, said research collaboration between nations in particular was important and “central to enhancing our long-standing friendship … and to navigate the shared challenges ahead”.

“These partnerships deliver enormous economic and social benefits to both countries, but also foster enduring people-to-people ties, support soft diplomacy efforts, and boost practical cooperation between Australia and China,” Thomson said.

In recent years, however, Chinese academics have been raided in Australia by security agencies, prompting concerns over visits to Australia.

On the lifting of China’s trade restrictions on Australian exports – imposed after the former Morrison government suggested an independent investigation into China over the pandemic – Wong told a press conference that she welcomed China’s interim decision to lift export-prohibitive Chinese tariffs on Australian wine and looked forward to the easing of blocks on beef and lobsters.

The Chinese market is crucial to the profitability and growth of Australian wine as well as lobster producers.

But Wong said Australia’s recent decision to end an anti-dumping ban on Chinese wind turbines was not in response to China’s move to ease trade with Australia.

She said on Wednesday that she had also spoken to Wang about the shock suspended death penalty for detained Australian academic Yang Hengjun, human rights abuse in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, and unsafe conduct in the South China Sea.

Wang said China and Australia had no historical grievances or conflicts in relation to these issues and asked that both countries respect mutual sovereignty.

On a lighter note, Wong said it was likely two pandas on loan from China since 2009, and due to return this year, would extend their stay in Adelaide Zoo.

“And I did say to the foreign minister that my children would be very pleased,” she said.

The positive meeting between the two nations was momentarily upset by allegations from right-wing publication The Australian that former Australian prime minister Paul Keating’s meeting with Wang while he was in Canberra – through an invitation from Beijing – would be Keating’s most “extraordinary intervention” in his campaign to oppose the Albanese government’s foreign policy.

Keating has been vocal in his opposition of Canberra’s Aukus submarine arrangements with the United Kingdom and the US – aimed at countering China and media suggestions of an invasion of Australia by China.

Keating said in a Monday statement that meeting Wang was part of the “intercourse of national and international discussion” and that commentary by The Australian should be “contemptuously ignored”.

“Australia has moved substantially from the counterproductive baiting policy the Morrison government applied to China to now something much more civil and productive,” he said.

“The Australian newspaper, for its part, remains trenchantly anti-Chinese.”

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China actress-director whose latest movie and drastic physical transformation make headlines, becomes 4th in mainland to gross over US$1.4 billion

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3255022/china-actress-director-whose-latest-movie-and-drastic-physical-transformation-make-headlines-becomes?utm_source=rss_feed

Mainland movie creator Jia Ling has become the fourth actress in China whose total box office take from the films she starred in has exceeded 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion).

The other three are Ma Li with 19.37 billion yuan, Zhou Dongyu with 12.25 billion and Zhang Xiaofei with 10.04 billion, according to the mainland movie industry statistics app, Dengta.

One of 41-year-old comic actress Ma’s most famous movies is the 2022 science fiction offering, Moon Man.

She plays a leading role in famous director Zhang Yimou’s recent Article 20.

Ma is so popular in China that she has been invited to play skits on the most-viewed CCTV annual Spring Festival gala show eight times.

Zhou, 32, was selected by the film master Zhang Yimou to play in his 2010 movie The Love of the Hawthorn Tree.

She is regarded as one of the most accomplished actresses in China after winning the most prestigious film awards in the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan before she reached 30.

Many of the Zhou’s films are of the art and literary genre.

Zhang Xiaofei, 38, only became a household name in China after the success of Jia’s movie Hi, Mom which was released two years ago and in which Zhang plays the heroine.

Zhang, a good friend of Jia, also participated in her latest work Re La Gun Tang, or You Only Live Once.

Jia, the world’s highest grossing woman movie director, enjoys huge popularity on the mainland because audiences like her upbeat and easy-going character, while admiring her hard-working and persistent spirit.

Jia, 41, started her career as a humble cross-talk performer and comic actress who struggled to make ends meet and lived in a small underground rented flat in Beijing 20 years ago.

Her fame has grown gradually over the past decade thanks to her appearance on CCTV’s Spring Festival gala shows and her participation in a number of art programs.

Hi, Mom, which is Jia’s first film as a director, tells the story of her mother, Li Huanying, who was killed in a road accident. It was a huge hit, taking in five billion yuan at the box office.

Her second movie Re La Gun Tang, adapted from the Japanese 2014 film 100 Yen Love, has grossed 3.4 billion yuan at the box office since its debut on February 10.

Jia is the leading actress in both films.

For her second movie, she lost 50kg in weight to portray a fat, jobless and decadent woman who learned boxing to find the new direction in life.

Jia’s dramatic change in physical stature won her massive plaudits on mainland social media.

Her box office achievement has become a topic of heated discussion online, although opinions are divided over Jia’s success.

“Jia Ling has again demonstrated her talent. Go for it, Sister Ling,” said one of her fans on Douyin.

But others do not think highly of Jia.

“I think she is just good at marketing. Her first movie is about missing mum while the second one is encouraging. Both topics could easily attract the public’s attention,” said one online observer.

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang to visit Australia as Canberra continues push to lift trade barriers

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256089/chinese-premier-li-qiang-visit-australia-canberra-continues-push-lift-trade-barriers?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Australia’s foreign ministers have yet to reach agreement on removing trade barriers on Australian goods, but said on Wednesday that Premier Li Qiang was planning to visit Canberra.

Wang Yi, who is also China’s foreign policy chief, met his counterpart Penny Wong in the Australian capital on Wednesday as relations start to thaw following a series of disputes over trade and human rights.

“We should build on the good momentum of bilateral relations so far … to jointly build a more mature, stable and fruitful comprehensive strategic partnership,” Wang said.

“Since China-Australia relations are on the right track, we must not hesitate, deviate or turn back … This is in the common interest of the two peoples.”

He last visited in 2017, and relations have since deteriorated over Canberra’s decision to ban Huawei from its 5G network and push for a World Health Organization inquiry into the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In response, China, Australia’s biggest trade partner, imposed punitive tariffs or outright bans on a wide range of Australian products, including barley, wine, beef and lobsters in 2020.

But in the wake of the election victory by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party, which sought to improve relations, China removed tariffs on Australian barley last year.

It has also started reviewing tariffs on Australian wine, and the outcome should be known by the end of the month, Wang said during the meeting.

No additional barrier removals were announced immediately following the meeting, but Wong said she hoped that tariffs on beef and a ban on lobster imports would be lifted soon and welcomed the removal of previous trade restrictions.

She also announced the planned visit by Li, saying both countries will work together to prepare for his visit.

But she said stabilising relations is an “ongoing work” and noted “important differences” exist on issues such as Taiwan, the South China Sea and human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.

“Obviously, these topics underline that we do have important differences. Dialogue enables us to manage our differences. It doesn’t eliminate them,” she said.

“But this government, in the interest of Australians, will always seek to manage those differences wisely.”

She also said they had discussed the case of Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who was handed a suspended death sentence for espionage in China last month. Wong insisted Australia will not “walk away” from Yang and will continue to advocate for him.

The detention of other Australian citizens – including Cheng Lei, the journalist who was released from China last year after three years in detention – and Canberra’s increasing defence cooperation with the United States and its allies to counter what they describe as China’s “assertiveness” are other issues that cast a shadow over relations.

Beijing has criticised Australia’s efforts to get hold of nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus pact with the US and Britain, which it says will undermine regional stability and risks triggering an arms race.

Meanwhile, Canberra has also agreed to boost cooperation on maritime security with the Philippines, where the long-running territorial dispute between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea has escalated in recent months.

Australian writer sentenced to death in China may never be executed

Wang met business and industry representatives after the meeting, promising that China’s market would remain “wide-open” to investors.

Separately, China’s Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong met Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw on Tuesday and pledged to “jointly open a new chapter in China-Australia law enforcement cooperation”.

Kershaw is in China to sign three joint arrangements focused on countering narcotics trafficking and transnational crime in China, according to a statement by the Australian police.

Officials in China’s Guizhou face corruption investigation weeks after launch of probe into arrest of businesswoman

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3256110/officials-chinas-guizhou-face-corruption-investigation-weeks-after-launch-probe-arrest-businesswoman?utm_source=rss_feed

Two officials from southern China’s Guizhou province are being investigated for corruption weeks after the province started looking into the arrest of a businesswoman who tried to recoup millions in back payments for projects carried out under the duo’s watch.

Hou Junran, the deputy Communist Party secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of Shuicheng district in the city of Liupanshui, and Wang Erbin, Shuicheng’s former deputy party secretary, are under investigation for “severe violation of the law and party discipline”, the Liupanshui Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on Tuesday.

Both officials held positions at the Yeyuhai Mountainous Region Resort, which is owned by the Shuicheng district government.

Businesswoman’s arrest after seeking arrears from government sparks investigation

Starting in 2017, the resort invested close to 300 million yuan (US$41 million) to build bike-racing lanes, houses and museums. But by 2018, the projects were halted due to lack of funding, according to a 2021 report by state-owned China National Radio.

Businesswoman Ma Yijiayi’s construction company was contracted to build many of these amenities, but she said she was never paid for the projects. She later sued the resort subsidiary that oversaw the projects for non-payment and won, but she still never received the money.

According to a now-deleted report published in the China Business Journal last month, the local government allegedly owed Ma 220 million yuan but tried to settle the debt for 12 million – an offer the businesswoman refused.

In November, Ma was detained and accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – a controversial catch-all charge often used to prevent aggrieved parties from raising complaints to higher authorities, according to an investigation by China’s top court. She was arrested in January and remains in custody.

China’s graft busters shame city boss for wasting US$21 billion on pet projects

Authorities did not say whether the investigations into Hou and Wang were directly related to Ma’s case, but they come just weeks after Guizhou prosecutors set up a special task force in late February to look into the businesswoman’s arrest.

It is the second time Wang has been investigated by party disciplinary authorities. In 2018, he was investigated, expelled from the party and demoted.

An article published by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in 2019 said Wang had often dined with businessmen. It said he had accepted cash and gift cards from them and sold a flat for half a million yuan above market price in exchange for granting favours to a real estate developer.

Wang previously served as director, party secretary and environment deputy bureau chief in Liupanshui. From November 2014 to May 2018, he acted as chairman of the Yeyuhai resort’s management committee, a state-owned body.

From 2016 to 2020, media reports described Hou’s position as deputy director of the resort’s management committee.

The chairman of the resort’s management committee in 2021 said the government had wanted to provide employment in tourism and senior care, but planning had been “ahead of its time”.

Liupanshui authorities said they had paid off nearly 90 per cent of the money they owe Ma, and that the entrepreneur was arrested for using GPS to illegally track and obtain citizens’ data.

Provincial prosecutors have not released any more updates on Ma’s case since setting up the task force in February to investigate her arrest.

Liupanshui, a small city of 3.6 million, has been fighting against poverty for years. It has been touted as a success under President Xi Jinping’s poverty alleviation campaign.

How I learned to stop worrying and embrace going cashless in China

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/asia/article/3255897/how-i-learned-stop-worrying-and-embrace-going-cashless-china?utm_source=rss_feed

I recently returned from a week-long trip to mainland China where I was intrigued by the widespread use of mobile payment systems. It was my first trip to the mainland since the outbreak of Covid-19.

On previous trips, I used cash for most payments and credit cards for bigger expenditures. So it wasn’t necessary for me to set up an account with WeChat Pay or Alipay, the mainland’s two major mobile payment methods.

But the recent news that China has become increasingly cashless – with some tourists caught off guard by vendors who didn’t even offer change for cash transactions – got me worried.

As a result, I went to the trouble of setting up a WeChat Pay account before my visit. I’m glad I did because, from the moment I got off the plane to the moment I boarded my flight back home, paying for things became as smooth as it could possibly be.

The two payment QR codes for WeChat Pay and Alipay were nearly everywhere, including at vending machines. Scanning a code to complete a transaction took just seconds. Or you could let the cashier scan the QR code in your phone’s mobile app to make payment.

I used the ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing to book a ride for the first time. The app informed me how much it was going to cost. Afterwards, the exact amount was automatically deducted. As a customer, it’s convenient not to have to deal with coins and notes, and I feel assured that I’m not being overcharged.

During my trip, I came to appreciate the quick and easy process of mobile payments. The best part was that I didn’t have a credit card bill when I returned, and no hefty currency exchange rates to grumble about either.

As a former cashier and an entrepreneur, I especially value the convenience of mobile payments apps. When I worked as a cashier decades ago, I had to tally cash in the register with a ledger at the end of a shift. There were times when the cash was short and the discrepancies would be deducted from my pay. It was devastating to say the least. I am not the only one who has suffered from this. But cashless payments eradicate this risk.

As an entrepreneur, I know full well about the rates credit card companies impose on businesses, usually between 1.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent of transactions. This puts a heavy burden on small businesses. Compared to that, the rates WeChat Pay and Alipay charge are generally less than 1 per cent of transactions.

Hong Kong ‘lagging behind’ in e-payments as Octopus, cash still dominate

The experience of using e-payment reminded me of the history of paper money. China began to use paper money as part of its currency system about 1,000 years ago. But when Marco Polo made reference to paper as money in China, some Europeans questioned the credibility of his accounts. They finally came around though. In 1661, the first real banknotes were issued in the West.

It is perhaps not a coincidence that the rise of the West was accompanied by the circulation of paper money. Around the same time, a closed Qing court spelled the decline of China. It was particularly telling when Emperor Qianlong essentially said that China had everything and it needed nothing from others.

Today, history may be repeating itself, but in reverse. In China, a superior mobile payment system is widespread and it is likely to improve when the country’s digital yuan, or e-CNY, is implemented on a wider scale. Some experts say the e-CNY will boost transparency, curb corruption and potentially challenge the dominance of the US dollar.

Meanwhile in the West, cash and credit cards are still prevalent. Some e-payment options are just different ways of paying with credit cards. At least 86 per cent of central banks worldwide are researching the potential of issuing their own digital currency but they need to address technical challenges and overcome privacy concerns.

This could add to the growing influence of China on the world stage, while diminishing the West’s.

Do China’s leaders fully grasp foreigners’ concerns about the country?

When I returned, I couldn’t help but feel that Hong Kong is missing out. After a taxi ride home, I handed the driver a HK$500 note. The driver asked if I had smaller notes so I found two HK$100 notes and accepted the change.

This is just one small instance. There are also a number of restaurants where “cash only” signs are displayed next to the cashier counter. One cannot help but wonder: perhaps the status of an international financial centre is not only about stocks and bonds; the daily lives of average people are just as important.

While WeChat Pay was my primary payment method during my trip, I also carried some cash. After reading the negative accounts of vendors refusing cash, I was curious to find out for myself. I paid with cash on three occasions; nobody refused it and everyone gave back the proper change.

Maybe the hard-luck experiences of those tourists I read about were the exceptions. Either way, I won’t be bringing cash for my next trip because mobile payments are just too good to pass up.

China has ‘bigger fish to fry’ despite Japan upping interest rates for first time in 17 years

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3256095/china-has-bigger-fish-fry-despite-japan-upping-interest-rates-first-time-17-years?utm_source=rss_feed

Japan’s decision to raise the cost of borrowing for the first time in 17 years this week is seen to offer yen assets a boost, but the impact of higher rates on China’s currency and cross-border capital flows might be marginal, according to analysts.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Tuesday met market expectations by ending eight years of negative interest rates in an attempt to stimulate the country’s stagnating economy that has also struggled with deflation.

The move briefly drove up Japanese stocks, with the Nikkei 225 index having gained 19.5 per cent since the start of the year, while the yen is up 5.9 per cent against the US dollar.

But analysts do not expect any direct impact on China as overseas investors are more concerned with the effectiveness of Beijing’s easing measures, which are aimed at supporting sustainable economic growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s economy posted a strong rebound in the first two months of the year, putting it on course for 5 per cent growth in the first quarter, although its prolonged property market slump remains a drag on its overall economic recovery.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is seen to be walking a fine line between maintaining the stability of the yuan and rate cuts, because lowering interest rates could increase pressure on its currency, which has already depreciated 1.47 per cent against the US dollar since the start of the year.

Further yuan weakness against the US dollar could trigger fund outflows from yuan-denominated assets, a move that could be destabilising for China’s capital markets.

“The PBOC has bigger fish to fry than [the] BOJ hike. China’s domestic economy is struggling to get out of first gear, held back by the collapsing property market and hesitant households. The need to turn that around trumps all else,” said Harry Murphy Cruise, an assistant director and economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Explainer: Rebound or false alarm? 6 takeaways from China’s January-February economic data

China’s state-run funds have stepped up buying stocks to support domestic prices since January, when the onshore stock market kept falling, further dampening investors confidence in the country’s overall economic resilience.

Chinese regulators have pledged to continue efforts to facilitate cross-border investment and financing.

“As to capital outflow out of [mainland] China and Hong Kong, investors’ interest in Japan currently is driven more by equity than fixed income or interest rate considerations. So we would not expect significant impact there either,” said Louis Kuijs, chief Asia-Pacific economist at S&P Global Ratings.

According to the US-based Institute of International Finance, Chinese stocks posted inflows of US$9.6 billion in February following six months of outflows on the back of state-led buying, with scarring effects from the coronavirus pandemic also beginning to ease.

But Chinese debt remained in the midst of an outflow episode, losing US$6.5 billion in February, the data showed.

Analysts also said China’s economic performance or policy changes, as well as the US Federal Reserve’s decisions and monetary policy outlook, are the major factors influencing the yuan and capital movement.

“In the near term, there may be some temporary effect [on outflows], because as the interest rates go from negative to positive in Japan, the Japanese stock market prices may have some short correction period,” said Chen Zhiwu, chair professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong.

Is China in danger of Japanification? What can it do to avoid lost decades?

Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING, said the PBOC has been pushing back on depreciation since the start of the year, and the interest rate increase in Japan is unlikely to cause a substantive shift in the trajectory of the yuan.

“In the near term, there is still a level of depreciation, while we expect the yuan to appreciate in the second half of the year once global rate cuts are under way,” he said.

A survey released by Bank of America on Wednesday indicated that global fund managers viewed Japan as a “market of choice” as investors had been gearing up for the government declaring an official end to deflation by June.

Japan has been suffering from long-lasting but mild deflation since the latter half of the 1990s.

The Bank of America survey showed that while overseas investors had become more “enthusiastic” about China’s economic outlook after an extended period of pessimism, many respondents had chosen not to allocate funds to Chinese equities.

“However, the long-term view is still uncomfortably dispirited, with 77 per cent of investors subscribing to a structural derating view for China equities,” the Bank of America said.

Chinese financial service company, China International Capital Corporation (CICC), said on Sunday that there could be some inflows into Chinese assets emanating from investors aiming to hedge against short-term corrections in Japanese stocks.

“However, in the long run, the return of foreign investment to China depends on the improvement of domestic fundamentals,” CICC said.

China starts international manhunt saying it will rid belt and road programme of graft and bring corrupt officials home

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3256068/china-starts-international-manhunt-saying-it-will-rid-belt-and-road-programme-graft-and-bring?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has pledged to fight corruption related to its Belt and Road Initiative as China kicks off the annual international manhunt it says is aimed at fugitive corrupt officials and cross-border corruption.

Beijing’s top anti-graft watchdog urged cadres to be “daring and skilled in fighting the domestic and international battlefields, and deeply advance the pursuit of fugitives and asset recovery and cross-border corruption governance”, according to a report published by the People’s Daily on Wednesday.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) made the call in a meeting on Tuesday with multiple agencies involved in the cross-border corruption hunt, the People’s Daily said.

“[We] must strengthen the integrity of building the Belt and Road Initiative and reinforce the high-pressure stance against corruption to provide strong support and a firm guarantee for winning the tough and protracted battle against corruption,” the CCDI said, according to the state media report.

The belt and road global trillion-dollar trade and infrastructure programme was launched in 2013 with the promise of being a New Silk Road, and is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature project.

More than 150 countries from Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America have signed up for the massive project, offering Beijing a chance to promote economic integration.

However, as it enters a second decade, its integrity and transparency have frequently come under question in international discourse. The project has been blamed by Washington and its allies as a geopolitical weapon which increases China’s leverage in countries to which it has granted debts.

And its large-scale, government-led and top-down approach in investment makes it vulnerable to the elite interests of participating countries and local kleptocracies.

In response to rising concerns about the belt and road scheme, Beijing has pledged on multiple occasions to keep it free from bribery and corruption.

The CCDI, the country’s top graft buster, listed fighting corruption related to the belt and road as one of its top work priorities in the annual work report made public in February.

The party’s anti-corruption chief Li Xi also said China was committed to a “clean Silk Road” in a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Cam Tu in Beijing in November.

Beijing’s multi-agency operation, which has entered its 10th year of operation, involves several ministries, such as the Ministry of Public Security, hunting for officials who have departed overseas.

Under “Operation Skynet”, Chinese national police will work with the People’s Bank of China to crack down on underground banks and offshore companies used to transfer illicit financial assets.

The Central Organisation Department, in charge of the party’s apparatchiks, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate will also play a role in targeting escaped suspects.

In 2021, Xiao Pei, deputy secretary of the CCDI, said 9,165 fugitives had returned to China and more than 21.7 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in stolen money had been recovered since the campaign was launched in June 2014.

China has claimed some success in repatriating fugitives under China’s Operation Fox Hunt.

It’s not rocket science: Hong Kong needs to jump on Chinese space bandwagon

https://www.scmp.com/comment/hk-opinion/article/3255966/its-not-rocket-science-hong-kong-needs-jump-chinese-space-bandwagon?utm_source=rss_feed

I’ve just returned from a mission to Beijing to seek partners for not only scientific space research but also commercial “NewSpace” endeavours.

Attending six meetings in 2½ days was exhausting yet exhilarating. Why? Because the mood music from every group we met, whether in the halls of academia or the boardrooms of private companies, is effectively the same.

We found ourselves in a “can-do” atmosphere humming with excitement about what the future may hold, an impatience to act, a keenness to deliver, and fervour for all things space.

This was apparent not just from national space projects (as exemplified by the lunar and Mars programmes, the space station and a soon-to-be-installed space telescope), but also from the flurry of activity in the rapidly expanding commercial realm.

On the mainland, commercial space activities are seen as an incubator and facilitator of new industries and technologies for the longer-term wealth and health of a developed nation. No short-termism here, unlike among many Western governments.

China’s aims include developing and improving overall space capabilities, growing its economic footprint in the commercial space sector, as well as real and meaningful international collaboration.

This intent is not new, but it is earnest. For example, the Chinese government’s 2022 white paper, “China’s Space Program: A 2021 Perspective”, mentions “international” 59 times and “cooperation” 39 times.

Top-tier cities on the mainland are clearly paying attention to this mood music. Beijing and Shanghai both recently revealed impressive plans to foster commercial space ecosystems of their own. Hong Kong should take note.

At the same time, there is a real eagerness, far stronger than I expected, among mainland NewSpace companies to reach out to Hong Kong. This is because of their strong belief in Hong Kong, whose special status as a meeting point of East and West, and of opportunity and pragmatic cooperation, remains concrete.

The city is able to provide avenues, however indirect, for international linkages, cooperation and partnerships that are more difficult to navigate from the mainland. It’s also about winning overseas customers.

Old Hong Kong has no future? Good, merge it with Shenzhen

This belief persists, despite well-known headwinds and all-too-frequent blasts of Western propaganda about Hong Kong being finished or living off the fumes of past glories. I do not agree with such a negative view, and to my knowledge, it has not infected much mainland thinking about Hong Kong. However, I do think our city needs to be more in tune with the national mood, and more aware of the burgeoning opportunities in NewSpace.

I am also reflecting on the successful test flight of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship – the most powerful rocket ever built. The visionary billionaire has, by any measure, built the most successful private space enterprise the world has seen.

SpaceX has pioneered reusable rockets (which China’s LandSpace is also developing), SpaceX Dragon capsules take astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and the constellation of operational SpaceX Starlink satellites has grown to 5,442 as of this month, out of a planned 12,000.

Against this international backdrop of large-scale commercial space operations, smaller enterprises are very active and new start-ups are proliferating.

The global space economy, currently valued at about HK$3 trillion (US$384 billion) by Bryce Tech, could reach HK$7 trillion in the next decade or so. A Chinese Elon Musk is not such a ridiculous prospect.

And yet, despite the unique strengths Hong Kong continues to enjoy under “one country, two systems”, and which could be tapped to explore opportunities in NewSpace, the government seems curiously unmoved.

This is even more difficult to fathom in the context of the massive plan to develop the Northern Metropolis. For all its much-touted smart and green credentials, the mega project is missing the ground-to-sky sensing technologies and integrated planning needed to make everything work.

In the meantime, our elite institutions such as Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University of Hong Kong are playing their part and setting the pace. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has launched a satellite from the mainland, while the Chinese University of Hong Kong is increasingly involved in the mainland space sector. And Hong Kong’s Orion Astropreneur Space Academy (OASA) continues to fight the good fight.

Let’s hope government policy will shift, and the green light will be given for NewSpace to help turbocharge our smart city.

Warily eyeing China’s Pacific influence, US talks up US$7.1 billion in aid

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/3256072/warily-eyeing-chinas-pacific-influence-us-talks-us71-billion-aid?utm_source=rss_feed

US officials have stressed that newly-approved legislation providing billions of dollars in funding for three strategically important Pacific island nations is an important sign of American commitment, which comes amid warnings China is actively trying to pry them away from Washington’s sphere of influence.

The renewal of funds for the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau – known collectively as the Freely Associated States – had been held up for months by broader infighting in Congress over budgetary issues, even though they enjoyed widespread bipartisan support.

Leaders in the islands had warned that delays could have forced their governments to cut services, and swayed public opinion towards offers of investment from China.

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jnr, who faces an election later this year, cautioned in a February letter that was made public that the Chinese Communist Party was seeking to take advantage of the American delay.

“Every day it is not approved plays into the hands of the CCP and the leaders here … who want to accept its seemingly attractive economic offers at the cost of shifting alliances, beginning with sacrificing Taiwan,” he wrote.

“The PRC has already offered to ‘fill every hotel room’ in our tourism-based private sector – ‘and more if more are built’ – and US$20 million a year for two acres for a call centre,” he wrote, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.

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

While the US$7.1 billion in aid, approved on March 9 and to be spread over 20 years, is not a lot compared to other aid being considered by Congress – like US$95 billion for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan – it makes up a significant portion of the small island nations’ budgets and is critical for health services, infrastructure projects, and education.

“We understand the past several months have been frustrating for, and uncertain for our friends in the Pacific,” said Taylor Ruggles, the State Department’s senior adviser for the implementation of the pact through which funds are allocated, known as the Compact of Free Association.

“We’ve heard their concerns about getting it done, and frankly we shared those frustrations.”

The new pact comes amid an American diplomatic push in the region, which gained new impetus when the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China in 2022, a wake-up call that raised the prospect of Beijing establishing a naval foothold in the South Pacific. “It was a top priority for this administration,” Ruggles said.

He said it was a sign of the COFA agreement’s importance that it was passed while other national security priorities are still stalled in Congress.

“This relationship really supports the security, stability, freedom and prosperity throughout the Indo-Pacific,” Ruggles said.

Under the COFA agreement, citizens of the three nations have the right to live and work in the US among other benefits, while the US provides for their postal service, national defence and uses their territory – a maritime area larger than the continental United States – for military installations and exercises.

The first COFA agreement was signed with the US in the 1980s, and it has already been renewed once.

US Senate passes funds for Pacific island nations after congressional delays

‘Strong ties between the United States and the Pacific islands form the foundation of our engagement and presence in the Pacific,” said Interior Department official Keone Nakoa in a call from Washington with reporters.

“The provision of 20 years of new economic assistance sends a clear signal of the United States’ commitment to the long, historic relationships we have held with the associated states.”

The Freely Associated States have a combined population of less than 200,000 spread across more than 1,000 islands and atolls, about 4,000km (2,500 miles) southwest of Hawaii.

In addition to Guam, the states give the US military a forward presence in the Pacific, including a missile test facility in the Marshall Islands and a high-frequency radar system being built in Palau.

The countries have had strong ties to the US since American forces liberated them from Imperial Japan in World War II, but China has been working hard to try and win influence, and also convince Palau and the Marshall Islands, which still recognise Taiwan, to change loyalties.

In February, the presidents of the three countries warned American congressional leaders that the delays in the COFA renewal had “generated uncertainty among our peoples” and created “undesirable opportunities for economic exploitation by competitive political actors active in the Pacific.”

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

The ties between the Freely Associated States and the US, however, are much deeper than strictly financial, Ruggles said.

“We have a really unique and special relationship with the Freely Associated States, arguably one of the closest relationships possible between sovereign nations,” he said.

“Their citizens serve in the US military, they can travel and work freely in the United States, our military provides for the national defence – we’re as close as countries can be and this has been a long-standing relationship.”

Ukraine war: China has ‘great potential’ to help end the conflict, Kyiv’s top diplomat says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256078/ukraine-war-china-has-great-potential-help-end-war-kyivs-top-diplomat-says?utm_source=rss_feed

China has “great potential” to help end the Ukraine war and both countries remained “confident in each other”, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday, according to Chinese media reports.

“In bilateral relations between Ukraine and China, there has never been any major problem, so the trust is there,” Kuleba told an online briefing in response to a question from news portal The Paper. He also said Kyiv anticipated more dialogue with Beijing in the future, according to the report.

Kuleba’s remarks on Tuesday came as Beijing continued engagement aimed at mediating peace talks amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, while Switzerland worked with Ukraine to plan a high-level peace conference.

Earlier this month, Li Hui, Beijing’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, travelled to Kyiv, Moscow and European Union countries for a second round of talks to test the waters for peace negotiations. He called for a political settlement to the war as he met with Kuleba in Ukraine.

In February, Kuleba met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where he agreed to continue dialogue and maintain contact at all levels.

Fatal Ukrainian strikes rock Russia as vote cements Putin’s grip

Kuleba described both meetings as “meaningful”, adding that Li had “participated in all the briefings and meetings to get a full picture of the situation”, The Paper reported.

Last month, during the annual meeting of China’s top legislative and political advisory bodies, Wang called for an international peace conference to end the Ukraine war.

“If peace talks cannot be opened, misunderstanding and miscalculations will accumulate and multiply, thus creating a bigger crisis,” he told reporters in Beijing.

China was expected to join the Ukraine peace summit hosted by Switzerland, and work on inviting Russia, the Post reported earlier.

On Monday, Chinese ambassador to Switzerland Wang Shiting told the Zurich-based Neue Zurcher Zeitung that China was “examining the possibility of taking part”.

China has positioned itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war, and on the first anniversary of the conflict, released a 12-point peace plan. Beijing has not condemned Russia for the invasion.

During a meeting with Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin, Li agreed that Russia should be included in any proposed peace settlement for Ukraine, according to Moscow’s foreign ministry.

Ukraine drone strikes on Russia’s oil refineries mark new phase of war

At the Munich Security Conference last month, Wang said the conditions had not yet been right for peace talks and that the concerns of both Russia and Ukraine should be taken into consideration. He has not visited Ukraine since the war started in February 2022.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky talked by phone in April 2023.

On Monday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin won re-election, Xi sent his congratulations and pledged his support for the China-Russia partnership.

The two leaders are expected to meet several times this year, according to China’s ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui, who last month announced that Putin planned to visit China this year.

Ancient mystery: netizens captivated by pyramid formations in southern China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3255933/ancient-mystery-netizens-captivated-pyramid-formations-southern-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Amid the lush landscape of Guizhou in China a drone video shows a natural wonder: a series of mountains with a striking resemblance to the Egyptian pyramids.

The footage has captivated social media users worldwide, and its virality has sparked online debate.

Some speculate that the mountains in Anlong county conceal the tombs of ancient emperors while others believe they were crafted by the same extraterrestrial beings purported to have built the pyramids of Egypt.

Dispelling these myths, Professor Zhou Qiuwen, a geologist from Guizhou Normal University, provided a scientific explanation in a report by Eyesnews, a news agency under the auspices of the Guizhou Daily, on Sunday.

According to Zhou, these natural “pyramids” are not artificially constructed nor are they an ancient tomb site. Instead, they are testament to nature’s craftsmanship.

Guizhou, a province in the interior southwest region of China, is known for its rich natural beauty and diverse landscape. The average elevation of the province is around 1,100 metres (3,600 feet), with 92.5 per cent of its area consisting of mountains and hills.

How to understand and avoid pitfalls of China’s so-called zero-dollar tourism

The region is home to numerous mountain ranges, with peaks rising steeply and valleys deeply etched, stretching far and wide across the landscape.

The view in the video is characterised by karst topography, a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks. The cone-shaped mountains are the result of rock formations dissolving.

Zhou explained the process in the report: “The vertical erosion by water has led to the original expansive rock masses being segmented into independent units. As this erosive process continues, the rocks at the top undergo significant dissolution, while those at the base are relatively less affected, resulting in sharp peaks atop wider bases”.

Similarly, the layered appearance of these formations is linked to the rocks’ genesis.

“The mountains in Guizhou are made of dolomite rocks that are over 200 million years old, from a time when the area was mostly under water. These rocks formed in the sea, as minerals dissolved in the water and crystallised into solid rock,” he said.

“Due to periodic changes in climate, geological structures and other environmental factors, the rock formation process was repeatedly interrupted and restarted. This created rocks with clear layers,” he added.

The video highlights features on the mountain surfaces that look like stacked bricks that Zhou said were also the result of natural erosive sculpting.

‘Painless mountain climbing’: scenic China hillside escalators spark controversy

“Some rock surfaces initially had fine cracks; water erosion among these cracks was not strong enough to dissolve the entire rock mass but sufficient to cause segmentation, thereby creating a block-like appearance.”

Tech war: US said to weigh sanctions against Huawei’s secretive Chinese semiconductor supply network

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3256083/tech-war-us-said-weigh-sanctions-against-huaweis-secretive-chinese-semiconductor-supply-network?utm_source=rss_feed

The Biden administration is considering blacklisting a number of Chinese semiconductor firms linked to Huawei Technologies after the telecommunication equipment giant notched a significant technological breakthrough last year, people familiar with the matter said.

The companies that could be blacklisted include chip makers Qingdao Si’En, SwaySure, and Shenzhen Pensun Technology, the people said, asking not to be named because they were not authorised to discuss non-public information. Biden officials are also weighing sanctions on China’s leading memory chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).

Most of the Chinese entities that could be affected were previously identified as chip-making facilities acquired or being built by Huawei in a presentation by the Washington-based trade group Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), according to people familiar with the matter.

No final decisions have been made, the people said. Bloomberg News first reported about SIA’s presentation in 2023.

Such a move by the US government would mark another escalation in Washington’s campaign to ringfence and curtail Beijing’s artificial intelligence and semiconductor ambitions.

It would also ratchet up the pressure on Huawei, which introduced an advanced 5G smartphone processor last year that many in Washington thought beyond its capabilities.

“Adding more Chinese companies to the US Entity List is a highly likely event,” Jefferies analyst Edison Lee wrote after CXMT was identified as a potential target. “It is easy to implement and justify, and it will further block certain key Chinese companies from being able to exploit current loopholes in export restrictions.”

Beyond companies that actually produce chips, US officials may also sanction Shenzhen Pengjin High-Tech Co, according to the people, as well as SiCarrier, one of the people said. The concern is that those two firms, which make chip-manufacturing gear, are acting as proxies to help Huawei obtain restricted equipment, according to the person.

The US government is pressing allies including the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea and Japan to further tighten restrictions on China’s access to semiconductor technology. Huawei is one of the companies at the heart of that campaign, as well as Beijing’s efforts to reduce its reliance on Western technology.

It is not clear whether the US Commerce Department, which administers the trade blacklist, has additional evidence linking the companies to Huawei, the people said. The US has the authority to sanction businesses that are at risk of harming its national security in the future, and officials do not necessarily need to prove past harmful or illegal activity.

The White House’s National Security Council and Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) declined to comment.

Representatives for the individual Chinese companies and the Ministry of Commerce did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that it “resolutely opposes” US actions that disrupt market order and harms Chinese enterprises, but did not comment specifically on the potential US moves under deliberation.

US allies resist Biden’s urge to tighten chip curbs on China

It is uncertain when US officials will make a final decision, the people said, emphasising that timing will likely depend on the status of relations between Washington and Beijing – which both sides have worked to improve in recent months. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to visit China again in 2024, and top officials have discussed a phone call between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping sometime this spring.

There are also other policy considerations, such as when the White House will announce a long-awaited adjustment of sweeping China tariffs first imposed under former President Donald Trump. Officials are also considering raising duties on older-generation chips from China, according to people familiar with the matter who said those conversations have picked up in recent weeks.

Huawei was added to the Entity List in 2019, which barred the company from purchasing American technology unless US suppliers obtain a special export licence from the Commerce Department.

While those sanctions kneecapped Huawei’s smartphone business for years, the company unveiled in August its 5G Mate 60 Pro smartphone powered by a 7-nanometer chip made in China – and began selling the handset while Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was visiting the country.

Huawei’s China-made chip used US gear from Applied Materials and Lam Research

Huawei’s new 5G processor was manufactured by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), though it still relied heavily on foreign technology – including tools from Dutch equipment giant ASML Holding and American suppliers Applied Materials and Lam Research Corp.

The use of those chip-making equipment, which were bought before US and Dutch export controls went into effect, indicates that China still cannot entirely replace foreign components even as Beijing tries to build a full domestic semiconductor supply chain.

BIS has said it is investigating the “purported” 7-nm chip, and Raimondo has vowed the “strongest possible” actions to protect US national security. Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have demanded the Biden administration completely cut off Huawei and SMIC’s access to US suppliers.

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South China Sea: Philippines’ Marcos denies ‘poking the bear’ with Beijing

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3256050/south-china-sea-philippines-marcos-denies-poking-bear-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said the threat to his nation from Beijing’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea is growing but argued that his government’s efforts to assert sovereignty over disputed areas aren’t meant to start a conflict by “poking the bear”.

“We are trying to keep things on an even keel,” Marcos said on Tuesday in an interview at the presidential palace in Manila. The challenge, he added, is that “since the threat has grown, we must do more to defend our territory”.

Along with Taiwan, the stand-off between the Philippines and Beijing over a series of contested reefs and islands has become a critical flashpoint in the region. Since Marcos took office in 2022, the Philippine military and coastguard have ramped up operations to supply troops at a remote outpost and escort fishermen he says have relied on the waters “for generations”.

That stance has sparked condemnation from Beijing, whose armada of fishing boats and coastguard vessels have often blocked Philippine ships and even collided with them, raising the risk of a conflict with China that could quickly draw in the US.

“We have not instigated any kind of conflict. We have not instigated any kind of confrontation,” Marcos, 66, said of his government’s policies. “We are just trying to feed our people.”

But, he added, “China has taken some very aggressive actions against our coastguard.”

China has drawn its line in the Gulf of Tonkin. Is the South China Sea next?

During a trip to deliver supplies to its outpost on the Second Thomas Shoal this month, Manila said four Filipino sailors were injured after two Chinese coastguard vessels blasted water cannons at their chartered boat.

Reversing the policies of his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos has tightened ties with the US military, giving it greater access to Philippine bases and resuming joint sea patrols. In return, Washington has strongly backed the Philippines when it comes to its efforts in the South China Sea.

The Marcos interview came on the same day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Manila. Ahead of a meeting with Marcos, Blinken criticised what he called Beijing’s “provocative” actions.

Marcos has also strengthened ties with other US allies. The Philippines upgraded relations with Australia last year, signed defence pacts with Britain and Canada and is negotiating a deal for mutual military visits with Japan.

Marcos said his nation can’t accept China’s vast claims, which Beijing bases on a 1947 map that shows a vague “nine-dash line” sweeping over most of the South China Sea. A United Nations tribunal in 2016 ruled against Beijing’s claims, a verdict Xi Jinping’s government has rejected.

Despite the stand-off, Marcos emphasised that he’s kept talks with Beijing going and that he doesn’t want to be in the position of invoking a mutual defence treaty the Philippines has had with the US for decades.

Asked what might provoke him to utilise that defence accord, Marcos said the Philippines would have to be facing an “existential threat”.

“I hope the time never comes that we have to answer that question,” he said. “When you talk about the mutual defence treaty, to invoke that, actual outright violent conflict, then this is a very, very dangerous, very, very slippery road to go down.”

Trump’s call for Russia to invade Nato members ‘unhinged’, White House says

On the impact of a potential second Donald Trump presidency, if it occurs, Marcos said that it would usher in “some changes, undoubtedly”, but didn’t think the relationship would fundamentally change, given that the two countries are treaty allies.

“As long as we stay true to the agreements of those treaties that we have had, I think the foreign policy will maintain a balance and there won’t be any radical changes, radical moves.”

China man uses deepfake technology to disguise himself as late father in videos to save frail grandmother from heartbreak

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3254937/china-man-uses-deepfake-technology-disguise-himself-late-father-videos-save-frail-grandmother?utm_source=rss_feed

A caring grandson in China used artificial intelligence, or AI, deepfake technology in videos to disguise himself as his deceased father so he could comfort his frail grandmother who was unaware her son was dead.

The man, surnamed Sun, from the northeastern province of Liaoning, said his family had been hiding the truth from his grandmother after his father died from a rare cancer six months ago.

The 91-year-old woman has a serious heart problem and they were afraid the news might be too distressing for her.

So they told her that her son was receiving treatment at a prestigious hospital in Beijing, and must stay there because of his condition.

Sun said he had to use AI technology to “resurrect” his father after his grandmother kept asking to see him.

He told her his father was not allowed to bring his mobile phone into the hospital, and pretended he had travelled to Beijing to record a video of him for her.

Using old photographs and face-swap software, the grandson placed his father’s face onto his own, and imitated his voice.

“Mum, I’m fine in Beijing. They cannot cure this annoying disease, but it is under control,” he says in the video.

He sent the video to his aunt first to test its quality before showing it to his grandmother.

Sun said the old woman, who has bad eyesight but an optimistic approach to life, believed it was her son in the video.

Sun said making the video meant sorting through his father’s photos, which he had been avoiding since his death.

When he got ill, Sun took him to dozens of hospitals across China and abroad, and even went to temples to pray to deities.

He found it very difficult to accept his father’s death. So the disguise also became his way of saying goodbye.

A video of him telling the face-swap story, posted on his Douyin account @Zaixiasancai, received 5 million views.

“This is the best way to use deepfake technology,” one online observer said.

“The grandma might know what happened better than anyone, but she just needed some comfort,” said another.

“He was being the son of his grandma,” said a third.

It is not the first time people have lied about the death of a family member to protect the feelings of their loved ones.

Usually, it is children who hide it from their elderly parents who are not in good health.

In other cases, parents hide the death of important family members from children ahead of their university entrance exams, so it does not affect their performance.

Hong Kong welcomes 19 companies from mainland China, US to set up or expand locally in latest deal to promote I&T development

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3256040/hong-kong-welcomes-19-companies-mainland-china-us-set-or-expand-locally-latest-deal-promote-it?utm_source=rss_feed

Nearly 20 companies from mainland China and the US have signed a deal to set up shop or expand their operations in Hong Kong as part of the government’s latest bid to promote the development of the innovation and technology ecosystem.

The 19 firms attended a partnership signing ceremony on Wednesday, a day after the city’s legislature passed a domestic national security law that authorities have said will not affect regular business activities or international exchanges.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the new companies, along with 30 others announced as partners of the government’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises last year, would add HK$40 billion in investment and 13,000 jobs to the city’s economy in the next few years.

“Their presence here will create an important momentum and help to attract a wealth of partners and related companies to Hong Kong. In turn, they will bolster our fast-rising innovation and technology sector,” he said at the ceremony held at the Hong Kong government headquarters.

“I have confidence that they will continue to thrive here in Hong Kong. And as we all know, Hong Kong is the only city in the world that converges both the China advantage and the global advantage under the one country, two systems [governing] principle.”

“Hong Kong serves as a superconnector and super value-adder for international companies eager to enter the Chinese market and for mainland Chinese companies willing to expand their global presence,” Lee said.

10 technology firms to establish base in Hong Kong: innovation chief

The ceremony featured 25 firms, comprising six which were absent from last October’s signing due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 19 from the second batch.

Six of the latest companies are from the United States, with the others coming from the mainland, covering key sectors including life and health technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, financial technology, advanced manufacturing and new energy.

The first batch of companies spanned similar sectors.

The government office hosted the first signing ceremony last October, with the initial 30 major companies pledging to invest about HK$30 billion in the city.

The investment was expected to create about 10,000 jobs, authorities said at the time.

Introduced in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s maiden policy address two years ago, the government office was established in late 2022 to attract strategic and high-potential enterprises from around the globe.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po earlier said he expected key companies to help attract other firms in related sectors, and thereby promote the development of the city’s innovation and technology ecosystem.

‘Two sessions’ delegates push to keep Hong Kong unique, help mainland firms

The office is designed as a “one-stop service platform” that seeks out targeted enterprises and helps facilitate “customised solutions” for these firms to operate in the city in areas such as land, taxation and financing, the government has said.

The office also helps with the visa applications for the companies’ employees and finding schools for their children.

It has met representatives from at least 200 enterprises so far.

Lawmakers unanimously passed a domestic national security bill on Tuesday, fulfilling a constitutional obligation that was shelved by mass protests more than two decades ago.

The law spans 39 offences divided into five categories: treason; insurrection, incitement to mutiny and disaffection, and acts with seditious intention; sabotage; external interference; and theft of state secrets and espionage.

Additional reporting by Emily Hung

Doing business in China is growing tougher, more uncertain, European business group says

https://apnews.com/article/china-eu-europe-business-investment-822932ddbf6dad9ff00317e589a07bd1President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China Jens Eskelund speaks during a press conference for European Chamber in Beijing, China, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Uncertainty and “draconian regulations” have drastically raised risks for foreign businesses in China, a report by a European business group said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

2024-03-20T02:20:24Z

BEIJING (AP) — Uncertainty and “draconian regulations” have drastically raised risks for foreign businesses in China, a report by a European business group said Wednesday.

The lengthy paper by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China urges China’s leaders to do more to address concerns that it says have “grown exponentially” in recent years.

“This report comes at a time when the global business environment is becoming increasingly politicized, and companies are having to make some very tough decisions about how, or in some cases if, they can continue to engage with the Chinese market,” it says.

The study, compiled by the chamber and the China Macro Group consultancy, echoes concerns that have been raised by European and American companies operating in China. Foreign investment fell 8% last year from a year earlier as companies recalibrated their commitments in the world’s second largest economy.

EU Chamber officials said China’s changing business environment partly reflects moves by Beijing to minimize risks due to trade friction and dependence on imports of key commodities or industrial products. That’s especially the case given trade friction with Washington and discussions about “decoupling” supply chains from China after the disruptions that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But they said European companies also must manage their own risks.

China recently has sought to emphasize its openness to foreign companies and investment. Its commerce ministry spokesperson said the country was working to ensure 100% access to manufacturing by eliminating remaining trade barriers.

On Tuesday, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, issued an updated version of an action plan announced in July to promote more foreign investment, especially in high-tech areas favored for growth such as computer chips, biopharmaceuticals and advanced equipment. It promised tariff exemptions and called for stopping practices that discriminate against foreign companies.

But other actions have run counter to that spirit of openness. Raids on foreign businesses in China, unclear state secrets laws and tightening rules on handling of data have generated unease among many foreign business people in the country.

“The number and severity of risks companies find themselves having to navigate has grown exponentially in recent years,” Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber in China, told reporters in a briefing before the report’s release.

At the same time, Beijing has not addressed many of the issues raised by foreign businesses, among them access to government procurement contracts, which are vital given the huge role of state-owned companies in the economy.

It’s particularly difficult for medical equipment companies and research and development. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are “quite alarmed by data security regulations that make clinical trials impossible,” said Markus Herrmann Chen, co-founder and managing director of the China Macro Group.

“We are still the odd guys out, and this needs to change,” Chen said.

Part of the challenge results from China’s increased focus on national security in terms of reliance on technologies vital to its own industries. In part, such strategies are driven by U.S. moves to cut off business with Huawei Technologies and to prevent sales of leading edge computer chips and the equipment needed to make them.

American companies have expressed similar concerns. Sean Stein, the chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said recently that China has made progress in addressing some issues but not others.

“The business community would like both sides to be much more clear about the definitions of national security and how it’s determined,” he said in an interview before an annual chamber banquet with Chinese officials. “Because what we need is ... predictability, and we need certainty.”

One sore point for European business: a Chinese announcement of plans for anti-dumping investigations into three French brandy producers: E. Remy Martin & Co., Martell & Co. and Societe Jas Hennessy & Co.

“It’s hard to see how 300 euro ($330) bottles of XO can be accused of dumping,” Eskelund said.

For its part, China is unhappy with an ongoing European Union investigation into subsidies for electric vehicles in China and whether they have given Chinese makers an unfair advantage in European markets.

Meanwhile, with regard to cybersecurity, Eskelund said “we’ve seen some very draconian new regulations being published in China.”

He said Europe’s approach to trade and investment issues was “targeted, very limited and very focused on eliminating ‘critical dependencies,’” not at competing with China. But companies still must hedge against risks or potentially be blindsided by policy shifts.

At the same time, companies also face risks in cutting back and must bring their “best game” to China, while others feel too exposed, especially after the shocks of the pandemic, when entire cities were ordered into lockdown and factories suspended production at times.

China’s market has become “less predictable, reliable and efficient,” the report says, partly because the business environment is more politicized.

Governments need to recognize the problems posed by uncertainty, “the exceptionally short line of sight that we have right now. We simply don’t know what is going to happen six months from now,” Eskelund said.

“Help us to understand what is in the pipeline and help us to prepare for a future that we know for sure will be different,” he said.

ELAINE KURTENBACH Based in Bangkok, Kurtenbach is the AP’s business editor for Asia, helping to improve and expand our coverage of regional economies, climate change and the transition toward carbon-free energy. She has been covering economic, social, environmental and political trends in China, Japan and Southeast Asia throughout her career. twitter mailto

China Vanke secures US$194 million loan from Industrial Bank in brief respite for troubled property developer

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3256021/china-vanke-secures-us194-million-loan-industrial-bank-brief-respite-troubled-property-developer?utm_source=rss_feed

Heavily indebted China Vanke, one of China’s largest developers, said it has secured a long-term loan from a Chinese commercial bank, providing it some relief following its credit rating downgrade a week ago by Moody’s to junk status.

The Shenzhen-based developer said in a statement filed with the Hong Kong exchange late on Tuesday that it had obtained a 1.4 billion yuan (US$194 million) loan from Industrial Bank for 14 years, based on a 35 billion yuan guarantee authorised during a shareholders meeting held in June.

The loans were secured and guaranteed by units Shanghai Central District Real Estate and Shanghai Vanke Enterprise. Shanghai Central District is fully owned by Shanghai Vanke.

“The risks of this guarantee are controllable and there will be no harm to the interests of the company and shareholders,” state-backed developer Vanke said while adding the purpose of the loan was to meet “operational needs” as well as to repay the developer’s loans and bonds.

Earlier this month, Chinese regulators reportedly asked large banks to step up support for Vanke and insurers to defer maturities for private debt after receiving requests from the developer for debt extensions.

These developments have somewhat calmed a market that has been rocked by defaults and following the liquidation order for China Evergrande, the world’s most indebted developer.

China Vanke pledges to repay offshore debts due soon amid liquidity concerns

Last week, Moody’s downgraded Vanke to Ba1 or junk from Baa3, the lowest investment grade rating, on concerns about the company’s liquidity and ability to repay its debts.

Moody’s is the first among the big three international rating agencies to cut the company’s debt to junk status. Ratings from S&P and Fitch Ratings continue to maintain an investment grade rating for Vanke.

Vanke dismissed the impact of the downgrade, saying its was “controllable” and that the company’s operations remained “normal”.

Vanke, China’ second largest developer by sales, has around 5.45 billion yuan in onshore notes due this year, plus more than US$2.3 billion in US dollar denominated bonds that mature over the next five years, according to data compiled by CGS International Securities Hong Kong.

Vanke avoided the first wave of defaults among Chinese developers starting in 2021 when Beijing’s “three red lines” policy that restricted borrowings in the highly leveraged sector, sparked a liquidity crisis.

A default by Vanke could heighten market concerns and further damage confidence in China’s real estate sector, after a court in late January ordered China Evergrande Group to be liquidated and with Country Garden Holdings facing similar pressures.

In December, Vanke was looking to sell its stake in luxury hotel chain Banyan Tree Holdings’ China units, which could raise an estimated 480 million yuan for the troubled developer, according to the Singapore-based company’s filing.

China allows more durian from Vietnam as surging trade underpins new ‘codependency’ in ties

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3255976/china-allows-more-durian-vietnam-surging-trade-underpins-new-codependency-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

Vietnam’s durian exports to China this year are expected to expand in value by two-thirds over 2023 following permission from Beijing to let more of the Southeast Asian country’s pungent, lucrative fruit reach a still-unsaturated market.

China has approved taking durian shipments from 27 more tracts of land in Binh Phuoc, an inland province north of Ho Chi Minh City, after the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association trade group had estimated that the value of all durian exports from Vietnam would swell to US$3.5 billion this year.

Those 27 tracts cover 701.5 hectares (1,733 acres) and can yield up to 14,030 tonnes of durians annually, the Chinese embassy in Vietnam said on Monday. In a statement on its website, the embassy added that China now allows durians from 65 tracts in Binh Phuoc, spanning 2,412 hectares.

Vietnam shipped US$2.1 billion worth of durian to China last year, and that figure had soared from just US$188.1 million in 2022. China allowed fresh Vietnamese durians in 2021 after the fruit met phytosanitary requirements.

Smells like victory: countries vie to be China’s durian king as crop flourishes

Chinese consumers prize durians as high-end treats and frequently gift them for special occasions. A single durian can sell for 100 to 200 yuan (US$14 to US$28).

Durian exports from Thailand and Vietnam dominate the Chinese market, but China is nurturing a young domestic crop, Malaysia is seeking a durian trade deal with China, and the Philippines is expanding production of the fruit.

“The Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association expresses optimism toward prospects for the Chinese market for durian exports,” the VietnamPlus news outlet said in a February 25 report on the trade group’s export-value estimate for the year.

A land border with China helps Vietnam ship durians by truck or train, saving on transport costs compared with other exporters, according to Nguyen Thanh Trung, a political scientist at Fulbright University Vietnam.

Truck traffic into China “is absolutely huge” today, said Ralf Matthaes, founder of the Infocus Mekong Research consultancy in Ho Chi Minh City.

China gains from the Vietnam durian trade, in part, by sweetening broader relations with Vietnam, Nguyen said. The two countries dispute sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea, causing occasional friction.

“What China can gain from it is Vietnam increasingly relying on China, and it creates some kind of codependency,” he said.

Vietnamese durian growers who make money from the trade will feel “more positive sentiment” toward China, Nguyen added.

China’s durian market ripe for the picking as Thailand loses ground to Vietnam

Growers in Vietnam can harvest durian in all seasons, the trade group said, as quoted by VietnamPlus. “The Vietnamese durian crop can be harvested year-round, an advantage compared with the seasonality in other countries,” the group said.

But only some soil types in Vietnam can accommodate durians. And for a grower to switch crops, it would mean letting the land lay fallow and unprofitable for a year, Matthaes said.

China imported 1.4 million tonnes of durian from all countries last year, up 69 per cent over 2022, customs data showed. Thailand took a 67.98 per cent share of that total, with most of the remaining balance coming from Vietnam.

Vietnam last year produced 850,000 tonnes of durian from 110,000 hectares, VietnamPlus reported. The country’s durian reached 24 world markets, but more than 99 per cent of exports went to China, the Vietnamese news source said.

As the world’s main importer of durian, China was procuring about 95 per cent of global exports last year, according to the Durian Global Trade Overview report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. The second-biggest importer, Singapore, received around 3 per cent.

In Indonesia, Beijing’s South China Sea presence seen as ‘threat’ to national interests, survey shows

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3255997/indonesia-beijings-south-china-sea-presence-seen-threat-national-interests-survey-shows?utm_source=rss_feed

Most Indonesians view China’s presence in the South China Sea as a “threat” and favour forming an alliance with other Southeast Asian nations to defend the country’s sovereignty, a survey has shown.

The views in the poll conducted by the Indonesia Strategic and Defence Studies (ISDS) align with those of the country’s top military and diplomatic officials expressed during a seminar on Tuesday about sovereignty in the South China Sea.

The Jakarta-based think tank polled 312 people in five major cities on the South China Sea territorial dispute, in particular their opinions on Indonesia’s sovereignty in the North Natuna Sea.

The survey’s results, released on Tuesday, found that more than 73 per cent of respondents perceived China’s presence in the South China Sea as a threat to Indonesia.

Indonesia is not a claimant in the South China Sea but its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the North Natuna Sea falls within China’s so-called nine-dash line, which Beijing uses to claim around 90 per cent of the disputed waters.

Skirmishes have flared up in the disputed waters a number of times in recent years, including in December 2022, when China sent Coast Guard 5901, the world’s largest coastguard vessel, to patrol the North Natuna Sea.

“In 2023, China again unilaterally issued a new map, adding one-dash line [to its standard map], so its 10-dash lines claim the entire South China Sea region. In some parts, the dotted lines overlap with our EEZ in the North Natuna Sea,” Hadi Tjahjanto, Indonesia’s minister for political, legal and security affairs, said on Tuesday during the seminar held in conjunction with the release of the ISDS survey results.

“This caused strong protests from all countries, including Indonesia. We object because the map does not comply with the 1982 UNCLOS,” he added, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which regulates all uses of the ocean and its resources as well as disputes among signatory nations.

“Instability in the South China Sea will have a global impact and become … a threat to our national interests.”

However, the ISDS survey indicated that not all Indonesians shared Jakarta’s view on the potential for conflict in the region. While more than a third of respondents perceived there to be “a threat for control of maritime areas” in the North Natuna Sea, 22 per cent said there was “no external threat” to Indonesia’s sovereignty there.

The survey also showed that 14.3 per cent of respondents felt Indonesia could strengthen its sovereignty in the disputed waters by boosting economic cooperation with China.

Another 16.7 per cent said Indonesia should work with the United States, chiefly to develop the domestic defence industry.

But among all the potential options, 39.1 per cent of respondents said Indonesia should partner other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries – namely Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines – to strengthen sovereignty in the South China Sea. Nearly half (47 per cent) agreed that Indonesia should form a defensive alliance with them.

“Realistically, a defensive alliance could be the answer, but we understand that there is a national doctrine that says that Indonesia will never form a defensive alliance,” said Agus Widjojo, Indonesia’s ambassador to the Philippines.

China ‘sending a signal’ to Indonesia with large coastguard ships near island

Agus agreed with the idea of relying on Asean to solve the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, but said Indonesia should also boost its diplomatic efforts to strengthen its position in the North Natuna Sea.

He noted that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr had been successful during overseas trips seeking allies for his country’s efforts to repel Chinese influence in the South China Sea.

“Many countries support Philippine sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea,” the ambassador said. “From these trips, [Marcos Jnr] also received a lot of military assistance and investment. This is the area that we should strengthen, too.”

According to Irvansyah, head of Indonesia’s Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla), most of the foreign vessels that traverse Indonesia’s EEZ in the North Natuna Sea are civilian ones, “so we don’t necessarily have to deploy the navy first in dealing with these vessels”.

“In several countries that I visited, such as Vietnam, the Philippines [and] Malaysia, we are of the view that tensions tend to rise in the South China Sea if the military is involved,” Irvansyah said during the seminar. “Fellow coastguards in Asean feel that our cooperation needs to be strengthened.”

Irvansyah said Bakamla initiated the establishment of the Asean Coast Guard Forum last year to facilitate communication among the region’s maritime security forces. The Philippines will take over the forum’s chairmanship from Indonesia in June in Davao.

“But the final solution, to make life peaceful in the North Natuna Sea, is to strengthen the Indonesian military, so it’s stronger than China’s,” he said.

ISDS co-founder Erik Purnama Putra said Indonesia was “not ready” for conflict in the South China Sea.

“Our budget for the defence sector is really small, only 0.8 per cent of GDP in the past 20 years. We need to collaborate with Asean countries to prevent conflict from happening in the region,” he said during the seminar.

Aside from increasing the budget to revamp maritime security, Erik also urged officials to continue with the Asean Solidarity Exercise, a joint military exercise for Asean states that Indonesia hosted for the first time in September.

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[World] Chinese children held over classmate's brutal death

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-68594364

How ultranationalists undercut China’s efforts to win world’s love

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3255807/how-ultranationalists-undercut-chinas-efforts-win-worlds-love?utm_source=rss_feed

The novel Red Sorghum is a personal favourite. A paean to the defiant spirits of the Chinese people, it was penned by Guan Moye – also known as Mo Yan – the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012.

Narrating both the triumphs and tribulations of ordinary Chinese people, it tells a captivating story in magical realist tones. Through the lenses of a Shandong family, the reader comes to appreciate five decades of history – from the Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s and the founding of modern China in 1949 to the land reforms and anti-rightist purges of the 1950s to the wanton chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

This year, Mo Yan has found himself the target of vociferous internet users who accuse him of being insufficiently patriotic and defaming China to appease Western readers. Joining him in sparking online fury are Nongfu Spring for its ostensibly pro-Japan packaging as well as a Nanjing shopping centre that chose red flowers for festive decorations. The flowers, according to ultranationalist bloggers, resembled the Japanese wartime flag.

The spectre of ultranationalism is haunting Chinese social media. These ultranationalists comprise a fringe yet vocal minority of internet users whose comments are both unequivocally supportive of the Chinese state, and unreservedly vindictive towards those who are not. Targets include liberal Chinese intellectuals and moderates who have maintained cordial relations with the establishment.

Mo Yan served one term in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He is hardly unpatriotic.

Some have suggested that these ultranationalists are the products of the curated propaganda and top-down cultivation by the state apparatus to project China’s discursive power internationally and flex its muscle domestically. However, such speculation ignores other, non-state-related sources of nationalistic pride.

As scholar Yan Xuetong observed, “postmillennial [Chinese] students usually have a strong sense of superiority and confidence” in response to China’s economic growth and industrial might.

Recent years have also seen the rise of what scholar Zheng Yongnian dubbed “commercial nationalism” – overzealous, jingoistic rhetoric peddled by opportunistic influencers and performative pundits seeking to attract subscribers and grab headlines. Algorithm-fostered echo chambers have amplified the most extreme and trenchant views.

Those who welcome a more vocal turn in Chinese online discourse should remember that nationalistic outbursts do not signal strength. Much like the “Little Englanders” in Britain or MAGA Republicans in the United States, Chinese ultranationalists undermine China’s ability to present itself as a “trustworthy, lovable, and respectable” power. They do this by driving away potential allies and the undecided.

Furthermore, the admonishment of constructive criticism and demonisation of perceived rivals to the country can produce dangerously hubristic groupthink among the Chinese public. Such narratives also vastly undercut the state’s room to manoeuvre in times of conflict. For instance, any attempt to de-escalate and manage tensions over regions including the South China Sea or Sino-Indian border could be framed as unforgivable capitulation.

There are three steps that must be taken to help tell China’s story properly. First, the Chinese state should issue unambiguous, robust guidelines to social media platforms advocating an end to commercial nationalism.

Chinese policymakers regularly trade off the freedom of speech – and individuals’ right to profit off speech – for other considerations such as public order and national security. The country’s image abroad, the quality of its domestic political discourse and the core interests of those smeared by these online campaigns are important enough to merit prioritising.

Influencers and pundits should not be permitted to profit off scaremongering conspiracies and baseless assertions concerning others’ purported lack of political loyalty or patriotism. Inflammatory speech along such lines must be clearly denounced as contrary to national interest.

Xi’s Chinese dream in danger of being hijacked by ultra-left nationalism

Second, state media outlets should recognise and communicate to the public that the best stories are those that are realistic, balanced and nuanced. Unequivocally positive stories that glorify China are unlikely to move, let alone convince, most of the international audience.

China is a constant work in progress. It is improving yet by no means perfect. We should reflect upon both its achievements and its struggles. Good-faith critics who point to challenges confronting the country – and how the government and people alike have sought to overcome them – should be applauded for their service to the truth and sound governance.

Many bureaucrats are aware of areas with room for improvement, and they crave honest feedback and useful recommendations. Such counsel could be drawn from the experiences of countries beyond its borders or successful regional cases from within. Comparing and contrasting the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping during the early 1980s and those of today could be immensely informative for policy experts and attractive to ordinary citizens.

Third, ultra-nationalistic rhetoric can be offset through empowering people who are willing to build bridges and see the world beyond narrowly defined nation-states. When US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Beijing last summer, she had lunch with a group of six female Chinese economists. These economists were subsequently lambasted for being “traitors”. If anything, the incident betrayed their critics’ deeply seated chauvinism.

At the “two sessions” this year, prominent Peking University academic Jia Qingguo called for the revival of scientific, technological and educational cooperation and exchanges between Chinese and American universities, as well as targeted measures aimed at improving people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

After all, no story can be told without an audience. To improve its image, China must proactively reach out to audiences across the world – not just in the Global South but also in the Global North. To do so, it must first rein in those who incessantly chant, “China is best!”.

China’s recalibration of energy efficiency target could increase emissions, put climate goal at risk, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3255992/chinas-recalibration-energy-efficiency-target-could-increase-emissions-put-climate-goal-risk?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s decarbonisation goals set for 2025 are in danger of veering off track after policymakers redefined a key energy target that could drive emissions higher, climate experts warn.

Unless the country exceeds its energy target set for 2024, China would need to make unprecedented progress next year to meet its climate commitments, they said.

China this month set a target of reducing energy consumption per gross domestic product (GDP) unit, or “energy intensity”, by 2.5 per cent in 2024, in a bid to achieve its goal of slashing energy intensity by 13.5 per cent set in 2020.

This year’s target comes after the government redefined its measurement of energy intensity, eliminating non-fossil fuels such as renewables and nuclear energy to focus on fossil fuels and promote green energy.

However, climate analysts believe the 2.5 per cent cut is not enough to achieve the 2025 target under the new energy intensity definition, leaving scope for an increase in emissions.

“The way the change has been implemented – redefining the meaning of energy intensity without adjusting the numerical target – reflects a lower level of ambition, as it allows higher emissions under the target,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute, a global non-profit organisation.

China will miss its climate goals unless it reins in coal power: report

Under the new definition, the 2.5 per cent energy intensity reduction could allow emissions to increase by up to 2.4 per cent this year, if GDP growth is on target, according to Myllyvirta. Beijing has set a GDP growth target of around 5 per cent this year.

“China is now in a situation where emissions need to fall in absolute terms from 2023 to 2025 for the country to meet its 2025 climate commitments,” he said. “However, the targets set for 2024 still leave space for further increase in emissions.”

The world’s second-largest economy and the biggest greenhouse gas emitter is at risk of missing its climate targets after energy consumption surged last year amid a post-pandemic recovery across a swathe of sectors ranging from manufacturing to travel demand.

Emissions reduction of 10% in reach for China steel sector next year

China’s energy intensity fell by only 0.5 per cent last year, missing the 2 per cent target set earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

“The 2.5 per cent reduction by 2024 puts us far off track in terms of the 2025 goals,” said Guo Shiyu, a Beijing-based campaigner at environmental group Greenpeace East Asia.

As China approaches its 2030 goal of reaching peak emissions, Beijing will have to undergo a steeper and more turbulent energy transition, she added.

China needs to achieve energy intensity cut of at least 4.5 per cent this year and next to meet its 2025 target of slashing energy intensity by 13.5 per cent, according to Myllyvirta.

This means maintaining the scale of clean energy additions and investments achieved last year and stabilising or reducing fossil fuel consumption, he said.

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China-based Canadian stole Tesla secrets, US prosecutors say

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3256016/china-based-canadian-stole-tesla-secrets-us-prosecutors-say?utm_source=rss_feed

A Canadian resident of China has been arrested in the United States for allegedly stealing electric car manufacturer Tesla’s trade secrets and conspiring to sell them to undercover police.

Klaus Pflugbeil, the operator of a China-based business that sells technology used in electric vehicles, was arrested on Tuesday in New York, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said.

He had travelled for a meeting with undercover agents whom he had believed were Long Island businesspeople, prosecutors said.

Pflugbeil and business partner Yilong Shao built their business using trade secrets belonging to “a leading US-based electric vehicle company,” prosecutors said. Shao was also charged but remained at large.

Tesla offers China-made electric cars for sale in Canada

Prosecutors did not name the US-based company, but said it acquired a Canada-based manufacturer of battery assembly lines in 2019. That matches the description of Tesla’s acquisition of a Canadian company named Hibar.

Both Pflugbeil and Shao are former employees of the Canadian company, prosecutors said.

Pflugbeil was expected to make an initial appearance in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors said. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shao could not be reached for comment.

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New Zealand and China still have ‘significant differences’, despite Wang Yi’s ‘charm offensive’ visit

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3255969/new-zealand-and-china-still-have-significant-differences-despite-wang-yis-charm-offensive-visit?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand this week has been welcomed as a “charm offensive”, but observers note there has been no effort to disguise “significant differences” between Wellington and Beijing.

During a meeting on Monday with his New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters at the start of a tour that will also include Australia, Wang said his side was willing to work with New Zealand to deepen trade and economic ties and address climate change.

The highest-ranking Chinese official to visit the country since 2017, Wang described China’s ties with New Zealand as “a force for stability” and called for the creation of better conditions for exchanges including education, tourism and youth programmes.

Describing the meeting as respectful, convivial, and “very frank”, Peters also revealed that New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon would travel to China in the coming months.

The ministers also discussed trade, business and security in the Pacific as well as “areas of difference” including human rights and the situation in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet, according to a statement issued by Peters after the meeting.

Wang’s visit came amid a tilt by the New Zealand government towards the United States and Australian defence policy, and the possibility that Wellington will join Pillar 2 of the Aukus defence pact.

Made up of Australia, the United Kingdom and the US, Aukus was established in September 2021 and has two pillars: the first to deliver nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia.

The second is focused on the joint development of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing, as well as boosting intelligence sharing.

New Zealand begins talks on joining Aukus defence pact

New Zealand also recently deployed a defence team to the Middle East as part of an international alliance spearheaded by the US and Britain, which have been launching air strikes in the Red Sea against the Houthi militant group in Yemen.

Describing Wang’s visit as a “charm offensive”, Robert Patman, professor of international relations at the University of Otago, said Peters had confirmed Wellington had pushed back against Wang’s Aukus concerns by saying that New Zealand would make its own decisions on its security.

“Peters told Wang that New Zealand’s concerns about China’s activities in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands were not a figment of the imagination of decision-makers in Wellington.”

“The message was clear. New Zealand’s decision-making in relation to Pillar 2 of Aukus would be based purely on Wellington’s assessment of its national interests,” Patman said, adding that the message plus Peters’ acknowledgement that China remains a very important partner “seemed to please” Wang.

Last year, New Zealand’s national intelligence agency accused China of “ongoing activity in and against” the country, including espionage operations against Wellington and efforts in targeting the country’s ethnic Chinese communities.

In recent years, China has stepped up ties in the Pacific region – Australia and New Zealand’s backyard – through increased aid, development, and security cooperation, and even signed a secretive security agreement with the Solomon Islands in 2022.

David Capie, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies and professor in international relations at the Victoria University of Wellington, said while Wang’s visit showed a keen interest to manage the relationship, there was no attempt to “pretend significant differences don’t exist”.

The New Zealand readout of the foreign ministers’ meeting made clear that Auckland had real concerns on human rights and the situation in the South China Sea, Capie noted.

“We’ve seen a slightly greater willingness on the part of the new government to talk openly about some of those differences in the last few months,” Capie said.

China faces accusations of human rights abuses, particularly in its treatment of Uygurs in its western Xinjiang region, while its increasing patrols and naval skirmishes – especially with the Philippines – in the South China Sea in recent months have drawn concerns from the international community.

Noting that trade was a hugely important part of the relationship valued by both sides, Capie said the days in which New Zealand saw its China relationship exclusively through a trade lens were long gone.

Trade volume in goods between New Zealand and China reached US$25.2 billion in 2022, mainly in dairy, meat, wood products, infant formula and fruits. Data from Stats NZ showed the total value of goods exported to China in the year ended September 2023 was US$19.3 billion.

“But there is still a strong interest to try and manage political differences while making the most of the opportunities,” Capie said.

Jason Young, director of New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre and associate political science and international relations professor at the Victoria University of Wellington, said the meetings sought areas of cooperation and to stabilise ties.

“This is especially important given New Zealand has a new government,” Young said, referring to the National-led coalition government which was sworn in last November.

Young added that while political differences could overshadow the trading relationship, Wang’s visit showed that both sides were seeking ways to actively manage their differences.

Waikato University law professor Alexander Gillespie said both countries could find common areas of concern, such as in ensuring the sustainable development of the Pacific region.

“In other areas, from Ukraine to Gaza, better understanding [of] the Chinese objectives can help in broadening Kiwi understanding of pressing global problems, and vice versa,” Gillespie said.

New Zealand last month designated the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist entity, making it illegal for anyone in the country to support the militant group. Expressing support for Ukraine, Wellington has sent aid, resources and humanitarian assistance to Kyiv to help defeat Russia’s military advances.

While China has sought to play a role in resolving the Israel-Gaza conflict, observers said Israel would want Beijing to adopt a more “balanced” stance by condemning Hamas, something Beijing has avoided.

Also refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion, China has maintained that it remains committed to promoting peace talks and will not give up as long as there is a glimmer of hope.

As University of Otago’s Patman noted, the international situation for China may be “one of alarm and hope” as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ally, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, is bogged down by a “debilitating and arguably catastrophic war in Ukraine”.

“There may be a belated recognition in Beijing that its assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific may have become counterproductive with states like New Zealand,” Patman added.

Hong Kong, mainland China office-leasing outlook bleak even as mood brightens across Asia-Pacific: CBRE

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3255985/hong-kong-mainland-china-office-leasing-outlook-bleak-even-mood-brightens-across-asia-pacific-cbre?utm_source=rss_feed

The commercial property leasing market across most Asia-Pacific markets is improving, except in Hong Kong and mainland China where sentiment is particularly downbeat, according to CBRE.

While respondents in South Korea and Japan were the most positive at just under 40 per cent, the sentiment was overwhelmingly pessimistic Hong Kong and mainland China at around negative 20 per cent, according to a report by the property consultancy on Tuesday that surveyed some 320 leasing market professionals across the region.

“Mainland China and Hong Kong were the only markets to report negative sentiment, indicating that more time will be needed for these markets to recover,” the study said. “Half of the respondents expect rents and incentives to remain flat.”

Respondents in the mainland and Hong Kong also expect office rents to decline further.

The outlook for Hong Kong’s office sector looks bleak. The overall office vacancy rate in the city rose to 14.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023, edging up from 12.9 per cent in the third quarter, according to Savills. The consultancy said it expects office rents to decline between 5 per cent and 10 per cent this year owing to massive new supply coming on stream and uncertain demand.

On the mainland, the office sector is also likely to remain a tenant’s market this year, according to JLL.

Hong Kong office landlords grapple with ‘irreversible’ hybrid work trend

There will be a glut of new office supply in major cities in the next two years, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are likely to see aggregate supply ranging from 500,000 square metres (5.4 million sq ft) to more than 1.22 million square metres this year.

Except for mainland China and Japan, most property markets in the region are grappling with high interest rates that are dampening investment demand. But the challenges in Hong Kong and mainland China were more acute owing to the property crisis facing mainland developers as well as the uncertain economic outlook.

Real estate investment in China fell 9.6 per cent to 11.09 trillion yuan (US$1.5 trillion) last year, nearly the same as the previous year.

Hong Kong’s office property segment, besides feeling the pinch of higher interest rates that are at a more than two-decade high, is also vulnerable to the economic fluctuations in mainland China. In 2023, more than a fifth of the leasing volume in the city’s main business district of Central was from mainland Chinese companies.

The highest proportion of respondents looking to reduce both office costs and space were from mainland China and Hong Kong, according to CBRE.

The results are in line with a study by Colliers in September, which showed that more than a fifth of office tenants in Hong Kong were likely to downsize their space in the next two years, with some even looking to relocate.

The top three reasons for trimming their real estate footprint were rising costs, shrinking business demand and further implementation of work-from-home policy, according to Colliers.

What is a lucky face? Woman in China told by many online that her face suggests a personality that will help husband get rich

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3254924/what-lucky-face-woman-china-told-many-online-her-face-suggests-personality-will-help-husband-get?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman in China has gone viral online after she was repeatedly told her face suggested a personality that could help her future husband become wealthy and successful.

Video clips of the woman sitting at a dining table have been circulating on mainland social media for several days, with people flocking to comment that she has a wang fu xiang, or “a face that brings her husband good luck”.

The 29-year-old woman, from central China’s Henan province, posted the video on her Douyin account @Huaxianpengyuyan in January. It has since attracted 570,000 likes and 76,000 comments.

The belief that certain kinds of female facial features can bring good fortune is a tradition that has existed since feudal times in China.

What is wang fu xiang?

Despite the belief that having a “good luck face” is increasingly considered pure superstition today, many people still hold by it.

On the social media platform Xiaohongshu, the hashtag #wangfuxiang has had more than 800,000 views.

The most desirable features are a round face with a broad forehead and round chin, as they suggest the woman treats people kindly, and could help her husband make friends.

The nose is also an important feature of a lucky face. It must have a round tip and a long, straight bridge.

Another essential requirement is that the lower lip should be slightly thicker than the upper. It is thought that particular characteristic will “keep the fortune in”.

Believers in Chinese face reading also require soft hair and bright eyes to be elements of a good luck face.

Chinese champion springboard diver and four-times Olympic gold medalist, Guo Jingjing, who married Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, the grandson of Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung in 2012, is often cited as a good example of wang fu xiang.

Online observers have marvelled at the looks of the woman in the video, saying they had never seen such a standard good luck face.

“What an ideal image for a wife,” one man said on Douyin.

“I am already imagining spending the rest of my life with her,” said another.

Matchmakers’ favourite

Online dates have become a popular way for young people in China to find a lifelong partner in recent years, and a good luck face is considered an advantage by matchmakers.

However, there is no link between a good luck face and a higher bride price, which men in China traditionally pay to a woman’s family as a condition of engagement.

EU chamber warns of ‘slow-motion train accident’ with China, says something needs to change

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3255950/eu-chamber-warns-slow-motion-train-accident-china-says-something-needs-change?utm_source=rss_feed

As tensions between China and Europe simmer over trade imbalance and de-risking moves, a leading European business chamber has called on Beijing to expand domestic demand and address bilateral concerns through high-level dialogues.

Both sides need more nuanced and precise strategies to strengthen supply chains, while Beijing also should make efforts to retain European businesses, according to the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

China’s focus on the supply side to drive economic growth, as highlighted by upbeat exports in the first two months of the year, is creating problems in Europe and elsewhere as domestic industries are being crowded out, said chamber president Jens Eskelund.

“Something will need to change because Europe cannot just accept that strategically viable industries constituting the European industrial base are being priced out of the market,” he said. “That is where trade becomes a security question.”

As US, EU anxiety grows, will overcapacity curb exports of China’s ‘new three’?

Tensions between China and the European Union increased after Brussels launched an anti-subsidy investigation into China’s electric-vehicle exports last year, which has the potential to deal a heavy blow to relations, while the bloc has also introduced a de-risking strategy to cut reliance on Chinese imports.

In addition, China relies on advanced manufacturing and exports to prop up its economic growth, while pushing for indigenous technology and home-grown champions, which have raised concerns among foreign companies.

Increased industrial investments, coupled with a lack of domestic demand amid low consumption in China, have led to criticism in the EU and the United States about the overcapacity of Chinese manufactured goods.

The chamber said in a report on navigating security risks in China, published on Wednesday, that overcapacity has distorted competition in the EU.

Brussels has also complained about its substantial trade deficit with China and Beijing’s slow progress in opening market access.

The EU trade deficit with China hit a decade record €397 billion (US$423 billion) in 2022 before falling to €291 billion last year, according to the bloc’s data.

“It is hard for me to imagine that Europe will sit by quietly and witness the accelerated deindustrialisation of Europe because of the externalisation of low domestic demand in China,” Eskelund said.

“In terms of alleviating some of this pressure, there needs to be perhaps a little bit more focus on the demand side in China to create that demand that will make China less of a perceived threat.”

Economic activities in China, including consumption and industrial output, rebounded better than expected in the first two months of the year, but concerns persist whether the recovery is only short-lived as the property market remains in doldrums.

The report said the EU’s de-risking strategy, which was unveiled last March, is not aimed specifically at China, though it does have “a strong China component” due to a lack of reciprocity in market access and public procurement, state-backed investments into critical infrastructure and technologies in the EU that could potentially impact security.

Foreign businesses in China are more likely to be exposed to regulatory dilemmas caused by geopolitical tensions, the report added.

“The build-up of China’s comprehensive legal toolbox to retaliate against what it perceives to be foreign interference and long-arm jurisdiction allows the Chinese government to sanction specific foreign companies or individuals, and by doing so disrupt their China operations by, for instance, restricting their investment or market access to China,” it said.

China rails against EU’s train subsidy probe – will relations stay on track?

Much more honest conversations are needed between China and Europe, as solutions are required to address “the unfolding of a slow-motion train accident”, Eskelund added.

In addition, China has taken steps to mitigate risks associated with an over-dependence on foreign supply chains amid Beijing’s focus on self-reliance.

The report said that during China’s self-reliance push, some imports have been replaced by Chinese or China-based suppliers following provincial or municipal incentives or “pressure”, which have put European firms at “distinct disadvantages”.

“In some sectors deemed integral to China’s national security, policymakers have gone a step further, issuing explicit directives to replace foreign components and technologies with domestic ones,” the report said, listing procurement rules in IT hardware and medical devices.

With the increasingly complex geopolitical environment Chinese policymakers see operating in, the chamber suspects that China is likely to expand its toolkit to address a growing number of matters regarding national security.

But to create a more sustainable environment for foreign businesses, the chamber said China should steer away from excessive self-reliance and mitigate economic risks in a surgical and precise manner.

China should “refrain from erratic policy shifts or punishing companies for the actions of their home governments”, while “develop nuanced strategies for strengthening supply chains that do not err towards trade protectionism”, the chamber said in the report.

It also called on China to “engage in dialogue with other governments and key stakeholders to depoliticise the business environment”.

China launches relay satellite to allow communication with far side of the moon and further nation’s lunar ambitions

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3256017/china-launches-relay-satellite-allow-communication-far-side-moon-and-further-nations-lunar-ambitions?utm_source=rss_feed

China has launched a new communications relay satellite to support its moon ambitions in the decade to come.

Queqiao-2, or Magpie Bridge-2, lifted off atop a Long March 8 rocket from Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on southern China’s Hainan island at 8.31am on Wednesday, according to the China National Space Administration.

Queqiao-2 is planned to reach an elliptical orbit around the moon and unfold its 4.2 metre-wide (13.8 feet) parabolic antenna to make communications possible between Earth and the lunar far side, which never faces Earth.

It can relay signals up to eight hours straight for the first sample return from the far side of the moon later this year, two more complicated missions to establish a prototype base at the lunar south pole by 2028 and, potentially, more spacecraft from China and its international partners.

Sharing the ride on the 50 metre-tall (164 foot) Long March rocket were a pair of experimental technology satellites – Tiandu-1 and 2 – which are headed to a separate orbit where they will fly in formation and test lunar navigation and communications technologies.

The moon is tidally locked to Earth. As a result, we always see the same side of the moon from Earth. In 2018, China launched the Queqiao relay satellite to support its Chang’e 4 mission, which made the first soft landing on the moon’s far – or “invisible” – side.

The 325kg (716lbs) Queqiao, which has a designed lifespan of five years, is still operating near Earth-Moon Lagrangian-2 point – a gravitationally balanced spot about 70,000km beyond the moon.

Queqiao-2 is much heavier with a mass of 1,200kg. Its orbit is also different: it is highly elliptical with the closest point at 300km and the farthest 8,600km above the moon’s surface.

It will take Queqiao-2 around 12 hours to make one circle around the moon and during this time communications between Earth and the lunar far side could be provided for about eight hours.

Moon miss: Chinese satellites fail to reach planned orbit for lunar test

This orbit is also known as a frozen orbit because it is very stable and requires the spacecraft to carry very little, if any, propellant for orbit maintenance over a very long time.

Queqiao-2’s antenna surface was made of extremely thin molybdenum wires coated with gold, said the research team from Donghua University in Shanghai that developed the antenna.

“The wires used to weave the antenna were thinner than human hair. And gold is a very good reflector,” team leader Chen Nanliang told state broadcaster CCTV back in February.

“Our ‘golden umbrella’ is lightweight and flexible enough to be first tucked in the rocket cabin, and then unfold in orbit. It’s also strong enough to withstand the harsh conditions during launch and in flights,” Chen said.

Besides signal relay, Queqiao-2 is also equipped with three scientific payloads, including an ultraviolet camera and a long-distance radio astronomy experiment. Its designed lifespan is at least eight years.

Compared with Queqiao-2, Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2 satellites are much smaller. The 61kg Tiandu-1 carries a Ka dual-band communication payload, a laser retroreflector and a space router among other devices. The 15kg Tiandu-2 carries a communication payload and navigation devices.

US-China space race fuelled by lunar landings and orbital ‘parking spots’

Together, the two will orbit the moon to test and verify navigation and communications technologies, and inform the design of China’s Queqiao lunar navigation and communication constellation, Xinhua reported last month.

The Queqiao constellation would greatly aid moon landing and lunar surface operations, said state news agency Xinhua. China plans to land astronauts on the moon no later than 2030, and build a moon base with international partners in about a decade.

Singapore pulls ahead in Southeast Asia’s race to lure back Chinese tourists

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3256018/singapore-pulls-ahead-southeast-asias-race-lure-back-chinese-tourists?utm_source=rss_feed

While most of the world is still awaiting the return of deep-pocketed Chinese tourists, tiny Singapore is a global exception.

More than 327,000 people arrived in Singapore from China in February, about 96 per cent of the level seen in 2019, according to data released by Singapore Tourism Board last week. The number is expected to surge in the months ahead, with scheduled departure seats in the first quarter already at 101 per cent of 2019 levels, data from Cirium shows.

The recovery has outpaced gains in neighbouring markets, with Thailand seeing tourism at around 63 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in February and Indonesia at about 48 per cent in the latest quarter. In Europe, projected visitors from China are expected to be about 40 per cent lower than in 2019, while the United States’ National Travel and Tourism Office is projecting total 2024 arrivals at roughly 73 per cent of pre-Covid levels due in part to geopolitical tensions.

Singapore’s decision to drop visa requirements for visitors from China, its focus on safety and a push into unique cultural and entertainment events positioned it to benefit as the world’s second most populous country reopened after years of gruelling Covid controls. The moves came together over the Lunar New Year holiday, when many travellers flocked to visit family and friends who had relocated to the city state in recent years.

For Madam Zhuo, a native of Xiamen who was visiting her daughter and 10-year-old grandson, comfort is part of Singapore’s allure. The city where her family moved a year ago is much more accessible than other countries, she said, with more than 70 per cent of residents being ethnic Chinese.

“Singapore is very urban, very clean, very expensive,” Zhuo said while walking through Merlion Park, home to the eponymous statue and a prime beneficiary of the travel boom. “Sometimes it feels like China. I can get around in [using] Mandarin and Hokkien.”

Mainland Chinese make only day trips to Hong Kong as city loses allure

Chinese tourists are also spending more, despite the sluggish economy and weak consumer sentiment at home. Data from Trip.com shows the average outlay per visit to Singapore for expenses like flights and hotels rose 30 per cent from a year earlier.

“This is a good indication of increased interest from Chinese travellers in visiting Singapore following the implementation of mutual visa-free travel,” said Edmund Ong, the general manager of Trip.com Singapore. “Not only are visitor numbers going up, the average expenditure per traveller is also rising.”

Singapore is also rolling out activities for more westernised Chinese young adults.

Yu Peixin, a 20-year-old student from Shanghai University of Science and Technology, flew to the city to catch Taylor Swift’s last show in Asia. She forked out more than 4,000 yuan (US$556) for her flights, about twice the usual price. “It’s all worth it,” she said.

Travellers like Yu show that the government’s exclusive deal with the concert promoter paid off. Swift’s popularity, and the lack of shows elsewhere, sparked an influx of foreign visitors that prompted economists to raise their forecasts for the country’s economic performance.

Both Yu and Zhuo took direct flights, which are available daily from their cities. Economic headwinds in China and more expensive fares haven’t deterred demand for travel to Singapore.

While air links to most parts of the world from China were disrupted by Covid and are still largely missing, China and Singapore remain well connected. The scheduled seat capacity between the two countries is expected to recover to 101 per cent of 2019 levels in the first quarter of this year, leading recovery among key China outbound travel markets.

“The Singapore-China market advantage is that it is quite well diversified,” said Lim Ching Kiat, executive vice-president, air hub and cargo development at Changi Airport. On top of business and government travel, many people cross the border for family visits, he said.

The conservative government’s focus on safety is also helping revive post-Covid travel, particularly among rising reports of hostility toward people of Chinese and Asian descent in other parts of the world. Singapore remains a top draw for Chinese travellers who consider crime one of their main concerns. Regional competitor Thailand suffered reputational damage after recent safety incidents.

“Singapore is always seen as a trusted and reliable partner of the Chinese government and the Chinese people,” said Chin-Hao Huang, associate professor of political science at NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Yale-NUS College.

Those strong ties are particularly important amid rising geopolitical tensions, as the US and China – the world’s two biggest economic superpowers – square off over everything from trade to military might.

Seoul steps up clampdown on ‘dumping tours’ targeting Chinese visitors

The congenial bilateral relations between China and Singapore have trickled down to cross-cultural interactions in daily life, making the city more comfortable and alluring for visitors.

Singapore is one of the few countries where China is viewed positively, according to a Pew Research Centre report. The feeling is reciprocal, something Huang attributes to two nations’ strong cultural ties.

Zhuo’s experience echoes the history.

“I walked around the city myself,” she said, after dropping off her grandson. “People are very friendly.”

China’s relaxed entry rules bring more travel, but would-be tourists wary of remaining barriers

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3255949/chinas-relaxed-entry-rules-bring-more-travel-would-be-tourists-wary-remaining-barriers?utm_source=rss_feed

In the past few weeks, China has come up with a series of measures to revive the number of inbound travellers and students to pre-pandemic levels. In the second of a Ralph Jennings looks at the barriers that remain for overseas visitors despite policies to relax visa requirements or allow visa-free entry.

When John Chetwynd, a 28-year-old graduate of the University of San Francisco, visited China in July, his US-based bank became “concerned” about transactions made on the Alipay mobile payments platform. The bank had flagged a double charge and “international fees”, he said.

Eventually, the service stopped working entirely. So, for the remainder of the 10-day excursion, Chetwynd asked other people to use their phones for his purchases and reimbursed them in cash – a thorn in an otherwise eye-opening trip.

Chetwynd’s case is not unusual. Relaxations of visa and e-payment rules are stimulating foreign tourism to China this year – a welcome trend for the country, which sees travel as a source of much-needed economic stimulus – but lingering immigration hurdles, payment difficulties and internet restrictions are viewed as deterring many potential visits.

Foreign arrivals this year have a “hope” of returning to half their level in 2019 before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the China Tourism Academy said via state media outlets last week.

China’s cashless-society shift is keeping foreign tourists from opening wallets

Overseas visitors made 97.8 million trips in and out of China in 2019 and 35.6 million last year, the first since epidemic restrictions were lifted.

During the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday in February, China recorded 3.23 million tourism-related entries, roughly the same as the festival period in 2019, the official Xinhua News Agency said in February.

A big boost to these figures came in December, when China began allowing citizens of certain countries to enter visa-free for 15 days.

The number of tourists from those countries – now 11 in Europe and three in Southeast Asia – “has increased significantly”, Xinhua said, citing figures stating their Lunar New Year arrivals were double those of the same period in 2019.

One country recently granted visa-free travel privileges is France, and for the 20,000 French nationals staying in Hong Kong, mainland China has never been more attractive.

“It’s just easy to go for one day or a weekend,” said Marc Guyon, one of that number who is making use of the new policy.

“Previously, it was better to go on holiday in Thailand, the Philippines or Taiwan rather than [mainland] China. Now the situation is different.”

Even for those from countries that have not been exempted, visa application forms have got shorter over the past half year, fees have dropped and appointments at consulates have been made easier to book – or abandoned entirely in favour of a walk-in system.

Xinhua said last month that tourism was “accelerating recovery and development” in China, which needs sources of growth as it attempts to reverse unemployment trends, manage a housing crisis and jolt domestic consumption.

The country is also rapidly returning to a pre-pandemic level of connectivity. Direct flights linking China to other countries numbered 4,782 per week as of December, up from less than 500 at the beginning of last year, the nation’s civil aviation authority said.

Reciprocal visa waiver policies between China and other nations have led to an increase in international flights, and airline competition has sparked a “rationalisation of airfare prices”, Chinese travel platform Fliggy said in an email.

“Late 2023 saw rising interest in China as a tourist destination among Europeans, particularly from countries benefiting from the relaxed visa rules,” said Zoey Wang, global infrastructure ratings director with Fitch Ratings.

But people from many developed countries, including Britain, Canada, Japan and the United States, still must apply for visas ahead of travel. Even with the changes to the application process, one visa may still require as much as US$185 in fees and two visits to a consular office.

Beijing has “cut some of the red tape” for American visa applicants, “but it’s not enough to offset prevailing negative attitudes” about China, said Douglas Barry, a Washington-based consultant who follows US-China trade. Tens of millions of Americans travel abroad every year.

A US government advisory, issued in June and still in effect, urges Americans to “reconsider travel to mainland China”. It cited “arbitrary enforcement of local laws”, including those related to exit bans, and the “risk of wrongful detentions”.

Changing the attitudes of American travellers, Barry said, “will require a more concerted effort on the part of both countries” after years of edgy relations.

“Negative opinion surveys about China and a slowdown in business travel have made it hard for airlines to fill seats,” he said.

Time and money spent on visas further discourage travel, as do barriers to making mobile payments in the largely cashless country, experts said.

“Payment problems, visa problems, those are long-standing issues,” said James Chin, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania.

“I don’t think the tourism thing will change until [those barriers] fully open.”

In early March, the State Council pledged policy support to make mobile payments simpler, pushing Chinese bank card clearing institutions in turn to fall in line with norms established by international competitors.

China’s two dominant platforms, Alipay and WeChat Pay, have taken steps to make it easier for foreign travellers to pay for goods and services. Alipay has raised the single-transaction limit to US$5,000, five times the previous maximum.

Guilin-based online travel agency China Highlights found in a survey that 68 per cent of inbound travellers can “successfully” use a Chinese mobile payment service. Of those that failed, the survey said, half reported rejection by a foreign bank or credit card.

Chetwynd, of the University of San Francisco, travelled with seven peers for an academic conference in Ningbo and company visits in Shanghai.

They all struggled to make their mobile payments work through US banks, group leader and university executive in residence Ker Gibbs said.

“These were smart kids who knew how to figure things out, but even they had a hard time penetrating China’s digital economy,” Gibbs said.

“For my students [here] last summer, it wasn’t easy to book a rideshare car or pay for a cup of coffee.”

Foreigners visiting on behalf of a multinational generally ask China-based assistants to help them process payments, he noted.

The China Hospitality Association trade group has instructed lodging operators throughout the country to “raise their internationalisation levels” by making foreign bank card payments more convenient and “improving the management of cross-border reservation channels”, the Workers’ Daily reported last week.

Airports in Beijing and Shanghai sell phone cards that allow e-payments, but they take “a long time” to install, said Steven Zhao, CEO of China Highlights. Some overseas travellers procure eSIM cards before their trips, he added.

Some travellers cannot access the likes of Gmail, Facebook or Instagram, which are popular offshore but banned in China – another hindrance for potential visitors.

“This has always been a big source of trouble,” Zhao said. “However, VPNs are very mature,” he said, referring to virtual private networks. “Many visitors who mind will basically buy a VPN suite online before they come to China.”

Chetwynd bought a short-term international service package from his American mobile provider, creating a personal hotspot for places where Chinese Wi-fi did not allow VPN use.

“Even as tourists come back to China, when those travellers hit the ground they are going to be confronted with a number of different challenges that are going to weigh on their experience,” said Nick Marro, lead analyst for global trade with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“This doesn’t mean those challenges are insurmountable, but it means there are layers you need to think about when going into the Chinese market.”

Chinese travellers put Covid in rear-view as tourism revenues defy predictions

Even with all the hassles, Chetwynd found his first China trip worthwhile. He presented research on climate change at the conference, and saw a slice of Shanghai nightlife. “It was an amazing time for me,” he said.

Adrien Grosclaude of France echoed those sentiments, saying he would go back to China despite the obstacles he faced during his travels in December and January.

The 22-year-old university student tried to buy a jacket in a Shenzhen outlet store but could not activate any mobile payment apps.

He went to a VIP service counter on the mall’s top floor for help – and was told to use cash. This required him to go to an outside ATM, lengthening the payment process to about an hour.

Because of “the stress” involved in dashing out to get cash, he said, he left his bank card behind – but the branch staff set it aside and returned it to him later.

After that experience, his Chinese companions, whom he had met during an exchange semester at the University of Hong Kong, lent him their mobile payment apps during his travels.

Grosclaude came with a prepaid VPN, but it failed for the first two days of his December trip around the Pearl River Delta. Before departure, he had asked his parents and friends to download WeChat so he could contact them while on Chinese networks.

Religious monuments, such as a Buddhist statue in Foshan, left him with a “good first impression” of the country’s culture. He maintained he would go back despite the problems he encountered.

“[The issues] wouldn’t really deter me, but if I were to travel alone, it would be more complicated,” Grosclaude said. “I wish they would ease the rules for foreigners.”