• Six killed after suicide bomber rams convoy of Chinese engineers in Pakistan
• [Uk] Treasury staff worked at bank linked to China state
• [Uk] UK approach to China is 'robust', Sunak says
• China’s foreign investment, confidence push gathers speed as top officials highlight ‘win-win opportunities’
• Will China’s plans to tackle plight of left behind children prove effective?
• Former Chinese trade negotiator who backed Trump condemns Washington for ‘dismantling the system’ of global trade
• Chinese football officials given long jail terms over corruption scandal
• EU has reason to keep things sweet with China despite protectionist rules
• 5 Chinese engineers killed in suicide bomb attack in Pakistan, probe underway
• South China Sea: no risk of imminent war with Philippines over disputed claims, Beijing think tank says
• The Aftermath of China’s Comedy Crackdown
• China’s central bank head dissuades real estate woes as Vanke teeters towards default
• ‘Statement to China’: India’s strategic Sela tunnel raises tensions as New Delhi boosts border control
• New Octopus card offering public transport access in 336 mainland China cities attracts strong demand from Hongkongers on launch day
• China-Germany ties are resilient despite EU push to ‘de-risk’, says Beijing envoy to Berlin
• How the US, home of trailblazer Tesla, lost the EV race to China
• South China Sea: Beijing’s ‘aggression’ during Philippine supply mission terrifies reporters on board
• [Business] China ex-football boss sentenced to life in prison
• ‘Free’ China cat adoption scams which tie people into long-term pet-product spending plans under attack
• China-Dominica ties a ‘model’ for South-South cooperation, Xi tells Dominican PM
• Former head of China football association jailed for life for taking bribes – state media
• New Zealand accuses China of hacking parliament following US, UK allegations
• China Resources Land posts 11.7% profit increase, sees stability ahead for property sector thanks to policy support
• China’s ‘low-altitude economy’ on the rise as southern city named focal point
• Academics challenge Florida law that casts ‘suspicion’ on Chinese students and faculty
• ‘Books without words’: parents of China boy, 6, sell up, buy camper van to take son on nationwide learning tour
• [Blogs] The Papers: MPs say China is a 'threat' and the 'Kate effect'
• US sanctions hackers for targeting critical infrastructure for Chinese spy agency
• At China Development Forum, foreign firms keep calling for action as Beijing makes more promises
• Beijing warns Philippines to ‘proceed with caution’ after latest South China Sea stand-off
• Vietnam tries to stabilise relations with China
• UK sanctions Chinese entities for ‘malicious cyber activity’ against MPs
• Deadly Moscow shooting leaves China’s internet divided on need for tighter security measures as country seeks to open up
• New chairman is named for US House select committee on China
• China and US battle, quietly but fiercely, on yet another tech front: patent applications
• U.S., Britain, sanction China for broad 14-year hacking campaign

Six killed after suicide bomber rams convoy of Chinese engineers in Pakistan

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/26/suicide-bomber-rams-convoy-of-chinese-engineers-in-pakistan

Six people have been killed after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in north-west Pakistan, in the third significant attack on Chinese interests in the country in a week.

The first two attacks targeted a Pakistani naval airbase and a strategic port used by China in the south-west province of Balochistan where Beijing is investing billions in infrastructure projects.

The engineers were en route from Islamabad to their camp at the dam construction site in Dasu in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said Mohammad Ali Gandapur, the regional police chief.

“Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,” Gandapur told Reuters.

Dasu is the site of a large dam and the area has been attacked in the past. A blast on a bus in 2021 killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals.

Chinese engineers have been working on a number of projects in Pakistan with Beijing investing more than $65bn (£51.4bn) in infrastructure works as part of the China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC) under Beijing’s wider belt and road initiative.

No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, nor was there a claim for the 2021 attack. Pakistan is home to twin insurgencies – one by Islamists and the other ethnic militants seeking secession.

While Chinese interests are primarily targeted by the ethnic militants seeking to push Beijing out of mineral-rich Balochistan, they generally operate in the country’s south and south-west – far from the site of Tuesday’s attack.

Islamists mostly operate in Pakistan’s north-west, the area where the convoy was attacked.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have reached the spot and started relief operations.

A separate police source told Reuters the convoy was carrying staff of the construction firm China Gezhouba Group Company working on the Dasu hydropower project – the same company targeted in 2021.

Construction work ceased for months after that attack.

China’s embassy in Pakistan demanded investigations into the attack. “The Chinese embassy and consulates in Pakistan have immediately launched emergency work, demanding that the Pakistani side conduct a thorough investigation into the attack, severely punish the perpetrators, and take practical and effective measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens,” the embassy said in statement.

Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, is expected to visit Beijing next week, according to a source in the prime minister’s office, his first since taking office after February’s elections.

A Pakistani military statement said the three attacks in the last week were aimed at destabilising the internal security situation, accusing “foreign elements” of aiding and abetting such incidents in Pakistan.

It said strategic projects and sensitive sites vital to Pakistan’s economic progress were being targeted in an effort to sabotage it and sow discord between Pakistan and its allies, most notably China.

Pakistan’s Indian Ocean port of Gwadar, on the route to vital Gulf shipping lanes, is managed by China, while nearby naval airbase Siddique is used to support security and development work, spearheaded by Beijing in Balochistan.

Both were attacked in recent days by Baloch separatists.

Ishaq Dar, the Pakistani foreign minister, condemned Tuesday’s attack and said Pakistan would continue to fight back against militants.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the life and safety of Chinese nationals in Pakistan was of paramount importance. “Pakistan will continue to work with our Chinese brothers in ensuring the safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects and institutions in Pakistan,” it said in a statement.

[Uk] Treasury staff worked at bank linked to China state

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68665302

[Uk] UK approach to China is 'robust', Sunak says

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68667842

China’s foreign investment, confidence push gathers speed as top officials highlight ‘win-win opportunities’

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3256803/chinas-foreign-investment-confidence-push-gathers-speed-top-officials-highlight-win-win?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top leadership has gone all out to revive confidence and lure foreign investment in intensive meetings with foreign business leaders in recent days, setting out the “win-win opportunities ahead”, as Beijing seeks to achieve a seemingly challenging economic growth target for 2024.

In a rare move, nearly all top-level officials responsible for economic affairs have met or have plans to meet with multinational executives, including during the annual China Development Forum which concluded on Monday, signalling top priority being given to economic growth as multiple headwinds persist.

Following routine speeches and discussions involving Premier Li Qiang and various ministers, Vice-President Han Zheng and Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang on Monday met with a number of foreign business representatives at the two-day forum in Beijing.

On the same day, chief of staff Cai Qi, China’s fifth-ranking official, met with Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, according to the state-backed Xinhua News Agency.

President Xi Jinping is expected to hold a meeting with a group of business leaders on Wednesday, according to reports, while Zhao Leji, China’s top legislator, will attend the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia on Thursday.

The high-profile activities send a strong signal that economic development is of central importance to the world’s second-largest economy amid geopolitical tensions with the West and widespread doubts over its growth potential, said Xu Mingqi, a professor of international economics at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Foreign firms at China Development Forum call for action as Beijing vows changes

“The world has been watching if China will keep opening in the next stage, and there has been quite a lot of misinterpretation and distrust,” he said.

“Now China is giving a clear message to the world that it will go on opening to foreign investors, and that they will still have many opportunities.”

In the first two months of the year, foreign investment inflows into China dropped by 19.9 per cent from a year earlier to 215.1 billion yuan (US$29.8 billion), according to the Ministry of Commerce.

While geopolitical conflicts “will always be there”, “economic and trade relations are the most important areas that both China and the West are willing to seek common ground”, he added.

Amid low business sentiment and de-risking efforts from foreign firms, Beijing attempted to lift confidence during the “two sessions” annual parliamentary meetings earlier this month after setting an annual growth target of “around 5 per cent” for 2024.

But it is widely regarded as an ambitious goal thanks to a higher base last year and various economic challenges, including huge local government debt and a prolonged property sector slump.

Xu said that the moves to woo foreign business leaders also show how China is responding to a pessimistic external environment as geopolitical risks linger and global growth is set to slow further this year.

“The leaders may not be able to compromise on Taiwan or the South China Sea, but they’re showing the determination to fix trade and economy,” he said.

“A weak economy is bad for all.”

China eases security checks for cross-border data transfers to help boost economy

Han Shen Lin, an assistant professor of practice in finance at the New York University Shanghai, said that aside from the China Development Forum, the participation of top-level officials in smaller meetings with business executives is “a critical confidence-building signal of how integral a partner the foreign community will be in China’s significant shift from a rapid growth focus to ‘high-quality’ development”.

“They provided clear messaging on the win-win opportunities ahead – all while keeping in perspective the lingering geopolitical and business environment concerns multinationals may have,” he added.

Will China’s plans to tackle plight of left behind children prove effective?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3256826/will-chinas-plans-tackle-plight-left-behind-children-prove-effective?utm_source=rss_feed

In the past few weeks, China’s media and social media have been abuzz with the gruesome killing of a 13 year-old boy, allegedly by three schoolmates.

The news from Hebei province again brought to the forefront the long-standing problem of left behind children in rural China when one or both of their parents move to big cities to look for work.

Due to the lack of parental care, these children face many problems including health, education, psychological, and behavioral issues.

Academic studies have shown that these children have a higher chance of either committing crimes or becoming the victims or criminal acts and abuses.

One paper, co-authored by Peking University researcher Zhang Dandan along with Lisa Cameron from University of Melbourne and Xin Meng from Australian National University and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation in 2022, drew such a conclusion.

The paper, titled “Does being left behind in childhood lead to criminality in adulthood?”, is based on a 2013 survey which compared the backgrounds of about 1,000 male prison inmates.

Fixing the urban-rural gap? China weighs making ‘left-behind property’ tradeable

It concluded that those who were left behind by their parents were more likely to become criminals in adulthood as they tend to be more willing to take risks as well as having lower levels of education.

Many studies also show that left behind children are prone to become victims of sexual abuse, school bullying, human trafficking, as well as suffering from psychological issues such as depression, loneliness or suicide.

This situation is not a new phenomenon. In 2015, the nation was shocked after four children in Bijie, a prefecture in Guizhou province, killed themselves after being abandoned by their migrant worker parents.

Chinese researchers have also highlighted a figure from the 2010 census that found there were up to 60 million left behind children at the time. Given that many of these children will now be adults with children of their own it raises the question of what is happening to their children.

Other questions to be asked include the number of second generation left behind children and how many of them live in dysfunctional families because their parents can offer them little or no parental care, or suffered trauma and family separation during their own childhoods.

Social and psychological issues, if unresolved and passed down to the next generation, can easily become more severe and more entrenched in a family line or a local area, and create bigger social problems.

Having said that, descriptions about left behind children should also be handled with care to avoid creating stigma.

There are also studies showing many migrant children have found ways to mitigate the challenges they face. For example, a paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2021 found that communication with their parents – even though they do not live together – was crucial for children to develop resilience.

The government appears to be aware of the severity of the problem.

In January the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a three-year action plan hoping to mitigate the situation and local governments have been publishing their own versions of the plan in recent weeks.

These action plans aim to improve the mental and psychological health of left behind children and improve safety measures, such as fencing off fish ponds in villages following a number of drowning incidents.

The government will also appoint officials to visit these children, better train local guardians and provide psychological intervention if they identify potential problems with the children, among other measures such as organising summer camps.

Emptying villages or job-scarce cities: rural Chinese have tough row to hoe

However, many of the measures mentioned in the action plans rely heavily on the local bureaucrats and it is questionable whether these plans will be properly funded or prove effective when mainland China does not have a vibrant civil society.

There is also no mention of policy change to make it easier for migrant workers to bring their children when they work in cities. After all, visits by officials, counsellors, volunteers or guardians cannot replace parental care.

Former Chinese trade negotiator who backed Trump condemns Washington for ‘dismantling the system’ of global trade

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3256817/former-chinese-trade-negotiator-who-backed-trump-condemns-washington-dismantling-system-global-trade?utm_source=rss_feed

In a trade environment where protectionism and supply-chain decoupling have left them with little other recourse, Chinese companies are finding themselves compelled to move production to Mexico, and any additional containment efforts by Washington would hit Americans in their wallets, according to a former high-ranking Chinese trade official.

Long Yongtu’s condemnation of hardline moves targeting Chinese goods came during a panel discussion on Tuesday ahead of the opening of the Boao Forum for Asia, which is taking place until Friday in the southern Chinese resort town of Boao, Hainan province.

The former vice-minister of foreign trade, and China’s point man during its 15-year talks to join the World Trade Organization more than two decades ago, also accused Washington of destroying the world’s free-trade system that it once took the lead in establishing.

Long, who turns 81 this month, made headlines in 2019 for his fervent support of Donald Trump’s re-election when he was US president.

On Tuesday, Long touched on one of the changes since then, noting that the data he has collected reveals a seven-fold increase in Chinese investors buying land in Mexican industrial parks since 2019.

“These Chinese companies could have continued to make goods in China for America at reasonable prices, but now they have to bear the extra costs of migrating to Mexico, and US consumers are grappling with more expensive goods,” he said.

Long said that ordinary Americans should be better informed on the manifold benefits of free trade, and that discussions should return to the realm of common sense and the proven and objective laws of economics and trade.

“It is the globalised economic and trade systems that are at stake, they were built by the US and the West after World War II, but now the US is dismantling the system,” he alleged.

Former Chinese trade envoy wants four more years of Trump. Here’s why

Long’s comments came at a time when US politicians have turned their attention to Chinese investment in Mexico while stepping up restrictions on made-in-China goods in the run-up to November’s elections.

President Joe Biden said in late February: “China’s policies could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security.” And he said that “unprecedented action” was being taken in response.

And Trump, again the presumptive Republican candidate for president, said this month on the campaign trail that, if re-elected, he would slap a 100 per cent import tariff on cars made by Chinese companies in Mexico.

Chinese exporters and manufacturers with an interest in the US market have been making a beeline to Mexico, which has a free-trade agreement with the US, to bypass punitive tariffs that the Trump administration slapped on China in 2018, kicking off a trade war between the two sides that has persisted under Biden.

China’s investment in Mexico is up – but is dodging US tariffs the whole story?

China’s overall trade edged up 5.5 per cent in the first two months of this year, reversing a 5 per cent dip in 2023, according to official customs data.

Last year, Chinese exports to the US saw a year-on-year drop of 13.1 per cent to US$500.3 billion. At the same time, Mexico-bound shipments increased by 5.7 per cent, year on year, to US$18.5 billion.

Another panellist at the Boao Forum on Tuesday, former US commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez, said any tariffs that may be imposed on “made by China” goods assembled in Mexico, including on electric vehicles, would be “unfortunate”.

“Tariffs are not good,” he told the Post on the sidelines of the event.

And Gutierrez, who served in the administration of George W. Bush from 2005-09, said that if Chinese firms can benefit from moving production to Mexico and investing there, they should continue doing so.

The former US official added the US bears “a lot of responsibility” for the spreading trade fragmentation, and he also pointed out that sentiments against free trade, especially trade with China – with rhetoric like “you lost your job and it’s China fault” – have been dominating the discourse.

“If someone now says tariffs aren’t good, then he will be labelled ‘pro-China’,” Gutierrez said, adding that political convenience and election buzzwords fly in the face of economic realities.

Also, “the US and China arguing over TicTok are losing sight of the big picture”, he said, calling for joint actions to restore trade order and respect international institutions.

Chinese football officials given long jail terms over corruption scandal

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3256804/chinese-football-officials-given-long-jail-terms-over-corruption-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed

A number of senior Chinese sports officials have been jailed for corruption, including a former chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) who was given a life sentence.

The sentences are the result of an investigation into sports corruption that began in 2022 and has snared a number of senior figures.

As well as the life sentence for bribery handed down to Chen Xuyuan, former chairman of the CFA, courts in Hubei province announced the sentences handed down to four other former sports administrators on Tuesday, including former CFA executive deputy secretary-general Chen Yongliang who was jailed for 14 years.

Yu Hongchen, the former president of the Chinese Athletics Association, was given a 13-year sentence; Dong Zheng, former general manager of the CFA Super League, was sentenced to eight years, while Liu Lei, a former director at the Wuhan Football Management Centre, was sentenced to 30 months.

Those under investigation include deputy sports minister Du Zhaocai, who was arrested last October. Li Tie, the former head coach of the men’s national football team, has also been caught up in the campaign.

Li, who played for Everton in the English Premier League and represented China in the 2002 World Cup, was charged with several counts of bribery in August and is still awaiting trial.

China’s party officials used press coverage to undercut rivals, study shows

A wider investigation into corruption in sport has seen dozens of people – including coaches, players, referees, club executives and agents – placed under investigation, according to state media reports.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that the Intermediate Court in the city of Huangshi concluded that Chen had taken “particularly large amounts” of bribes worth over 81 million yuan (US$11.2 million) between 2010 and last year.

It said that during his tenure at the CFA, Chen did favours for a number of football clubs and local associations, helping them to win matches in a way that “seriously undermined” fair competition and “inflicted serious damage” on the game in China.

Chen pleaded guilty and CCTV broadcast footage showing him bowing and reading out an apology, saying he was “ashamed” of his actions and wanted to “sincerely say sorry to [fans] and I hope to get forgiveness”.

Chen previously featured in a CCTV documentary aired in January, which focused on the investigation into corruption in football following the failure by the men’s national team to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Chinese Super League chairman taken away for investigation, state media reports

The documentary said the investigation aimed to answer fans’ questions about the men’s teams disappointing performances, regular scandals and a game “full of chaos”.

Meanwhile, Yu, the former athletics chief, was also involved in football through his roles with the Football Management Centre of the General Administration of Sport and CFA.

The court found that that he had taken bribes worth more than 22.5 million yuan from football teams and individuals between 2010 and 2023 and misused his influence.

EU has reason to keep things sweet with China despite protectionist rules

https://www.scmp.com/comment/china-opinion/article/3256435/eu-has-reason-keep-things-sweet-china-despite-protectionist-rules?utm_source=rss_feed

While US lawmakers hit global headlines for pushing a bill aimed at forcing China’s ByteDance to divest of its TikTok operations in the US, the European Union has passed relatively low-key rules targeting China’s commercial interests. The EU’s measures, however, could have a more far-reaching impact on Chinese industries.

Arguably the most controversial is the EU’s new directive governing the oversight of international business supply chains. This will require large EU-based companies to monitor human rights and environmental policies in the countries they operate in, in connection with local suppliers and other business partners.

The measure prospectively targets all developing countries that have different regulatory standards in these areas, and many Chinese businesses are expected to fall under its focus.

According to a survey by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU, China’s enterprises are especially concerned over the law’s due diligence requirements, with compliance expected to impose high costs.

In particular, high compliance burdens are anticipated for Chinese solar and textile producers in accessing the EU market. Industry officials have been lobbying the EU for action as these Chinese companies have effectively elbowed out their EU competitors in the single market over the last decade.

In tandem with the new supply chain law, the EU has also agreed provisionally on new rules to prohibit products made from “forced labour”. This move is seen as aiming to more specifically target China’s alleged labour practices in its western region of Xinjiang.

The EU’s new laws against forced labour would be interconnected with its supply chain legislation given that Xinjiang is a major producer of garments that are exported globally. The region is also China’s main producer of solar panels.

To rub salt into the wound, these extraterritorial laws come amid the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers, which was launched last year.

It’s certainly the case that a large part of the EU’s trade strategy with China is driven by its efforts to achieve strategic autonomy in an increasingly geopolitical world. Another element of the EU trade policy is its intention to reduce its trade deficit with China. This reached €291 billion (US$321 billion) last year, according to EU data.

Even though this figure was about €100 billion less than in the previous year, the EU and other Western governments have complained of China’s “industrial overcapacity”, which they say risk spillover effects in their markets.

In response, Beijing think tanks have countered with the charge that EU and US claims of overcapacity are grievances for their loss of dominance in advanced manufacturing sectors.

Yet, as the temperature on both sides appears to be on the verge of boiling over into a potential trade war, Chinese and EU leaders seem to be making efforts to bring back both parties from the brink of a protectionist spiral.

To this end, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Beijing next month while Chinese President Xi Jinping will reportedly head over to Paris in May.

It may well be that a more clear-headed approach in resolving Chinese and EU trade differences is at hand. This is likely to be driven, in large part, by growing mutual concerns of what a possible second Donald Trump presidency may mean for their respective international trade interests.

Such an outcome threatens to unleash an unprecedented wave of protectionism from Washington which would have destructive effects on trade for both China and the EU.

In a sign of what may come, Trump threatened earlier this month to impose a 100 per cent tariff on imported cars, including EVs, vowing that “you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected”.

In light of a potentially more complex trade environment, China and the EU may seek to cooperate more on direct investment policies.

Why China can rest easy if Trump is re-electedUS president

Such an approach could be boosted by European economic considerations: some analysts see Europe’s manufacturing and export competitiveness as at risk of being structurally endangered. This state of affairs is particularly influenced by the loss of cheap Russian energy to power its industries, especially in Germany’s manufacturing sector.

As an alternative, the vast German carmaking and chemical sectors have been investing heavily in the Chinese market. French companies have embraced a similar approach, albeit more focused on luxury consumer goods.

Although this process had begun a few years ago, it has gained considerable momentum since the waves of EU sanctions designed to cease trade with Russia’s energy and metals sectors that previously fed into Europe’s industrial supply chain.

According to China’s Commerce Ministry, European direct investment rose by 92 per cent in 2022, albeit after declining flows during the pandemic years. Moreover, direct investment by Germany reached a record US$13 billion last year.

From this perspective, many goods currently produced in the EU may not appear on the EU’s trade data in the future, as they will increasingly be both produced and consumed in China.

And while the German government has sought to reduce the dependency of their large companies on China, alongside the EU introducing policies of screening outbound investments, the German Economic Institute asserts there is no trend indicating a decline of corporate investment into China.

In this context, the coming leaders’ meetings in Beijing and Paris should serve as affirmation of their intentions to support direct investment in China, thereby enhancing European corporate access to the growing Chinese market, while hedging against increased risks of trade protectionism.

5 Chinese engineers killed in suicide bomb attack in Pakistan, probe underway

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3256811/5-chinese-engineers-killed-suicide-bomb-attack-pakistan-probe-underway?utm_source=rss_feed

Five Chinese nationals have been killed in a vehicular suicide bombing attack in northern Pakistan that echoed a similar attack in the area in July 2021.

A bus carrying the Chinese engineers to work at the Dasu hydropower project was struck near the town of Besham on the Karakoram Highway, the sole overland link between Pakistan and China, officials said.

The force of the blast also killed the Pakistani driver of the bus, hurling it down a gorge onto the banks of the River Indus, said Sheraz Khan, station head of the official Rescue 1122 emergency service.

The bodies of the six victims were recovered after the fire on board the wrecked bus was extinguished.

The bus was travelling in a convoy of a dozen vehicles, most of them carrying security personnel guarding the Chinese nationals, when it was struck.

Can Shehbaz Sharif thaw Pakistan-India ties as Kashmir remains sticking point?

No terrorist group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

In July 2021, nine Chinese nationals working on the World Bank-funded Dasu project were killed in a vehicular suicide bombing.

Local resident Muhammad Hayat Khan said he was at home preparing for afternoon prayers when he heard two explosions.

Upon reaching the nearby highway, he found the burning remains of the bomber’s vehicle and the bus that was targeted.

Besham police chief Juma Rehman said an investigation has been launched.

“We will investigate from where and how the vehicle of the suicide bomber came and how it happened,” he said.

More to follow …

Additional reporting by Tom Hussain

South China Sea: no risk of imminent war with Philippines over disputed claims, Beijing think tank says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3256814/south-china-sea-no-risk-imminent-war-philippines-over-disputed-claims-beijing-think-tank-says?utm_source=rss_feed

There is no immediate risk of war between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea despite repeated clashes over territorial disputes, a noted Chinese think tank has said.

This is because the Philippines cannot beat China on its own, and the US is not interested in getting directly involved in any such conflict, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) said.

“The United States hopes to use the Philippines’ geographical location … to contain China, but it does not want to be unnecessarily involved in an armed conflict with China because of the Philippines’ agenda,” the Beijing-based think tank said in its latest annual report.

SCSPI director Hu Bo said while the Philippines appeared to be turning into a “proxy” for US interests aimed at countering Beijing, there was “no possibility of a proxy war”, given that rival South China Sea claimants including Manila would not be able to win if the US did not get involved.

“The United States does not want to fight, and the Philippines and Vietnam do not dare to fight,” Hu told a panel discussion to mark the report’s release on Friday.

This comes amid continued confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in disputed areas of the resource-rich waterway over the past year.

The latest encounter took place on Saturday, in the second such stand-off this month, with Manila saying water cannons launched by the Chinese coastguard at a supply ship off the Second Thomas Shoal had damaged the vessel and injured its crew. The Philippine-controlled shoal is part of the Spratly Islands chain claimed by both countries and called Nansha in Chinese.

The repeated stand-offs have raised concerns over the likelihood of a hot conflict, with the United States getting involved to defend its treaty ally, the Philippines.

The US has repeatedly expressed support for the Philippines on the matter, and condemned the Chinese action on Saturday as “dangerous” and “reckless”. Beijing said it carried out “control, obstruction and eviction in accordance with law”, while also warning the US not to intervene.

Reporters witness Beijing’s clash against Philippine ships in South China Sea

The US has also reiterated that it is treaty-bound to defend the Philippines if its military, ships or aircraft were to come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

The SCSPI report said despite Washington’s diplomatic support for Manila, and the deployment of P-8As and other types of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to provide real-time intelligence support, there was “no sign” that it would directly assist Philippine resupply missions to the Second Thomas Shoal.

The resupply missions serve a small number of troops stationed by Manila on a warship that it purposely grounded off the shoal to reinforce sovereignty claims in 1999.

“The United States hopes that trouble will happen every day in the South China Sea, but at this stage, it does not want ‘big trouble’ to happen there. It is not yet ready and determined to have a military showdown with China,” the report said.

According to Hu: “The good news is that in the foreseeable future, there should be no armed conflict [in the South China Sea].”

He said US actions so far had been “restrained” and its top priority was to “deter” China, rather than start a war, adding that both countries wanted their ties to stabilise.

The SCSPI annual report studies US military activities in the region. According to Friday’s edition, the frequency of US Navy aircraft carrier strike group activities in the South China Sea last year was the same as in 2022, but their duration had increased significantly.

US warships also made fewer Taiwan Strait transits last year, the report said, though aerial transits had increased.

It also said Washington had increased the hype around its operations and stepped up efforts to use its regional allies to pressure Beijing.

The Aftermath of China’s Comedy Crackdown

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-aftermath-of-chinas-comedy-crackdown

On a Saturday evening last May, China’s leading standup-comedy studio, Xiaoguo Culture Media, hosted a show in Beijing. Among the performers was Li Haoshi, a thirty-one-year-old nicknamed House, who had risen to acclaim two years earlier, on Xiaoguo’s standup-competition series “Rock & Roast.” In one bit that evening, House shared a story of how he had adopted two stray dogs. The dogs, he said, chased squirrels “like cannon fire.” Most dogs he’d seen were of the cute, heart-melting variety, but his dogs called to mind a military slogan: “First-rate in conduct, victorious in battle.” The crowd erupted with laughter.

Most Chinese were familiar with House’s reference. It has been a propaganda tagline since 2013, when Xi Jinping began to frame China’s military as flag-bearers on the country’s march to superpower status. After the show, an anonymous user leaked House’s joke on Weibo, a popular social-media site, where nationalists verbally thrashed the comic, imploring officials to bring him and Xiaoguo to justice. “These second-rate traitors can’t be punished enough,” one commenter wrote. By week’s end, hashtags related to House’s bit had surpassed a billion hits.

Flippant references to China’s military, like those to top leaders, are considered off limits in official life, and such taboos have been codified under Xi, with a new criminal code outlawing the slander of political “heroes and martyrs.” The Wednesday after the show, the police placed House under investigation, and culture authorities fined Xiaoguo two million dollars for the joke. The studio’s shows were suspended indefinitely. State media flooded the Internet with diatribes against amoral artists and implored them to provide the masses with “high-quality spiritual content.” When a woman in Dalian posted a message in House’s defense, she was promptly detained.

From his bedroom in northern China, Alex, a comedian in his twenties and a friend of House’s, fretted about the end of his industry. “I couldn’t sleep that night,” he told me. (He asked to use a pseudonym for fear of official reprisals.) “I’d wake up every two hours, check my phone, and think, We’re screwed.” Once the hand of the state comes down, the results are brutal. Alex had stopped contacting House after his investigation, but he’d heard from other comedian friends that House was now “looking for a job in a different industry.”

When a new genre of art attains mainstream repute, Chinese call it poquan, or breaking out of the circle. For the in-crowd, it is a Pyrrhic triumph, one that validates the medium’s soft power even as it is remolded by the iron fist. Standup comedy was the latest art form to reach this inflection point, which is familiar to many Chinese writers, artists, and musicians. Around four years ago, the lead singer of a Beijing rock band told me, culture police started showing up at concerts and screening his lyrics. These days, his band submits lyrics, recordings, and rehearsal videos to the culture bureau before each performance. If the song has no lyrics, authorities demand a written explanation of its “intent.” “You can’t half-ass it, either,” he told me, chuckling.

The House incident plunged the comedy industry—and the wider entertainment scene—into hibernation. Standup shows across the country were cancelled. Police shut down music festivals and bar gigs. By the fall, most comedy clubs had resumed operation, but the industry was settling into a new, bowdlerized state. In Shanghai, where Xiaoguo is based, authorities frequently visited shows unannounced to keep clubs on their toes. Comics who veered off script could be fined several thousand dollars. Improvisation was effectively banned. One proprietor of a Shanghai comedy club told me that “Rock & Roast” ’s run was most likely over and, with it, the irreverent sketches that had defined China’s standup spring. Standup survived the crackdown, he said, but in the process it “has lost its soul.”

Standup comedy entered China through Hong Kong in the two-thousands, and blossomed during the late twenty-tens thanks to streaming platforms and Chinese TikTok. In bar basements, shopping malls, and performance halls, young comics talked subtly and sardonically about the lack of job prospects, the rat race of education, and the pressures to marry and bear children. Using the mike as a generational megaphone, they described what early adult life is like in a decade when the economy has plateaued and the Chinese Dream—the promise that hard work and political quiescence would lead to prosperity and property—has begun to crumble.

China’s comedy boom gave expression to the vast numbers of young Chinese embracing the culture of sang (literally, mourning), a life style of willful underachievement and self-sabotage. Such was the tone of Wang Mian, the guitar-strumming champion of “Rock & Roast” ’s third season. In his viral performance “Song of Escape,” Wang limns a morning ritual in which he and a stranger regularly jockey for the last shared bicycle for their respective commutes. One day, the stranger asks why Wang never puts up much of a fight. “Because I don’t want to go to work!” Wang cries. “I don’t want to go to work and edit PowerPoints!” The audience burst out laughing.

“We’re just venting our troubles,” Vickie Wang, a Taiwanese comic who began doing standup in Shanghai, in 2018, told me. “When you’re laughing along with everyone at a club, you feel, like, Oh, I guess I wasn’t the only one suffering after all.” In 2020, Yang Li, a comic from the northern province of Hebei, struck a generational chord among female “Rock & Roast” viewers. “Men are so mysterious,” she said, facetiously. “How can they be so average yet so confident?” The gag “average yet confident” became a meme among Yang’s fans but triggered male netizens, who reported her to authorities for stoking “gender opposition.” She has so far skirted official censure.

One evening late last year, I went to see a show on the second floor of a department store in Shanghai’s French Concession. Twenty- and thirtysomethings filed into a theatre adjoining a hair salon and a pet store. I sat in the fifth row, near the back wall, where a staff member was operating a camcorder. The recording, I later learned, was sent to the local culture-and-tourism bureau for inspection.

Spotlights beamed onto center stage, and Shuyi, a lanky man with wire-rimmed glasses leaped atop it. (Shuyi is a pseudonym; like Alex, he feared state reprisal.) He introduced himself as the m.c. before surveying the crowd on their home provinces—roughly forty per cent of Shanghai residents come from elsewhere in China. “Is anyone here from Henan?” he asked. As spectators raised their hands, he shot off a quip invoking the regional stereotype. “They’re not treated very well online, are they?” he joked. (Netizens often caricature the people of Henan as thieves.) When he got to Xinjiang, a round, frumpy man in the back raised his hand. Shuyi asked him what had brought him to Shanghai. “To kill people!” he shouted. The crowd eked out a nervous laugh. Shuyi muttered something incoherent, then moved on with the show.

Comedy m.c.s enjoy an exception to the improvisation ban, but they tend to steer clear of risky exchanges. Instead, they expend their time going over house rules (no recording, no interrupting comics in the middle of their sets) and offering other self-protective disclaimers. “We’re just here to laugh, all right? Don’t turn things over in your head too much,” Shuyi warned. With his arms folded, eyes glaring in disapproval, he imitated a make-believe spectator reacting to the jokes. “If he says something like that, that comic’s going to jail,” he jeered.

Of a dozen comedians I spoke to in recent months, most told me that their fear was not of the censor but of the spectator. As standup broke out of its in-crowd—for the most part, young urbanites familiar with the Western variety—it began to reach a diverse audience that included nationalists, Internet trolls, and those who struggled to separate a joke from a sincere opinion. Alex recalled that, one night, after a show, an audience member reported him for touching on gender-related issues. “They claimed I had violated the rights of women,” he told me. The police arrived and left only after the staff showed the officer that the joke had been approved by the culture bureau. “It’s not authorities doing it. It’s people doing it,” Jake, a comic in Shanghai who also asked to go by a pseudonym, told me.

When a spectator reports a comic for political misconduct—what Chinese call jubao, “to inform against”—it sets into motion a machine with a long, tragic past. During the Cultural Revolution, children reported on parents, and students reported on teachers. And, during China’s economic rise, the system was inundated with complaints from consumers about unscrupulous businesses, and unscrupulous businesses about their competitors. These days, the machine lies at the heart of the country’s variant of cancel culture, one animated not by feminism and anti-racism but by hypernationalism and an allergy to insult. “You can’t offend people in China,” Jake told me. “In American comedy, if someone’s offended, ‘Free speech, bitch’ ”—there is at least some recourse to First Amendment principles. “The stuff we have to work around is, ‘Oh, I didn’t like the fact that someone asked me what university I went to,’ ” he said.

Nationalists call on the state to punish disloyal actors, such as Western brands, Chinese feminists, and incautious celebrities. In 2021, the actor Zhang Zhehan was pilloried by nationalists after an old photo emerged of him near Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial with strong associations to the country’s imperial past. Authorities blasted Zhang for historical obtuseness, and credits for many of his works were wiped from the Web. Months before House’s investigation, Wang Yuechi, a comedian formerly employed by Xiaoguo, was blacklisted on Chinese social media after he spoke curtly about the government during a tour of North America. No recordings surfaced from the shows, but audience members described sketches involving Chinese censorship and the trials of his Uyghur friend, who applied for a passport and was refused by the government.

Before House’s fall, Shuyi had no interaction with the authorities. Now they required his jokes to be approved and every show to be videotaped. There was no room for deviation: last fall, Shuyi was fined seven thousand dollars for ad-libbing a minute past his fifteen-minute script. His club covered half the costs, but not all clubs could afford this after weathering pandemic lockdowns. In 2023, he estimated, nearly half of the dozen clubs in Shanghai had closed. When I asked him for his personal views about his industry’s predicament, he demurred. “I’m pretty agnostic about these things because I’m a Party member,” he said.

“They keep asking us to say positive things about our lives,” Alex told me. “But the reason we stand up there at all is because we’re all negative.” Last fall, I travelled to Nanchang to see him perform, at a hole-in-the-wall comedy club, nestled inside a shopping plaza that had once been a Daoist temple. Inside, the m.c., a short, stocky man with a boyish face, issued a familiar disclaimer: “Don’t take what I say too seriously, and don’t get offended. I’m just asking some casual questions.” He then struck up a conversation with a couple in the front row. The woman—slender, and wearing a fashionable white sweater—hailed from Nanchang, and the man was from the eastern city of Nanjing. They said that they had been dating for three years. The crowd cooed.

“So, are you all planning to get married or . . . ?”

“Of course,” the boyfriend said, sounding a bit ruffled. “You don’t even have to ask that.”

“Are you familiar with the local dowry rates?” the m.c. asked. The crowd guffawed. The girlfriend clarified that she wasn’t expecting any money. “No dowry?” the m.c. said, feeding off the crowd. “Then you’re clearly not a native of Nanchang!”

Chinese refer to the chidu of a piece of entertainment—the measurement or, more figuratively, the moral leeway. An edgy show is said to have a large chidu; Internet censors implore netizens to “grasp the chidu” of their posts. Life as an artist in China has always involved maintaining a chidu large enough to attract public interest, but not large enough to attract official reproach. But a defining feature of the Xi Jinping era is that performers have lost confidence in their ability to walk that path unscathed. “In the U.S., everyone wants to go viral. In China, nobody does,” a Beijing entrepreneur working in the arts-and-culture scene told me. Before the m.c. introduced Alex, he added another disclaimer: “Since this is a live performance, the chidu will be higher than what you see online. Is everyone O.K. with that?” The crowd roared.

Since his tour began, Alex has cleared his set with every local censorship bureau in the fifteen cities he has performed in. He has found some regional idiosyncrasies. A sketch involving an altercation with a traffic cop was approved everywhere except for one district in Shanghai. “They told me they were worried about the ‘negative impacts,’ ” Alex said. I asked him if he had noticed any other patterns. “Generally, the cities that do worse economically tend to be the strictest,” he told me. “They’re more bureaucratized.” Officials in less wealthy regions, he explained, tended to be more risk-averse, caring less about comedy than the potential fallout from a comedian’s words. “It’s the same with the red states in the U.S., right? They tend to be poorer and more conservative?”

In August, when Japan began releasing treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi plant into the ocean, over vehement protest from China, comedians were told not to mention Japan in their sets. After the Party forced Shanghai into a two-month lockdown in 2022, amid a coronavirus outbreak, authorities prohibited the word “lockdown” because it sounded too harsh. “We can only say ‘during the period when I was quarantining at home,’ ” Alex told me. Twice in my conversation with comedians, when I pressed them on where they believed the line was, I received a circular answer: “When you get in trouble, that’s the line.”

Alex’s sixty-minute set consisted of witty rants on the quotidian vexations of life, such as squabbles with Internet bullies and an awkward first date. He once told me that observation was, in effect, the only way to pursue comedy in China. “Everyone is Jerry Seinfeld,” he said. Alex is an exceptionally clean comedian, but, at times, he gestures toward the forbidden. He once sarcastically described standup in China as going “pretty swimmingly,” drawing a laugh from the politically aware.

The writer Miklós Haraszti compared censorship in the waning years of Communist Hungary to a “velvet prison.” As censorship deepens and evolves, Haraszti wrote, artists and censors are “entangled in a mutual embrace,” hoping to “cultivate the gardens of art together.” For all the havoc censors have wrought on his profession, Alex believes that they have also played a custodial role. “The truth is that a lot of local governments are trying to protect the industry,” he told me. “What they’re trying to avoid is a public commotion like what happened with House.” From offices in minor cities, censors answer to a vast chain of command leading up to the central authorities in Beijing. They rely on comics to avoid mishaps that could cost them their jobs. Comics rely on censors to prevent them from going over the line. Neither one is free, and both survive longer by working together.

Moments before Alex arrived onstage, I asked him if he had taken any lessons from the House incident. Since May, many comics had revisited their scripts, tweaking their material in a timeworn ritual of self-censorship. But ponder the rules long enough and a futility begins to set in. “I think I learned just how close the red line was to me,” Alex responded. “That I could step on it at any moment.” This was a raw, seemingly candid answer, but moments later he offered another. “Fear,” he told me. “I learned fear.” ♦

China’s central bank head dissuades real estate woes as Vanke teeters towards default

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3256801/chinas-central-bank-head-dissuades-real-estate-woes-vanke-teeters-towards-default?utm_source=rss_feed

The governor of China’s central bank talked up the country’s property market and the resilience of its financial system on Monday, as the debt pressures weighing on a leading developer have spawned more worries the crisis in the sector has yet to reach its conclusion.

At a closed-door meeting with representatives of domestic and overseas financial institutions, Pan Gongsheng said real estate – long a bellwether for the economy at large – has shown “positive signals”.

“It has a solid foundation for long-term healthy and stable development,” he said during the China Development Forum, which drew dozens of executives from major multinationals including tech giant Apple.

“Property market volatility has a limited impact on China’s financial system,” he added, according to a statement posted on the website of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

His comments came as China Vanke battles rumours of default, with credit rating agencies Moody’s and Fitch demoting the company’s status to below investment grade.

The downgrade further darkened the shadow looming over the sector, initially precipitated by revelations of financial trouble for China Evergrande, Country Garden and many other developers.

Real estate, once a pillar industry contributing around a quarter to national economic output, has grappled with a liquidity crisis since 2021, when Beijing’s “three red lines” policy restricted borrowing in the highly leveraged field.

Several barriers to financing have been removed since last year, with a whitelist initiative launched in January to encourage municipal governments and banks to work together in providing credit for covered projects.

However, data show the housing market slump has largely continued unabated.

Property investment dropped by 9 per cent year on year in the first two months of 2024 and new home sale values plunged by 29 per cent compared with the year prior, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

China’s home prices fall at a slower pace as Beijing moves to resuscitate sector

“The weakness from the property sector has persisted. In order for Beijing to reach its GDP growth target for this year, more easing is needed and likely to be implemented in a coordinated way,” HSBC said in a research note earlier this month.

The bank called for “a stronger push to stabilise the property sector, essentially using a holistic method to push forward the dual track model and reverse the current track of a continuous deterioration in the new home market segment.”

China has set an ambitious target to grow its economy by around 5 per cent this year, a challenging goal to meet as other factors complicate the country’s situation in addition to the trepidations of the property market.

S&P Global Ratings on Monday announced it would maintain its economic growth estimate of 4.6 per cent for China in 2024, compared with last year’s actual rise of 5.2 per cent.

“Our forecast factors in continued property weakness and modest macro policy support. Deflation remains a risk if consumption stays weak and the government responds by further stimulating manufacturing investment,” the rating agency said.

The PBOC governor, however, expressed more optimism, saying he believes the country still has “ample policy space and a rich reserve of tools”.

“China’s economy [is on] an upward trend and is capable of achieving the expected growth target,” said Pan at Monday’s meeting. “We’ll continue to provide a favourable monetary environment for economic recovery.”

Pan also addressed concerns about ballooning debts that have burdened the balance sheets of local governments and undermined confidence in the private sector.

“The debt level of the Chinese government is in the lower mid-range internationally, and policies to address local government debt risk are gradually proving effective,” he said.

“China’s financial system is operating soundly, with generally healthy institutions and strong risk resistance capacity.”

‘Statement to China’: India’s strategic Sela tunnel raises tensions as New Delhi boosts border control

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3256688/statement-china-indias-strategic-sela-tunnel-raises-tensions-new-delhi-boosts-border-control?utm_source=rss_feed

The opening of a strategically significant tunnel in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh has sparked a war of words between Beijing and New Delhi, spotlighting India’s renewed focus on border infrastructure amid its deteriorating relationship with China.

Officially opened on March 9 by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Sela tunnel is the world’s longest twin-lane tunnel, providing all-weather connectivity to Tawang and other forward areas bordering China throughout the year, enhancing the strategic and operational capabilities of the Indian army.

The Chinese government rejected Modi’s inauguration of the tunnel, calling the region an “inherent part of China’s territory”, while Indian authorities responded by slamming Beijing’s remarks as “absurd”, insisting Arunachal Pradesh was “an integral and inalienable part of India”.

The lack of connectivity in Arunachal Pradesh has been a disadvantage for India when compared with China’s better infrastructure along the border. The previous single-lane route to the Sela Pass would often have close after heavy snowfall, preventing heavy vehicles and container trucks from reaching Tawang.

Harsh V. Pant, vice-president for studies and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank, said the Sela tunnel underscored India’s resolve to enhance its border infrastructure.

“India was lackadaisical about border infrastructure, but after 2020 [Galwan clashes], there was a serious push to accelerate it. The Sela tunnel is a statement to China that India is prepared for the long haul,” Pant said.

India and China have been locked in a military stand-off at their shared border for nearly four years after confrontations in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan valley in 2020 resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops. Last year, China renamed 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, a move strongly opposed by India.

Another face-off in January 2021 near India’s Sikkim state, close to the borders with Bhutan and Nepal, resulted in injuries to troops on both sides.

Unreported border clashes between Chinese, Indian troops took place in 2022

Situated at an elevation of 13,000 feet (39,600 metres) and costing an estimated 8.25 billion rupees (US$99 million), the tunnel project spans about 12km, with more than 8km of approach road.

Pant said it was standard Chinese procedure to object to any construction work in Arunachal Pradesh.

“China’s objection to development in Arunachal Pradesh is not new. They consider it South Tibet and have consistently opposed Indian presence in the region, despite lacking any de facto control. They raise objections whenever there is any activity in the region,” he said.

India is revamping its border infrastructure, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government increasing the Border Roads Organisation’s budget fourfold since 2014. The annual allocation has risen from 37.8 billion rupees in 2013-14 to 143.9 billion rupees in 2023-24, aimed at accelerating the construction of strategic roads along India’s borders.

Several border roads and tunnels are being built in the western Himalayas and Ladakh, including an approach road to the Siachen Glacier and an air force station in Nyoma, about 50km from the Line of Actual Control, the disputed India-China border.

Dr M.S. Prathibha, an associate fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said construction of the Sela tunnel was part of India’s broader border infrastructure.

“India is also responding to Chinese military modernisation. The construction of Sela tunnel is part of the larger goal of developing Arunachal Pradesh, which has been neglected for so long,” Parthibha said, adding that Delhi aimed to address infrastructure vulnerabilities to reduce the asymmetry of its capabilities compared to China.

‘Difficult to agree’: China-India border row spills over into water resources

According to Parthibha, the Galwan clashes served as a wake-up call for India, prompting it to accelerate the development of its border infrastructure, including roads, bridges, airstrips and troop accommodation.

Defence expert DS Hooda told This Week in Asia that since the 2020 Galwan stand-off, there had been a significant focus on enhancing infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control.

Hooda, a retired lieutenant general, said that many of India’s positions and outposts along the Line of Actual Control used to get cut off in winter amid heavy snowfall.

“Most of these passes would get cut off, putting pressure not only on maintaining them during winter but also making it difficult to move additional forces in case of emergencies,” he noted.

Hooda stressed that Tawang was the most critical sector in Arunachal Pradesh, and the Sela tunnel would provide all-weather connectivity, enabling the movement of troops and logistics.

According to reports, India has redirected 1,000 military personnel to its western borders to protect the frontier with China, joining 9,000 troops already guarding a 530km stretch separating China’s Tibet region from India’s northern states of Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

“China’s terrain is mostly the Tibetan plateau, so facilitating road and railway construction is easier. In contrast, India has to navigate plains, Himalayan foothills, and ascend to the watershed. Despite these challenges, rapid infrastructure development will enhance Indian military capability,” Hooda said.

The Sela tunnel has become the latest flashpoint in an escalating dispute between India and China, which share a 3,500km border. Despite ongoing military-level talks, tensions persist. In December 2022, troops clashed near the Tawang sector, resulting in minor injuries to both sides.

The United States has waded into the territorial dispute, staying firmly in Delhi’s corner. A State Department official said America recognises the state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of India and rejected attempts by others to assert control over the territory.

B.R. Deepak, a professor of Chinese and China Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said China’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh dated back to the Simla Convention of 1913-14.

While China had indicated it did not want to harm trade and economic ties despite the border dispute, Deepak said the posturing of both sides would dictate what happened in future.

“China has adopted a tough stance on the border, expecting India to accept the new modus operandi seen along the eastern border after the 2020 Galwan incident. However, I don’t believe India will agree,” he said.

“[External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam] Jaishankar has consistently conveyed to China, through various platforms, that the current status quo is unacceptable.”

Deepak, author of India and China: Beyond the Binary of Friendship and Enmity, said the US’ statement held great significance for India.

“This is a positive development from India’s perspective in terms of international recognition of its borders,” he said.

Pant of the Observer Research Foundation called the current India-China relationship “abnormal”, arguing the onus was on Beijing to determine the future direction of ties.

“China is responsible for unilaterally trying to alter the border status quo. It must decide whether to resolve issues through diplomacy and negotiations or continue with unilateral actions such as pushing boundaries, building roads in contested areas, and using force,” he said.

On the US statement, Pant added: “I believe the India-US relationship has matured to a point where Washington is now comfortable speaking in favour of India regarding the boundary dispute, something it avoided in the past.”

However, he said he did not expect any improvement in the bilateral relationship before India’s general elections.

“The new government will need to define its China policy. If the current government continues, it’s clear how they will proceed. The relationship will be highly contested,” he said.

New Octopus card offering public transport access in 336 mainland China cities attracts strong demand from Hongkongers on launch day

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/transport/article/3256767/new-octopus-card-offering-public-transport-access-336-mainland-china-cities-attracts-strong-demand?utm_source=rss_feed

A new Octopus card which allows users to tap for rides in public transport across 336 mainland China cities has recorded strong demand from Hongkongers, especially elderly residents, on its first day of sales.

Many of those queuing for the “Octopus - China T-Union Card” at Kowloon Tong MTR station were elderly residents who hoped the card would offer a more seamless transport experience for them across the border.

Hundreds of cards had been sold at the station’s counter on Tuesday morning, according to a staff member.

“There are many elderly people in Hong Kong like me wanting to travel to the mainland after retirement, but figuring out how to pay for public transport is a real pain. We don’t have the mainland version of Alipay to scan the QR code,” said Rosita Ma, 75, who is planning a one-month trip to Guangzhou and Shanghai.

“The good thing about the new card is that I can add values here in Hong Kong,” Ma said, adding she had once bought a transport card in Luohu but found it inconvenient since she could only top up there.

Mainland China has emerged as the world’s largest cashless society in recent years, but elderly Hongkongers have struggled with mobile payments during their travels across the border.

The new Octopus card will enable cardholders to pay for rides on buses, trains and ferries carrying the China T-Union logos in 336 mainland cities, but not for retail payments.

The China T-Union project is a nationwide one-card payment system developed in recent years.

Unlike previous cross-border Octopus cards linking Hong Kong and mainland cities such as Shenzhen, the new Octopus card allows users to top up their balance using Hong Kong dollars, eliminating the need to maintain a separate yuan account as with previous cross-border Octopus cards.

Hong Kong taxis with Octopus readers to accept payment through 2 QR code wallets

The funds in the new card will be automatically converted to yuan at prevailing exchange rates for payments in the mainland.

It can also function as a regular Octopus card when used locally.

At a convenience store in Wan Chai, a staff member said that only four remaining cards were available for sales at about 11am on Tuesday morning.

Yeung Ka-ho, 38, who works in the fitness industry, bought two cards for his old parents in their late 70s, as the pair struggled to use QR-wallets to pay fares via their mobile phones on the mainland.

“I’ve helped them install WeChat Pay on their mobile phones, but whenever we return to their hometown in Guangzhou and they try to pay for public transport using their phones, they always have a hard time and end up paying at the ticket counter instead,” Yueng said.

“The new card will be a game changer to elderly people who are struggling with their phones,” he added.

Hong Kong’s Octopus to launch mainland public transport payment card

Jack Wong Kwok-kiu, 26, a mobile app designer, purchased a new card as an emergency alternative after losing his phone in Shenzhen last month.

“A mobile phone can handle payment needs for pretty much everything. But when I lost my phone at the end of February, I felt terrified as I did not have yuan with me. I could not call a ride without a phone,” said Wong, who travels to Shenzhen every other weekend.

“It made me realise the importance of having an emergency backup option, such as a stored value card.”

The Octopus’ China T-Union cards are sold at over 7,000 Circle K convenience stores across the city as well as at customer service centres at seven MTR stations, namely Hung Hom, Lok Ma Chau, Sheung Shui, Fanling, Tsuen Wan, Kowloon Tong and Admiralty.

They are priced at HK$88 (US$11.3) without deposit, each card can hold up to HK$3,000 in stored value.

Card balances can also be managed via the Octopus mobile app.

China-Germany ties are resilient despite EU push to ‘de-risk’, says Beijing envoy to Berlin

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256748/china-germany-ties-are-resilient-despite-eu-push-de-risk-says-beijing-envoy-berlin?utm_source=rss_feed

Despite being set against a backdrop of Brussels’ “unpopular” de-risking approach, China’s trade relations with Germany are resilient, Beijing’s envoy to Berlin said.

In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Wu Ken, Chinese ambassador to Germany, spoke highly of the business ties between the two countries, which he said reflected the “unpopularity” of the European Union’s “de-risking” policy against China.

“In the past year, German companies have actively embraced the Chinese market and taken practical steps in giving a ‘vote of confidence’ to the Chinese market, and that highlights the strong resilience of Sino-German economic and trade relations,” he said.

The EU proposed de-risking its relationship with China last year in response to what it called an “increasingly assertive” Beijing on the global stage and the bloc’s economic overdependence on China. The EU has a nearly €300 billion (US$325 billion) deficit with China, its second-largest trading partner.

In alignment with the EU, Germany released its first China strategy last year, urging its companies to de-risk from China – its biggest trading partner.

But many German businesses seem unmoved and continue to invest heavily in China. German carmaker Volkswagen and electronics giant Bosch each invested over US$1 billion last year in China’s electric vehicle market and Siemens spent €140 million (US$151 million) to expand a hi-tech manufacturing plant in China.

German direct investment in China rose 4.3 per cent to a record high €11.9 billion last year, according to a German Economic Institute (IW) think tank report obtained by Reuters.

According to Wu, both Berlin and Brussels have had an “increasing rational understanding of China” recently as more began to reflect on the “risks brought by de-risking”.

“Many entrepreneurs told me that they do not agree with the so-called ‘de-risking’ with China,” the envoy said.

“They are, as always, optimistic about the Chinese market and the prospects of cooperation with China. They frankly admit that China’s development is an opportunity rather than a challenge – giving up the Chinese market is tantamount to saying goodbye to opportunities and growth.”

Xi Jinping to meet visiting Dutch PM, trade minister as hi-tech tensions surge

A business confidence survey released by the German Chamber of Commerce in China in January showed that 91 per cent of 566 German companies intended to continue to do business in China, and more than half planned to increase investment in China. About 64 per cent believed China’s current economic slowdown was temporary and that the country could bounce back in one to three years.

But China’s slower-than-expected economic recovery, tightening regulations on foreign investments and increasing tensions with the US are driving a retreat of foreign investment away from China. While most German firms are still reinvesting their profits in China, they are hesitant to pour in new funds and are diversifying their supply chains to other Asian countries to mitigate risks.

Wu told the Post that many German firms he had been in contact with expressed worries about the growing trend of “anti-globalisation” encouraged under the EU’s de-risking strategy. Under the strategy, the bloc is weighing the application of punitive tariffs to cheap Chinese electric vehicles for what it says is the protection of local manufacturers.

China is rising as a global leader in the electric vehicle industry, with leading Chinese brands such as BYD, Nio and Geely expanding rapidly in Europe.

Wu urged the EU to have an “open and fair” mind towards Chinese enterprises, saying its protectionist measures would harm its own long-term development and hinder global prosperity.

“The success of China’s electric vehicles is the success of globalisation. China’s electric vehicles are widely popular around the world, not relying on subsidies but improving quality and controlling costs through innovation, which has also contributed to global green and low-carbon development,” he said.

“The world needs more cooperation, not estrangement and confrontation. A proper understanding of ‘de-risking’ should be about [countries] addressing challenges together through close cooperation.”

The EU’s anti-subsidy probe into Chinese EVs is expected to conclude by the end of the year. In Europe, there are mounting concerns over potential retaliatory measures from Beijing on imports of European vehicles, with Germany, the biggest vehicle contributor to China, expected to be hit the hardest.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has warned the EU against protectionism, is expected to travel to China with a large business delegation next month, according to a report by Reuters last month.

Scholz was the first European leader to visit China after Xi secured his third term at the 20th Communist Party congress in October 2022. His trip generated much scepticism from the EU as he was viewed as walking a delicate line amid the bloc’s tougher China policy.

China has not confirmed that Scholz will travel to Beijing in the coming weeks.

Wu said China had always attached great importance to relations with Germany, which he said had “global significance that transcended bilateral ties”.

“China is willing to work with Germany to maintain high-level exchanges, continuously enhance mutual trust and deepen practical cooperation,” he said.

“As all-round strategic partners, China and Germany move forwards together in the spirit of mutual benefit, win-win and mutual achievement. We grow together in the spirit of mutual exchanges and learning from each other’s strengths.”

“This is a valuable experience of the smooth development of China-Germany relations over the past few decades and is worthy for both sides to cherish and pass on,” he added.

The Ukraine crisis has cast a shadow over China’s relations with EU countries, with Brussels sceptical about Beijing’s neutral position and peace efforts because of its close ties with Moscow.

Li Hui, Chinese special envoy for Eurasian Affairs, wrapped up a second peace tour this month. He met officials from several European countries, including Germany, in an apparent attempt to seek a peaceful solution in the Ukraine war.

German leak occurred after officer used unsecured line in Singapore hotel

Without disclosing details, Wu said China and Germany had found much consensus on the crisis, possible next steps and the prospect of peace talks.

During his trip, Li was seen to be pushing for Russia’s participation in the coming Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland. Both Russia and Ukraine previously rejected the possibility of Moscow taking part in the summit.

Wu said: “China supports the timely convening of an international peace conference recognised by both Russia and Ukraine, with equal participation by all parties, and fair discussion of all peace plans, and is willing to continue to play a constructive role in the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis”.

How the US, home of trailblazer Tesla, lost the EV race to China

https://www.scmp.com/comment/china-opinion/article/3256404/how-us-home-trailblazer-tesla-lost-ev-race-china?utm_source=rss_feed

As one tech titan hits the brakes, another accelerates into the fast lane. Just as Apple abruptly cancelled its decade-long electric vehicle (EV) project, Xiaomi has announced that it will begin delivering its first EV model this month.

Unlike China, whose keen embrace of EVs include taxis and ride-hailing, US adoption of EVs has been slow. Car rental company Hertz’s attempt to grow an EV fleet has been disastrous and US carmakers including Ford are stalling on EV investments. Last year, China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the leading EV maker.

The individual triumphs of enterprises must be understood in the context of the EV ecosystems in the US and China, and beyond that, the wider context of transport networks. As the EV sector navigates rapid transitions, contrasting dynamics have unfolded in these leading markets.

While China epitomises strategic synergy, the United States is caught in a conundrum of infrastructural challenges and market inertia. The evolution of China’s EV ecosystem showcases how strategic resources, when aligned with market forces, can catalyse self-reinforcing cycles of growth and advancements.

Central to China’s rise in the EV industry is its battery production supply chain. Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) has grown to dominate EV battery manufacturing, accounting for 36.8 per cent of the global market last year, against the 13.6 per cent held by South Korea’s top EV battery maker LG Energy Solution.

China’s top three EV battery makers – which include BYD and China Aviation Lithium Battery (CALB) – have a combined market share of over 57 per cent, a formidable grip. South Korea, the nearest competitor, has just 23 per cent of the market in the collective hands of its three biggest battery EV companies, which include SK On and Samsung SDI.

Years behind in developing its battery supply chains, the US, even with scaled-back EV transition goals, may find itself reliant on Chinese-made EV batteries.

China’s EV success is supported by the rapid expansion of its charging infrastructure, coordinated by the government with private enterprises. China had established a network of 2.7 million public charging points by the end of last year, with a further 40 per cent growth projected this year. In contrast, the US has around 170,000 public EV chargers and aims to increase this to 500,000 by 2030.

Domestic demand is pivotal to the growth of China’s EV industry. Last year, while 1.2 million EVs were sold in the US, more than 8 million EVs were sold in China. And while EVs represented 37 per cent of car sales in China, they made up less than 8 per cent in the US.

This gap is exacerbated by the aggressive pricing strategies of Chinese EV makers, which offer a plethora of choices below 100,000 yuan (US$14,300), compared to the average price of over US$53,000 for the 10 bestselling EVs in the US. The adoption rates and pricing of EVs in the US and China highlight their respective ecosystems’ divergent performances – a disparity that will only be exacerbated by US protectionist measures.

The co-evolutionary dynamic in China, characterised by the public-private reinforcement of resources, complementary infrastructure, affordable pricing and market demand in a supportive institutional environment, shapes the growth dynamics of its EV industry.

The success of China’s EV ecosystem is also inextricably linked to its transport system. EVs have become integral to China’s multi-modal transport infrastructure. In the US, however, they are mostly seen as a replacement for internal combustion engine vehicles in a country that remains largely dependent on private cars for transport.

But EVs thrive, paradoxically, not in isolation in displacing existing cars, but in concert with other modes of transport. EVs find their most effective application in the predictable rhythms of metropolitan commutes.

The multi-modal transport approach leverages the complementary strengths of each mode: the convenience and nimbleness of EVs, the speed and efficiency of high-speed trains and the accessibility of subways – allowing each to play to its strengths. By such a harmonious blending of a cohesive transport matrix, EVs can realise their full potential as an effective component of an integrated transport network.

While the US served as a launching pad for Tesla’s ascent, the EV maker faces formidable Chinese competition and may increasingly have to depend on US trade policies to stay competitive. But without fixing the fundamental shortcomings in the US ecosystem, such expediency may only breed complacency, which precipitates decline.

Unlike the US, the EU’s green industrial policy is not aimed at China

A more fertile ground for the flourishing of EVs may be found in Europe, with its aggressive decarbonisation initiatives, densely populated urban areas and well-established public transport system. Europe is potentially a much larger and faster-growing EV market than the US. Given that Tesla already has a Gigafactory in Berlin, Europe could provide a crucial base for Tesla to sustain its market position.

In the high-stakes race for EV dominance, the decisive factor will be the seamless integration of EVs within comprehensive transport networks. The US, despite its pioneering role in the EV market, faces a significant handicap due to its deep-seated reliance on personal car ownership.

East Asia and Europe, which boast extensive high-speed rail and subway networks, stand at the forefront of the EV revolution. The key to unlocking the full potential of EVs lies in how they are woven into the fabric of our daily commutes within the mosaic of larger transport systems.

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South China Sea: Beijing’s ‘aggression’ during Philippine supply mission terrifies reporters on board

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3256683/south-china-sea-beijings-aggression-during-philippine-supply-mission-terrifies-reporters-board?utm_source=rss_feed

Before dawn broke in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, a civilian resupply boat escorted by two Philippine coastguard (PCG) patrol vessels was heading towards the Second Thomas Shoal to deliver supplies to Philippine sailors deployed there.

Everything was calm until a Chinese coastguard (CCG) ship backed by a suspected militia vessel, approached and blocked the resupply boat, prompting a Philippine captain to look for a way around them.

Journalists were invited by the Philippine military to observe the resupply mission on Saturday, including several from Japan and Taiwan. They saw what the Philippines has described as repeated harassment of its sailors by the CCG each time the PCG attempted to deliver supplies to personnel stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre – a rusting World War II-era navy ship that was grounded on the shoal to reinforce Manila’s sovereignty claims on the surrounding area.

The incident was the latest in clashes between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea that have increased in frequency under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, who has taken a more confrontational stance against Beijing’s attempt to assert control of the waters. Analysts do not expect Beijing to back down and warn of a possible international crisis that could involve the invocation of defence treaties, drawing in other global powers like the US.

The embedded reporters captured photos and videos of CCG and militia vessels blocking the resupply mission’s ships, including the PCG’s BRP Sindangan and BRP Cabra, which were escorting the Uniza May 4. The foreign reporters were on board the BRP Sindangan while their Philippine counterparts were observing from the BRP Cabra.

Later, more CCG and militia ships arrived at the shoal, where they prevented the Philippine wooden supply boat from getting closer to the BRP Sierra Madre. The incident proceeded like a cat-and-mouse chase until two CCG vessels fired their water cannons at the Philippine boat, causing severe damage to it and minor injuries to three personnel on board.

Edward Stephan Bangubung, a Philippine freelance photographer, said what he witnessed was a life-threatening incident.

“I am excited to cover the resupply mission but I am afraid too,” Bangubung said, noting that while the Philippine supply boat was on the way to its destination, two PCG ships were shadowed by a Chinese Navy ship.

Filipino journalist’s AI tool for in-depth reporting challenges industry fears

Another journalist covering the mission, Marconi Navales, said that he also saw how China tried “aggressively” to stop Manila’s resupply mission. Navales said he took photographs of a hole on a CCG vessel when it rammed one of the escort ships.

“We were surrounded by Chinese ships in the middle of the ocean. You have to pay attention to which part they are going to hit ... from the front or at the back,” Navales said.

“The Philippines was outnumbered. From my end, I was afraid. I saw how the Philippine coastguard and navy tried their best [to counter CCG’s actions],” he added.

The clash was the second incident in recent weeks that Manila reported of people being injured due to CCG’s manoeuvres. Earlier this month, five sailors were injured by the CCG during another resupply mission, according to the Philippine Navy.

Maritime security expert Ray Powell told This Week in Asia that China has no grand designs for the Second Thomas Shoal other than to chase the Philippine Navy away from it.

“With the Mischief Reef so nearby, there’s no real need for another Chinese base. The BRP Sierra Madre poses no threat to China’s position,” said Powell, who is a retired US Air Force officer.

Beijing is betting on boosting national prestige for its blockade strategy and wanted to demonstrate to Manila that resistance is futile, according to Powell.

“Its audience is not just Manila but every other regional country that might dare to take its stand. To quote the old Chinese saying, Beijing aims to ‘kill the chicken to scare the monkey’,” he said.

Asked if Manila might invoke its mutual defence treaty with the US should the situation worsen, Powell cited the testimony by Admiral John C. Aquilino, a top US naval commander, before the US Congress last week. Aquilino said he was worried that further escalation could result in an invocation of the treaty.

Signed in 1951, the treaty calls on the Philippines and the US to aid each other in times of aggression by an external power. The Pentagon had said the US was prepared to assist Manila if it were to invoke the treaty.

“I think China wants to avoid that. What I would watch closely is what comes out of the US-Japan-Philippines leaders summit in Washington DC on April 11. It will be important to see whether the three leaders propose any new measures to support the Philippines or impose costs on China,” Powell said.

Political analyst Sherwin Ona, an associate professor at De La Salle University, said the latest developments are very concerning and did not foresee an end to China’s growing aggression.

“I believe that China will continue this belligerent behaviour in the West Philippine Sea because of its strategic intent. This means control of the [South China Sea] as part of the national rejuvenation where territorial integrity is paramount,” Ona said, referring to Manila’s name for South China Sea waters that lie within its exclusive economic zone.

“Beijing will continue to push its historical and sovereignty narrative until it is normalised through its legal and diplomatic efforts,” he added. Manila must not relent in its efforts to internationalise the situation and remain transparent in dealing with issues in the West Philippine Sea, Ona said.

Philippine Defence Chief Gilberto Teodoro has urged Beijing to take its claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea to international arbitration

“If China is not afraid to state its claims to the world, then why don’t we arbitrate under international law?,” Teodoro told reporters on Monday, adding that Manila would not budge on its position.

US to fund a port on Philippine island near Taiwan. What will it be used for?

Teresita Daza, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, has summoned China’s chargé d’affaires in the country following the latest standoff at Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, referring to Manila’s designation for the Second Thomas Shoal.

“China’s continued interference with the Philippines’ routine and lawful activities in its exclusive economic zone is unacceptable. It infringes upon the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction,” Daza said.

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, who also chairs the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, said Manila would not be deterred from resupplying its military outpost in the shoal.

“We will not be intimidated because it is our right and we have to protect our soldiers, our sailors there at BRP Sierra Madre,” he said.

Washington has condemned China’s “dangerous actions” over the incident, arguing the actions not only undermine regional stability but also display Beijing’s blatant disregard for international law.

US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said the actions have critically hindered the delivery of essential supplies to Philippine soldiers.

“The People’s Republic of China ships’ repeated employment of water cannons and reckless blocking manoeuvres resulted in injuries to Filipino service members and significant damage to their resupply vessel, rendering it immobile,” he said.

“This incident marks only the latest in the PRC’s repeated obstruction of Philippine vessels’ exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and disruption of supply lines to this longstanding outpost,” Miller added.

A Philippine civilian coalition called Atin Ito! (“This Is Ours!”) has also denounced China’s latest actions.

Akbayan Party President Rafaela David, a co-convenor of Atin Ito, noted that the CCG’s “unjustified attack” using water cannons in Philippine waters happened just four months after a similar incident.

He said, “We demand an official apology from China for endangering the lives of our frontliners and violating international law. Absent an apology, the Chinese ambassador must leave our country.”

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[Business] China ex-football boss sentenced to life in prison

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68662441

‘Free’ China cat adoption scams which tie people into long-term pet-product spending plans under attack

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3255361/free-china-cat-adoption-scams-which-tie-people-long-term-pet-product-spending-plans-under-attack?utm_source=rss_feed

The recent exposure of a pet shop adoption racket has sparked controversy and a backlash on mainland social media.

Due to the large cost of buying a pure-breed cat, many feline enthusiasts have been lured into so-called “free cat adoption” schemes.

It sounds like the perfect solution, allowing adopters to experience the joy of pet ownership and helping animals find homes, without a large single outlay.

However, the schemes are a money-making opportunity for unscrupulous businesspeople who offer “pet instalment” plans.

One such shop in Guangzhou, in the southeastern province of Guangdong, that claims to offer “free adoptions”, has a tag attached to each animal showing an amount of money that must be spent in the store as a condition of taking the pet.

Adopters must agree to spend a certain amount of money each month on pet products from the shop’s online store before taking the animal home.

For instance, adopting a Blue Cat from the store comes with a 500-yuan (US$70) monthly price tag, spread over two years, totalling 12,000 yuan (US$1,700) – much more expensive than simply buying a cat elsewhere.

“This is mainly to prevent people from mistreating or abandoning the cat after taking it home,” a member of staff at the pet store said when asked to justify the two-year “instalment plan” to News Weekly.

In addition, many pet products sold from its online shop are priced above market rates.

A bag of specific 2kg imported cat food costs about 60 yuan more than from Taobao, the e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post.

Adopters are also made to sign agreements stipulating that they cannot terminate the contract if the pet dies or is lost within a two-year period.

This means they could end up paying out for an animal they do not have.

One customer adopted a Maine Coon cat, and was locked into an automatic monthly payment of 800 yuan for 24 months, despite the cat’s accidental death only a few months later, reported Guangdong Radio and Television station on January 31.

The health of the cats is also a cause for concern, with many customers reporting that the pets they took home had diseases.

“They’re using free adoption as a guise to trick people into paying for cat food and litter for two years, which ends up being more expensive. The cats and dogs are unhealthy. It’s all a scam,’ one customer said on Dianping, a prominent China platform for reviews.

The schemes have been widely criticised on mainland social media.

“Free? Would such a large operation really offer that for free? It’s just another sales tactic, not charity,” one person said.

“It is not animal adoption at all. Real adoption would just require sending a video or photo to show the cats and dogs are doing well after the adoption,” said another.

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China-Dominica ties a ‘model’ for South-South cooperation, Xi tells Dominican PM

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256747/china-dominica-ties-model-south-south-cooperation-xi-tells-dominican-pm?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has pledged further social and economic support for the Caribbean island country of Dominica, with Chinese President Xi Jinping also highlighting the potential for political cooperation.

In a meeting with Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in Beijing on Monday, Xi said China is willing to work with Dominica to synergise development strategies and turn the relationship into a driving force for win-win cooperation.

At the meeting, which came two days after the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Xi called the relationship a model of South-South cooperation, according to state news agency Xinhua.

“The key to the sound development of China-Dominica relations lies in a high level of political mutual trust, as well as in mutual understanding and support on issues involving each other’s core interests and major concerns,” he said.

“China firmly supports the people of Dominica in following a development path suited to their national conditions and stands ready to bolster friendly exchanges and strengthen the sharing of experience on governance.”

Xi tells Latin America-Caribbean that China will take ties to ‘new era’

Xi said China supported Dominica in playing an active role in international and regional affairs and was willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation to deepen South-South cooperation and safeguard the common interests of developing countries.

He added that Beijing attaches great importance to the climate change concerns and demands of the world’s small island developing states.

Xi invited Dominica to “hop on board the fast train of China’s modernisation” and expand economic and trade cooperation, as well as areas including infrastructure construction, agriculture and healthcare.

Skerrit, Dominica’s leader for the past 20 years, responded that his country looked forward to close communication and coordination with China in international affairs.

“Dominica is willing to continue playing an active role in promoting the development of relations between Caribbean countries and China and looks forward to close communication and coordination with China in international affairs,” he said.

The last meeting between Xi and Skerrit was in 2013, during Xi’s visit to Trinidad and Tobago. The pair had a phone conversation in January 2021, when Xi pledged China’s support for Dominica’s fight against Covid-19 through affordable and accessible vaccines.

In January, Dominica affirmed its support for the one-China policy after the presidential election in Taiwan, which Beijing is determined to bring under mainland control. Most countries do not regard Taiwan as an independent country.

China and Dominica signed a memorandum of understanding in 2018 under Beijing’s massive global infrastructure programme the Belt and Road Initiative. Trade volumes between the two countries has also soared in recent years.

Last year, bilateral trade reached US$73.556 million – a year-on-year increase of 111.5 per cent – with China’s exports to Dominica amounting to US$72.857 million, an increase of 112.2 per cent on the previous year, according to Chinese customs data.

China is outmanoeuvring US in Latin America region, senators are warned

Earlier on Monday, Skerrit also held talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang, who invited Dominica and its neighbouring countries to take part in the 4th China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum.

Their active participation would “open up broader prospects for China-Caribbean economic and trade cooperation”, Li said, who also voiced China’s support for Chinese companies investing and starting businesses in Dominica.

Li said that China hopes to strengthen its traditional belt and road cooperation with Dominica, while creating new highlights of cooperation in areas such as new energy, the digital economy, and the marine economy.

Former head of China football association jailed for life for taking bribes – state media

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/26/chen-xuyuan-former-head-of-china-football-association-jailed-for-life-bribery

The former chief of China’s national football association, Chen Xuyuan, has been sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes, state media reported on Tuesday, after one of the biggest anti-corruption probes in the sport in years.

The severe sentence for Chen, 67, concludes an inquiry into high-level football officials in China in a sport that has long grappled with corruption, which fans have blamed for the perpetual under performance of the national team.

In the last episode of a four-part documentary series on corruption aired on national television in January, Chen said the night before he became the chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) in 2019, he had received backpacks each containing 300,000 yuan ($41,600) from two local football officials who wanted him to “take care of them”.

Public confessions of corruption, often made under duress, have become a common feature on national television since President Xi Jinping came to power and unleashed a sweeping anti-graft campaign that has also ensnared football.

A court in central Hubei province found Chen took advantage of his various posts from 2010 to 2023, including those linked to the CFA, to aid others in matters regarding project contracting, investment operations and sports events arrangements, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

In return, Chen accepted money and valuables worth over 81m yuan ($11.2m), the court found.

Chen has brought “tremendous damage” to Chinese football, Xinhua cited the court ruling as saying.

Other football officials probed for corruption included Chen Yongliang, former CFA executive deputy secretary general, Yu Hongchen, a former vice head of the CFA, and Dong Zheng, a former general manager of the Chinese Super League.

Chen Yongliang has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, Yu 13 years, and Dong eight years, according to state media on Tuesday.

In 2012, former CFA chairman Xie Yalong and his successor Nan Yong were each sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in jail for accepting bribes in the last major soccer corruption dragnet in China.

New Zealand accuses China of hacking parliament following US, UK allegations

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3256736/new-zealand-accuses-china-hacking-parliament-following-us-uk-allegations?utm_source=rss_feed

Hackers linked to the Chinese government launched a state-sponsored operation that targeted New Zealand’s parliament in 2021, officials said on Tuesday.

New Zealand’s allegation comes a day after US and British authorities announced a set of criminal charges and sanctions against seven hackers, all believed to be living in China, who targeted US officials, journalists, corporations, pro-democracy activists and the UK’s election watchdog. Both New Zealand and Australia have condemned the broader activity.

“Foreign interference of this nature is unacceptable, and we have urged China to refrain from such activity in future,” New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement. “New Zealand will continue to speak out – consistently and predictably – where we see concerning behaviours like this.”

He said concerns about cyber activity attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese government, targeting democratic institutions in both New Zealand and Britain, had been conveyed to the Chinese ambassador, Wang Xiaolong.

China’s embassy in New Zealand said in a statement that it rejects “outright such groundless and irresponsible accusations” and had expressed its dissatisfaction and resolute opposition with New Zealand authorities.

“We have never, nor will we in the future, interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including New Zealand. Accusing China of foreign interference is completely barking up the wrong tree,” the statement said.

UK and US sanction Chinese entities for ‘malicious cyber activity’

New Zealand’s government said earlier on Tuesday its communications security bureau (GCSB), which overseas cybersecurity and signals intelligence, had established links between a Chinese state-sponsored actor known as Advanced Persistent Threat 40 (APT40) and malicious cyber activity targeting New Zealand’s parliamentary services and parliamentary counsel office in 2021.

The GCSB said APT40 is affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

It added that APT40 had gained access to important information that enables the effective operation of New Zealand government but nothing of a sensitive or strategic nature had not been removed. Instead, the GCSB said it believed the group had removed information of a more technical nature that would have allowed more intrusive activity.

In the last financial year, 23 per cent of the 316 malicious cyber events that involved nationally significant organisations were attributed to state-sponsored actors, according to the GCSB.

These attacks were not specifically attributed to China and New Zealand last year also condemned malicious cyber activity undertaken by the Russian government.

“The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” said Judith Collins, the minister responsible for the GCSB.

US and British officials late on Monday filed charges, imposed sanctions, and accused Beijing of a sweeping cyberespionage campaign that allegedly hit millions of people including lawmakers, academics and journalists, and companies including defence contractors.

American and British officials nicknamed the hacking group responsible Advanced Persistent Threat 31 or “APT31”, calling it an arm of China’s Ministry of State Security. Officials reeled off a laundry list of targets: White House staff members, US senators, British parliamentarians, and government officials across the world who criticised Beijing. Defence contractors, dissidents and security companies were also hit, officials from the two countries said.

A joint statement from Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said persistent targeting of democratic institutions and processes has implications for democratic and open societies like Australia. It said such behaviour was unacceptable and must stop.

In 2019, Australian intelligence determined China was responsible for a cyberattack on its national parliament and three largest political parties before the general election but the Australian government never disclosed officially who was behind the attacks.

Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister, met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi last week and said the countries share a “significant and complex relationship”.

“We cooperate with China in some areas for mutual benefit,” he said at the time. “At the same time, we have also been consistent and clear that we will speak out on issues of concern.”

China Resources Land posts 11.7% profit increase, sees stability ahead for property sector thanks to policy support

https://www.scmp.com/property/article/3256742/china-resources-land-posts-117-profit-increase-sees-stability-ahead-property-sector-thanks-policy?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s troubled property market is on track for a gradual return to stability despite the many challenges it still faces, China Resources Land said as it posted another profitable year in 2023, extending its streak through all crises since at least 1997.

Earnings at the nation’s fourth-largest developer rose 11.7 per cent to 31.4 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion) compared with 2022, according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday.

“In 2024, although the property market will continue to face many challenges, with the implementation of supportive government policies to mitigate risks and city-specific measures, the confidence of enterprises and residents will gradually recover,” chairman Li Xin said in the results announcement. “The real estate industry will also gradually return to stable development and transition towards new development models.”

Li’s remark echoed comments by the People’s Bank of China that some “positive signals” have emerged from the country’s property market, which has a solid foundation for healthy and stable development in the long term.

Shenzhen-based China Resources Land saw its revenue jump 21 per cent year on year to 251.1 billion yuan, driven mainly by growth in its property development business. That business, which accounted for 84 per cent of total revenue, grew 20.4 per cent year on year, while revenue from recurring businesses – chiefly investments and management – jumped 26.4 per cent.

The results come after the company posted the slowest annual sales growth since at least 2015 in January, as low homebuyer confidence and concerns about defaults dampened demand. The firm sold 307 billion yuan worth of homes last year, a 2 per cent annual increase.

“For the property-development business, the group will continue to implement strategically focused investment, with further penetration in key regions, whilst promoting comprehensive reshaping and enhancement of the organisational capacities across the value chain so as to further solidify our industry position,” Li said.

China property: rate of decline in investment slows, official statistics show

The company declared a final dividend of 1.243 yuan per share for 2023. Together with an interim dividend of 0.198 yuan per share, this makes the total dividend for 2023 1.441 yuan per share, up 2.9 per cent year on year.

Overall, the company’s gross profit margin for 2023 came in at 25.2 per cent, a 1 per cent decrease from the previous year, mainly due to the impact of product mix change and provision for inventory impairment in the development business, where gross profit margin declined by 2.3 percentage points to 20.7 per cent, the company said.

Nonetheless, core net profit – core net profit attributable to the owners excluding revaluation gain from investment properties – rose 3 per cent year on year to 27.8 billion yuan.

The company said its capital structure is improving. Net gearing, a ratio of debt relative to equity, decreased 6.2 percentage points to 32.6 per cent compared with the end of 2022, while weighted average cost of debt, a gauge of borrowing costs, declined 19 basis points to 3.56 per cent, the lowest level in 10 years.

China Resources Land rose 1.9 per cent to HK$24.75 in morning trading.

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China’s ‘low-altitude economy’ on the rise as southern city named focal point

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3256676/chinas-low-altitude-economy-rise-southern-city-named-focal-point?utm_source=rss_feed

China has designated the capital city of Guangdong province, its economic powerhouse in the south, as the nexus of its unmanned equipment industry – a part of broader efforts to spearhead technological advancement and advance its plans to be a global player in drones, autonomous vehicles and civil aviation.

Nansha, a district in Guangzhou, has been selected to develop a citywide management system for unmanned vehicles as well as industry standards for what has been deemed the “low-altitude economy”, according to a document recently released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner.

The district has also been encouraged to “take bold moves” in research and transform the resultant discoveries into marketable products.

China’s EHang sells autonomous passenger drone for US$332,000 on Taobao

“We strive to give full play to Nansha’s unique advantages and make Nansha a carrier for bold exploration and early breakthroughs,” said Xiao Weiming, deputy secretary general of the NDRC, at a press conference last week.

“We expect to generate pioneering experiences that can usher in new developments in key reform areas nationwide.”

The NDRC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Market Regulation, issued a 15-point guideline in January to broaden market entry in the district. The area is an emerging hub for hi-tech in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), a regional economic integration plan for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau designed to drive innovation and technological advancement.

The guideline, which explicitly states its goal as better leveraging Nansha’s “leading role in the construction of the GBA,” dedicated significant space to the need for technical standards covering maritime, land, and air applications of unmanned technologies as a unified system.

Such a system, empowered by big data and artificial intelligence, could theoretically complete tasks without human intervention. Products under this umbrella would include autonomous vehicles and manufacturing robots.

The guideline also encouraged the use of unmanned devices in fields like industrial production, logistics and emergency rescue.

Sun Zhiyang, mayor of Guangzhou, said the city plans to set up a platform to manage and control a citywide unmanned system, with Nansha granted privileged access to the platform as the pilot region and playing host to an incubation centre which the city hopes will attract leading enterprises.

A suite of supportive policies has driven the rapid growth of China’s “low-altitude economy”, which Beijing listed as a strategic emerging industry at the tone-setting central economic work conference in December. The term refers to a wide range of industries centred around manned and unmanned vehicles usually operating below an altitude of 1,000 metres.

Data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China showed the sector’s value exceeded 500 billion yuan (US$69.1 billion) last year and is expected to reach 2 trillion yuan by 2030.

Guangdong’s tech hub of Shenzhen is home to leading drone makers like DJI, and the provincial capital is also a leader of research and development in the field.

In addition to this expanding sector, the government will also promote deep-sea exploration and the seed industry in the Nansha district, establishing funds and incentive mechanisms for the application of advanced technologies in those areas, Sun said, adding the district will also create international standard certification organisations in these domains.

Other measures for the district, such as boosting innovation in marine science and technology, developing speciality finance, and easing market access restrictions for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, were also included in the guideline.

Academics challenge Florida law that casts ‘suspicion’ on Chinese students and faculty

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3256712/academics-challenge-florida-law-casts-suspicion-chinese-students-and-faculty?utm_source=rss_feed

Two graduate students from China whose studies were put on hold, and a professor who says he is unable to recruit research assistants, sued Florida education officials on Monday, trying to stop enforcement of a new state law which limits research exchanges between state universities and academics from seven prohibited countries.

The law passed last year by the Republican-controlled Florida legislature and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis was designed to stop the Chinese Communist government and others from influencing the state’s public colleges and universities. The countries on the prohibited list are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, and Venezuela.

The law is discriminatory, unconstitutional and reminiscent of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which instituted a 10-year ban on Chinese labourers immigrating to the United States, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami.

The new law also usurps the power of the federal government, which has exclusive authority over immigration, national security and foreign affairs, the lawsuit said.

It also said the law “casts a cloud of suspicion” over Chinese people seeking to work at Florida’s public universities and colleges.

Florida law barring Chinese citizens from owning property blocked by US court

The law has forced two of the plaintiffs who are from China to put their graduate studies at Florida International University on hold and denied them entry into their research labs. Zhengfei Guan, the University of Florida professor who also is originally from China, said the law has stopped him from recruiting the most qualified postdoctoral candidates to assist with his research, which has slowed his publishing productivity and research projects, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said he has received more than US$3 million in research grants and has collaborated on grants totalling over US$30 million to the university.

His work has been presented to the White House and he has testified in hearings in front of the US International Trade Commission.

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs said they aren’t members of the Chinese government nor the Communist Party.

They also alleged that the Florida law “explicitly discriminates based upon alienage,” and most severely impacts Chinese students, who make up the biggest percentage of international students in the state university system.

According to the law, international students from the prohibited countries can be hired on a case-by-case basis with approval from the Board of Governors which oversees state universities or the state Board of Education, but the lawsuit said the law’s “vagueness and lack of adequate guidance empowers and encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement across Florida.”

The law “is having and will have far-reaching stigmatising effects against individuals from China and of Asian descent who are seeking academic employment in Florida public universities and colleges, including plaintiffs, as Florida law now presumptively deems them a danger to the United States,” the lawsuit said.

The governor’s office and the state Department of Education did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Additional reporting by Tribune News Service

‘Books without words’: parents of China boy, 6, sell up, buy camper van to take son on nationwide learning tour

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3255347/books-without-words-parents-china-boy-6-sell-buy-camper-van-take-son-nationwide-learning-tour?utm_source=rss_feed

A news story about a couple in China who sold their car and flat, then bought a camper van to take their six-year-old son on a nationwide study tour has trended on mainland social media.

The mother and father, from Henan province in central China, decided to delay their son’s admission to public primary school for a year and create a unique study tour for him instead.

The family has visited at least 10 provinces and the tour is ongoing, Henan TV City Channel reported.

In China, the minimum age for public primary school entrance is six years old. The father Yang Qiang said his son, nicknamed Mangguo, failed to get enrolled in autumn 2023 because he was not six for another nine days.

Instead of choosing a private school that would allow Mangguo to start, Yang and his wife decided to delay his admission to public primary school for a year.

The parents came up with the study tour idea and have relaxed and positive attitude towards schooling and learning.

“Sometimes being slow is going fast,” Yang said, adding: “If parents can be the best parents, their children will grow to be the best children.”

The parents believe that schooling is studying from books, while travelling is absorbing knowledge from the world.

“Travelling is reading books without words. When you see and know more, your vision will become bigger,” said Yang.

He said that their savings and the money from selling their car and flat would support the one-year tour.

Over the past few months, the family has visited more than 10 provinces and regions.

“I know what those sheep are doing. They are migrating,” Mangguo said to his father as they drove past a field.

Once they left the camper van, Mangguo walked with a sheep in the grassland.

In the viral video, filmed by the father, the boy and his mother are seen wandering around the desert and mimicking the walk of a duck.

When they travel to historical sites and museums, Yang patiently tells stories about culture and history to Mangguo.

The family does not know precisely when the tour will end, for now, they are having fun and learning at the same time.

Mainland social media has been captivated by the story.

“This child is growing up in a lovely family,” one person wrote.

“The family proves the old Chinese saying that travelling 10,000 miles is better than reading 10,000 books,” said another.

“I’m envious of this open-minded, brave, and loving family,” said a third.

[Blogs] The Papers: MPs say China is a 'threat' and the 'Kate effect'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-68661931

US sanctions hackers for targeting critical infrastructure for Chinese spy agency

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/25/us-sanctions-chinese-hackers

The US government announced sanctions on Monday against Chinese hackers that it alleges were targeting the nation’s critical infrastructure while working for China’s government spy agency.

The Treasury’s office of foreign assets control stated that it sanctioned Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Ltd, which it calls a front for the Chinese ministry of state security that has “served as cover for multiple malicious cyberoperations”.

In press releases and unsealed indictment, the US government accused China of perpetrating an elaborate and invasive state-backed hacking program that goes back over a decade. Merrick Garland, the US Attorney General, called the hacking operation proof of “the ends to which the Chinese government is willing to go to target and intimidate its critics”.

The treasury office named two Chinese nationals, Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin, affiliated with the Wuhan company, for cyberoperations that targeted US critical infrastructure sectors including defense, aerospace and energy. It also listed these threats as part of the cyber hacking group APT 31, which stands for “advanced persistent threat” and includes state-sponsored contract hackers and intelligence officers.

“APT 31 has targeted a wide range of high-ranking US government officials and their advisors integral to US national security,” the department said in a press release.

The US Department of Justice charged Zhao, Ni, and five other hackers with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud. The agency said they were part of a 14-year long cyber operation “targeting US and foreign critics, businesses and political officials”.

“Today’s announcements underscore the need to remain vigilant to cybersecurity threats and the potential for cyber-enabled foreign malign influence efforts, especially as we approach the 2024 election cycle,” Matthew G Olsen, the assistant attorney general, said.

The hacking campaign involved sending over 10,000 malicious emails, which contained hidden tracking links that allowed APT 31 to access information about their targets including locations and IP addresses. The emails targeted government officials around the world who were critical of China’s policies, including White House staff and election campaign workers from both major parties, according to the justice department.

British authorities also add sanctions

The UK government issued its own sanctions on Monday, stating that the same Chinese state-backed hackers had targeted its democratic institutions and elections agency.

Officials said those sanctioned are responsible for a hack that may have gained access to information on tens of millions of UK voters held by the Electoral Commission, as well as for cyber-espionage targeting lawmakers who have been outspoken about threats from China.

The Foreign Office said the hack of the election registers “has not had an impact on electoral processes, has not affected the rights or access to the democratic process of any individual, nor has it affected electoral registration”.

The Electoral Commission said in August that it identified a breach of its system in October 2022, though it added that “hostile actors” had first been able to access its servers in 2021.

At the time, the watchdog said the data included the names and addresses of registered voters. But it said that much of the information was already in the public domain.

British authorities did not name the company or the two individuals. But they said the two sanctioned individuals were involved in the operations of the Chinese cyber group APT 31 The group is also known as Zirconium or Hurricane Panda.

APT 31 has previously been accused of targeting US presidential campaigns and the information systems of Finland’s parliament, among others.

British cybersecurity officials said that Chinese government-affiliated hackers “conducted reconnaissance activity” against British parliamentarians who were critical of Beijing in 2021. They said no parliamentary accounts were successfully compromised.

Three lawmakers, including former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, told reporters Monday they have been “subjected to harassment, impersonation and attempted hacking from China for some time”. Duncan Smith said in one example, hackers impersonating him used fake email addresses to write to his contacts.

The politicians are members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international pressure group focused on countering Beijing’s growing influence and calling out alleged rights abuses by the Chinese government.

Oliver Dowden, Britain’s deputy prime minister, said his government will summon China’s ambassador to account for its actions.

China’s foreign affairs ministry said ahead of the announcement that countries should base their claims on evidence rather than “smear” others without factual basis.

“Cybersecurity issues should not be politicized,” the ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said. “We hope all parties will stop spreading false information, take a responsible attitude and work together to maintain peace and security in cyberspace.”

Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, reiterated that China is “behaving in an increasingly assertive way abroad” and is “the greatest state-based threat to our economic security”.

“It’s right that we take measures to protect ourselves, which is what we are doing,” he said, without providing details.

China critics including Duncan Smith have long called for Sunak to take a tougher stance on China and label the country a threat – rather than a “challenge” – to the UK, but the government has refrained from using such critical language.

At China Development Forum, foreign firms keep calling for action as Beijing makes more promises

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3256668/china-development-forum-foreign-firms-keep-calling-action-beijing-makes-more-promises?utm_source=rss_feed

Against the backdrop of manufacturing overcapacity concerns, Beijing is reiterating that it wants foreign multinationals to come to China and set up research and development centres, and to partner up with domestic firms to manifest ideas and bring them to the market.

The pro-business rhetoric at the two-day China Development Forum that kicked off in Beijing on Sunday included fresh vows to remove barriers for foreign firms, but some foreign corporate leaders used the opportunity to voice long-held concerns and call for more substantial changes in the business environment.

And while multinationals continued to renew their commitment to capitalising on China’s 1.4-billion-strong consumer market, their gripes highlighted the gulf that persists between Beijing and global investors.

“We encourage foreign firm’s [Chinese] R&D centres to undertake major research projects,” Jin Zhuanglong, China’s minister of industry and information technology, said during the forum symposium on Monday.

China’s foreign firms fear golden era over as Beijing aims to ‘solidify control’

“We will provide service and safeguards for worldwide scientists, entrepreneurs and investors who come to China to innovate and start businesses,” Jin added.

The China Development Forum, which began in 2000, is typically one of the few venues where foreign business leaders may have a chance to interact with high-ranking Chinese officials after their annual “two sessions” parliamentary gathering where economic goals are laid out.

Beijing is looking to revive confidence in the Chinese economy at home and abroad as inbound investment slows amid geopolitical tensions.

During the opening session on Sunday, Premier Li Qiang said China would introduce more rules to bring down some of the barriers faced by foreign companies, including to market access, public tendering and cross-border data flows.

And on Monday, Jin tried to burnish the Chinese market, lauding the local entrepreneurial and innovative drive, coupled with massive market demand, abundant business opportunities, and comprehensive industry support – all of which he said were favourable to multinational companies’ development.

Still, his message on R&D centres came after a number of high-profile departures and scaling down at such facilities in recent years, due to various factors that have included the citing of geopolitical risks.

Hulu, the streaming platform backed by US entertainment giant Disney, cut around 90 per cent of its staff at its Beijing-based R&D centre last year. In 2021, IBM closed its China Research Lab while Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson shut down one of its five research centres in China.

After Jin’s speech, Ola Kallenius, chairman of Mercedes-Benz Group, said at the same symposium that remaining open to different technological concepts and approaches – especially in rapidly evolving technologies such as autonomous driving – would help strengthen China’s position as an innovation hub.

He called on China, which is now the world’s largest automobile exporter, to create “harmonised international standards and regulations” to provide mutual benefits and ensure free trade.

China’s hi-tech push for computing power, AI gains face big hurdles: analysts

In October, the European Union launched an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles amid concerns over the growing number of relatively cheap China-made cars crowding out domestic producers within the bloc. Beijing has pushed back against the move, accusing it of being “selective” and “protectionist”.

Meanwhile, Kallenius said, China’s energy-consumption regulations for automobiles carried “a substantial risk” that entire vehicle segments would not be granted market access any more.

“Therefore, we hope policymakers will consider a more balanced review of the ongoing regulation process to ensure that diversified customer demands could still be met with diversified products,” Kallenius said.

Still, he said he expects the Chinese market to continue to grow and play a leading role in bringing innovations to the global auto industry.

In subsequent remarks, Stefan Hartung, chairman of German electronics maker Bosch expressed confidence in China’s “promising” business landscape but also called on Beijing to reinforce intellectual property protections and facilitate deeper international exchanges.

“The modernisation of industrial systems highly relies on collaboration and openness,” he said.

Florent Menegaux, chief executive officer of the Michelin Group, expanded on that sentiment in his speech at the forum.

“We hope that the Chinese government will continue to take concrete actions to effectively deploy the national treatment to foreign-invested companies in China,” Menegaux said. “This would enable us to make further progress together in industrial policy discussions … among many other important topics.”

Beijing warns Philippines to ‘proceed with caution’ after latest South China Sea stand-off

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256679/beijing-warns-philippines-proceed-caution-after-latest-south-china-sea-stand?utm_source=rss_feed

China has warned the Philippines that relations between the two countries are “at a crossroads” amid their ongoing territorial dispute.

Chinese foreign vice-minister Chen Xiaodong issued the warning after the latest confrontation between coastguard ships near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal on Saturday.

Both sides lodged diplomatic protests, but Chen issued the further warning in a phone conversation with the Philippine undersecretary for foreign affairs Maria Theresa Lazaro.

“China-Philippines relations are at a crossroads, and the Philippines must proceed with caution as to where it wants to go,” Chen told Lazaro, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

“China once again demands that the Philippines pays serious attention to China’s concerns, steps back from the brink [and] returns to the right track of properly resolving differences through negotiation and consultation with China as soon as possible.”

Manila dares Beijing to arbitrate South China Sea claim, summons Chinese envoy

China complained that over the weekend the Philippines had sent two coastguard vessels and a supply ship to “transport construction materials” to an old warship grounded on the reef.

The Philippines accused the Chinese coastguards of blocking their ship and using water cannons.

But the Chinese embassy in Manila described it as a “a deliberate and provocative move that infringed upon China’s sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea”.

It also said its coastguards had acted “lawfully” and “in a reasonable and professional manner”

Its statement continued: “China urges the Philippines to immediately stop infringement and provocation and return to the right track of dialogue and consultation … to find a proper way to manage the situation, so as to jointly preserve peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

Manila had previously the Chinese charge d’affaires to “convey the Philippines’ strong protest against the aggressive actions” of China’s coastguards.

“China’s continued interference with the Philippines’ routine and lawful activities in its own exclusive economic zone is unacceptable. It infringes upon the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction,” said spokesperson Teresita Daza.

China accused the Philippines of breaking a promise to remove the warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which was deliberately grounded on the reef in 1999.

Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said: “The Philippine side is inconsistent and goes back on its words, seriously violating a promise it has repeatedly made to the Chinese side.”

Manila has denied that any such agreement has been made. Last year President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said that he was of any such deal – but that if it existed he would “rescind” it.

Philippines accuses China of damaging supply vessel with water cannon

The growing tensions between the two countries over the resource-rich waters have prompted Manila to deepen its military relationship with the United States, which has a treaty commitment to defend its ally if it comes under attack.

Last week US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Philippines and reaffirmed his country’s “ironclad” commitment to its ally.

Vietnam tries to stabilise relations with China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256682/vietnam-tries-stabilise-relations-china?utm_source=rss_feed

A senior Vietnamese diplomatic official visited China last week in what was seen as an attempt to stabilise relations amid the ousting of the country’s president and the recent revival of a long-running territorial dispute.

The visit by Le Hoai Trung, the head of the Vietnamese Communist Party’s diplomatic arm, came amid the sudden departure of Vo Van Thuong as president, after only 14 months in office amid an anti-corruption drive.

Both sides chose to gloss over the political upheaval in their statements about the visit, focusing instead on topics such as economic cooperation and relations between the two countries’ ruling Communist parties.

Trung’s visit included a meeting on Friday – the day Thuong formally resigned – with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who promised to “intensify high-level exchanges”, according to the foreign ministry in Beijing.

Trung told Wang that the two countries should make efforts to implement “high-level common awareness, enhance political trust and consolidate a peaceful environment” while improving cooperation in “all fields”, according to the state-owned Vietnam News Agency.

The same day he also met Cai Qi, the number five in China’s political hierarchy.

Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow with the Vietnam studies programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said there may not be a direct link between the visit and the recent political upheaval in Hanoi.

Are China and Vietnam on collision course over Beijing’s Gulf of Tonkin marking?

“The narrative from the Vietnamese Communist Party’s official media suggests that Le Hoai Trung’s visit was scheduled before Vietnam’s recent political reshuffling, which means it likely isn’t connected to the country’s internal political changes,” he said.

Earlier in his visit Trung met Liu Jianchao, the Chinese Communist Party’s diplomatic chief, to discuss the Gulf of Tonkin, where the two countries have not agreed on their maritime boundaries.

This month Beijing published a map outlining the waters it claims in the sea, known in Chinese as the Beibu Gulf.

So far Hanoi’s response has been muted and Trung told Liu that the two countries should “settle [their] differences by peaceful means” and “in conformity with international law”.

“The two sides need to bring into play the negotiation mechanisms on sea-related issues, seriously and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, and promote the building of a substantive and efficient code of conduct in the waters that matches international law,” he added.

Giang said Vietnam’s approach to the dispute contrasted with the Philippines, which has been involved in a series of confrontations in the South China Sea over recent months.

“Unlike the Philippines, which currently adopts a tougher stance, Vietnam prefers a subtler approach,” Giang said.

“This strategy stems from Vietnam’s view of China as a crucial economic, trade partner, and a model of regime legitimacy, from which it can draw lessons as a fellow Communist state.”

Huong Le Thu, deputy director of the International Crisis Group and a former senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the visit was “consistent with Vietnam’s foreign policy” of “talking to everyone”.

“It needs to make sure that it utilises all means for its foreign policy, including party-to-party talk channels,” Le Thu said.

She added that relations with China were “the most important set of bilateral relations for Vietnam. For the sake of security, stability, and economics”.

China is Vietnam’s main trading partner, although in recent years Hanoi has also tried to balance its foreign policy by cultivating its relations with the United States and other leading economies – an approach that saw it hosting Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping within the space of a month last year.

Hanoi’s low-key approach may be central to muted confrontations with Beijing

“The maritime disputes and prevalent anti-China sentiment in Vietnam hinder the possibility of a full alliance with China.

“Yet, considerations of regime survival preclude a full alignment with Western powers. Consequently, Hanoi will continue to strike a delicate balance between the two sides of the great power rivalry,” Giang added.

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UK sanctions Chinese entities for ‘malicious cyber activity’ against MPs

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3256689/uk-sanctions-chinese-entities-alleged-malicious-cyber-activity-against-mps?utm_source=rss_feed

Britain has slapped its first sanctions on Chinese state-affiliated entities in three years, a move made in response to alleged “malicious cyber activity” directed at members of parliament.

Intelligence services accused China’s state-affiliated APT31 of “conducting reconnaissance activity” against a group of lawmakers who were “prominent in calling out the malign activity of China” in 2021, the government said on Monday.

In response, two individuals and one company linked to APT31 have been hit with asset freezes and travel bans.

The United States joined the sanctions, saying that the attacks are “directly endangering US national security”. A statement from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named the company as Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Limited.

The individuals were named as Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin, which OFAC said are afilliated with the company.

In a dramatic twist that could disrupt a relative détente in bilateral ties, the UK authorities also accused Chinese entities of hacking the country’s Electoral Commission between 2021 and 2022 .

“The UK, supported by allies across the Five Eyes partnership, have today identified that China state-affiliated actors were responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting democratic institutions and parliamentarians,” read a statement from the British Foreign Office.

The commission is an independent agency that regulates party and election finance and sets standards for how elections should be run. Its systems were “highly likely compromised by a China state-affiliated cyber entity”, the statement said.

While this meant that millions of British voters had their details accessed by Beijing, it has “not had an impact on electoral processes”, it added.

Cabinet members slammed China’s cyber attacks, with Foreign Secretary David Cameron saying he had raised them with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Claims of spy in UK parliament spark new debate over relations with China

“It is completely unacceptable that China state-affiliated organisations and individuals have targeted our democratic institutions and political processes,” Cameron said in a statement.

Home Secretary James Cleverly, who as Cameron’s predecessor oversaw a thaw in UK-China relations, described the hacks as “reprehensible”.

“China’s attempts at espionage did not give them the results they wanted and our new National Security Act has made the UK an even harder target. Our upcoming elections, at local and national level, are robust and secure,” Cleverly said.

A small group of hawkish lawmakers were called to a briefing with the parliament’s head of security on Monday lunchtime, after which they confirmed they were among those targeted by Beijing.

These were former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, ex-education minister Tim Loughton, House of Lords member Lord Alton of Liverpool and Scottish National Party MP Stewart McDonald. All four are members of the Inter Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

At a press conference following the meeting, the lawmakers demanded that the British government label China as a “threat”, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak opting to name it as an “epoch-defining challenge”.

“Most MPs are already clear that China is a threat, we don’t go around the tearooms talking to each other about, ‘My gosh, have you seen how challenging they are in an epoch sense?’ over a cup of tea. What we talk about is the threat,” Smith said.

They also demanded that China be added to an “enhanced tier” of the country’s foreign influence registration scheme.

Last March, an alleged spy working for China in the British Parliament was arrested on suspicion of violating the Official Secrets Act.

British media identified the man as Chris Cash, a researcher at the China Research Group and staffer for head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns. Cash denies the charges.

In January, China’s top spy agency said it had detained a foreigner accused of gathering information for the British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6.

Deadly Moscow shooting leaves China’s internet divided on need for tighter security measures as country seeks to open up

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3256673/deadly-moscow-shooting-leaves-chinas-internet-divided-need-tighter-security-measures-country-seeks?utm_source=rss_feed

The deadly shooting at a Moscow concert hall over the weekend has triggered a public debate in China over how the country can balance security measures with the need to open up after years of pandemic restrictions.

At least 137 people were killed when four gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall on Friday evening – the deadliest such attack faced by Russia for two decades.

Terrorist group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, and since released what it says is footage from the carnage.

Shocked Chinese net users expressed their condolences to the victims online, while some called for a further tightening of security measures within China – already one of the world’s most heavily policed countries in the world. Security checks are mandatory for many high-profile occasions in the country, especially in the capital Beijing.

China has not reported a terrorist attack since assailants stormed a Communist Party office in Xinjiang at the end of 2016, leaving two people dead.

However, heavy security measures that Beijing says are aimed at fighting “terrorism and extremism” – specially in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region – have sparked international censure.

Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, reacted to the online calls for tighter security measures.

Posting on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Saturday, Hu said security measures should not be so extreme that they hinder the post-Covid opening up of Chinese society.

“We should keep in mind that China is generally safe, especially when it comes to counterterrorism,” he wrote.

“Of course, absolute security does not exist, but the more urgent need for Chinese society now is to find ways to further enhance social vitality and the innovative atmosphere needed for strong economic development.”

China and Russia face different security situations, he pointed out, adding that China “has no basic conditions for the kind of terrorist attack that took place at the Moscow concert hall … and is now undoubtedly under one of the strongest periods of domestic security control.”

China had “fundamentally managed” domestic terrorism and made hi-tech advances in tackling security risks, he said.

Political rumours, large gatherings targeted in China’s vow to revamp policing

But Hu’s call for viability was rebutted by some online hardliners. They included “Guyanmuchan”, an influential blogger with more than 7.3 million followers on Weibo.

The blogger, who frequently posts commentaries on current affairs, argued that security was an important guarantee for the economy.

“I didn’t expect Hu to relate this matter to the economy. A safe environment is an important consideration for investors, and without it, who is going to invest if the situation is precarious?” she posted on Sunday.

Noted intellectuals also weighed in. Shen Yi, professor of international politics at Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University and a highly influential nationalistic voice, said national security was an important concept that must be treated seriously.

“The overall concept of national security must be put into practice, with no shortcomings and no blind spots,” the Weibo user with more than 1.8 million followers posted on Monday.

“Moreover, [we] must not take chances, and there must be an integration of security and development, and there is a need for capacity innovation and system refinement under resource constraints, with no room to speculate.”

International relations professor Jin Canrong, another nationalistic voice in academia, echoed Hu in highlighting the differing security scenarios of Russia and China.

Domestic tensions and weak governance capacity compared with the United States and China were among the reasons behind the attack in Moscow, Jin wrote on Saturday on WeChat – another leading Chinese social media platform.

An influencer named “Liji”, who has 5.3 million followers on Weibo, also said China’s strict security measures were justified.

“A terrorist attack on the capital city of a country is a heavy blow to the whole country, and the psychological damage to the nation is incalculable,” Liji posted.

“Compared with the security check that brings so little trouble … a sense of security is too precious.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping had sent a message of condolence to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, expressing his shock at the “serious terrorist attack”, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday.

“China is against terrorism in any form,” Xi said. “We strongly condemn terrorist attacks and firmly support the efforts of the Russian government in safeguarding national security and stability.”

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New chairman is named for US House select committee on China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3256695/new-chairman-named-us-house-select-committee-china?utm_source=rss_feed

The US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party has a new leader: Representative John Moolenaar of Michigan.

House Speaker Mike Johnson named the five-term Republican congressman as the committee chair on Monday, just days after the committee’s current chair, Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, announced he would depart the House on April 19. Gallagher had earlier said he would not run for another term, but his declaration of an exit just weeks away surprised many.

Moolenaar, 62, is slated to serve at least until the end of the current congressional term on January 3, 2025. The select committee, which was established last year to develop a more comprehensive congressional strategy on China policy, would need to be reauthorised by the new Congress after the November elections.

In a statement, Moolenaar said he looked forward to working with Democrats and standing committees to “help our country prepare for the challenges we face from the Chinese Communist Party and win the competition against the CCP”.

Moolenaar is the sponsor of the NO GOTION Act, a bill that would deny certain green energy tax benefits to companies connected to China and other “countries of concern”. He introduced the bill, which refers to one of China’s largest EV battery makers, Gotion High tech, after Michigan state legislators approved Gotion’s plans to build a US$2.36 billion electric-vehicle plant in the state’s rural Green Charter Township.

Gotion, whose US division is registered in California, first announced its Michigan project in 2022, promising to create more than 2,000 jobs in the next eight to 10 years. In return, the company was poised to receive US$175 million in state tax incentives.

But the project soon faced public and political backlash because of speculation over its alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party. In December, local officials rescinded support for the plant; the company has filed a lawsuit against the township alleging breach of contract.

In February 2023, Moolenaar wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen requesting that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – an inter-agency body led by Treasury that scrutinises national security implications of cross-border deals – review large investments made in Michigan by Chinese companies and their subsidiaries.

Embattled Chinese battery maker Gotion vows ‘more vocal’ US tack after lawsuit

In subsequent months, Gotion said it had voluntarily submitted documents for CFIUS review but that the committee found Gotion’s purchases ineligible for review.

The Michigan Republican is also the sponsor of a bill requiring CFIUS to review “greenfield” investments made by the Chinese government.

Neither bills have advanced to committee, both garnering only Republican cosponsors.

Moolenaar also sits on the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, which is charge of the process by which Congress allocates money to government programmes. On that committee, he is part of the subcommittees overseeing agriculture and labour and health programmes.

Last June, Moolenaar was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who visited Ford Motor, General Motors and other auto suppliers in his home state, with the stated aim of learning how Congress could help the auto industry reduce its reliance on Chinese supply chains.

In February, Moolenaar was part of a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan led by Gallagher.

In a statement, Gallagher said that Moolenaar “understands the grave military, economic, and ideological threat posed by the CCP and will continue to advance an agenda that will best position our country to fight and win the strategic competition between the United States and our nation’s foremost adversary, the Chinese Communist Party”.

China and US battle, quietly but fiercely, on yet another tech front: patent applications

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3256671/china-and-us-battle-quietly-fiercely-yet-another-tech-front-patent-applications?utm_source=rss_feed

After inventing a system to counter ransomware, Paul Lewis started the data protection company Calamu in 2019 at his kitchen table in the US state of New Jersey. Over the past four years, through the pandemic and rounds of venture financing, he has received two international and several US patents to protect his intellectual property.

But he cannot help noticing how quickly and aggressively China is advancing in technology.

“China is a different animal,” he said. “It’s a fight against the US and this is an innovation grab on the world stage.”

According to 2023 UN data, Chinese inventors led in international patent applications for the second year running, posting some 14,000 more than the second-place US, as the two giants increasingly face off over technology, innovation and global bragging rights. And earlier this month Premier Li Qiang announced a 10 per cent increase in government science and technology research, even as the partisan US Congress battles over every budget line.

China – long criticised for focusing on patent quantity over quality and for heavily subsidising patent applicants – is also raising its game, weeding out plagiarised research papers and reducing substandard filings.

“There’s no question the Chinese patent filings do reflect underlying technological capabilities. We’d be foolish or ostrichlike if we denied that,” said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), who has served on government economic boards during President Joe Biden’s administration as well as the four previous ones.

“We still have a little time,” he added. “But by the end of the decade, if we haven’t responded in a very comprehensive and serious way, then it’s too late.”

Some analysts counter, however, that China’s swooning economy and rapidly ageing population could blunt its innovation trajectory and see momentum swing back to the US.

Bill to put US-China science pact under new scrutiny passes a House committee

According to figures released this month by the World International Patent Organisation (Wipo), China filed 69,610 applications under the UN Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2023, down marginally, compared with 55,678 by the US, a 5.3 per cent decline. The 1970 treaty allows inventors to file a single international patent in several countries simultaneously, avoiding the expense of filing in multiple jurisdictions.

One problem as the two superpowers race to benchmark their progress in the increasingly contentious battle for tech supremacy: rankings diverge widely and innovation is difficult to pinpoint, including the link between patent filings and new products, industries and economic activity.

“We have to be humble,” said Carsten Fink, Wipo’s chief economist who oversees the UN agency’s Global Innovation Index. “I don’t think we have the last word in innovation measurement – that invariably is more of an art than a science.”

Wipo’s 2023 index, a compilation of 80 factors, ranks Switzerland as the world’s most innovative country, followed by Sweden and the US. China is ranked 12th of 132 economies surveyed, but first among upper middle-income countries, followed by Malaysia and Bulgaria.

Other gauges vary. The US Chamber of Commerce Intellectual Property Index ranks the US first and China 24 of 55 economies using 50 metrics, including patents, commercialisation and efficiency; Bloomberg’s innovation index ranks the US No 6 and China at 22 of 50 countries based on six metrics, including spending on research and development, manufacturing, research and patents.

And ITIF’s Hamilton Index says China leads in seven of 10 strategically important industries, including computers, electronics and chemicals, while the US leads in three: information technology, pharmaceuticals and transport.

“Time is running short to turn around US advanced industry fortunes,” said ITIF. “The race for global advantage in these industries is a zero-sum competition.”

In 2023, Qualcomm and Microsoft were the top US filers for international patents, while Huawei Technologies and the battery maker CATL led on the Chinese side.

Experts say that patents are a mixed blessing, nor is it clear how effective the US effort to slow Chinese advances in semiconductors by restricting exports will be. While patents encourage innovation by protecting inventors from intellectual property theft, they can also be weaponised, deterring collaborators from building on existing technologies. Most attempts to quantify innovation also struggle to capture relative intangibles like government regulation, business models, the quality and quantity of data and trade secrets.

All countries promote patent filing but analysts say that China has taken it to another level. In its headlong quest for innovation, global rankings and benchmarks under its Made in China 2025 road map, Chinese applicants can earn subsidies that exceed the cost of filing, critics say – an incentive to file multiple patents for the same invention in order to garner income, glory and academic promotions.

Patent filers have also been rewarded with jail releases, coveted residency permits, or hukou, and lower income taxes, said Mark Cohen, head of the Asia Intellectual Property Project at the University of California, Berkeley law school.

“A lot of times, high subsidies lead to lower-quality patents,” he added. “The data is getting better for China, but China also regulates for data. It wants to generate those numbers.”

Experts say Western patent systems generally place more emphasis on showing that an invention is original globally, compared with China’s greater domestic focus and easier standards. One reason for this, they add, has been to defend against lawsuits by foreign patent holders over theft of intellectual property.

“That’s not to say there isn’t strategic patenting by [US] companies,” said Atkinson. “In China, they engage in more strategic patenting in order to gain the right negotiating position … Western companies, it’s one company at a time. There, the entire ecosystem – the entire state – moves forward.”

But Beijing has also been working to stem excesses, clamping down on plagiarism in academic papers and sharply reducing two types of poorly vetted patents in 2023 while increasing the portion of closely examined patents, the State Council reported in January.

Even if Beijing’s numbers are inflated by 10 or 20 per cent, experts said, the trend is clear. Since its first patent was filed in 1985, China has often been underestimated overseas – that it lacks creativity, does not publish enough scientific papers, that those papers are not widely cited, that they are cited but not among the top 1 per cent – only to repeatedly surprise on the upside. “It shows they are creeping up the value chain,” Cohen said.

While China has the momentum, US innovation has been written off before – most notably in the 1980s, facing a rising Japan – only to mount a comeback as Silicon Valley exploded. China is also facing new headwinds.

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

Even as the US has slipped – in 1960, its R&D spending was 69 per cent of global R&D, compared to 30 per cent by 2020, according to the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation – it remains the biggest total spender at US$806 billion annually, compared to US$668 billion for China.

And while China had been widely expected to surpass the US in overall R&D spending, that has not happened so far, amid huge demographic challenges, a property crisis, rising local debt and slowing economic growth.

The US economy, meanwhile, has been surprisingly resilient, with low unemployment and some US$200 billion newly invested in R&D through the Chips and Science Act of 2022.

“We’ve all been waiting to see when those two curves cross, and they haven’t crossed,” said Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, citing the sharp increase in US business R&D.

Others, however, are more inclined to expect a continuation of the US slide. Washington’s deep political divisions and budget battles have hurt government R&D that fuels private sector innovation, including an 8.3 per cent hit to the National Science Foundation budget this year.

China’s governing system, they note, makes it easier to set and quickly carry out national campaigns. Many of its top leaders were trained as engineers, they add, while the US has lost its sense of national mission following the end of the Cold War.

“There’s a lot of self-inflicted harm,” said Cohen. “We can’t blame it all on China.”

James Pooley, a partner at the Morrison & Foerster law firm, formerly with Wipo, said that Washington’s “small yard, high walls” strategy – with its calls to decouple, restrictions on hi-tech exports and Chinese students in the US as well as growing limits on bilateral investment – is short-sighted.

Intellectual property theft by China is a serious problem, Pooley said, but it needs to be balanced against the benefits of cross-border collaboration.

“We should be engaging to find and work out ways to manage the risk as opposed to these performative things like forcing TikTok to sell,” he said. “Most people in Congress don’t understand intellectual property, they don’t understand innovation … the small yard is becoming pretty parochial.”

Patent upending: China revises rules to plug lab-to-market gap in hi-tech push

An IP attorney who asked not to be identified given the sensitivity of US-China relations said that China’s growing patent prowess has failed to wake up the US tech community in part because of its inherent divisions.

Patents are important for large hardware companies, helping guard against reverse engineering of a tangible design, but less so for start-ups too busy surviving. And software companies often view them as a “necessary evil”, the lawyer said, largely ineffective in protecting their secrets, including business models, the quantity and quality of data and trade secrets.

“This is why, for example, even though China filed 2.5 times more patents than the US for AI technology by 2018, I don’t think this necessarily means the US is behind in AI innovation,” the attorney added.

China’s focus on innovation is not without its own shortcomings, experts said, including Beijing’s distorting subsidies, market micromanagement and inordinate focus on security.

“Their close links between civilians and military, that’s a mistake,” said Caroline Wagner, an associate professor at Ohio State University. “It scares off a lot of [international] collaborators.”

AI systems cannot be named as the inventor of patents, UK’s top court rules

Lewis of Calamu – named after his golden retriever – filed his first patent at 17. Most start-ups in his sector eschew patents but he has found them useful, since they force him to hone his strategy, assess competitors and serve as a marketing advantage that sets him apart from rivals. The US patent filing process seems unnecessarily lengthy, he added.

“I don’t know why it takes a year and a half or two when you have a patent that’s a finite number of pages and you’re doing all the searching electronically,” he said.

Lewis added that he avoids the China market, wary of having his intellectual property stolen and doubtful that a Chinese court would side with him against a local rival, no matter the merits.

His patent attorney, David Postolski, has other clients grappling with China, including some that have chosen to file for Chinese patents as Beijing’s filings rise. The figuring, he said, was “if you can’t beat them, join them”.

Nearly every country has a national science ministry, Postolski added – except the US. “Where’s ours?” he asked. “We really need to get back to innovation.”

U.S., Britain, sanction China for broad 14-year hacking campaign

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/25/china-hack-apt31-sanctions-indictment/2024-03-25T16:44:23.170Z

The Justice Department on Monday unsealed an indictment charging seven Chinese state-sponsored hackers with a broad 14-year campaign to target U.S. and foreign critics, businesses and political officials to advance Beijing’s economic espionage and political spying goals.

In tandem, the Treasury Department announced sanctions on two of the hackers and a front company for their roles in breaching U.S. critical infrastructure, including in the defense and energy sectors.

The British government joined the Biden administration on Monday in sanctioning the hackers and company for targeting parliamentarians and U.K. electoral commission systems between 2021 and 2022. The government also summoned the Chinese ambassador to Britain, officials in London said.

The two allies are seeking to send a strong message to Beijing that malicious cyber activities that endanger national security and seek to repress dissidents abroad are unacceptable and violate international norms, U.S. and British officials said.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate efforts by the Chinese government to intimidate Americans who serve the public, silence the dissidents who are protected by American laws, or steal from American businesses,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday. “This case serves as a reminder of the ends to which the Chinese government is willing to go to target and intimidate its critics, including launching malicious cyber operations aimed at threatening the national security of the United States and our allies.”

In London, U.K. Home Secretary James Cleverly said, “It is reprehensible that China sought to target our democratic institutions. … Targeting our elected representatives and electoral processes will never go unchallenged.”

The defendants, along with dozens of Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) intelligence officers, contract hackers, and support personnel, were members of a hacking group operating in China and referred to by Justice Department officials as APT31, a group also known as Violet Typhoon and Judgment Panda.

The APT31 group was part of a cyberespionage program run by the security ministry’s Hubei State Security Department, located in Wuhan, the Justice Department said. Since at least 2010, the defendants conducted global hacking campaigns targeting political dissidents inside and outside of China, U.S. and foreign government officials, political officials and campaign personnel in the United States and elsewhere, the Justice Department said.

The defendants and others in APT31 also targeted thousands of American and foreign citizens and companies. Some of the efforts resulted in successful hacks of networks, email and cloud storage accounts, and telephone call records — with some surveillance of compromised email accounts lasting many years, the department said.

The hackers allegedly sent more than 10,000 malicious emails that often appeared to be from prominent news outlets or journalists containing legitimate news articles. The emails instead had hidden tracking links that when clicked on enabled the hackers to gain location data, IP addresses and other identifying information. The hackers then used this data to do more sophisticated surveillance, such as compromising targets’ home routers and other electronic devices.

Dissidents whose accounts were hacked included pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and their associates in the United States and other countries. In 2018, after several Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded by a Norwegian committee, government officials in Oslo were targeted, the Justice Department said.

In the United States, targets included officials working at the White House, Justice, Commerce, Treasury and State departments — along with senators and representatives from both major political parties. Sometimes family members were targeted: including the spouse of a high-ranking Justice official, senior White House officials and multiple U.S. senators, according to the Justice Department statement. Election campaign staff from both parties were targeted in advance of the 2020 election.

The defendants are Ni Gaobin, Weng Ming, Cheng Feng, Peng Yaowen, Sun Xiaohui, Xiong Wang and Zhao Guangzong. All are believed to be in China. The Treasury Department sanctioned Zhao, Ni and the Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company.

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