• China trade: 5 takeaways from March data as exports tumbled, but ‘reasonable story about external demand’ appears
• US says China shouldn’t see Joe Biden’s meetings with Japanese, Filipino leaders as a threat
• Trudeau says he wasn’t told by Canada spy agency of China election meddling
• China’s world-leading patent applications being sped up, scrutinised to boost key industries
• Could China’s Taichi light-based chip show the way on AI?
• OnePlus faces complaints from Indian retailers as Chinese smartphone brand tries to maintain its slice of the market
• Xi Jinping’s chief of staff urges business mogul to boost US-China ties at ‘critical crossroads’
• South China Sea: Beijing to set up naval hotline with Vietnam as Philippine maritime tensions spike
• US-China competition to field military drone swarms could fuel global arms race
• Iran embassy attack: in Wang-Blinken call, China urges US to play constructive Middle East role
• China woman beaten by philandering cab driver boyfriend she gave US$550,000 in gifts to after asking for refund
• Pilot door-to-door hospital transfers from mainland China and Macau will not be two-way street at first, health secretary says
• China overtakes Germany in some exports, raising trade profile and EU eyebrows ahead of Scholz visit
• China’s stock market: Beijing issues unprecedented guidelines calling for transparency, risk-management
• Philippine’s Rodrigo Duterte claims China threatened war over South China Sea if status quo not kept
• China trade: exports tumble by 7.5% in March, but overseas demand expected to rebound
• China names high-profile law enforcer working with US in fentanyl fight as assistant public security minister
• US$670 million Singapore shopping centre deal backed by Chinese tycoon Du Shuanghua flops after regulator rejects plan
• Scientists install encryption shield to protect advanced Chinese quantum computer from attack
• China to ‘intensify high-level exchanges’ with North Korea, No 3 official Zhao Leji says in marking 75 years of ties
• China food security: grain reigns supreme as higher yields sought from limited land
• Help me! China school installs toilet alarms to tackle bullying as campus violence problem persists
• Chinese nationals in Philippine Coast Guard, twin sisters reunite: SCMP’s 7 highlights of the week
• South China Sea: Beijing draws line on disputed shoal while Philippines debates ‘gentleman’s agreement’ over old warship
• Project Babel: how Chinese scientists built the world’s first satellite that makes smartphone calls possible
• New Zealand, US deepen ‘historic partnership’ to tackle China in the Pacific
• US airlines ask the Biden administration not to approve additional flights between the US and China
• Biden pledges to defend Philippines from any attack in South China Sea
• Are the Philippines’ Marcos and Duterte families set to ‘break up’ over South China Sea and other rows?
• China tourists held captive in mattress shop for ‘not buying’ turn new spotlight on forced shopping problem
• China GDP: what is needed to achieve the ‘very challenging’ 5% economic growth goal for 2024?
• Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng’s growing influence on economic policy shown as former subordinate joins top finance policy body
• Beijing accuses US and Japan of ‘smears’ over Taiwan and South China Sea after Biden-Kishida summit
• China’s low inflation set to be ‘long-term phenomenon’: 4 takeaways from March’s data
• Japanese PM Kishida supports ‘indispensable’ global role of US, citing threat by China
• Antony Blinken asks China, others to rein in Iran on Israel
• US lawmakers unveil bill to set up research centre translating open-source materials from China
• Amid titanic US-China clash, Europe must make its own plans quickly

China trade: 5 takeaways from March data as exports tumbled, but ‘reasonable story about external demand’ appears

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3258829/china-trade-5-takeaways-march-data-exports-tumbled-reasonable-story-about-external-demand-appears?utm_source=rss_feed

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China’s exports declined by 7.5 per cent from a year earlier in March to US$279.7 billion, falling short of expectations and in sharp contrast to the 7.1 per cent growth in combined figures for January and February.

“This was mostly due to a higher base for comparison export values, [which] surged 10.9 per cent year on year in March last year. After accounting for changes in export prices and for seasonality, we estimate that export volumes rose to a fresh high,” said analysts at Capital Economics.

“We doubt shipments can keep rising this quickly, however. The gains over the past year have been at least partly driven by exporters slashing prices. But with the loss-making share of manufacturing firms climbing to record highs, their ability to cut prices has diminished and export prices have stabilised recently.

“The ongoing trade-weighted appreciation of the [yuan] will also serve as a headwind.”

Zhang Zhiwei, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, pointed to the fact this March had two fewer working days compared to the same month last year, while the first two months of this year had two more working days than the same period last year, as “export growth slowed more in March”.

China’s exports tumble by 7.5% in March, but overseas demand set to rebound

“The working day effect distorts the picture, as it often does in the first quarter due to Chinese holidays. This year is a leap year which further complicates the data,” he said.

But Zhang added export growth of 1.5 per cent in the first three months of the year, rebounding from a contraction of 1.2 per cent in the previous quarter, showed a “reasonable story about external demand”.

China’s imports dropped by a worse than expected 1.9 per cent from a year earlier in March, in contrast to 3.5 per cent growth in the first two months of the year.

“A higher base for comparison also played a role, but imports edged down in volume terms,” added analysts at Capital Economics.

“We expect imports to rebound in the coming months, however, as fiscal stimulus is likely to continue supporting construction activity and demand for industrial commodities.”

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China’s trade surplus stood at US$58.6 billion in March, compared with US$125.1 billion in the first two months of the year.

China’s exports to the United States in March dropped by almost 16 per cent year on year, compared to a 5 per cent increase in the first two months of the year.

Shipments to Russia declined by 15.67 per cent, compared to a 12.5 per cent growth in combined figures for January and February, while exports to the European Union decreased by 14.95 per cent last month.

China’s shipments to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – its largest trading partner – dropped by 6.25 per cent last month compared to a year earlier.

China had seen a significant expansion in trade with the 10-nation bloc last year, with shipments having surged by 35.43 per cent.

Analysts at Capital Economics expect export volumes to rise more slowly this year as “consumer spending in advanced economies is cooling and the tailwind from last year’s sharp drop in export prices is fading”.

“Import volumes edged down last month, but they will probably rebound in the coming months thanks to fiscal support boosting commodities demand,” they added.

US says China shouldn’t see Joe Biden’s meetings with Japanese, Filipino leaders as a threat

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3258884/us-says-china-shouldnt-see-joe-bidens-meetings-japanese-filipino-leaders-threat?utm_source=rss_feed

China has “no reason” to view the first-ever trilateral summit between the US, Japan and the Philippines as a threat, a top White House official said on Friday.

“These meetings were not about any one other nation. This was about deepening and revitalising existing alliances and partnerships and strengthening some new ones,” said John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman.

Describing the expansion of defence and economic engagements between the three long-term allies merely as an exercise to explore “mutual opportunities” in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, he added that “there’s no reason for the PRC to look at this as any kind of a threat”.

In recent years, Washington has worked to create a network of allies with security blocs and mutual defence agreements to offset what it calls a growing threat from Beijing in the contentious South China Sea, East China Sea and Taiwan Strait. China opposes these efforts as “exclusive groupings for bloc confrontation”.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden hosted his counterpart from the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House for talks that involved their separate territorial disputes with China in the region.

The overlapping claims with Japan are focused on Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which China calls the Diaoyu Islands, and in the case of the Philippines it’s the Second Thomas Shoal, or Ren’ai Jiao, in the South China Sea.

“When we stand as one, we’re able to forge a better future for all,” Biden said on Thursday before meeting with the leaders, warning that “any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defence treaty”.

Beijing agrees to South China Sea hotline with Vietnam as Manila tensions spike

In the joint statement, they pledged to continue to support each other against Beijing’s “aggressive behaviour” through military build-up and announced plans to conduct trilateral exercises and “other maritime activities” in the Indo-Pacific within the next year.

Manila has encountered rising pressure from Beijing over the contested waters. On March 5, the Chinese coastguard and Chinese maritime militia collided with the Philippine coastguard. And on March 23, Chinese water cannons damaged a Philippine supply vessel and injured some of its crew.

To follow up on commitments made during the summit, American and Filipino foreign and defence ministers and national security advisers met at the State Department on Friday. Kirby said the “first collective meeting” demonstrated “the strength of not only the US-Filipino alliance but of the trilateral cooperation”.

Hours after the trilateral meeting, Beijing summoned Japanese and Filipino diplomats because of what it condemned as their “negative moves” in Washington.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Friday warned Tokyo and Manila to engage less “in trilateral cooperation at the expense of other countries’ interests”, accusing them of bringing “confrontation in the region”.

“To know whether the trilateral summit and cooperation is truly not aimed at China, the answer is right there in the trilateral statement,” she said. “What else could it be if it’s not a smear and attack against China?”

Trudeau says he wasn’t told by Canada spy agency of China election meddling

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/12/trudeau-canada-china-election-interference

Canada’s spy agency is under pressure after Justin Trudeau and his closest advisers say they were never made aware of a report that Beijing “clandestinely and deceptively” interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

Canada is in the midst of a contentious public inquiry “examining and assessing” foreign interference by China, Russia, and other foreign states and non-state actors, and this week the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, testified under oath about the steps his government took to respond to the threat of meddling. In his appearance, which lasted nearly four hours, Trudeau insisted that despite the efforts from hostile states, previous federal elections “held in their integrity”.

“[The elections] were decided by Canadians,” Trudeau said.

But he cast doubt on the reliability of information collected by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which has underpinned media reporting about Beijing’s alleged meddling efforts. Trudeau also said that information in a 2023 briefing note – which said that China’s interference efforts were “pragmatic in nature” and focused primarily in supporting those with a Beijing stance or were “neutral” on issues of interest to the Chinese government – was never relayed to him or his staff.

His remarks contrasted with testimony from the CSIS director, David Vigneault, who told the commission that the warnings in the agency’s reports – including advice that the government “take decisive action and impose consequences on perpetrators” – were passed on to the prime minister’s inner circle.

The CSIS also warned that foreign interference in Canada will persist until it “is viewed as an existential threat” to the country’s democracy and governments respond “forcefully”.

But neither key staffers, nor the prime minister himself, recalled those warnings.

Those discrepancies prompted the head of the CSIS to be recalled to testify once again before the commission.

On Friday, Vigneault told commission lawyers that while he might not have mentioned certain points on briefing notes, he conveyed those warnings to the government on other occasions, including the idea that hostile nations view election meddling as a “low risk, high reward” undertaking.

Vigneault added that his agency’s method for briefing officials was “not just one method and one person” to ensure key figures were brought up to speed.

Speaking to reporters after his testimony, the prime minister deepened the rift between his government and the spy agency over the accuracy of CSIS reports by suggesting “no government, no leader” should “simply be a passive receiver” of information and intelligence.

“We have a role to play in asking questions, on thinking critically … encouraging further work on questioning sources and pulling out contradictions,” he said. “That actually is part and parcel of the work that we all need to do to make sure that everything is done to keep Canadians safe.”

Among the issues was reports that the CSIS had warned the Liberal party about possible Chinese interference in the nomination of Han Dong in Toronto.

“I didn’t feel there was sufficient or sufficiently credible information that would justify this very significant step as to remove a candidate,” Trudeau said.

The prime minister himself has come under fire from political opponents after telling the commission he didn’t read briefing notes, instead preferring to receive key information in person or over a secure line from his national security adviser or top intelligence officials, including Vigneault.

“When there is actually a risk of manipulation by hostile and malicious actors like, say, a communist regime in Beijing, he can’t even take the responsibility of reading his briefing notes,” said Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

Beijing has previously denied all allegations of meddling in Canadian affairs and a spokesperson for the embassy said Trudeau had “slandered” China during the inquiry hearing.

The commission, overseen by Quebec appeals court judge Marie-Josée Hogue, will complete an initial report by 3 May and deliver its final report by the end of 2024.

China’s world-leading patent applications being sped up, scrutinised to boost key industries

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3258849/chinas-world-leading-patent-applications-being-sped-scrutinised-boost-key-industries?utm_source=rss_feed

China is gradually becoming more efficient and speedier in reviewing its world-leading annual patent applications, in line with broader efforts to spearhead tech innovation amid a heightened global tech race.

However, concerns persist over the lack of original innovation and the uneven development of its extensive patent portfolio that continues to outpace the international field.

The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the country’s top IP regulator, intends to shorten the review period for patent applications made this year to 15.5 months, down from 16 months in 2023 and 16.5 months in 2022, according to its annual work guidelines released on Wednesday.

Before the formal release, the ministry had touched on its plans to improve patent-review standards for emerging fields such as big data, artificial intelligence and genetic technologies.

“[We will] expand the scope of review and expedite the process, as well as strengthen the review mechanisms to support critical technology breakthroughs and the high-quality development of key industries,” Wang Peizhang, director general of the Intellectual Property Utilisation Promotion Department at the CNIPA, said at a press conference on March 29.

Patents are considered an important marker of innovation and technological capabilities, but China has also been criticised for heavily subsidising patent applicants, and for putting an emphasis on quantity over quality.

Data released by the World International Patent Organisation (Wipo) last month showed that China had maintained its position for the fifth straight year as the top origin of patent applications under the UN Patent Cooperation Treaty, filing 69,610 applications in 2023, compared with 55,678 by the United States.

And recently, patents have further come under the spotlight amid Beijing’s push for technological self-reliance against the backdrop of rising international competition, namely with the US, in critically important sectors such as semiconductors. Leadership has also set out to tighten quality supervision and reduce substandard applications.

“Original innovation has consistently been the weakest link in [China’s] self-dependent innovation,” said Xu Guanhua, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who used to serve as the science and technology minister.

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

Xu was quoted last month by the Study Times, the mouthpiece of the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, as saying that fundamental research into cutting-edge technologies leads the way for emerging industries, serving as “an indicator of a country’s strength and a lifeline for future development”.

“As a major power, we must achieve breakthroughs in original innovation,” he urged, echoing earlier calls from Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, who called in January for efforts to boost “disruptive innovation”.

China ranked as the 12th most innovative out of 132 economies surveyed in Wipo’s 2023 innovation index, trailing countries such as Switzerland, the US, Singapore and South Korea, and was the only middle-income country in the top 30 of the annual assessment.

“China’s innovation quality shows notable disparities, with deficiencies in specific industries being crucial factors behind the gap between China and the US,” according to a research report on China’s patent quality, released by the CICC Global Institute last year.

While fields such as computer science, communication and transport technologies remained bright spots in China’s innovation quality and reached global frontier levels, noticeable deficiencies persisted in pharmaceuticals, chemicals and semiconductors, the report said.

Based on an analysis of patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office compiled in the Wipo database, the report said China’s patents were mostly from the electrical engineering industry, while much fewer came from traditional mechanical and chemical sectors, compared with a relatively more balanced layout seen in countries such as the US, Japan and Germany.

“Although the advancement of key industries may drive a surge in patent quantity, this alone is insufficient to enhance overall patent quality; elevating patent quality requires strengthening the innovation capabilities of industries with deficiencies,” the report said.

It further warned that the rapid increase in Chinese patents “did not fully translate into international competitiveness in technology”, stressing that China’s patent applications to overseas countries accounted for less than 10 per cent of the total filings over the past few years.

“Many [Chinese patent applications] are primarily aimed at corporate promotion, product marketing, and seeking policy support, rather than having the intention or profitability to enter overseas markets. So, applicants do not actively seek substantial patent protection in multiple countries,” the report said.

China surpasses US in quantum patent applications amid ‘neck-to-neck’ race

A patent survey report published by the CNIPA in late 2022 also pointed to a lack of international competitiveness in China’s patents.

Among the surveyed enterprises holding patents, industries related to information transmission, software and IT service had the highest proportion of submissions for patent applications abroad, yet reached only 9.1 per cent, according to CNIPA’s findings.

In a separate statement on Thursday, the CNIPA said that it would work with the US, European Union, Japan and South Korea to improve their Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) network, which aims to shorten the review time of patent applications under the PPH programme to three months.

The PPH enables applicants who have successfully obtained a patent from one office to request expedited processing of a related application at another office, allowing the second office to leverage the work done by the first office, thereby expediting the application process.

Since launching its first PPH trial in November 2011, China has established PPH cooperation with patent examination agencies from 32 countries or regions, according to the CNIPA.

Could China’s Taichi light-based chip show the way on AI?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3258854/could-chinas-taichi-light-based-chip-show-way-ai?utm_source=rss_feed

Scientists with Tsinghua University have developed Taichi, a light-based artificial intelligence chip that they say is much faster and more energy efficient than traditional electronic chips.

In a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on Thursday, the researchers said the chip was more than 1,000 times as energy efficient as the high-performance Nvidia H100 GPU, a chip that is not available in China because of US government trade restrictions.

According to the research team, the chip performs well in artificial general intelligence (AGI) tasks such as image recognition training and ChatGPT-like content generation.

After being trained on images from a range of artistic styles, Taichi could transform input images into works in the manner of various artists.

The chip uses photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which use light instead of electrical signals to process data, enabling information to be transmitted at extremely high speeds and bandwidths but with much less energy than electronic devices.

AI computing has become a high-energy-consuming industry, and researchers are racing to try to improve efficiency.

“Taichi paves the way for large-scale photonic computing and advanced tasks, further exploiting the flexibility and potential of photonics for modern AGI,” the team said in the paper.

Science journal associate editor Yury Suleymanov said: “The present work is a promising step toward real-world photonic computing, supporting various applications in AI.”

Chinese tech firms scramble to secure Nvidia’s AI chips before US ban cuts off supply

The research team is led by Dai Qionghai, a professor from Tsinghua’s automation department, and Fang Lu, an associate professor from the university’s electronic engineering department.

Dai and his team gained their results by designing a scalable and highly robust distributed computing architecture.

The conventional approach to using PICs is to stack them but Dai’s team arranged them into clusters, forming a shallow but broad architecture.

In Taichi, the computing resources were distributed into multiple independent clusters, which were organised separately for subtasks.

“It was not an exclusive algorithm only for Taichi. The computation and task distributing could also help existing PICs to extend their computing capacity for more advanced tasks,” Dai said in the paper.

“Taichi experimentally achieved on-chip 1,000-category–level classification (testing at 91.89 per cent accuracy in the 1623-category Omniglot dataset) and high-fidelity artificial intelligence–generated content with up to two orders of magnitude of improvement in efficiency.”

In October last year, the team launched an optical chip that broke through problems such as computing unit integration and optoelectronic interfaces.

The researchers said the work on Taichi underscored the chip’s potential in processing large-scale high-resolution images and training billion-parameter models, paving the way for applications in low-power automated systems.

“We anticipate that Taichi will accelerate the development of more powerful optical solutions as critical support for the foundation model and a new era of AGI,” the team said.

OnePlus faces complaints from Indian retailers as Chinese smartphone brand tries to maintain its slice of the market

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3258856/oneplus-faces-complaints-indian-retailers-chinese-smartphone-brand-tries-maintain-its-slice-market?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus is facing multiple grievances against its India operations, from profit margins to warranty and service claims, in another sign of trouble for Chinese brands in the world’s most populous country.

In a letter to OnePlus India on Wednesday, the South India Organised Retailers Association (ORA) said members of the body had run into an increasing number of unresolved issues related to selling the company’s products, moving them to suspend sales of the products from May 1, according to reports from The Economic Times and other local media.

“Despite our persistent efforts to address these concerns with your company, little progress or resolution has been achieved,” the trade body said in its letter addressing Ranjeet Singh, the sales director of OnePlus India, according to The Economic Times. “Promises made have not been fulfilled.”

“ORA painfully wishes to inform our collective decision to halt the retail of OnePlus products in our establishments from 1st May, 2024,” it added.

Nothing’s Carl Pei on revitalising smartphones after leaving OnePlus

Some issues the body listed include alleged low profit margins on OnePlus products, making it challenging for retailers to sustain their businesses. Complex warranty and repair processes were another concern, as they frustrated both customers and retailers, according to the media reports.

The ORA and OnePlus did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

India has been a proven growth market recently for OnePlus, a sub-brand of Dongguan-based Oppo, owing to its push to grow offline sales channels, according to the consultancy Counterpoint Research.

Its share of the India smartphone market grew 33 per cent year on year in 2023, partially driven by its better product mix in the affordable premium segment – defined by Counterpoint as products priced between US$360 and US$540.

The looming loss of access to some offline channels in half of India, the world’s second largest mobile market, could deal a significant blow to OnePlus, derailing at least part of its offline sales push.

Formed in the middle of 2021, the ORA was created by and represents leading mobile retail chains in South India.

The association covers more than 20 different retail chains – including major retailers Poorvika, Sangeetha and Big C – with more than 4,000 stores, accounting for more than 40 per cent of the mobile phone businesses across six southern Indian states.

Other concerns cited in the letter include an alleged bundling practice, whereby OnePlus asks retailers to sell accessories alongside phones, and demands for keeping low-selling models in stock. The latter, the ORA alleges, has led to inventory stockpiling that stretches retailers’ already thin finances, according to local media reports.

“Regrettably, the ongoing issues have left us with no alternative but to discontinue the sale of your products in our stores,” the ORA said, adding that it urges OnePlus to proactively address these concerns by the end of this month.

Xi Jinping’s chief of staff urges business mogul to boost US-China ties at ‘critical crossroads’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258860/xi-jinpings-chief-staff-urges-business-mogul-boost-us-china-ties-critical-crossroads?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s chief of staff held a rare meeting with influential American businessman John Thornton in Beijing on Friday, urging him to use his influence to boost friendly exchanges between the two countries.

In the meeting, Cai Qi, the secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party and the fifth-ranking member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, also expressed his hope that Thornton would continue to exert influence to improve “exchanges and friendship” between the two countries, according to a brief statement by the Chinese foreign ministry.

“China-US relations are at a critical crossroads, and to continue to stabilise and improve, the two sides must implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and find the right way for the two countries to get along in line with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” said Cai, a Xi protégé who also heads the General Office of the Communist Party Central Committee, one of the most powerful offices in China.

Xi Jinping’s chief of staff is China’s new internet tsar, sources say

In response, Thornton, a co-chair of the Asia Society, said he was willing to “continue to play a role in advancing the cause of US-China friendship and enhancing the American public’s comprehensive understanding of China”, according to the ministry.

Thornton, executive chairman of Barrick Gold Corp and a former Goldman Sachs president, is among the best-connected US business leaders in China and has served as a powerful backchannel for the two countries.

In 2021, when China was in a nationwide lockdown and ties with the US were at a low point, Thornton made a six-week trip to China. During the trip, he was given unusual access to Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where Beijing has been accused by Western countries of committing genocide against the Uygur ethnic minority group – claims Beijing denies.

At that time, Thornton was also received by senior Chinese officials, including then vice-premier Han Zheng, during which the two sides discussed issues including climate change, Xinjiang and conditions for resuming talks.

He was also among a group of American CEOs and scholars hosted by Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in late March. That meeting was widely considered an attempt by Beijing to ease anxieties over its investment environment and slowing economy.

In January 2020, Thornton was among the people then US president Donald Trump thanked at the signing of the phase-one trade deal between Washington and Beijing.

In Wang-Blinken call, China urges US to play constructive Middle East role

Friday’s meeting came days after a long-anticipated phone call between Xi and Biden, their first since their November summit in California.

The two powers are seeking to manage tensions amid a rivalry over trade, technology, human rights and a host of other issues.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China last week, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China in the coming weeks.

South China Sea: Beijing to set up naval hotline with Vietnam as Philippine maritime tensions spike

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3258868/china-set-south-china-sea-naval-hotline-vietnam-philippine-maritime-tensions-spike?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Vietnam have agreed to set up a new navy hotline, with observers saying the move may be a message to Manila as territorial tensions flare with Beijing in the South China Sea, where Hanoi is also a claimant.

The deal came as the Chinese defence minister, Dong Jun, met his Vietnamese counterpart in what was his first overseas trip since taking office in December.

Dong met Phan Van Giang in northern Vietnam near their shared border on Thursday, as part of the eighth Vietnam-China border defence friendship exchange.

The two ministers signed a memorandum of understanding on a hotline between the Vietnamese navy and the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command, which oversees the South China Sea.

“China is willing to join hands with Vietnam to firmly support each other’s core interests and major concerns, and bring the strategic mutual trust between the two militaries to a new height,” Dong said.

The former PLA naval commander also called on the two sides to “make maritime cooperation a new highlight of cooperation between the two militaries [and enhance the ability to jointly maintain maritime security.”

China’s Xi Jinping calls on Vietnam to use ‘political wisdom’ to manage ties

Giang said China had “always been one of the top priorities in Vietnam’s foreign policy,” stressing that the significance of the border defence friendship exchange was to “promote mutual political trust and understanding,” and strengthen solidarity and closer ties.

He also invited Dong to the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Vietnam People’s Army and the second Vietnam International Defence Expo later this year.

The two Communist neighbours pledged to step up exchanges and strengthen annual cooperation mechanisms, such as the defence strategic dialogue, the border defence friendship exchange, and joint patrols in the Gulf of Tonkin near the South China Sea.

“[Beijing and Hanoi] have agreed to build a “community with a shared future so they would not let the South China Sea issue undermine overall bilateral relations”, Feng Chao, an associate professor at Shanghai International Studies University who specialises in Vietnam affairs said, referring to a commitment made during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Vietnam in December.

“If China and Vietnam work well on this, the Philippines would not go too far [to provoke Beijing].”

The proposed hotline comes some three years after the Chinese and Vietnamese navy chiefs agreed to set up a hotline to manage the risk of conflict over competing claims in the South China Sea.

Chen Xiangmiao, an assistant research fellow with China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said the new hotline, this time at a “theatre” level, could help to manage possible maritime accidents.

“These hotlines could enhance theatre-level exchanges between the two sides and are responsible for specific areas and specific military interactions,” Chen said.

The deal comes amid increasing tensions between China and the Philippines over contested territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea, with several stand-offs between their respective coastguard vessels in recent months.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr took part in trilateral talks with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington on Thursday. The three leaders expressed “serious concerns” about China’s “dangerous and aggressive” behaviour in the South China Sea, and Biden said US defence support for its two treaty allies was “ironclad”.

The summit came days after the three countries and Australia carried out joint military drills in the South China Sea, prompting the PLA to stage an air-and-sea combat patrol.

China draws line on shoal as Philippines debates warship ‘gentleman’s agreement’

Beijing on Friday lodged representations with the Philippine ambassador and the Japanese deputy chief of mission over comments made at the summit.

Beijing claims almost the whole of the South China Sea under its historical “nine-dash line”. Vietnam – a major US trading partner in the region – also has overlapping claims, but has mostly been remained a bystander in the recent confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels.

Chen said Vietnam would be of strategic importance to Beijing in the event of any armed conflict in the South China Sea, given its special geographic position.

“Vietnam has land borders with China and its coastline is very long from its north to south, so it could choke the passageway in the South China Sea,” Chen said.

Referring to the waters between Cam Ranh Bay in southeastern Vietnam and the northern Philippines, he said: “If a foreign country were to control these two places at the same time, it could control the passage of these waters in the South China Sea.”

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US-China competition to field military drone swarms could fuel global arms race

https://apnews.com/article/us-china-drone-swarm-development-arms-race-e5808a715415d709f466da00cdeab10fIn this photo from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, British soldiers launch a drone during Project Convergence exercises at Fort Irwin, Calif., on Nov. 4, 2022. With tensions high over Taiwan, U.S. and Chinese military planners are readying themselves for a new kind of war where battleships, fighter jets and amphibious landings cede prevalence to squadrons of AI-enabled air and sea drones. (DVIDS via AP)

2024-04-12T09:34:29Z

As their rivalry intensifies, U.S. and Chinese military planners are gearing up for a new kind of warfare in which squadrons of air and sea drones equipped with artificial intelligence work together like a swarm of bees to overwhelm an enemy.

The planners envision a scenario in which hundreds, even thousands of the machines engage in coordinated battle. A single controller might oversee dozens of drones. Some would scout, others attack. Some would be able to pivot to new objectives in the middle of a mission based on prior programming rather than a direct order.

The world’s only AI superpowers are engaged in an arms race for swarming drones that is reminiscent of the Cold War, except drone technology will be far more difficult to contain than nuclear weapons. Because software drives the drones’ swarming abilities, it could be relatively easy and cheap for rogue nations and militants to acquire their own fleets of killer robots.

The Pentagon is pushing urgent development of inexpensive, expendable drones as a deterrent against China acting on its territorial claim on Taiwan. Washington says it has no choice but to keep pace with Beijing. Chinese officials say AI-enabled weapons are inevitable so they, too, must have them.

The unchecked spread of swarm technology “could lead to more instability and conflict around the world,” said Margarita Konaev, an analyst with Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

As the undisputed leaders in the field, Washington and Beijing are best equipped to set an example by putting limits on military uses of drone swarms. But their intense competition, China’s military aggression in the South China Sea and persistent tensions over Taiwan make the prospect of cooperation look dim.

The idea is not new. The United Nations has tried for more than a decade to advance drone non-proliferation efforts that could include limits such as forbidding the targeting of civilians or banning the use of swarms for ethnic cleansing.

MILITARY CONTRACTS OFFER CLUES

Drones have been a priority for both powers for years, and each side has kept its advances secret, so it’s unclear which country might have an edge.

A 2023 Georgetown study of AI-related military spending found that more than a third of known contracts issued by both U.S. and Chinese military services over eight months in 2020 were for intelligent uncrewed systems.

The Pentagon sought bids in January for small, unmanned maritime “interceptors.” The specifications reflect the military’s ambition: The drones must be able to transit hundreds of miles of “contested waterspace,” work in groups in waters without GPS, carry 1,000-pound payloads, attack hostile craft at 40 mph and execute “complex autonomous behaviors” to adapt to a target’s evasive tactics.

It’s not clear how many drones a single person would control. A spokesman for the defense secretary declined to say, but a recently published Pentagon-backed study offers a clue: A single operator supervised a swarm of more than 100 cheap air and land drones in late 2021 in an urban warfare exercise at an Army training site at Fort Campbell, Tennessee.

The CEO of a company developing software to allow multiple drones to collaborate said in an interview that the technology is bounding ahead.

“We’re enabling a single operator to direct right now half a dozen,” said Lorenz Meier of Auterion, which is working on the technology for the U.S. military and its allies. He said that number is expected to increase to dozens and within a year to hundreds.

Not to be outdone, China’s military claimed last year that dozens of aerial drones “self-healed” after jamming cut their communications. An official documentary said they regrouped, switched to self-guidance and completed a search-and-destroy mission unaided, detonating explosive-laden drones on a target.

In justifying the push for drone swarms, China hawks in Washington offer this scenario: Beijing invades Taiwan then stymies U.S. intervention efforts with waves of air and sea drones that deny American and allied planes, ships and troops a foothold.

A year ago, CIA Director William Burns said Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping had instructed his military to “be ready by 2027” to invade. But that doesn’t mean an invasion is likely, or that the U.S.-China arms race over AI will not aggravate global instability.

KISSINGER URGED ACTION

Just before he died last year, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger urged Beijing and Washington to work together to discourage AI arms proliferation. They have “a narrow window of opportunity,” he said.

“Restraints for AI need to occur before AI is built into the security structure of each society,” Kissinger wrote with Harvard’s Graham Allison.

Xi and President Joe Biden made a verbal agreement in November to set up working groups on AI safety, but that effort has so far taken a back seat to the arms race for autonomous drones.

The competition is not apt to build trust or reduce the risk of conflict, said William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

If the U.S. is “going full speed ahead, it’s most likely China will accelerate whatever it’s doing,” Hartung said.

There’s a risk China could offer swarm technology to U.S. foes or repressive countries, analysts say. Or it could be stolen. Other countries developing the tech, such as Russia, Israel, Iran and Turkey, could also spread the know-how.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in January that U.S.-China talks set to begin sometime this spring will address AI safety. Neither the defense secretary’s office nor the National Security Council would comment on whether the military use of drone swarms might be on the agenda.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

A FIVE-YEAR WAIT

Military analysts, drone makers and AI researchers don’t expect fully capable, combat-ready swarms to be fielded for five years or so, though big breakthroughs could happen sooner.

“The Chinese have an edge in hardware right now. I think we have an edge in software,” said CEO Adam Bry of U.S. drone maker Skydio, which supplies the Army, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the State Department, among other agencies.

Chinese military analyst Song Zhongping said the U.S. has “stronger basic scientific and technological capabilities” but added that the American advantage is not “impossible to surpass.” He said Washington also tends to overestimate the effect of its computer chip export restrictions on China’s drone swarm advances.

Paul Scharre, an AI expert at the Center for a New American Security think tank, believes the rivals are at rough parity.

“The bigger question for each country is about how do you use a drone swarm effectively?” he said.

That’s one reason all eyes are on the war in Ukraine, where drones work as eyes in the sky to make undetected front-line maneuvers all but impossible. They also deliver explosives and serve as sea-skimming ship killers.

Drones in Ukraine are often lost to jamming. Electronic interference is just one of many challenges for drone swarm development. Researchers are also focused on the difficulty of marshaling hundreds of air and sea drones in semi-autonomous swarms over vast expanses of the western Pacific for a potential war over Taiwan.

A secretive, now-inactive $78 million program announced early last year by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, seemed tailor-made for the Taiwan invasion scenario.

The Autonomous Multi-Domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms is a mouthful to say, but the mission is clear: Develop ways for thousands of autonomous land, sea and air drones to “degrade or defeat” a foe in seizing contested turf.

DRONES IMPROVISE — BUT MUST STICK TO ORDERS

A separate DARPA program called OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics, had the goal of marshaling upwards of 250 land-based drones to assist Army troops in urban warfare.

Project coordinator Julie Adams, an Oregon State robotics professor, said swarm commanders in the exercise managed to choreograph up to 133 ground and air vehicles at a time. The drones were programmed with a set of tactics they could perform semi-autonomously, including indoor reconnaissance and simulated enemy kills.

Under the direction of a swarm commander, the fleet acted something like an infantry squad whose soldiers are permitted some improvisation as long as they stick to orders.

“It’s what I would call supervisory interaction, in that the human could stop the command or stop the tactic,” Adams said. But once a course of action — such as an attack — was set in motion, the drone was on its own.

Adams said she was particularly impressed with a swarm commander in a different exercise last year at Fort Moore, Georgia, who single-handedly managed a 45-drone swarm over 2.5 hours with just 20 minutes of training.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” she said.

A reporter had to ask: Was he a video game player?

Yes, she said. “And he had a VR headset at home.”

___

Associated Press Writer Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

FRANK BAJAK Bajak is an Associated Press technology reporter who focuses on hacking, privacy, surveillance and military AI. twitter

Iran embassy attack: in Wang-Blinken call, China urges US to play constructive Middle East role

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258834/iran-embassy-attack-wang-blinken-call-china-urges-us-play-constructive-mideast-role?utm_source=rss_feed

In a phone call with his US counterpart Antony Blinken this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Washington to play a “constructive role” in the Middle East, Beijing said on Friday.

Confirming the call on Thursday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Wang “expressed China’s strong condemnation” of a deadly attack Israel is accused of carrying out on the Iranian embassy in Syria earlier this month.

Wang also stressed the “inviolable” right to security of diplomatic institutions and the need to respect the sovereignty of Iran and Syria”, the ministry said.

The US State Department said earlier that Blinken used the call to ask Beijing to use its influence to dissuade Iran from striking Israel. Similar calls were made to his Turkish and Saudi Arabian counterparts, the department said.

China condemns Israeli attack on Iranian consulate in Syria

In Beijing on Friday, ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning quoted Wang as saying it “is imperative that the Gaza conflict be brought to an end as soon as possible. China calls on all parties to the conflict to … cease fire immediately and to prevent a humanitarian crisis.

“China will continue to play a constructive role in resolving the Middle East issue based on justice and correctness … The United States, in particular, should also play a constructive role.”

US sees missile strike on Israel by Iran, proxies as imminent

Washington’s efforts to engage Beijing came after at least seven of Tehran’s military advisers, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who managed Iranian operations in Syria and Lebanon, were killed in the air strike in Damascus.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, but both Iran and Syria blamed Israel for the deaths. The New York Times cited four unnamed Israeli officials as acknowledging Israel carried out the attack.

Concerns are rising in Israel that Iran could mount a direct attack on Israel within days, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. But a person briefed by the Iranian leadership told the Journal that no final decision had been made.

Despite the potential spillover, there have been no public diplomatic exchanges between China and Iran since the air strike.

Chang Hua left his post as China’s ambassador to Iran earlier this month as a part of a regular reshuffle of diplomats and Beijing has not appointed an envoy for the Gaza war.

After the air strike, Geng Shuang, China’s envoy to the United Nations, said such assaults “must be stopped immediately”, adding that “spillover risks [are] becoming increasingly evident, and the situation in the Middle East has become precarious”.

Geng also directly condemned Israel’s frequent assaults on Syria and Lebanon, saying they “seriously violated the sovereignty of the countries, and increased tensions throughout the region”.

He called on countries with significant influence over Israel to play “a constructive role”, a clear reference to the US.

China walks a fine line in the Red Sea. Will its diplomatic mission succeed?

Blinken’s call is not the first time Washington has asked Beijing to intervene in Gaza-related conflict, especially in relation to Tehran.

In January, the US asked China to urge Iran to rein in attacks in the Red Sea mounted by Iranian-aligned Houthi militants. However, the request appeared to yield little result.

The Pentagon also invited China to join the US-led coalition to safeguard commercial traffic in the Red Sea, but Beijing has yet to accept. Beijing, which has a naval base in Djibouti, says it has not sent any forces to guard the region.

Jean-Loup Samaan, a senior research fellow of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore, said the US engagement with China indicated that Washington considered Beijing to be a “major player” in the Middle East.

He said it showed that the US saw China as “one that can influence regional rivalries”, and suggested that the US and China “share common interests in the region, which is stability and access to its energy supplies”.

“Something very different from what we see in the US-China relationship in [the Asia-Pacific],” he added.

But China’s capacity for and interest in mediating in the conflicts might be limited.

“The conflict revealed a Chinese policy that is reluctant to get trapped in regional disputes the way the US and other Western powers have gotten for decades,” he said.

“Because China’s strategy towards the Middle East emphasises trade ties and non-interference in domestic affairs, its government does not want to jeopardise its credibility among Arab partners.”

Yin Gang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing was likely urging Tehran not to escalate the situation.

“China is probably following consistent diplomatic practice [since the Gaza war], which should be to advise Iran to stay calm and ask for international help in case of a conflict spillover.”

Noting China’s permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, Yin said the US looked to China because of its global impact on security issues while not being one of the conflict parties such as Russia, which sent forces in Syria.

China woman beaten by philandering cab driver boyfriend she gave US$550,000 in gifts to after asking for refund

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3257291/china-woman-beaten-philandering-cab-driver-boyfriend-she-gave-us550000-gifts-after-asking-refund?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman in China took has taken her ex-boyfriend to court and claimed he savagely beat her after he refused to return cash and luxury items estimated to be worth four million yuan (US$553,00) that she had given to him while they dated.

The woman, surnamed Li, from Beijing fell in love with the man, surnamed Deng, after he picked her up as part of his job as a ride-hailing driver in 2019, reported Star News.

Li said they soon became boyfriend and girlfriend but broke up in 2021 after Li spotted Deng with another woman and learned that they lived together.

During their two years of dating, Li said she bought lavish items like trainers and bags for her boyfriend and transferred about two million yuan (US$277,000) to his bank account.

“He hinted that if I wanted our romance to continue, I should continue to give him money and buy him nice things,” Li was quoted as saying.

“He didn’t date me because of love, but just for the money,” she said.

When Deng was informed that he was being sued by Li, he went to her home and assaulted her.

“He beat me so fiercely that I thought he intended to kill me,” said Li.

Deng claimed they had a joint account and the money was meant to be spent together.

He also said some of the items were only used when they were together and that she kept them when they were apart.

He did not respond to the accusations of domestic violence.

“My attitude is that I want her out of my life forever,” he told the media. “She has been harassing me for far too long.”

Their case trended on mainland social media and was viewed 53 million times on Weibo.

“It shows that, no matter if you are wealthy or not, people should avoid having a ‘love brain’,” said one online observer, referring to the phenomenon of people making irrational decisions because they are infatuated.

Pilot door-to-door hospital transfers from mainland China and Macau will not be two-way street at first, health secretary says

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3258830/pilot-door-door-hospital-transfers-mainland-china-and-macau-will-not-be-two-way-street-first-health?utm_source=rss_feed

A pilot cross-border ambulance scheme will start with patients sent to Hong Kong from a mainland Chinese hospital and one in Macau, but would not be a two-way street, the city’s health chief has said.

Lo Chung-mau, the health secretary, told lawmakers on Friday that the door-to-door service would not be reciprocal at first because of the more complex procedures needed to preapprove the vehicles, doctors, medical equipment and medicines travelling from Hong Kong to the mainland or Macau.

He added the service would be open to non-Hongkongers, but was unlikely to put a major burden on the city’s public health system as just dozens of patients were likely to be eligible each year.

The pilot scheme, expected to start in the middle of the year after a trial run scheduled to begin as soon as the end of the month, would offer ambulance services to eligible patients from the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital on the mainland and Centro Hospitalar Conde de São Januário in Macau direct to Hong Kong’s public hospitals.

But no patients would be sent from Hong Kong to the two hospitals across the border in the first stage of the scheme.

Ambulances from the two hospitals that would be used to transfer patients to Hong Kong, as well as accompanying doctors, equipment and medication to be used on the vehicles, will require preapproval from Hong Kong authorities.

“We agree that this arrangement should be offered two-way,” Lo said. “But if we need to [send patients] northbound, the approval process would be much more complicated.

“On matters of approving technical issues, we can handle more quickly,” he added. “We don’t want to wait further … and so we try this single-way method first.”

Lo added the government would look into cross-border arrangements for patients travelling from Hong Kong, despite a relatively low demand, after the pilot north-to-south scheme started.

He was speaking after lawmakers questioned whether patients could also be sent to the mainland or Macau for treatment under the scheme.

“Treatments of combining Western and Chinese medicines on the mainland are done well,” Chan Wing-kwong said. “If some patients would like to seek medical care there, could they be transferred to the mainland too?”

Pilot cross-border hospital transfer scheme extended to non-Hongkonger patients

Lawmaker Tommy Cheung Yu-yan added that some mainland visitors to Hong Kong might also need to be transferred north.

Regulations to allow the grant of limited Hong Kong registration status to mainland and Macau doctors involved in cross-border transfers was gazetted on Friday.

Lo explained that the limited registration would only allow doctors to attend to the medical needs of patients under transfer in the ambulance.

He added patients transferred under the scheme would be sent to hospitals closest to the border once they arrived in Hong Kong.

Lo said if an ambulance from Macau entered the city using the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, it would go to North Lantau Hospital in Tung Chung.

If a mainland ambulance travelled through Shenzhen Bay, the patient could be sent to Tuen Mun Hospital or North District Hospital in Sheung Shui.

But patients that required treatment such as heart surgery would be sent to the hospitals with the specialist resources to handle the case.

The cross-border ambulance service was first suggested in the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, published by Beijing in 2019.

A picture of health: medical struggles for Hongkongers in bay area

The bay area is Beijing’s plan to link Hong and Macau with nine southern mainland cities to create an economic powerhouse.

Some lawmakers were concerned whether Hong Kong’s public hospitals would face an extra workload if they took in non-Hongkonger patients from the bay area.

“Hong Kong’s public healthcare resources are very tight,” legislator Lam So-wai said.

“If we take in patients from the Greater Bay Area, would it add further strain to local public medical resources?”

But Lo said he expected the demand for public hospital services would not be greatly increased because of the direct ambulances, as he expected most users would be Hongkongers, who would be likely to return to the city in due course anyway.

Dr Michael Wong Lap-gate, the Hospital Authority’s director of quality and safety, said fewer than 10 patients each year travelled from Macau for treatment in Hong Kong’s public hospitals.

He added the Fire Services Department, the main provider of Hong Kong’s emergency ambulance service, got thousands of requests for pickups at the border with the mainland every year, but only a few hundred were considered to be serious cases.

China overtakes Germany in some exports, raising trade profile and EU eyebrows ahead of Scholz visit

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3258825/china-overtakes-germany-some-exports-raising-trade-profile-and-eu-eyebrows-ahead-scholz-visit?utm_source=rss_feed

China has surpassed Germany in the exports of some products, a changing of the guard which has already altered the balance of trade in major markets, posed challenges to the European manufacturing powerhouse and cast a cloud over bilateral relations, according to a new report.

While Germany has historically been a major source of imports in the European Union, particularly in advanced sectors like motor vehicles and machinery, its market share has been declining, insurer Allianz Trade said in a publication that declared “the trade tide is turning”.

In contrast, the company said, China has been “making significant gains” in the European market across sectors like computers, electronics and optical products, metals and basic pharmaceuticals.

“The momentum is especially strong in electrical equipment, which has risen by 5.1 percentage points from 2018 to 2023 and 7 percentage points from 2013 to 2023,” the report noted. “This trend highlights the growing competitiveness of China.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will arrive in China on Saturday with a business delegation for a three-day visit that will include meetings with President Xi Jinping and other senior officials. Trade is expected to be high on the agenda.

China remains Germany’s largest trading partner. But figures from China’s General Administration of Customs showed that exports and imports between the two countries in 2023 dropped 8.7 per cent from a year earlier, falling to US$206.8 billion.

“China is moving up global value chains, with global export market shares surpassing Germany in key sectors,” said the Allianz report.

“It has steadily moved up the value chain and captured market share in advanced industrial sectors while simultaneously squeezing out European products from its domestic market.”

Data from Allianz showed that China’s global export market share has continued to increase, from less than 4 per cent in 2000 to 14 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, the corresponding figure for Germany dropped to 8 per cent in 2022, after a long period of stagnation at around 10 per cent.

“China’s global export share has surpassed that of Germany in three out of four main export sectors,” Allianz said: machinery and equipment, chemicals and a broad category covering computers, telecoms, electronics and household equipment.

The company noted that German machinery firms, manufacturers of internal combustion engine vehicles and producers of specialised chemicals are facing “intense competition from Chinese rivals” backed by competitive prices and state support.

“China has been able to integrate long sequences of value chains domestically, thus providing goods that require less participation of other countries,” it said.

Despite difficulties in the Chinese market, the report said that it remains an attractive destination for investments by large German corporations, sharing figures that showed the country’s direct investment in China increased fivefold between 2010 and 2022.

A survey conducted by the German Chamber of Commerce in China this week found that two-thirds of German businesses in China have observed “unfair competition” when operating in the country.

Both nations have continued to stress the importance of economic ties, even as Berlin moves towards de-risking its supply chains and joins complaints levelled by the West over an alleged overcapacity generated by China’s state subsidies.

China’s stock market: Beijing issues unprecedented guidelines calling for transparency, risk-management

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3258812/chinas-stock-market-beijing-issues-unprecedented-guidelines-calling-transparency-risk-management?utm_source=rss_feed

China has issued an unprecedented set of policy guidelines to push for transparency, security, risk-management and vibrancy in the country’s US$9 trillion stock market, sketching out a view of what the world’s second-largest capital market could look like by the middle of the century as Beijing solidifies its goal of becoming a financial superpower.

A document published by the nation’s cabinet on Friday promises to promote the “high-quality” development of China’s capital market by strengthening supervision and guarding against risks.

It comes just two months after former Shanghai vice-mayor Wu Qing, dubbed the “broker butcher” for his tough approach to tackling market malpractice, was brought in to head the country’s securities regulator.

The document released by the State Council after the markets closed on Friday evening sets out nine guidelines that formulate a framework to develop the market, demanding a better mechanism for protecting investors’ interests and an improvement in the quality of listed companies over the next five years.

By 2035, the market should have achieved “a reasonable structure of investing and fundraising” in which listed companies will have demonstrated a significant improvement in quality, it said. There must also be demonstrable progress in cultivating first-class investment banks and financial institutions.

The push highlights the fact China’s state support for its stock market has entered a new stage, with some of the supportive measures proposed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) now being written into the State Council’s documents. It is rare for China’s cabinet to issue documents directly targeting the stock market, with the two previous such occasions occurring in 2004 and 2014, both preceding a raging bull market.

At a high-level meeting in January, President Xi Jinping elaborated on his goal of making China a “financial superpower” – with a financing model that is “distinct from Western models”, as it focuses on financing support for the real economy.

He emphasised the importance of preventing systemic financial risk, and called on financial regulators and industry authorities to clarify their responsibilities and strengthen cooperation.

“Financial regulation must have teeth,” Xi was quoted by state media outlet Xinhua as saying.

Friday’s guidelines complement four documents issued last month by the CSRC pledging to crack down on fraudulent listings, raise the threshold for new listings and require publicly traded companies to return more to investors through buy-backs and dividend payouts.

According to the document published today, companies will be required to disclose their dividend payout policies when they list, and stricter rules on information disclosure and corporate governance will be implemented to restrict stake reductions by major shareholders and push listed companies to boost investment value.

The regulators will also work out standards for abnormal trading and manipulation, issue rules to strengthen the supervision of high-frequency transactions, and mete out severe punishments in cases of malicious manipulation and short-selling, it said.

The document also called for the fast-track approval of exchange-traded funds, the expansion of index-based funds, and a higher proportion of stock-focused funds in the mutual fund industry.

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Philippine’s Rodrigo Duterte claims China threatened war over South China Sea if status quo not kept

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3258816/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-claims-china-threatened-war-over-south-china-sea-if-status-quo-not-kept?utm_source=rss_feed

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has broken his silence on an unwritten “gentleman’s agreement” he was said to have made with Chinese President Xi Jinping, claiming he did not concede to any territorial demands but that Beijing had ready to “go to war” if Manila exercised its economic rights in the South China Sea.

At a press briefing on Thursday, Duterte recalled his first state visit to China in 2016, during which he discussed various issues with Xi including the Philippine’s plan to “dig oil” in the West Philippine Sea – Manila’s term for the waters of the South China Sea within the Philippine’s exclusive economic zone. Duterte said his Chinese counterpart was adamantly opposed and warned him strongly against it.

“I just want to let you know, this was the response of President Xi: ‘I’m afraid you cannot do that.’ … [I said] I will get oil from the portion of the South China Sea that belongs to the Philippines. He told me: ‘Please do not do it! For the life of me. We are friends and I do not want to destroy that friendship,’” Duterte said.

“My understanding is ‘there will be trouble’ if we insist on our own way there in the West Philippine Sea. China will go to war,” he added.

Duterte also denied that he had ever struck a “gentlemen’s deal” with Xi that would entail forfeiting his country’s territorial rights, and that the only thing they agreed on was maintaining the status quo within the disputed waters, meaning no new facilities or infrastructure.

“Aside from the fact of having a handshake with President Xi Jinping, the only thing I remember was ‘status quo’. That’s the word,” Duterte said.

Last week, Harry Roque, who had served as Duterte’s presidential spokesperson, said the reason for China’s recent water cannon attacks on Philippine vessels in March, which left three sailors injured, could be due to the gentleman’s agreement he claimed Duterte and Xi had made.

Roque speculated that Beijing felt Manila’s missions to the Second Thomas Shoal to resupply the BPS Sierra Madre – a WWII era navy vessel that was purposefully grounded on the shoal to bolster the Philippine’s territorial claims – was a violation of the unwritten agreement made by Duterte.

During his six years in office, Duterte, who consistently called Xi a very close “friend”, reoriented Philippine foreign policy away from the United States towards closer ties with China.

China has competing claims in the South China Sea with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam. In 2016, a UN arbitration court ruled in favour of the Philippines, invalidating China’s historical claims on much of the disputed region’s waters. Beijing, however, rejected the ruling and continues to insist that it has jurisdiction over everything within its nine-dash boundary claim.

Manila and Washington have an existing 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty (MDT) that calls on both countries to aid each other in times of aggression by an external power.

On the same day that Duterte gave his press briefing, his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, met with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio at the White House for a trilateral summit to discuss a number of matters including maritime security. During the meeting, Biden reiterated that the MDT was still in effect and would be honoured.

“United States defence commitments to Japan, and to the Philippines, are ironclad, they’re ironclad,” Biden told the media. “Any attack on Philippine aircraft vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defence treaty.”

Calibrating alliances

Many observers believe that Marcos Jnr has increasingly aligned his country with the US since taking office in 2022 as a means of counterbalancing China. However, political analyst and professor Edmund Tayao from the San Beda Graduate School of Law said he thought the current administration was simply recalibrating the relationship after the Philippines grew closer to China under Duterte.

“The only reason there is this perception that we are leaning more towards the US is because the past administration set aside our long time friendship with the US,” he told This Week in Asia.

Tayao said he believed Marcos Jnr was doing the right thing, not just by leaning towards the US but by expanding the country’s foreign policy options by strengthening relations with other nations, such as Japan, as well.

Both the US and China would think long and hard before doing anything in the South China Sea that would risk bringing them into conflict, Tayao argued, noting their economic interdependence on trade.

Renato Cruz De Castro, a professor of international studies at De La Salle University in Manila, told This Week in Asia that the US would only act in defence of the Philippines if it was in their own self-interest.

“We have a treaty relationship with the US, not because we like each other, but because we are faced by a greater threat and that is China,” De Castro said.

“You have to understand the notion of alliance. The alliance [members] do not like each other. Alliances are formed because you have a greater threat and that is China. We share a common interest and of course that is to prevent China from becoming the dominant power in the region,” he added.

“Historically, if you look at the case of World War I, Britain and Germany were economically linked. The same in the Pacific War, Japan and US were economically linked together also. But after the first shot has been fired, economic interdependence simply does not really matter,” De Castro warned, adding “Manila has to prepare for the inevitable”.

China trade: exports tumble by 7.5% in March, but overseas demand expected to rebound

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3258781/china-trade-exports-tumble-75-march-overseas-demand-expected-rebound?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s export growth fell in March due to the higher base of comparison last year, but analysts said the prospects are likely to be supported by the recovery of overseas markets.

Exports declined by 7.5 per cent from a year earlier in March to US$279.7 billion, according to customs data released on Friday.

The reading was worse than the expected fall of 2.1 per cent surveyed by Chinese financial data provider Wind, and was in sharp contrast to the 7.1 per cent growth in combined figures for January and February.

The decline in export growth was dragged down due to a higher base in the same period last year, when China reported robust growth of 14.8 per cent at US$315.59 billion – the highest level recorded in March.

Imports, meanwhile, dropped by 1.9 per cent from a year earlier, in contrast to 3.5 per cent growth in the first two months of the year.

The figure was also worse than Wind’s survey for 0.6 per cent growth.

It brought the trade surplus to US$58.6 billion in March, compared with US$125.1 billion in the first two months of the year.

“The decline in exports was mainly dragged down by last year’s high base, and China’s export recovery remains ideal if excluding the base effect,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Capital.

China’s trade figures have shown significant fluctuations in the first quarter due to the turbulent base last year, but such disruptions are expected to stabilise in the coming months, Hu added.

“China will see relatively robust export growth of around 5 per cent this year, largely due to a strong recovery in demand in overseas markets, such as the US,” Hu said.

“However, import growth may remain at zero per cent, partly due to sluggish domestic demand.”

China’s overall export growth fell by 4.6 per cent last year – marking the first decline in seven years, having been dragged down by weak external demand.

The World Trade Organization said in a report on Wednesday that the global goods trade was expected to rise by 2.6 per cent this year and 3.3 per cent in 2025, having contracted by 1.2 per cent last year.

More to follow …

China names high-profile law enforcer working with US in fentanyl fight as assistant public security minister

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3258775/china-names-high-profile-law-enforcer-working-us-fentanyl-fight-assistant-public-security-minister?utm_source=rss_feed

China has promoted a veteran police officer who oversees cooperation with the US in the fight against fentanyl as assistant public security minister.

The promotion of Hu Binchen, the 53-year-old director of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, to assistant minister rank and as member of the ministry’s Communist Party committee, was announced by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on Tuesday.

The ministry also promoted Liu Zhongyi, 59, director of its Criminal Investigation Bureau, to the same position, according to the announcement.

The promotion of Hu, who is widely regarded as the international face of China’s security forces, came as China and the United States renewed bilateral law enforcement and security engagement following an ice-breaking summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his United States counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco in November.

In January, Hu was among two Chinese officials who jointly launched the US-China Counternarcotics Working Group during a visit to Beijing by the US deputy assistant to the president and deputy homeland security adviser Jen Daskal.

Hu first caught the attention of the international press in November 2021 when he won one of two seats representing Asia on Interpol ’s executive committee, despite campaigns by international human rights groups and lawmakers who alleged human rights abuses in China. At the time, Hu was the deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security’s international cooperation bureau.

It came three years after China’s former Interpol president Meng Hongwei – who was then Hu’s senior at the ministry – disappeared during a trip back to China in 2018, halfway through his term heading the global body.

It later emerged that Meng had been detained and, after being investigated for corruption by the Communist Party’s disciplinary watchdog, was sentenced to 13½ years in jail. During his detention, Interpol received Meng’s resignation under mysterious circumstances.

Hu holds a master’s degree in criminology from the University of Cambridge and has spent his career working on China’s international police cooperation, according to his official resume.

He served as police counsellor at the Chinese embassy in the US around 2014 after serving as director of the US and Oceania Division of the public security ministry’s International Cooperation Bureau.

The appointment comes as a growing number of Chinese illegal immigrants are passing through the US-Mexico border, a development Beijing has pledged to crack down on.

China and US vow closer cooperation in fighting America’s fentanyl crisis

Responding to questions on US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell’s remarks that a large number of Chinese “economic migrants” headed to the US in recent months was “gathering concern”, Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday, “China opposes and firmly cracks down on all forms of illegal migration”.

Liu Zhongyi is a highly decorated crime buster in China from northeastern Heilongjiang province. He was transferred to the Ministry of Public Security’s Criminal Investigation Bureau in 2011 after decades working in his home province’s police force.

There, he helped to solve unsolved murder cases, in particular a series of rapes and murders in Gansu Baiyin between 1988 and 2022 that resulted in 11 victims. He was promoted to director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau in 2019.

US$670 million Singapore shopping centre deal backed by Chinese tycoon Du Shuanghua flops after regulator rejects plan

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3258776/us670-million-singapore-shopping-centre-deal-backed-chinese-tycoon-du-shuanghua-flops-after?utm_source=rss_feed

A blockbuster deal backed by a Chinese commodities billionaire to purchase a mall in Singapore’s prime shopping district for about S$908 million (US$670 million) fell apart after plans for its redevelopment were rejected by authorities, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The deal involved the purchase of Far East Shopping Centre in Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping belt by a firm connected to Chinese tycoon Du Shuanghua, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. It collapsed after the parties failed to get approval from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the people added.

The transaction was set to be the city state’s largest for a commercial property in 2023, according to data compiled by Cushman & Wakefield. It was a rare big-ticket deal in a market that’s been hit by reduced demand from institutional buyers due to high interest rates.

Indonesian tycoon struggles to sell US$12 million luxury home in Singapore

EdgeProp.sg, a property portal in Singapore, and the Business Times earlier reported the breakdown of the deal. CBRE Group Inc., which brokered it, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Bright Ruby Resources Pte, a commodities firm in Singapore controlled by Du, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

A prerequisite for the transaction had been the approval of additional gross floor area under Singapore’s so-called Strategic Development Incentive to rejuvenate areas in the city centre, including Orchard Road.

The URA confirmed that it rejected the redevelopment proposal, saying the sole site didn’t fulfil the eligibility criteria.

The SDI scheme requires a proposal to include a minimum of two adjacent sites, such that the “amalgamated redevelopment can have a strong transformational impact that will enhance and rejuvenate the area,” the authority said in an emailed statement.

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Scientists install encryption shield to protect advanced Chinese quantum computer from attack

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3258787/scientists-install-encryption-shield-protect-advanced-chinese-quantum-computer-attack?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s most advanced superconducting quantum computer has put up a powerful shield against potential attack by other quantum computers, three months after opening access to the world, according to an official Chinese outlet.

The new encryption technology was installed in Origin Wukong – China’s first home-grown third-generation superconducting quantum computer – to ensure the security of its operational data, the official Science and Technology Daily said on Thursday.

Countries around the world had been developing similar “post-quantum cryptography” techniques to “effectively resist quantum computer attacks”, the newspaper reported.

The new methods are to replace the conventional public-key cryptography system, which could be vulnerable in the face of quantum computers with powerful computing capabilities.

The report quoted Dou Menghan, deputy director of the Anhui Quantum Computing Engineering Research Centre, as saying the “anti-quantum attack shield” was developed and used for the first time by Origin Quantum, the developer of the computer named after the Monkey King of Chinese mythology.

“This shows that China’s home-grown superconducting quantum computer can play both offence and defence in the field of quantum computing,” he said.

“This is also an important exploration of the application of new data security technologies in China.”

Origin launched its first superconducting quantum computer in 2020. The next year, the company delivered the 24-qubit Wuyuan second-generation machine – the country’s first practical quantum computer – making China the third country capable of delivering a complete quantum computing system after Canada and the United States.

The third-generation Wukong is powered by a 72-qubit home-grown superconducting quantum chip, also known as the Wukong chip.

In January, the superfast computer opened remote access to the world, attracting global users from countries such as the US, Bulgaria, Singapore, Japan, Russia and Canada to perform quantum computing tasks.

In traditional computing, a bit is the basic unit of information that represents either zero or one. A quantum bit, or qubit, takes it a step further by being able to represent zero, one, or both simultaneously.

Lawmaker urges China to safeguard tech production chain for a quantum edge

Because quantum computers can simultaneously represent multiple possibilities, they hold theoretical potential for significantly faster and more powerful computation compared to the everyday computers we use now.

But the subatomic particles central to this technology are fragile, short-lived and prone to errors if exposed to minor disturbances from the surroundings. Most quantum computers operate in highly isolated and extremely cold environments to avoid disruption.

The normal operating temperature of the Wukong chip is close to “absolute zero”, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius. It is stored in a special fridge before being installed in a vacuum environment for operation.

China to ‘intensify high-level exchanges’ with North Korea, No 3 official Zhao Leji says in marking 75 years of ties

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258803/china-intensify-high-level-exchanges-north-korea-no-3-official-zhao-leji-says-marking-75-years-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

China will “intensify high-level exchanges” with North Korea, top lawmaker and No 3 official Zhao Leji said in Pyongyang, as the two countries held their highest-level meeting in nearly five years.

The chairman of China’s National People’s Congress is leading a delegation of senior officials to the North Korean capital on a goodwill visit to mark 75 years of bilateral ties.

Meeting his Korean counterpart Choe Ryong-hae on Thursday, Zhao said that China hoped to increase strategic coordination to mark the milestone in diplomatic relations.

Beijing was “willing to … take the ‘China-DPRK Friendship Year’ event as an opportunity to intensify high-level exchanges, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, promote cultural exchanges, strengthen strategic coordination, and promote the continued development of [bilateral] relations,” a Chinese foreign ministry statement quoted him as saying. DPRK refers to North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic Republic of Korea.

‘At all levels’: China, N Korea vow deeper ties amid no let-up in missile tests

The meeting came shortly after Zhao and his delegation arrived in Pyongyang for a three-day visit.

Zhao is the third-ranked official in the ruling Communist Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, headed by President Xi Jinping. He is the most senior Chinese official to visit after Pyongyang resumed diplomatic activities around a year ago, after more than three years of border closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong, foreign vice-minister Sun Weidong, and NPC vice-chairman Li Hongzhong have all since visited Pyongyang.

The string of high-level exchanges have prompted speculation about a potential meeting between President Xi and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un later this year. The pair have not met since Xi last visited Pyongyang in 2019.

Senior officials in the large delegation accompanying Zhao include Communist Party international liaison chief Liu Jianchao, culture and tourism minister Sun Yeli, foreign vice-minister Ma Zhaoxu and commerce vice-minister Li Fei, according to the state-held Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Zhang Baoqun, deputy director of the Chinese military’s international cooperation office, is also in the team, the report said.

KCNA said Zhao’s talks with Choe included issues related to “positively promoting exchange and cooperation in all fields, including politics, economy and culture”.

The pair also exchanged views on the Korean peninsula, according to the Chinese readout, as tensions remain high between North Korea and the US and its regional allies.

Zhao’s visit coincided with a US-Japan-South Korea naval exercise aimed at North Korea starting on Thursday. The trilateral exercise came a day after a historic upgrade in the US-Japan defence partnership as President Joe Biden hosted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House.

The US and Japan signed around 70 agreements, including on missile-defence information exchanges to counter air and missile threats around Japan, with an eye on both Beijing and Pyongyang.

In response, the Chinese foreign ministry said it “strongly opposed practices adhering to the Cold War mentality and engaging in small bloc-politics”, and that US-Japan relations should not target other countries and undermine regional stability.

Kim, who inspected a model of Seoul earlier this week, has vowed to “completely annihilate” North Korea’s enemies if provoked. Pyongyang labelled South Korea – also a US treaty ally – as a “principal enemy” for the first time last year amid growing hostility.

Meanwhile, Kim has stepped up engagement with both China and Russia, including a rare visit abroad to the Russian far east last year for talks with President Vladimir Putin. Russia has been accused of buying weapons from North Korea to support its invasion of Ukraine.

Zhao and Choe also signed several agreements, including on customs quarantines and mutual exemptions for diplomatic and official visas.

The Chinese delegation is also expected to attend the opening ceremony of year-long events to celebrate the “China-North Korea Friendship Year”, marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties. A 300-member Chinese performance group arrived in Pyongyang before Zhao to take part in the event.

South Korea’s JoongAng Daily cited a diplomatic source to report last month that Chinese Premier Li Qiang, the country’s No 2 official, had originally planned to attend the ceremony.

The Chosun Daily, also a trusted Korean paper, said Li might want to avoid visiting North Korea ahead of a trilateral summit in Seoul with South Korea and Japan. It will be held around May 26-27, according to Japanese media.

The long-awaited annual summit between the three East Asian powers has not been held since 2019, when it was hosted by China.

China food security: grain reigns supreme as higher yields sought from limited land

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3258773/china-food-security-grain-reigns-supreme-higher-yields-sought-limited-land?utm_source=rss_feed

As it pursues a stable food supply in an increasingly fraught global environment, China has laid out plans to increase its grain yield and spur the advancement of its seed industry – essential to guaranteeing the nutritional needs of its people and bringing the country closer to agricultural parity with the advanced economies of the West.

An action plan released by the State Council, China’s cabinet, outlined a goal to boost national grain yields by more than 50 million tonnes by 2030 and raise the yield per mu to 420kg – an 8 per cent increase on the 390kg logged last year. A mu is a unit of measurement commonly used in China, with 15 mu equivalent to one hectare and roughly six mu equalling one acre.

It also set a target for total sown grain areas of about 1.75 billion mu (288.3 million acres), and 1.45 billion mu for the sown area of cereals. Both are slightly lower than the 1.78 billion mu and 1.5 billion mu respectively recorded in 2023.

“With tightening constraints on China’s natural resources and growing demand driven by upgrades of resident food structures, the tight balance between grain supply and demand will persist in the long term,” an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner, told state news agency Xinhua on Monday.

The official said the current gap was likely to widen further in the future, making crop output all the more important.

With regular extreme weather events and a global food market susceptible to volatile geopolitical shifts, Beijing has placed greater emphasis on food security, with President Xi Jinping labelling it a “national priority”.

China vows to boost crop yields, Xi calls for investment in ‘lifeblood’ land

China has undertaken a full-bore effort to diversify its imports and boost domestic output to reduce overreliance on grains which are primarily grown overseas, such as soybeans and corn – both of which were prioritised in the plan.

The document also dedicated space to innovation in seeds – deemed the “chips” of agriculture by Chinese leaders in an explicit linkage with the country’s race to be a global player in tech – an area acknowledged as a weak link and high on the agenda during the central rural work conference in December.

Other major projects, such as water conservation, construction of high-standard farmland, agricultural mechanisation and disaster prevention, were all said to be in the works in 720 counties the action plan named as crucial to grain production.

“China’s arable land is limited, with little potential for further expansion. So efforts should be focused on improving yield per unit area,” said Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the rural development institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Li said the target of 420kg per mu was “not hard to attain”, as it is not high by global standards and corn and soybean yields still hold untapped potential.

He attributed the difficulty of boosting yields to the weakness of domestically developed seeds and a lack of scientific management in current smallholder farming, recommending hybrid techniques such as water-fertiliser integration and digitalised farming to resolve some of these issues.

Paul Teng, a food security expert with the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies at Nanyang Technological University, said while Asia faces an ever-present threat of food insecurity, a “silver lining” could be found through novel farming methods such as digital agriculture, biotechnology, precision fermentation and urban agrotechnology.

“While large exporters like the United States, Canada and Argentina have adopted biotechnology crops, Asian countries have been slow in taking up this technology, often because of scientifically dubious reasons,” he said in a commentary on Thursday.

But a sea change may be in the offing, he added, as China has made clear its intention to lead the way in growing more genetically modified crops.

Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst with the Beijing Orient Agribusiness consultancy, said the gap between China’s per-unit grain yield and that of developed regions worldwide “continues to widen”, despite the country’s attempts to keep pace.

He suggested the application of biofertilisers to expand the scope of organic farming and augment output.

“In addition to technological advancements, it’s also crucial to foster diverse non-agricultural industries in rural areas [to keep] the rural labour force in the countryside,” he said.

He pointed out rural areas were grappling with population outflows and ageing, resulting in a labour shortage for advanced agricultural productivity, which would undermine efforts to increase grain output and ensure food security.

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Help me! China school installs toilet alarms to tackle bullying as campus violence problem persists

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3257220/help-me-china-school-installs-toilet-alarms-tackle-bullying-campus-violence-problem-persists?utm_source=rss_feed

A school in China has won plaudits for installing an extensive alarm system – including in its toilets – to prevent bullying.

The Aofeng School in Fujian province, southeastern China said in March that the pilot system targeted the toilets specifically because administrators knew that was where a lot of bullying took place.

The school has students at both primary and secondary level.

According to a demonstration video, students who feel threatened can shout trigger words, such as “help” or “I’m being beaten,” which will alert devices placed around the premises that someone is in danger.

The devices notify teachers on their computers, and they can use an app on their phone to speak to the students via a speaker at the location.

A “surveillance” feature allows teachers to use cameras to monitor what is happening where the device is installed.

The hope is that the system will enable teachers to react immediately, said the school’s headmaster, Guo Bojing.

Guo said predicted the device could “effectively enhance the school’s capacity to prevent and deal with school bullying”.

The system is still being tested because teachers want ensure it cannot be abused by students trying to prank staff by randomly yelling out trigger words.

The apparatus does not alert the police, so teachers still need to contact authorities if a case of bullying becomes serious.

A string of recent vicious bullying cases has raised public awareness about the need to find a solution to the problem.

In March, a secondary school girl in southeastern Fujian province committed suicide after suffering constant bullying from her classmates.

After her death, her mother discovered that her daughter had transferred money to at least two bullies many times.

Also in March, a secondary school boy was beaten by two senior students in a toilet on campus. Another student filmed the violence and posted it online, saying he thought it the clip would help the victim because the bullies had “beat him too hard.”

According to a 2019 UNESCO report on school violence, almost one in three students worldwide had been bullied by their peers at school.

A research group from the Central China Normal University surveyed 10,000 students from 130 primary and secondary schools in six provinces between 2019 and 2020 and discovered that 12.7 percent of students reported physical bullying, 17.4 percent verbal and 6.8 percent of the cyber variety.

Sun Jinlu, an assistant professor at Beihang University’s School of Public Administration in Beijing, said it is important for parents and schools to pay attention to signs of problems in school, because bullied kids might lack the courage to seek help.

Online, people praised the Fujian school.

“The alarm system is great. It should be promoted nationwide,” said one person on Weibo.

Another said the device did not address the core issue: “School bullying can only be stopped with proper legal punishment for the bullies.”

A third agreed with the idea but added: “Every step towards the elimination of school bullying should be applauded.”

Chinese nationals in Philippine Coast Guard, twin sisters reunite: SCMP’s 7 highlights of the week

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3258607/chinese-nationals-philippine-coast-guard-twin-sisters-reunite-scmps-7-highlights-week?utm_source=rss_feed

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

There is “no problem that cannot be talked through”, President Xi Jinping told Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing on Wednesday, in historic talks marking the first time the top mainland leadership had received a serving or former president of Taiwan.

A research team in China says it has discovered a potentially fatal flaw in Nasa’s hypersonic aerodynamics software. This small deficiency amid tangled equations could lead to “inevitably erroneous outcomes” when scientists simulate and analyse important issues, such as high-temperature ablation, the team said.

Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por found himself in the hot seat when he faced an aggressive panel of Hong Kong lawmakers who criticised the carrier’s “chaotic” management, slow pace of recovery and worsening service. Members of the Legislative Council’s economic development panel did not hold back as they grilled him on a string of recent problems that hit the city’s flag carrier.

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.

A revelation by the Philippine Coast Guard that its auxiliary unit contains 36 Chinese nationals on its active roster of civilian volunteers has aroused suspicions of spying amid maritime tensions between Manila and Beijing.

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.

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.

South China Sea: Beijing draws line on disputed shoal while Philippines debates ‘gentleman’s agreement’ over old warship

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258742/south-china-sea-beijing-draws-line-disputed-shoal-while-philippines-debates-gentlemans-agreement?utm_source=rss_feed

China spelled out its “clear and explicit” position on a grounded Philippine warship in the highly strategic South China Sea on Thursday, after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr denied knowing about a “gentleman’s agreement” between Beijing and his predecessor.

Beijing’s statement came just hours before a landmark trilateral US-Japan-Philippine summit was held in Washington.

China had “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly Islands – called Nansha Qundao in Chinese – which includes the Second Thomas Shoal and the surrounding waters, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a daily press briefing.

The Chinese stance was “clear and explicit”, she said, and Beijing had consistently committed to dialogue and consultation with the Philippines to manage and control the current situation at Second Thomas Shoal, which is known as Renai Reef in China and Ayungin Shoal in the Philippines.

“If the Philippine side genuinely wishes to ease the situation at Renai Reef through dialogue and communication, it should prioritise good faith, adhere to agreements, abide by consensus and cease provocations,” she said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The foreign ministry’s statement came after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr remarked he was “horrified” to learn about a “gentleman’s agreement” between his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, and China, amid escalating diplomatic rows and recent maritime run-ins.

The verbal agreement barred Manila from shipping construction materials to a World War II-era ship that has served as the nation’s military outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal for about a quarter of a century, claimed Duterte’s former spokesman Harry Roque.

However, Duterte contradicted Roque’s definition of the “gentleman’s agreement” at a Philippine press conference late on Thursday. The former president said he only recalled having a status quo agreement with China under which neither Manila nor Beijing would make a move that would disrupt peace in the disputed waters.

The shoal has been the focus of tensions between China and the Philippines, with Manila deliberately grounding the warship in 1999 to reinforce territorial claims.

“If that agreement says we need to seek permission from another country to be able to do something within our own territory, it would probably be difficult to honour that agreement,” Marcos said on Wednesday.

However, Mao told the daily press briefing in China that the Philippines had “breached its commitments” by refusing to remove the “illegally grounded warship” and “violated China’s sovereignty”.

“China demanded that the Philippines immediately tow away the vessel and restore Renai Reef to its original state, unstaffed and without any facilities,” she said.

Philippine military missions that rotate and resupply troops on the ship have become a constant source of tension between Manila and Beijing.

Last month, there were two confrontations between China and the Philippines in disputed waters near the contested shoal, with Chinese vessels deploying water cannons several times against Philippine ships.

As Marcos-Duterte rift grows, is South China Sea the final nail in the coffin?

China would “never accept” the Philippines’ attempts to transport a large amount of construction materials onto the vessel “to construct fixed facilities and a permanent outpost”, and would “firmly and lawfully take measures” to intercept such actions, Mao said.

Beijing set out its position hours before the first-ever trilateral summit between the United States President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Marcos in Washington, which was described as “new era of a partnership” and is seen as aiming to counter China’s growing geopolitical influence.

Project Babel: how Chinese scientists built the world’s first satellite that makes smartphone calls possible

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3258596/project-babel-how-chinese-scientists-built-worlds-first-satellite-makes-smartphone-calls-possible?utm_source=rss_feed

In 2008, a massive magnitude-8 earthquake hit Sichuan, a southwestern province of China.

More than 80,000 people lost their lives in a disaster compounded by disruptions to communications in many towns, which hindered rescue efforts.

Following the tragedy, the Chinese government quietly launched the Tiantong Project to set up a satellite communication system accessible to everyone, regardless of socio-economic status.

Now, 16 years on, the project has led to major advances in satellite communication and new trends in mobile phone development.

“Tiantong” means “connecting with heaven” and it echoes the biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

The first satellite of the Tiantong-1 series was launched on August 6, 2016, with the second and third satellites following in 2020 and 2021. The three form a network in a geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 36,000km (22,369 miles), covering the entire Asia-Pacific region from the Middle East to the Pacific Ocean.

Then in September last year, Huawei Technologies released the world’s first smartphone that supports satellite calls, which can directly connect to the Tiantong satellites. Other Chinese smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Honor and Oppo, have also introduced similar models.

These products have been embraced by Chinese consumers, and industry estimates suggest that Huawei alone has sold tens of millions of units, eclipsing SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service which has more than 2 million global customers.

Now, ordinary Chinese mobile phone users can dial any number via the Tiantong satellite in places without signal coverage, such as deserts or isolated islands, by paying an additional 10 yuan (US$1.38) per month.

It has already seen results. On December 18, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit the northwestern province of Gansu, again causing widespread communication disruptions. But this time, many of those caught up in the disaster were able to connect with the outside world through the satellite calling function on their smartphones. The death toll from this earthquake stood at around 150.

“Direct satellite connectivity for mobile phones has become a new development trend, and satellite communication will gradually become popular among the general public,” a team of Chinese scientists led by Cui Wanzhao, of the China Academy of Space Technology, wrote in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Chinese academic journal, Aerospace Science and Technology, on February 29.

It was previously believed to be impossible for a remote communication satellite to exchange information with a large number of mobile phones on the ground. In the biblical story, the Tower of Babel failed because the workers began speaking different languages and became confused with each other. Similar interference can happen to satellite communication.

To reach a small smartphone the satellite needs to produce a very powerful signal. When a large number of different high-power signals flood the satellite’s transmitting antenna simultaneously, they can interfere with each other, generating new signals.

These randomly occurring signals can degrade the quality of satellite calls and, in severe cases, can cause the entire system to collapse.

Since the 1970s, nearly all commercial communication satellite networks run by the US, Europe and international organisations have experienced major failures due to these signals falling within the receiving frequency band.

This issue, known as passive intermodulation (PIM) among telecommunications engineers, has become a bottleneck for further development of satellite communication technology. Although many people are eager to solve this problem, there is currently no universally effective technology to suppress the occurrence of PIM.

According to Cui’s team, China’s Tiantong Project has gathered communication technology elites from across the country to tackle this “technical challenge of common concern in the international aerospace community”.

Different metal components in huge satellite antennas come into contact with each other, leading to the main source of PIM. Chinese physicists have delved deep into the microscopic physical mechanisms such as quantum tunnelling and thermal emission at the contact interface, discovering a series of new physical laws that accurately describe silver-plated and gold-plated microwave components.

They have also established a physical model that can predict the occurrence of PIM effects with unprecedented precision under various contact states, connection pressures, temperatures, vibrations and other external factors.

Based on this work, Chinese scientists developed the world’s first universal PIM simulation software. This can numerically analyse and evaluate the possibility of PIM generation in microwave components with complex structures under the influence of external factors such as electricity, heat and stress with very low error rates.

This powerful software has helped Chinese engineers develop effective PIM suppression techniques, including dielectric isolation capacitors and optimised mesh antenna wire preparation and weaving methods.

Cui’s team has further developed the world’s most sensitive PIM detection technology, which can instantly locate the site of PIM generation when it occurs at extremely weak levels.

This allows the satellite to achieve unprecedented reception sensitivity, enabling signals from smartphones without external antennas to be captured and identified by antennas tens of thousands of kilometres away.

Each Tiantong satellite is designed to have a lifespan of 12 years, and its antenna undergoes daily temperature changes of up to 160 degrees Celsius (320 degrees Fahrenheit) while simultaneously transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves in 800 different frequency bands.

Solving the PIM problem in such harsh working conditions is extremely challenging. “The development of the Tiantong-1 satellite system is inseparable from multiple key technological breakthroughs. Its success is a testament to the hard work of the project team and marks China’s leading position in this technical field around the globe,” Cui’s team wrote in the paper.

China has applied for a large number of patents for the Tiantong satellite, which means that Chinese hi-tech companies do not need to worry about patent barriers or sanctions from the West when using this revolutionary technology.

Earlier this year, SpaceX launched the first of several Starlink satellites that can connect to smartphones, with plans to start commercial services next year.

Operating in a low-Earth orbit just a few hundred kilometres high, these satellites have small antenna areas, reducing PIM interference. However, since a satellite can only stay above a certain area for a short period, deploying a large number of satellites is necessary to achieve wide-area, full-time coverage.

Currently, most of the more than 5,000 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX do not have the functionality to connect with mobile phones.

Nevertheless, the new Starlink satellites have a significant advantage: they can connect to older 4G phones.

With the maturation of Starship technology, the launch speed of Starlink satellites is likely to increase significantly, while China has yet to develop a mature recoverable rocket technology to compete.

New Zealand, US deepen ‘historic partnership’ to tackle China in the Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3258724/new-zealand-us-deepen-historic-partnership-tackle-china-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed

New Zealand and the US have pledged to work more closely together on common challenges, in a further sign that Wellington is realigning itself with traditional Western partners as China becomes more assertive in the Pacific.

In a joint declaration signed on Thursday in Washington, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recommitted to the “historic partnership” between the two nations and the principles that underpin it, including the rule of law, democracy and human rights.

“The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more challenging now than even a decade ago and demands that we work together more urgently and concertedly,” Peters said in a statement.

“As we face a range of common challenges, globally and in the Indo-Pacific region, it’s more important than ever that New Zealand and the United States find common cause in defence of shared values and interests.”

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New Zealand’s new centre-right government, which took office late last year, is seeking to deepen its ties with like-minded Western nations such as Australia, the US and UK amid concerns about Beijing’s growing ambitions in the Pacific. In doing so it runs the risk of antagonising China, its biggest trading partner, which could retaliate by curbing purchases of New Zealand goods – a strategy it has used against Australia.

Wellington is exploring joining Pillar Two of the Aukus security pact between Australia, the US and UK, and last week said it is also working on a new partnership with Nato.

“China is clearly the target of all this cooperation,” said Geoffrey Miller, a geopolitical analyst at the Democracy Project in Wellington. “I think that New Zealand could be taught a lesson by Beijing if it flies too close to the sun and keeps signing up to these kinds of things.”

The joint declaration noted New Zealand and US membership of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group and lauded both countries’ “deep ties with – and commitment to – the Pacific Islands.”

“Our countries are united by our enduring stake in an open, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” it said. “We are resolved to uphold the conditions that have seen the region thrive, including freedom of navigation, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and respect for sovereignty and internationally agreed-upon rules and norms.”

New Zealand, Australia and the US were shocked when the Solomon Islands announced in early 2022 that it had signed a security agreement with Beijing. In response, Washington, Canberra and Wellington have dramatically increased their engagement with Pacific nations.

Peters and Blinken said they will now seek to meet annually as “the most challenging strategic environment in decades requires us to do more together.”

US airlines ask the Biden administration not to approve additional flights between the US and China

https://apnews.com/article/us-airlines-china-flights-biden-administration-2071e9ef88956e0e550cb95d1ca73527FILE - Passengers walk past a couple browsing their smartphones near a China Southern Airlines, parked on the tarmac at the Beijing Capital International Airport Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016. The biggest U.S. airlines and their unions are asking the Biden administration in a letter Thursday, April 11, 2024, to stop approving more flights to the United States by Chinese airlines. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

2024-04-11T23:20:32Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — Large U.S. airlines and some of their unions are asking the Biden administration to stop approving any more flights between the United States and China because of what they call “anti-competitive” policies that China imposes on U.S. carriers.

The airlines and unions said Thursday that China closed its market to U.S. carriers at the outbreak of the pandemic and imposed rules that still affect American operations and airline crews.

“These actions demonstrated the clear need for the U.S. government to establish a policy that protects U.S. aviation workers, industry and air travelers,” they said in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The letter was signed by the CEO of the Airlines for America trade group and the presidents of the Air Line Pilots Association, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents crews at American Airlines, and the Association of Flight Attendants.

The number of flights between China and the U.S. has been rising, although it remains far below pre-pandemic levels. The Biden administration increased the number of round trips that Chinese airlines can make from 35 to 50 per week, starting March 31, after China’s aviation authority promised to seek an increase in flights by U.S. carriers.

The U.S. airlines said Chinese airlines get an advantage by flying shorter routes through Russian airspace, which has been off-limits to U.S. carriers since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago. They said Chinese airlines also get “certain protections” from China’s government because they are state-owned.

The U.S. industry groups said in their letter that without equal access to China’s aviation market, American carriers will lose flights to Chinese airlines.

Biden pledges to defend Philippines from any attack in South China Sea

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/12/joe-biden-philippines-attack-defence-meeting-japan-south-china-sea

Joe Biden has pledged to defend the Philippines from any attack in the South China Sea, as he hosted the first joint summit with Manila and Tokyo amid growing tensions with Beijing.

“The United States’ defence commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad,” the US president said on Thursday as he met the Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida.

The summit at the White House comes after repeated confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the disputed waterway that have raised fears of a wider conflict.

“Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty,” said Biden.

The US president made a similar commitment when he hosted the Philippine president at the White House last year.

China claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, brushing aside competing claims from several south-east Asian nations including the Philippines.

The so-called “gray-zone” harassment by China has included shining military-grade lasers at the Philippine Coast Guard, firing water cannon at vessels and ramming into Philippine ships near the Second Thomas Shoal, which both Manila and Beijing claim.

In 1999, Manila intentionally ran a second world war-era ship aground on the shoal, establishing a permanent military presence there.

Chinese coast guard ships also regularly approach disputed Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands near Taiwan.

The increasing tensions have prompted Biden to boost alliances in the region.

As they met around a horseshoe-shaped wooden table in the grand East Room of the US presidential residence, the US, Japanese and Philippine leaders hailed the meeting as “historic.”

Without mentioning China by name, they painted their alliance as a bedrock of peace and democracy in the Asia-Pacific region in contrast to authoritarian Beijing.

Marcos, seen as closer to Washington than his more China-leaning predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, said they shared an “unwavering commitment to the rules-based international order.”

Kishida said that “multi-layered cooperation is essential” and that “today’s meeting will make history.”

Biden, 81, also held separate talks with Marcos, 66, the son and namesake of the country’s former dictator.

The joint summit came a day after Biden hosted a lavish state visit for Japan’s Kishida during which he unveiled a historic upgrade in defense ties aimed at countering a resurgent China.

Directly warning of risks from the rise of China, Kishida said that Japan – stripped of its right to a military after the second world war – was determined to do more to share responsibility with its ally the United States.

China responded, saying the United States and Japan had “smeared” its reputation during Kishida’s state visit.

Beijing foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Washington and Tokyo had “attacked China on Taiwan and maritime issues, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and seriously violated the basic norms governing international relations.”

Japan and the Philippines are the latest Asia-Pacific allies to be hosted by Biden, who was joined by Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David in August.

But Biden has also moved to manage tensions with China, holding a two-hour phone call with President Xi Jinping last week after a face-to-face meeting in San Francisco in November.

On Wednesday Biden said the major upgrade in defense ties with Japan was “purely defensive” and “not aimed at any one nation or a threat to the region.”

With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press

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Are the Philippines’ Marcos and Duterte families set to ‘break up’ over South China Sea and other rows?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3258698/are-philippines-marcos-and-duterte-families-set-break-over-south-china-sea-and-other-rows?utm_source=rss_feed

Ties between Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte could be at rock bottom as differences over caretaker appointments and side dealings with Beijing to manage the South China Sea row threaten to “break up” the country’s two foremost political families.

Before flying to Washington on Wednesday for a trilateral summit between the Philippines, the US and Japan, Marcos Jnr designated three caretakers to carry out presidential duties instead of just Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio as he had done so in his previous 25 foreign trips since he assumed office in July 2022.

His decision was relayed by Presidential Communications Office Chief Secretary Cheloy Garafil to reporters via text message, in which Duterte-Carpio was listed as “chair” caretaker and “assisted” by presidential Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III.

Marcos Jnr, meanwhile, expressed outrage at what he claimed was “a secret agreement” between the vice-president’s father and China over the West Philippine Sea.

Denying any knowledge of the matter, Marcos Jnr told reporters in an interview on Wednesday: “I am horrified by the idea that we have compromised in – through a secret agreement, the territory, the sovereignty and sovereign rights of the Philippines.

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“We don’t know, it was a secret agreement. We don’t know anything about it. There is no documentation, no record.”

Barry Gutierrez, who was a spokesman of former vice-president Leni Robredo, said: “I think the break-up [between the Marcos and Duterte families] has already happened. What we’re witnessing now is simply the forced politeness. I expect this facade to crack and the angry screaming to start soon.”

Gutierrez told This Week in Asia that the two families’ relations have “almost completely eroded” as Marcos Jnr’s appointment of three caretakers in his absence was “a very public message that VP Sara does not enjoy the same level of trust she once did within the administration”.

In an exclusive interview with This Week in Asia, Duterte’s former spokesman Harry Roque Jnr, poured scorn on Marcos Jnr’s ignorance about the matter, saying the deal was “not a secret”. Roque Jnr said when he was a congressman, he and other politicians attended a 2017 congressional hearing in which “the gentleman’s agreement” was highlighted by Duterte’s military chief Delfin Lorenzana.

Reports by media outlets including the South China Morning Post have also reported about “a modus vivendi” for Manila and Beijing to maintain the status quo in the South China Sea, Roque Jnr said.

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Marcos Jnr did not need to be briefed on a matter that was publicly known to be the Duterte administration’s policy, Roque Jnr said. “He’s horrified about something he doesn’t know? He’s really funny.”

The former congressman argued the president was “deflecting [public opinion] away from issues” that have affected his popularity such as inflation but declined to comment about relations between the two clans.

Duterte’s China stance

Political veterans told This Week in Asia that the latest developments are further signs of the irreconcilable differences between the two families.

“I think there is, and has been, a real difference in foreign policy positioning between Marcos Jnr and Duterte,” Gutierrez said.

“Marcos Jnr was always going to cleave closer to our traditional Western allies in contrast to Duterte’s pivot to China. That said, public expressions of ‘horror’ in politics always have some element of theatre to them.

“Marcos Jnr is drawing a line between himself and Duterte regarding the West Philippine Sea issue. It doesn’t hurt that a significant majority of Filipinos support a US alliance to counter Chinese aggression in the WPS,” he said.

Gutierrez noted other signs of the clans’ frosty ties such as the release from jail of former senator and justice secretary Leila De Lima, who was Duterte’s arch nemesis; the investigations of alleged sexual assault against Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, Duterte’s spiritual adviser; and Manila’s “softer stance” on the International Criminal Court’s investigation into Duterte’s drug war while he was in power.

As Duterte-Carpio remains “fairly popular”, Marcos Jnr could not just boot her out from his cabinet, according to Gutierrez.

Gutierrez said the Dutertes are unwilling to say anything that might even be “remotely construed” as criticism against Beijing. “The question must be asked, is this reluctance due to some form of benefit they are receiving from China?”

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Former senator Antonio Trillanes believed that “China is helping” the Duterte family in political matters.

The alliance between the two families “unofficially broke up” a year ago after Duterte-Carpio abruptly resigned as chair of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats and her close ally Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was removed as deputy speaker over suspicions that she was trying to unseat the president’s cousin and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, said Trillanes.

University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco also noted that the bond between the clans is now “strained” but “civil”, citing a recent trip when First Lady Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta Marcos ignored Duterte-Carpio when the vice-president was waiting in line to say goodbye to the Marcoses.

The situation will become much clearer when candidates state their intention to run in next year’s congressional and local elections, including those aligned with the Marcoses and Dutertes, Franco said.

China tourists held captive in mattress shop for ‘not buying’ turn new spotlight on forced shopping problem

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3257202/china-tourists-held-captive-mattress-shop-not-buying-turn-new-spotlight-forced-shopping-problem?utm_source=rss_feed

A group of 37 holidaymakers in China who were kept in a shop after refusing to buy its bedding products, have reignited concerns over forced tourist shopping.

The tourists from Liaoning province in northeastern China had travelled to Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province in southwestern China.

They were outraged after being held inside the shop for several hours on March 26 after they refused to buy products such as mattresses and pillows, Bailu Video reported.

In a viral video filmed by one of the tourists, some of her fellow travellers are sitting on the beds and others are lying on them. Salespeople appear to be standing guard to prevent them from leaving the shop.

“This is the shop that sells latex mattresses in Xishuangbanna. We arrived at noon and we’re still here,” the tourist who filmed the clip said.

“The group of 37 tourists is not allowed to leave,” she added.

It is not clear precisely how long the group was detained in the shop, but it is thought to have been several hours before they were eventually released.

The tourist explained that they each spent 3,979 yuan (US$551) to join the group tour to Yunnan that was managed by Liaoning Youde International Travel Service.

“I hadn’t expected that all of our activities in Xishuangbanna would be about shopping,” she said.

Once the clip was shared online, it went viral and triggered an official probe.

Details of how the group was finally allowed to leave the shop are not known.

The next day, the local market supervision and administration bureau made an announcement on its WeChat account.

They said the shop is owned by the Taisi Dika sleep technology company and that a local travel agency, Faxian Zhilv, was responsible for conducting the group tour on behalf of Youde travel service.

As a result, Taisi Dika was ordered to cease trading, and the local tourist guide was fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,400). An investigation into the travel agencies continues.

The story has caused an outpouring of anger on mainland social media.

“It sounds so horrible,” one online observer said.

“Is this an illegal detention?” another asked.

Incidents involving tourists travelling to Yunnan and being forced to shop by tour guides are common.

In February this year, a family of five were told to leave a tour bus by the guide after they refused to buy a gold bracelet for 50,000 yuan (US$7,000).

In August 2023, a tour guide in southwestern China was investigated after a video emerged of him “threatening” sightseers and bullying them into shopping while on an eco-tour.

China GDP: what is needed to achieve the ‘very challenging’ 5% economic growth goal for 2024?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3258640/china-gdp-what-needed-achieve-very-challenging-5-economic-growth-goal-2024?utm_source=rss_feed

For He Bin, a car dealer in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, 2024 is not expected to be an easy year despite Beijing’s pledge to again keep economic growth at “around 5 per cent”.

After last year represented a year of a shaky post-pandemic recovery, Beijing’s 2024 growth target is widely believed to have been set to shore up confidence at home, and also dismiss international doubts over China’s prospects.

But in reality, it is still set to be challenging to achieve without reopening demands and a lower base after the same target had been set for last year.

Emerging sectors, such as new energy and health services, are supporting growth amid a transition toward a higher-quality economy, but traditional industries are sceptical if they can follow suit.

“I’m not even expecting any expansion in business this year. It would satisfy me if it remains at the same level as last year,” said He, who has been in the trade for over a decade.

Despite a nationwide vehicle trade-in programme as part of the government’s efforts to boost spending, He sees no sign of a revival as consumers remain cautious about big-ticket items.

“In the past couple of years, the total business revenue has been on the decline, and people are showing a preference for cheaper and lower-end cars,” added He, who expects the trend to continue for the foreseeable future.

He said that it would be “quite unlikely” for his income to increase in line with the government’s goal.

Beijing calls for ‘hard work’, flags hopes and risks in growing China GDP by 5%

But it is a different story for Lu Yiming, co-founder of two rehabilitation centres in the neighbouring city of Shanghai.

He expects business volumes to double in the coming year due to fast-growing demand for more sophisticated healthcare services.

“We haven’t seen the hesitance to spend as shown in traditional consumer goods caused by falling incomes or a lack of confidence,” he said.

“Instead, people are showing an increasing awareness and willingness to pay for rehabilitation services.”

While admitting serious headwinds in 2024 for the world’s second-largest economy, Beijing has reiterated that the new growth target is in line with its 14th five-year plan for 2021-25, and matches the potential for economic growth.

Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a briefing during the “two sessions” parliamentary meetings in March that the growth target was achievable, and that China was expected to have a good first quarter. It is set to release its first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figure on Tuesday.

And economic activity data so far this year has already shown some signs of stabilisation, although economists said it would still need more policy support to improve growth momentum.

Some international organisations and investment banks, though, have already lifted their economic growth forecasts despite the strong headwinds.

A survey of 14 organisations by financial data provider Wind showed an average forecast of 4.9 per cent for year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter, with Goldman Sachs this week revising up its projection from 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent, citing manufacturing strength.

China reported a GDP growth rate of 5.2 per cent in 2023, which was impressive in comparison with other large economies, but was eclipsed when compared to the 9.9 per cent average between 1979 and 2012.

Its growth rate has been on a decline since 2013, and the International Monetary Fund predicted China’s economy would expand by 4.6 per cent year on year in 2024.

And a sense of uncertainty still prevails among private businesses following simulative measures announced at the two sessions, which many found to be inadequate.

Betty Ma, a senior manager at a Nanjing-based start-up focusing on development of endoscopes, said her company secured 200 million yuan (US$27.7 million) in a new round of funding at the end of last year despite an ongoing anti-corruption campaign targeting medical sectors that has triggered widespread concerns.

“Overall, the medical instrument industry is set to grow this year, though the scale of growth is uncertain, as things remain quite complicated so far,” she said.

Former World Bank chief economist Justin Lin Yifu emphasised the importance of lifting sentiment in the private sector to achieve the 5 per cent growth rate.

Expecting weak external demand to continue this year, he said at a seminar in Peking University last month that investment from private companies would be most directly impacted.

“To truly restore the confidence of private enterprises, we need to respond to the overall external economic downturn, which is unfavourable to us,” he said.

To meet the growth target, China must roll out more proactive fiscal policies and a “flexible and appropriate” monetary policy to support necessary investments, he added.

Despite China’s debt and population woes, top cities aim for over 5% GDP growth

China also needs to prevent an ailing property market from becoming a prolonged drag on the entire economy, other economists and industry insiders warned.

A slide in the property market, which used to be a key driver of China’s GDP growth, is now deep into its third year, but there is still no end in sight, said Linda Wen, a sales director at a real estate developer in Zhejiang.

“It would take several years to digest the inventory even if transactions double or triple and nothing new is built,” she said, referring to activity in the county-level city of 1.1 million people where she works.

“We’re still not seeing the bottom of the market. What we’re sure about is that buyer confidence has not returned.”

Premier Li Qiang emphasised the “new model of real estate development” in his government work report during the two sessions last month, with a focus on increasing affordable housing and optimising the supply-demand balance, however, few details have emerged about what exactly the model is supposed to be.

“Unsurprisingly, a key slogan ‘homes are for living not speculation’ did not make an appearance in the government work report. This slogan was previously seen as symbolic of restrictive property market policies,” Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING, said last month.

“The property sector will likely remain a prolonged drag on growth, but we do not see it boiling over into a full-blown crisis,” she said.

In Shanghai, an air conditioner retailer said a slumping housing market was still clouding her business.

Will China’s trade-in plan give its economy that new car smell?

“We survived 2023 with slight growth from the previous year, but this year seems to be bad so far – we have no big project at hand yet,” said Fang Hua, whose company sells the electrical appliance in bulk to real estate projects.

Like car salesman He, Fang doubts if China’s campaign to encourage replacement of old home appliances and vehicles can spur consumption to a new level.

Amid plunging exports and weak investments, consumption contributed 82.5 per cent of GDP growth in 2023, but it appears it would be hard for the sector to continue carrying the load this year to achieve the 5 per cent growth target amid a slowdown in retail sales.

Growth in retail sales slowed to 5.5 per cent year on year in combined figures for January and February, compared to 7.4 per cent growth in December.

Exports of Beijing’s much-touted “new three” of electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells saw a year-on-year increase of 29.9 per cent last year, but that was less than 5 per cent of overall exports.

And it is feared the so-called new-three will lose momentum in the coming year due to overcapacity and subdued demand in the West.

Tan Junyu, regional economist for North Asia at Coface, said that as the release of pent-up demand following China’s cancellation of its zero-Covid policy gradually weakens, the main driver of economic growth should shift from consumption to investment in 2024.

“Public investment will therefore become a decisive factor in achieving the annual growth targets,” he said.

“But the fiscal support announced looks a bit modest for a strong increase in public investment.”

What we know about China’s new ‘ultra-long’ special bonds to stabilise economy

Enhanced support for investment in the new economy sectors, such as digital transformation and energy transition, should help make up for the shortfall in housing investment, while promoting the government’s pursuit of high-quality growth, he added.

Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura, said Beijing has to do more to achieve its “very challenging” goal.

Besides the 1 trillion yuan (US$138 billion) worth of so-called ultra-long-term special government bonds announced in the premier’s work report during the two sessions, “Beijing could issue even more special central government bonds”, Lu said last month.

“To reduce credit risks and alleviate resource misallocation in those high-risk regions, Beijing must be resolute in its efforts to contain their debt growth and offer them larger quotas to issue special refinancing bonds to swap hidden debt,” he added.

Additional reporting by Sylvia Ma

Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng’s growing influence on economic policy shown as former subordinate joins top finance policy body

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3258675/chinese-vice-premier-he-lifengs-growing-influence-economic-policy-shown-former-subordinate-joins-top?utm_source=rss_feed

A former senior economic planner has been appointed to a major role on a top Chinese financial policy body in a sign of Vice-Premier He Lifeng’s growing influence in the area.

Yan Pengcheng, who served under He in various roles at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has been appointed as a deputy head of the general office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission.

The latter is a powerful Communist Party body responsible for managing the world’s second-largest economy and He is director of the general office, which guides its everyday operations.

Yan’s new role was confirmed when his new title was used at a party international relations event in Beijing on Tuesday, which makes him He’s fourth deputy at the commission.

Before becoming vice-premier in March last year, He, now one of President Xi Jinping’s main economic advisers, was head of the NDRC, the top state planner.

His current role on the finance and economics commission was confirmed in October, indicating He’s growing influence as his predecessor Liu He gradually handed over the reins of economic policy.

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

The vice-premier’s other responsibilities include handling economic ties with the United States and other major economies. Last week he held two days of talks with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during her visit to China.

He was accompanied at that meeting by Han Wenxiu, his deputy at the economic affairs commission’s office, highlighting the body’s influence.

Yan, who has a master’s degree in economics, worked in various roles at the NDRC, including as its spokesman and head of its department of national economy.

He then moved on to become vice-governor of the northern province of Hebei in 2021. Last year he became a member of the provincial party’s standing committee.

Yan becomes the latest of He’s former subordinates at the state planner to join him at the economic affairs commission, including Yang Yinkai who was named as deputy head of its general office last year.

Vice-Premier He Lifeng shown to be China’s point man on economic ties

Yang was appointed to the role eight months after he was promoted to deputy head of the NDRC, where he worked for around two decades.

Yang had also led the body’s personnel department, a role that involved managing and selecting cadres.

Beijing accuses US and Japan of ‘smears’ over Taiwan and South China Sea after Biden-Kishida summit

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258691/beijing-accuses-us-and-japan-smears-over-taiwan-and-south-china-sea-after-biden-kishida-summit?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has accused the United States and Japan of a “smear campaign” after the leaders of the two allies pledged to improve military and economic ties to counter China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing on Thursday that the two countries should “not target or jeopardise the interests of other countries, or undermine peace and stability in the region”.

“China firmly opposes the cold war mentality and the practice of small-clique politics, as well as words and deeds that create and intensify contradictions to the detriment of the strategic security and interests of other countries,” she said.

“We have taken note of some of the developments at the summit of the leaders of the United States and Japan, which, despite China’s serious concerns, have launched smear campaigns against China on issues such as Taiwan and maritime affairs, and have grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, in serious violation of the basic norms of international relations.

“China is strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposes this, and has lodged solemn representations with the parties concerned.”

Mao also hit out at US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over a joint statement that said China’s “accelerating build-up of its nuclear arsenal without transparency nor meaningful dialogue poses a concern to global and regional stability”.

Biden, Kishida, Marcos Jnr meet to show support amid China incidents: US officials

“The so-called concerns expressed by the United States and Japan about China’s nuclear policy are totally divorced from facts and nothing but a false narrative with malicious motives, which China firmly opposes and will never accept,” Mao said.

Biden and Kishida on Wednesday unveiled 70 agreements spanning fields such as defence, space, culture, diplomacy and research, which Biden described as “the most significant upgrade of our alliance since it was first established”.

On Thursday they will be joined by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr for the first-ever three-way summit between the countries.

The Philippines is now locked in an intense tug of war with China over the disputed waters in the South China Sea, where repeated confrontations between the two countries’ ships have heightened fears the dispute could escalate into an armed conflict, drawing in the US.

At a joint press conference at the White House with Kishida on Wednesday, Biden referred to Japan’s own long-running territorial dispute with China over the Diaoyu Islands, which are known as the Senkakus in Japan.

Biden also commended the Japanese leader for “standing strong with the United States as we stand up for freedom of navigation, including in the South China Sea, and as we maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.

In response, Kishida said they had agreed to “continue to respond to challenges concerning China through close coordination”.

He added that he and Biden agreed on the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and supported a peaceful resolution.

Stars of J-pop, Hollywood and tech attend Kishida state dinner at White House

Most countries, including the US and Japan, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but oppose any attempt to change the status quo by force. Washington is also legally bound to arm Taiwan to help it defend itself.

Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with mainland China – by force if necessary – and Mao said on Thursday the issue was a domestic matter in which “no internal forces are allowed to interfere”.

She added: “Both the US and Japanese government have made solemn promises to China on the issue of Taiwan, and Japan, in particular, which bears the grave historical responsibility for its invasion and colonial rule over Taiwan [between 1895 and 1945], should especially honour its promises and be prudent in its words and actions.

“We urge the US side to translate into action President Biden’s pledge that the US will not support Taiwan independence.”

Since taking office in 2021, the Biden administration has significantly bolstered its alliances in the Indo-Pacific to counter Beijing’s growing influence.

In 2021 it set up the Aukus military pact with Australia and Britain, which includes a commitment to support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.

In another move that Beijing worries could further compromise its strategic interests, the US, Japan and South Korea unveiled a pact in August that said the three countries would treat any security threat to one of them as a threat to all of them.

At the joint press conference on Wednesday, Biden also said Britain would join Japan and the US for military exercises, while Aukus was exploring “how Japan can join our work in the second pillar, which focuses on advanced capabilities, including artificial intelligence [and] autonomous systems”.

China’s low inflation set to be ‘long-term phenomenon’: 4 takeaways from March’s data

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3258667/chinas-low-inflation-set-be-long-term-phenomenon-4-takeaways-marchs-data?utm_source=rss_feed

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China’s consumer price index (CPI) grew by 0.1 per cent year on year in March, lower than the average 0.3 per cent estimate from economists polled by Chinese financial data provider Wind and still well below the 2024 inflation target of 3 per cent.

The CPI index had marked a first rise in six months in February, having expanded by 0.7 per cent.

“China’s CPI inflation dropped to 0.1 per cent from 0.7 per cent last month. This indicates that China still faces the risk of deflation, as domestic demand remains weak,” said Zhang Zhiwei, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

Analysts at Capital Economics said while CPI inflation rose less than expected in March, it was still “trending upwards”.

“We think an easing of food price deflation and the ongoing modest economic recovery will support a slow reflation in the near term. But persistent oversupply will likely keep inflation low, with CPI inflation to average only 0.5 per cent over the next couple of years,” they said.

China consumer inflation remains low, fuelling policy shift calls

Capital Economics said the main drivers in March were an easing of food price deflation from minus 3.4 per cent year on year to minus 2.7 per cent, and a pickup in energy price inflation from 0.3 per cent to 0.4 per cent.

“While the larger-than-expected decline is likely to stir discussion of deflation once again, it should be noted that non-food inflation remained solidly in positive territory at 0.7 per year on year,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING.

He pointed to a larger-than-expected moderation of non-food inflation as the reason for the CPI reading falling short of expectations.

Analysts at HSBC pointed to a pullback in pork prices and consumption demand following the Lunar New Year holiday, as well as a relatively higher base from more reopening tailwinds at the same time last year.

China’s producer price index – which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate – declined for the 18th straight month in March after falling by 2.8 per cent year on year, compared to a fall of 2.7 per cent in February.

“Rapid investment in manufacturing capacity is still weighing on factory-gate prices,” said analysts at Capital Economics.

Prices dropped by 0.1 per cent in month-on-month terms, they added, with the biggest declines in energy and metal prices.

China’s core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, grew by 0.6 per cent year on year in March, compared to 1.2 per cent growth in February and 0.4 per cent expansion in January.

“Disappointingly, core CPI inflation fell back below 1 per cent to 0.6 per cent year on year in March, or a contraction of 0.6 per cent month on month,” said analysts at HSBC.

A higher relative base, a fading of consumer demand following the Lunar New Year holiday and a contraction of tourism and overall entertainment prices contributed to the decline, they added.

Analysts at Capital Economics expect the CPI reading to remain below pre-pandemic norms for the foreseeable future, while they expect PPI inflation to remain in negative territory.

“The [central bank] appears somewhat concerned about low inflation as their recent quarterly meeting committed to promoting a mild rise in prices,” they said.

“But with the exchange rate under pressure, their appetite for substantial monetary easing still seems limited.

“In any case, with policymakers directing credit to the supply side of the economy, policy support is unlikely to resolve the investment-consumption imbalance behind China’s low inflation, which we think will be a long-term phenomenon.”

Song at ING said that low inflation provides ample room for policy easing, but concerns over stability of the yuan may limit room for rate cuts in near term.

“While we believe that data will gradually show that China is not stuck in a deflationary spiral, nonetheless inflation remains well below target, and looking at economic fundamentals alone, we think the economy would benefit from further rate cuts,” he added.

Analysts at HSBC expect CPI inflation to average at 0.7 per cent this year, saying the setback in China’s CPI is likely to be temporary.

“Nonetheless, to sustain the positive momentum we have been seeing in other economic indicators, policymakers will need to keep a proactive stance,” they added.

Japanese PM Kishida supports ‘indispensable’ global role of US, citing threat by China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3258710/japanese-pm-kishida-supports-indispensable-global-role-us-citing-threat-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave a full-throated defence of the United States’ international role as guardian of democracy on Thursday to a rare joint session of Congress, citing the enormous challenge that China and other authoritarian states represents to the global order.

The 35-minute speech, following a bilateral summit with US President Joe Biden and a state dinner at the White House on Wednesday, covered a broad range of issues in sweeping language, ranging from authoritarian governance and rule of law to digital surveillance, nuclear non-proliferation and debt-trap diplomacy.

“Close coordination between Japan and the US is required more than ever to ensure that deterrence that our alliance provides remains credible and resilient,” Kishida said, speaking in English.

“China’s current external stance and military actions present the unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan, but to the peace and stability of the international community at large.”

Beyond laying out the case for preserving and defending the post-World War II global order, Kishida backed Biden’s agenda as he faces domestic political opposition, including continuation of funding for Ukraine’s military against Russia’s invasion; the importance of bipartisanship; and the need to maintain global engagement at a time of instability.

“The Ukraine of today may be the East Asia of tomorrow,” he said, his speech interrupted repeatedly by applause and standing ovations.

“The leadership of the United States is indispensable. Without US support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?”

Global leadership was tiring, Kishida said, and had required significant sacrifice in US blood and treasure, noting that many Americans were battling self-doubt and turning inward. But, he added, the fight was essential and Japan could share some of the load.

Biden, Kishida, Marcos meet to show support amid China incidents: US officials

He ticked off several ways Japan was stepping up, including: a pledge to double its defence spending by 2027; a contribution of US$12 billion in aid to Ukraine, channelled through Nato; imposing sanctions on Russia; a new counterstrike capability and improved cybersecurity; and developing closer ties with traditional antagonist South Korea.

Kishida’s speech comes as the US implicitly recognises it cannot hope to counter a more economically and militarily muscular China alone even as it juggles the Ukraine and Gaza crises.

In response, Washington has created or reinvigorated a “mini-lateral” latticework of groupings. On Thursday, the latest of these was showcased as the leaders of Japan, the US and the Philippines met to support Manila in the face of mounting maritime pressure from Beijing.

China considers some 80 per cent of the disputed South China Sea to be part of its sovereign territory, leading to tension with the Philippines involving ship collisions, vessel blockages and water canon incidents.

“Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States. You are not alone. We are with you,” Kishida said. “We are on task and we are ready to do what is necessary. The democratic nations of the world must have all hands on deck.”

Kishida’s speech was crafted with a keen understanding of American retail politics, in contrast to many presentations in Japan’s more formal culture.

His entrance into the House of Representatives chamber, packed with lawmakers, reporters and members of his entourage, was marked by extensive clapping and handshakes.

“I never get such nice applause from the Japanese Diet,” he quipped, referring to his nation’s parliament.

Kishida followed this up by recounting his three years as an elementary school student in New York City, how he rooted for local baseball teams and watched his businessman father take the subway to work.

The message seemed well received by members of both parties, in a Congress marked by deep divisions and extreme partisanship.

“With China aggressively encroaching on Taiwan, the relationship with Japan is more important than ever,” Representative Mark Alford, Republican of Missouri, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, as the crowd broke up. “We must continue to work with our friends to ensure the safety of the Indo-Pacific.”

Added Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado: “The US-Japan alliance is the strongest it’s ever been, and we will work to make it even stronger as Japan modernises its security capabilities to address today’s shared challenges.”

After the speech, Kishida was hosted at a luncheon by US Vice-President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, with several ambassadors, US lawmakers and members of the prime minister’s cabinet in attendance.

Antony Blinken asks China, others to rein in Iran on Israel

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3258711/antony-blinken-asks-china-others-rein-iran-israel?utm_source=rss_feed

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked China’s foreign minister and other counterparts to use their influence to dissuade Iran from striking Israel, the State Department said on Thursday.

Blinken spoke by telephone over the past day to his Chinese, Turkish, Saudi and European counterparts “to make clear that escalation is not in anyone’s interest and that countries should urge Iran not to escalate”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Blinken also spoke by phone to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant “to reiterate our strong support for Israel against these threats”, Miller said.

Why Gaza truce talks between Israel and Hamas are at an ‘impasse’

Iran’s clerical leadership has vowed to retaliate after an Israeli strike on April 1 levelled an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus, Syria, killing seven members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards including two generals.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday the United States has “warned” Iran over its threats to Israel.

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that US support for Israel’s security was “ironclad”, despite his criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

The United States has repeatedly made public appeals for China, seen as its top long-term global rival, to do more to address the Middle East crisis, including through pressure on Iran, which supports Hamas.

Beijing in turn has criticised the United States as biased towards Israel.

US lawmakers unveil bill to set up research centre translating open-source materials from China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3258714/us-lawmakers-unveil-bill-set-research-centre-translating-open-source-materials-china?utm_source=rss_feed

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday that would establish a research centre charged with creating publicly accessible English translations of open-source materials from China.

The centre, to be known as the Open Translation Centre, would also train analysts and linguists to specialise in China and other countries, a full list of which will be determined later.

“The United States can’t afford to be in a position where our competitors know more about us than we know about them,” said Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas, the bill’s sponsor.

“For generations, Congress supported open-source translation programmes that helped Americans understand both our allies and our adversaries. As our investment in those programmes [has] declined, countries like China and Russia have accelerated their own – putting us at a strategic disadvantage,” he continued.

Analysts at the OTC will be tasked with translating and interpreting official and semi-official reports, speeches and journals, in addition to news and commentary.

The bill requires that contextual information be provided to the public, including biographical sketches of key leaders; descriptions of political processes, military weapons systems, important government bodies and companies; and analysis of significant concepts and phrases.

A five-member board with expertise in translation, media, international relations and other relevant disciplines would lead the centre. Two members would be appointed by the US secretary of state, two by the director of national intelligence and one by the director of the US Copyright Office.

Thursday’s bill was supported by Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher, outgoing chair of the House select committee on China, and Tammy Baldwin, Democratic senator of Wisconsin.

US must treat China more like a cold-war opponent: Republican policymakers

“Our adversaries, namely the Chinese Communist Party, continue to grow increasingly aggressive across the world stage,” said Gallagher.

“This poses a serious threat to American national security, and in order to understand and combat these threats, it is imperative to be able to read and understand our adversaries’ primary sources,” he added.

For the bill to become law, it must pass both the full House and Senate by January.

This latest congressional effort comes amid challenges in getting accurate information out of China, as Beijing in recent years has tightened restrictions on access to academic and corporate databases.

It also comes amid difficulties in connecting Americans with opportunities to study in China, as American universities navigate closed US government programmes in the country and contend with the State Department’s travel advisory for the mainland, which is currently set at the third-highest risk level of “reconsider travel”.

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Washington has increasingly recognised the need for Chinese speakers at different levels of the American government. But progress in staffing has been slow so far.

“We’re trying to build capacity across the [State Department] in capacities associated with the Indo-Pacific. At the core of that is an understanding both in language and history and culture of China,” said US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Tuesday.

But, he added, these were not initiatives that could bear fruit overnight. “It takes a long time,” he said.

The creation of a translation centre would supplement other non-governmental efforts that have popped up in recent years.

In 2022, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, established Interpret China, an initiative aimed at translating and analysing primary source material from China. That year the Centre for Strategic Translation, a non-profit research institute, was founded with the same goal.

Amid titanic US-China clash, Europe must make its own plans quickly

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3258380/amid-titanic-us-china-clash-europe-must-make-its-own-plans-quickly?utm_source=rss_feed

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently visited China, her second trip in less than a year, amid US complaints about China’s overcapacity. This latest narrative is neither unusual nor surprising given the gathered pace of Washington’s bipartisan China bashing, which began under the previous Trump administration.

Last month, Admiral John Aquilino, the outgoing commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific, told the House Armed Services Committee that China was part of a group of countries that he warned was a nascent “axis of evil”.

Yellen, a long-time advocate of free and open trade, has changed her mind about Chinese exports, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on the same day she arrived in Guangzhou to kick off her China visit.

She is quoted as saying she “grew up with the view: If people send you cheap goods, you should send a thank-you note” and “that’s what standard economics basically says”. But now, she says, “I would never ever again say, ‘Send a thank-you note’”.

She sees in China’s “cheap goods” as “a problem we have to remedy” and, in an earlier interview, warned that “China’s overcapacity distorts global prices and production”.

Beijing begs to differ, viewing this as yet another demonstration of America’s determination to keep China down when the country is making breakthroughs in chip-making – despite a US embargo on national security grounds – and solidifying its dominance in the production and export of solar panels, lithium batteries and electric vehicles (EVs).

At the Guangzhou meeting, the Chinese team led by Vice Premier He Lifeng “responded fully” to Yellen’s overcapacity concern and expressed “serious concerns” about America’s restrictive economic and trade measures against China. This was in the spirit of the phone call last week between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, where both leaders showed signs of continuing to responsibly manage the disagreements in their relationship.

Such disagreements, in themselves, should not be a big deal. This kind of economic warfare is now a matter of course in the US-China relationship and new narratives will continue to emerge, given Washington’s “compete, confront, cooperate” dictum regarding China and Beijing’s reciprocal tactics.

But while the US and China are settled in and braced for economic warfare that is likely to be long and drawn out, the situation is different for Europe.

Europe finds its welfare at stake but does not necessarily have the luxury of toughing it out like the US or China. The US-China economic warfare has grave ramifications for the future of European industry.

Last month, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Trade Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen visited China amid growing semiconductor tensions. The Netherlands-based ASML, the world’s biggest developer of advanced semiconductor equipment for chip makers, is caught between the US hi-tech embargo and its biggest market, China.

The impotence is real: the US shows no signs of letting up on sanctions while China is making headway in chip-making that would reduce its reliance on ASML’s machines.

European carmakers are also wrestling with stiff competition from Chinese EV makers. In late February, a major shipment of BYD’s EVs arrived in Germany in response to robust demand. The crisis has prompted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to open an anti-subsidy investigation against Chinese carmakers that could mean retroactive duties on Chinese EV imports.

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

I recall my experience of a 2019 seminar in Brussels organised by Bruegel, a European economic think-tank, which discussed the European Union’s strategy in a challenging world. My takeaway was that the EU elite had on their minds, chiefly, three perceived external challenges: the United States, China and the internet juggernauts that largely originated from these two countries.

And this was when the EU could still take for granted the energy supply from Russia as well as the Russian market.

The situation is worse now. The EU is bogged down by a draining war in Ukraine, tied to a US-led Nato response and so-called shared values, increasingly seeing its margin for political autonomy squeezed – one recalls French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning against being America’s “vassal” – and its economic prowess is being hollowed out by both America and China.

And in the future-defining arena of artificial intelligence, it is clear that the tussle at the top is largely a game being played out between the US and China.

Unless the EU is resigned to being America’s follower, pitting itself against China at all costs, and at its own cost, the Europeans need to act quickly to put Europe back in one piece. The EU needs to start by ending the bloodletting in Ukraine, and not only find a way to return to the days of Russian gas-and-oil-based manufacturing prosperity but also take significant steps to integrate itself back into the Russian consumer and talent market.

In the US-China tug of war for supremacy, Washington can, at times, boast of victories such as by claiming credit for Chinese cooperation over fentanyl – the narrative of Chinese responsibility in creating the drug scourge being another one of Washington’s making. But one will be hard-pressed to see any real possibility of Beijing giving in to Washington’s pressure over alleged Chinese manufacturing overcapacity.

This is OK – as said earlier, the battle over Chinese overcapacity is merely the latest round in a drawn-out wrestling match between two economic giants that are well provided for. Europe, however, can hardly afford not to act with haste. Simply put, China makes the goods and America makes the dollars – where does that leave Europe?

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