• Why Russia might be warming to China’s belt and road plans in Central Asia
• Southern China still lashed by heavy rains, triggering second flood alert in as many days
• Taiwan’s former leader Ma Ying-jeou rejects Japan’s claims to Diaoyu Islands during mainland China trip
• Chinese travellers spend big to mark most profitable Ching Ming Festival since 2019
• China woman in life-saving double, first by ‘hero’ Spanish doctor after airport heart attack then innovative surgery
• To fix US-China relations, we must centre the lives of ordinary people
• China’s Huawei is challenging traditional weather forecasting again, this time with groundbreaking AI model Zhiji
• US, UK, Australia ‘set for talks on expanding Aukus security pact’ to deter China, with Japan a likely candidate
• PLA patrols South China Sea as US, Philippines, Japan and Australia hold joint military drills
• Who is China’s Yang Siqi? From mountain to surfing at 2024 Paris Games, farm girl becomes country’s first Olympic surfer
• Yellen says US-China relationship on ‘more stable footing’ but more can be done to improve ties
• South China Sea: as India backs Philippines against Beijing, a different border issue looms large
• China and US shouldn’t avoid ‘tough conversations’, Janet Yellen tells Li Qiang in ‘frank and productive’ talks
• China’s local government debt woes hurting private firms, creating grass-roots distrust: academic
• Why Chinese love to dance in public – parks, even restaurants? For health, socialisation or self-expression?
• This Ching Ming, let’s sweep away fusty Chinese ideas of death and dying
• Commercial property: Japan gains upper hand in attracting foreign investment as China’s uncertain outlook deters capital

Why Russia might be warming to China’s belt and road plans in Central Asia

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258142/why-russia-might-be-warming-chinas-belt-and-road-plans-central-asia?utm_source=rss_feed

When Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative over a decade ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin was not enthusiastic about the massive infrastructure drive moving into his country’s “backyard”.

Moscow saw landlocked former Soviet countries in Central Asia, such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as within its orbit and the belt and road as a challenge to its dominance.

But a speech by a senior Russian official last week signalled just how much has changed in the decade since.

Addressing the Boao Forum for Asia in the Chinese island province of Hainan, Russian deputy prime minister Alexey Overchuk said the Kremlin and Beijing had discussed the possibility of “improving connectivity” between the initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led effort to create an EU-like common market.

China-Russia ties set to deepen with another presidential term for Putin

Analysts said if the two regional powers could come together and overcome the earlier mutual mistrust, the region could become more connected in trade and transport than ever before. Nevertheless, hurdles remain, they say.

Russia set up the EEU with the former Soviet states of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in 2015 to foster economic integration and to advance its own geopolitical interests in Central Asia.

It aimed to mirror the common market and customs union of the European Union, and was built on the foundations of previous blocs going back to the 1990s.

Compliance within the grouping was weak due to the limited power of the Eurasian Economic Commission, the union’s operational arm, and further cracks have emerged since the Russian invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

Western countries have imposed a range of sanctions on Moscow by curbing energy trade with it and banning Russian banks from the global Swift payment system, short for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

The union has “lost a bit of unity since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine conflict”, said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China. He added that some of the EEU members were “worried about becoming the next Ukraine”.

To repair some of that damage, Moscow has shown increasing willingness to connect its own regional integration project with the Chinese initiative, which all EEU members have joined.

“Russia is highlighting the Belt and Road Initiative-EEU coordination again to leverage China’s influence to regain trust from neighbouring countries, especially some distrust from Kazakhstan,” Wang said.

World’s longest tunnel under way in Xinjiang as China seeks to boost ties

Meanwhile, Wang said, China hoped to “further Eurasian integration” to turn bilateral cooperation into multilateral cooperation, adding momentum to its belt and road plans.

A case in point was the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, he said.

The 523km (325-mile) line was proposed in the 1990s to give China an alternative route to Europe, without transiting in Russia, and provide potential access for landlocked Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to connect with Southeast and Western Asia.

The plans were folded into the belt and road as the initiative, which started as a massive infrastructure project, expanded into a geopolitical strategy extending to trade, technological, and cultural cooperation.

But construction on the line only started last year.

Wang said that movement was the result of Russian support.

While the railway was not a direct partnership with the EEU, the work only progressed due to the approval of the Kremlin, he said.

Cooperation agreements between the EEU and Beijing were in place as early as 2015 to pursue overland road and rail routes from China to Europe through Central Asia.

But concerns in Moscow and Beijing meant there was little progress, said Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Washington-based Stimson Centre.

“Russia had suspicions about Chinese presence in its ‘backyard’ … and China had been worried about the commercial viability,” Sun said.

“Now with the war in Ukraine and the quagmire Russia is in, arguably Russia has no better option, the desire from Russia to promote economic cooperation is obvious.”

This was apparent in Beijing in May and December when Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Premier Li Qiang pledged to promote synergy between the belt and road and the EEU. Mishustin also met Xi in December.

Wang said Xi and Putin were also expected to discuss plans to coordinate the belt and road and the EEU in their next meeting, which will reportedly take place in May.

China and Russia have also boosted strategic ties since the war in Ukraine began, increasing the Kremlin’s reliance on the Chinese market while China enjoyed cheaper oil from Russia.

With challenges like the Nord Stream 1, the gas pipeline connecting Russia and western Europe that has been switched off since 2022, and limited prospects in the European energy market, “Russia aims to expand its presence in Asian and Global South markets through the [belt and road]”, said Zoon Ahmed Khan, a research fellow at the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation.

Khan said cooperation between the belt and road and the EEU could “include the development of transport corridors linking China and Russia with other Eurasian countries, the construction of energy pipelines, and efforts to enhance digital infrastructure and trade facilitation mechanisms”.

She said this might also offer the possibility for China to revive the Polar Silk Road, its plan for Arctic transatlantic maritime routes. The Polar Silk Road overlaps Russia’s initiative on the Northern Sea Route and would offer China a quicker alternative trade route to the Suez Canal.

But when it comes to infrastructure projects, challenges remain for China’s engagement with the well-established union, analysts say.

Wang said these hurdles included whether the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway complied with Chinese or Russian track gauge standards.

Southern China still lashed by heavy rains, triggering second flood alert in as many days

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3258150/southern-china-still-lashed-heavy-rains-triggering-second-flood-alert-many-days?utm_source=rss_feed

Parts of southern China continued to be battered by heavy downpours over the weekend, with rainstorm and flood alerts issued for the second day on Sunday.

The Bei, a tributary of the Pearl River in southern Guangdong province, was declared as having recorded its first “No 1 Flood” of the year at 6.35am on Sunday – marking the earliest numbered flood in a major river since data began to be compiled in 1998.

China has seven main river systems, including the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, as well as the southern Pearl River and waterways further north.

According to the Ministry of Water Resources, China’s major rivers and lakes can flag “numbered floods” when their water levels reach the warning level or register a flood of “once in two to five years” magnitude.

By 9am on Sunday, the water level at the local measuring station in Guangdong’s Yingde county, which lies along the banks of the Bei, had risen 4.07 metres (13.4 feet) above the warning level. The ensuing floods submerged buildings and shops in the county.

The Ministry of Water Resources in Beijing has launched a Level 4 emergency response and sent a working group to Guangdong for inspection and guidance. China has a four-tier flood-control emergency response system, with Level 1 the most severe.

Guangdong’s flood and drought disaster prevention department said 832 people had been evacuated to safer ground by noon on Sunday, the first working day after a three-day break for the Ching Ming Festival. Schools and businesses were operating as normal, with commodity prices stable and people going about their day as usual, the department added.

The Ching Ming or “tomb sweeping” holiday starting Thursday saw Guangdong enter its first flood season of the year.

Waterlogging following heavy rainfall – which broke records in some areas – caused some railway and highway operations to be suspended, and over a thousand people were relocated in multiple cities across the province. No casualties have been reported thus far.

The National Meteorological Centre on Sunday issued a blue alert for the second day in a row for several provinces in southern and eastern China, blue being the lowest of China’s four alert levels for rainstorms. Heavy to severe rains have been forecast until 2pm on Monday for parts of Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong province.

China’s ‘sponge cities’ plan struggles to hold water. Here’s why

Central Guangdong will see the heaviest rainfalls, accompanied by thunderstorms, strong winds or even hail in some areas, and maximum hourly rainfall of up to 60mm (2.36 inches) in places, the forecasters said.

Neighbouring Hunan province also activated a Level 4 flood prevention emergency response at 8am on Sunday, in view of rainfall intensity and floodwater release from upstream reservoirs of the Xiang River. Several tributaries of the Xiang are flowing above the warning level, causing floods in downstream regions.

The latest extreme conditions come after seven people were killed when severe convective weather, marked by intense winds and cloudbursts, struck eastern Jiangxi province last weekend.

Three of the victims were sucked out of their high-rise flats as they slept, when typhoon-like winds following violent rain and hailstorms ripped windows off their frames.

The extreme weather, which hit on March 31, engulfed nine cities in Jiangxi, including Nanchang and Jiujiang, with 93,000 people in 54 counties affected, provincial officials said.

Taiwan’s former leader Ma Ying-jeou rejects Japan’s claims to Diaoyu Islands during mainland China trip

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3258143/taiwans-former-leader-ma-ying-jeou-rejects-japans-claims-diaoyu-islands-during-mainland-china-trip?utm_source=rss_feed

Former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou has weighed in on the debate over the Diaoyu Islands, saying Japanese claims to the disputed island chain are at odds with historical records.

During a Saturday visit to a museum in the ancient imperial city of Xian in mainland China, Ma was shown ancient manuscripts that he said proved that the islands “do not belong to Ryukyu” – the name of a kingdom that was a Chinese tributary state for more than 500 years until it was annexed by Japan in 1879.

The Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, have been a frequent point of friction between Beijing and Tokyo in recent decades.

Tokyo claims the Diaoyus belong to the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, which includes the area once known as Ryukyu. However, Beijing has long disputed the notion that the Diaoyus were part of the Ryukyu kingdom.

Okinawa or Ryukyu? The prefecture on the front line of China-Japan ties

Liu Chengyong, director of the China National Archives of Publications and Culture, said Ma viewed ancient texts “indicating the Diaoyu Islands are part of Chinese territory”, official news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday.

“This is something those of us studying the Diaoyu Islands must read,” Ma said of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) manuscript, according to Xinhua.

Ma added that historical records about the Diaoyus should be publicised, Xinhua said.

The document, penned by a Chinese envoy after a mission to confer titles upon the king of Ryukyu, states that the emissary passed the Diaoyus before reaching Ryukyu, which Liu cited as evidence that the islands fell outside the ancient kingdom.

Tensions over the uninhabited islands, a potential source of oil and natural gas, have intensified over the past year.

Beijing published an official map last summer that emphasised its territorial claim to the Diaoyus – a move that angered Japan, which rejected the map.

The islands are currently under Japan’s control, but Beijing has stepped up patrols in nearby waters. Coastguard vessels of the two countries clashed in a series of confrontations last autumn.

Taipei also views the Diaoyu Islands as part of its territory.

Ma did not specify who he thought the Diaoyus belonged to during his Xian trip. When he visited the East China Sea as the Taiwanese leader in 2012, he said the islands “have long been an inherent part of the territory of the Republic of China”, using Taiwan’s official name for itself.

Ma, a senior member of the mainland-friendly Kuomintang party, is leading a group of Taiwanese students on an 11-day trip to the mainland, which he has described as a “journey of peace”.

He will travel to Beijing on Sunday and is expected to meet President Xi Jinping next week, though the meeting has yet to be confirmed. It would be their first since a meeting in Singapore in 2015, when Ma was the self-ruled island’s president.

Ex-Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou urges island’s young to remember Chinese roots

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its territory to be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as independent state, but Washington opposes any attempt to take the island by force and remains committed to supplying it with weapons.

Ma’s visit comes at a time of heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei as Taiwan’s president-elect William Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing has called a “troublemaker”, prepares to take office as the island’s next president.

Lai, a member of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, will be inaugurated on May 20.

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Chinese travellers spend big to mark most profitable Ching Ming Festival since 2019

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3258138/chinese-travellers-spend-big-mark-most-profitable-ching-ming-festival-2019?utm_source=rss_feed

Domestic travel and spending in China during last week’s extended Ching Ming Festival rose by more than 10 per cent from pre-pandemic levels, with consumption continuing to be a major driver of economic recovery.

More than 119 million domestic trips were logged during the three-day holiday ending Saturday, marking an increase of 11.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, according to the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Revenue from domestic travel totalled 53.95 billion yuan (about US$7.61 billion), up by 12.7 per cent from the pre-pandemic year, the ministry said in an article posted on its website on Saturday.

China is banking on tourism and consumption to power its post-pandemic economic recovery, as a deepening property sector crisis and weak private sector and foreign investor confidence continue to weigh on overall growth.

Ching Ming or “tomb sweeping” festival is a day for honouring the dead, by sweeping their resting places and burning paper offerings. This year’s festival fell on a Thursday, allowing it to be extended into the weekend, with Sunday declared a working day instead.

Last year’s holiday lasted only a day, having fallen on a Wednesday, and was the first since China began lifting its stringent “zero-Covid” restrictions a few months earlier.

More than 23.7 million domestic tourist trips were made that day – up by nearly a quarter from the previous year – while travel-related revenue grew by 29 per cent to 6.52 billion yuan, according to official figures.

Ching Ming Festival – tomb-sweeping day: what it means and how it’s marked

Tourists this year flocked to the capital Beijing, the eastern business hub of Shanghai and the nearby cities of Nanjing, Hangzhou and Suzhou, as well as Wuhan and Changsha in central China.

Other cities that saw visitor numbers soar included Tianshui in northwestern China’s Gansu province, which became a trending travel destination after social media influencers raved about its spicy soup dish, malatang.

As many as 16 million train trips were made per day, according to the transport ministry, marking a 75.3 per cent surge in average daily rail traffic compared to 2023. And daily trips by air averaged 1.7 million, an increase of close to 24 per cent.

The travel rush, which started a day early on Wednesday, was disrupted after a deadly 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan triggered cancellations and major delays to rail services in eastern and southern mainland China. Services returned to normal the following day.

Inbound and outbound tourism levels were close to those logged during the 2019 festival, the tourism ministry said.

For Chinese travelling overseas, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates were among the most popular destinations, according to industry data. So were Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, with their recently introduced mutual visa-free access agreements with China.

According to Trip.com, China’s largest online travel agency, most inbound bookings were by travellers from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Tokyo and London.

Online booking service Tongcheng Travel said popular destinations for overseas travellers included Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, as well as the eastern cities of Hangzhou and Qingdao, Xiamen in the southeast and Kunming in the southwest.

Hong Kong and Macau remained the top destinations for mainland travellers using Tongcheng’s services, while Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo were popular among outbound tourists.

The three-day holiday also brought a windfall for the entertainment sector, with China’s total box office takings reaching a record 850 million yuan, according official figures. Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning animated feature The Boy and the Heron took the lead with more than 390 million yuan, or 46 per cent of the earnings.

Others in the top five were Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and animated film Kung Fu Panda 4 from Hollywood, and two Chinese-made films – domestic drama Dwelling by the West Lake and suspense thriller The Victims.

China woman in life-saving double, first by ‘hero’ Spanish doctor after airport heart attack then innovative surgery

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3256745/china-woman-life-saving-double-first-hero-spanish-doctor-after-airport-heart-attack-then-innovative?utm_source=rss_feed

The life of a woman in China has been saved twice after she had a heart attack at an airport where a Spanish cardiologist happened to be waiting for his flight.

The 53-year-old woman, surnamed Chen, had a cardiac arrest at the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, in central China’s Hubei province, while waiting at a China Airlines gate with her husband and daughter in February.

An onlookers’ scream attracted the attention of Eduard Quintana, a cardiovascular surgeon who was travelling back to Spain.

He immediately gave first aid and CPR to Chen, bringing her back to life before a medical team arrived.

The surgeon from Hospital Clinic Barcelona has been hailed a hero by online observers in China.

Chen was later diagnosed with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, a disease characterised by a thickened wall between the left and right ventricles that stops the heart from taking in and pumping out enough blood.

She was scared to learn that her disease required open-heart surgery.

Around the same time the story of her life being saved by the Spanish doctor went viral, reports revealed that Quintana was in China for training with one of the country’s best cardiologist teams, which specialises in her condition.

The team from Wuhan Tongji Hospital in central China, led by professor Wei Xiang, reportedly invented transapical beating-heart myectomy, a minimally invasive surgical method targeting Chen’s problem.

Chen contacted Wei via a telemedicine app, and on March 11, Wei’s team removed the enlarged part of her heart muscle through a 5cm incision.

Chen has been recovering well, and was up and about five days after the surgery, according to the mainland media outlet Jimu News.

Quintana sent his best wishes to her via Wei’s team.

Chen gave two pennant banners to thank Quintana, Wei and the medical team.

“It was life-saving destiny,” she saidof her good luck in meeting two top-notch cardiologists by chance.

China has been promoting CPR training among the public in recent years, as fewer than one per cent of Chinese people know how to give the simple but effective life-saving procedure.

The success rate of CPR in reviving people in out-of-hospital heart attacks on the mainland is less than one per cent, compared with 10 per cent in many developed countries.

Quintana praised the professional reaction of members of China Airlines staff who contacted the medical team in time and looked after other passengers well.

He told the mainland media outlet Jiupai News that he hoped the incident would show more people the value of CPR training.

To fix US-China relations, we must centre the lives of ordinary people

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3258113/fix-us-china-relations-we-must-centre-lives-ordinary-people?utm_source=rss_feed

On a recent trip to China with my Northwestern Kellogg students, we were all struck by how few Americans had returned to the country since the end of its zero-Covid policy in December 2022.

In Shanghai, our tour guide had hosted only one other US school group, and she expected to have only one more this year – a marked decline from the 30-plus she booked each year prior to the pandemic. In Guilin, where the iconic mountains, a Unesco World Heritage site, had previously been among the most visited places on Earth, we were allegedly the first American group to visit since the beginning of 2020. Only two more are expected this year.

One hopes these are low estimates and that more have and will come. But there is no denying that the number of Americans travelling to China, which plummeted during the pandemic, has been slow to recover.

This sharp decline comes at a time when US-China relations have reached their lowest point since President Richard Nixon visited Chairman Mao Zedong in 1972. The public discourse in both countries has become almost exclusively about zero-sum competition, if not outright hostility. While US politicians and commentators from across the political spectrum portray China as the economic and geopolitical threat, Chinese media insist that American democracy is false and that the US is unfairly containing China’s growth and development.

With most of the news coverage in both countries focused on macroeconomic and geopolitical issues, little attention is paid to the lives and perspectives of ordinary people. Opportunities to generate empathy are scarce, and the results are increasingly apparent. In US opinion polls, only 15 per cent of respondents viewed China favourably in 2023, down from 53 per cent in 2018, and from 72 per cent in 1989.

Some concerns are well-founded. In 2018, Americans and Canadians were shaken by China’s detention of two Canadian NGO workers in retaliation for the relatively mild house arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a Huawei executive who had been charged with helping her company evade sanctions on Iran. Then came China’s pandemic lockdowns, which prompted Americans to leave the country.

While completely understandable, the mass exodus of Americans and other expatriates has further curtailed the flow of information and in-person exchanges between the two countries’ business and NGO sectors. Add the fact that Western journalists’ activities are extremely restricted in China, and it is easy to see why the country feels so foreign and opaque to many outsiders. The exciting economic opportunities and fun travel stories of just a few years ago have given way to angst and uncertainty.

But has China changed fundamentally since 2019? Do Chinese people no longer believe in the potential of markets? Do they hate Americans?

My class saw as much of the country as possible in the space of just two weeks. We visited three cities and saw many Chinese and American companies – some thriving, others fighting for survival. Students also dashed around cities and suburbs on their own to conduct independent projects.

On our last day, when I asked them what stood out the most, perspectives varied. Some were impressed by China’s transportation infrastructure and cleanliness, and by the sophistication of its economy. Others remarked on the apparent poverty amid the glamour and glitz of Shanghai and Hong Kong, and many noted the constant presence of government surveillance.

But all had been pleasantly surprised by their in-person encounters and meetings with Chinese people from all walks of life – from people on the street to heirs of billion-dollar family businesses. They found the Chinese people to be warm and even humble.

Students who had been wary or suspicious were heartened by the experience. One had previously helped draft anti-China legislation when she worked in government, and another had experienced an intense US-China stand-off in the South China Sea. A US Department of State travel advisory had left many students worried, but they wanted to know more about the country beyond what they had read in the headlines.

Sinophobia in the US is off the rails and blocking paths to progress

The joy and sense of relief were mutual. Chinese children and their parents giggled when one of my students picked up a toddler and tossed him in the air. Women selling bowls of noodles made sure that students who could not read Chinese received the same discounts offered to Chinese customers.

Everywhere we went, people told me that my students were a breath of fresh air – just as fun and open as they remembered Americans to be. They laughed with them, took pictures, and delighted in showcasing their work to them. They had missed these Americans. After years of isolation and negative press, they had grown worried that Americans had changed.

Of course, not all Chinese and Americans would get along, and the trip did not suddenly transform my students into China superfans. But it did help them appreciate the complexity of the world’s second-most-populous country. They saw first-hand that the Chinese people – almost entirely absent from US news coverage – are not the same as the Chinese government or what US news headlines might suggest.

The US and China must work through many differences, which will not happen overnight. In the meantime, it is crucial that we preserve in-person interactions. Chinese and Americans must not lose sight of their common humanity. The greater the tension between their governments, the more important this becomes.

China’s Huawei is challenging traditional weather forecasting again, this time with groundbreaking AI model Zhiji

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3257969/chinas-huawei-challenging-traditional-weather-forecasting-again-time-groundbreaking-ai-model-zhiji?utm_source=rss_feed

A groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) weather forecaster has been released by the team behind China’s Pangu-Weather prediction model, and it has a precision that has evolved from tens of kilometres to just a few kilometres.

The newest iteration of the AI model, Zhiji, which focuses on regional weather, can give a five-day forecast with a precision that has been sharpened from 25km (15.5 miles) to 3km.

Its launch came less than a month after Pangu-Weather, developed by Huawei Technologies, was named China’s best scientific innovation of 2023.

Since its release in August last year, Pangu has revolutionised weather forecasting, offering quicker and more accurate predictions than traditional meteorological methods.

Pangu-Weather first burst onto the scene in July 2023, when a paper detailing the AI model was published in the journal, Nature. A month later, it was launched on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) website.

The AI model hit a major milestone when it was able to complete a seven-day weather forecast in just 10 seconds – more than 10,000 times faster than traditional methods.

Then on February 29, just months after its launch, Pangu-Weather was ranked first among China’s top 10 scientific advances in 2023 by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

“In its recognition by the NSFC, Pangu had two major accomplishments: first, it improved the world’s leading ECMWF weather forecasting system by about 0.6 days. This means it can predict extreme weather earlier and more accurately,” Science and Technology Daily reported. “The second is 7-day predictions in 10 seconds, 10,000 times faster than numerical ones.”

According to a Huawei report in late February, Pangu delivered more accurate forecasts for crucial weather elements, such as temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speed, than numerical simulations. Plus its error margin for predicting the paths of tropical cyclones was 25 per cent lower than the ECMWF.

It is quite an achievement for the AI model, which has so quickly changed the face of global weather forecasting. By leveraging AI to predict weather patterns, scientists can bypass the complexities associated with traditional methods of forecasting. No mathematical physics knowledge or expert experience are needed for AI, something which has created a new avenue for weather prediction.

Now, researchers have used Pangu as a foundation to develop the new regional model, Zhiji.

Created in collaboration with the Shenzhen Meteorological Bureau, Zhiji has been trained with high-resolution data from southern China.

According to the Huawei team, Zhiji can provide a five-day forecast with a precision of 3km for Shenzhen and its surrounding areas. While the Central Meteorological Bureau already provides hourly forecasts with street-level precision, these are generally only available for the following 24 hours.

“Zhiji is capable of forecasting core meteorological elements such as wind speed, temperature, humidity and precipitation. Since its trial operation began in February, it has provided valuable insights to the Shenzhen Meteorological Bureau on multiple occasions,” Huawei reported in late March.

Currently, AI and manual predictions each have their strengths and weaknesses.

AI has the edge in predicting the paths of typhoons; whereas numerical simulations are more accurate in determining wind strength values.

“Scientists can now integrate results from numerical simulations with forecasts provided by Zhiji to make the most advantageous judgments,” a Huawei spokesman said. “This could be a trend in the future.”

According to researchers, this year’s flood season will be the true test for Zhiji 1.0. They expect to see the model further optimised with improvements made to algorithms as a result.

Ongoing work on the technology aims to enhance its rainfall forecasting capabilities, including providing specialised forecasts like heatstroke indexes and comfort levels, and improving the resolution of heavy rainfall forecasts to 1km.

“For example, in typhoon conditions, precise meteorological models can predict street-level precipitation, offering early warnings for urban drainage systems,” Huawei said.

Similar to Zhiji, if regional data from other areas are available for training, scientists could potentially develop local models tailored to those regions, serving more cities.

In December last year, the team announced a collaboration with the Thai Meteorological Department, with related products currently under development.

US, UK, Australia ‘set for talks on expanding Aukus security pact’ to deter China, with Japan a likely candidate

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3258126/us-uk-australia-set-talks-expanding-aukus-security-pact-deter-china-japan-likely-candidate?utm_source=rss_feed

The United States, Britain and Australia will announce talks on Monday about bringing new members into their Aukus security pact as Washington pushes for Japan to be involved as a deterrent against China, the Financial Times reported.

The announcement by the group’s defence ministers will be related to “Pillar II” of the pact, which commits the members to jointly developing quantum computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology, the newspaper reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the situation.

They are not considering expanding the first pillar, which is designed to deliver nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia, the FT said.

Aukus, unveiled by the three countries in 2021, is part of their efforts to push back against China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. China has called the pact dangerous and warned it could spur a regional arms race.

‘Natural’ for Japan to play larger Aukus role, but likely not as partner

US President Joe Biden has sought to step up partnerships with American allies in Asia, including Japan and the Philippines, amid China’s historic military build-up and its growing territorial assertiveness.

Rahm Emanuel, the outspoken US ambassador in Tokyo, wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Japan was “about to become the first additional Pillar II partner”.

A senior US administration official told Reuters on Wednesday that some sort of announcement could be expected in the coming week about Japan’s involvement, but gave no details.

Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will likely discuss expanding Aukus to include Japan when the president hosts the prime minister in Washington on Wednesday, a source with knowledge of the talks said.

Australia, however, is wary of beginning new projects until more progress has been made on supplying Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines, said the source, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles “has said publicly, and to Japan, that we will seek opportunities to engage close partners in Aukus Pillar II as our work on critical defence and security capabilities progresses”, a spokesperson said when asked for comment on the FT report.

“Japan is an indispensable defence partner for Australia,” the spokesperson said. “Any engagement of additional countries in Aukus Pillar II projects will be trilaterally decided and announced.”

The White House National Security Council and China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the FT report. The Japanese foreign ministry said it could not immediately comment.

While the US is keen to see Japanese involvement in Pillar II, officials and experts say obstacles remain, given a need for Japan to introduce better cyber defences and stricter rules for guarding secrets.

Kurt Campbell, the US deputy secretary of state and architect of its Indo-Pacific policy, said on Wednesday that the US was encouraging Japan to do more to protect intellectual property and hold officials accountable for secrets.

“It’s fair to say that Japan has taken some of those steps, but not all of them,” he said.

The United States has said for years that other countries in Europe and Asia were expected to join the second pillar of Aukus.

The senior US official said any decisions about who would be involved in Pillar II would be made by the three Aukus members, whose defence ministers had been considering the questions for many months, based on what countries could bring to the project.

Campbell said that other countries had expressed interest in participating in Aukus.

“I think you’ll hear that we have something to say about that next week and there also will be further engagement among the three defence ministers of the United States, Australia, and Great Britain as they focus on this effort as well,” Campbell told the Centre for a New America Security think tank.

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

Campbell also said on Wednesday that the Aukus submarine project could help deter any move by Beijing against Taiwan.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its territory to be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as independent but Washington opposes any attempt to take the island by force and remains committed to supplying it with weapons.

Biden is due to host Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr for a trilateral summit at the White House on Thursday. The first-ever such meeting is seen as another major move to counter Beijing in the South China Sea.

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PLA patrols South China Sea as US, Philippines, Japan and Australia hold joint military drills

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3258120/pla-patrols-south-china-sea-us-philippines-japan-and-australia-hold-joint-military-drills?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s military conducted a naval and air patrol in the disputed South China Sea on Sunday – the same day the Philippines, US, Japan and Australia held joint drills.

“The Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army will conduct a joint air and sea combat patrol in the South China Sea on April 7,” the Southern Theatre Command announced on its WeChat account on Sunday morning.

In what appeared to be a reference to the joint drills by the US and three other countries, the command said that military activities “intended to sabotage the situation” and create “hotspots” in the waters were “well under control”.

Chinese navy drills a ‘timely and forceful response’ to Philippines’ tilt to US

The United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines on Saturday announced they would stage a “maritime cooperative activity” on Sunday within what they called the “Philippine exclusive economic zone”.

It is the first full-scale exercise involving the four countries to demonstrate “collective commitment” to strengthening regional and international cooperation “in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”, according to the joint statement.

According to the Philippine defence department, five warships will take part in the drills.

Two Philippine warships, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar and BRP Ramon Alcaraz, will join the drills alongside the American USS Mobile, Japan’s JS Akebono, and Australia’s HMAS Warramunga, according to the Japanese embassy in Manila.

The exercise will feature anti-submarine warfare training, communication drills and sailing in formation to strengthen the interoperability among their defence forces, according to the statement.

The joint drill comes amid growing tensions between Beijing and Manila over disputed waters in the South China Sea.

The Philippines has accused China of repeatedly obstructing resupply missions for the BRP Sierra Madre, a Philippine Navy transport ship that was intentionally grounded off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, known as Renai Jiao in China. Beijing says the Philippine vessels entered its territory illegally.

Beijing and Manila have increasingly clashed over their competing claims to the South China Sea. Beijing claims a majority of the strategic waterway, which it delineates with a “nine-dash line”.

However, a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal rejected most of China’s claims within this U-shaped line. Beijing has rejected the ruling.

On March 23, three Philippine navy sailors were injured when Chinese coastguard personnel fired water cannons at their vessels. Manila also accused Chinese ships of conducting “dangerous” manoeuvres and blocking a civilian chartered resupply ship.

The Philippines and China traded accusations over an encounter off the Iroquois reef in the South China Sea on Saturday, when Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said China threatened fishermen with water cannons. Chinese coastguard spokesman Gan Yu maintained that Beijing’s handling of the incident was professional and said the Filipinos were conducting illegal activities.

In February, Beijing accused Manila of “roping in non-regional countries” – a veiled reference to the US – to stir trouble in the region as the two allies held a drill.

Biden and Kishida to announce ‘historic’ US-Japan agreement: envoy

The Philippines has also held separate “maritime cooperative activities” with the US and Australia several times since last year.

In the Saturday statement, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said, “This first in a series of activities shows the enduring friendship and partnership” among the four countries.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said, the activities underscored the four countries’ “shared commitment to ensuring that all countries are free to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows.”

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is set to meet US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington on April 11. The agenda for that meeting will include planning for an agreement to improve the three countries’ interoperability and naval cooperation, Marcos said.

Who is China’s Yang Siqi? From mountain to surfing at 2024 Paris Games, farm girl becomes country’s first Olympic surfer

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3256707/who-chinas-yang-siqi-mountain-surfing-2024-paris-games-farm-girl-becomes-countrys-first-olympic?utm_source=rss_feed

It is story that is as unlikely as it is uplifting.

A young woman from a landlocked region of rural China, who first saw the sea when she was nine-years-old, reaches the pinnacle of a sport based on water.

Farm girl turned surfer, Yang Siqi, has attracted widespread attention and acclaim after making history by becoming the country’s first athlete compete in the surfing event in the Olympics which will be held in Paris in July.

The 21-year-old, who is originally from the mountainous area of Liangshan in Sichuan province in the southwestern China, is now on the verge of glory.

Yang’s entry into the world of surfing was inspired by an inherent love of adventure.

At the age of nine, in search of a new sporting challenges, she turned to her uncle, a wrestling coach, for advice.

Expecting to be guided towards taekwondo, a sport she had shown interest in, she was surprised when he introduced her to sailing.

The unexpected advice led the then nine-year-old to her first encounter with the sea in Haikou, a southern port city and capital of China’s island province Hainan.

The meeting sparked a profound connection and set the stage for her surfing future.

“It’s not because I’m from a rural area and need sport as a way out, but because I love sport, and my parents respect and support my choice” Yang told China Youth Daily.

Her early days in the sailing team were challenging. She could not swim and experienced a number of capsizes. However, the hardships simply spurred her on to conquer her fears.

The turning point for Yang came in 2018 when China established a national surfing team in the wake of a 2016 announcement that surfing was to become an Olympic sport.

She seized the day, made the transition from sailing to surfing and embarked on her new journey.

“I didn’t know what surfing was at the time, had no concept of the sport, and hadn’t even seen it before. The first time I saw someone surfing was at a seaside club, and I thought they were so cool!” said Yang.

Overcoming hurdles

In 2019, she made her international debut at the World Junior Surfing Championships, and then showed remarkable progress at the 2022 World Surfing Games (WSG).

A year later, Yang took part in the 2023 WSG, reaching the fifth repechage round and securing a 31st place out of more than 130 female competitors.

Her coach, Luo Yang, has praised her diligence, confidence, self-discipline, maturity and clarity in goal-setting.

The young surfer’s exceptional fitness levels and courage further distinguish her as a standout competitor.

“She has good physical fitness, outstanding strength, and is among the braver girls who are not afraid of a challenge,” coach Luo said.

“Surfing is an extreme sport, and the sport’s judges tend to favour aggressive athletes who dare to take on challenges. Yang Siqi is exceptionally well-suited to surfing,” he added.

Her training regime is extensive and very rigorous and is made up of four daily sessions that cover water-based routines, physical fitness enhancement and tactical analysis using video reviews.

The Final Feat

Prior to the 2024 World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico, in order to prepare for the challenges posed by the large waves and the potential risk of being submerged for extended periods, Yang was trained to hold her breath for a full three minutes.

Her steady performance, winning the heat with 11.83 points, beating British surf-skate phenomenon Sky Brown and Costa Rica’s 2021 Olympian Brisa Hennessy, earned her an historic Olympic berth.

Her feat was the culmination of six years of dedication, yet it only marks the start of her journey.

“I love surfing because it’s particularly exciting. Catching a good wave makes me very happy. The sea is like my good friend because it gives me a lot of good waves,” Yang told Xinhua Net.

Yellen says US-China relationship on ‘more stable footing’ but more can be done to improve ties

https://apnews.com/article/treasury-yellen-china-economics-trade-cbeef6b23ffb6c6cf6cb11dab25ed08bU.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, left, meets Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Sunday, April 7, 2024. Yellen, who arrived later in Beijing after starting her five-day visit in one of China's major industrial and export hubs, said the talks would create a structure to hear each other's views and try to address American concerns about manufacturing overcapacity in China. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, Pool)

2024-04-07T03:34:44Z

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met Sunday in Beijing with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and sent a message of mutual cooperation despite the nations’ differences.

Yellen came to China top of mind with trade practices that put American companies and workers at an unfair competitive disadvantage.

In the ornate Fujian room of Great Hall of People building just west of Tiananmen Square, she told Li: “While we have more to do, I believe that, over the past year, we have put our bilateral relationship on more stable footing.”

“This has not meant ignoring our differences or avoiding tough conversations,” she said. “It has meant understanding that we can only make progress if we directly and openly communicate with one another.”

Li said the U.S. media interest in Yellen’s visit “shows the high expectation they have ... and also the expectation and hope to grow” the U.S.-China relationship.

The meeting comes after the U.S. and China on Saturday agreed to hold “ intensive exchanges ” on more balanced economic growth, according to a U.S. statement issued after Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held extended meetings over two days in the southern city of Guangzhou.

They also agreed to start exchanges on combating money laundering. It was not immediately clear when and where the talks would take place.

“As the world’s two largest economies, we have a duty to our own countries and to the world to responsibly manage our complex relationship and to cooperate and show leadership on addressing pressing global challenges,” Yellen said.

On Sunday, Yellen also plans to meet with Beijing’s mayor Yin Yong and students and faculty at Peking University.

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

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South China Sea: as India backs Philippines against Beijing, a different border issue looms large

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3258019/south-china-sea-india-backs-philippines-against-beijing-different-border-issue-looms-large?utm_source=rss_feed

India’s show of support for the Philippines over the South China Sea dispute is seen as a tacit message directed at Beijing to abide by international maritime laws and refrain from further sabre-rattling in the waters.

If China is allowed to intimidate less powerful countries like the Philippines without criticism, analysts say, it could also become more combative in its other disputes, meaning India’s “interference” was likely aimed at boosting its own negotiating position in their shared border row.

During Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Manila late last month, he reiterated India’s support for the Philippines in “upholding its national sovereignty”.

Following his meeting with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo, Jaishankar said the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, or Unclos, was the “the constitution of the seas” and all parties “must adhere to it in its entirety, both in letter and in spirit”.

His comments came after the Chinese navy and coastguard had clashed with their Philippine counterparts in the South China Sea for several months, including the use of water cannons to disrupt the activities of Philippine boats.

High-altitude tunnel becomes new flashpoint in rising India-China tensions

On March 23, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian responded to Jaishankar’s remarks, calling on “third countries” not to “interfere”.

Daniel Markey, a senior South Asia adviser at the United States Institute of Peace, said India was concerned about stability in the South China Sea as like most other regional economies, it relies on the unhindered movement of goods through the disputed waterway.

“However, India also sees this dispute through the lens of its bilateral competition with China. India perceives that if China can coerce less powerful regional actors to concede on maritime claims, Beijing will only be more aggressive in its territorial disputes with India,” Markey said.

Despite 22 rounds of negotiations on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between India and China – the two nations have failed to resolve their differences on the border issue, Markey said.

Last month, Beijing and New Delhi held another round of talks on achieving disengagement in the Ladakh sector of the LAC but failed to reach an agreement.

Both countries have a long-running dispute over territory spanning thousands of kilometres in the Himalayas. They fought a border war in 1962 and have clashed along the LAC over the years.

The latest discussion focused on disputes along the western section of the line between Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin and Indian-controlled Eastern Ladakh.

After their first round of talks in May 2020, the two countries were embroiled a month later in the deadliest conflict between them in 45 years in the Galwan Valley along the border. At least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese were killed in the skirmish.

The border remained a core issue, Markey said, adding that given China’s status as the more powerful state, India had been aiming to boost its negotiating leverage by linking the border with other issues.

“India’s outreach to other Asian partners, including Japan and the Philippines, is intended to demonstrate to Beijing that it is not alone. China’s irritation with India’s ‘interference’ in the South China Sea issue will be perceived in New Delhi as evidence of a successful policy, one that will enhance its negotiating posture,” Markey said.

As Myanmar’s civil war halts India-funded project, will China take advantage?

Last month, India and Japan agreed to step up security cooperation, including in defence equipment and technology transfers. In February, the Indian Army and the Japan Ground Self Defence Force conducted a two-week military exercise in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

During Jaishankar’s visit, India said it hopes to explore new areas of cooperation with the Philippines, including in defence.

Commodore C Uday Bhaskar, a security and strategic affairs expert, the South China Sea is relevant in India’s “maritime calculus” in the region. “However, I do not see India getting militarily involved in the South China Sea dispute were it to escalate,” said Bhaskar, who is a retired Indian Navy officer.

Sripathi Narayanan, a Delhi-based security analyst, said that while India will continue to support a rules-based order in the South China Sea, the issue is separate from the LAC conflict. “Neither of them has any bearing on the other,” he said.

Yet the LAC issue is similar to the South China Sea dispute in that talks between Beijing and other claimant states to agree on a code of conduct are stuck “in limbo”, Narayanan added.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been trying to finalise a framework for the code of conduct, but progress has been slow since it was first mooted in 2002.

According to Pooja Bhatt, a Delhi-based maritime and regional security analyst, the South China Sea issue is crucial for India because of its need for secure maritime connectivity and geopolitical stability.

“All stakeholders have the right to voice their concern and take a stand,” said Bhatt, who is also the author of Nine Dash Line: Deciphering the South China Sea Conundrum.

India has been showing support for Manila’s territorial claims ever since an arbitral tribunal ruling in 2016 found in favour of the Philippines and rejected Beijing’s South China Sea claims, Bhatt said.

This has included assisting the Philippines in building its military capabilities, such as through the sale of defence equipment and joint training exercises.

In February, India began delivery of its BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines, after the two countries signed a deal worth about US$375 million in 2022 for the supply of three batteries of the missiles.

The two countries also held a maritime exercise in the West Philippine Sea in December, while an Indian coastguard ship docked in a Manila port last month on a four-day visit.

Philippines debates mandatory military training to boost its readiness for war

India’s missile sale to the Philippines is critical as it grows its defence industry through the export of military equipment, Markey said. The sale is also aimed at sending a message to the Chinese navy, he added.

“By helping the Philippines defend its maritime claims against Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, India indirectly advances its strategic ambition to stave off Chinese military power in seas closer to India’s shores,” Markey said.

India also wants to ensure that China does not expand its military activities in the Indian Ocean, which is viewed by Delhi as its sphere of influence, he added.

The Chinese Navy has been sailing through the Indian Ocean towards the Gulf of Aden for its anti-piracy missions since 2008. It has also made port calls in Indian Ocean countries such as Sri Lanka.

Markey noted, however, that China’s far-reaching naval ambitions could also indirectly benefit India’s maritime security.

“Presumably, the more China must expend its resources in maritime disputes closer to its shores, the less it will be able to pursue ambitions in India’s neighbourhood.”

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China and US shouldn’t avoid ‘tough conversations’, Janet Yellen tells Li Qiang in ‘frank and productive’ talks

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3258114/china-and-us-shouldnt-avoid-tough-conversations-janet-yellen-tells-li-qiang-frank-and-productive?utm_source=rss_feed

China and the United States should not avoid “tough conversations” to manage their differences, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on Sunday.

The meeting was “frank and productive”, the US Treasury Department said.

“The secretary provided her views on the shared objective of a healthy economic relationship that provides a level playing field for workers and businesses in both the US and China,” it said.

US, China to talk more on ‘overcapacity’: Treasury chief Yellen in Guangzhou

Yellen raised concerns about industrial overcapacity in China while emphasising the importance of working together on global challenges, such as debt relief in less developed countries, the department said.

“As the world’s two largest economies, we have a duty to our own countries and to the world to responsibly manage our complex relationship and to cooperate and show leadership on addressing pressing global challenges,” Yellen said ahead of the meeting with Li, according to the department.

“While we have more to do, I believe that, over the past year, we have put our bilateral relationship on more stable footing. This has not meant ignoring our differences or avoiding tough conversations. It has meant understanding that we can only make progress if we directly and openly communicate with one another,” Yellen said before the talks.

‘Crucial’ for US, China to work together: Treasury chief Janet Yellen

Li said both countries must respect each other and should be partners, not adversaries, adding that “constructive progress” had been made during Yellen’s trip, according to Reuters.

The meeting came after two days of talks between Yellen and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng in the southern industrial hub of Guangzhou, where they discussed issues related to overcapacity and agreed to hold “intensive exchanges” to address economic and financial challenges.

Yellen said in Guangzhou that excessive Chinese exports could undercut American interests and lead to “global spillovers”, while Beijing said it had responded fully “to the production capacity issue” and expressed “serious concerns” about US trade restrictions against China.

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China’s local government debt woes hurting private firms, creating grass-roots distrust: academic

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3257981/chinas-local-government-debt-woes-hurting-private-firms-creating-grass-roots-distrust-academic?utm_source=rss_feed

A two-decade pursuit of vanity projects has left many local authorities in China in a deep morass of debt, with their status as “the largest local defaulters” not only having a knock-on effect on private businesses, but also adding to a grass-roots governance crisis, an academic has warned.

Feng Chuan, an associate professor at Wuhan University’s School of Political Science and Public Administration, called for greater efforts to rebuild social trust and business confidence after finding that officials, residents, local government financing vehicles (LGFVs), contractors and banks had been caught in the debt limbo.

“Credit overdraw systematically occurs … tearing apart the fundamental trust system that upholds social governance order,” he wrote in an article published last month on news portal NetEase.

Feng drew his conclusion following field trips to some of China’s most debt-ridden provinces, with his argument partly supported by a recent case where a businesswoman in Guizhou province was arrested for “provoking trouble” in an attempt to recoup 220 million yuan (US$30.4 million) from a local authority.

Businesswoman’s arrest after seeking arrears from government sparks investigation

Local government debt rose by 14.3 per cent year on year to 41.4 trillion yuan (US$5.7 trillion) by the end of February, according to data obtained from the Ministry of Finance and reported by state-run Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday, although the figure does not include so-called hidden debts, including LGFVs.

LGFVs flourished following the 2008 global financial crisis as a way of funding China’s infrastructure building spree, with few generating returns. The debt raised is kept off the balance sheets of local authorities, yet carries an implicit government guarantee of repayment.

Beijing has already made efforts to relieve the pressure by suspending infrastructure projects in some of the most indebted provinces and providing funds through transfer payment channels and special treasury bonds.

However, Feng found that local government debts sowed deep distrust among private entrepreneurs and local residents, with major policy changes required to address the issue, he added.

In one county in China’s southern Guizhou province, Feng found that local land sales – often used as collateral to obtain bank loans – had dropped to 100 million yuan a year, making it difficult to cover the annual interest payment of its 8 billion yuan of debt.

When asked why local governments were obsessed with building squares and fancy buildings, a local official attributed it to pressure to achieve political accomplishments, driven by competition to ensure gross domestic product growth.

“We can’t afford to fall behind,” the unnamed Guizhou county official was quoted as saying in Feng’s article.

“Each county chief focuses on their own achievements during their term and does not consider the long-term consequences.”

Local officials are often seen as motivated to grow the economy to gain promotion, inflating figures while under pressure to meet growth targets.

After years of unchecked infrastructure spending, Guizhou faces a debt reckoning

Some counties “inflated” state-owned assets to secure loans from banks, resulting in a surge in non-performing loans, while LGFVs lacked the necessary assets and cash flow to meet banks’ stringent mortgage review criteria, Feng added.

And despite repeated emphasis on debt control from Beijing, Feng found that many heavily indebted villages continued to apply for government funding for more construction projects.

Many of the projects were launched under the aegis of rural revitalisation, a follow-up strategy after President Xi Jinping declared victory over extreme poverty in 2020.

The central government, though, must be wary of excessive local borrowing to create “model villages” in a campaign-style manner, where authorities promote extraordinary mobilisation of resources under strong political sponsorship to implement policies, Feng said.

He also warned that local authorities have been widely caught up in a “city-building campaign”, where investments far exceeded their fiscal capacity to reach “unrealistic political goals”.

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Why Chinese love to dance in public – parks, even restaurants? For health, socialisation or self-expression?

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3257417/why-chinese-love-dance-public-parks-even-restaurants-health-socialisation-or-self-expression?utm_source=rss_feed

Foreign visitors to China are often astonished to find streets and neighbourhoods bustling with middle-aged “uncles and aunties” joyfully engaging in after-dinner square dancing.

The activity has led some to ask if people in China are natural-born groovers.

Tripping the light fantastic has also gripped the Chinese diaspora.

In Los Angeles, when Chinese residents begin square dancing, their vibrant singing and dancing quickly attracted local residents, with even first-time onlookers find themselves joining in.

So what lies behind the phenomenon. Today, the Post explains.

Square and park dancing

This genre, known as Guang Chang Wu in Chinese, is the most popular national dance.

Popular among middle-aged and retired women, who are often referred to as dancing grannies, participants dress in matching outfits and gather in neighbourhood squares after dinner.

Its roots lie in the rapid urbanisation and building boom of the 1990s, and its cross-generational appeal is in its easy-to-learn steps.

The activity not only benefits health and expands a person’s social circle, it is also a pastime for those in early retirement.

Recently, it has also attracted the interest of young adults eager to relieve the stress of work. More intricate dance steps have also diversified the dance.

Ke Mu San

Known as Subject Three in English, the name refers to a section of China’s driving test, and involves rocking the body and performing rapid wrist-twisting actions and swinging the knees and ankles.

The dance shot to prominence in during a wedding in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region of southern China in 2021.

Participants performed the dance to enhance the wedding’s lively atmosphere, inadvertently setting off a craze that spread across Guangxi and turning the dance into a local wedding custom.

In this region, it is said that life has three essential traits, singing folk songs, eating rice noodles and mastering the Ke Mu San dance.

Celebrated for its engaging moves and catchy music, waiters from Haidilao, a renowned hotpot restaurant chain in China known for its performance-based service, do the dance for customers, taking its popularity to another level.

While some diners criticise the performances as loud and “too vulgar”, potentially spoiling the dining atmosphere, many young patrons sought out Haidilao specifically for the dance.

Bo Bo Chicken

Just two months after the Ke Mu San captivated the nation, this emerged as the latest craze on mainland social media during the 2024 Lunar New Year.

Named after the spicy skewered snack from the southwestern Sichuan province that includes chicken, offal, vegetables and meat, the dance features head bobbing back and forth like a chicken, plus leg and hip twisting movements.

It is accompanied by the repeated shouts of street vendors from Sichuan province, “Bo Bo Chicken, Bo Bo Chicken, one yuan (14 US cents) per skewer”.

Catchy rhythms and lyrics quickly resonated across the internet, to the extent that the sample was even added to the famous Singaporean singer and songwriter JJ Lin’s concert video because the audience felt it perfectly matched his dance moves.

This Ching Ming, let’s sweep away fusty Chinese ideas of death and dying

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3257839/ching-ming-lets-sweep-away-fusty-chinese-ideas-death-and-dying?utm_source=rss_feed

Death is a sensitive word in the Chinese culture, something people try to avoid saying. It is like a taboo: mention death and something bad might happen.

Ching Ming, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is the only traditional Chinese festival related to death. It takes place on the 15th day after the spring equinox and usually falls on April 4 or 5 (this year, it is April 4). It’s a day for Chinese people to honour their ancestors by visiting graves, cleaning tombs, making food offerings, burning incense and paper money and paying their respects.

Even though, for more than 2,500 years, the Ching Ming Festival has given us an annual occasion to talk about the deceased, death remains a heavy topic and one that we can neither speak of nor accept easily.

No one ever told me how to learn to accept peacefully the loss of a life, especially of a loved one.

I lost my elder brother to heart disease in June 2021. After 10 hours of a scheduled surgery, he ended up in the intensive care unit (ICU) for 30 days, unconscious. That was a month full of anxiety, worry and fear, driving the family to the brink. The Covid-19 quarantine policy made everything more complicated.

We couldn’t visit. All we could do was wait at home for the hospital’s daily report. I felt like I was on a roller coaster, becoming emotional with any word from the doctors, and so did my parents. I believe they had considered the worst, but still hoped for the best.

When we were told there was no point to him receiving any more medical treatment, my parents finally broke down. My brother was 38 years old. That no parent should ever have to outlive their child is a deeply rooted idea for the Chinese. It is considered one of the greatest tragedies, a grief beyond bearing.

I remember it was a sunny afternoon. We had gathered in a narrow room in a building next to the hospital, saying a last goodbye to him through a video link to the ICU. That was what the hospital could provide during the pandemic. We watched the nurses unplug him. My mother shouted his name. No one knew if he could hear it. But we hoped he could.

Asia must find the will to break the taboo on talking about death

The biggest regret my parents and I have was that we did not fully prepare for the possibility that he might leave us forever; I wasn’t sure if he did either. The day before his surgery, he sent me the password to his bank account. I asked: why bother?

There were no other instructions from him. We didn’t even know if he had a will or any last wishes. He deserved a better farewell, and we should have done it properly.

Once again, no one ever taught me how to do it. Sadly, death has been an absent topic in China’s systematic education. We need to be educated on the knowledge of death and be prepared for the inevitability. Three years of the pandemic have given everyone a heightened sense of the uncertainty and unpredictability of life. You never know which might come first: tomorrow or an accident.

In December 2020, the Ministry of Education issued a statement in reply to a proposal to “strengthen life and death education for the whole society after the Covid-19 pandemic”, raised by some members of China’s advisory body. It said life and death education had been integrated into the curriculum. Some universities offer related courses. They include the practical, such as making wills, and extracurricular activities like visiting funeral homes.

China’s first university course on life and death is thought to have started in 2000 at Guangzhou University. At the very beginning, few would select the course. But now it has become one of the most popular open online courses in the country. The attitude towards death seems to be changing, especially among the younger generation.

According to the China Will Registration Centre, wills have gained increasing acceptance in China over the past decade and those registering their wills are doing so at a younger age. From 2017-2023, the number of will registrants born in the 1980s has increased by 21.5 times; and for those born in the 1990s, by over 11.2 times. The number of those born after 2000 is also rising.

At the will registration centre, there is reportedly a reminder on the screen: don’t cry. Making a will is a happy thing.

It echoes the views of the ancient Chinese sages on death. Many old poems and other writings on this eternal theme considered the living as passers-by in this mortal world, and the deceased as travellers finally going home. There is no need to grieve over death, the ultimate destiny for everyone.

People dying is as natural as the passing of the four seasons. The meaning of life lies in conforming to the natural process. That is why philosopher Zhuangzi drummed on a pot and sang after his wife had died, instead of weeping over her death.

Life and death are integral to each other. Only by properly facing death can we properly value life. As I learned from the film , death is not the end of life; forgetting is. That is in sync with the essence of the Ching Ming Festival. We celebrate it because we never forget, life continues, just in a different way. And in our remembrance, our loved ones, though dead, are always near.

Commercial property: Japan gains upper hand in attracting foreign investment as China’s uncertain outlook deters capital

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3258035/commercial-property-japan-gains-upper-hand-attracting-foreign-investment-chinas-uncertain-outlook?utm_source=rss_feed

The end of Japan’s ultra-loose monetary policy is unlikely to deter foreign investors from snapping up commercial real estate in the world’s fourth-largest economy, as Tokyo and other large metropolises remain attractive destinations for capital looking to acquire assets such as hotels, multifamily buildings and logistics facilities, according to analysts.

This view on Japan stands in contrast to the outlook for China, where various support measures and a loose monetary stance have failed to revitalise foreign investment demand for commercial property, they said.

Last month the Bank of Japan (BOJ) wound up its eight-year policy of negative interest rates, which had been put in place to encourage consumption and boost investment. The BOJ pegged rates to between 0 and 0.1 per cent and signalled a potential rate hike if consumer prices continue to firm up.

Meanwhile, China’s central bank has been on an easing trajectory, with its latest decision in February cutting 25 basis points from banks’ five-year loan prime rate (LPR), the largest shave since the LPR was designated as the main rate benchmark in 2019.

“From the commercial real estate perspective, the appetite is quite a tale of two countries: foreign investors continue to look for opportunities in Japan but remain very silent when it comes to China,” said Henry Chin, global head of investor, thought leadership and head of research for Asia-Pacific at CBRE.

Flows of foreign money into commercial property reflect the shift from China to Japan.

In 2019, foreign investment in Chinese commercial real estate reached US$12.3 billion, almost double the US$6.2 billion invested in Japan, according to CBRE’s tracking of all transactions worth US$10 million or greater. By 2021, this gap had narrowed, with China getting US$10.1 billion and Japan US$6.5 billion. In 2022, the two countries received roughly equal foreign investment, US$8 billion for China and US$7.7 billion for Japan. Last year, the tables turned, with Japan taking in US$5 billion and China getting just US$3.2 billion.

China’s share of total foreign investment in property declined from 38 per cent in 2019 to just 8 per cent last year, while Japan’s has been relatively steady at 21 per cent in 2019 and 17 per cent in 2023, according to data cited by JLL.

“Foreign investor appetite could not be stronger for Japan at the moment,” said Pamela Ambler, head of investor intelligence for Asia-Pacific at JLL. “Despite the recent BOJ announcement, Japan is still the only market with accretive cash-on-cash returns. In fact, monetary policy may drive domestics to look overseas, opening up opportunities for foreign investors to enter the market.”

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Hotels are a particularly strong lure for investors, as tourists continue to flock to destinations such as Kyoto and Osaka.

Hong Kong-based private equity fund Axe Management Partners is one investor making a major bet on Japan’s commercial property prospects. In March, it completed an acquisition of three hotels in Osaka for 10.7 billion yen (US$71 million).

Currently known as WBF Honmachi, WBF Kitasemba East and WBF Kitasemba West, the hotels have a total of 500 rooms. They are slated to relaunch in the last quarter of the year as part of Garner hotels, a brand under UK-headquartered IHG Hotels & Resorts. They will be the midscale brand’s first hotels outside North America.

“It’s very easy to see that this is an attractive market,” said Gary Kwok, founder and CEO at Axe Management. “In terms of the interest rates, it has a positive carry, and that obviously attracted a lot of the foreign capital looking for a positive yield. And in our view one of the key asset classes is hospitality.”

Axe Management, which has earmarked more than US$85 million for the acquisition and renovation, is aiming for a return of as much as 20 per cent on the investment, Kwok said.

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As for China, opportunities are still present, especially with a number of distressed assets available in the market, said Sam Lau, Axe Management’s founder and managing partner.

“The market is very huge, and China is a place that we can never ignore,” he said. However, the company is being more selective about investments there, he added, looking into hotels, retail and student housing in first-tier cities but avoiding residential properties and offices.

Both Chin of CBRE and Ambler of JLL forecast continued strength in the Japanese commercial property market.

“Japan has strong fundamentals with its strong, stable and transparent economy,” Ambler said. “The yen is also depreciated against major currencies such as the US and Singapore dollars and has interest rate differentials to other countries, which leads to favoured lending terms and yield differences. There are also clear exits in Japan, and it is also a relatively more liquid market.”

Foreign investors, meanwhile, are likely to have a limited appetite for China for some time, Chin said.

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

“Japan and mainland China are in different cycles when it comes to commercial real estate,” he said. “We continue to see the growth in Japan while China is currently going through repricing with limited leasing demand.

“The Japanese economy continues to outperform, as the country has experienced real wage growth … However, the Chinese economy faces challenges while the unemployment rate continues to be on the high side.”

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