• As world erects barriers against Chinese exports, what about free trade?
• Professors, students say ‘no’ to Florida as new law targets Chinese
• 96-year-old wind tunnel pioneer Yu Hongru honoured as one of China’s people of the year for ‘doing what others dare not do’
• China vows to protest ‘every single incident’ of mistreatment of Chinese arrivals in US
• US-Japan summit preview: Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida expected to raise defence, diplomacy as China looms
• Russian city near China’s border says radiation under control after workshop leak triggered emergency alert
• China and Russia make united stand to reform West-led global system
• Why richer, older China needs changes to its social contract
• China’s No 3 official Zhao Leji to lead delegation to North Korea on ‘goodwill visit’
• ‘The Philippines is ours, China out’: Filipino activists slam Sino-US rivalry in country’s maritime zone
• Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase to renew partnership this week, bringing games like World of Warcraft back to China
• China’s wind sector latest in European cross hairs after EVs, solar panels, trains
• Alibaba’s AliExpress pushes ‘10 billion yuan of subsidies’ campaign to entice more Chinese brands and merchants to sell in overseas markets
• Father of dead China singer blasts blogger’s digital version of late son created without consent, calls for AI control
• Janet Yellen in China: how far did trip move the ball for US-China relations as presidential election looms?
• Why is the Czech Republic targeting a Chinese diplomat and what does it have to do with Taiwan’s next vice-president?
• China’s Premier Li assembles economic experts ahead of hotly anticipated first-quarter data release
• China seen as security threat by over 90% of Japanese, new survey shows
• PLA vows to strengthen war preparation, safeguard sovereignty after South China Sea drills
• Mainland Chinese polar research icebreaker gets warm welcome as it opens to visitors in Hong Kong
• China and Gulf states changing face of development finance in Africa
• China’s anti-graft watchdog calls out local governments for ‘diseases’ of bogus businesses, fake data, phony ‘likes’
• Shoplifting duo have 11 children, use them to avoid jail time as China exempts expectant and nursing mothers from prison
• US viewed as warning China against military advancement in its plan for medium-range missile launchers in Asia-Pacific
• What did Janet Yellen eat in China? US Treasury secretary’s food and drink picks fascinate Chinese politicians, internet users
• Philippines-China relations: will 3-way summit with US, Japan further erode Manila-Beijing ties?
• Biden to meet Japan’s PM Kishida amid shared concerns about China and differences on US Steel deal
• From overcapacity to TikTok, the issues covered during Janet Yellen’s trip to China
• China pledges US$69 billion in credit backing for tech after resurrecting dormant financial tools
• China is not to blame for the snail’s pace of US EV progress
• China twin sisters reunited after 3 decades share same hairstyle, fashion sense, sons both called Kevin
• France, Europe engage with China on their terms, in their own interests: envoy
• Hong Kong activist collaborated with 3 overseas individuals to have Japanese sanctions imposed on city and China, Jimmy Lai trial told

As world erects barriers against Chinese exports, what about free trade?

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3258241/world-erects-barriers-against-chinese-exports-what-about-free-trade?utm_source=rss_feed

Who is in the right? Earlier this month, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China and expressed concerns about the surge in Chinese export products, including electric vehicles (EVs) and solar panels. China dismissed these concerns, viewing them as a pretext for the US to implement its protectionist policies.

As a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), China is entitled to use its hard-earned capabilities to increase its exports to other member nations and beyond, provided it adheres to established trade rules.

China became a member of the WTO in 2001, a move strongly supported by the Clinton administration. This support was predicated on mutual benefits: the United States could access a vast, untapped market while China could accelerate its economic growth.

In the early 2000s, the US underwent what is often referred to as the “China shock”. This was characterised by a surge in imports of inexpensive goods manufactured in China. While this helped maintain low inflation rates in the US, it came at the expense of domestic manufacturing jobs.

Economic growth in China has elevated hundreds of millions of people from extreme poverty. Concurrently, a growing middle class in China developed a fondness for American products, from McDonald’s burgers to General Motors vehicles, contributing to US economic growth.

With growing economic interdependence, the US trade deficit with China ballooned from under US$100 billion in 2001 to over US$400 billion in 2018. This escalating trade gap led former president Donald Trump to launch a trade war against China, imposing hefty tariffs on goods imported from China. The intention was to pressure China into reforming its trade practices and to safeguard American jobs.

In an effort to garner voter support, particularly ahead of the presidential elections, both Trump and President Joe Biden have strived to protect American jobs in manufacturing and other sectors vulnerable to Chinese competition.

In January, reports emerged that Biden was contemplating higher tariffs on EVs and critical minerals imported from China. The following month, Trump said he would escalate tariffs on Chinese goods, possibly to more than 60 per cent, if elected.

But the strategy of using import tariffs to safeguard domestic jobs is both expensive and unsustainable. From 2018-2023, US manufacturing employment saw a modest increase of 3.4 per cent. “Made in America” created jobs but each one arguably cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Regrettably, these tariffs have proved to be a financial burden for American businesses and consumers. Specifically, they have increased production costs, as more than half of American imports are raw materials or intermediate goods used in production. Over 200 US companies, ranging from Boeing to Caterpillar, reportedly suffered hits to their bottom line.

With the Trump-Biden tariffs still in effect, China’s economic recovery post-pandemic has been slower than anticipated. Faced with declining consumer confidence and rising debt, China has limited options for gross domestic product growth. Apart from issuing US$139 billion of ultra-long special government bonds, the other option for China to stimulate growth is by increasing its exports.

China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) has mostly hovered below 50 since January 2023. (A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in production activity, while a reading below that signifies a contraction.) Given China’s conditions, this suggests excessive production capacity. Even with the manufacturing contraction, with consumer spending in China remaining sluggish, Chinese factories are producing more cars, machinery and consumer electronics than the domestic economy can consume.

Supported by inexpensive, state-directed loans, Chinese companies are flooding foreign markets with products they cannot sell domestically. In January, China lowered its export prices by more than 8 per cent and increased its exports by more than 15 per cent year on year.

The influx of inexpensive Chinese electric vehicles and solar panels could, however, harm developed economies. To safeguard domestic jobs and the economy, both the US and European Union are looking at tariffs to restrict the import of Chinese EVs and solar panels.

Simultaneously, developing economies such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Indonesia are apprehensive that the influx of cheap Chinese imports of commodities such as steel and chemicals could jeopardise their domestic industries. To protect these sectors, countries are also looking at import tariffs on various Chinese commodities.

But criticising China for capitalising on its manufacturing advantages to produce competitively priced exports goes against the principles of free trade.

From China’s perspective, these concerns about its competitive exports are an attempt to distort fair competition. China has established efficient supply chains and long earned the moniker “the factory of the world”. In EVs for instance, Chinese market leaders like BYD have, through decades of research and development, developed a vertically integrated system that encompasses the design and production of EV batteries, chips and entire vehicles.

The real reason for US, EU gripes about Chinese overcapacity

Due to its lower labour costs, economies of scale, an efficient production system and government subsidies, China has developed the capability to produce high-quality products at a low cost. Consequently, China views the complaints about the so-called China Shock 2.0 as hypocritical.

In response to the concerns raised by the US, China lodged a complaint with the WTO last month. This was to challenge US rules in the Inflation Reduction Act, which stipulate that EVs must use parts from specific regions to qualify for subsidies, thereby excluding products from China and other countries. China argued that these rules were discriminatory and unjust.

Trade barriers are a form of protectionism that can lead to economic stagnation. A more constructive approach would be for the US and China to foster a more open and collaborative relationship, to promote fair and efficient trade.

---

Professors, students say ‘no’ to Florida as new law targets Chinese

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3258409/professors-students-say-no-florida-new-law-targets-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed

Academics are starting to vote with their feet after Florida enacted a law that makes it harder for public schools in the state to hire Chinese students and collaborate with Chinese institutions.

Last year, with an eye to curb Chinese influence in the state, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill requiring state colleges and universities to get government approval before they hire or work with Chinese people who aren’t US citizens or green card holders.

Since then, schools in the state have scrambled to comply. In December, Miami-based Florida International University paused the hiring of Chinese and citizens of six other “countries of concern” also targeted by the law – Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela – while waiting for the state university system’s board of governors to create a vetting process.

But, even as a lawsuit contesting the measure plays out, critics of the law doubt that the two bodies overseeing approvals – the state university system’s board of governors and the state board of education – will give students and researchers a fair assessment since members of both are appointed by DeSantis.

“Requiring the board of governors’ approval means it is next to impossible to obtain approval,” said Sumi Helal, a professor of computer and information science and engineering at the University of Florida.

Helal said he was “intent on leaving” the school.

Jiangeng Xue, a materials science and engineering professor at the University of Florida, said a professor in the medical school not of Chinese heritage credited the new law as a reason for his departure from the university.

Xue added that two candidates for the school’s chemistry and physics departments declined tenure-track offers because of the hiring restrictions resulting from the law.

For months, faculty members have been rumbling about leaving Florida because of what they see as the latest ideological encroachment in its education space – a move that they say will rob them of top talent.

Lawsuit says Florida law casts ‘suspicion’ on Chinese students and faculty

In 2022, the highly ranked University of Florida sparked controversy by selecting then senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska and DeSantis loyalist, as its new president. Critics saw the decision as a harbinger of a greater crackdown on academic freedom, amid a statewide conservative push against critical race theory and transgender rights.

Students, too, have decided that Florida is too risky.

One user on Chinese lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu said he was declining Florida State University’s electrical engineering PhD offer primarily because of the new law, even though his potential adviser was eager to proceed with the necessary steps to get him funding.

“I feel so unlucky that political impacts make me very anxious because I cannot foresee what will happen in following years, better or worse to Chinese students?” the user said.

“Although Florida is one of my favourite states with comfortable weather and charming landscapes … I have to stay away from learning there or I may be expelled in the worst cases led by political forces,” he continued.

A user from Shanghai who received an offer from the University of Florida said he was opting to attend Pennsylvania State University instead, while a woman who was accepted by the same Gainesville-based university said she was vacillating between deferring or rejecting a PhD offer from the school’s College of Design, Construction and Planning.

Another said he was forgoing coming to the United States altogether, after deciding to decline a PhD offer in mathematics from Florida Atlantic University. The user, who hails from Guangzhou, noted that he had already deferred his admissions once because of the political uncertainty and no longer “dares to come”.

According to Peng Xiong, a physics professor at Florida State University, the new law came up frequently in recent interviews with faculty candidates, particularly for those wanting to pursue physics and quantum science.

“It’s undoubtedly one of the top concerns of our faculty candidates who originally came from China,” he said.

DeSantis signs bills limiting Chinese land ownership, TikTok at schools

The law, designated SB 846 by the state legislature, and the resulting guidance do not discriminate between academic disciplines that are related to national security and those that are not. In 2021, DeSantis began citing national security concerns to justify anti-Chinese influence laws.

“Make no mistake – China is a hostile foreign power, and every governor has the responsibility to protect their education system, and every other entity within their purview, from the espionage and commercial theft undertaken by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said at the time.

Last year, DeSantis said his anti-Chinese influence efforts provided a “blueprint for other states to do the same”.

And according to political observers in the state, the governor may double down on his education policies. David McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, said that “being an education ‘culture warrior’” was a “perceived strength of his when conservative activists helped push critical race theory and anti-trans rhetoric and policies onto the political agenda”.

Last month, two graduate students at Florida International University and a University of Florida professor filed a lawsuit against members of Florida’s department of education and state university system’s board of governors.

The students, Zhipeng Yin and Zhen Guo, said the law has forced them to put their studies on hold. The professor, Zhengfei Guan, said it has slowed his publishing productivity and prevented him from recruiting the most qualified postdoctoral candidates. Guan claimed that one such candidate from China accepted a competing offer outside of Florida due to delays in processing their application.

The lawsuit alleges that SB 846 usurps the power of the federal government, which has exclusive authority over immigration, national security and foreign affairs.

It also says the law violates federal equal protection guarantees as it “explicitly discriminates based upon alienage”. Non-immigrant status, the lawsuit points out, is subject to “strict scrutiny”, a requirement that the government prove that the challenged law is “narrowly tailored to serve compelling state interests”.

The law disproportionately burdens Chinese individuals, the lawsuit continues, thousands of whom study at public schools in the state. In 2020, Chinese students accounted for 1,100 – or 40 per cent – of the international graduate student population at the University of Florida.

Asked to explain alleged delays in approving Chinese researchers, the Florida state university system’s board of governors declined to comment, saying it does not speak on pending litigation. Florida’s department of education, which oversees state colleges, also declined to comment.

After the lawsuit became public two weeks ago, 24 students, faculty and professional groups held a rally against SB 846 in Gainesville.

“Our academic community thrives on international collaboration. SB 846 is a malicious and xenophobic bill that directly attacks our community,” said Eva Garcia Ferres, co-president of Graduate Assistants United at the University of Florida.

DeSantis says China creates conflict by propping up Russia and Iran

“Decisions on who to hire, what to teach and what to research have always been made by the experts of the field. Here in Florida, this is no longer true,” she continued.

Ferres noted that SB 846’s implementing guidance, which asks schools to describe the “risks” and benefits of collaboration when applying for approvals to work with people from countries of concern, fails to clarify how risks are being assessed.

Last month’s rally follows a petition to Sasse signed by more than 300 Florida-based academics to clarify the vague guidelines that have resulted from the law. They noted that restrictions on hiring Chinese students would not only harm the state’s intellectual climate and academic reputation but also its economic competitiveness.

“UF and US research dominance has been fuelled by the best minds of the world. The engineering research and economic benefits provided by these students to the state of Florida definitely outweigh perceived security risks,” said signatory Malisa Sarntinoranont, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Florida.

Leo Yu, a clinical professor of law at Southern Methodist University in Texas, called SB 846, along with a separate law that restricts Chinese people from owning property, reminiscent of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a repealed law that restricted immigration from China.

He said he was already discouraging his graduate students from going to Florida for further education. “There’s a lot of storms happening there...what you see is really just the tip of the iceberg.”

But the pending lawsuit means there may be slightly brighter days ahead for students and researchers hoping to make their way to the Sunshine State.

“There is no doubt that the plaintiffs will be successful,” said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Florida-based Nova Southeastern University.

“Not only does Florida’s new law violate numerous federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of national origin, the law impermissibly intrudes on the federal government’s exclusive [powers],” he said.

96-year-old wind tunnel pioneer Yu Hongru honoured as one of China’s people of the year for ‘doing what others dare not do’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3258418/96-year-old-wind-tunnel-pioneer-yu-hongru-honoured-one-chinas-people-year-doing-what-others-dare-not?utm_source=rss_feed

A 96-year-old Chinese aerospace engineer has been honoured as one of the country’s people of the year at an awards ceremony hosted by state broadcaster CCTV.

Yu Hongru’s achievements include heading the team that build the first shock wind tunnel to test hypersonic aircraft and, most recently, the most powerful testing facility of its kind on the planet, the JF-22, which can reproduce flight conditions at an altitude of 40 to 100 kilometres and about 30 times the speed of sound.

CCTV’s award citation at the Touching China 2023 gala described Yu as a “hidden dragon” who took on tasks others would not or could not undertake.

The technology has been used to develop key projects such as the Dongfeng ballistic missile series and Shenzhou spacecraft, with Yu telling the event: “The missiles that pass by Tiananmen Square [during the National Day parade], and all aerospace aircraft have something to do with our research.”

The awards citation also praised Yu for his innovative approach to the development of hypersonic wind tunnels.

Chinese scientists question ‘flaw’ in Nasa’s hypersonic aerodynamics software

His given name, Hongru, means a scholar of profound knowledge. He joined the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1958, two years after its establishment.

This came at a time when the Soviet Union had launched its first intercontinental missile and launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite to orbit the Earth. “We believed that completing this research would be beneficial for the country,” Yu stated.

One hallmark of Yu’s career has been a drive to minimise costs, even if it means taking risks. When developing shock tubes – the core component of a shock wind tunnel – he continued to use a propulsion method powered by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen that other countries had abandoned because of the risk of explosions.

“Opposition might indicate mediocrity,” Yu said. “This road was abandoned by foreigners, but I think there is hope. We have the ability to control risk so that no one was injured or killed in the research.”

In 1958, Yu developed China’s first shock tube, and eleven years later, he produced the JF-8 large shock wind tunnel, which matched international standards at a fraction of the cost.

“Back then, the country was so poor; how could we justify spending more? To excel in this work, one must know how to save money. Even now, when the country is wealthier, we should maintain this approach instead of always asking for more funds,” Yu told the awards ceremony.

In the decades since then he has helped develop other innovative wind tunnels and technologies that have been adopted internationally.

China’s hypersonic science aces train their sights on high-speed rail safety

Yu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, officially retired in 2017 but told the ceremony: “I feel there are many more [scientific] problems asking us to move forward.”

The Touching China awards are an annual event that honour around 10 people or teams for outstanding achievements. As well as honouring scientists, other recipients often include sporting champions, grass-roots cadres who work hard and ordinary people who have stood up for justice.

China vows to protest ‘every single incident’ of mistreatment of Chinese arrivals in US

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258389/china-vows-protest-every-single-incident-mistreatment-chinese-arrivals-us?utm_source=rss_feed

China has taken another, bigger swipe at the US over what it alleges is “increasing” mistreatment of Chinese visitors at the American border, saying it will keep protesting “every single incident”.

In a statement on Monday, the Chinese embassy in the United States accused the US of “unjustifiably” sending back nearly 300 Chinese citizens since July 2021, including more than 70 Chinese students that it said had legal and valid travel documents.

In one case, a visiting Chinese scholar was detained for 22 hours on arrival at San Francisco International Airport in February before having his visa cancelled. He was deported back to China and banned from entering the US for five years, the embassy said.

Four US customs officers were said to have interrogated the scholar for 12 hours in the “secondary inspection” area where further interviews are conducted, questioning the traveller’s political background, research field, purpose for visiting the US and funding methods.

“Similar incidents have emerged, one after another with increasing frequency recently,” the embassy said, adding that even Chinese officials invited by the US for a friendly visit were not immune from being “harassed”.

“Such acts by the US side far exceeded the scope of normal law enforcement and are driven by strong ideological bias.”

The Chinese embassy and some consulates have formally protested to the US State Department, National Security Council, Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, according to the statement.

“The Chinese side has been ‘lodging representations on every single incident’ toward the final resolution of the issue,” it said.

It adds to a growing list of examples Beijing has cited in recent months of what it says is Washington “unwarrantedly” blocking, investigating, conducting body searches and deporting arriving Chinese students, scholars and businesspeople.

The issue has moved up China’s agenda for managing the relationship with the US.

In February, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi raised it with his US counterpart Antony Blinken and Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong brought it up with Alejandro Mayorkas, the US secretary for homeland security.

During a phone call on April 2, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden agreed to take further steps to expand people-to-people exchanges, building on the consensus reached in their summit in California five months ago.

But the Chinese embassy once again said the recent actions of American border control officers violated the common understanding reached by the two presidents.

“China urges the US to … stop poisoning the environment of public support for relations between the two countries,” the embassy said.

Less than two weeks before the Chinese embassy’s statement, China’s foreign ministry issued a travel advisory to its citizens visiting the US, warning them there may be “various unexpected situations” such as “unwarranted interrogation and harassment”.

The US updated its travel advisory on China in July, recommending Americans reconsider visiting the country because of “arbitrary” law enforcement, including issuing exit bans.

Academics from both nations said in a virtual forum last month that American students in China had not experienced significant threats to their safety, and called on the State Department to make its travel advisory for the country more specific.

In an address to US business leaders in California in November, Xi said Beijing was ready to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for exchanges and study in the next five years. China has since seen more groups of US students arrive.

According to data from the Institute of International Education, Chinese students have outnumbered any other foreign group studying in the US for 15 consecutive years.

In the school year ending in September 2023, there were 289,526 Chinese students in the US, a slight decrease of 0.2 per cent from the previous year and the lowest since 2013-14, but the number of graduate students among them rebounded for the second straight year, according to the institute’s annual study funded by the US government.

US ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns said in December that the number of American students in China rose to 700 last year after falling sharply to 350 in 2022. But the total was still far below the nearly 15,000 recorded in the 2011-12 academic year.

US-Japan summit preview: Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida expected to raise defence, diplomacy as China looms

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3258421/us-japan-summit-preview-joe-biden-and-fumio-kishida-expected-raise-defence-diplomacy-china-looms?utm_source=rss_feed

Defence and diplomacy will top the agenda when US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meet on Wednesday in the first such bilateral summit in Washington since 2015, focusing on deterrence amid China’s quickly expanding military footprint.

The two leaders will then join a trilateral summit on Thursday with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr as the Biden administration works to bolster its network of Indo-Pacific economic and security agreements.

“The constant [for] the United States in this lattice strategic architecture is Japan,” Rahm Emanuel, US ambassador to Japan, said on Monday, explaining the approach was “not to isolate China” but to get Beijing to realise its “attempt to isolate others – either on the economic front, the deterrence front, the development front – doesn’t work.”

A significant part of the US-Japan summit is likely to centre on streamlining the two respective military bureaucracies so that the Pentagon and Japan’s Self-Defence Forces can react quickly and efficaciously in the event of a conflict with China or North Korea.

“Our two countries are working together with a clearer understanding of the importance of closer coordination … how to coordinate our command and control structure, as we establish that joint operational command,” said Shigeo Yamada, Japan’s ambassador to the US, at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. The two leaders were “basically on the same page”, he added.

But that page was unlikely to include a detailed road map any time soon as the allies struggle to reorganise entrenched defence systems built over decades.

A central problem, say analysts, is that the military structure in neighbouring South Korea is headed by a four-star general, while American army, naval, air force and marine forces in Japan are headed by three-star commanders.

Tokyo is pushing for Japan to play a more prominent role given the confusion and turf battles that could result were a conflict to erupt.

China ‘gravely concerned’ about reports Japan could join Aukus security pact

The allies are also likely to discuss bolstered air-power cooperation, co-production of defence equipment and defence industrial policy coordination, said CSIS analyst Christopher Johnstone.

While economics are not expected to dominate bilateral discussions, the Biden administration’s decision, announced before the summit, to block Nippon Steel’s US$41 billion takeover bid for US Steel on national-security grounds has added friction.

“All deliverables are likely to have a security component, and they’ll underplay Nippon Steel,” said Jeremy Chan, a geopolitical analyst with the Eurasia Group. “That’s such an ill-timed, tin-eared move.”

Emanuel, a Chicago native and former mayor, countered on Monday that too much was being made of the decision affecting Nippon given the two countries’ increasingly close bilateral relationship. “As we would say in Chicago, ‘you gotta chill’.”

The US-Japan summit will include one-on-one talks, a joint press conference, a state dinner, a speech before the US Congress and meetings between Kishida and Japanese companies in North Carolina. The trilateral leaders’ summit on Thursday will include talks and a three-way press conference.

The latticework system meant to deter China encompasses a variety of initiatives targeting the Indo-Pacific region. One includes Japan and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue of which the US, India and Australia are also members, while others include the Japan-South Korea-US trilateral; the Aukus alliance, a pact comprising Australia, Britain and the US; and the 14-nation Indo-Pacific Economic Framework led by the US.

“We also face the reality that China is increasing its presence in the region,” Kishida said in Tokyo before his arrival, adding that other Asian countries like the Philippines expected “Japan to increase its presence and provide an attractive alternative”.

The visit to Washington marks the latest high-profile global meeting for the Japanese prime minister. Last year, apart from meeting Biden twice in person, Kishida attended the Nato and European Union summits as well as travelled to war-wracked Ukraine.

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

China’s foreign ministry on Monday said any defence cooperation should promote regional peace. “We oppose cobbling together exclusive groupings and stoking bloc confrontation in the region,” added ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

In taking a leading role in many regional “mini-lateral” arrangements, Tokyo has reversed a decades-long record of cautious defence and diplomatic policies.

Japan recently announced it would double its 2022 defence budget by 2027, add counterstrike capability, lift its cap on defence exports and stabilise historically prickly relations with Seoul.

“There’s been a strategic rethinking about how great the risks were in the region and how implicated Japan is in any contingency,” said Chan. “They can’t avoid being involved, so they might as well lean in.”

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

Adding to Tokyo’s many hats, Aukus members signalled on Monday they would likely involve Japan in future projects, potentially including artificial intelligence, quantum technology, hypersonic capabilities and electronic warfare.

“My sense is that there is not yet a consensus among the three Aukus partners on what that project is,” Johnstone said.

Kishida hopes to further deepen security cooperation in such areas as defence equipment and technology. Japan, the US and Australia could agree to cooperate on military drones, Japanese media reported on Monday.

Bilateral progress could emerge in civilian and defence space projects, said CSIS senior fellow Kari Bingen, including the possible involvement of a Japanese astronaut in a future Artemis moon-landing mission. Bingen also expected greater collaboration in missile warning, hypersonic weapons, satellite architectures and data sharing.

The Philippines, meanwhile, is hoping to bolster support from Washington and Tokyo this week – as well as Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia further afield – as it encounters rising pressure from Beijing over contested waters in the South China Sea.

On March 5, the Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia collided with the Philippine Coast Guard. And on March 23, Chinese water cannons damaged a Philippine supply vessel and injured some of crew.

“The leaders of all three countries are now seeking to quickly institutionalise a new coordinated approach to regional security,” said Haroro Ingram, Philippines country representative with the non-profit United States Institute of Peace. “But the Marcos administration correctly recognises that it cannot solely rely on its two closest friends to deal with the challenges of the next decade.”

In recent years, Tokyo have provided defence aid, patrol boats and radar systems to the Philippines as the two sides negotiate an agreement to train troops in each other’s country.

On Sunday, in a clear message ahead of the summit, the three countries conducted joint naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea.

This week the US and Tokyo are also expected to offer more economic aid to Manila, potentially involving semiconductor and other hi-tech manufacturing, green energy and mining.

How will China react as Biden readies for ‘Camp David’ with Kishida, Marcos?

But officials and analysts acknowledged many of the strings that make up the latticework were politically vulnerable.

Kishida could face a snap election in September amid a funding scandal in his ruling party. Marcos wants to show voters that his tough China stance yields economic and political benefits. And Biden faces a tough re-election campaign ahead of November against former US president Donald Trump, who is notoriously wary of international cooperation.

“Springtime may see a blossoming US-Japan alliance,” said Mireya Solis, a Brookings Institution senior fellow. “But cooperative endeavours will be tested by the winds of political change come fall.”

Emanuel portrayed the recent strategic moves as a necessary geopolitical investment.

“Roots are being put down,” he said. “But it’s early enough that unless you’re building on it constantly, it will atrophy. And we all know that.”

Russian city near China’s border says radiation under control after workshop leak triggered emergency alert

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3258394/russian-city-near-chinas-border-says-radiation-under-control-after-workshop-leak-triggered-emergency?utm_source=rss_feed

A city in the Russian far east near the border with China says radiation levels have returned to normal after a 1,600-fold localised spike prompted a state of emergency last week.

The radiation was found to have been caused by parts from a mobile repair and chemical workshop, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing authorities in Khabarovsk.

The city of about 640,000 people lies 30km (18.6 miles) from China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province.

The increased radiation levels were detected near a power pylon around 2.5km from residential buildings, Tass said in its report on Monday.

“An increase in the natural background radiation was registered in the area of Suvorova and Sidorenko streets in Khabarovsk last week. Outside the epicentre, the radiation level was normal,” it said.

Local authorities contacted by phone on Tuesday told the Post that the issue had been resolved.

According to The Moscow Times, a resident alerted emergency services after discovering that radiation levels had jumped sharply near a metal depot in the city’s industrial district.

Authorities declared a state of emergency in the area on Saturday and cordoned off a 900 square metre (about 9,690 sq ft) area, the paper reported.

It said the radioactive object was found to be a capsule from a flaw detector, which was properly disposed of by a company dealing in nuclear waste.

The Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported that volunteers from a radiation control group had detected a peak radioactivity level at the site of 800 microsieverts, a unit for the dose of radiation that poses a health risk to humans.

A level of 0.5 microsieverts per hour is considered safe for the general public, the group was quoted as saying by the paper, which meant the level detected was 1,600 times higher.

What Weibo alarm over Zhuhai radiation says about Chinese reaction to Fukushima

A member of staff at the Chinese embassy in Khabarovsk told Chinese media outlet Dingduan News that the radiation sources were under control and no large-scale pollution had been caused.

Users on Chinese social media platform Weibo commented on the incident.

“It turns out that dangers are very close to us,” one said, citing a storage facility not far from Khabarovsk for solid household radioactive waste from all of Russia’s far east.

“If a nuclear radiation leak occurs in the area, can the [Chinese] northeastern region remain intact?”

China and Russia make united stand to reform West-led global system

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258422/china-and-russia-make-united-stand-reform-west-led-global-system?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Russia have pledged to defend a multipolar world, jointly condemning Western-led “bloc confrontation” in talks in Beijing on Tuesday.

In a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China was willing to increase strategic coordination with Russia within multilateral frameworks to “promote reform” in the global system.

“China has always attached great importance to the development of Sino-Russian relations and is willing to work with Russia to intensify bilateral communication, strengthen multilateral strategic coordination in the BRICS group and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, demonstrate greater responsibility, unite the ‘Global South’ countries … and promote reform of the global governance system,” state broadcaster CCTV quoted Xi as saying.

The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov, who is in China for two days, delivered greetings to Xi from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who “very much appreciated” Xi’s congratulatory message on his re-election last month.

Lavrov said Putin’s victory guaranteed “continuity” of Russia-China relations and the “new development of cooperation in all areas”.

“Thanks to the diplomacy of the leaders, Russian-Chinese relations demonstrate stability as well as the ability to adapt to any – even the most difficult – conditions. The basis of Russian-Chinese relations is mutual support on issues affecting the fundamental interests of our states,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lavrov confirmed that Xi and Putin will meet this year on the sidelines of the SCO gathering in Kazakhstan and the BRICS summit in Russia involving leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Putin reportedly plans to visit China in May as the two countries mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations but Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that he could not confirm the timing of Putin’s visit.

‘No plans’: Australia denies Japan poised to formally join Aukus pact

Lavrov’s trip comes as as Beijing and Moscow both step up ties with countries in the Global South, moves widely seen as attempted to counter the Western-led global order.

The United States, meanwhile, is also stepping up strategic coordination in the Asia-Pacific with an eye on Russia and China. The leaders of Japan and the Philippines will be in Washington this week for a three-way summit and the US, Britain, and Australia are considering cooperation with Japan under the Aukus security pact.

In a press conference with Lavrov on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the US and its allies not to “extend their hands” to the Asia-Pacific region.

“[We] oppose any small circles that engage in bloc confrontation. Nato should not extend their hands to our common home ... in the Asia-Pacific. Any words or deeds that are divisive and confrontational have no market or future in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.

Lavrov also hit out at the West over “illegal sanctions” and “military and political unions” against Russia and China, which he said were attempts to disrupt a multipolar world order. He reaffirmed that Russia and China would stand “back-to-back, shoulder-to-shoulder” amid such attempts.

“Our leaders … have repeatedly emphasised the determination of Russia and China to counter attempts to slow down the formation of a multipolar world, the long-overdue processes of democratisation and justice that are ‘knocking on the door’ of the modern world order,” he said.

“The United States and its allies, in an effort to perpetuate their unjust position in the international system, are trying to stop them.”

Wang and Lavrov also said their countries would work together to defend multipolarity.

“Both China and Russia … oppose hegemonism and power politics, and oppose the monopoly of international affairs by a few countries,” Wang said.

“China and Russia will continue to … advocate inclusive economic globalisation, jointly oppose unilateralism, protectionism, fence-building and decoupling, and work together to maintain the stability of international industrial and industrial chains.”

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

Russia’s war in Ukraine has spurred Western distrust over Russia’s ties with China, and the West has repeatedly warned China not to give any material support to Russia’s war efforts.

Some Chinese companies have already been sanctioned by the European Union for allegedly circumventing the bloc’s sanctions on Russia, prompting strong opposition from Beijing.

Calling relations with China at an “unprecedentedly high level”, Lavrov vowed to increase coordination with China within BRICS and the SCO, including to solve sanctions-related issues.

Both countries will also launch talks on Eurasian security and continue cooperation on anti-terrorism, according to Lavrov.

Russia and China are both grappling with terror threats, including an attack outside Moscow last month and a suicide bombing targeting Chinese workers in Pakistan.

Isis-K claimed responsibility for the Moscow attack that killed at least 140 civilians but Russia sought to lay blame on Ukraine – allegations Kyiv has strongly denied.

With the fighting in Ukraine in its third year and the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant struck by drones again over the weekend, Wang renewed China’s call for a ceasefire and a timely convening of international peace conference, with “equal participation” of all involved parties.

Lavrov said he and Wang agreed that any international summit that did not take Russia’s position and interests into consideration would not bring any result.

China reportedly pushed for Russia to be invited to an upcoming summit on Ukraine in Switzerland but the proposal received little interest. European officials called it a “non-starter”, and Kyiv and Moscow both rejected the idea.

Why richer, older China needs changes to its social contract

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3258325/why-richer-older-china-needs-changes-its-social-contract?utm_source=rss_feed

No one likes getting old. The pains and strains of becoming elderly wear on us. The worries about how to ensure we can provide for ourselves in old age looms largest of all, as countries’ birth rates fall, lifespans extend and costs mount.

Nowhere feels this more acutely than China, where a staggering 300 million people are heading into their golden years and a great portion of retirees have minimal or no pension. We also see smaller families because of the now-abandoned one-child policy. As a result, families might find it harder to care for their parents as they age or fall ill.

The challenges are multifaceted. The government needs to build out rather than restrict the social safety net of pensions and healthcare for this growing segment of the country’s population. If adopted, gradual increases in social spending would be taking place at a time when the economy is slowing, straining budgets.

How should China pay for an ageing population and support economic growth? Lessons from other countries suggest that a combination of tax increases (widening the base, extending coverage), more generous social welfare (pensions and other family-friendly provisions) and pensionable age shifts (upwards over a decade or more) could provide a partial answer.

Few people like taxes, but applied fairly, consistently raising taxes to support the provision of pensions and services to seniors and families is a necessary part of the social policy response and will drive revenue. The personal income tax peak rate in China is 45 per cent, which is comparable to other countries. But the reality is far too few middle-class and wealthy Chinese pay taxes and too few Chinese workers pay income taxes.

Looking ahead, the number of people paying taxes needs to increase in a manner that raises revenue but is fair and ideally more progressive.

In 2019, only 6 per cent of China’s tax revenue came from individual income taxes. US taxpayers provided 42 per cent of total revenue in 2021. China’s corporate tax of 25 per cent is more in line with Western countries. Value-added tax (VAT) is the giant, accounting for 45 per cent of revenues, compared to 17 per cent in the US and about 22 per cent in the European Union.

Looking at China’s tax structure, the tax burden is less fair and progressive than it could be. Increasing China’s income tax revenue by widening coverage and application, alongside reductions in VAT, would relieve pressure on the poorest in society.

Workers might be willing to pay a different balance of taxes if they see improved social welfare and can expect more generous pension provisions in the decades ahead, alongside a slightly longer working life.

Getting this right will be politically difficult, as we have seen in France, Germany, the United States and elsewhere. But reforms of the tax and social contract are needed.

China’s middle class seek safe haven for wealth amid economic slowdown

China’s leaders need to strengthen social welfare provisions, particularly pensions, to lower the country’s savings rate and convince individuals to spend more on services and their lives. People are not foolish. Families know they must provide for all contingencies when they become old. Hence, China’s savings rate was a massive 46 per cent in 2021.

If the government plans staggered, gradual and clearly communicated tax and social welfare changes in the coming decades, China’s citizens can gain more confidence in having a stronger social safety net for themselves and their families when they reach old age. In turn, households’ calculus will shift and a change in mindset can take root.

China needs to save less and spend more on services to drive economic growth and the evolution of the country’s marketplace, firms, investments and productive outcomes. Significant reductions in the personal savings rate will take time and requires a stronger safety net. China’s leaders need not aim for the other end of the scale and reduce household savings to the levels seen in the US, but a median route to economic growth and retirement security is possible.

China is getting rich. It is the world’s second-largest economy and still growing faster than many of its competitors, even as that growth rate slows amid economic headwinds. However, China is also getting old.

It perhaps is time for Chinese policymakers to begin the complex task of using more of the country’s considerable collective wealth to better provide for the ageing demographic cohort through better-designed taxation and collection. In doing so, the government can help set the stage for continued economic growth and a fiscally and socially sound future.

China’s No 3 official Zhao Leji to lead delegation to North Korea on ‘goodwill visit’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258410/chinas-no-3-official-zhao-leji-lead-delegation-north-korea-goodwill-visit?utm_source=rss_feed

A Chinese delegation led by the country’s top lawmaker Zhao Leji will travel to North Korea on Thursday for a three-day visit, the latest official exchange between the neighbouring countries.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning confirmed on Tuesday that Zhao – China’s third-highest ranking official – would lead a group of party and government officials on a “goodwill visit” to North Korea.

She said the delegation would attend the opening ceremony of the “China-North Korea Friendship Year”, which will mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Beijing and Pyongyang.

Zhao is a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee and it will be his first trip to Pyongyang since he became chairman of China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, in March last year.

Details of Zhao’s visit were still being discussed, according to Mao. He is expected to meet North Korean officials for high-level talks.

Mao said the visit “demonstrates the deep friendship between the two countries” and the importance Beijing attaches to their bilateral relations.

“It is believed that with the joint efforts of both sides, this visit will surely be a success and will further promote the deepening and development of China-North Korea relations,” she said, adding that Zhao had been invited to visit by Pyongyang’s ruling party.

Inside North Korea: photos capture rare glimpse of life in closed-off nation

Zhao’s trip will be the latest high-level exchange between the two sides.

A North Korean delegation visited Beijing last month, led by the head of the International Department of the ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, Kim Song-nam.

Kim met top Chinese officials Wang Huning and Cai Qi – ranked fourth and fifth on the Politburo Standing Committee – as well as his counterpart Liu Jianchao during the trip.

During their meeting, Wang said Beijing was willing to work with Pyongyang to deepen collaboration, strengthen strategic communication, and jointly work “for a peaceful and stable external environment”, according to the Chinese foreign ministry readout.

That came after Chinese foreign vice-minister Sun Weidong visited North Korea with a group of officials in January, meeting his counterpart Pak Myong-ho and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui.

The two sides agreed to “strengthen strategic communication at all levels” and reaffirmed their “unswerving stance” on deepening bilateral ties, the Chinese foreign ministry readout said. A report by the official Korean Central News Agency said they had agreed to defend both nations’ common interests.

Tensions have been running high on the Korean peninsula after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in January called South Korea the “principal enemy” and abolished a handful of key government agencies dedicated to reunification with the South.

Despite facing international sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear weapons programme, North Korea has persisted in advancing its military capabilities. Beijing is Pyongyang’s closest ally and its biggest economic benefactor.

Is China a security threat? Over 90% of Japanese think so, new poll shows

Last week, Seoul said Pyongyang had test-fired a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile. That came after Pyongyang in March reportedly tested a solid-fuel engine for an intermediate-range hypersonic missile.

As tensions rise on the peninsula, Seoul is drawing closer to its key ally Washington. The two countries last month held their annual joint military exercise, Freedom Shield, which was condemned by Pyongyang.

‘The Philippines is ours, China out’: Filipino activists slam Sino-US rivalry in country’s maritime zone

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3258414/philippines-ours-china-out-filipino-activists-slam-sino-us-rivalry-countrys-maritime-zone?utm_source=rss_feed

Hundreds of Filipino activists protested against China and the United States on Tuesday, condemning both countries for waging their rivalry within the Philippines’ maritime territory in the South China Sea.

The protesters, who gathered near the Chinese consulate in Metro Manila, chanted “the Philippines is ours, China out” as they also slammed the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr for giving the US the right to use Philippine military facilities.

They urged Marcos Jnr to turn the West Philippine Sea – Manila’s term for the waters of the South China Sea located within and outside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) it considers its maritime territory – into a “demilitarised zone” where local fishermen could fish peacefully.

Vice-President Sara Duterte was also not spared, after she declined to comment on the use of water cannons by Chinese vessels to block Philippine ships on a mission to resupply Philippine troops stationed on the Second Thomas Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

Tuesday’s rally, which took place in Metro Manila’s financial district of Makati City, was held to coincide with the Day of Valour, which commemorates the day when the provinces of Bataan and Corregidor fell to Japanese invaders 82 years ago.

The protest was organised by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance), an alliance of left-wing Philippine groups.

Policemen with riot shields, truncheons and walkie-talkies parked vehicles on one lane of the avenue to prevent activists from gathering in front of the Chinese consulate and tried to turn them away, saying they lacked a permit to rally.

One young activist retorted, “The Chinese are already driving Filipinos away in the West Philippine Sea. Are you also driving us out of here?”

Meanwhile, at an event west of Manila commemorating the Day of Valour, Marcos Jnr warned that “foul forces [are] endangering the hard-fought gains we made for our country” and urged Filipinos to emulate those who fought in Bataan and Corregidor so that “like them, we may emerge triumphant in the trials of our time”.

Marcos Jnr heads to Washington on April 11 to join US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for their first-ever trilateral summit. Increased presence of US military forces in the Philippines was likely to be on the agenda, government sources hinted to This Week in Asia.

Eight out of 10 Filipinos favour Manila working closely with Washington to serve as a deterrence to China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea, according to the results of a survey done by private pollster Pulse Asia and released on January 16.

On Sunday, warships from the US, Philippines, Japan and Australia staged a show of force within Manila’s 200-mile maritime EEZ, which China mostly claims as being within its territory under its nine-dash line.

On the same day, the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command held a joint naval and air combat patrol, also in the South China Sea.

Both sides pronounced their war exercises a resounding success.

Fernando Hicap, president of Pamalakayang Pilipinas (National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organisation in the Philippines), told This Week in Asia during Tuesday’s rally that the rapid turn of events was “very concerning”.

Hicap said his organisation of 100,000 members “condemns the Marcos administration’s dependence on the help of the US, Japan and other countries to resolve this [South China Sea conflict] through warships”.

“We don’t support this method of resolution through war.”

When asked whether the Philippines could defend itself without external help, Hicap replied, “Yes, because China is becoming isolated in the international community. The solution is diplomacy, not war.”

Hicap said China’s “illegal occupation in the West Philippine Sea” violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and a 2016 international arbitral decision that ruled China’s claims have no legal basis.

Antonio Tinio, a former congressman with the party-list group Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), told This Week in Asia that the country needed “an independent foreign policy”, instead of one that would only exploit the Philippines.

“We need an independent foreign policy that will fight China but would not allow the US or Japan to exploit us for their own agendas,” said Tinio, also a spokesman for the newly formed movement P1nas (Filipinos United for Sovereignty).

“We should urge our friends abroad to support us, but it is another thing to allow the US to base in our territory and prepare for a war that is not our national interest.”

Tinio lamented that the people of Batanes, the country’s northernmost province, would be “put in harm’s way” should conflict break out between the US and China over Taiwan. The Philippine military is building a base to share with US soldiers in Batanes, which is located less than 200km (124 miles) from Taiwan.

The government should emulate Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, which maintained ties with other countries including the US but did not allow Washington to put up facilities and locate their troops on their soil, Tinio said.

“They do not allow the US to use their country to commit any aggression in order to pursue their own interests,” he said.

Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase to renew partnership this week, bringing games like World of Warcraft back to China

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3258405/blizzard-entertainment-and-netease-renew-partnership-week-bringing-games-world-warcraft-back-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Blizzard Entertainment, the video game giant behind of World of Warcraft, and long-time Chinese partner NetEase are expected to announce a new deal this week that will allow for a highly anticipated comeback to the country.

The two companies are expected to announce on Wednesday that they have reached a new agreement for the distribution of Blizzard titles in China, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be named, confirming local media reports. However, it could take at least another month for Blizzard games to finally return to the domestic market after the new partnership is announced, the person added.

US tech giant Microsoft, which acquired Activision Blizzard, parent of Blizzard Entertainment, for US$69 billion last year, has been playing a positive and active role in the negotiation process with NetEase since talks started late last year, according to the source.

China approves Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal, bucking US, UK opposition

Chinese news portal Sina.com first reported on Tuesday that the pair will make their renewed partnership public on Wednesday, citing confirmation from NetEase. Lanjinger, another Chinese news publication, also confirmed the timeline and added that the local servers might be open to gamers this summer.

Neither NetEase nor Blizzard responded to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The revival of Blizzard’s partnership with NetEase would let one of the largest game developers return to the world’s largest video gaming market by revenue, after an absence of more than a year.

The developer of the hit Warcraft and Diablo series suspended services in China in January 2023 after its 14-year partnership with NetEase expired. The two companies failed to agree to new terms to extend the partnership.

Blizzard said a week before the expiration that NetEase had rejected its proposal for a six-month extension. NetEase, which had been running World of Warcraft in China in 2009, described the offer as unfair.

In addition to the withdrawal of World of Warcraft last year, Blizzard also had to discontinue support for other popular titles in the country such as Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft and Diablo III.

After the fallout, NetEase filed multiple lawsuits against Blizzard. In one suit filed last April, NetEase demanded US$45 million as compensation for costs that included refunds it had to pay to affected gamers.

Blizzard responded with two countersuits in June, alleging intellectual property infringement and unfair competition, after the Chinese firm’s game Justice launched an initiative to woo World of Warcraft fans, according to a report by Chinese media Yicai.

The two companies later dropped all the lawsuits.

China’s strict video gaming regulations require that foreign titles only be published via local distributors to ensure they have proper licensing – a process that often involves sanitisation to appease censors. The National Press and Publication Administration on Monday published the second batch of approved imported games for 2024, bringing the total for the year to 46 titles.

---

China’s wind sector latest in European cross hairs after EVs, solar panels, trains

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258417/chinas-wind-sector-latest-european-cross-hairs-after-evs-solar-panels-trains?utm_source=rss_feed

The European Union has launched an investigation into subsidies in China’s wind turbine sector, in the latest economic salvo launched at Beijing by Brussels.

The probe, announced by competition chief Margrethe Vestager in the United States on Tuesday, covers “the conditions for the development of wind parks in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria”.

It is the third China-facing investigation under the bloc’s foreign subsidies regulation, a tool adopted last year. The previous two accused Chinese businesses of using state subsidies to undercut the opposition in public procurement contracts.

In this case, the investigation is at a preliminary stage, and has been launched ex officio, meaning on the own volition of executive arm the European Commission, without an official complaint from member states.

The announcement came during a speech at Princeton University in which Vestager, who will leave her role after the European elections in June, pitched a tougher line on China.

“We’re making full use of the tools that we have. But I can’t help feeling that this is also playing whack-a-mole. We need more than a case-by-case approach. We need a systematic approach. And we need it before it is too late. We can’t afford to see what happened on solar panels, happening again on electric vehicles (EVs), wind or essential chips,” the former Danish economy minister said.

Vestager also lashed out at the “playbook for how China came to dominate the solar panel industry”.

She said this involved Beijing attracting foreign investment in its solar sector through joint ventures with local partners, acquiring the technology through methods that were “not always above board”, lavishing subsidies on domestic players while “closing the domestic market to foreign businesses”, and then exporting cheap excess capacity to the rest of the world.

“We see this playbook now deployed across all clean tech areas, legacy semiconductors, and beyond – as China doubles down on a supply side support strategy, to address its economic downturn,” Vestager said.

“Our economies cannot absorb this,” she added.

“It is not only dangerous for our competitiveness. It also jeopardises our economic security. We have seen how one-sided dependencies can be used against us.”

Vestager’s intervention comes as the debate over overcapacity in the Chinese economy reaches fever pitch.

‘Something must change’: EU chamber warns of unfolding ‘train accident’ with China

Unsatisfied with what they see as a lack of response in Beijing to long-standing demands to adjust its economic policies, a series of investigations have been launched into what Brussels has described as “market distorting” state subsidies.

These have come in a variety of high profile sectors, like EVs, train carriages and solar panels, and have seen the EU tap into its range of trade weapons. Rail and solar probes were the first to be launched under its new foreign subsidies regulation.

The bloc is planning in the coming days to launch the first-ever investigation using its international procurement instrument, sources said. This will probe the lack of market access reported by European firms in China’s medical devices procurement sector.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, meanwhile, is touring several European capitals this week in an effort to quell what he has called “groundless” concerns that cheap Chinese exports will damage their manufacturing bases.

During a meeting with Chinese car executives in Paris on Tuesday, Wang pushed back against an EU probe into state subsidies in the sector and slammed the “narrative” on overcapacity.

According to a press release from the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU, Wang “urged the European side to avoid misinterpreting standard export activities resulting from globalisation and the diverse supply chain locations as indicative of overcapacity”.

In a veiled threat at retaliation, he said: “By this reasoning many of Europe’s own advantageous products could also be subject to such labelling”.

The topic was high on the agenda when US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China earlier this week.

Yellen asked Beijing to address industrial overcapacity in sectors such as EVs and solar modules, which she warned could be a repeat of what happened when China’s below-cost steel flooded into the global market a decade ago.

“I’ve made clear that President [Joe] Biden and I will not accept that reality again,” she said during a news conference at the US ambassador’s residence in Beijing on Monday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz can be expected to strike a more conciliatory tone than Vestager during an imminent trip to Beijing accompanied by a small business delegation.

“There is no European consensus about the risks that China’s industrial overcapacity pose,” said Agathe Demarais, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“This highlights diverging degrees of economic reliance on China, with Germany an outlier in Europe. German firms have a huge presence in China, where their annual revenues represent a staggering 6 per cent of German gross domestic product,” Demarais said, noting that the figure was more than double the average of Europe’s six largest economies.

Alibaba’s AliExpress pushes ‘10 billion yuan of subsidies’ campaign to entice more Chinese brands and merchants to sell in overseas markets

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3258398/alibabas-aliexpress-pushes-10-billion-yuan-subsidies-campaign-entice-more-chinese-brands-and?utm_source=rss_feed

Alibaba Group Holding’s international online shopping platform, AliExpress, will provide fresh subsidies to entice more Chinese brands and merchants to sell overseas, as the e-commerce giant moves to fend off growing competition from PDD Holdings’ Temu and fast-fashion retailer Shein.

The campaign called “10 billion yuan of subsidies” – a typical mainland marketing phrase used to tout large online allotments – will be given to an initial batch of 1,000 Chinese brands and merchants, including those who have already opened a store on Alibaba’s domestic retail platform Tmall, according to an AliExpress statement on Monday. AliExpress did not provide the exact amount of subsidies.

Chinese brands and merchants who register under the campaign will also be able to sell their goods on Alibaba’s other international e-commerce channels including Lazada in Southeast Asia, Miravia in Spain, Trendyol in Turkey and Daraz in South Asia, according to AliExpress.

Those who sign up for the AliExpress programme will also receive assistance in terms of marketing to boost online consumer traffic and special delivery services via Alibaba unit Cainiao Smart Logistics Network. Alibaba also owns the South China Morning Post.

The latest AliExpress campaign shows how competition from a new generation of China-founded online retailers – Temu and Shein in particular – has raised the stakes for Alibaba’s expansion efforts overseas, as a shaky post pandemic economic recovery weakened consumer spending in the domestic market.

AliExpress recently signed up as a sponsor of this year’s European Football Championship, or Euro 2024, to become the first exclusive e-commerce platform partner for the national men’s teams under the Union of European Football Associations. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Early last month, Alibaba expanded its “five-day delivery” service to the United States for the benefit of AliExpress shoppers in the world’s largest economy. The Cainiao-led service, which was introduced last year, also covers Mexico, Germany, France, Portugal and Saudi Arabia.

Alibaba brings 5-day delivery to the US in race against Shein, Temu

In the quarter ended December 31, AliExpress boosted revenue at Alibaba’s International Digital Commerce Group by 44 per cent year on year to 28.52 billion yuan (US$4 billion). AliExpress also delivered more than 60 per cent order growth in the same period.

Alibaba co-founder and chairman Joe Tsai has said that Alibaba is poised for a comeback after several years of rising competition and macroeconomic pressures.

The Hangzhou-based company is “a lot more confident” about its position as one of China’s top e-commerce players, as it undergoes a restructuring process with new management in place, Tsai told US business news channel CNBC in a report that was broadcast in February.

Father of dead China singer blasts blogger’s digital version of late son created without consent, calls for AI control

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3255896/father-dead-china-singer-blasts-bloggers-digital-version-late-son-created-without-consent-calls-ai?utm_source=rss_feed

More and more people in China are using artificial intelligence, or AI, to “resurrect” deceased celebrities, but one relative of a late well-known personality has slammed the practice as unacceptable.

On March 16, Qiao Kangqiang, father of the deceased Chinese star Qiao Renliang, said he wanted all AI videos of his son to be removed from the internet as they were “rubbing salt into his wound”.

Qiao tragically took his own life in 2016 at the age of 29, after suffering from serious depression thought to have been exacerbated by untrue media reports and online abuse.

His parents have been grieving the loss of their only son ever since.

The couple now edit a Douyin account, posting videos of their life while promoting the skincare brand their son founded.

In the unauthorised AI-generated video of Qiao, the young star speaks to his fans and parents, telling them that he is “not really gone but retired to live a peaceful life”.

The video cloned Qiao’s voice and used lip-syncing technology to create speech generated from text.

The singer’s father said the video maker did not obtain his family’s consent.

A lawyer from Shanghai Sunhold Law Firm, Zhang Yuxia, told the mainland media outlet The Paper that using AI technology to create a video or image of a dead person without their family’s consent is a violation of privacy and the rights of portrait and reputation.

There are several accounts on short video platform Douyin, the mainland version of TikTok, that use the name “AI resurrecting relatives” and make AI-generated videos of deceased celebrities to promote their business.

Other featured stars include Hong Kong-American pop singer Coco Lee, who died in 2023, and Taiwanese-Canadian model and actor Godfrey Gao, who passed away in 2019.

On March 17, Jiang Qiulian, the mother of Jiang Ge, who was killed by her friend’s boyfriend while studying in Japan, also strongly protested against the approach.

She said the AI creators know neither their deceased relatives nor their relationship with them and have no right to do what they are doing.

On the day Qiao senior denounced the unauthorised video, its maker took down all the AI celebrity videos on their Douyin account and promised to not post anymore.

However, the account was still recruiting students and advertising its AI “relative resurrection” business, charging 588 yuan (US$83) per video, according to The Paper.

On China’s largest e-commerce platform, Taobao, which is operated by the Alibaba Group, owner of the South China Morning Post, people advertise an AI service that cost as little as 10 yuan.

Customers need only to provide a photo, and the shop can animate it with smiling and blinking effects to make the portrait appear to look like a moving video. Speaking can be incorporated for an extra cost.

Qiao senior’s request to remove the videos topped Weibo’s trending list on March 16, receiving 220 million views.

“I was often moved by these AI videos, but more often I felt upset. They cannot bring back the emotions or thoughts of deceased people, let alone replace the ones we love,” one person wrote on Weibo.

“Life and death are a natural cycle and properly accepting loss is the true liberation from grief,” said another.

A third person urged legislation on AI-generated videos: “Such videos made without consent not only violate people’s rights but also hurt their feelings. There should be laws to limit such practices.”

Janet Yellen in China: how far did trip move the ball for US-China relations as presidential election looms?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3258402/janet-yellen-china-how-far-did-trip-move-ball-us-china-relations-presidential-election-looms?utm_source=rss_feed

The week-long trip to China by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sidestepped core economic disputes, and without headway, analysts said the pressure of November’s presidential election could force the Biden administration “to be more aggressive” on the trade front.

Yellen ended her second trip to China in 10 months on Tuesday, having met Chinese officials and American business representatives in Guangzhou and Beijing over the past week, with the pressing issue of overcapacity having featured high on the agenda.

“The November election pressure may force Biden to be more aggressive on the US-China trade front, as this is one issue that American politicians can win easy points,” said Chen Zhiwu, the chair professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong, after Yellen and her Chinese counterparts failed to address some major issues.

“But, the Biden team has in general taken a mild approach towards China, and I don’t think they want to start a real trade war in 2024.”

He said that Yellen had focused on addressing practical short-term issues, such as the prevention of possible dumping of electric vehicles and other manufacturing products, money laundering and the mistreatment of US companies in China, during her trip.

Yellen claimed that “major steps” had been taken to stabilise relations since her last visit in July, with a particular reference to the meeting between President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Joe Biden in November, but acknowledged that many issues remained unresolved.

“During this trip, we have been able to build on that foundation to move the ball forward on specific issues that matter to Americans,” she said in Beijing on Monday.

“That does not mean we have resolved all our differences. There is much more work to do. And it remains unclear what this relationship will endure in the months and years ahead.”

Lu Xiang, a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also said both countries would maintain a level of communication with deeper exchanges.

“Yellen’s trip will ease the tension between China and America, especially the meeting with Liu He shows that China is consistent in the bilateral relationship,” he said, referring to China’s former vice-premier who led previous trade negotiations with the US.

“But the real issues revolve around the small-yard high-fence strategy of the US and its worry regarding overcapacity, and we don’t exclude the possibility that the Biden administration will implement other restrictive measures.”

Yellen also met People’s Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng on Monday, and the pair discussed the macroeconomic situation, financial stability, currency policies and global financial governance, according to a statement from China’s central bank.

Ye Yu, deputy director of the Institute for World Economy Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said that China was concerned about trade tariffs and export controls.

“Beijing will raise these issues [to Yellen], but it’s for sure that they don’t expect any of these will get resolved,” she added.

“The situation now is more about whether these [measures] will be further escalated.”

Besides the trade and tech war, Liang Yan, chair of economics at Willamette University in Salem in the US state of Oregon, said that President Xi was eager for foreign investors to return to China amid the ongoing economic slowdown.

Yellen in China: ‘difficult conversations’, overcapacity spat add to tensions

“The fact that Yellen went to China in July and so quickly returned is a ‘good sign’ of intent to keep things moving,” she said.

Yellen said that she also had “difficult conversations about national security” with Chinese leaders, while they also exchanged information on the use of economic tools in the national security space.

Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, said that “both sides have reasons why they want to keep the talks [going]”.

“Cooperation is part of the narrative for both sides, so both sides want to appear to the world to be constructive,” he added.

Why is the Czech Republic targeting a Chinese diplomat and what does it have to do with Taiwan’s next vice-president?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258408/why-czech-republic-targeting-chinese-diplomat-and-what-does-it-have-do-taiwans-next-vice-president?utm_source=rss_feed

Prague is using Taiwan as an excuse to sour relations with Beijing, an analyst said, amid claims that the island’s vice-president-elect was followed by a Chinese diplomat during a visit to the Czech capital last month.

Focus Taiwan, the English news portal of Taiwan’s semi-official Central News Agency, reported on Sunday that Czech authorities were investigating a report that a Chinese diplomat was stopped by police while following Hsiao Bi-khim’s motorcade.

The authorities summoned Chinese ambassador Feng Biao and were considering listing the diplomat at the centre of the allegations as persona non grata, which could result in the diplomat’s expulsion from the Czech Republic.

Hsiao was in Prague to speak at a seminar.

The Czech Republic does not recognise Taiwan as a country but it has fostered unofficial ties with the island.

A 150-person delegation led by the speaker of the lower chamber of the Czech parliament, Marketa Pekarova Adamova, went to Taipei in March last year and the Czech Republic and Taiwan host reciprocal economic and cultural offices.

Lawmakers from Hsiao’s Democratic Progressive Party said the incident last month was an example of Beijing’s “Wolf Warrior diplomacy” targeting Taipei.

But Josef Gregory Mahoney, a politics and international relations professor at East China Normal University, said there was “nothing Wolf Warrior” about the diplomat’s actions.

“[They were] precisely what a Chinese diplomat should do,” he said.

“Assuming the allegations are true, it’s not unreasonable for China to keep tabs on the visit,” Mahoney said, adding that there had been no claims that the tracking was illegal or covert.

“Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province and Hsiao belongs to a political party advocating independence. She is not in Prague to promote Chinese diplomacy but to undermine it. China should listen and follow.”

He said that by hosting Hsiao and floating a threat of expulsion for the Chinese diplomat, “the Czech Republic is placing itself in the vanguard of European anti-China policies, kowtowing to US pressures to pick a side”.

“The Czech Republic is a small country that depends disproportionately on the US for security and well-being, therefore, it is unsurprising that it is creating excuses for souring relations further,” Mahoney said.

Taiwan’s vice-president-elect courts Beijing’s anger with visit to Czech Republic

Andrew Korybko, from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, said Hsiao’s trip to Europe, which also included stops in Poland, Lithuania and Belgium, was intended to expand Taipei’s network of official and unofficial partners.

“The larger goal is to eventually court some of the US’ closest central and eastern European partners to recognise Taiwan or at least allow it to open up quasi-diplomatic offices there, like the representative one that opened in Lithuania in 2021,” Korybko said.

“Typically, whenever a country sends officials to Taiwan or receives officials from there, it is partially intended as a message to Beijing and always provokes a response.”

He said Washington’s European allies against Russia, such as the Czech Republic, were the “prime targets” of Taiwanese diplomacy.

“They are predisposed to believing recent reports that Beijing has allegedly ramped up its military and intelligence aid to Moscow over the past year, and they might then be amenable to expanding ties of some sort with Taipei on what they’d regard as a partially anti-Russian pretext.”

But such action ran the risk of economic retaliation from China, which could range from tourism to consumer boycotts, he added.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, 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 supplying it with weapons.

---

China’s Premier Li assembles economic experts ahead of hotly anticipated first-quarter data release

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3258386/chinas-premier-li-assembles-economic-experts-ahead-hotly-anticipated-first-quarter-data-release?utm_source=rss_feed

While getting the lay of the land from economists and entrepreneurs on Monday, Premier Li Qiang painted a big bullseye on sustainable economic growth while acknowledging what has been a persistent lack of demand and pledging to remove on-the-ground barriers.

In discussions concerning the current state of the world’s second-largest economy – about a week before the anticipated release of first-quarter data – China’s No 2 official discussed what still needs to be done against the backdrop of domestic hurdles and mounting external uncertainties.

China needs to “focus on scientific and technological innovation to promote industrial innovation and the outstanding issue of insufficient effective demand” as it looks to build internal growth momentum, an official readout quoted the premier as saying in the Monday meeting.

The first-quarter economic data, scheduled to be released by the National Bureau of Statistics next Tuesday, is poised to provide fresh insight into the country’s economic recovery and help gauge how leadership intends to keep China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth at “around 5 per cent” this year.

China’s Li Qiang dismisses ‘overcapacity’ concerns in talks with Janet Yellen

Contending that Beijing’s macro policy mix is working, Premier Li said: “The current external environment is increasingly complex, severe and uncertain, and we still need to work hard to fix problems that exist in the economy.”

Solutions should include improving the consistency of policies and better implementing them in practice, he said. The message comes as authorities have been scrambling to shore up business confidence and inject life into economic-boosting activities.

Those invited to share their insights, including four key economists and four business leaders, said “positive factors in economic development are increasing, and market confidence has improved”, while conceding that stiff headwinds are still an issue.

Meanwhile, the premier took the opportunity to reiterate that China’s economy has “a solid foundation and many advantages”, and that the long-term upward trend of China’s development will not abate.

Some investment banks and international organisations have already raised China’s economic growth forecasts for the year following upbeat figures for January and February.

Owing mainly to better policy delivery and positive figures concerning consumption and investment, Citi has lifted its growth forecast from 4.6 per cent to 5 per cent. Nomura has also raised its projection from 4 per cent to 4.2 per cent.

And on Monday, the Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office, a Singapore-based macroeconomic surveillance organisation, estimated that China’s economic growth will reach 5.3 per cent for 2024, saying that its growth momentum should pick up moderately, and that authorities have “ample policy space and capacity to navigate through these challenges”.

Speculating on the upcoming March and first-quarter data, Wang Tao, an economist at UBS Group, was expecting better quarter-on-quarter momentum but slower year-on-year GDP growth.

“Partly due to a high base [from 2023], we expect a year-on-year decline in property sales, slower retail sales and [industrial production] growth, largely stable [fixed-asset investment] growth, and we expect exports will slide into a small year-on-year contraction,” she said in a research note.

But there are still multiple challenges facing the economy, as many economists have flagged, including a prolonged property market slump, huge levels of local-government debt, and weak exports.

“The country is still in the downward stage of the financial cycle. Insufficient demand is the main issue,” China International Capital Corporation said in a note late last month. “More fiscal stimulus is needed to consolidate the foundation of economic recovery.”

China seen as security threat by over 90% of Japanese, new survey shows

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3258271/china-seen-security-threat-over-90-japanese-new-survey-shows?utm_source=rss_feed

More than nine in every 10 Japanese now feel the nation’s security is threatened by China, according to a new survey – a rise observers attribute to Beijing’s increased aggression and the rising potential for a regional conflict.

The results of the annual survey carried out by the Yomiuri newspaper in February and March found that 92 per cent of respondents felt that China was a threat to Japan’s security – up from 86 per cent a year ago and 81 per cent in 2022.

Some 88 per cent said North Korea was also a cause for concern, an increase of one percentage point from last year’s survey and up from 72 per cent in 2022.

Russia, meanwhile, was identified as a danger by 89 per cent of respondents, up from 84 per cent last year and 82 per cent in 2022. In 2020, before its invasion of Ukraine, just 57 per cent of those surveyed said Russia was a national security threat.

“I do not think these numbers come as any great surprise,” said Sumie Kawakami, a lecturer at Yamanashi Gakuin University southwest of Tokyo. “North Korea has been firing a lot of missiles recently, and I find it interesting that [national broadcaster] NHK used to refer to these launches as of ‘projectiles’, but now they are simply calling them missiles.”

“There has been a realisation that North Korea is being more provocative and that these are missiles that can cause a lot of damage,” she added.

Kawakami said it was “inevitable” that there would be greater public concern surrounding Russia since the conflict in Ukraine had stunned the Japanese people and news about the ongoing fighting in Eastern Europe was unavoidable.

“The figures for China also reflect the alarm of ordinary people, although I am a little surprised it has gone as high as 92 per cent,” she said.

“China has for many years been aggressive towards Japan and other countries in the region, but I think what has happened in Ukraine has shown people here what could happen if China attacked Taiwan,” Kawakami said. “They worry that Japan would get drawn into fighting, and what we are seeing on television in Ukraine could happen here as well.”

Ken Kato, a businessman from Tokyo and paid-up member of the Liberal Democratic Party, said he believed it was a “positive” that more people were expressing concern about the security challenges that the nation faces.

“People have not been taking these threats seriously for a long time, and they have just become worse,” he said. “It is a positive thing that people are waking up to just how dangerous this region is.”

Kato described North Korea as the “biggest threat”, he said it was a “dictatorship where Kim [Jong-un] could wake up one morning and decide that he wanted to launch missiles with nuclear warheads at Japan and his generals would do as they were told. That, to me, is very dangerous”.

For Kato, a conflict over Taiwan is also a cause for concern as it would dramatically disrupt international trade, not least food imports. Japan does not produce enough food to feed its own population, making it vulnerable to disruptions or potentially even a blockade, he said.

Why Asia largely backs Japan’s defence boost despite its ‘history of aggression’

According to the Yomiuri poll, 71 per cent of Japanese are in favour of improving the nation’s military capabilities, down a single percentage point from last year, while a less enthusiastic 54 per cent support the government’s plans to increase defence-related spending to 43 trillion yen (US$283.6 billion) over five years to 2027.

“I am very much in favour of greater defence spending because our present budget is not at the 2 per cent of gross domestic product level that is becoming the international norm, and we definitely need to be at that level,” Kato said.

Kawakami admitted being torn on the issue, describing herself as “an old-school pacifist who supports the constitution on the issue of defence” – but said she was being swayed by the realities facing the nation.

“I feel that Japan needs to do more … Japan should be able to play a greater role internationally, and I do not believe there is enough discussion taking place at the moment about the challenges that we face,” she said.

“The government is busy dealing with its own internal crises, so there is no active discussion taking place about the security challenges that are going on around us.”

Kawakami further highlighted the potential impact of a second Donald Trump presidency on Japan.

“We need to start asking questions now about what happens if a more isolationist US administration opts to play a lesser role in the region, what happens if the US nuclear umbrella is gone, and lots of other questions,” she said.

“Right now, no one is talking about those issues, and we really need to start.”

PLA vows to strengthen war preparation, safeguard sovereignty after South China Sea drills

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3258356/pla-vows-strengthen-war-preparation-safeguard-sovereignty-after-south-china-sea-drills?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese military has wrapped up two days of naval and air drills in the disputed South China Sea that were held as the United States conducted joint exercises with the Philippines, Japan and Australia in the same area.

Senior Colonel Tian Junli, spokesman for the PLA’s Southern Theatre Command, said the drills on Sunday and Monday included fighter jet patrols, joint air and sea raids, and warships in cruising formation.

In a statement on Tuesday, Tian said the command would “continuously strengthen military training and war preparation” and “safeguard national sovereignty and maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea”.

The People’s Liberation Army has not said where in the South China Sea the drills took place, but they coincided with Sunday’s joint exercises between the US and its allies.

According to the Philippine Army, navy vessels and aircraft were sent to “the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone” in the West Philippine Sea – the name Manila uses for the part of the South China Sea that is within its EEZ.

Three Philippine warships – the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, BRP Antonio Luna, and BRP Valentin Diaz – took part in the drills, alongside the American USS Mobile, Japan’s JS Akebono and Australia’s HMAS Warramunga.

They conducted a “communication exercise, division tactics or officer of the watch manoeuvre, and a photo exercise” to strengthen collaboration in naval combat, according to the Philippine Army statement on Sunday.

Japan’s embassy in Manila said the joint exercises also included anti-submarine warfare training.

The Philippine Army said it “demonstrated the participating countries’ commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

It was the first full-scale joint exercises between the four countries and comes as hostilities have escalated between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, where they have competing claims.

China claims sovereignty over most of the strategic waterway, but a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal – a case brought by the Philippines – dismissed nearly all of those claims. Beijing has rejected that ruling.

Chinese and Philippine vessels have had a number of run-ins near disputed reefs in the waterway in recent months, with Manila accusing Beijing of repeatedly obstructing its resupply missions for military personnel stationed on the rusting BRP Sierra Madre. Beijing says the Philippine vessels entered its territory illegally.

The Philippine Navy deliberately grounded the Sierra Madre, a World War II-era warship, on Second Thomas Shoal – known as Renai Jiao in China – in the Spratly Islands in the late 1990s to try to reinforce its claims to the area and stop China’s expansion.

Why is a rusty old Philippine warship involved in the South China Sea dispute?

In a recent confrontation, three Philippine Navy sailors were injured last month when the Chinese coastguard fired water cannon at a Philippine supply boat. Manila accused the Chinese ships of conducting “dangerous” manoeuvres and blocking a civilian chartered resupply ship.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is set to meet US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington on Thursday. The agenda will include planning for an agreement to improve trilateral interoperability and naval cooperation, according to Marcos.

Mainland Chinese polar research icebreaker gets warm welcome as it opens to visitors in Hong Kong

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3258348/mainland-chinese-polar-research-icebreaker-gets-warm-welcome-it-opens-visitors-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed

The first Chinese-built polar research icebreaker has wowed crowds who flocked to visit the vessel after it docked in Hong Kong on a goodwill visit.

Members of the public on Tuesday gave the massive Xue Long 2 a warm welcome on its five-day visit to the city, the first stop at a Chinese port on its return from an expedition to the frozen expanses of Antarctica.

Lacey Li, who is in her 40s, was among more than 60 people who boarded the ship on Tuesday morning after it opened to the public at 8.30am.

“It is very stunning,” she said. “Everything is well-organised and neat.”

Li took an hour’s leave from work to visit the ship at Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui with her husband.

She said she had paid extra attention to the layout of a laboratory on the ship as she worked for an architectural design firm.

Groups from universities, schools and companies were also among the first groups of visitors to get a close-up view of the ship.

Visitors could access areas such as the marine sampling room and the laboratory, as well as the helipad, complete with the ship’s “Snow Eagle 301” helicopter.

Chow Tsz-tong, 17, a pupil St Rose of Lima’s College, Sha Tin, said she was fascinated by the range of equipment on the ship.

“The most impressive part is how well-equipped the icebreaker is,” Chow, part of a group of 13 pupils from the school, said.

“I know it can be extremely cold in the Antarctic region and I was worried that scientists would be freezing while working.

“But I was told that there are automated air conditioners in the vessel.”

Hong Kong role floated for icebreaker Xue Long 2’s future polar expeditions

Lin Mau-tong, the principal of St Rose of Lima’s, said the visit was a “rare opportunity” for her pupils to see some of the country’s scientific achievements.

Peng Zexin, a master’s student studying electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Hong Kong, said he was most interested in the array of devices and gadgets carried on the ship.

“I am particularly interested in the helicopter, the drone and sample collectors,” Peng said.

“I find it interesting to see how they’ve already applied drones in polar research,” he added. “Drones can go to areas that are difficult for humans to reach and help with the scientific assignments.”

The vessel is open free of charge to tours up to a maximum of 3,000 people between Tuesday and Friday.

Pre-registration is needed for all visitors, but it appeared not everyone was aware of the requirement.

Sham Yung, a 77-year-old retired doctor, left the terminal disappointed because he did not get a visit registration in advance.

Hong Kong to receive icebreaker Xue Long 2 for first time in April

“We feel sorry that we don’t have the chance to visit the icebreaker,” Yung, who wanted to visit with two friends, said.

“It is rare for a scientific research ship to come to Hong Kong so I am curious to see what is inside,” he added. “I hope next time they can have a more accessible way for seniors to get tickets.”

The icebreaker’s visit coincided with a two-day conference on climate change organised by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

An exhibition on the topic and polar research is also running at the Hong Kong Science Museum until June.

Wang Jinhui, the expedition’s deputy leader, earlier said he hoped that Hong Kong’s scientists would take part in the ship’s work.

Professor Ho Kin-chung, founder of visit organisers the Green Future Foundation Association and Polar Research Institute of Hong Kong, earlier added that mainland Chinese authorities had promised to include Hongkongers in future expeditions.

China and Gulf states changing face of development finance in Africa

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3258028/china-and-gulf-states-changing-face-development-finance-africa?utm_source=rss_feed

China has in recent years invested massively in Africa but Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are also emerging as major investors; the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for instance, is becoming China’s key competitor for African port operations. Like China, the GCC can move much faster than Western countries. And when China’s pace of African investments slowed down, the Gulf states filled some of the gaps.

The rapidly evolving engagements of China and the GCC across Africa may catalyse a paradigm shift in international development cooperation. As major investors displacing the traditional Western powers in Africa, China and the GCC are precipitating a reconfiguration away from the entrenched North-South flow of development resources.

This carries immense promise but also significant challenges. It could pioneer collaboration models more tailored to the needs of the developing world. But translating this into tangible benefits hinges on robust institutional frameworks and effective African representation.

Both China and the GCC seek to secure resources in Africa; where China tilts towards oil and gas, the Gulf states prioritise agricultural investments. They also bring complementary resources to Africa.

Beyond finance, China can provide the critically needed industrial, technological and infrastructural capabilities to upgrade Africa’s productive capacities. Clean technology is a key driver of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa, and a sector where China has a clear edge.

While both the Gulf states and many African nations have substantial oil, gas or mineral reserves, their economic development starkly diverges. Why are Gulf nations so much richer than the African nations? Despite a population of under 60 million – less than 5 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s 1.2 billion people – the Gulf states boast a much larger collective gross domestic product than that of the entire African region. On a per capita basis, Gulf states also command more resources.

Africa attracts limited FDI because it lacks infrastructure and human capital. Unlike East Asia and akin to India, Africa has yet to translate its huge, growing population into human capital. China is uniquely qualified to help.

Both China and the GCC are vying for geopolitical influence in Africa. The GCC’s engagement in Africa is concentrated in the northeastern Islamic states, where it has religious and cultural ties. But this ideological outreach risks exacerbating social divisions, enabling extremist financing and emboldening repression. In contrast, China pursues a more even-handed approach across Africa, in its courting of supporting votes at UN and other multilateral forums.

While China and the GCC are in competition in Africa, however, they can also find a greater alignment of interests with each other than with the West. This is a four-way dance that includes the West.

With its colonial legacy, Europe is the leading cumulative investor in Africa. While China has surpassed the United States in FDI in Africa for most of the last decade, its share of FDI into Africa has fallen sharply since 2022. Emerging as a leading investor in recent years, the UAE brought the greatest investment dollars to Africa in 2022, more than from Britain and France combined, and dwarfing amounts from both the US and China.

The GCC, together with China (including Hong Kong) and Europe, constitute the triad of top investors in Africa. These actors have played critical roles in different stages of development in Africa and their important roles continue to evolve.

The GCC may be tempted to play China against the West in Africa. But given its state capitalism and geopolitical agendas, it may find a slightly greater alignment with China. China may exploit this by emphasising its complementary interests with the GCC while managing the economic and geopolitical competition.

Importantly, the GCC is a bloc rife with internal rivalries, such as between Qatar and the UAE, and also between the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Such divisions are to China’s advantage, if it can deftly manage the intricate intra-GCC dynamics.

For Africa, reaping the greatest development benefits from this four-way dance requires an orchestrated coordination among all the African nations. But forging such a unified continental stance also means facing the immense challenges stemming from the diversity of interests across 54 countries, historical regional rivalries and tensions, constraints in negotiating capacity, misaligned incentives of political elites and institutional barriers to effective integration.

Overcoming these obstacles through reforms could potentially transform Africa’s Balkanised nations into a more coherent bloc.

Rich world must follow China’s lead and support Africa’s green revolution

Whether Africa can forge a path towards a broad-based development hinges on its ability to build effective and accountable institutions.

Just as the UAE transformed itself through effective governance, and as Saudi Arabia pursues similar reforms, African nations must prioritise strengthening checks and balances, upholding the rule of law, harmonising business regulations, combating corruption and developing robust state capabilities.

Effectively emulating the institutional models that facilitated the rise of East Asia will shape Africa’s path in capitalising on its international partnerships to drive inclusive growth.

By pioneering context-appropriate models of plurilateral cooperation, grounded in the shared experiences of developing nations, a new paradigm of inter-South engagement could provide a counterweight to the traditional North-South architecture. But realising this transformative potential hinges on the participants’ willingness to transcend narrow self-interests for genuinely reciprocal partnerships – which promise better outcomes for all.

China’s anti-graft watchdog calls out local governments for ‘diseases’ of bogus businesses, fake data, phony ‘likes’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3258353/chinas-anti-graft-watchdog-calls-out-local-governments-diseases-fake-businesses-fake-data-fake-likes?utm_source=rss_feed

Local governments in China have fabricating the number of businesses in their regions – a key indicator of economic recovery – and in one case set hard targets for towns to register fake businesses, the country’s top anti-corruption watchdog said on Monday.

In an official notice, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) listed three classic examples of “formalism” that added to the burdens of grass-roots officials.

‘Not even one’: China pulls up lower-level corruption fighters over lack of cases

In the central province of Shanxi, for instance, the commission said that in 2022 and 2023, some counties had set hard targets for towns and districts. These local governments would then be evaluated annually based on the number of business entities they had added in their respective areas.

Under pressure from their superiors, the local governments would “mobilise” area residents to create fake business registrations, some of which would then be cancelled after the annual county evaluations, according to the notice.

In one extreme case, an individual had registered more than 20 bogus businesses, the CCDI said.

The surge in business registrations came as Shanxi offered financial assistance and various marketing platforms to help business owners recover from the economic damage caused by Covid-19 and sweeping pandemic restrictions.

Last October, Shanxi provincial officials had announced that 68,000 new business had been registered in the first nine of months of 2023. The province pledged to support the “excellent trend” with further support for tourism, innovation, and rural and agricultural development.

The CCDI also cited another case of formalism in the northeast province of Liaoning in which more than 600 libraries had been set up in rural villages. The facilities had hardly been used by the local residents, most of which were farmers.

In the city of Qiqihar, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, government officials had set a hard target for the number of “likes” for its social media posts from area counties and districts. Under a stipulation that at least 10 per cent of the population should participate, hospitals and schools had demanded that their staff document their “likes” for the posts, according to the CCDI.

“These classic examples showed that some local governments still blindly set quotas with no regard for reality, which then forced grass-roots cadres to create fake data,” the CCDI said, adding that “stubborn diseases of formalism and bureaucracy” should be corrected.

Several cases of data fabrication have been uncovered in China over the years, in which local officials tried to inflate figures to meet economic growth targets or boost their prospects for promotion.

In 2022, Zhang Jinghua, a former deputy party chief in Jiangsu province, was expelled from the Communist Party after being accused of fabricating economic data.

China’s former justice minister Tang Yijun facing corruption probe

Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping repeatedly directed officials at all levels to conduct comprehensive “investigation and research”, echoing measures chairman Mao Zedong had taken in the early 1960s in the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward. Xi has urged officials to listen to the public to uncover the real sources of problems, with special attention paid to social stability, party governance and the legal system.

In January, the National Bureau of Statistics warned that data fabrication was “the biggest corruption in the statistical sphere”.

Shoplifting duo have 11 children, use them to avoid jail time as China exempts expectant and nursing mothers from prison

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3257007/shoplifting-duo-have-11-children-use-them-avoid-jail-time-china-exempts-expectant-and-nursing?utm_source=rss_feed

A criminal duo in China who carried out a string of thefts have been using pregnancy to escape being sent to jail.

Best friends, Xiao Qing, 30, and Zhu Zhu, 39, met through their jointly run clothing business.

During the Covid-19 pandemic when business was slow, their shop was forced to close, leaving them without a source of income.

Zhu Zhu, who has been married and divorced twice, has seven children from her marriages – three from the first and four from the second. Xiao Qing has four children.

Stressed with financial demands of raising children, the desperate mothers decided to turn to crime, according to police in Shanghai.

The pair discovered that under the law in China, expectant and nursing mothers can avoid imprisonment for their offences.

As a result they repeatedly used their pregnancy and breastfeeding periods to steal from upscale clothing shops in eastern China.

CCTV footage shows the shoplifting duo using an empty baby stroller as cover, stuffing clothes into it while in a shop and then quickly walking out.

Zhu Zhu said they used magnets to disable the security tags on the clothes, then sold the items for cash.

Over the past two years, they stole about 2,800 yuan (US$380) worth of clothes.

The pair were arrested in March.

“Having so many children, putting in so much effort, only to steal 2,800 yuan?” one observer said on Weibo.

“The children were their tools for committing crimes, it’s utterly disgraceful,” said another.

Xiao Qing and Zhu Zhu were sentenced to one year and eight months in prison for theft, respectively.

Both are still in their breastfeeding period after giving birth in August and September, last year.

According to Chinese law, they cannot be imprisoned.

Due to their repeated offences, probation was not applicable, so they are serving their sentences on the outside.

This usually takes the form of community correction, which includes monitoring offenders at their homes or other designated residences.

In China, if a female offender is breastfeeding and is sentenced to imprisonment, she can be temporarily allowed to serve her sentence outside prison, usually for a year.

In addition, offenders can apply for an extension of the period.

If a woman intentionally becomes pregnant again or multiple times to evade imprisonment, the enforcement of the sentence will be suspended. The remaining term will only be enforced after the pregnancy ends or the breastfeeding period expires.

“This reflects the care for humanity of the law. After all, newborn babies are innocent and need care,” one person on Weibo said.

---

US viewed as warning China against military advancement in its plan for medium-range missile launchers in Asia-Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3258327/us-viewed-warning-china-against-military-advancement-its-plan-medium-range-missile-launchers-asia?utm_source=rss_feed

Washington’s deployment of ground-based launchers for its medium-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time in nearly four decades is a “warning” to Beijing against military advancement and the war across the Taiwan Strait, according to analysts.

During his visit to South Korea on Saturday, General Charles Flynn, the US Army Pacific commander, said the army would soon deploy a new missile launch system that could fire its latest “long-range precision fires”, such as the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) interceptor and the maritime-strike Tomahawk, in the Asia-Pacific region.

“That system will be deploying into the region soon. Where and when it’s going to go, I’m not going to talk about that now,” said Flynn, according to Yonhap News, while speaking at Camp Humphreys, a US Forces Korea base in Pyeongtaek near Seoul.

On Flynn’s remark, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing had always been “firmly opposed” to US deployment of medium-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region and strengthening forward deployment at “China’s doorstep to seek unilateral military superiority”.

“China adheres to the path of peaceful development and firmly pursues a defensive national defence policy. We have no interest in competing with any country in military power,” said the ministry’s spokeswoman Mao Ning during a press conference on Monday. “We urge the United States to earnestly respect the security concerns of other countries and stop undermining regional peace and stability.”

The SM-6 is the US Navy’s latest intercept missile designed for extended-range anti-air warfare against ballistic missiles, with an operational range of more than 240km and an active radar homing guidance system that allows the projectile to find and track its target autonomously.

The Tomahawk is a subsonic cruise missile capable of striking a target about 2,500km from a warship or in a submarine-based land-attack operation.

Flynn’s remark is the first time a US Army general has confirmed a ground-based launch system that could fire SM-6 and Tomahawks could be deployed in the Asia-Pacific this year.

“If the US Army’s deployment of SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles starts its implementation, it definitely is a message for China,” said Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

“As the US naval power falls short of China, the US version of the counter A2/AD [anti-access/area denial] strategy, which deploys cruise and anti-ship missiles on land, has emerged as a way for the US Army to carry out multi-domain operations.

“Indeed, deploying a weapon system that puts the other party within its range is both a military threat and a warning to the adversary,” Yang added.

US to deploy new mid-range missile system in Asia-Pacific by end-2024

Although mainly used by the navy, the missiles can also be fired from the US Army’s Mid-Range Capability system, also known as Typhon, which the US Army has operated in Guam since last year.

Land-based missiles using launchers are considered more likely to avoid detection and enemy strikes than other platforms, such as naval vessels and warplanes requiring ports and runways.

“Mobile launchers like these could be very useful. If deployed to friendly islands, they could both defend those islands from aerial attack and strike surface ships that get close,” said John Bradford, executive director of the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies. “Being mobile and relatively small, enemies may have trouble locating and striking them.

“Were [Beijing] to invade Taiwan, launchers like these could help defend the island directly … the missiles could help contest China’s opportunity to easily cross the air and sea spaces around Taiwan.”

The deployment of such weapon systems in the Asia-Pacific region would be the first in 37 years. The US-Soviet Union Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty reached in 1987 prohibited developing and possessing land-based missiles with a range between 500km to 5,500km (310-3,400 miles).

Washington has been developing new intermediate-range missiles after it withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019, citing Moscow’s alleged violations of the agreement and amid China’s increasing military advancement in the Indo-Pacific region, most notably its missile forces.

According to the Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military power published in October, the PLA Rocket Force is estimated to have 500 intermediate and 1,000 medium-range ballistic missiles with ranges between 1,000-5,500km, and 550 launchers for firing these weapon systems.

“China has a clear geographic advantage. it can deploy its missile arsenal across a larger swathe of land, and even its short-range missiles would be effective in a local conflict,” said Shaan Shaikh, deputy director and fellow for the Missile Defence Project at the Washington-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“The US military cannot afford to match China in regional missile capacity, but it can improve its posture by expanding strike options, minimising response times and improving resilience under fire, as these deployments do.”

Timothy Heath, a senior international defence researcher at Rand Corporation, said the US Army fielded these systems to augment similar capabilities already operated by the American air force and navy, creating an increasingly difficult target problem for Chinese military planners, and improving the resilience of US forces within the theatre.

“Without the US Army’s weapons, China could destroy much of the US Air Force’s capacity by bombing airfields on Okinawa. It could also use anti-ship missiles to keep US warships away,” said Heath. “But now China must also target countries that host US Army Typhon launchers.”

Japan showing ‘obvious offensive characteristics’ with new missile unit, says PLA

Heath stressed that these weapons were deployed to deter a Chinese invasion across the Taiwan Strait.

“The SM-6 could be used to shoot down Chinese military aircraft flying over Taiwan, and the Tomahawk could be used to destroy Chinese warships that supported an amphibious invasion,” Heath said.

What did Janet Yellen eat in China? US Treasury secretary’s food and drink picks fascinate Chinese politicians, internet users

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3258323/what-did-janet-yellen-eat-china-us-treasury-secretarys-food-and-drink-picks-fascinate-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed

Ever since she ate mushrooms that can have psychedelic effects in Beijing last July, Janet Yellen has united Americans and Chinese in wanting to know what she will eat next.

And with the US Treasury secretary back in China this week, having stopped in Guangzhou and Beijing, many people are less interested in her travels to rebuild relations between the world’s two biggest economies and more fascinated with what she will eat next and where.

From her forays into Sichuan dumplings to Peking duck, mouth-watering chicken or twice-cooked pork, even Chinese politicians in the highest ranks of the Communist Party are taking notice of her popularity on the culinary arts scene.

Ahead of a highly anticipated bilateral meeting on April 7 between Yellen and Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, he noted in his opening remarks that Yellen’s visit has “indeed drawn a lot of attention in society” with media covering her trip.

She prefers to dine among other patrons and does not like partitions keeping her from other diners – making her silver hair highly recognisable when she is out and about.

The use of her chopsticks at a restaurant in Guangzhou has also been a particular observation.

A social media account run by Chinese state media posted a catchy video of Yellen on her first night in China, eating with the US ambassador and other officials at Tao Tao Ju, a Guangzhou restaurant that dates to 1880.

The post, one of the most viewed on the Weibo microblog app the next morning, praised Yellen for holding chopsticks well but added, “as a US official, Yellen needs to know more about China than just food. Only by knowing more about China can we set right the American view of the world, of China, of China-US relations”.

And during a meeting with the dean of Peking University, Huang Yiping, he joked that China has been watching the news of her arrival as well as her dining, to which Yellen interjected: “My chopstick skills!”.

In the US, Yellen also often stops for fast food and at local diners during domestic trips ahead of events to promote Biden administration policies, and becomes the news.

A stop last November at In-N-Out burger in San Francisco before heading to the airport to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting also became a viral moment.

In China, her very first viral moment happened when she unknowingly ate mushrooms that can become psychedelic when cooked improperly at a Yunnan restaurant called Yi Zuo Yi Wang during her first trip as Treasury secretary last July.

Mushroom-gate went viral across the internet and the restaurant has since dedicated a part of its menu to Yellen’s visit, where diners can order what she ate.

She told CNN at the time: “There was a delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties. I learned that later.”

In China for a second time this week, Yellen was hoping to make headway on the issue of what she calls Chinese overproduction of solar products, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries that she warns threaten global economic stability if left unchecked.

This time around in Beijing, Yellen ate at Lao Chuan Ban, a popular Sichuan restaurant. She also had lunch with Beijing mayor Yin Yong at the Beijing International Hotel.

On Monday evening, her last night in China, Yellen visited Jing-A Brewing Co in Beijing – co-founded by an American – where she ordered a Flying Fist IPA, a beer made with American hops.

She took a sip and called it “excellent”.

Philippines-China relations: will 3-way summit with US, Japan further erode Manila-Beijing ties?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3258278/philippines-china-relations-will-3-way-summit-us-japan-further-erode-manila-beijing-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr will attend a trilateral summit in Washington on Thursday with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a meeting that analysts say could push Beijing to reduce trade with Manila.

Observers have also speculated that the main reason behind the two-day summit is to strengthen maritime defensive efforts to counter China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the Asia-Pacific.

Hans Mohaiman Siriban, the Philippines’ acting foreign affairs deputy undersecretary for bilateral relations, said the summit was “not directed at any country” but aimed to deepen ties on economic cooperation, maritime security and climate change among the three countries.

The summit comes on the heels of China’s coastguard vessels and its maritime military using water cannons on Philippine coastguard ships accompanying boats on a supply mission to Manila’s military outpost on the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on March 23.

Jose Manuel Romualdez, the Philippines’ ambassador to the US, said in a press conference on Thursday that the summit will focus on advancing the three countries’ partnership by promoting trilateral growth and emerging technologies that will further enhance peace in the region.

Romualdez said topics to be discussed during the meeting would include defence and security cooperation, addressing emerging and traditional security threats in the maritime domain, economic and technological cooperation, and clean energy.

How South China Sea controversies put Chinese interests in Vietnam at stake

While Manila was unwilling to cede any territory, it was open to resolve its differences with China diplomatically, he added.

China has competing claims in the South China Sea not only with the Philippines but also Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.

China uses the “nine-dash line” on maps to assert Beijing’s claims over some 90 per cent of the South China Sea, but The Hague tribunal ruled in 2016 that these claims had no legal basis and recognised the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the resource-rich waterway.

Beijing has refused to accept the ruling.

In light of Manila’s efforts to strengthen cooperation with allies, China may suspend imports from the Philippines, according to Ramon Beleno III, head of the political science and history department at Ateneo De Davao University in southern Davao City.

In 2012, China imposed tighter controls over banana imports from the Philippines after Manila took Beijing to the international court alleging that Chinese naval vessels had obstructed the Philippines’ entry to Scarborough Shoal.

Banana exports from the Philippines to China stood at US$406 million in 2022, according to data from Boston-based data visualisation site the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

On Sunday, Japan, the US, Australia and the Philippines conducted anti-submarine drills, warfare training, and communication exercises in the disputed South China Sea.

Marcos Jnr on Monday expressed hope for an end to Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea - Manila’s name for the parts of the South China Sea that fall within its exclusive economic zone - after the joint military exercises, saying Philippine officials were continuing to talk to their Chinese counterparts to prevent tensions from escalating.

“We continue to talk at a ministerial level, at a sub-ministerial level, at a people-to-people level, so that there will be no collisions and water cannoning,” he said.

On the same day as the maritime drills, Beijing announced it would conduct similar exercises in the waterway.

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

On Monday, however, Philippine armed forces chief General Romeo Brawner Jnr said they had not yet encountered any Chinese “combat patrols”.

“While we were conducting our own exercises in the West Philippine Sea, we only monitored the presence of two PLA Navy ships and there were no combat patrols or exercises,” he said.

Later this month, the US and the Philippines plan to conduct their annual Balikatan joint military exercises involving some 11,000 American and 5,000 Filipino troops in the South China Sea.

The 39th edition of the annual exercises, carried out under the two countries’ 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty, aim to enhance force capability and strengthen cooperation in maritime security, amphibious operations, live-fire training, urban and aviation operations, counterterrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Their treaty obliges both countries to aid the other in the face of aggression from an external power, and the Pentagon has said it remained prepared to assist Manila amid threats from other nations.

---

Biden to meet Japan’s PM Kishida amid shared concerns about China and differences on US Steel deal

https://apnews.com/article/biden-kishida-japan-white-house-f72d7162f0bd20c42e096c25e4b845c0Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, left, and his wife Yuko Kishida participate in an arrival ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, April 8, 2024. Kishida is set for his much-anticipated visit to Washington, which will include a glamorous state dinner on Wednesday. The visit comes amid growing concerns about provocative Chinese military action as well as a rare moment of public difference between Washington and Tokyo over a Japanese company's plan to buy the iconic U.S. Steel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

2024-04-09T04:04:48Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida begins a much-anticipated visit to Washington on Tuesday aiming to spotlight shared concerns about provocative Chinese military action in the Pacific and at a rare moment of public difference between the two nations over a Japanese company’s plan to buy an iconic U.S. company.

Kishida and his wife will stop by the White House Tuesday evening ahead of Wednesday’s official visit and formal state dinner as President Joe Biden looks to celebrate a decades-long ally he sees as the cornerstone of his Indo-Pacific policy. Kishida will be the fifth world leader honored by Biden with a state dinner since he took office in 2021.

Ahead of the White House visit, Kishida is set to visit Arlington National Cemetery and stop by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. Biden and Kishida on Wednesday will hold talks and take part in a joint news conference before Biden fetes the Japanese leader with the state dinner in the East Room.

The prime minister has also been invited to address a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday. He will be just the second Japanese leader to address the body; Shinzo Abe gave a speech to Congress in 2015.

The visit comes after Biden announced last month that he opposes the planned sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan, exposing a marked rift in the partnership at the very moment the two leaders aim to reinforce it. Biden argued in announcing his opposition that the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers.”

Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, Biden’s envoy to Tokyo, sought Monday to downplay the impact of Biden’s opposition to the U.S. Steel acquisition to the relationship. Emanuel noted that in February the Biden administration approved a plan that would drive billions of dollars in revenue to a U.S.-based subsidiary of the Japanese company Mitsui for crane production in the United States.

“The United States relationship with Japan is a lot deeper and stronger and more significant than a single commercial deal,” said Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, in a joint appearance at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies with Japan’s chief envoy to Washington. “As we would say in Chicago, you got to chill.”

Nippon Steel announced in December that it planned to buy U.S. Steel for $14.1 billion in cash, raising concerns about what the transaction could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security. Shigeo Yamada, Japan’s ambassador to Washington, declined to comment on whether Kishida would raise the Nippon-U.S. Steel deal with Biden.

Biden has sought to place greater foreign policy focus on the Pacific even while grappling with the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the grinding Israel-Hamas war. Last year, Biden brought together Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, a historic summit between leaders of two countries that have a difficult shared history.

Biden has honored Yoon with a state visit and picked Kishida’s predecessor, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, as the first face-to-face foreign leader visit of his presidency.

The administration has been pleased by Japan’s strong support for Ukraine. Tokyo has been one of the largest donors to Kyiv since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, and Japan has surged its defense spending amid concern about China’s military assertiveness.

Yamada suggested in his joint appearance with Emanuel that Kishida would underscore Japan’s support for Ukraine during his appearance before Congress, and lay out why the conflict in Eastern Europe matters to his country. Biden is struggling to get House Republicans to back his call to send an additional $60 billion to Kyiv as it tries to fend off Russia.

Kishida has warned that the war in Europe could lead to conflict in East Asia, suggesting that a lax attitude to Russia emboldens China.

“The prime minister’s conviction is today’s Ukraine could be tomorrow’s East Asia,” Yamada said.

Kishida will stick around Washington on Thursday to take part in a meeting with Biden and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Philippine-Chinese relations have been repeatedly tested by skirmishes between the two nations’ coast guard vessels in the disputed South China Sea.

Chinese coast guard ships also regularly approach disputed Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands near Taiwan. Beijing says Taiwan is part of its territory and will be brought under control by force if necessary.

“Cooperation among our three countries is extremely important in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and in defending a free and open international order based on the rules of law,” Kishida said Monday before leaving for Washington.

The leaders are expected to discuss plans to upgrade the U.S. military command structure in Japan. There are about 54,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan.

Kishida and Biden are also expected to confirm Japan’s participation in NASA’s Artemis moon program as well as its contribution of a moon rover developed by Toyota Motor Corp. and the inclusion of a Japanese astronaut in the mission. The rover, which comes at a roughly $2 billion cost, would be the most expensive contribution to the mission by a non-U.S. partner to date.

On Friday, Kishida will tour Toyota’s electric vehicle battery factory under construction as well as Honda’s business jet subsidiary in North Carolina. He will also meet students at North Carolina State University.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

AAMER MADHANI Aamer Madhani is a White House reporter. twitter mailto

From overcapacity to TikTok, the issues covered during Janet Yellen’s trip to China

https://apnews.com/article/yellen-china-trade-economics-3005b44a749bc39b60e3b86370b67224U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, right, and U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns sample beer at the Jing-A brewery in Beijing, China, Monday, April 8, 2024. Treasury Secretary Yellen says the Biden administration will push China to change an industrial policy that poses a threat to U.S. jobs. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, Pool)

2024-04-09T02:56:22Z

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her team are leaving China and returning to Washington after trying to tackle the major questions of the day between the countries. Here’s a look at what she tried to accomplish, what was achieved, and where things stand for the world’s two largest economies:

UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES

Yellen said she wanted to go into the U.S.-China talks to address a major Biden administration complaint that Beijing’s economic model and trade practices put American companies and workers at an unfair competitive disadvantage by producing highly subsidized solar products, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries at a loss, dominating the global market.

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. She calls this overcapacity.

Throughout the week of meetings, she talked about the risks that come from one nation maintaining nearly all production capacity in these industries, the threat it poses to other nations’ industries and how a massive rapid increase in exports from one country can have big impacts on the global economy.

Ultimately, the two sides 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. It was not immediately clear when and where the talks would take place.

“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,” she said.

MONEY LAUNDERING AND RELATED CRIMES

After several rounds of meetings, the U.S. Treasury and the Chinese central bank agreed to work together to stop money laundering in their respective financial systems.

Nearly all the precursor chemicals that are needed to make the deadly substance fentanyl are coming from China into the U.S. The U.S. says exchanging information on money laundering related to fentanyl trafficking may help disrupt the flow of the precursor chemicals into Mexico and the U.S.

“Treasury is committed to using all of our tools, including international cooperation, to counter this threat,” Yellen said in a speech announcing the formation of the group.

The new cooperative between the U.S. and China will be part of the two nations’ economic working groups that were launched last September, and the first exchange will be held in the coming weeks.

TIKTOK

Efforts in the U.S. to ban social media app TikTok, owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, were raised initially by the Chinese during U.S-China talks, a senior Treasury official told The Associated Press. The firm has in the past promoted a data security restructuring plan called “Project Texas” that it says sufficiently guards against national security concerns.

However, U.S. lawmakers have moved forward with efforts to either ban the app or force the Chinese firm to divest its interest in the company, which the White House has supported. In China this week, it was evident that there was little movement on the issue.

Yellen said at a news conference Monday that she supported the administration’s efforts to address national security issues that relate to sensitive personal data. “This is a legitimate concern,” she said.

“Many US social apps are not allowed to operate in China,” Yellen said. “We would like to find a way forward.”

FINANCIAL STABILITY

On the second day of Yellen’s trip to China, the U.S. and China announced an agreement to work closely on issues related to financial stability, in that U.S. and Chinese financial regulators agreed to hold a series of exercises simulating a failure of a large bank in either of the two countries.

The aim is to determine how to coordinate if a bank failure occurred, with the intent of preventing catastrophic stress on the global financial system.

Yellen said several exercises have already happened.

“I’m pleased that we will hold upcoming exchanges on operational resilience in the financial sector and on financial stability implications from the insurance sector’s exposure to climate risks.

“Just like military leaders need a hotline in a crisis,” Yellen said “American and Chinese financial regulators must be able to communicate to prevent financial stresses from turning into crises with tremendous ramifications for our citizens and the international community.”

WHAT SHE ATE

Yellen is something of a foodie celebrity in China ever since she ate mushrooms that can have psychedelic effects in Beijing last July. This trip was no different.

High-ranking Chinese officials brought up her celebrity ahead of important meetings — Premier Li Qiang noted in his opening remarks that Yellen’s visit has “indeed drawn a lot of attention in society” with media covering her trip and her dining habits. And social media was abuzz, following her latest movements around Guangzhou and Beijing.

This time in Beijing, Yellen ate at Lao Chuan Ban, a popular Sichuan restaurant. She also had lunch with Beijing Mayor Yin Yong at the Beijing International Hotel. On Monday evening, her last night in China, Yellen visited Jing-A Brewing Co. in Beijing — co-founded by an American — where she ordered a Flying Fist IPA, a beer made with American hops.

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 pledges US$69 billion in credit backing for tech after resurrecting dormant financial tools

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3258264/china-pledges-us69-billion-credit-backing-tech-after-resurrecting-dormant-financial-tools?utm_source=rss_feed

China has announced it would renew the use of two relending tools previously levied to mitigate the shocks from the coronavirus pandemic, providing a combined 500 billion yuan (US$69.1 billion) in incentives for loans undergirding tech innovation and large-scale equipment upgrades – two areas that have been made explicit economic priorities by the country’s leadership.

The move has prompted guessing from market players over the extent to which authorities are willing to engage in monetary loosening, especially as the US Federal Reserve has delayed its anticipated interest rate cuts and the Chinese economy leaves the first quarter of 2024 on stronger footing.

Under the new programme, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will offer relending facilities to 21 banks at a rate of 1.75 per cent and a term of one year.

The refinancing will cover 60 per cent of the principal for qualifying loans to tech-based small and medium-sized enterprises, and can be extended twice for an additional year each time, the central bank said in an online statement.

“[The loans] will guide financial institutions to provide credit support to tech-focused enterprises in their start-up and growth phases, as well as projects focusing on digitalisation, intelligence enhancement, high-end upgrades, eco-friendly technological transformation and equipment renewal in key sectors,” it said.

The PBOC had 17 structural support tools in active use by the end of last year, with an cumulative outstanding size of 7.5 trillion yuan – 16.4 per cent of central bank assets.

These targeted monetary levers came to greater attention in 2014, when pledged supplementary lending was first used to provide direct loans to commercial banks in efforts to renovate outdated residential blocks.

Of these, 13 – including loans and relending for small businesses, toll roads, private firms, property delivery, logistics and carbon emissions reductions – were launched as temporary measures during the pandemic. Seven have already expired.

China’s monetary mix more ‘effective’, economy-focused than West’s easing policy

The previous relending tool for tech, carrying a quote of 400 billion yuan, began in April 2022 and has since expired. The earlier equipment renovation tool, with a quota of 200 billion yuan, was in active use from September to December of 2022.

“The structural monetary policy tools are primarily operated by large banks, while the actual recipients of loans are mainly SMEs,” said Zong Jiani, an analyst with China Foreign Exchange Trade System, in an article last month.

“When aiming to achieve credit expansion through monetary policy, it is essential to prioritise the use of traditional policy tools, especially interest rate cuts and comprehensive reserve requirement reductions,” she wrote.

The relending programme follows guidance Beijing had previously set for domestic banks, urging them to provide funding for five types of finance deemed essential by President Xi Jinping: technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance and digital finance.

It also falls in line with the need for large-scale equipment upgrades mentioned at the February meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, a goal which serves dual purposes: turning the country’s sizeable fixed-asset investment into a source of stimulus, and advancing its enormous manufacturing sector.

Structural tools like the relending programme are intended to aid China as it grapples with a persistent slump in the property market and weak investor confidence, both of which will test the country’s ambitions to grow its economy by 5 per cent this year.

“[These] tools are receiving more attention,” wrote Wang Qing, an economist with Golden Credit Rating, in a note on Sunday.

“[They] are not only a way to invest base money supply, but also can guide the flow of funds more accurately.”

As the central bank highlighted countercyclical adjustments during its meeting at the end of March, more action – including cuts to the reserve requirement ratio and policy rate – will be seen in the coming months to help stabilise national economic growth, he said.

China is not to blame for the snail’s pace of US EV progress

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3258226/china-not-blame-snails-pace-us-ev-progress?utm_source=rss_feed

The latest buzzword in the Western media’s China reporting, “overcapacity”, is yet another addition to Washington’s repertoire of criticism about Beijing’s economic policies and global strategies.

Just a week before her visit to China, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at a solar energy manufacturer in Georgia that China’s excess production is hurting American firms and workers. Specifically, she hinted that the recent surge in China’s exports of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels could create problems for US manufacturers and employees.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who was in Brussels for the US-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting at around the time of Yellen’s visit, was more blunt in her comments on China. She said Beijing’s non-market policies would have “significantly damaging economic and political outcomes” for the United States and European Union, where firms would struggle to “survive”. She mentioned Chinese overproduction of steel, aluminum, solar panels and EVs as causes of concern and emphasised that China’s overproduction of EVs has become “very motivating for Europe”.

Tai called for “defensive” US-EU countermeasures such as tariffs, along with measures that are “more on the offence”, like incentives “to correct for a market dynamic that is not playing out in our favour”. What Tai’s comments really reveal is US discomfort with Chinese innovation in EV and other technology areas.

In conflating overcapacity and the broader issues of the EV market, Washington’s narrative is way off the mark. It is the US market’s high prices, not Chinese overcapacity, that hinder widespread EV adoption, given that Chinese EVs are completely excluded from the US currently.

In 2023, the EV share of the total US vehicle market was only 7.6 per cent. The average price of a new EV in the US is around US$50,000. American consumers who can’t afford such prices have limited choices. Meanwhile, China’s largest EV maker, BYD, offers a subcompact, Seagull, for less than US$10,000.

China has long pursued EV development as a policy priority, in part to fight air pollution and lower carbon emissions. The country’s long-term EV vision emphasises battery research and development, ecosystem and supply-chain building, as well as cost-effectiveness. Its primary market is its own market. Even with the rapid expansion of China’s EV sector, fewer than 10 per cent of cars in China are EVs. There is thus a much bigger market for EVs in China.

In contrast, the US is lagging in realising even its EV infrastructure ambitions. Despite President Joe Biden’s pledge to build 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030 and approval of US$7.5 billion – enough funding for 20,000 charging spots or 5,000 stations – under the 2021 infrastructure law, only seven stations have been built in more than two years.

Let’s be clear that China has nothing to do with this slow rollout. In the United States, Republican states and fossil fuel companies have historically opposed EV development, while the United Auto Workers, a key Democratic constituency that has endorsed Biden for re-election, also has serious apprehensions about a shift to EVs.

It seems evident that the comments from Tai and Yellen have been influenced by domestic political considerations, especially in an election year in the US, instead of economic concerns.

Listen to what US officials are saying and the divisive politics is clear

Furthermore, the criticism that China is hurting other economies fails to recognise how it has had a beneficial impact, particularly on economies in the Global South. China’s infrastructure projects have offered affordable solutions and fostered technological innovation in regions like Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

High-speed rail projects in Indonesia and Vietnam are testament to developing countries’ preference for Chinese technology, over alternatives offered by Japan, for example. These developing countries have not only survived, but also enhanced their infrastructure, thanks to China.

In addressing allegations of unfair competition, it is crucial to understand the multifaceted policies driving China’s EV success. While the US is investing substantial funds, such as US$370 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act, into electric cars, such initiatives primarily benefit American car manufacturers using domestically made components.

In contrast, China’s EV strategy is more inclusive. With the aim of building a robust EV ecosystem in the country, the Chinese government has offered subsidies and implemented measures that benefit both domestic and foreign EV companies.

Unlike the protectionist stance adopted by the US, China’s approach prioritises industry-wide growth rather than narrow corporate and political interests. State policies are geared towards creating an ecosystem that establishes a complete EV supply chain in China.

The narrative of overcapacity also overlooks China’s efficiency and work ethic, as exemplified by the rapid construction of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai. Local labour’s dedication and alignment with institutional goals are the key to China’s unique approach to economic development, which US policymakers often fail to comprehend.

Looking at history, the US had concerns about “overcapacity” too in the 1980s, amid competition in the car sector and broader trade tensions between the US and Japan. Washington’s application of the same label to China’s economic practices merely reflects the American mentality towards competition from ascending economies, as well as a narrow understanding of China’s domestic policies and global interactions.

Engaging in politically charged rhetoric only serves to exacerbate tensions and hinder efforts to mend ties and foster healthy business relations between the two countries. Instead of resorting to divisive rhetoric, fostering collaboration and recognising China’s contributions can pave the way for constructive dialogue and mutual understanding.

China twin sisters reunited after 3 decades share same hairstyle, fashion sense, sons both called Kevin

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3256899/china-twin-sistersreunited-after-3-decades-share-same-hairstyle-fashion-sense-sons-both-called-kevin?utm_source=rss_feed

Identical twin sisters in China met each other for the first time at the age of 30 and were amazed to discover they share the same hairstyle, fashion sense and have even given their sons the same name.

Their story went viral online after the sisters were featured on a Shanghai Television programme in March.

The twins were adopted by different families in eastern China’s Shandong province soon after they were born in 1991.

Although she knew she was adopted from about the age of seven, the slightly older sister, Sun Ye, did not know she had a twin sister until she was 21.

She began searching, and a decade later, an old neighbour of the younger sister, Liu Yan, sent Sun a link to her Douyin account, saying they look exactly the same.

Sun immediately knew it was her sister. She said she and her cousin from her adoptive family looked through 300 videos on Liu’s account, and managed to locate her from the details in her videos.

They went to Liu’s workplace but were told she had resigned. They begged a former colleague to give them the phone number of Liu’s best friend after failing to establish direct contact, and they sent photos to show her Liu has a twin sister.

Liu had not known she was adopted and thought Sun was a scammer who had Photoshopped her face onto another person’s body. Liu’s aunt later confirmed she was adopted and has a twin.

The sisters, who live 90 minutes driving distance from each other, met for the first time in March 2022.

Sun said that when they first met, she was stunned to see a person identical to her standing right in front of her.

To their surprise, the sisters also have the same voice, choice of hairstyle and taste in clothes, and have called their sons by the same English name, Kevin.

They said they immediately connectedand took each other to their adoptive homes, and feel they now have a double family. They also tracked down their birth parents.

It is unknown why their parents chose to have their twin daughters adopted, but some online observers said that was common for families who had many children and could not afford to keep them all.

As for how they are sure who the elder sister is, Sun said her father knew he had adopted the twin.

They said they are cherishing every “first moment” they have together after the reunion.

They have opened two women’s clothing shops , which had been Liu’s dream before she met Sun.

They are also having some fun with their identical looks, playing pranks with their husbands and sons, and unlocking each other’s phones with facial recognition.

“How nice it would have been if we could have grown up together, but I hope we spend the rest of our lives happily from now on,” Sun said.

Their story has amazed many people online.

“They are so lucky to have found each other finally,” one person on Douyin said.

“They are destined to be together, no matter how long they have been apart, ” another said.

---

France, Europe engage with China on their terms, in their own interests: envoy

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258215/france-europe-engage-china-their-terms-their-own-interests-envoy?utm_source=rss_feed

A year after taking up his appointment as French ambassador to China, Bertrand Lortholary sits down with the Post to share his views on China-France relations – from trade frictions and technology competition to cooperation in global challenges, as well as people-to-people exchanges and the celebrations that will mark 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

2023 was already a very successful year for France and China. It enabled us to relaunch the relationship after three difficult years for China, for France, for the whole world, because of the pandemic.

President [Emmanuel] Macron visited China in April, Premier Li Qiang travelled to France in June, and we had numerous high-level exchanges.

2024 marks the 60th anniversary of our bilateral relations – as well as the France-China Year of Cultural Tourism – which is important in many ways, given that people-to-people exchanges are at the core of our relationship.

The French minister for Europe and foreign affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, was in Beijing on April 1 to celebrate this anniversary.

Not only did he hold very productive talks with Premier Li and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, he also inaugurated the exhibition “Versailles and the Forbidden City” and the French cultural festival Croisements.

As far as we are concerned, we have set a very ambitious cultural programme in China for this year, with more than 300 major cultural activities in more than 30 cities. We want these activities to be as close as possible to the widest possible audience in China – in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, but also in Hohhot or Shenyang.

2024 is also synonymous with the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. France will host the entire world on that occasion, the same way China did in 2008 and 2022. We are very much looking forward to welcoming foreign athletes, including of course the top Chinese athletes.

We – as a country and as a member of the European Union – want to make sure that our partnership with China bears fruit for the people of France and the people of China, but more broadly for the people of Europe and the people of China.

Chinese premier urges France to support ‘spirit of free trade’ in Europe

Taking the example of economic and trade relations, we want to make sure that we deepen our partnership in a way that makes the relationship more balanced, more sustainable for the future.

China is a major trade partner for France and Europe. Likewise, the European Union is a major partner, a major market for the Chinese economy.

We need to make sure that our companies compete but that they compete on a level playing field, with the same rules, the WTO rules. We also need to make sure that our companies get the same opportunities in the Chinese market that Chinese companies get in the European market. Minister Séjourné recalled this objective in Beijing last week.

At this point in time, you can tell by looking at the news that discussions are under way between the EU and China on trade. It is important for China to understand that what Europe is doing right now, Europe is doing for itself and for Europe’s future.

The EU is promoting its own interests and, when it comes to economic and trade issues, is willing to compete equally, be it with the US, with China, with everybody else. We are not doing it against anyone, certainly not against China or against whoever.

European sovereignty is paramount for our governments and our people. What we want now, and what we want for the future, is a strong Europe.

Not only do we think that this is in the interests of the European Union, we also believe that it is important for China to be in a world where Europe is a major pole of stability and fair trade.

Economics and trade are only one aspect of the question. There are many more. Of course, we want to engage even more with China on major world issues and crises, on Ukraine and the Middle East but also on global challenges – climate change, biodiversity, global health, sustainable development.

We have been doing that quite successfully when it comes to sustainable development. The fact that Premier Li, for instance, headed the Chinese delegation at the Paris Summit [on a new global financial pact] last year back in June, was a very positive and very strong signal – not only of the willingness of China to engage with us on that, but of our common capacity to work together again, not only for our two people, but also beyond China and France themselves.

China calls for all parties to ‘create conditions’ for Ukraine peace talks

We are two permanent members of the UN Security Council. It gives us rights, but [also] the duty to think more broadly and to make sure, as any member of the United Nations should, to respect the UN Charter and its core principles.

We know how important these principles are for our two countries. This provides us with a very strong basis to work together.

Let’s focus on biodiversity for an instant. Protecting biodiversity was a major commitment on the part of China when they hosted the Kunming Cop15 not so long ago, and France next year will be hosting a summit on the future of oceans.

There is a natural connection between the work that China has been doing in the context of its presidency of Cop15 and what we are going to do in the run-up to the 2025 summit.

EU’s China ‘de-risking’ plan targets AI, semiconductors, quantum tech, biotech

Our hope for the coming months is to work ever more hand in hand, France and China, to make sure that the ambitions – the collective and global ambitions that we have for our planet, for biodiversity and the oceans – are as high as possible. We are talking here about the future of mankind, no more, no less.

Upgrading technology is a good thing to pursue for all countries. Over the past 60 years, France has been present along the way of China’s economic reform and after 1978 to become a major partner of China’s development, in the fields of civilian nuclear energy and aeronautics, for example.

Now we want very innovative companies and more classical companies to be able to compete in a fair way. The same opportunities should be given to European and Chinese companies. When it comes to certain issues, there are measures that, in our opinion, do not follow this path.

‘No longer in favour’: European brandy ‘taboo’ in China amid import probe

Let’s take the example of the Chinese investigation into European brandies. The reality is that the issue is about cognac, which makes up more than 90 per cent of European brandies, more than anything else.

Launching this investigation is not the right answer in our opinion for several reasons. First of all, because agriculture is set to be a major priority for economic cooperation between our countries.

The Chinese president mentioned it as a top priority for France and China during his speech for the 60th anniversary of French-China relations. President Xi Jinping was also the one who put on the table, during the visit of President Macron, the initiative he himself called “from French farms to Chinese tables”.

In this context, the cognac industry has been engaged with Chinese partners for decades in commercialisation based on trust and quality of products, which are much appreciated by Chinese consumers.

China extends anti-subsidy duties on EU potato starch after bloc’s EV probe

Cognac is a major symbol for French citizens, which is why there was disappointment in France when the measure was taken. The investigation is ongoing and of course all companies are cooperating with the Chinese authorities.

Trade is a competence of the European Commission but we will also continue to have intense discussions with Chinese authorities on a national basis. We hope that this issue can be resolved as soon as possible.

I will start with Ukraine. The war of aggression that Russia started more than two years ago is a vital threat for European security. This is why we have, in Europe and in France, had a constant position on the issue ever since the war started.

We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes to make sure that Europe’s long-term security interests are preserved. There will be no fatigue in Europe’s willingness to defend its interests. The French parliament showed massive support for this course last month.

Beyond Europe’s security, what we are talking about is the world order. All of a sudden, a permanent member of the Security Council – who should be, alongside the four others, helping to sustain the world order – breaks the rules and violates the UN Charter’s core principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty.

This particular conflict is taking place in Europe but has consequences everywhere. It is damaging Ukraine, with massive human rights violations. Beyond that, this conflict has far-reaching consequences for the whole world, including China.

More than ever, it’s our responsibility to work for solutions that should respect the core principles of the UN Charter.

Given its proximity to Russia, we do believe that China has a crucial role to play, to work with all of us in finding a peaceful solution based on the UN Charter.

We have had intense consultations with China on the issue, including at the top level, for the past two years. And just recently, as you know, special representative Li Hui travelled to Europe. Minister Séjourné discussed it with Foreign Minister Wang on April 1.

As West wobbles on Ukraine war, China’s envoy kicks off European tour

We also have to find ways to prevent direct or indirect contributions fuelling the Russian war economy, particularly when it comes to certain items or equipment that could directly contribute to the Russian war industry. We have to make sure that no company in the world provides weapons or key technology to Russian military forces.

On the Middle East, the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza is catastrophic. It is creating an unacceptable situation.

While we remember Hamas’ October 7 unjustifiable terror attacks against Israel, we support a lasting and sustained humanitarian truce, eventually leading to a ceasefire, and of course to work towards a political resolution based on a two-state solution.

France has been extremely mobilised, organising an international conference on November 9 which enabled us to mobilise €1 billion (US$1.08 billion) for the people in Gaza, including €100 million (US$108 million) on the part of France.

We have been mobilising logistical support, particularly via our air force, to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid and we have also been extremely active within the Security Council and at the General Assembly of the United Nations.

China also has a major role to play. We want to coordinate even more between France and China, following up on Foreign Minister Wang’s visit to Paris in February.

We expect China to be very active in avoiding a regional escalation, particularly by sending messages to Iran and, of course, to be very active on the humanitarian front. Any aid we can gather for the population of Gaza will be needed.

We have a common interest, China and France, in seeing our African partners enjoy stability, security, economic and social opportunities. On that topic we have regular consultations and no competition.

How the political seeds of China’s growing Africa ties were planted long ago

From the beginning, it has been a shared ambition for people-to-people exchanges to be at the core of our relationship.

As far as students are concerned, the number of Chinese students in France is already almost back to what it was in 2019, with more than 25,000 Chinese students in France. We have already started extending the visa validity for former Chinese students, for they are ambassadors of one country vis-à-vis the other.

China-France relations: Beijing keen to make up for lost time after Covid

The other way around, we had about 10,000 French students studying in China before Covid. Today, these numbers are much lower. We want to make sure in the coming months to find the right ways to attract French students to China again.

We’re talking about the men and women who will be driving the relationship in 20 or 30 years’ time. We want to build for the future by trying to get back – and possibly go beyond – the number of students that we had in China before Covid.

It’s essential for young French men and women to understand what is going on in China right now, its development, its opportunities, its difficulties. We also want students to cover all domains – we want future engineers but we also want artists, political researchers, human sciences researchers.

When it comes to tourism, it is not only essential for the economies of our two countries, it is also a way for our people to know the reality of our two countries.

Japan, UK yet to make the cut as China lifts visa rules for Europe, Asia. Why?

Gradually the air connectivity between China and France has picked up and we have made sure, after three years, that visa requests can be treated efficiently. We expect the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games to be a strong boost for tourism.

Surveys have shown that the willingness of Chinese tourists to visit France is very high. We are working hard to welcome them in the best conditions, including for their security, and to make them discover new cultural and leisure opportunities.

As far as the France-China Year of Cultural Tourism is concerned, more than 300 events in more than 30 cities are planned. We want to cover as much territory as possible and to somehow get as close as possible to the Chinese public, wherever this public is.

We want French culture to be accessible and not only for elites from major urban cities, we also want it to be widely accessible to the whole public.

43 per cent of Chinese see US ‘very unfavourably’ as Europe pulls ahead: survey

As I mentioned, one of our main events started on April 1 in the presence of our Foreign Minister Séjourné – an exhibition at the Palace Museum of top-level Versailles artefacts from the 17th and 18th centuries that were influenced by China, already back then. We are talking of 60 years of relationship, but in fact our relations go back much longer.

Other top-level French institutions will come to China, such as the Comédie-Française. We will also have shows including very popular musicals from France – Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris, which by the way was a major hit during the CCTV Lunar New Year Gala. We want people to connect. That’s the present and that’s the future.

We see tensions rising in this part of the world and this is an issue of concern. For France, the number one priority is that we work in such a way that these tensions do not escalate in any possible way.

EU looks to Japan for defence pact amid ‘worrying shift’ in regional dynamic

We certainly do not seek or favour any logic of confrontation. What we want is to make sure – and this is the core of our national Indo-Pacific strategy and the EU’s as well – that we work with the countries of the region to advance common interests: economic cooperation but also cooperation on global issues and people-to-people exchanges.

We ourselves are a country of the Indo-Pacific. We have about 2 million French citizens living in that part of the world, we have territories in both the Indian and the Pacific oceans.

The key issue for us is to make sure that in that part of the world, as elsewhere – I was referring to Ukraine a moment ago – the sovereignty of all states is respected.

To this end, we have international law-based architecture in place and more than ever we see how important it is to preserve this architecture, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The European Union, on behalf of its member states, clearly expressed on March 20 our common concerns on the legislation. We fully stand by this declaration.

Hong Kong activist collaborated with 3 overseas individuals to have Japanese sanctions imposed on city and China, Jimmy Lai trial told

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3258273/hong-kong-activist-collaborated-3-overseas-individuals-have-japanese-sanctions-imposed-city-and?utm_source=rss_feed

An activist alleged to have been backed by media mogul collaborated with three people from overseas to trigger Japanese sanctions against Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials after the Beijing-imposed came into force four years ago, a court has heard.

West Kowloon Court on Monday was told programmer turned lobbyist Andy Li Yu-hin joined forces with former Japanese legislator Shiori Kanno, British political activist Luke de Pulford and , a London-based financier, in a bid to get sanctions legislation through the Japanese Diet.

The court heard many of the legislative body’s members were critical about what was said to be Hong Kong’s .

Messaging logs showed de Pulford, the founder of the (IPAC), discussed with Li how they could enlist Browder as Kanno drummed up support for to punish human rights abuses in overseas jurisdictions, particularly Hong Kong.

The British activist said Browder, who he described as a “dynamo” with “a huge amount of money”, was excited about Kanno’s work and was keen to help.

Li, who appeared as a prosecution witness, said he and other Japan-based activists had assisted communication between Kanno and Browder and considered when and how the bill could best be put to the Diet.

Browder was experienced in pushing abroad and could offer them the capital and connections to achieve that, Li added.

Lai, 76, faces two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces, as well as a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute .

Prosecutors accused the founder of financing the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK) lobbying group, set up to promote sanctions and other hostile acts by foreign administrations.

Kanno, de Pulford and Browder were among four non-Chinese individuals named as co-conspirators in the indictment.

The court heard IPAC, which prosecutors said was a coalition of overseas lawmakers critical of China, discussed the appropriate responses to the Beijing national security law days after it took effect in June 2020.

Activist lobbied foreign politicians to sever Hong Kong treaties, Lai trial told

One of the alliance’s goals, according to the meeting’s minutes, was to steer foreign governments into pledging “no one shall be extradited to Hong Kong or China regardless of nationality”, as well as reviewing or repealing existing extradition legislation in member states.

Anthony Chau Tin-hang, for the prosecution, sought to establish the cause-and-effect relationship between the IPAC meeting and later actions taken by overseas administrations to suspend legal agreements with Hong Kong.

He highlighted Canada’s with Hong Kong soon after the meeting, as well as Britain’s later the same month.

A further meeting was held in early August that year, with Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Ray Wong Toi-yeung joining 22 parliamentarians from 14 countries in discussions about Hong Kong.

Law and Wong were said to have explored “potential avenues for future action” with the panel, including from serving on Hong Kong’s top court as non-permanent jurists and support for “” abroad.

The conference also decided that member states should draw up plans to reduce their countries’ .

‘UK politician asked Jimmy Lai to cover pushback against Hong Kong security law’

Chau asked Li to explain his text conversations with “T”, a middleman who connected the activist to Lai, later identified as Wayland Chan Tsz-wah, a paralegal.

Chan asked Li whether he had “got everything in Hong Kong settled” before the “fight” – a reference to the latter’s lobbying efforts.

Li said that was not a problem and implied the city’s authorities could arrest him and detain his family members for questioning regardless of any actions he took.

“Everyone on Hong Kong’s side, including T, might be grilled [by authorities because of me],” he told the court.

“So at least I took care of my family members, meaning they didn’t have to worry, as the grilling would come anyway if that was how things turned out.”

The trial continues on Tuesday.

---