• It’s in China’s best interest to rein in a nuclearised North Korea
• China’s hi-tech push for computing power, AI gains must overcome glaring shortcomings, analysts say
• China eases security checks for cross-border data transfers as it tries to boost economy
• Time running out for critically ill Hong Kong liver patient with authorities considering asking mainland China for help on donor
• Chinese scientists create world’s most energy-efficient AI chips for mobile devices
• Addicted teenage China online gamer wipes out father’s US$28,000 savings in 3 months, turns spotlight on wider societal problem
• Indonesian logistics giant J&T turns first profit in China, making up bulk of its revenue, despite price war
• Can Starbucks coffee improve China-US ties? Cui Tiankai urges Howard Schultz to try
• China’s powerful advanced sonar systems are now small enough to fit on unmanned submersibles
• [Sport] Trump reaches semi-finals at World Open in China
• No Chinese casualties reported in Moscow shooting that killed more than 60
• Snake-consuming China man struck down by spinal cord parasites 15 years after ingesting reptile gallbladders and wine
• South China Sea: Philippines accuses Beijing of damaging supply vessel with water cannon
• How celebrating the centenary of Rabindranath Tagore’s China trip can offer New Delhi and Beijing a chance to reset ties
• South China Sea: Philippines debates boosting war readiness through mandatory military training for students
• Racist British Airways flight attendant duo fired for slant-eyed jibe, mocking Chinese accents of passengers
• India comes for China’s manufacturing crown as supply chains slowly shift
• Democracy summit may signal South Korea’s shift to harder stance on China
• A canal for redeveloped Flower Market in Hong Kong? They may work in Amsterdam, but this is a vibrant Chinese community. Respect its heritage
• US congressman Mike Gallagher, leading select committee on China and behind TikTok bill, announces early departure
• Apple is considering alliances with a Chinese tech giant and rivals as the AI war heats up
• Russia, China veto U.S. Security Council resolution on Gaza cease-fire

It’s in China’s best interest to rein in a nuclearised North Korea

https://www.scmp.com/comment/asia-opinion/article/3256058/its-chinas-best-interest-rein-nuclearised-north-korea?utm_source=rss_feed

Amid assessments that a seventh North Korea nuclear test hinges on leader Kim Jong-un’s decision, the timing of its execution remains a matter of utmost concern. Experts indicate that North Korea had met the technical prerequisites for yet another nuclear test as of March 2023.

Officials from the United States and South Korea said the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site was ready as of the first half of 2022. Given that the primary objective of the seventh nuclear test is to develop tactical nuclear warheads, last year’s unveiling of North Korea’s new warhead model, Hwasan-31, satisfies this requirement.

Undoubtedly, China shoulders the primary responsibility for North Korea’s nuclear status. This is evident as China, while adopting UN Security Council resolutions to impose sanctions on North Korea, has simultaneously pursued a dual approach of engagement, affording North Korea a window of opportunity.

Despite China’s professed commitment to stability on the Korean peninsula, its tolerance of North Korea’s nuclear programme undermines these claims, leading to criticism that China lacks credibility when advocating for strategic cooperation with the US or discussing security concerns in the Asia-Pacific region.

Even when South Korea attempted to attain nuclear weapons back in the 1970s, the US stopped it after forgoing the total withdrawal of American troops from South Korea. While the US focuses on deterring North Korea to maintain stability on the Korean peninsula, China has consistently erred by tacitly allowing North Korea’s destabilising behaviour, which exacerbates regional insecurity.

Considering that India and Pakistan have attained the status of de facto nuclear-armed states with just three and two tests respectively, a seventh North Korean nuclear test would present a challenge that surpasses the capabilities of those two countries.

North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, including the development of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology, reconnaissance satellites and cruise missiles, threaten the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime and the established order of nuclear powers. While this raises immediate concerns for South Korea’s nuclear security, there are reports that also warn of dangerous developments affecting China’s security.

In particular, China’s security interests are severely challenged by two threats. Firstly, North Korea’s nuclear weapon advancement can cause great environmental damage through a chain of missile launches and nuclear tests. The heightened risk of radiation leaks and earthquakes, particularly in northeastern China, presents a looming threat of devastation.

Secondly, the reinforcement of extended deterrence efforts by US allies, such as Nato, could accelerate the implementation of a blockade in East Asia. As North Korea’s nuclear capabilities advance, there is a greater risk of global nuclear proliferation, which could lead to the establishment of maritime defence lines by the US and its allies.

Some hawkish experts argue that if North Korea’s nuclear arsenal grows rapidly to a point where deterrence is unavoidable, pre-emptive strikes or decapitation operations should not be ruled out.

Concerns have already been raised in China about the risks of radiation leaks and earthquakes being more severe than anticipated should North Korea conduct a seventh nuclear test.

Since the sixth nuclear test in 2017, grave warnings have been given by scientists, including those based on research from the University of Science and Technology of China. There have been repeated warnings about the increased risk of a collapse at the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site due to successive nuclear tests, increasing fears of radioactive material leakage.

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have reportedly expressed these concerns to their North Korean counterparts. Considering that Punggye-ri is situated just 80 kilometres from the Chinese northeast border, where up to 100 million residents live, doubts have emerged that radiation leaks have been absent during the six previous nuclear tests.

Meanwhile, the results of radiation exposure tests conducted by the South Korean government on 10 defectors from Punggye-ri indicate significantly elevated radiation levels, with five of them exhibiting a degree of severity that suggests genetic mutations.

Seismic activity triggered by nuclear tests has surpassed critical levels. Initially recorded at magnitude 4.3 during the first test, it escalated to 6.3 by the sixth, suggesting that a potential seventh test could exceed magnitude 7. This escalation raises concerns about a potential nightmare scenario: the eruption of Mount Paektu.

Since the sixth nuclear test, more than 40 natural earthquakes have occurred in an area previously devoid of seismic activity, heightening the risk of ground collapse. South Korean media has aired geological reports suggesting an imminent eruption of Mount Paektu, intensifying concerns that North Korea’s seventh nuclear test could accelerate volcanic activity.

North Korea’s war talk is a cry for deft diplomacy from the US

Mount Paektu is considered to be among the world’s most dangerous volcanoes that could erupt at any moment, with predictions indicating it could surpass the power of the 1815 Tambora eruption in Indonesia.

Given such potential consequences, it is imperative for China to reconsider the rationale and justification for granting North Korea nuclear power status. From a regional security standpoint, China must take action to prevent nuclear proliferation and protect the region’s shared ecology.

Let’s hope that strong pressure from China has influenced North Korea to refrain from conducting a seventh atomic test. Whatever the reasons may be, it is crucial for the Chinese government to recognise the imperative of preventing yet another nuclear test.

China’s hi-tech push for computing power, AI gains must overcome glaring shortcomings, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3256405/chinas-hi-tech-push-computing-power-ai-gains-must-overcome-glaring-shortcomings-analysts-say?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing needs to address deficiencies in the capacity build-up of computing power and coordinate regional and industrial resources to forge a nationwide network, according to analysts and industrial reports.

The reflection came amid Beijing’s aggressive push for the key infrastructure for future industries to close the gap with the US after OpenAI’s ChatGPT and newly released text-to-video model Sora ushered the world into a new era of artificial intelligence.

China is second only to the US in aggregated computing power and aims to scale up the computation capacity by half by 2025. But concerns have risen about a fragmented market, the lack of supply for AI development, and difficulties in developing indigenous computing power in the face of US bans on high-performance chips.

“We have yet to set up a unified market that is standard and inclusive. And we are also facing a dilemma between computing power shortage and low efficiency in usage,” Yu Xiaohui, head of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), was quoted as saying by Xinhua on Monday.

Is China’s industrial policy on best path? Some Beijing advisers offer hot takes

According to data released by International Data Corporation (IDC), the growth rate of China’s public computing investment declined from 66.55 per cent in 2019 to 13.2 per cent in the first half of 2023.

A public computing service enables cost savings for businesses, governments, and individuals by eliminating the need to purchase or maintain computing infrastructure.

Meanwhile, data centres, which are mainly backed by private companies and local governments to provide computing services, saw an increase from 5.3 per cent in 2020 to 20.7 per cent in 2023, according to Gartner, a US-based consulting company.

In China, local governments or firms often opt for locally deployed private computing platforms due to concerns about data security, in contrast with the US model to focus on public cloud services, according to an article by Caijing Magazine in early March.

“The government must push faster to build up public computing services across the nation, especially by cultivating more related talents with adequate financial support for the industry,” Shan Guangcun, a professor specialising in AI, robotics and smart sensors at Beihang University in Beijing, told the Post.

“The fragmentation of computing power will increase the cost for companies to train AI models, this is not conducive to the development of China’s AI industry,” Shan said.

Beijing is looking to raise China’s share of AI computing power to 35 per cent by the end of next year from 25.4 per cent in mid-2023.

On the other hand, only 38 per cent of the capacity of data centres was used in 2022, far below the global level of 60 per cent, according to the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

CAE conceded in June that China was being challenged by “an extremely large computing-power gap”, especially in AI computing.

China’s private firms fed up with crippling payment delays, ‘red-tape excuses’

It said the country was lacking a unified and open platform for sharing computing resources and operability among local computing centres, hindering the efficient flow of massive quantities of data across regions.

Industry insiders have also said disorderly competition and uncoordinated local investment may also be compromising the nation’s catch-up efforts.

“Many local governments have not considered their relative competitiveness when doing their economic planning,” Lu Ming, director of Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Institute for National Economy, told a Shanghai-based publication, The Paper, earlier this month. “Some lack the awareness for building a digital economy ecosystem.”

State-backed media Securities Daily last week warned of the inflow of hot money into the sector, as food producers and textile makers are also marching into the AI sector.

“[These companies] have to face the pressure of hefty initial investments, while also considering the slow conversion of computing power into cash and the uncertain developmental stage of downstream application areas,” it said. “They need to invest in the computing industry within their capacities planning, after careful consideration.”

Amid heightened tech curbs, Washington has restricted China’s access to high-performance chips, which are key for AI and model training.

“China has adapted to the computing ecosystem created by the US’ Nvidia chips over the past decade. And with the chip ban, all of this effort is shattered. It is just like asking long-term Windows users to suddenly switch to a domestically produced computer system – the two systems are not compatible,” Li Yangwei, a technical consultant working in the smart computing industry in Shenzhen.

It thus raises the urgency for China to come up with an indigenous computing power system. To that end, it needs its AI industry leaders to work together on designing such a platform, according to analysts.

China is spending billions on a national computing network. Its data chief says why

Shan of Beihang University called for joint actions from China’s leading tech firms to form a domestic industrial ecosystem, and the government should navigate such cooperation.

“The best way [to form a national computing service] is still letting tech giants cooperate, and Beijing needs to figure out how to navigate such collaboration without hurting companies’ interests, as these tech giants are also competitors in the same market,” he said.

According to the CAICT’s report published in July, more than 80 per cent of Chinese computing-power providers said that losses due to the lack of unified computing standards have accounted for more than 10 per cent of their cost.

In the past three years, the AI chip types in China have increased by more than five times, yet there are fewer than 100 computing-power companies that are compatible with different chips, which has severely constrained the application of computing power, the report said.

China eases security checks for cross-border data transfers as it tries to boost economy

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3256482/china-eases-security-checks-cross-border-data-transfers-it-tries-boost-economy?utm_source=rss_feed

China has eased rules on cross-border data flows, carving out security review exemptions for some information leaving the country.

The exemptions address one of the big concerns of foreign businesses in China as Beijing struggles to revive its economy a year after it abandoned its pandemic restrictions.

Under the new rules, which came into effect on Friday, businesses do not have to submit information related to cross-border shopping, shipping, payments or visa processing to official security checks.

This also applies to data involved in opening bank accounts, booking flights and hotels, and testing services.

In addition, businesses will not have to have reviews for personal employee information sent overseas as part of collective contracts or labour rules.

But data will still have to go through a security assessment if it relates to critical information infrastructure, or if in one year the transfers amount to the non-sensitive personal information of more than a million people, or involve the “sensitive information” of more than 10,000 people.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said cross-border data flows were the foundation for global exchanges and the sharing of capital, information, technology, talent, goods and other resources.

“In order to promote the lawful, orderly, and free flow of data, unleash the value of data elements, [we should] expand high-level opening-up to the outside world, and optimise and adjust the data export system,” state news agency Xinhua quoted the administration as saying.

“Regulations concerning security assessments for data export, standard contracts for personal information export, and certification for personal information protection will be stipulated.”

“Adjustments have been made to optimise the system for outbound data.”

China proposed tough data security requirements in 2021 under its Security Assessment Measures on Cross-border Transfers of Data.

The measures came into effect the following year and ordered mandatory government reviews for most business data transfers.

The rules prompted widespread concern among foreign businesses about the cost and nature of compliance.

Draft exemptions, Regulations on Promoting and Regulating Cross-Border Data Flows, were proposed last year before being announced on Friday.

China to enforce strict new cross-border data transfer regulation from September

The relaxed data rules come as Beijing is in an all-out effort to revive foreign direct investment and boost its economy following a year of sluggish post-pandemic recovery.

Foreign direct investment in China declined 13.7 per cent in 2023 from the year before, reaching US$163.3 billion.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang highlighted the concern in his maiden government work report delivered to the annual legislative session earlier this month.

Vowing to open up further to foreign businesses, Li referred to barriers to such investment, including those relating to “cross-border data flow”.

Besides stringent rules in sharing data overseas, ambiguities in Beijing’s newly revamped anti-espionage law and guarding the state secrets law, both issued last year, have profoundly worried foreign business communities.

Time running out for critically ill Hong Kong liver patient with authorities considering asking mainland China for help on donor

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3256483/time-running-critically-ill-hong-kong-liver-patient-authorities-considering-asking-mainland-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority is considering seeking help from mainland China in a rare move to find an organ donor for a critically ill 37-year-old local man suffering from severe liver failure.

Choy Shing-fai is in a critical condition in Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam and on the verge of entering hepatic coma, which occurs when severe liver disease triggers a decrease in brain functions.

The authority said it was searching for a suitable donor locally and was also prepared to seek help from the mainland.

Family, doctors appeal for heart donation to save Hong Kong man’s life

“When a patient on the mainland who is willing to donate organs passes away and there is no suitable recipient locally, arrangements can be made to donate the organs across the border to Hong Kong for matching and transplant, bringing hope for a new lease of life to critically ill patients,” a spokesman said.

He said the authority would submit an application to the relevant regulatory body, ensure all procedures complied with requirements and arrange transplant surgery as soon as possible.

The authority said a transplant was the only hope for critically ill patients with organ failure. It appealed to the public to actively support donations and consider signing up their deceased loved ones as donors.

Choy, who is unmarried and whose mother is his only kin, was first diagnosed with jaundice in 2019. His condition later worsened and resulted in organ failure. His kidneys are also severely impaired.

Choy, whose blood type is A positive, weighs 52.5kg and is 178cm tall. He has been on the liver transplant waiting list since 2022.

His mother was unable to donate and has appealed to the public for help.

“Seeing my son become so ill has made me feel heavy-hearted and helpless. He may be introverted and quiet but he is a very good son who takes his work seriously, has no bad habits and checks on me frequently,” she said.

“I hope he can receive a transplant as soon as possible. I don’t know how else to help him.”

Thirty liver transplants were carried out in Hong Kong last year, but Hospital Authority data showed 81 patients were still waiting for a new liver at the end of December.

According to the Liver Transplant Centre at Queen Mary Hospital, waiting times for a donation can range between one and three years, and 40 per cent of patients die before getting a new liver.

Hong Kong organ donation recipients in heartfelt plea over withdrawals from register

Baby Cleo Lai Tsz-hei was the first patient to undergo a heart transplant in Hong Kong with an organ from the mainland at four months old in December 2022.

Following the operation, authorities established a cross-border organ donation and matching mechanism last March, while health minister Lo Chung-mau also revealed that Hong Kong hoped to regularise organ donations with the mainland.

The mechanism will allow organs from the city to be used across the border if there are no suitable matches locally.

Similarly, organs from the mainland could also be considered for use in Hong Kong if there are no suitable matches across the border.

Chinese scientists create world’s most energy-efficient AI chips for mobile devices

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3256211/chinese-scientists-create-worlds-most-energy-efficient-ai-chips-mobile-devices?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese scientists have unveiled two ultra-low-power artificial intelligence (AI) chips with record-breaking performance at the most prestigious conference in the chip design industry.

AI chips, specifically engineered to process AI tasks, typically require substantial power due to the heavy computational demands they face, which has limited their application in real-world scenarios.

But through algorithm and architectural optimisation, Professor Zhou Jun and his team from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) have managed to significantly reduce this power consumption.

The team presented two of these innovative chips at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2024, the Olympics of the integrated circuit (IC) industry.

The ISSCC is an annual global gathering for solid-state circuits, where the best researchers, engineers and professionals meet to talk about new developments and the future of chip technology. This year’s conference was held in San Francisco from February 18 to 22.

The first of the two AI chips was designed to be embedded into smart devices to enable offline voice control.

China’s AI gap with US is widening: ‘we are all very anxious’

This chip excels in keyword spotting and speaker verification by recognising the voice signals of a target speaker, even with environmental noise, such as television, music or other people talking, which typically interferes with traditional voice recognition chips.

Conventional chips also tend to suffer from high wake-up energy consumption and frequent false wake-ups, leading to low energy efficiency.

Zhou’s team proposed a novel architecture that overcomes these limitations through multiple optimisations, including dynamic computation engines, adaptive noise suppression circuit, and an integrated keyword and speaker recognition circuit.

“The chip achieves a recognition energy consumption of less than two microjoules per instance, with an accuracy rate exceeding 95 per cent in quiet scenes and 90 per cent in noisy environments, setting new global benchmarks for both energy efficiency and accuracy,” a report on the UESTC website said.

In a system demonstration, this 1 sq cm (0.155 square inch) chip was integrated into a 3cm x 3cm microcontroller unit inside a toy car to control its movements.

The chip also has applications in low-power voice control scenarios such as smart homes, wearable devices and smart toys.

The second chip the team presented at the conference was designed to detect seizure signals for people with epilepsy.

Created to be used in wearable devices, it uses electroencephalogram (EEG) recognition to alert of an ongoing epileptic seizure so the patient can seek medical help or treatment.

“Existing designs rely on extensive patient seizure data for training to achieve high accuracy, a process that is time-consuming and costly due to the low occurrence of seizures and the need for hospitalisation,” the report said.

To solve this particular challenge, the researchers optimised a zero-shot retraining algorithm allowing a pre-trained AI model to make accurate predictions on unseen data without the need for collecting patients’ seizure signals, achieving an accuracy rate of over 98 per cent.

Before use, patients simply need to wear the device for a two-minute calibration in their natural state, enabling the device to recognise individual signal characteristics.

With extra improvements in the feature extraction engine and on-chip learning engine, this chip’s average recognition energy consumption is only about 0.07 microjoules, the most energy-efficient design of its kind internationally.

The official report noted there had been a 10 per cent improvement in accuracy and a reduction in energy consumption of over 90 per cent compared to another chip presented at last year’s conference.

“This chip also has potential applications beyond seizure detection, including other brain-computer interfaces and sleep monitoring,” the report added.

In a demonstration at ISSCC, real-time user EEG signals collected from a wearable brain-computer interface device were transmitted to the test board via Bluetooth. The chip was reconfigured to identify imagined motor commands, allowing control of a robot’s movement to move forwards, stop or move backwards.

Zhou’s team has years of experience in the field of intelligent processing chips, contributing in national key research and development projects. The team also has partnerships with leading companies such as SenseTime, Huawei Technologies and electronic components producer BOE.

Addicted teenage China online gamer wipes out father’s US$28,000 savings in 3 months, turns spotlight on wider societal problem

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3255177/addicted-teenage-china-online-gamer-wipes-out-fathers-us28000-savings-3-months-turns-spotlight-wider?utm_source=rss_feed

A teenager in China who developed a chronic habit for an online gambling game and spent his family’s entire 200,000-yuan (US$28,000) savings on it has highlighted the problem of adolescent internet addiction in the country.

In March, a man in central China’s Henan province sought help from a local television programme, Xiaoli to the Rescue, to retrieve his savings.

The man, surnamed Cheng, said his 15-year-old son had gambled family money, including 30,000-yuan in salaries and the 170,000-yuan bride price for his daughter, on a lottery game in the short video app Kuaishou.

Bride price is a traditional Chinese wedding custom in which the groom’s family pays the bride’s family a large sum of money.

The boy admitted he had lost all the money in just three months, after becoming hooked on the game.

The game, which features a lottery ball and costs 100 yuan a go, could yield up to 20,000 yuan for winners, according to advertising for it.

Cheng junior said he initially topped up just a few hundred yuan, and the more he played the more he spent, and ended up topping up 150,000 yuan into the game and losing all of it.

He squandered the rest of money on food and entertainment.

His Kuaishou account was connected to his father’s bank account, and he knew the password.

Cheng senior said he was heartbroken as that was all the money the family had, and he could not make more money as he broke both legs in an accident at work last year.

Cheng junior’s mother had passed away.

His sister, who had married and gave all her bride price to her father, said the money was intended for her brother to buy a house and marry in the future.

A reporter on the Xiaoli to the Rescue programme, helped the family call Kuaishou customer service.

A member of staff told them it might be possible to refund money spent by minors without the guardian’s supervision.

They were also told that the app did not limit Cheng’s spending because it “did not know if he was an adult or a minor”.

Cheng’s case reflected a problem with such apps, which lack effective measures to protect adolescents from internet addiction and online scams.

Kuaishou does have a “teenager mode” function, which limits daily usage to less than 40 minutes and bans “consuming behaviour”, but it also allows users to turn the mode on and off.

China has 191 million underage internet users, with the penetration rate among minors reaching 96.8 per cent.

About 62.3 per cent often play online games, according to a 2021 report by the Department of Youth Rights and Welfare of the Communist Youth League Central Committee and the China internet Network Information Centre.

Indonesian logistics giant J&T turns first profit in China, making up bulk of its revenue, despite price war

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3256472/indonesian-logistics-giant-jt-turns-first-profit-china-making-bulk-its-revenue-despite-price-war?utm_source=rss_feed

Indonesian logistics company J&T Global Express reported its first annual profit in China despite an escalating industry price war in its first earnings report since going public in Hong Kong last October.

The company recorded a gross profit of US$58.8 million and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation of US$30.7 million in China last year, the first positive results for both since it entered the market four years ago, according to the earnings report released on Friday.

The company’s turn of fortune comes amid fierce competition in China’s express delivery market. Major domestic logistics giants – including SF Express, STO Express and YTO Express – have been engaged in a heated price war for the past year as e-commerce user growth has slowed after the Covid-19 pandemic. It comes just two years after another brutal price war in 2021.

Average revenue per parcel was down 4.3 per cent last year to 9.1 yuan, according to data from the State Post Bureau.

Strong orders in post-pandemic China boost Meituan revenue

J&T said its own revenue per parcel remained stable in 2023, as it managed to decrease per-parcel delivery costs to US$0.34 from US$0.40 in 2022. It attributed the improved results to “a series of initiatives including strategic acquisition, service offering diversification and streamlined operation”, according to the earnings report.

J&T entered China in 2020 on the back of strong demand from online retailers such as budget e-commerce giant Pinduoduo. The market now makes up the majority of its revenue.

Last year, the company’s revenue in China increased 27.7 per cent year on year to US$5.2 billion, accounting for 59.1 per cent of its total revenue.

The number of parcels it handled in the country last year jumped 27.6 per cent to 15.3 billion, giving it an 11.6 per cent market share. It is the sixth-largest express delivery company in China.

J&T raised HK$3.5 billion in its October initial public offering in Hong Kong, making it the city’s second-largest IPO of the year.

“In China, our focus will be on further uplifting service quality and brand image to reach a broader base of high-quality customers,” the company said in its press release on Friday.

Even as business improves in China, J&T’s global business has seen greater headwinds.

The company as a whole reported a net loss of US$1.2 billion because of higher share-based payments and expenses. It had a net profit of US$1.6 billion in 2022. Total revenue last year rose 22 per cent to US$8.8 billion.

J&T, known for its low-cost logistics services, was the top express delivery service provider last year in Southeast Asia, where it held a 22.5 per cent share of the market in terms of parcel volume, according to data from Frost & Sullivan.

Can Starbucks coffee improve China-US ties? Cui Tiankai urges Howard Schultz to try

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256471/can-starbucks-coffee-improve-china-us-ties-cui-tiankai-urges-howard-schultz-try?utm_source=rss_feed

A former Chinese envoy to the United States urged US coffee chain Starbucks to promote exchanges between the two countries, saying the company could “play a positive role in advancing [bilateral ties]”.

Cui Tiankai, Beijing’s longest-serving ambassador to Washington, made the call in a meeting with former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Shanghai’s Jingan district on Friday.

“We encourage Starbucks to make more contributions to promoting mutual understanding between China and the United States and their peoples,” Cui said, adding that China offered a “vast market” to the chain.

Cui stressed that promoting people-to-people exchanges between the two countries were crucial to the healthy, stable and sustainable development of bilateral ties.

Schultz said the two countries had “more commonalities than differences”, and that China’s achievements in socioeconomic development and in improving its people’s livelihood were “heartening”.

Schultz is in China to attend the China Development Forum, which begins in Beijing on Sunday.

He and Cui met previously during Cui’s eight-year stint in the United States, which ended in 2021.

Schultz’s trip comes less than a year after a meeting in Beijing with Vice-President Han Zheng, who echoed President Xi Jinping’s hope that the company would “play a positive role in advancing [bilateral ties]”.

Caffeine boost: China’s rising coffee demand spurs cutthroat cafe competition

Schultz also met Shanghai Communist Party chief Chen Jining on Friday, with Chen also urging the company to be “a bridge” between the two countries and encourage more American young people to come to China to learn, network and “create conditions” for cooperation.

Schultz said: “We are willing to give full play to our own advantages and contribute more to promoting economic and trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between the US and China.”

According to Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper, he also said that the more he understood about the city, “the more confident and determined I am in deepening investments and expanding strategies in Shanghai”.

China is the biggest market for the coffee giant outside the United States, with about 6,500 Starbucks stores across 250 Chinese cities by the end of last year. Starbucks plans to increase this number to 9,000 units by 2025.

Schultz said Shanghai had more Starbucks stores than any other city in the world.

But it is facing pressure in other parts of the world, particularly in Muslim-majority countries, over its decision to distance itself from the pro-Palestinian Starbucks Workers United union. Starbucks’ Middle East franchisee, Alshaya Group, has reportedly laid off more than 2,000 workers relating to the consumer boycotts.

In December, Starbucks said it condemned “violence, the loss of innocent life and all hate and weaponised speech” and have “no political agenda”.

McDonald’s Malaysia drops lawsuit against pro-Palestinian boycott group

Apple chief executive also stopped in Shanghai on Friday on his way to Beijing for the CDF, where US executives are expected to make up the biggest delegation.

Cook met Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, saying China was “an important market” and “key supply chain partner” for Apple.

“Apple will continue to be committed to long-term development in China and continue to increase investment in China’s supply chain, research and development and sales,” the ministry quoted Cook as saying.

Wang said the business community was “generally opposed” to decoupling, adding that China was willing to work with the US to “create a fair, stable and predictable environment for business cooperation between the two countries”.

The forum was launched in 2000 and aims to bring international corporate chiefs and organisations, as well as academics, together for direct dialogue with Beijing.

China is trying to reassure foreign investors that it is a profitable place to do business.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, foreign direct investment in China stood at 215.09 billion yuan (US$29.75 billion) in the first two months of this year, down almost 20 per cent year on year.

China’s powerful advanced sonar systems are now small enough to fit on unmanned submersibles

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3255947/chinas-powerful-advanced-sonar-systems-are-now-small-enough-fit-unmanned-submersibles?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese scientists have shrunk the size of a high-powered phased array sonar system into something compact enough to fit inside a shoebox, enabling it to be mounted on a small unmanned submersible.

Previously, such advanced sonar systems could only be installed on warships or large submarines due to their size.

China develops long-distance underwater communication in South China Sea

Zhu Jianjun, an associate professor from the National Key Laboratory of Underwater Acoustic Technology at Harbin Engineering University, said his team had developed what may be the world’s smallest phased array sonar, adding that it “has great potential for use on underwater platforms”.

“In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for small underwater mobile platforms for near-seabed acoustic observation and surveying,” Zhu said in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Chinese academic journal Applied Acoustics on February 5.

Despite its small size, the researchers said the 15kg (33lbs) sonar device is capable of generating sound waves of up to 238 decibels, an intensity comparable to the noise produced by the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo programme.

The direction and frequency of the sonic beams can be quickly adjusted, and when high-frequency sound waves converge in one direction, they can even penetrate the soil of the seabed or the outer wall of a submarine, achieving high-resolution detection of hidden targets, the researchers said.

Ultrasonic energy can also be absorbed and converted into mechanical pressure by the human body, leading to physiological reactions such as blurred vision and nausea. If such energy was directed at a submarine, the crew might be forced to end a mission or withdraw from a particular area.

China’s maritime power is rapidly expanding. Last year, the tonnage of new ships launched from Chinese shipyards exceeded that of all other countries combined.

But China only has one-third the number of aircraft carriers that the US has. China’s military has been attempting to narrow its gap with the US in traditional weapons and equipment by using low-cost, technologically advanced unmanned smart weapons.

At the same time, as land-based sources of minerals and other natural resources no longer meet China’s growing demand, the Chinese government plans to produce a fleet of underwater robots for seabed resource exploration and mining.

“Current sonar phased array detection capabilities are weak, bulky and heavy, and not suitable for small platform deployment,” Zhu and his colleagues wrote in the paper.

Traditional sonar systems are only capable of simple functions and have one sending and receiving unit, while phased array sonar are designed to be more sensitive, with multiple units that can generate different sound waves and superimpose them in a certain direction to form a strong beam with high intensity and directivity.

However, each unit for phased array sonar requires independent circuitry and drive channels, resulting in a larger volume and weight.

Scientists and engineers around the world have been working to shrink the size of phased array sonar systems. Some German products already measure less than 1 metre (3.28 feet) in length and weigh about 100kg, but they are still too large for small unmanned submersibles, according to Zhu’s team.

To further reduce the size of the new sonar, Zhu’s team used an unknown type of semiconductor power amplifier to convert the signals into higher power levels. The reduced volume of the sonar unit circuit allowed the researchers to pack 40 independent units into a small space.

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Positioning such highly integrated electronics in such a compact space is risky because the sonar could overheat and malfunction, however Zhu’s team claimed to have “conducted long-term stress testing to verify its stability and reliability”.

The paper did not discuss safety considerations of the sonar or its potential impact on marine life. Like mainstream military sonar, a significant portion of the operating frequency of phased array sonar overlaps with the songs, sounds and calls used by whales.

High-powered sonar can also affect human health. Last November, the Australian navy claimed that its divers were injured by Chinese warships activating sonar while operating in waters near Japan.

The Chinese navy denied the allegation, and said the source of the interference may have come from a nearby Japanese warship.

High-powered high-frequency sonar produces ultrasonic waves that far exceed the frequency range of the human ear but may cause harm to the brain and internal organs.

[Sport] Trump reaches semi-finals at World Open in China

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/68639751

No Chinese casualties reported in Moscow shooting that killed more than 60

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3256464/no-chinese-casualties-reported-moscow-shooting-killed-more-60?utm_source=rss_feed

There have been no reports of Chinese casualties in the Moscow shooting, Beijing’s embassy in Russia said on Saturday morning, adding that it is continuing to monitor the incident.

Gunmen opened fire at a Moscow concert hall on Friday killing more than 60 people, wounding over 100 and sparking an inferno, Russian authorities said. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility.

The news of the incident has attracted over 21 million views and more than 7,000 comments on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

The Russian embassy in China expressed gratitude to Chinese social media users who sent condolences for the victims and their families. On its official Weibo account, the embassy wrote: “We’ve received the condolences from the Chinese people. Thank you for your support!”

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Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, said the attack was a “test for the military security” of the Moscow core area and a political test for incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin, who won the country’s presidential election earlier this month.

Putin’s re-election will allow him to rule until at least 2030, when he will be 77, making him Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

“It’s a warning to Putin before he starts the new term,” Hu wrote on Weibo.

“The attack would deteriorate the situation in Russia. It intensifies people’s impression – Moscow is not safe any more. Russian areas, even for those far away from the battlefields in its war with Ukraine, could become attack targets. In many places, defence is weak and even nonexistent,” he wrote.

Additional reporting by Sylvie Zhuang

Snake-consuming China man struck down by spinal cord parasites 15 years after ingesting reptile gallbladders and wine

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3255499/snake-consuming-china-man-struck-down-spinal-cord-parasites-15-years-after-ingesting-reptile?utm_source=rss_feed

A man in China has been hit by dizziness, headaches and nausea nearly 15 years after he ate raw snake gallbladders and drank medicinal wine soaked in raw snake skin.

The man’s health became so bad that he had to use a wheelchair and required a catheter to urinate, according to Yangcheng Evening News.

The source of his problems was snake parts that left strange orange parasites in his spinal cord, said doctors at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in the south of the country.

“Faeces from the parasites have fully polluted the patient’s spinal cord,” said Huang Minjun, the doctor working on the case.

“The parasites have reproduced and grown a lot. Some worms were as long as 6cm. It was very horrible.”

Identified as Spirometra mansoni, the parasites are commonly found in snakes, frogs, cats, and dogs.

Following surgery, the man, surnamed Guo, needed to take anti-parasitic drugs to ensure there were no eggs left inside his body.

Doctors believe that the parasites came from the raw snake gallbladders he ate and snakeskin medicine he drank 15 years ago.

The man said that at that time he had “too much inner heat”, so he followed a folk therapy that required him to ingest the snake ingredients.

According to widely believed Chinese folk tales, raw snake gallbladders have high medicinal value, and eating them can treat conditions such as heatstroke, coughs and food poisoning.

Snake wine is also considered beneficial to health. It is thought to boost kidney function, relieve pain and treat headaches.

Doctors said that the man would have become paralysed and incontinent if he had waited much longer.

They have also warned the public against drinking polluted water or eating uncooked meat that could contain parasites.

South China Sea: Philippines accuses Beijing of damaging supply vessel with water cannon

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3256468/south-china-sea-philippines-accuses-beijing-damaging-supply-vessel-water-cannon?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines accused the China coastguard of blocking a Filipino supply vessel and damaging it with water cannon on Saturday morning off a remote and contested South China Sea reef.

The Philippine military said the nearly hour-long attack occurred off Second Thomas Shoal, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannon and collided with Filipino vessels in similar stand-offs in recent months.

The military released video clips that showed a white ship repeatedly dousing another vessel sailing alongside it with a water cannon. One clip showed two white ships simultaneously firing water at the same vessel.

It also released another clip showing a white ship marked “China coastguard” crossing the bow of a grey vessel it identified as the Philippine supply boat Unaizah May 4.

It said the videos were taken on Saturday morning while the Unaizah May 4 was on its way to Ayungin Shoal – the Filipino name for the outcrop garrisoned by a small unit of Philippine troops that is also claimed by Beijing.

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“The UM4 supply boat sustained heavy damages at around 08:52 (am) due to the continued blasting of water cannons from the CCG vessels,” the military said in a statement, without describing the nature of the damage or whether there were any casualties.

A Philippine coastguard escort vessel later reached the damaged boat “to provide assistance”, the military said.

China coastguard spokesman Gan Yu said in a statement that the Philippine convoy “forcibly intruded into the area despite the Chinese side’s repeated warnings and route controls”, adding the Chinese carried out “control, obstruction and eviction in accordance with law”.

“We sternly warn the Philippine side: those who play with fire will bring shame on themselves. The Chinese coastguard is ready at all times to resolutely safeguard our country’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Gan added.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims from countries including the Philippines and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The latest confrontation came four days after visiting Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States stood by its “ironclad” commitments to defend long-time ally Manila against armed attack in the South China Sea.

Two days after Blinken’s visit to Manila, the China coastguard also tried to drive away Filipino scientists who landed on two cays near Scarborough Shoal, another contested South China Sea outcrop.

The Unaizah May 4, which was also damaged in a China coastguard water cannon attack off Second Thomas Shoal earlier this month, had returned to the area on Saturday escorted by two Filipino coastguard vessels and two Philippine navy ships, a Philippine military statement said.

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The Philippine soldiers stationed on the shoal live on a derelict navy ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, and require frequent resupplies for food, water and other necessities.

“This particular mission was set up to ensure a full troop complement on board BRP Sierra Madre after one personnel needing serious medical attention was recently evacuated,” the military added.

Four crew members had been hurt by broken glass during the previous water cannon attack on the Unaizah May 4.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, a Philippine coastguard spokesman for South China Sea issues, said in a separate statement that its escort vessel, the BRP Cabra, was “impeded and encircled” by three Chinese coastguard and other vessels early Saturday.

As a result, Cabra was “isolated from the resupply boat due to the irresponsible and provocative behaviour of the Chinese maritime forces”, he added.

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How celebrating the centenary of Rabindranath Tagore’s China trip can offer New Delhi and Beijing a chance to reset ties

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3256417/how-celebrating-centenary-rabindranath-tagores-china-trip-can-offer-new-delhi-and-beijing-chance?utm_source=rss_feed

The troubled ties between India and China are expected to worsen in the coming years and analysts see no future where the two Asian powers will come together in cooperation.

One way of turning things around is to reflect on the times when the neighbours were engaged in the struggle to establish modern states and to take seriously a major thinker of that period, Rabindranath Tagore, who envisioned harmonious relations.

This April marks the 100th anniversary of Tagore’s visit to China and provides an opportunity to celebrate the occasion and study his vision.

The poet made the trip when India was under colonial rule and China was in the midst of its “century of humiliation”. At a time of great suffering, his visit was a symbol of the commonality of their situation and their attempt to establish new bonds. The tour also marked a historic turn in India-China relations.

Chinese society then was in intense flux and debating the place of Western thought. Chen Duxiu, one of the founders of the Communist Party (who later left the group), had welcomed “Mr Science” and “Mr Democracy” and attacked old customs and traditions including Confucianism. In his lectures in China, Tagore argued against associating modernity with an uncritical acceptance of the West and said, “The revelation of spirit in man is truly modern: I am on its side, for I am modern.”

His point of view was appreciated and he was effusively welcomed by several Chinese intellectuals, including Liang Qichao, who compared his visit with those of ancient travellers between India and China. In his introduction to Tagore, Liang spoke of how India and China had extensive contact in the past – most prominently through Buddhism – which was interrupted by colonial expansion. Western colonialism had not just hindered positive civilisational exchange; it had created the conditions for mutual suspicion and misunderstanding. Liang saw Tagore’s visit as reigniting the contact between two ancient civilisations in modern times.

Tagore also had a deep influence on modern Chinese literature. “I was so elated as if I had found a hidden orchid while strolling along a mountain path,” the author Bing Xin wrote in her moving tribute to discovering Tagore. Several Indians and Chinese travelled to each other’s countries after Tagore’s trip. India-China relations could be said to have reached a crescendo in 1954 with the signing of the Panchsheel agreement, which created a new paradigm for international relations. The subsequent sad break in ties needs no repetition.

However, the popularity of Tagore in China has only increased. He is widely known and is taught in Chinese school textbooks. In some ways, his ideas have more relevance at this time when both sides are re-examining the importance of their ancient heritage, and there are three key aspects of Tagore’s thought that deserve the attention of the world today.

The first is his critique of Western modernity. Tagore believed that in Western modernity, moral progress had not kept pace with scientific advances. He was a critic of Western nationalism, which he considered an abstract and limiting ideal driven by profit-making that had led to unnatural growth. He also questioned the excessive materialism of the West and believed that society should benefit from the gains of applied science, but that these must not overwhelm human relations.

Today, as China and India have both made immense material progress, much debate and discussion is focused on the shape that Chinese and Indian modernity is going to take. Both countries are seeking clarity on how their modern social organisation differs from that of the West, and its relationship to their ancient civilisational heritage. Scholars of China, for example, have noted the distinct state organisation in the country, referring to it as a civilisational state. Tagore emphasised that one must search for civilisational heritage in folk forms, in the ways and beings of ordinary people rather than in the culture of the elite.

The second is the doctrine of universal man. Tagore was immensely concerned with the place of the human being in society and directly confronted the complex problem of human experience in modern society. He believed that individuals would only find their self-expression in seeking to spiritually expand and unite with all of humanity. He thus sought an organic unity of humanity, which, in his view, would be guided by love. Individuals should strive to be “world-workers” who reject both rootless cosmopolitanism and narrow provincialism. Tagore further argued that Western nationalism was producing a limited sort of human being, and instead, there was a need to create what he called the complete moral man. He particularly emphasised the importance of education in developing human personality.

The third aspect is Asian unity. Tagore contended that it would be Asia that would show a new dawn to the world. Pan-Asia as an idea is often associated with Japanese thinkers, but the Nobel laureate was a critic of Japanese imperialism. He did not view Asia as a racial or geographical category but rather as a historical and political one. A synthesis of different cultures in Asia would develop in her “a confident sense of mental freedom, her own view of truth”. Otherwise, Tagore said Asia “will allow her priceless inheritance to crumble into dust, and trying to replace it clumsily with feeble imitations of the West make herself superfluous, cheap and ludicrous”.

What possibly could unite such a large land mass with such a huge variety of peoples and cultures? As the American scholar William Edward Burghardt Du Bois wrote “colored people vary vastly in physique, history and cultural experience. The one thing that unites them today in the world’s thought is their poverty, ignorance and disease, which renders them all, in different degrees, unresisting victims of modern capitalistic exploitation”. Pan-Asia was a theory shaped by the resistance to Western domination over the world. Du Bois, who was a founder of the Pan-African movement and an admirer of both the Indian freedom struggle and the Chinese revolution, expanded the Pan-Asia concept further to Pan Africa-Pan Asia.

Tagore declared that the time has come to “prepare the grand field for coordination of all the cultures of the world, where each will give to and take from the other; where each will have to be studied through the growth of its stages in history. This adjustment of knowledge through comparative study, this progress of intellectual cooperation, is to be the keynote of the coming age”. He felt that Asia must first seek to synthesise and understand its own heritage so it could properly assimilate the contribution from the rest of the world.

As is evident to anyone who is paying attention, we are reaching the end of the era dominated by the West. China and India will likely be the two largest economies in the world by 2050. The relationship between them and their cooperation will shape not only their own populations but the future of humanity itself. Unfortunately, there is currently a pitiful amount of contact between the two nations, who have maintained close communications with the West.

This is why it is important not only to commemorate the centenary of Tagore’s visit to China but also to take up his unfinished project of seeking a synthesis of Asian thought that requires Asian countries to know and understand each other. The image of China in India and vice versa is mostly shaped by Western narratives. Discussions tend to focus on realpolitik and narrow concerns. A small group of scholars certainly do have contact, but many of them are based in the West and their works have limited reach in broader society. Far wider association is needed. It would be apt to set up Tagore centres for cultural understanding and civilisational dialogue. Tagore’s own vision of the importance of his trip was summarised in his statement: “I shall consider myself fortunate if, through this visit, China comes nearer to India and India to China – for no political or commercial purpose, but for disinterested human love and for nothing else.”

The two societies must consider honouring the 100th year of Tagore’s visit to China, an event that would remind both that for most of human history, they have lived in peace with each other. A study of his thought will provide us with a modern vision for how they can continue this long-standing tradition.

Archishman Raju is a scientist based in Bengaluru, India. This article was first published by the (APP), an initiative to promote peace in Asia, housed in the NUS Asia Research Institute.

South China Sea: Philippines debates boosting war readiness through mandatory military training for students

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3256415/south-china-sea-philippines-debates-boosting-war-readiness-through-mandatory-military-training?utm_source=rss_feed

Renewed talks on a bill that would reinstate a mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) programme in colleges and universities in the Philippines has sparked debate on whether it would be effective in strengthening the country’s military amid growing tensions in the South China Sea.

Senator Robin Padilla told local media on March 14 that he was getting “impatient” with the bill, which he filed two years ago and was languishing in the Senate.

In August, Padilla revived his call to pass the ROTC bill – which would require all full-time college students to receive two years’ training with the Armed Forces of the Philippines – in response to China’s coastguard using water cannons on Philippine vessels and fishing boats.

The part-time training programme would be held over four academic terms, coinciding with students’ studies. The Philippines already offers an ROTC programme that college students may take as a prerequisite to graduation, but it is not mandatory.

Philippines condemns China’s ‘dangerous’ use of water cannons at its boats

“Is the Philippines ready to defend itself?” Padilla asked his fellow lawmakers when calling for the bill to be passed.

He likened the Philippines’ situation to Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying that regular Ukrainian citizens were helping their country survive the conflict, and emphasising the need to increase the military’s ranks if the Philippines was to have a fighting chance in any conflict against China.

“Given the size of China’s military and reservists, they could walk all over us, urinate on us, and we would drown,” he said.

A survey commissioned by the Philippines’ armed forces and conducted by research firm OCTA in December revealed that 77 per cent of Filipinos said they were willing to fight for their country in the event of a conflict with a foreign enemy.

According to data from June last year, the Philippine military has 150,000 active-duty personnel and around 1.2 million reservists.

The Philippines has had a mandatory ROTC programme in the past, but it was made voluntary through a law passed in 2002, after a student from the University of Santo Tomas was killed by senior ROTC officers for exposing corruption within the programme at the university.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa echoed Padilla’s sentiments when he spoke to reporters last week, saying that the Philippines needed to be prepared to defend itself at all times.

“We cannot have a credible defence if we do not have enough reserves. We cannot produce enough reserves if we do not have the ROTC programme. We’re vulnerable without the ROTC programme,” dela Rosa, a former national police chief, said on March 13.

The senator also noted that other regional countries such as Singapore required mandatory military service from its citizens, which kept their reserves strong.

Opposition senator Risa Hontiveros, however, said pursuing a mandatory ROTC programme was “not the right policy direction” and instead called for efforts to modernise the country’s military.

“I think as the tension in the West Philippine Sea heats up, the most correct course of action for us as the Senate is to continue and judiciously increase support for military modernisation, especially for the Philippine Navy, and adjust other aspects of national defence,” she said on March 11, referring to the part of the South China Sea that falls within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

Hontiveros added that a smaller but more effective armed forces could be more strategic for the country’s national defence, especially with the Senate’s passage of the Philippine Maritime Zones Act, a bill that defines the country’s maritime zones in line with The Hague’s arbitral ruling in 2016, which largely dismissed Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

China, which rejected the arbitral ruling, has condemned the Philippines’ efforts to pass the act, saying Manila “has attempted to further enforce the illegal arbitral award on the South China Sea by domestic legislation”.

Joshua Espeña, vice-president of the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank, said that while a national defence force would work, an ROTC programme that did not add any real value in terms of understanding and training for modern warfare would be unlikely to have a real strategic impact against a large enemy force with sophisticated machinery.

Espeña also highlighted practical concerns, saying that making ROTC mandatory might end up becoming costly to implement, forcing competition for limited resources in the annual defence budget set by lawmakers.

In last year’s Senate hearings, the Philippines’ Department of National Defence projected that implementing the ROTC programme alone would cost 61.2 billion pesos (US$1.09 billion), the bulk of which would be allocated to the estimated 9,000 military personnel needed to carry out the programme in more than 2,000 colleges and universities.

“We must include concerns such as pensions, benefits, and other relevant perks in joining the reserve force,” he said.

According to Espeña, much of the country’s defence budget already goes toward personnel expenses, while capital outlay, maintenance and other operating expenses, such as those incurred to procure new warfare systems and equipment, lag behind.

“[Much of the budget] is understandably concerned with incomes, pensions, and dependency concerns for the regular forces aside from expenditures on training and education,” he said.

“The current reserve force does not receive monthly income, assuming they have day jobs, but the money allocated is for training and education. We must gear our reserves to operate and prevail in modern warfare to optimise the defence budget.”

Is Philippines at front line of ‘WWII-style war’ with China over disputed sea?

The Philippines needs to look beyond simply adding more numbers to its forces if it wants to strengthen its defence strategy, Espeña argued.

“My view is that defence policy should [focus on] securing a robust force structure of … regular and reserve forces first rather than just building a mass against enemies using untrained, unprofessional conscripts in times of war. We do not have enough population to rebuild a post-war order if we do not use human capital well,” he said.

Despite being its biggest proponent, Padilla is not waiting for the passage of his ROTC bill to recruit more of his countrymen. On March 11, he launched a voluntary Basic Citizen Military Training programme for Senate employees, which has already seen 161 people sign up.

Racist British Airways flight attendant duo fired for slant-eyed jibe, mocking Chinese accents of passengers

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3256407/racist-british-airways-flight-attendant-duo-fired-slant-eyed-jibe-mocking-chinese-accents-passengers?utm_source=rss_feed

Two British Airways flight attendants have been fired after mocking the accent of Chinese passengers and making racist slant-eye gestures in a viral video.

The clip went viral after it was posted on TikTok by @jadenguyen_2 on March 16, triggering a backlash on mainland social media.

It shows a white woman who was later confirmed to be British Airways flight attendant Holly Walton, trying to mimic a Chinese accent to say “give me wine” while making slant-eyes gestures.

Another woman who filmed the video and was having a laugh with her turned out to be her colleague, Lauren Bray.

Bray reportedly filmed the video while the pair were enjoying wine at a hotel in Antigua, during the layover following a flight from London.

Their colleagues who reacted to the video with anger said they were mimicking a Chinese family who spoke little English and tried hard to express themselves on her flight, according to British tabloid The Sun.

The account was suspended after the video went viral.

A fellow British Airways crew member called them “shocking and dumb”, “to have such racist thoughts, to then film them and share it with the world”.

A spokesperson from the airline told Business Insider that they have sacked the pair: “All forms of racism are completely unacceptable, we take allegations of this nature very seriously.”

Walton had worked for the airline for 10 years and Bray six years, according to the news site.

On mainland social media, the video has triggered public fury.

“How shallow and disgraceful is she, laughing at people who cannot speak very well a language that is not their mother tongue?” said one person on Weibo.

“What is wrong with Chinese people having a Chinese accent?” said another.

A third applauded British Airways’ “prompt and appropriate reaction” to the incident.

The slant-eyes pose is considered a mocking of Asian people’s appearance and highly offensive.

Many, including celebrities and famous brands, have got into trouble for making the pose.

Offenders include American singer Miley Cyrus, the whole Spanish women’s tennis team who made the pose during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and more recently, Dior.

The French luxury fashion house was accused of racism after posting an Instagram photo featuring a model pulling her eye. It removed the photo after an online backlash.

It is not the first time flight attendants have been sacked for inappropriate behaviour.

In 2023, Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways fired three cabin crew members, after they were accused of mocking non-English speakers from China who asked for “carpet” while requesting blankets.

They were also heard remarking on people who do not understand Cantonese as “not being able to understand human language”.

India comes for China’s manufacturing crown as supply chains slowly shift

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3256423/india-comes-chinas-manufacturing-crown-supply-chains-slowly-shift?utm_source=rss_feed

Warm weather’s early onset isn’t sapping the spirits of officials in Tamil Nadu this year. Instead, the mood is upbeat as one high-profile overseas investment after another has flowed into the southern Indian state over the past few months.

The state, whose capital Chennai has been dubbed the “Detroit of Southern Asia” because of its new-found status as a carmaking hub, has quickly expanded its global footprint by hosting three of iPhone-maker Apple’s top contract suppliers: Foxconn, Pegatron and Tata Group.

Shipping and logistics giant UPS also established a global technology hub in the city, beginning in August last year, while leading renewables energy firm First Solar has invested in a manufacturing facility.

Chennai is just one of many Indian industrial hotspots that have started expanding as global firms look to diversify their manufacturing base amid intensified US-China rivalry and faltering growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

Two decades ago, China and India’s economies were neck and neck, and would famously often be compared as the Dragon and Elephant at investors’ meetings, where attendees would dwell on their relative merits. Over the years, the Dragon beat the Elephant hands down to emerge as the world’s factory.

But India now looks set to make a pivot, analysts say, and could soon challenge China’s manufacturing pre-eminence amid a changed world order.

‘Historic moment’: Modi ramps up push to position India as alternative to China

Tamil Nadu is one of the country’s success stories. Home to more than 130 Fortune Global 500 companies, India’s southernmost state recently outlined an incentive programme aimed at encouraging investors to go beyond assembling low-value products, and manufacture high-value goods.

“What we have seen over the last two years is very, very strong interest in establishing advanced manufacturing facilities. Companies are also very keen to establish global capability centres here in India,” said Vishnu Venugopalan, managing director and CEO of Guidance Tamil Nadu, the state government’s investment promotion agency.

Global interest in India has grown since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government launched production-linked incentives for sectors such as electronics and renewable-energy equipment to boost the economy four years ago amid the pandemic.

These were recently expanded in an attempt to usher in investments in sophisticated technologies like making satellites and space-launch vehicles.

A raft of reforms has also been introduced to cut red tape, such as a simplified tax code that has sped up logistics, and revamped infrastructure including arterial highways, brand new airports and a modernisation programme for the country’s antiquated railways.

Further changes are expected, sending the stocks of many Indian companies soaring in anticipation – as Modi and his government seek a third consecutive five-year mandate in national polls between April and June.

“Is India like China [was] 15 years ago?” asked Kevin Carter, founder of the Emerging Markets Internet and ECommerce ETF, which has a specialised India-focused fund called INQQ. “The answer is yes.”

More than half of the country’s population is under 30, he pointed out. India, which surpassed China as the most populous country last year, is also the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

“When you combine demographics and growth, India will surpass China in terms of number of consumers,” Carter told an investment webinar this month titled “The Rise of India: Investing in the Perfect Emerging Market”.

One of the cornerstones for optimism about India, he added, is its world-beating public digital infrastructure that has enabled millions to open bank accounts and transfer money instantly, swelling the nation’s base of middle-class consumers.

This digital infrastructure is soon expected to bring e-commerce into the fold – allowing consumers to get deliveries such as groceries from family-run shops within minutes, likely bringing more opportunities, Carter said.

“Without question, there is an opportunity for India. It is coming not only from the US-China rivalry and global firms’ ‘China plus one’ strategy, but from two other sources,” said Naushad Forbes, a former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

“China’s internal policies are really deterring foreign investors and making them seek other locations. Rising wages in China are also making it more economical to start simple assembly operations in places like Vietnam, Bangladesh, the Philippines and India.”

US officials have pointed to fines, raids and other actions against foreign companies that have made it risky to do business in China, despite efforts to reassure investors. But India’s ability to make the most of rising diversification varies from sector to sector, Forbes said.

“Medium-technology sectors are the ones where India is showing the greatest promise,” he said, adding that industries like speciality chemicals, engineering products and ready-to-eat foods are among the biggest areas of strength.

But Forbes rued the fact that India was not grabbing opportunities in labour-intensive sectors such as garments. “India should worry about [this] because of the potential for employment creation,” he said, pointing out that neighbouring countries like Bangladesh had better positioned themselves.

Delhi is also missing a trick, Forbes said, by not joining trading blocs such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – a free-trade agreement that includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 member states of Asean.

Despite strong ties with Western nations, he said “India is not being a part of key free trade where a lot of products exist”.

Experts say India’s reluctance to join the trade bloc stems mainly from China’s presence since a border clash in 2020 frayed diplomatic ties. But Chinese components are still needed for many of the products, such as iPhones and electric vehicles, in which India wants to ramp up production.

Southeast Asia, a growth bright spot, could also help amplify India’s manufacturing, Forbes said.

“I hope we have a more moderate approach to how we define our self interest. China is a huge market and it’s not just a large exporter but also the second largest importer,” he said.

Delhi, which recently signed several new free-trade deals and is negotiating others with Britain and the European Union, should also look to lower import duties across the board, observers said.

“India’s import tariffs are among the highest across emerging markets, which acts as one of the deterrents to improving India’s market integration,” said Upasana Chachra, chief India economist at multinational investment bank Morgan Stanley.

High import tariffs fuel concerns about Delhi being too protectionist of its domestic industries, analysts say – even though isolated sectors may have benefited. The government did recently signal it would readjust some taxes to boost manufacturing, however.

Earlier this month, Delhi said it would lower import taxes on electric vehicles, committing to at least US$500 million in investment and a manufacturing plant within three years, potentially allowing Tesla to enter the market.

“India has not been very open to trade. Exports, for instance, are slightly more than 20 per cent of Chinese exports,” said Pushan Dutt, an economics and political-science professor at INSEAD business school.

“The geopolitical tensions and the China-plus strategy provides India with a unique opportunity to become an integral part of global value chains and use exports as an engine of growth.”

Simultaneously, India should look to boost jobs in labour-intensive sectors like tourism to cater to its young and growing population, experts said.

Providing enough jobs is the country’s single biggest economic challenge, according to Forbes, who said: “We are providing a lot of employment but mostly in informal services, not in good-quality formal jobs.”

India’s elite engineering colleges are tougher to enrol in than Harvard, boasting illustrious graduates from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, while the country’s scientific and technical manpower services the world.

“India’s vast pool of highly skilled talent, particularly in the fields of engineering and information technology, provides us with the resources needed for innovative technological advancements,” said Subramani Ramakrishnan, vice-president of the UPS Technology Centres in India, explaining the American logistics firm’s decision to establish a technology hub there.

Yet millions of young people in smaller towns and rural areas still struggle to master foundational skills – though the government did recently launch a new National Education Policy in a bid to improve matters.

“Where India lags behind is investment in education. While boasting world standard institutions like the IITs [Indian Institutes of Technology], India needs to invest in basic and secondary education,” said Pushan Dutt, an economics and political science professor at INSEAD.

“The quality of schools and teachers is poor and variable; teacher absenteeism is common and the quantity of colleges has not kept pace with the rapid increase in the number of young people entering the labour force.”

Nearly a quarter of India’s young people, or 23.22 per cent of those aged between 15 and 24, were unemployed in 2022, according to the latest available figures from the World Bank.

Yet labour laws are still cumbersome, remaining one of the biggest obstacles from the country’s bureaucratic legacy of red tape, Dutt said, adding that a backed-up courts system hardly helped matters.

Modi is set to make labour reforms, already passed by parliament in 2020, a priority if he wins the coming general elections as widely expected, a spokesman for his ruling party was quoted as saying by Reuters last month.

Despite being approved by parliament, the new labour code has yet to be implemented following resistance from labour unions who oppose easier hiring-and-firing provisions and restrictions on their activities.

The promise of more reforms and growth has spawned a new generation of businesses who aim to usher in fresh manufacturing paradigms.

Bharath Krishna Rao Potluri, co-founder and CEO of Emobi Manufactury, is looking to pioneer low-cost two-wheelers for India in a strategic partnership with Japan’s Honda and Musashi Seimitsu Industry Co., catering to businesses making last-mile deliveries.

“We are moving away from the concept of mega-factories, and we believe more in micro-factories, which would be more regionally distributed, and closer to the points of consumption,” said Potluri, who hails from a business family.

Emobi’s first micro-factory in Bengaluru, capital of Karnataka state, is set to start production in July this year.

Potluri concedes that Chinese firms, the global leaders in electric vehicles, have had a 10-15 year head start, but he hopes to bridge the gap with new technologies, frugal engineering and integrating software development into vehicles.

Industry executives say Indian industry could chart a new growth path by marrying its traditional strengths in software development with manufacturing. In some sectors, such as speciality chemicals, products are already being sold that combine these specialisations.

“India’s long-term prospects are upbeat. Domestic demand will remain an important growth driver, with strong investment and government spending as critical inputs,” said Aditi Raman, an associate economist at Moody’s Analytics.

She added that while more production bases were likely to emerge, India still needed to address glaring gaps between urban and rural infrastructure that had resulted in disparities, such as the varying cost of fuel across the country.

An uneven investment landscape will hamper the country’s manufacturing ambitions, analysts say, as robust physical infrastructure and minimal bureaucracy are crucial for global companies looking to shift operations away from China.

It’s clear India still has some way to go to catch up with its giant neighbour to the north.

“One indicator is the size of factories. In India, they tend to be small relative to those in China, but they are growing in size as infrastructure becomes better,” said Srividya Jandhyala, an associate professor of management at the ESSEC Business School, Asia-Pacific in Singapore.

Analysts say most global companies looking to move out of China are currently testing the waters by shifting some production capacity, but they’re not moving everything all at once.

“Many companies globally will remain significantly embedded with China, [even though] they may have the odd facility here and there,” said Subhabrata Sengupta, a partner at Asia-focused strategy consultancy Avalon Consulting.

One of the main reasons for this, he said, is that China accounts for nearly one-third of global demand in some product categories, while the country has also built entire manufacturing ecosystems.

“So, even in some cases where maybe the final assembly has moved from China to Vietnam or India, you may find that the components are still being sourced from China,” Sengupta said. “The nerve centres of these supply chains still remain in China.”

Indian companies, meanwhile, are only in the early stages of developing such supply chains.

“A lot of companies in India assemble circuit boards, but very few actually manufacture circuit boards. So, in that sense, I will say that the movement has been only partial here, though there has been a fair bit of progress,” Sengupta said.

India’s manufacturing sector accounts for only 17 per cent of its gross domestic product, compared with 28 per cent in China, said Bernard Aw, chief APAC economist at Coface, a global credit insurer.

“But there is no doubt India’s manufacturing activity is growing and the product mix evolving to include higher-value activities such as electronics,” he said.

US-India tech deal could further detach China from global supply chain

Global companies like Apple are expected to shift significant amounts of phone-and-components manufacturing to India within two to three years to diversify their supply chains out of China and build more resilience against possible disruptions.

But the move seems “to be driven more by political considerations” and such a “shift may help India towards a quicker industrialisation process”, Aw said.

“So clearly, this is an opportunity for India to seize, by having not just policies that directly promote the manufacturing sector but also policies to invest in public health, education and physical infrastructure.”

Democracy summit may signal South Korea’s shift to harder stance on China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256366/democracy-summit-may-signal-south-koreas-shift-harder-stance-china?utm_source=rss_feed

South Korea’s “value-based diplomacy” could see the country coming more closely into line with the United States and its other allies in its policy towards China after Seoul played host to this week’s Summit for Democracy.

The three-day event, which ended on Wednesday and was attended by representatives from more than 100 countries and regions, was the third of its kind and the first to be held outside America since President Joe Biden set up the first in 2021.

As in previous years, the event was addressed by a Taiwanese representative, while mainland China was excluded.

Since the inauguration of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in 2022, Seoul has been more vocal about the importance of maintaining “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” and its importance to the country.

Diplomatic observers said that while Seoul will still be cautious regarding Taiwan because of its close economic ties with mainland China, the hosting of the summit and close alignment with the US in other areas could drive it further away from Beijing.

Kang Jun-young, a professor of Chinese studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, said: “Basically, South Korea is pursuing value-based diplomacy.

“The reason is that now that the Biden administration is pursuing a policy that emphasises and values alliances, and Korea is also a democratic and free market economy country.

“As Seoul discusses democratic values, I think it differentiates itself from China with different systems and values. Of course … this means that Korea will establish itself as a country that respects the same values as Western countries, including the United States.”

Yoon has previously described the country’s relationship with the US as an “alliance of values” which, he added, “is even stronger because we share a belief in liberal democracy”.

This year’s event – which had the theme of “democracy for future generations” – included a pre-recorded video message from Taiwan’s digital affairs minister Audrey Tang. It was played during a round-table discussion on artificial intelligence and emerging technology

Can a new South Korea-Japan agreement take bilateral ties to the next level?

Tang said that during the island’s elections in January, “bad actors in the pay of authoritarians pulled out all stops, coming close to poisoning [Taiwan’s] information climate and interfering in the outcome,” according to the Taiwanese digital affairs ministry.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of China that must be reunited with the mainland – by force if necessary – and expressed its “firm opposition” to Taiwan’s presence at the event, saying “there is only one China in the world”.

“China has solemnly urged South Korea to abide by the one-China principle and stop providing a platform to Taiwan independence forces and making excuses for them,” said foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian.

Most countries, including the US and South Korea, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but oppose any attempt to take it by force.

In response to Beijing’s criticism, South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk said the summit for democracy was held to “contribute to the promotion of democracy and human rights,” and it was not aimed at any specific country.

Lim added: “There is no change in our government’s position of respecting one China.”

Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation chair of Korea studies at Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution, said there is a “slow movement and recognition” within Seoul that Taiwan is becoming more of a global problem.

“We know that South Korea is not at the same place as other allies like Japan and Australia when it comes to concerns about a Taiwan contingency,” said Yeo.

“But we’ve seen the language shift, starting from the end of the Moon [Jae-in] government, and then with the Yoon government in terms of reinforcing this idea of maintaining peace and stability on the Taiwan Strait.

“I think Korea will, at least under the Yoon government, move in a direction that is more consistent with some other Western countries on the Taiwan issue, but probably not at the same pace or speed.”

Last year, China and South Korea both summoned each other’s ambassadors after Yoon said both Taiwan and North Korea were global issues.

US top official Blinken arrives in South Korea to attend democracy summit

Yeo said the democracy summit was the Yoon administration’s attempt to present South Korea as a “global pivotal state”, and reinforce its alignment with US foreign policy.

“As we’ve seen, Yoon doubled down on this value-based diplomacy, global pivotal state argument, and because Taiwan is becoming more recognised as an international issue … it would look bad if the Yoon government completely ignored this issue,” said Yeo.

But Kang, from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said that “from China’s perspective”, this shift “would be very difficult to understand”.

“So, for the time being, if Korea brings up such value diplomacy or such things, it will inevitably be uncomfortable for China, and I don’t think that will be a positive factor in Korea-China relations in the short to medium term,” he said.

“I believe that quickly establishing communication between both sides on how to manage conflict will lead to the future development of both countries … so I hope that the two countries will put their heads together to create such a communication mechanism sooner.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among those attending the event, which he used to warn that “authoritarian and repressive regimes deploy technologies to undermine democracy and human rights”.

While he was in Seoul, he met his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul and the pair reaffirmed their commitment to “protecting the rules-based international order” and “exchanged opinions on regional issues such as Ukraine, the Middle East, the South China Sea, and Taiwan,” according to the South Korean foreign ministry.

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A canal for redeveloped Flower Market in Hong Kong? They may work in Amsterdam, but this is a vibrant Chinese community. Respect its heritage

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3256206/canal-redeveloped-flower-market-hong-kong-they-may-work-amsterdam-vibrant-chinese-community-respect?utm_source=rss_feed

Kudos to the Hong Kong government for its decision to undertake the revitalisation of the city’s cherished Flower Market in Mong Kok.

The initiative is part of a comprehensive plan to breathe new life into the vibrant neighbourhood, including the incorporation of a canal to connect the public leisure spaces in the area.

Recently, the Urban Renewal Authority unveiled its ambitious scheme to revamp 31 buildings, ranging in age from 64 to 76 years, along with 33 shops at the flower market and in its vicinity. The project will impact approximately 275 families and 20 flower vendors.

The prospect of altering these ageing structures, some of which hold historical or cultural value, evokes a sense of unease and raises poignant questions. Will our beloved Flower Market suffer a fate similar to that of Lee Tung Street?

The transformation in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong Island, in 2007 of Lee Tung Street, fondly known as “Wedding Card Street”, divided opinion.

Initially envisioned as a project to transform the historic street into a modern, pedestrian-friendly cultural and commercial precinct that harmoniously blended traditional and contemporary aspects, the end result leaned more towards a commercialised and contemporary aesthetic, somewhat overshadowing its heritage charm.

An analogy for the feelings such redevelopments generate would be giving an elderly lady an extensive cosmetic makeover to conceal the fascinating marks of time and unique character traits. It is disheartening to witness the overshadowing of true beauty, which should emanate from within as well as manifest outwardly.

Various factors can adversely affect a redevelopment, including higher property prices as a consequence of gentrification. If the redevelopment of the Flower Market makes rents less affordable, Hong Kong people could be put off living in the area and small businesses might be forced to move. Without their presence and community engagement, the place would lose its authentic identity.

Hence, any redevelopment should actively support and champion businesses such as flower vendors, artisanal stores, and traditional eating places, as these are fundamental to the unique charm of the Flower Market.

Last residents of ageing Hong Kong estate resist deadline to move out

Encouraging them to keep operating there during and after redevelopment would help maintain the area’s authenticity, diversity, and social cohesion.

The cautionary tale of the Lee Tung Street redevelopment, which sadly prioritised commercial interests over the preservation of cultural heritage and local customs, shows getting the balance between these two aspects wrong can taint the experience for residents and tourists alike.

We earnestly hope history doesn’t repeat itself in the Flower Market. However, at first glance the redevelopment proposals, especially the envisioned canal area, are disappointing; what is planned appears to retain little of the current charm of the Flower Market.

The design language and aesthetics seem out of sync with the vibrancy of Mong Kok, and do not encapsulate the street’s rich history and cultural legacy. The authorities must prioritise architectural coherence and cultural sensitivity to ensure the holistic success of the project.

The juxtaposition of a Western canal concept with an area of cultural significance steeped in Chinese heritage, where bustling makeshift markets coexist, would appear inappropriate. Artist’s impressions of the area after redevelopment evoke the atmosphere of a Western neighbourhood or a sophisticated shopping district.

To effectively promote the Flower Market, it is crucial to showcase the unique attributes of its surroundings rather than replicate features from other places such as Amsterdam which, however successful they may be, would not authentically represent Hong Kong.

Enhancing infrastructure, thoughtfully rejuvenating old buildings and exploring opportunities to repurpose existing structures, revitalising public spaces, ensuring cleanliness, and boosting economic activity are key to bringing about a positive transformation with benefits for the community.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, it is more practical to build upon what already works.

Planners should learn from past mistakes, such as the Lee Tung Street redevelopment, and focus on meticulous urban planning that preserves cultural heritage and promotes inclusive development to cultivate dynamic and sustainable environments that resonate with residents and visitors.

In areas of historical significance or those with distinct identities, a delicate balance between progress and preserving their heritage and character must be achieved.

It is essential to foster historical consciousness in the community and within the government. The guiding principle is clear and simple – cherish and protect the elements that define the Flower Market’s identity. Any development initiative should enrich, rather than detract from, its cultural heritage and vibrancy to ensure the preservation of its distinctive character.

It is the smell of fresh flowers, and the cacophony and joyful chaos of Mong Kok, that make the area special, so please don’t take that away.

Luisa Tam is a Post editor who also hosts video tutorials on Cantonese language that are now part of Cathay Pacific’s in-flight entertainment programme

US congressman Mike Gallagher, leading select committee on China and behind TikTok bill, announces early departure

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3256457/us-congressman-leading-select-committee-china-and-behind-tiktok-bill-announces-early-departure?utm_source=rss_feed

Mike Gallagher, leader of a US congressional body focused on China and sponsor of a bill that may push social media app TikTok out of the US market, announced Friday that he will leave the House of Representatives on April 19.

The announcement by the Republican representative from Wisconsin, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, comes just days after the bill that he sponsored with the committee’s leading Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi passed a House floor vote with strong bipartisan support.

“I’ve worked closely with House Republican leadership on this timeline and look forward to seeing Speaker [Mike] Johnson appoint a new chair to carry out the important mission” of the committee, he announced.

Gallagher had said last month that he would not seek re-election, days after he became one of four House Republicans to buck party leadership and vote against impeaching US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

At the time, the four-term House member said that the authors of the US Constitution had not intended elective office to be for a lifetime. But his announcement still sparked interest given his relatively young age of 39 and his rising profile on Capitol Hill.

According to Politico, Gallagher’s allies have said that he had become disenchanted with House politics after the October ouster of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. McCarthy, a Californian Republican and Gallagher ally, chose him to lead the bipartisan House select committee on China when it was created at the beginning of the congressional session in January 2023.

As a select committee, Gallagher’s body does not have the authority to report legislation to the House floor, although it has subpoena power. Its hearings have also featured high-profile sitting and former government officials including Matt Pottinger, who was a deputy national security adviser and China-policy architect during Donald Trump’s administration.

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

Topics that the committee has targeted in recent months include the threat China poses to American cybersecurity, bioeconomy, financial stability and media landscape. In December, the committee released a sweeping set of almost 150 recommendations focused on resetting terms of the bilateral economic relationship.

In that report, the committee called for China to be moved from its current “column 1” tariff classification. That would eliminate the preferential trade status allowing US importers to pay regular duties on Chinese goods not subject to the punitive tariffs that have been in place since 2018.

Gallagher’s announcement Friday came after Georgia Republican Majorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to oust the current House speaker, Mike Johnson.

The congressman’s future plans are remain unclear.

He told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he intends to go into the private sector and that he will continue his mission to “prevent world war three”. That will include dedicating himself to “restoring conventional deterrence in order to prevent a war with China”, he said.

Gallagher’s premature departure puts the House committee on China’s effectiveness in doubt for the rest of the congressional term, which ends on January 3. Gallagher was known for being particularly effective at working across the aisle.

The House’s speedy passage of the TikTok bill, which would force the Beijing-based owner of TikTok, ByteDance, to divest the short-video app, in one of the most highly partisan congressional sessions, serves as an example of his effectiveness. The bill passed just eight days after Gallagher introduced it.

US House panel targeting Chinese influence makes its mark, to mixed reviews

Since its establishment, the House committee – which may not be reauthorised come 2025 – has supported legislation and written numerous letters to target China’s influence in the US, putting pressure on President Joe Biden’s administration to take a harsher stance on the country on multiple fronts.

Wisconsin law says that Gallagher’s seat will stay empty for the rest of his term. But the congressman announced that his office will continue to operate and provide constituent services until next January. A departure before April 9 would have triggered a special election.

“Four terms serving Northeast Wisconsin in Congress has been the honour of a lifetime and strengthened my conviction that America is the greatest country in the history of the world”, Gallagher said Friday.

“I will forever be proud of the work I did on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, chairing the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and chairing the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.”

Apple is considering alliances with a Chinese tech giant and rivals as the AI war heats up

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3256455/apple-considering-alliances-chinese-tech-giant-and-rivals-ai-war-heats?utm_source=rss_feed

Apple wants AI tech on its iPhones - and is reportedly in talks with two of its rivals and a Chinese internet giant to make it happen.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is in early discussions with Baidu - the go-to search engine in China - to bring its generative AI model, the Ernie Bot, to iPhones in China in compliance with local law.

The company is also in discussions with Google and OpenAI for artificial intelligence tech to power its devices around the rest of the world, the Journal reported.

In China, a rule from August mandated that all generative AI models be vetted by regulators, according to the Journal, and Baidu’s Ernie Bot has the green light.

Apple has also invested in building its own AI technology that would boost apps such as Siri, photo editing and email, according to the Journal.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The tech giant has been relatively late to the AI market, with CEO Tim Cook previously saying the company would unveil its plans later this year.

US sues Apple in landmark iPhone monopoly case

Meanwhile, OpenAI and other AI companies have released their chatbots and are jostling for investors’ cash.

Microsoft has also made a major push, bringing on Google DeepMind founder Mustafa Suleyman to run its AI division after its prior attempt to hire OpenAI CEO Sam Altman did not work out.

Cook is currently in China to back up his commitment to the country. iPhone sales are sagging in China because of a weak economy, a crackdown on Apple devices for Chinese government employees and the ascendance of local maker Huawei Technologies.

Cook christened a new shop in Shanghai and is attending the China Development Forum, where business leaders hobnob with local policymakers.

But while Cook is away, the company has unexpected trouble on the US home front: a sweeping antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department.

Russia, China veto U.S. Security Council resolution on Gaza cease-fire

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/22/israel-gaza-security-council-resolution/2024-03-22T12:09:13.038Z

Russia and China on Friday vetoed a U.S.-authored resolution before the United Nations Security Council that set out the “imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire” in Gaza, tied to the release of Hamas hostages, and warned against any ground offensive into Rafah.

Using language reminiscent of the Cold War, Russia called the measure a “hypocritical initiative” and an “empty political exercise” that played into U.S. and Israeli hands. “If you do this, you will cover yourselves in disgrace,” Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said before the vote.

Over the past several months, the council majority has repeatedly called for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire in resolutions vetoed by the United States on grounds that they did not condemn Hamas or demand the simultaneous release of Israeli hostages it holds. The third and most recent U.S. veto came on Feb. 20, when it opposed an Algeria-sponsored measure demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking Friday as he departed from Tel Aviv on his latest trip to the Middle East, condemned the “cynical” Russian and Chinese vetoes. “We were trying to show the international community sense of urgency about getting a cease-fire tied to the release of hostages, something that everyone, including the countries that vetoed the resolution should have been able to get behind,” Blinken said. “It’s unimaginable why countries wouldn’t be able to do that.”

The Friday resolution was put on the table after weeks of U.S. attempts to accommodate other views amid Washington’s international isolation over support for Israel’s war effort and the Biden administration’s growing concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In appealing for support, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the resolution reflected an effort to overcome divisions within the Security Council. “It would be an historic mistake for the council not to adopt this text,” she said before the vote. The measure marked the first time the United States directly called for an “immediate” cease-fire. It also condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which killed about 1,200 people and began the war.

“First and foremost, we want to see an immediate and sustained cease-fire as part of a deal that leads to the release of all hostages being held by Hamas and other groups, and that will allow much more lifesaving humanitarian aid to get into Gaza,” Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote.

Russia and China, both of which are among the five permanent members that wield veto power over the 15-member council, were joined in opposing the measure by Algeria, a rotational member representing Arab countries on the council. Guyana abstained.

A number of countries supporting the new U.S. resolution had voted for the previous measures demanding a “clean” call for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire. Like Guyana, they questioned the absence of any mention of Israel as the perpetrator of the humanitarian situation it decried. While many insisted the hostages still held by Hamas must be released, some said that the death and deprivation inflicted on civilians in Gaza was so severe that it should be addressed on its own with an unequivocal cease-fire demand.

The Biden administration, along with Qatar and Egypt, has been locked in negotiations for weeks with Israel and Hamas over the terms of an initial six-week cease-fire that would see the release of some hostages and a massive increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza. Both the administration and Israel have said that Hamas shouldn’t be given “something for nothing” in the form of a cease-fire without returning the hostages.

Blinken, in remarks to reporters, said progress was being made in the negotiations, “closing gaps.” But, he said, “almost by definition when you get down to the last items, they tend to be the hardest. So there’s still a lot of … hard work to be done, but we’re determined to try to get it done.”

In remarks after the council vote, Thomas-Greenfield focused most of her attention on Russia, which she said had “two deeply, deeply cynical reasons” for its opposition.

“Russia still could not bring themselves to condemn Hamas terrorist attacks,” she said. Calling the second reason “petty,” she said that Russia “simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States. … It would rather see us fail than to allow this council to succeed.”

“Russia, which has carried out an unprovoked war on its neighbor, has the audacity and the hypocrisy to throw stones when it lives in a glass house,” she said, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Michael Birnbaum in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.