• As China and US revive military safety talks, Beijing warns against threats to sovereignty in Indo-Pacific
• Chinese expatriate entrepreneurs find a new gold rush destination in Mexico
• China widow and family travel 1,000km to thank stranger who sends money for 4 years after fisherman husband died at sea
• US, China to talk more on ‘overcapacity’, Treasury chief Yellen says after day 2 of meetings with Vice-Premier He
• Rare boson particle ‘triplets’ seen for first time in Chinese-led scientific study
• ‘New normal’: Chinese revenue from African projects is in decline, and the situation is unlikely to change
• South China Sea: China and Philippines at odds over Iroquois reef encounter
• US and China plan talks on economics, including manufacturing ‘overcapacity’ issue, Yellen says
• China’s maternity services put on notice as the country faces an ‘obstetrics winter’
• China man, fearing forced labour, carries Sun Tzu’s Art of War for survival tips while seeking work in Southeast Asia
• Chinese archaeologists reconstruct face of sixth century emperor using new DNA technique – and find new clues to his death
• US-Japan defence upgrade aimed at tackling ‘more assertive China’: envoy
• Mala magic: China cook behind super spicy noodle sauce dubbed ‘Princess of Malatang’ over Sichuan-like dish
• China pushing to break down payment barriers for visitors, with 90,000 overseas buyers set to flock to Canton Fair

As China and US revive military safety talks, Beijing warns against threats to sovereignty in Indo-Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258084/china-and-us-revive-military-safety-talks-beijing-warns-against-threats-sovereignty-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed

Fresh talks this week between Chinese and US military officials were “candid and constructive”, but Beijing will continue to respond to sovereignty threats in the Indo-Pacific, China’s defence ministry warned on Saturday.

The talks in Hawaii on Wednesday and Thursday were the first in more than two years under the banner of the US-China Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) working group and brought together officials from the People’s Liberation Army and the US Indo-Pacific Command, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Air Forces.

The ministry said the meeting was held to “promote the healthy, stable, and sustainable development of military relations between the two countries”.

“On the basis of equality and mutual respect, both sides had candid and constructive exchanges on the current maritime and air security situation between China and the United States,” it said.

The two delegations discussed “safety-related events” that had occurred in the last few years, as well as how the nations could avoid accidental clashes in the future, the US Indo-Pacific Command said.

In October, the Pentagon released footage of what it said were Chinese fighter jets shooting flares and discharging chaff while approaching US aircraft at high speeds.

Officials also evaluated the implementation of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea since 2021, when the last MMCA meeting was held.

The working group’s annual meetings were put on hold in 2022 in the aftermath of a visit to Taiwan by then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to arming Taiwan.

Conditions improved in November of last year when Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden agreed to resume military dialogues between the nations.

US and Chinese military discuss potential for accidental clashes in Indo-Pacific

In the talks in Honolulu this week, China said it was committed to promoting “regional peace, stability, and prosperity”, but also highlighted concerns over security and sovereignty, the Chinese ministry said.

The Chinese delegation “pointed out that the safety of ships and aircraft is inseparable from national security, and China firmly opposes any actions that jeopardise China’s sovereignty and security under the pretext of freedom of navigation and overflight”.

“[The PLA] will continue to respond to any dangerous and provocative actions in accordance with the law and regulations” to defend its maritime interests, the ministry said.

US-China defence chiefs expected to speak ‘soon’ after latest Xi-Biden talks

The warning came after US delegation head Colonel Ian Francis of the Indo-Pacific Command said the US would continue to operate in the region “wherever international law allows”.

Francis said the MMCA working group was the US Indo-Pacific Command’s main way of discussing air and maritime operational safety directly with the PLA.

“We are encouraged that the PLA is honouring its commitments to the MMCA working group and look forward to future productive discussions to safeguard the safety of our military operators in the region,” he said.

Meanwhile, the defence chiefs of the US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines said in a joint statement on Saturday that the nations would conduct a full-scale joint naval exercise together in the South China Sea for the first time.

They said the “maritime cooperative activity” would be held on Sunday to show a “collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

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Chinese expatriate entrepreneurs find a new gold rush destination in Mexico

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3258074/chinese-expatriate-entrepreneurs-find-new-gold-rush-destination-mexico?utm_source=rss_feed

Mexico, often perceived in China as a remote and dangerous place, has also become a gold rush destination for Chinese companies looking to serve both the local market and the US. As they learn to adapt to a new environment, Washington policymakers are wary. The once and possibly future US president, Donald Trump, is threatening to slap tariffs on products coming from Mexico, including electric vehicles, to block China. In the last of , the South China Morning Post looks at how small Chinese merchants have channelled “Made in China” goods to the country through Yiwu-style wholesale markets.

Within four years, a Fujianese businessman has built a “Chinatown” from scratch in central Mexico City, proudly claiming it as “China speed”. Now he has bigger plans.

Lin Yun, who came to Mexico in the summer of 2019, is the designer and commander-in-chief of four wholesale markets hosting around 4,500 stores along Jose Maria Izazaga Street.

It used to be a neighbourhood without a trace of Chineseness, but is now peppered with red lanterns and Chinese warning signs and billboards, and most importantly, flooded with a dazzling array of small products – mostly made in China.

“I basically only sleep for four or five hours a day. The rest of my time is all spent receiving or responding to clients,” said Lin, sitting beside the solid wood kung fu tea table in his office that overlooks a five-storey white building across the street with 13 block Chinese characters hanging on its wall. The characters read “China Guangzhou International Commercial City, Wholesale Centre” – one of his markets.

“They come to me for all kinds of business, some are looking for warehouses, some for stores, some wishing to join the company, some asking how to come to Mexico. All kinds of questions,” said Lin, 45. “If I don’t look at my phone for an hour, there will be 100 unread messages.”

For many small Chinese merchants, Mexico has become a new gold rush destination, contrary to the common stereotype of the country in Chinese society: a remote and dangerous place plagued by drug trafficking and gang warfare.

This has led to an influx of Chinese expatriates. Some were part of the Chinese diaspora from Europe or other Latin American countries facing a saturated and slow-growth market amid inflation pressure; others came directly from China, where a growing industrial overcapacity and insufficient demand in the post-pandemic years forced them to venture out.

Sebastian Ho is one of them. The 44-year-old was in Mexico for more than 10 years before going back to his hometown in Guangdong province in 2016. Two years ago, he came back to Mexico City and later rented a space on the first floor of Izazaga 89, or Yiwu City – Lin’s biggest wholesale centre. At 16 storeys, it is named after the world’s largest small-commodities market in eastern China – selling products ranging from keychains to water bottles.

“Nowadays in China, it is very hard for people without higher education to earn money. There is too much pressure, and it’s very juan,” Ho said, using a word that translates to “involution” – a term originally used to explain a process in which additional input cannot produce more output.

Made in Mexico? Taiwan’s multinationals seek greener pastures away from China

And the involution has already spread to Mexico City as more Chinese merchants arrive. Many were lured by Lin’s videos promoting the country’s vast economic opportunities posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

A key destination for US nearshoring, Mexico’s economy grew by 3.2 per cent in annual terms in 2023. Within the same year, the country became the 12th largest economy in the world after advancing two positions, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.

“Too many people are coming [to Mexico]. It was much easier to earn money a year ago. Now our profit is very thin,” Ho said.

Still, in Yiwu City, many stores are currently under renovation, rushing to open their doors within weeks. Newcomers looking for space to rent are also a common sight: they usually go all the way up to the 16th floor, and take the stairs down to inspect every level.

According to data from Mexico’s Ministry of Tourism, the Mexican government granted temporary resident visas to 5,018 Chinese migrants in 2023, more than double the previous year’s number.

With the latest statistics, China became the third most common country of origin for migrants to Mexico last year, following the United States with 10,782 migrants and Colombia with 6,734.

Chinese is an often-heard language at the shopping malls in Nuevo Polanco – the central business district of Mexico City – where one of the office buildings houses a cluster of Mexican headquarters for major Chinese multinationals, many of which are on the US backlist, including Huawei and Hikvision.

Monterrey, the main industrial city near the border with the US, has so far benefited the most from nearshoring, with Chinese businessmen – many in sweatpants and trainers but talking on their phones about investments worth millions of dollars – a familiar scene in its luxury hotels.

China’s Latin American investments downshift to smaller, more strategic projects

“When I first came to Monterrey 20 years ago, I barely knew any Chinese here,” said Zhang Yijian, the Chinese translator for the state government of Nuevo Leon, of which Monterrey is the capital. “Now you can see them everywhere.”

The influx of Chinese migrants has yet to spark a major backlash from the local population, unlike post-pandemic American remote workers who have led to the gentrification of neighbourhoods, and the growing number of Haitian immigrants fleeing their crisis-torn homeland, said Eduardo Tzili-Apango, professor of China studies at Mexico’s Metropolitan Autonomous University.

Historically, Mexican society has been mostly opposed to Chinese presence. But efforts by the current Mexican government and China’s soft power push have resulted in more acceptance of Chinese culture and immigrants, Tzili-Apango said.

Along with the migrant influx, there has been an increasing exposure to Chinese brands in Mexico.

In 2023, the country became the second largest Chinese car importer, after Russia. Phone makers like Oppo and Honor and electric car manufacturer BYD are now major renters of big advertising billboards at the airport. Ride-hailing giant DiDi has also positioned itself as a formidable competitor to Uber since its Mexican launch in 2018.

But those aspiring to emulate Lin’s success elsewhere in the country have faced resistance from Mexican vendors.

In June, local merchants staged a large protest in Tulancingo, in the state of Hidalgo, urging city and state governments to prohibit new Chinese stores.

Hundreds of protesters displayed signs saying “Go away Chinese” and “This is unfair competition” while shouting slogans like “Long live Tulancingo, no to Chinese trade”. Representatives of a merchant union later distributed a petition demanding a ban on new licences, fearing that the entry of Chinese competitors would result in increased unemployment in the city, according to local media reports.

Although the state government has yet to enact any legislation, the city of Huejutla, in the same state, announced in December that it would not renew the operating licence for foreign stores after its expiration, citing “risks to job creation and income for Mexicans”.

Chinese carmaker BYD launches virtual showrooms in Latin America push

Even for Lin, life is not always easy. On a Thursday in mid-March, Mexico City officials ordered the entire Yiwu City to close, blocking access and affixing notices indicating suspended activities.

Local media reported that the operation was in response to complaints about potential smuggling activities and the unauthorised sale of Chinese goods without the required import taxes. The reports also refer to the sale of electronic cigarettes, which are currently unregulated by Mexican health authorities.

But rumours among the Chinese community tell a different story. Many believed it was a matter of “not enough money”, indicating that the seizure was staged by the local government to seek more bribes.

The Mexico City government and Lin did not respond to a query on Yiwu City’s closure. The entire market reopened the following day.

Despite shrinking profits and the occasional backlash, for many Chinese wholesalers, optimism still prevails: in catering to the local market, they are not vulnerable to pressure from the US, unlike Chinese manufacturers who set up factories in Mexico aiming to tap into the north. Meanwhile, cheap prices are their absolute competitive advantage.

“It is the same everywhere in the whole world, price is king wherever you go,” said Miguel Wen, who runs a store in Yiwu City with his wife, selling apparel including socks from his local factory.

Lin’s ambition does not stop with wholesale markets either. He said he has an “urban creation plan”.

A 45-minute drive from Yiwu City, his first logistics park – covering around 75,000 square metres with 53 warehouses – has been under construction since early February. All the spaces were sold out within six weeks, and warehouse sales at a second logistics park, which is only on the drawing board, have already started, he announced on his social media account.

“All parks will naturally evolve into commercial zones within a few years,” he wrote. “If you don’t have such a vision, you will miss out on important wealth opportunities in Mexico.”

His next goal, meanwhile, is to build an industrial estate accommodating factories for manufacturing. Currently, many products being sold at his wholesale markets, such as apparel, are subject to Mexican anti-dumping duties, which means the containers with these products have a high risk of being confiscated by customs officials during import.

“The massive capacity in China has the urge to go overseas,” Lin said. “If they can set up apparel factories here, hiring local labourers and becoming a local manufacturer, there won’t be any anti-dumping risks.

“And I will provide them with the channel and platform.”

China widow and family travel 1,000km to thank stranger who sends money for 4 years after fisherman husband died at sea

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3256740/china-widow-and-family-travel-1000km-thank-stranger-who-sends-money-4-years-after-fisherman-husband?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman in China has travelled more than 1,000km to thank a benefactor who secretly sent her 1,500 yuan (US$200) each month after her fisherman husband died in an accident four years ago.

With the help of the media in Zhoushan, eastern Zhejiang province, Meng Rui, 29, found the man who sent the financial help for her family, Jingzhou News reported.

Meng’s husband was drowned at sea in April 2020 when he worked as a fisherman for a company in the coastal city of Zhoushan.

His death was a huge blow for Meng, not least because he was the family’s sole breadwinner.

Compensation paid by his employer after his death, over 1.1 million yuan (US$150,000), was used to pay off debts he had accrued years before to treat his father’s serious illness.

Meng’s home is in a village in Queshan county, Henan province, central China. The couple have a son and a daughter who were eight years and seven months old respectively when the husband died, the report said.

To make ends meet, Meng, who was previously a full-time mother and housewife, found a job in a supermarket, earning less than 2,000 yuan (US$280) a month.

After hearing the plight of Meng’s family from a social worker, Yu Xiaolong, a marine technology enterprise owner in Zhoushan, contacted Meng on WeChat, using a pseudonym.

Since then, he has been transferring 1,500 yuan to Meng each month, and extra cash for important festivals such as the Lunar New Year.

On March 19, Meng, her mother-in-law and her four-year-old daughter met Yu at his company, after a 20-hour-long trip by coach and train.

They brought him a silk appreciation banner adorned with Chinese characters to thank him for his generosity.

“Thank you so much. Without your help, we could not live. Your monthly donation gives us hope,” Meng and her mother-in-law said, bowing before Yu.

“It’s not a big deal. No worries,” replied Yu, who asked his staff to buy some snacks for Meng’s daughter.

Meng also gave Yu a bag of peanuts.

“We do not have precious things to give you. These peanuts were planted by us. We hope you like them,” she said.

Besides Meng’s family, Yu also donates to five students. He declined to reveal more personal information, but vowed to fund Meng’s family until her two children are 18 years old, according to the report.

“To thank this benefactor face-to-face has been a wish in my heart for a few years, and now it has been realised,” said Meng.

“I will regard Mr Yu as a family member. I will educate my kids to remember his kindness and make their own contribution to society in the future.”

Stories involving the kindness of strangers often make headlines in China.

In December last year, a woman who was driving a luxury car, refused to accept financial compensation from a food delivery driver who crashed into her vehicle.

She even offered to pay for the medical treatment he needed after the accident.

US, China to talk more on ‘overcapacity’, Treasury chief Yellen says after day 2 of meetings with Vice-Premier He

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258082/us-china-talk-more-overcapacity-treasury-chief-yellen-says-after-day-2-meetings-vice-premier-he?utm_source=rss_feed

China and the United States will hold more talks on industrial “overcapacity”, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday, after a second day of discussions with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Yellen, who is visiting China for the second time in nine months, described her talks with He as “extensive and productive”.

“We agreed that the US and China will hold intensive exchanges on balanced growth in the domestic and global economies. These exchanges will facilitate a discussion around macroeconomic imbalances, including their connection to overcapacity,” she said in a statement from the US Treasury Department.

“These discussions are critical to protecting American interests and to making further progress toward the healthy economic relationship the vice-premier and I jointly seek.”

Future talks would be led by the US Treasury and Chinese finance ministry, the department added in a separate statement.

The agreement in Guangzhou came a day after Yellen said excessive Chinese exports could undercut American interests and lead to “global spillovers”.

In a brief statement on the talks from state news agency Xinhua, Beijing said it had responded fully “to the production capacity issue” and expressed “serious concerns” about US trade restrictions against China.

Yellen and He had an “in-depth, candid, pragmatic and constructive exchange of views” and agreed to continue discussion on economic and financial issues concerning both countries through the working groups they set up last year, the statement said.

Yellen, who arrived in Guangzhou on Thursday, also met He on Friday for “frank and substantive” talks on the bilateral economic relationship.

Yellen’s five-day visit to China comes close on the heels of Tuesday’s phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden, the first such talks since their November meeting in San Francisco where they agreed to increase communication and manage tensions through a range of working groups.

The discussions aim to help ease strains that have intensified on all fronts.

Washington has expressed increasing alarm in particular about what it calls “overproduction” of Chinese electric vehicles and solar modules, technologies that China dominates and sees as engines for future growth and exports.

The United States has already taken action to curb imports of Chinese EVs, including launching a national security probe. It is also considering raising duties on the vehicles, which are already subject to tariffs of 27.5 per cent, prompting China to complain to the World Trade Organization about “discriminatory” measures.

Current affairs: sparks fly between China, US over EVs before Janet Yellen visit

The US has also complained about the lack of a “level playing field” for its businesses in China, saying tightened state regulations and frequent raids on American companies have hampered their development.

Yellen said she raised concerns with He regarding “the breadth and scale” of China’s “non-market policies and practices” towards American businesses.

But she also said the Treasury Department and China’s central bank would engage in new exchanges to tackle money laundering and financial crime.

“This new effort will enable the US and China to share best practices and provide updates on the actions we are each taking to close loopholes in our respective financial systems,” she said.

The pair also discussed “recent national security actions”, while Yellen urged Chinese companies not to provide support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The talks on Saturday ran past the scheduled 2½ hours and delayed a more intimate meeting between Yellen, He, and one other official from each side, according to Reuters.

Yellen was expected to leave in the afternoon for Beijing, where she will hold a flurry of meetings with other senior Chinese officials on Sunday, including Premier Li Qiang, Finance Minister Lan Foan, and Beijing mayor Yin Yong.

She will also meet leading Chinese economists, and students and professors from Peking University.

On Monday, she will hold separate meetings with Pan Gongsheng, the governor of China’s central bank, and Liu He, the former vice-premier and economic tsar who retired last year but is believed to still play an influential role in China’s economic policy.

Rare boson particle ‘triplets’ seen for first time in Chinese-led scientific study

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3257834/rare-boson-particle-triplets-seen-first-time-chinese-led-scientific-study?utm_source=rss_feed

An extremely rare event in the world of particles has taken place during a Chinese-led study at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland.

And the event has scored yet another victory for the Standard Model – our current best theory to describe how the basic building blocks of the universe interact.

Sifting through experimental data collected between 2016 and 2018, researchers from Peking University and their colleagues from around the world spotted the simultaneous appearance of three force-carrying particles, known as bosons, which had never been seen together before.

Such triplets were produced about 250 times, after protons were accelerated to close to the speed of light and smashed into each other billions of times inside the LHC’s 27km (16.7-mile)-long ring, the team reported in the journal Physical Review Letters last month.

“The probability for such an event to occur is 1/50 of the probability of detecting a Higgs boson,” paper co-author Li Qiang told the Post on Wednesday.

“We are excited to play a leading role in such challenging work,” said Li, who has been part of the boson research group at Peking University since 2010.

The fundamental particles that make up everything in the world fall into two main types – fermions and bosons, Li explained.

While fermions, such as protons and electrons, constitute ordinary matter, elementary bosons give rise to matter’s mass and different forces between particles.

For instance, a photon, or a particle of light, is a massless boson that mediates electromagnetic forces and helps us see and understand the universe.

The W boson, discovered in the 1980s, is much more massive – about 85 times heavier than a proton. It mediates the weak nuclear force and is responsible for some of the most common nuclear decays.

For their previous work, Li and his teammates used the LHC – the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider – to observe events where one or two bosons were generated.

In the new study, they detected a combination of three bosons which had never been seen together: two W bosons carrying opposite electric charge, plus one gamma photon.

While such a phenomenon had been theoretically predicted, it had never been observed before, Li said. As W bosons are very unstable, the triplets only existed for a very short time before the W bosons decayed into other particles, he added.

“Our study showed that all possible processes predicted by theory would happen and leave a trace – however rare and brief they might be,” he said.

Li was confident in the team’s findings because the observed significance was 5.6 standard deviations. It meant the chance for their observation to have resulted from a random fluctuation in the data set would be as low as one in a million.

His team will now continue the search for multiple boson productions from proton collisions.

“Such experiments can only be done on the LHC at the moment, since they require extremely high collision energies,” he said.

Chinese scientists are playing an increasingly active role at the LHC, making up about 2 per cent of the thousands of scientists and engineers from all over the world who use the facility, Li said.

He also looks forward to using China’s own next-generation collider, known as the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) or Higgs Factory, which is set to be even larger and more powerful than the LHC and will cost 36 billion yuan (US$5 billion) to build.

Construction could begin as soon as 2027.

“We can’t wait to make more cutting-edge discoveries with CEPC, and see China rise into a leader in high energy physics for decades to come,” Li said.

‘New normal’: Chinese revenue from African projects is in decline, and the situation is unlikely to change

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3257230/new-normal-chinese-revenue-african-projects-decline-and-situation-unlikely-change?utm_source=rss_feed

With lenders tightening their purse strings and the number of projects in decline, Chinese revenue earned from engineering and construction works in Africa has fallen by more than 30 per cent since 2015.

Now observers say this is the “new normal”.

It was a different picture almost a decade ago when Chinese companies earned more than a third of their total overseas revenue from Africa. That is certainly not the case today.

According to data from the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, engineering and construction contracts in Africa earned Chinese companies US$37.84 billion in gross annual revenues in 2022, which was a 31 per cent drop from US$54.78 billion generated in 2015, the year lending to Africa was at its highest.

Africa made up 19.4 per cent of global revenue for Chinese companies in 2022, CARI said, almost halved from its 2010 peak of 38.9 per cent.

Excluding small businesses, it is estimated there are more than 10,000 state-owned and private Chinese companies currently operating in Africa. Most of these moved to the continent during former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s push for businesses to “go out” in search of new markets and raw materials at the beginning of the century.

Between 2000 and 2022, China pledged a total of US$170.1 billion to African countries – money that went into building mega projects, including ports, hydroelectric dams, highways and railways.

But since the highs of the start of the century, and the peaks of the 2010s, lending concerns, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, have sparked a turnaround, observers said.

Niger courts China and Russia just days after severing US military ties

Worries over the ability of some countries to repay their loans led to a drop in Chinese lending to Africa, as financiers became more cautious and thorough in their loan appraisals.

Between 2012 and 2018, Africa borrowed more than US$10 billion annually from Chinese lenders.

By 2021 that had dropped to US$1.2 billion, and in 2022 it fell under the billion-dollar mark to US$994.5 million, according to the Chinese Loans to Africa database at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Centre.

Hong Zhang, a China public policy postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation, said it was a simple case of falling loans having a direct impact on falling revenue.

“The drop in contract revenue in Africa can be attributed to the decline of Chinese loans to Africa,” Zhang said. Citing CARI data, she said Chinese loans to Africa had been declining since around 2013, except in 2016 when the debt restructuring in Angola made a one-off jump.

Meanwhile, Asia’s share has been on the rise, she said.

Asia remains by far the biggest source of revenue for Chinese companies engaged in engineering and construction contracts, bringing in US$82.43 billion in 2022, with Africa in second place.

However, although revenue from Africa is in decline, some parts of the continent are bigger earners than others.

China’s highest African revenues were gained from the five resource-rich countries of Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Together, they accounted for 41 per cent of all Chinese companies’ 2022 gross annual revenues from construction projects in Africa.

In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and most populous country, Chinese businesses are undertaking mega projects, such as multibillion-dollar railways and ports. China’s annual revenues from Nigeria rose steadily from US$488 million in 2004 to a peak of US$4.99 billion in 2012, boosted by the West African nation’s booming construction industry. Since then, that figure has remained high, sitting at around US$4.59 billion in 2022.

Angola got more than a quarter of China’s total African lending between 2000 and 2022, receiving as much as US$45 billion. A major Chinese project there is the US$4.1 billion Caculo Cabaca Hydroelectric Power Station.

Oil-rich Algeria has seen Chinese companies build massive projects, such as railways and highways. And in Egypt, Chinese firms are building mega projects at the Suez Canal as well as helping to construct the new administrative capital in Cairo.

Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many Chinese companies have been working on the nation’s infrastructure and mining sectors, attracted by the fact it holds the world’s largest reserve of cobalt, vital to the production of electric vehicle batteries.

Yunnan Chen, a senior research officer at the London-based Overseas Development Institute think tank, said contracts and revenues were down for engineering and construction projects in Africa because the number of projects had fallen.

Even before the pandemic, financing for infrastructure construction via overseas finance was in decline, she said, and that was impacted further by the Covid lockdowns.

“We simply don’t have the same kind of project pipeline as we did in previous years,” Chen said.

She also noted that several African countries, including Angola and Egypt, had been facing external debt repayment issues.

“Governments don’t have the capacity to borrow to finance new construction as they did five years ago,” she said.

The current situation is the “new normal” for Chinese contractors in Africa, according to Tim Zajontz, a research fellow in the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

“Lower contract revenues are ultimately the result of more conservative lending practices on the part of China’s policy banks,” said Zajontz.

“Debt sustainability concerns have ended the loan funding spree in African infrastructure markets, which we witnessed for good parts of the 2010s,” he said.

China on diplomatic winning streak in Africa with latest stadium contracts

But, despite the reduced revenue, Africa still holds an attraction for Chinese firms.

Higher returns is one such pull for Chinese companies, according to Zhang. She explained that since there is usually no competitive bidding for Chinese-financed projects, as “Chinese contractors help broker the loans from China”, companies can see better returns.

“Therefore, when Chinese loans took up a higher percentage of Chinese contracts in Africa than in other regions, the average return could be higher as a result,” Zhang said.

Zajontz noted that Africa is particularly attractive to firms in sectors that have faced crises in China’s domestic market, such as construction and infrastructure.

“We will see further diversification of Chinese investments across Africa,” he said.

“A bigger share of returns for Chinese firms will come from public-private partnerships in infrastructure, from investments in the processing of minerals and agricultural goods, and from digital platforms and other services.”

South China Sea: China and Philippines at odds over Iroquois reef encounter

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3258088/south-china-sea-china-and-philippines-odds-over-iroquois-reef-encounter?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines and China traded accusations on Saturday over an encounter in disputed waters of the South China Sea, in an escalating row over a key waterway.

Manila said two Chinese coastguard vessels “harassed” Filipino fishing vessels within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, while Beijing said its vessels responded appropriately to illegal activities.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than US$3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Permanent Court of Arbitration said in 2016 that China’s claims had no legal basis.

Beijing and Manila have been playing cat-and-mouse around the uninhabited Second Thomas Shoal in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone when the Philippines deploys resupply missions for Filipino soldiers living aboard an ageing warship deliberately run aground in 1999 to protect Manila’s maritime claims.

The disputed shoal is part of what are known internationally as the Spratly Islands and in China as the Nanshas. China’s coastguard said on Saturday that a number of ships belonging to the Philippines had “illegally” entered waters near a reef in the islands that Beijing has sovereignty over.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela posted on X that China’s vessels “went as far as pretending to man their water cannons and threatening the Filipino fishermen” in the Iroquois reef on Thursday.

Chinese coastguard spokesman Gan Yu said in a statement that its operation was “professional and in accordance with standards”. He said the Philippine vessels were government ships using the guise of “fishing protection” to undermine stability in the South China Sea.

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US and China plan talks on economics, including manufacturing ‘overcapacity’ issue, Yellen says

https://apnews.com/article/us-china-yellen-economics-trade-tariffs-diplomacy-cb17ca4ed180e9b2d30ac5cdc12e1cb0U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, right, and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng arrive to a bilateral meeting at the Guangdong Zhudao Guest House in southern China's Guangdong province, Saturday, April 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)

2024-04-06T03:27:14Z

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — The U.S. and China agreed to hold talks that will address a key American complaint about China’s economic model, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on the second day of an official visit to China.

The two sides will hold more talks and create two new economic groups dedicated to growth in domestic and global economies as well as anti-money laundering, according to a U.S. statement about the creation of the groups.

Yellen, who started her five-day visit in one of China’s major industrial and export hubs, has focused thus far on what the U.S. considers to be unfair Chinese trade practices in talks with senior Chinese officials.

“I think the Chinese realize how concerned we are about the implications of their industrial strategy for the United States, for the potential to flood our markets with exports that make it difficult for American firms to compete,” Yellen told reporters directly after the announcement.

“It’s not going to be solved in an afternoon or a month, but I think they have heard that this is an important issue to us.”

The announcement of the groups come after two days of extended meetings between Yellen and Vice Premier He Lifeng on Friday and Saturday. There was no immediate comment from the Chinese side.

In her statement, Yellen said she and her counterparts “agreed that the U.S. and China will hold intensive exchanges on balanced growth in the domestic and global economies. These exchanges will facilitate a discussion around macroeconomic imbalances, including their connection to overcapacity, and I intend to use this opportunity to advocate for a level playing field for American workers and firms.”

“It’s going to be critical to our bilateral relationship going forward and to China’s relationship with other countries that are important, and this provides a structured way in which we can continue to listen to one another and see if we can find a way forward that will avoid conflict,” Yellen told reporters.

Earlier state media coverage of her trip had dismissed U.S. concerns about overcapacity as a pretext for tariffs. The official Xinhua News Agency wrote Friday night that while Yellen’s trip is “a good sign” that the world’s two largest economies are maintaining communication, “talking up ‘Chinese overcapacity’ in the clean energy sector also smacks of creating a pretext for rolling out more protectionist policies to shield U.S. companies.”

Yellen told reporters during an Alaska refueling stop en route to China that the U.S. “won’t rule out” tariffs to respond to China’s heavily subsidized manufacturing of green energy products.

Chinese government subsidies and other policy support have encouraged solar panel and EV makers in China to invest in factories, building far more production capacity than the domestic market can absorb.

The massive scale of production has driven down costs and ignited price wars for green technologies, a boon for consumers and efforts to reduce global dependence on fossil fuels. But Western governments fear that that capacity will flood their markets with low-priced exports, threatening American and European jobs.

The U.S. has made efforts through legislation and executive orders to wean itself off certain Chinese technologies in order to build out its domestic manufacturing capabilities. Many members of the White House and Congress view the actions as important to maintaining national security.

The $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act passed in 2022 to boost the semiconductor industry and scientific research in a bid to create more high-tech jobs in the United States and help it better compete with China. Additionally, last August, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to block and regulate high-tech U.S.-based investments going toward China.

Yellen moves onto Beijing on Saturday afternoon for more meetings over the weekend with senior officials, economists and the nation’s central bank governor.

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Associated Press Greater China Correspondent Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.

FATIMA HUSSEIN Hussein reports on the U.S. Treasury Department for The Associated Press. She covers tax policy, sanctions and any issue that relates to money. twitter mailto

China’s maternity services put on notice as the country faces an ‘obstetrics winter’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3257803/chinas-maternity-services-put-notice-country-faces-obstetrics-winter?utm_source=rss_feed

Professor Duan Tao began his career more than 30 years ago during a “golden era” for the field of obstetrics in China. But now he and his colleagues face an “obstetrics winter” as the country struggles with a falling birth rate.

It is something that has recently seen a spate of maternity ward closures, and has even reached the point of China’s National Health Commission (NHC) stepping in to ensure pregnant women are provided for.

Back when Duan first began working as an obstetrician, the number of births rose every year – as did the number of doctors – and their research was internationally recognised, he wrote on Weibo in February.

“But now, births have been decreasing every year, beds have been cut back, and more and more doctors have had to change profession. But what can they do?” he wrote, jokingly suggesting they become vets.

“Save obstetrics!” he pleaded on Weibo.

Duan, who is director of the maternity ward at Shanghai No 1 Maternity Hospital, sent out his recent plea during an online discussion of the “obstetrics winter” China is currently facing.

Since June last year, at least 11 public hospitals have suspended or entirely cancelled their delivery services, according to reports by Chinese media. These range from smaller local clinics, such as the Dongqiao County Health Centre in Putian, Fujian province, which serviced a town of around 120,000 people, to major centres, such as the Guangzhou Xinzao Hospital.

On top of that, numerous private hospitals and postnatal care centres have also shut down.

Those still operating are struggling with a significantly lower number of patients. One obstetrician in Shenzhen, Guangdong, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Post business is definitely not thriving. It is a different story to how things used to be.

“A few years ago, those who wanted to give birth at our hospital had to go through a lottery system,” she said.

The closure of maternity services has been so pronounced that the NHC put out a notice last week setting a hard target, demanding every county has at least one public medical institute that offers delivery services.

“When public hospitals shut down their maternity ward, they need to first check with pregnant women who registered with them,” the notice read. “The public’s right to medical services must be ensured.”

It called for hospitals to not pressure their maternity wards to make money, but still make sure their obstetricians are not paid less than doctors in other departments.

The closure of maternity wards – and the kindergarten closures which preceded it – is the latest casualty of the historically low birth rate China is grappling with. Last year, only about 9 million babies were born – the lowest level since records began in 1949, and the seventh consecutive year of decline.

There are predictions of a small rebound this year, according to demographer He Yafu, mainly from people who put off having children during Covid-19, as well as last year’s newlyweds, but he expects the main trend to remain unchanged in the long run.

“In order to increase the birth rate, we have to increase the marriage rate,” he wrote in a January article on WeChat. “The local governments need to issue effective policies to encourage marriage and childbirth.”

The Chinese government has been attempting to do just that, scrambling to offer incentives targeting young people. In the past few months, it called for them to have frugal weddings, organised group ceremonies, and issued tax cuts and housing subsidies for families with multiple children.

But these measures are of little use. Young women today often discuss the tribulations of marriage and childbirth. In one feminist WeChat group, the Post saw women talk about the physical pain of giving birth, the lack of support from partners and the amount of housework to be done.

“When I think about getting married, I feel like my life is over,” one said.

Besides the falling birth rate, maternity wards already face financial burdens associated with the services they have to offer, including a 24-hour on-call team and expensive equipment, according to Julie Wang, an obstetrician in the eastern city of Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

In order to make this basic service accessible to pregnant women across China, local governments often set official price ceilings for births. In one document from Zhejiang province in 2023, the cost of a natural delivery was priced at 900 yuan (US$124), and a caesarean section at 1,488 yuan.

“Maternity wards are always broke,” Wang said. “The hospital invests a lot, but the ward doesn’t make money in return.”

Duan wrote that the practice is in a “downward spiral with no end in sight”.

“The government has all these policies encouraging births … but without delivery wards and obstetricians, who will deliver your baby?” he asked.

China man, fearing forced labour, carries Sun Tzu’s Art of War for survival tips while seeking work in Southeast Asia

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3256727/china-worker-seeks-illegal-work-southeast-asia-fears-forced-labour-so-carries-sun-tzus-art-war?utm_source=rss_feed

A man from China who was trying to work illegally in Southeast Asia feared being kidnapped and coerced into forced labour so much that he carried a copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War with him.

The man, surnamed Luo, travelled to Dongxing city in Guangxi province, southern China, on the border with Vietnam. His plan was to sneak across and find work.

Luo travelled with two other men who had the same intention, and two smugglers.

They were caught by police on March 18, The Paper reported.

A video shows the group of men having dinner at restaurant before being taken to the police station. On checking Luo’s bag, officers found a copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

The book was written by the ancient Chinese military strategist in the late Spring and Autumn Period (770-481 BC), is one of the most influential treatises on warfare strategy in history.

“Why did you take this book with you?” an officer asks Luo in the video.

Handcuffed and crouched on the floor, he answers that he had watched many videos on Douyin that gave detailed interpretations of the book, and thought that would be of help to him in Southeast Asia.

“I bought a copy to see whether I can learn something from it,” Luo told the officer, adding: “After all, it’s dangerous overseas.”

“I only know that my monthly salary will range from 10,000 to 20,000 yuan (US$1,400 - US$2,800), but I have no idea what the job or what its responsibilities will be,” he said.

Luo and the other two men were fined, while the smugglers were detained and charged with criminal offences.

The story has sparked a discussion on mainland social media.

“He believes the book will protect him and save him from being tortured,” said one online observer.

“Ha ha, he must have misread the great book and its wisdom,” another said.

In recent years, Chinese nationals have found themselves tricked into forced labour in Southeast Asia. Usually when scammers post a fake opportunity to work for high salaries and then kidnap the person.

Aside from being forced to work for shady companies, they are often tortured, sexually assaulted and even threatened with organ harvesting.

In December last year, a 26-year-old man in central China was rescued after three years of torture overseas. He had been forced into a life of crime after buying a cheap holiday package from a gang.

In February 2022, a Chinese man was smuggled to the Cambodian coastal city of Sihanoukville by a criminal gang and later forced to work for telemarketing fraud racketeers.

Chinese archaeologists reconstruct face of sixth century emperor using new DNA technique – and find new clues to his death

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3257745/chinese-archaeologists-reconstruct-face-sixth-century-emperor-using-new-dna-technique-and-find-new?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese archaeologists have reconstructed the face of an emperor who lived 1,500 years ago using new methods to analyse ancient DNA, and uncovered clues about what may have caused his early death in the process.

The team said that their technique could allow for more in-depth analysis of important ancient figures through samples of their bones.

Rare 6-sheep chariot unearthed near mausoleum of China’s first emperor

Emperor Wu, a “highly influential emperor”, ruled over the Northern Zhou dynasty until his death in 578 AD at the age of 36.

Ancient texts have given rise to speculation he died from poison – either accidentally through taking toxic substances as an elixir or deliberately at the hands of an enemy.

This theory received some backing after his bones were rediscovered in 1996 and were later found to contain a larger than normal amount of arsenic, news portal The Paper reported last month. His femur also showed evidence of poisoning-related necrosis.

However, a thorough analysis of the emperor’s DNA obtained from his limb bones by a team led by researchers from Fudan University raises an alternative theory. The new analysis, published last week in the journal Current Biology, suggests he may have had an “increased susceptibility” to stroke.

The team also cited the Book of Zhou, an official history of the dynasty, which said that before his death he exhibited symptoms such as drooping eyelids, blindness and an abnormal gait – all possible symptoms of a stroke.

Forensic reconstruction, based on scanning facial bones to work out what someone looked like, can now be combined with DNA analysis to determine a person’s facial structure and genetic features such as their skin and eye colour.

Reconstructing the appearance of Emperor Wu and identifying his cause of death has long been a point of fascination for historians, archaeologists and anthropologists due to his important role in unifying northern China, the team said.

When the researchers began to examine Emperor Wu’s bones using traditional methods, they found that it was not enough to determine his genetic features.

The 100,000 genetic loci – locations on a chromosome associated with a specific gene – that the team obtained after six years’ research fell short of allowing the team to reconstruct the emperor’s face and medical risk profile.

Due to a high level of degradation from DNA samples of Emperor Wu’s limb bones, “decoding his genome presented a more challenging task”, Wen Shaoqing, a professor of archaeology at Fudan University, said, according to a WeChat post from Cell Press, the publisher of the journal.

To address this issue, Wen said they “optimised a new technical solution specifically for highly degraded samples”, including a method to capture short DNA fragments and probes designed specifically for ancient DNA.

Using their new method, the team were able to obtain 1 million usable genetic loci from just 50 milligrams of the emperor’s ground-up bones, “a tenfold improvement over the previous attempt”, Wen said.

The team found that the emperor would have “possessed a typical East or Northeast Asian appearance”, with dark hair, brown eyes and an intermediate to dark skin colour. They also concluded he may have had an increased susceptibility to diseases such as stroke, gout and leukaemia.

Wen said their analysis of the emperor’s bones will allow “historians to discuss in-depth the cause of Emperor Wu’s death in conjunction with historical records”.

Why is China finding it so difficult to close the chapter on Qing history?

The Northern Zhou dynasty ruled over a territory in the heart of China, running from the modern-day northern borders to the far south, and was founded by the nomadic Xianbei people at a time when China was divided between several competing imperial states.

The team’s analysis also concluded that around 60 per cent of his ancestry was Xianbei, the rest of his DNA resembled that of communities found along the Yellow River, suggesting he also had Han Chinese ancestors.

The technique could allow for more detailed research into other ancient skeletal samples, and could allow researchers to solve “more major, high-profile and difficult cases”, Wen said.

In the future, Wen said they plan to analyse more samples from different time periods and ancient cultures, in hopes of “constructing a genetic lineage tree of all East Asian peoples, establishing connections between modern and ancient populations, and writing the ‘genealogy’ of the Chinese nation”.

US-Japan defence upgrade aimed at tackling ‘more assertive China’: envoy

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3258058/us-japan-defence-upgrade-aimed-tackling-more-assertive-china-envoy?utm_source=rss_feed

The United States seeks to modernise the command structure of its decades-old security alliance with Japan to deal with a “much more assertive China” including towards Taiwan, US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said on Friday as the two countries look to discuss the issue at a coming summit in Washington.

Speaking ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to the US next week as a state guest, where a series of agreements are expected to showcase the robust ties of the close allies, the ambassador told reporters, “We are literally in the first chapter writing a new era.”

Without going into the details of how the military command framework will be modified, Emanuel said, “The change is to deal with a series of challenges – ones we know and ones we don’t know, and you have a much more assertive China, not just in the Taiwan Strait.”

Is Japan enhancing civilian air hubs and seaports for US military use?

The envisioned change is not meant “for just one contingency,” but “it’s built around the security in the Indo-Pacific,” he said, also touching on China’s repeated incursions into Japanese waters around the Diaoyus, a group of East China Sea islets controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing, and clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea.

Concerns have also grown over a possible invasion of Taiwan by Beijing, which sees the island as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary.

While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the existing status quo.

“We believe whatever we do working with Japan in this new fashion will better enhance the way we do a plan,” the ambassador said.

According to sources close to the matter, the modification to the alliance would involve strengthening the authority of the US Forces Japan, which has so far lacked operational control of military units in the Asian nation with its role largely focused on administering the status of forces agreement governing US personnel stationed there.

Currently, the US Indo-Pacific Command, based in Hawaii, has authority over forces assigned to its vast area of responsibility that includes Japan, and the different time zone and physical distance has been seen as not efficient for interaction with the Japanese Self-Defence Forces.

The revamp is expected to come in conjunction with Japan’s planned set-up of a joint headquarters by March 2025 to unify the command of its ground, maritime and air forces.

Trump won’t rock US-Japan alliance, ‘China to be dominant focus’ if re-elected

Apart from defence issues, cooperation in areas including technology, space and clean energy is expected to be on the agenda when US President Joe Biden hosts Kishida for talks and a state dinner on Wednesday. It will be the first visit to the US by a Japanese prime minister as a state guest since 2015.

The ambassador also said the US and Japan plan to set up a “central depot” of resources to respond to natural disasters and climate events in the region, recalling the powerful earthquake that rocked central Japan on January 1 and one that recently hit Taiwan.

“We haven’t done this with any other country. We don’t know where it will go, etc,” he said, but noted that the idea is to basically put medical resources, tents, water and other items in a warehouse so they can be “deployed immediately” and “anywhere in the region” that is affected by a disaster.

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Mala magic: China cook behind super spicy noodle sauce dubbed ‘Princess of Malatang’ over Sichuan-like dish

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3256719/mala-magic-china-cook-behind-super-spicy-noodle-sauce-dubbed-princess-malatang-over-sichuan-dish?utm_source=rss_feed

A dish in China called Tianshui Malatang, which originates from Gansu province in the north west of the country, is captivating food lovers across the nation, eager to sample its distinctive flavour.

“We get an average of 400 to 500 people a day – mostly travellers. It’s not even the holiday season yet and we already have so many visitors. We expect even more during the Labour Day holiday in May,” a Malatang shop owner told Chinanews.com.

So, what has ignited the fascination with this particular noodle dish? How does it differ from the widely acclaimed Sichuan version? The Post finds out.

The surge in its popularity stems from a video posted on February 13 by Liang Huan, a student at Hubei University of Economics in central China, who has been dubbed the “Malatang Princess”.

Only seven seconds long and containing just one line of dialogue – “I suggest making Gansu Malatang a national dish”– the video quickly attracted attention because of the vibrant appearance of the dish, which looks different to traditional versions.

In particular, its use of wide noodles sparked widespread interest, with one person commenting: “The wide noodles are a must-try, they truly represent the essence of the dish.”

As the video gained 1.4 million likes and 260,000 comments, people from other provinces began to showcase their local Malatang variations, igniting a friendly rivalry.

“Sichuan Malatang holds its ground,” one person said, while another added: “Northeast Malatang is ready for battle.”

There were also comments from Chinese contributors overseas.

“The Malatang I ate in Paris cost 1000 yuan (US140) for just three bowls,” wrote one person alongside a photo of the dish.

Malatang is originally a street food from southwestern China that is made with vegetables and meat cooked in a spicy broth with chilli and Sichuan peppers.

Tianshui Malatang differs by using handmade, locally crafted wide noodles, a unique broth for its base and secret seasonings.

It is these that create its distinctive taste, which is aromatic as well as somewhat spicy, and can be enjoyed by people who are not keen on very hot food.

The special broth further enhances the freshness of the ingredients.

“Tianshui Malatang’s broth is not as thick as the soup base of a hotpot, we use chicken soup, so the broth is actually clear. The fiery red colour comes from the chilli mixed in later,” explained Chen, another Malatang shop owner in Tianshui.

Malatang has not only captivated foodies in China but has also gained international acclaim, appealing to a wide range of enthusiasts who are not necessarily lovers of Chinese cuisine.

Blondie in China, an Australian influencer with about 409,000 YouTube followers, has expressed her fondness for the dish.

“Malatang is one of the things I used to eat all the time in China. It’s quick, it’s cheap, it’s delicious and it is very spicy ! If you’ve never tried Malatang, my advice would be, find your nearest provider and get down there right now!”

She enjoys the dish so much, she enticed her entire family to China to try it.

In 2022, Yang Guo Fu, a leading Malatang brand boasting more than 6,000 shops worldwide, became the first to file for an initial public offering of shares on the stock market in its category, further extending the popularity of the dish internationally.

China pushing to break down payment barriers for visitors, with 90,000 overseas buyers set to flock to Canton Fair

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3258009/china-pushing-break-down-payment-barriers-visitors-90000-overseas-buyers-set-flock-canton-fair?utm_source=rss_feed

With foreigners still struggling to obtain change for cash transactions, or even pay for museum tickets electronically, officials are seeking to make life easier for the 93,000 buyers from over 200 countries that will attend the upcoming edition of China’s largest trade fair.

Tackling payment issues of foreign traders is a small, but important part of Beijing’s broader efforts to bring down barriers for foreigners in a bid to attract global tourists and businesses, as it is closely related to China’s trade prospects and post-pandemic rebound amid a set of economic headwinds.

And with the Canton Fair in the southern manufacturing hub Guangdong considered a barometer for China’s export market and the stamina of its supply chain, the event represents a chance to follow up on a pledge issued by the State Council last month to offer greater acceptance of cash and overseas bank cards, while also easing limits on mobile payments for foreigners.

China’s payment vow an ‘easy but marginal win’ as overseas concerns remain

“We will set foreign currency exchange machines and mobile [point of sale] terminals to cater to the diverse payment needs of exhibitors and buyers, including currency exchange, digital payments, card transactions, mobile payments and cash payments,” commerce vice-minister Wang Shouwen said earlier this week ahead of the 135th edition of the fair, which begins on April 15.

Wang said cash accounted for over 50 per cent of payments by overseas buyers in Guangzhou, followed by 33 per cent for mobile payments and 15 per cent for bank cards.

He confirmed the semi-annual fair had received preregistration by 93,000 buyers from 215 countries, with over 220 leading enterprises also confirming delegations.

“These figures surpass the scale of previous sessions for the same period,” he added.

French tourist Raphael Granier said some stores had been unable to provide enough change for large bank notes during his recent visit to southwest China.

“I didn’t get WeChat Pay,” said Granier, who added some stores were unable to provide enough change during his recent visit to southwest China.

“Some services, such as receiving money from a friend, required me to have a Chinese bank card, which is not feasible in my case.”

Yan Fang, deputy director of the Payment and Settlement Department at China’s central bank, said commercial banks in Guangzhou have introduced a “change bag” cash service – totalling 200 yuan (US$27.6) to 500 yuan – which it would promote in sectors like taxi services to facilitate cash transactions.

Boon for expats, visitors as China approves Mastercard’s card clearing licence

Yan said over 900,000 inbound travellers used mobile payments during the first two months of the year, producing over 20 million transactions totalling more than 3 billion yuan (US$415 million) in value.

“We aim to enhance payment convenience to better serve the Canton Fair, and also to meet the various needs of foreign visitors in China, such as tourism and consumption,” Yan said on Monday.

“Mobile payments are one of China’s strengths, with a current penetration rate of 86 per cent.”

Foreigners who prefer mobile payments could link their overseas bank cards with platforms such as Alipay or WeChat Pay, while overseas cards are accepted at airports, hotels and shopping malls in some key cities and areas, Yan said.

She added the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was also working on optimising account and digital yuan services to offer a wide range of payment choices for foreigners.

“Not exactly e-payment per se, but some instances require a China phone number, and don’t accept foreign numbers,” said Singaporean Limonium Sua following a recent trip to the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Sua said he failed to buy a museum ticket online as he did not have a Chinese phone number.

Former PBOC governor Yi Gang said during a forum at Peking University Shenzhen last month that the “unprecedented success of mobile payment” in China was partly due to the lack of widespread adoption of cheques and credit card payments.

“In contrast, payment services of US residents have long been diversified, with cheque and credit card payments being very convenient, so it would be difficult to change their payment habits,” Yi said.

He also raised concerns about privacy protection in digital finance services, calling it a “persistent challenge”.

“At the legislative level, China’s current provisions for protecting financial consumers’ privacy rights are fragmented, separately included in multiple laws and regulations, and lack coordination and systematic coherence,” he said.