• Yellen to meet US allies during IMF, World Bank meetings, press China on growth
• Senior US diplomats hold ‘frank and constructive’ talks with Chinese officials
• German chancellor urges Chinese industry bosses to play fair in EU market
• First China transgender clinic deals with ‘visitors’ as it embraces country’s 4 million people with body dissatisfaction
• Ex-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s South China Sea ‘deal’ with Xi sparks calls for treason charges
• China’s new South China Sea oil rig helps it drill deep for energy security
• Israel ‘unhappy’ with China’s ‘not as strong as expected’ response to Iranian attack
• Apple CEO Tim Cook visits Vietnam as US tech giant’s supply chain shift stirs unease in China
• Apple loses mantle as world’s biggest phone seller to Samsung as China sales drop
• String of favourable policies designed to boost Hong Kong in pipeline, mainland China’s top city affairs official promises
• China’s ‘critical’ property sector must ensure timely delivery of homes, says Vice-Premier He Lifeng
• South Korea’s China ambassador faces abuse probe as President Yoon gets no respite after election rout
• In China, Germany’s Olaf Scholz calls for ‘open and fair’ competition as differences weigh on trade
• Sydney attack victims include a mother who saved her baby, a Chinese grad student and an architect
• China continues to unlawfully persecute family of dissidents, finds report
• China reveals it executed scientist for spying in 2016 in documentary about ‘shocking’ cases
• China couple abandon baby with nanny after claiming they will receive US$56 million inheritance from woman’s ex
• Global Impact: Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok is facing a ban in the US as China hits back at ‘never-ending cycle’
• China student becomes 6th victim of deadly Sydney knife rampage, devastated family on way to Australia
• Shanghai is the sole commodities bourse to stay open to Russian aluminium, copper and nickel as sanctions drive Moscow towards China
• Young Chinese student among 5 women killed in knife attack at Sydney shopping centre
• ‘No doubt’ pro-China interests meddling in Solomon Islands elections, opposition figure claims
• Sixth Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing victim named as Chinese student Yixuan Cheng
• Dog ‘driver’ in China pulls cart to pick up kindergarten girl, envious classmates say it is ‘Rolls-Royce’ for children
• Why Hong Kong telling world’s story to China is just as important
• China is hungry for avocados, and South Africa is ready to deliver as export deal gets the green light
• From China to India, how deepfakes are reshaping Asian politics
• ‘Parallel universes’: PR expert James Heimowitz finds hope for future US-China relations away from politics

Yellen to meet US allies during IMF, World Bank meetings, press China on growth

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3259113/yellen-meet-us-allies-during-imf-world-bank-meetings-press-china-growth?utm_source=rss_feed

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet finance ministers from US allies this week to discuss a number of issues, including shoring up supply chains, strengthening financial system stability and supporting Ukraine, a senior US Treasury official said on Monday.

Yellen’s meetings on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank spring meetings in Washington also will include in-depth discussions with Chinese officials on “balanced growth”, a new US-China dialogue launched earlier this month to address China’s excess industrial capacity for electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and other clean energy goods.

On Wednesday, Yellen will meet finance ministers from South Korea and Japan for a first trilateral meeting to coordinate on issues from sanctions on Russia and Iran to securing supply chains and building climate and financial resilience in the Pacific Islands, the Treasury official said.

How far did Janet Yellen’s trip move the ball for US-China relations?

Yellen also will take part in a financial stability exercise with British and European banking union officials “to help fortify our financial systems for rapid coordination and communication during times of financial stress”, the official said.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial democracies and Group of 20 major economies also are expected to meet this week. During the G7 meeting Yellen hopes to advance discussions among the allies to unlock the value of frozen Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion.

The official declined to discuss specific potential plans for the assets, adding that the G7 finance discussions were aimed at presenting G7 leaders with options to consider at a summit in Italy in June.

The discussions with Chinese officials will follow Yellen’s trip earlier this month to Guangzhou and Beijing, in which she made the case for boosting China’s domestic demand and warned Beijing that the US could not accept a massive new wave of cheap Chinese exports of EVs and solar products decimating new US industries in the same way that steel production was damaged a decade ago.

Tough conversations key to bridging gap between China, US

The official said the two sides would “get more into the weeds to start exchanging more detailed data” on the excess capacity issue.

The official said Yellen also will be talking up US economic strength at the meetings and pushing for more progress on debt relief for vulnerable countries and the advancement of multilateral development bank reforms to better fight climate change.

“We expect that America’s path to a ‘soft landing’ will continue to underpin global growth,” the official said, referring to a scenario in which inflation in the US could continue to drop without ruining the job market or causing a painful recession. “We’ve also been engaging with the world to mitigate short-term risks and support sustainable long-term growth, recognising that the prospects for a soft landing are not felt equally everywhere.”

Yellen will hold a press conference on Tuesday.

Senior US diplomats hold ‘frank and constructive’ talks with Chinese officials

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259103/senior-us-diplomats-hold-frank-and-constructive-talks-chinese-officials?utm_source=rss_feed

Senior Chinese and American diplomats held “frank, in-depth and constructive” talks on Monday aimed at boosting exchanges and managing their differences, according to the foreign ministry in Beijing.

Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Sarah Beran, the National Security Council’s senior director for China and Taiwan affairs, met foreign vice-minister Ma Zhaoxu as part of their three-day visit that ends on Tuesday.

Both sides agreed to continue engaging in the hope of stabilising and developing relations, according to the foreign ministry. The talks also covered issues such as the Middle East, Ukraine and the Korean peninsula.

Beijing also “stated its solemn position” on “a series of wrong words and deeds” concerning the disputed South China Sea and urged the US not to engage in bloc confrontation or destroy the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region, the statement said.

“China has clarified its position on Taiwan, trade, science and technology, people-to-people exchanges, and demanded that the US stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, obstructing China’s development, imposing unreasonable sanctions on Chinese enterprises, and suppressing China’s trade, science and technology,” it added.

On Saturday, the US State Department said the two US diplomats would meet Chinese officials as part of ongoing efforts to maintain “open lines of communication and to responsibly manage competition”.

The visit comes ahead of an expected trip to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in coming weeks and follows a phone call between the US and Chinese presidents earlier this month, as Beijing and Washington seek to stabilise ties.

Zhu Feng, executive dean of Nanjing University’s School of International Studies, said the latest talks could “help China and the US to coordinate and communicate, manage the conflict over the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, and control the potentially explosive deterioration of relations between the two countries”.

During a summit in Washington on Thursday, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr pledged to strengthen maritime defence cooperation in the South China Sea and raised concerns on Taiwan, in a clear move to counter Beijing.

Tensions have been rising over long-running territorial disputes between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea, with several run-ins between Chinese and Philippine vessels in recent months, including near Second Thomas Shoal – or Renai Jiao in Chinese – in the Spratly Islands.

Last week, as the US, Japan, the Philippines and Australia held their first full-scale joint drills in the region, the Chinese military responded with its own South China Sea naval and air drills the same day.

Zhu said communication between Washington and Beijing was needed to “avoid miscalculation” on the South China Sea.

Kritenbrink and Beran’s visit also comes about a month before William Lai Ching-te is inaugurated as the new leader of Taiwan. Beijing has denounced Lai, from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, as a “troublemaker” and “obstinate separatist”.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its territory, to be reunited by force if necessary. Like most countries, the US does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state. But Washington maintains robust unofficial ties with Taipei, opposes any attempt to take the island by force, and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

Zhu said Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel on Saturday could also be discussed during this week’s talks, since Washington has been pressing Beijing to use its influence with Tehran – a key trade partner – to try to prevent an escalation of the situation.

“As the situation in the Middle East escalates, the US may need to shift its attention to the region,” Zhu said. “So Washington may seek to cool off on the situation in the South China Sea for now.”

Blinken spoke with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi by phone on Thursday, as concerns grew before the attack, urging him to try to dissuade Iran from escalating the situation. Wang also called on Washington to play a “constructive role” in the Middle East. Tehran had vowed to retaliate after a deadly Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria on April 1.

Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University, said such visits by American officials were in line with the Biden administration’s policy of “establishing guardrails to prevent dangerous escalations”.

“It might be fair to say that this is not about guardrails for stabilising or improving relations, but about ensuring the US can advance its containment policies without sparking unwanted conflict before they’re fully deployed,” Mahoney added.

Dylan Loh Ming Hui, an associate professor in public policy and global affairs at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, did not expect any major results from the talks.

“I think China will react cautiously and with some degree of reticence as they are suspicious of America’s moves to shore up its defence relations and coalitions in the recent past,” Loh said. “Like most people, I do not expect any substantive results.”

German chancellor urges Chinese industry bosses to play fair in EU market

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/15/german-olaf-scholz-chinese-industry-bosses-play-fair-eu-market-cars

The chancellor of Germany has urged industry bosses in China to play fair by not overproducing cheap goods or infringing copyright rules.

Speaking on a three-day visit to China where he is travelling with leading business representatives and three government ministers, Olaf Scholz said he, in turn, would encourage the European Union not to be driven by self-interested protectionism, in which governments restrict international trade to help domestic companies.

Scholz was seen to be treading a careful path, driven by European concerns that Chinese goods are being dumped on the continent’s large market in ever increasing amounts.

With a focus on the automotive industry, Scholz said he expected Chinese cars to be widely available in Europe but argued that European cars should have equal access to the Chinese market.

“The only thing that always needs to be clear is that the competition is fair,” he said during a discussion with students at Tongji University in Shanghai. “That means there can be no dumping, no overproduction and that intellectual property rights are not violated,” he said.

He also appealed to Chinese authorities not to hamper companies trying to set up manufacturing capabilities with burdensome bureaucratic processes, despite this often being a complaint of foreign companies wanting to set up shop in Germany.

“We of course want our companies to not have to face any restrictions, but equally, we will behave in a similar way,” he said.

His visit was the first since his government launched a “de-risking” strategy last July, aimed at ensuring Germany does not become too dependent on China’s economy, the world’s second largest. The move was in part a reaction to the experience during the pandemic, when Germany – just like the rest of Europe – was shown to be heavily dependent on China for medical resources, including masks, PPE, and coronavirus test equipment.

But it also comes at a time when the German economy is more dependent upon China for manufactured goods than ever before. Under scrutiny in particular are solar panels and wind turbines, the markets for which in Europe have become increasingly flooded with Chinese products, often stifling domestic production and causing companies to go bankrupt.

Chinese cars are the latest product to be seen as a threat to European producers.

In addition, e-commerce companies like Temu and the fast-fashion brand Shein are increasingly making their mark in Europe and beyond with rock-bottom-priced goods produced in China, often, according to ongoing investigations, by forced labourers, including imprisoned Uyghur people.

Scholz is under pressure to talk about the ethical, environmental and economic consequences of this, along with other human rights issues, with his Chinese counterparts, when he meets President Xi Jinping on Tuesday. Also on the agenda is China’s increasing support for Russia in particular over its delivery of military-related supplies to Moscow, as well as concern over China’s conflict with Taiwan.

He was cautious though, when pushed to go further and back calls by the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, for the bloc to introduce measures preventing Chinese products from flooding the market. Scholz said arguing for fair competition “must be done from a position of self-confident competitiveness and not from protectionist motives”.

He recalled how the entry of Japanese and South Korean cars on to the European market had been a cause for concern, just as Chinese cars were now. “But that’s rubbish. Now there are Japanese cars in Germany and German cars in Japan,” he said. “And the same applies to China and Germany.”

Recently, von der Leyen talked about a “dramatic overproduction of electric vehicles in China, coupled with massive state subsidies”, in an interview with German media.

The US, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey have recently taken measures to protect their markets against the import of Chinese cars.

First China transgender clinic deals with ‘visitors’ as it embraces country’s 4 million people with body dissatisfaction

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3257667/first-china-transgender-clinic-deals-visitors-it-embraces-countrys-4-million-people-body?utm_source=rss_feed

For China’s transgender population of four million – and those with empathy for them – they are people whose souls are trapped in the wrong body.

At the country’s first transgender clinic in Beijing, they are not seen as patients.

The term transgender describes people whose internal sense of being male, female, neither, or both, does not match with their assigned sex at birth.

The man behind the country’s first “comprehensive clinic” for such people, which opened in 2017, is plastic surgeon Pan Bailin.

Those who use the facility are referred to as visitors rather than patients because the ethos of the clinic contends that it is not treating an illness.

Approximately 0.3 per cent of adults in the Asia-Pacific region identify as transgender, according to a 2012 United Nations survey.

Extrapolating from this figure, the total number of transgender individuals in China is estimated to be four million.

It is a minuscule portion of the population and as such they are almost invisible.

Fashion designer, Charlotte, 21, a transgender woman from Shanghai said: “When we are with friends, we can be who we are. But when we need to go to work or go home, many people put on men’s shirts and take off their wigs.”

In 2023, approximately 1,500 transgender people visited Pan’s clinic, with four doctors seeing more than 20 visitors each half day.

Visitors need to obtain a diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” from a psychiatrist before they can be admitted to the premises.

On admission, visitors explore how they perceive their bodies with doctors and family members.

They seek the source of their anxiety and are dealt with by professionals.

The process is divided into two stages.

Non-medical methods carry no risk or cost, such as alleviating gender dysphoria through counselling or dressing to appear as their identified gender.

Medical methods include hormone therapy, surgery, and voice therapy.

In the seven years since the clinic opened, Pan and his team have faced opposition, questioning and the difficulties of dealing with the families of visitors.

Traditional Chinese beliefs see the body as a parental gift and gender is innate, it should neither be changed or damaged. Taking care of one’s body is akin to showing filial piety.

Some parents questioned Pan’s endeavours: “If you had children of your own, you wouldn’t want them to change their gender. You don’t understand the feelings of being a parent at all!”

In China, gender changes on official documents such as identity cards and household registration are only allowed after gender reassignment surgery.

However, surgery in the country is governed by very strict criteria.

It is only available to those 18 or older and their parents must be informed and agree to the surgery.

A clean criminal record and diagnosis of gender dysphoria are also required, and the individual must be unmarried or divorced.

Gaining parental support is the biggest challenge.

Recently, when a visitor’s parent was asked by Pan: “Which is more important, your child’s gender or its life?”

The parent responded without hesitation: “Gender”.

Gender reassignment surgery comes with significant risks.

Besides its high cost – at least 150,000 yuan (US$21,000) – postoperative infections and complications can lead to paralysis or even death.

Jin Xing, 57, from Liaoning province in northeastern China, is a famous transgender dancer and television personality.

Jin is known as the “pioneer of Chinese modern dance” and has 14 million followers on Weibo.

In 1995, she underwent gender reassignment surgery to become China’s first openly transgender person.

Although the surgery left her left leg paralysed – a fatal blow as a dancer – just a year later, she fully recovered with astonishing willpower and appeared on stage in Beijing as a transgender woman.

Even after successful surgery, transgender individuals can face challenges in their workplace.

More than one-third of transgender people in China have experienced workplace discrimination, the most common being not getting hired in the first place, followed by isolation or ostracism and verbal abuse, according to the 2021 China Transgender Health Survey.

Ex-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s South China Sea ‘deal’ with Xi sparks calls for treason charges

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3259094/ex-philippine-president-rodrigo-dutertes-south-china-sea-deal-xi-sparks-calls-treason-charges?utm_source=rss_feed

Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s admission that he had an unwritten agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to maintain the status quo in the South China Sea has sparked anger in the Philippines and calls for Duterte to be charged with treason.

Antonio Carpio, a former associate justice of the Supreme Court, told reporters on Friday that Duterte’s “status quo deal” has in effect given China control over the Second Thomas Shoal – a maritime landmark in the South China Sea where Manila grounded a WWII-era vessel, the BRP Sierra Madre, to strengthen its claims over the surrounding waters.

Carpio said he supported a legislative inquiry proposed by lawmakers to look into the deal, which he said was “against the national interest”.

“I agree with the inquiry to be able to craft a law that would mete out imprisonment to those who commit treason during peacetime. There is a gap in the law. We have to bridge that gap so that people like Duterte won’t do such things,” Carpio said.

Carpio’s comments came after Duterte held a press briefing on Thursday in which he denied that he had made a “gentleman’s agreement” with Xi that would entail forfeiting his country’s territorial rights in the South China Sea.

Duterte drug war trial ‘moving forward’ as ICC calls for Philippine translators

However, the former president admitted to agreeing with Xi not to build new facilities in the disputed waters to maintain the status quo. On the BRP Sierra Madre, Duterte said food and water could be sent to the sailors deployed at the ship but not materials that could be used to rebuild or reinforce it.

Carpio slammed that part of the agreement on April 1, saying that the lack of repair materials would “cause the warship to sink since it’s rusty already”. His comment followed revelations by Duterte’s ex-spokesman Harry Roque about the agreement last month.

Duterte hit back at Carpio’s criticism of the agreement during his briefing. “What I do not like is even this stupid ex-Justice Carpio is harping on the gentleman’s agreement, of which he was certainly not there.

“It would be good, and it would be healthy for Carpio to shut up and not be bothered by things he was not there for.”

Asked about Duterte’s deal with Xi, political analyst Sherwin Ona told This Week in Asia that Duterte failed to act in the interest of the Filipino people since he made the deal after the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague dismissed China’s claims over the Philippine’s territory in the South China Sea.

Philippines readies for ‘cyberwar’ against Chinese hackers after latest attacks

“The nature of it is also questionable because there was no written evidence, recorded video or audio about it. I think he should be held accountable for his actions,” said Ona, who is an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University in the Philippines.

“He should explain to the country why he opted for such an agreement. What was the national interest that he supported when he did this?” he added.

On April 3, Senator Risa Hontiveros filed a resolution seeking an investigation into Duterte’s deal with China on the West Philippine Sea – Manila’s term for the section of the South China Sea that defines its maritime territory and includes its exclusive economic zone – describing it as a betrayal of the country.

“This ‘gentleman’s agreement’ is treasonous. While China, in any case, will most likely attack our resupply missions en route to Ayungin [Manila’s term for the Second Thomas Shoal], this sham of an agreement only gave Beijing more ammunition to assert her baseless claims,” Hontiveros said.

Chinese vessels have consistently attempted to disrupt resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre. In the latest incident last month, Chinese coastguard vessels fired high-pressure water cannons at the Philippine vessels, injuring two sailors.

“It is our duty to fortify the BRP Sierra Madre. Without it on Ayungin, we effectively give way for China to illegally occupy what is ours. If we stop reinforcing the Sierra Madre, we not only lose a crucial, strategic outpost but also fail to defend our sovereignty,” Hontiveros added.

Before President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr returned home from a trilateral meeting with his US and Japanese counterparts held on Thursday in Washington, Marcos Jnr said he was convinced that Duterte had entered into a secret deal with Xi and he wanted him to disclose everything.

“It is clear to me that something was concealed. There was a deal that they kept secret from the people. Now we need to know. What did you agree to? What did you compromise?” Marcos Jnr told reporters over the weekend.

“What did you give away? Why are our friends in China mad at us for not sticking to the deal?” he said.

Manuel Mogato, a Filipino Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, on Monday added his voice to those calling for Duterte to be prosecuted for treason.

“Duterte has opened himself to lawsuits. His confession raised more questions than answers to China’s accusations,” Mogato said, noting that he had allowed the country to potentially lose a strategic outpost in the South China Sea.

“Duterte may have committed an act of treason. If he was still in power, the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ would be a gross violation of the Constitution, an impeachable offence. But he is still liable under the law for committing treacherous activities, which carries life imprisonment and a fine of 4 million pesos [US$70,360],” he added.

Ramon Beleno III, head of the political science and history department at Ateneo De Davao University in southern Davao City, defended Duterte, saying he had made the deal to calm bilateral tensions. But his lack of action following new developments in the contested waters was the main problem, according to Beleno III.

“The status quo was just temporary. Only the first step. But after the situation was normalised, what happened? That’s the problem … He did nothing,” Beleno III told This Week in Asia.

Activists slam Sino-US rivalry in Philippines’ maritime zone in South China Sea

“Now, China is using it against us,” he said, referring to speculation that Beijing had stepped up its aggression in the South China Sea because it was under the impression that the pact with Duterte was violated.

On Saturday, Beijing reiterated its demand that Manila remove the BRP Sierra Madre from the Second Thomas Shoal, calling its presence a violation of China’s sovereignty.

“Before the warship is towed away, if the Philippines needs to send living necessities, out of humanitarianism, China is willing to allow it if the Philippines informs China in advance and after on-site verification is conducted. China will monitor the whole process,” the Chinese embassy in Manila said in a statement.

“If the Philippines sends large amount of construction materials to the warship and attempts to build fixed facilities and permanent outpost, China will not accept it and will resolutely stop it in accordance with law and regulations to uphold China’s sovereignty,” the statement added.

China’s new South China Sea oil rig helps it drill deep for energy security

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3259084/chinas-new-south-china-sea-oil-rig-helps-it-drill-deep-energy-security?utm_source=rss_feed

China has commenced operation of its deepest mobile oil rig in the northern rim of South China Sea, to extract marginal resources amid its growing emphasis on energy security and technological self-reliance.

The offshore home-grown rig is located in the Enping oilfield, about 200km (124 miles) southwest of Shenzhen city, state broadcaster CCTV said on Saturday.

Developed by the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the rig has a drilling capacity of 9,085 metres, with 8,689 metres being horizontal, making it the deepest and longest China has drilled, the report said.

The oil rig, dubbed the Enping 21-4 A1H wellhead platform, can produce 700 tonnes of oil per day after testing, CCTV said.

China takes aim at energy crisis with massive crude-oil processor

China’s leadership has been stepping up efforts to reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas amid escalating geopolitical uncertainties, including exploring more local oil resources and upgrading its oil-extraction technology.

The Enping oilfield is a marginal field with thin reservoirs and a remote location, making it challenging to achieve sufficient net income and meet profitability targets under traditional vertical drilling methods.

CNOOC has applied horizontal drilling technology to access oilfields more than 8km away, to overcome these extraction barriers and save costs, according to Guo Yongbin, chief engineer of the company’s Shenzhen branch.

“By applying this [horizontal drilling] technology, we can access oil and gas resources within 10km of this oil rig in the future, which will significantly improve the efficiency of China’s oil and gas field development,” Guo was quoted by the state broadcaster as saying.

The rig can carry 669 pieces of pipe, weighing a total of 564 tonnes, into the oilfield by navigating through three underground faults, and CNOOC said that such operations are at a world-leading level.

State media said deep-sea, marginal-oil-drilling technology is becoming increasingly crucial for China as global demand for crude oil continues to rise, while traditional and easily accessible oil and gas resources are decreasing.

CNOOC, China’s major offshore oil and gas exploring company, put its Enping 15-1 oil rig into operation in December 2022. The oil rig can reportedly produce up to nearly 5,000 tonnes of oil per day, and this is said to make it the largest offshore oil rig in Asia.

The state-owned company launched the Enping 18-6, another oil platform, into production in October. CNOOC said it could reach peak daily production of about 9,300 barrels of crude oil in 2024.

President Xi touts China’s new-energy prowess as Biden bashes its auto policies

As an industrial powerhouse, China is seeing growing oil demand, yet it relies on imports for 70 per cent of its crude oil, leaving it vulnerable to potential price shocks under supply fluctuations.

China imported 564 million tonnes of crude oil last year – up 11 per cent from a year earlier – mainly from Saudi Arabia and Russia, according to Chinese customs.

Its oil reserves totalled about 3.8 billion tonnes in 2022, accounting for about 1.58 per cent of global reserves, and ranking 13th in the world, according to the most recent data from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The reserves amount to only 9 per cent of those of top-holder Venezuela, and 10 per cent of those of second-ranked Saudi Arabia.

Israel ‘unhappy’ with China’s ‘not as strong as expected’ response to Iranian attack

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259101/israel-unhappy-chinas-not-strong-expected-response-iranian-attack?utm_source=rss_feed

Israel has said it was disappointed with China’s response to Iran’s missile and drone attack on Saturday.

“We were hoping for stronger condemnation and clear acknowledgment of Israel’s right to defend itself,” said Yuval Waks, the deputy chief of the Israeli mission in China told a press briefing on Monday when asked what response the embassy had hoped for.

“Unfortunately, we did not see that, which is why we were unhappy with the statement [from the Chinese foreign ministry],” said Waks.

On Sunday the ministry expressed “deep concern” about the risk of the conflict escalating and called for the immediate implementation of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The statement, which Israel said was “not as strong as expected”, also urged unnamed “influential countries” to play a constructive role.

Saturday’s attack, which follows the recent deadly attack on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria, was the Islamic Republic’s first direct assault on Israeli territory and has heightened concerns about a wider regional conflict.

Backlash over US support for Israel as China makes ‘public relations gain’

The United States and its allies have condemned the attack, with US President Joe Biden pledging “ironclad” support for Israel.

Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry on Monday said China’s special envoy for Middle East affairs Zhai Jun had met Irit Ben-Abba, the Israeli ambassador. The statement said Zhai called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but did not comment on Israel’s concerns.

Waks also said the embassy had contacted Chinese officials in Beijing and conveyed Israel’s concerns following the attacks on Saturday.

He said “we are aware of the good bilateral relations between China and Iran, but we feel the need to express our grave concerns to the Chinese regarding Iran’s negative role in our region and its support of terror groups”.

He also urged China to tell Hamas the hostages still being held after the October 7 attack “should be set free right now”.

The Israeli embassy said in a separate statement: “The destabilisation of the Middle East didn’t start on Saturday, but rather Iran showed its true face.

“For the first time Iran has emerged from behind the shadows to reveal its identity as a terrorist state, doing so in an unmistakable and undeniable manner.”

Saturday’s strike came after the conflict in the Gaza strip entered its sixth month.

Iran’s attack on Israel ‘brings joy’ to Gaza Palestinians, others cast doubt

On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Iran reminded its citizens to “strengthen safety precautions” due to “more serious and complex” situations in the country.

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked China and other countries to use their influence to dissuade Iran from striking Israel. On Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with Blinken by phone and asked him to play a “constructive role” in the region.

Apple CEO Tim Cook visits Vietnam as US tech giant’s supply chain shift stirs unease in China

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3259093/apple-ceo-tim-cook-visits-vietnam-us-tech-giants-supply-chain-shift-stirs-unease-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has kicked off his two-day visit to Vietnam, as the US tech giant’s efforts to diversify its supply chain comes into focus again, just weeks after the CEO concluded a tour in the company’s key market of China.

On Monday, Apple announced on its Vietnam website that it would “increase spending on suppliers” in the country, adding that such expenditure has reached nearly 400 trillion Vietnamese dong (US$16 billion) since 2019.

The pledge comes three weeks after Cook wrapped up his visit to China, which remains Apple’s largest production base. During his time there, Cook praised the country’s supply chain as being the most “critical” in the world and promised that the firm would keep investing in research and development, as well as the supply chain in China.

He also attended the high-level China Development Forum, the nation’s answer to the World Economic Forum’s summit in Davos, Switzerland, where he lauded the “huge contribution” that Chinese suppliers have made to the iPhone maker’s carbon-neutral goals.

Despite Cook’s reassurance, some Chinese internet users expressed their uneasiness about Apple shifting some of its manufacturing to countries such as Vietnam and India.

One Weibo user called “eddzccy” commented on a post about Cook’s Vietnam visit with a three-lemon emoji, which symbolises jealousy. Another user named “Renkongzhineng” sarcastically referred to Cook as a “master of marketing”.

Vietnam has emerged in recent years as one of the most important manufacturing hubs of Apple, with suppliers including Luxshare Precision Industry, Goertek and Foxconn Technology Group, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, all having operations there.

The US has strengthened its relationship with Vietnam amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing. In a visit to the Southeast Asian country last September, US President Joe Biden announced an elevated “comprehensive strategic partnership” with Vietnam.

Still, Apple has doubled down on a variety of initiatives in mainland China, the world’s largest smartphone market, where iPhone sales fell 24 per cent year on year in the first six weeks of the year, according to market consultancy Counterpoint.

The company faces “stiff competition at the high end [of the market] from a resurgent Huawei [Technologies], while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing by the likes of Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi”, said Counterpoint.

Apple said in March that it planned to expand its research centre in Shanghai and open a new laboratory in Shenzhen later this year.

It is also exploring a tie-up with Chinese internet search and artificial intelligence giant Baidu to install the latter’s Ernie chatbot on iPhones sold in the country, according to a report last month by The Wall Street Journal.

Apple loses mantle as world’s biggest phone seller to Samsung as China sales drop

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/15/apples-loses-mantle-as-worlds-biggest-phone-seller-to-samsung-as-china-sales-drop

Apple has lost its spot as the world’s biggest mobile phone seller after a steep sales drop as South Korean rival Samsung retook the lead in the global market share.

Samsung had been the biggest seller of mobile phones for 12 years until the end of 2023, when sales of Apple’s iPhone models overtook it.

Global smartphone shipments increased by 8% to 289.4m units during January-March, according to research firm IDC. Samsung won a 20.8% market share, beating Apple’s 17.3% share, which has been dented by slowing sales in China.

IDC said that Apple shipped 50.1m iPhones in the first quarter, down from the 55.4m units it shipped in the same period last year. It was the biggest drop in iPhone sales since Covid-19 lockdowns caused global supply chain chaos in 2022.

The drop in Apple sales, despite a growing global market, was partly ascribed to difficulties in China. Local rivals including Xiaomi and Huawei have put pressure on Apple and Samsung. At the same time, China’s government has moved to ban devices made by foreign companies from workplaces.

Apple is still the dominant player at the top end of the global smartphone market, and sales of the iPhone are its most important product. The company’s market value was $2.7tn (£2.16tn) on Friday, far ahead of every other smartphone maker and behind only Microsoft, which has been boosted by expectations of a boom in artificial intelligence.

However, the back-and-forth movement at the top of the market highlights the intense competition among smartphone makers for market share.

Xiaomi, China’s top smartphone maker, occupied the third position with a market share of 14.1% during the first quarter.

Samsung launched its latest high-end S24 models at the start of the year, helping it to increase sales. Samsung has bet heavily on AI features such as automatic phone call translation and video editing software to promote the S24 series.

Investors are hoping that Apple will give more details of its own AI capabilities at a developer conference in June. Apple has reportedly scrapped an effort to build its own electric car, partly to shift resources to working on AI.

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String of favourable policies designed to boost Hong Kong in pipeline, mainland China’s top city affairs official promises

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3259051/string-favourable-policies-designed-boost-hong-kong-pipeline-mainland-chinas-top-city-affairs?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs has said a string of favourable policies are in the pipeline for the city and he appealed to the financial hub to sharpen its competitive edge in a changing environment after national security loopholes were plugged by new legislation.

Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, on Monday added that the “one country, two systems” governing principle “will not need to change” and underlined the need for the city to reinforce its strengths.

“The central government fully supports Hong Kong in its advance from stability to prosperity,” Xia said in a video address for National Security Education Day.

“More measures to support and benefit Hong Kong are coming one after another.”

He added the legislature’s enactment of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance last month marked a new starting point for the city.

Xia said the city was now better equipped to “identify thieves and protect friends”, which provided a more predictable environment for overseas investors.

He added top financial institutions and business elites had cast votes of confidence in the city with their participation in high-powered events held since the domestic national security law, mandated under Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, came into force.

“Hong Kong is still the world’s best place for doing business,” Xia said. “It’s the best place to start a business, make money and realise dreams.

“It is like the sun in the universe where no dark clouds can ever block its rays. Hong Kong’s prosperity cannot be denounced by a few articles or a few noises.

“Let those who think poorly of Hong Kong lament. Hong Kong is destined to be brilliant tomorrow.”

Xia said the nation offered solid backing for Hong Kong with its resilient economy and Beijing’s policy support.

But he added the city’s path to prosperity involved major changes in the external environment and that people had to roll up their sleeves and adapt to the changing landscape.

Xia said Hong Kong had to sharpen its international competitiveness by consolidating and elevating the advantages conferred by the one country, two systems principle.

Hong Kong to mark National Security Education Day with activities across city

He added Hong Kong’s traditional advantages should not remain “static” and maintenance of the city’s “golden brand” required constant effort.

“The advance from stability to prosperity is essentially a path for innovation and changes,” he said. “We cannot look at today’s new situation with yesterday’s old eyes.

“We cannot use yesterday’s old thinking to solve today’s new problems.

“We need to unite and look ahead to solve the problems we face using new thinking, new methods and new routes. [We should] dare to say new things that have not been said by our predecessors and dare to do things that have never been done before to make constant breakthroughs.”

Xia underlined his confidence in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and the government’s ability to make high-quality economic development their top priority and stay committed to objectives that would drive the city’s prosperity with “more powerful measures”.

He added businesses, the public and young people also had their parts to play in the exploration of new opportunities, the creation of social unity and “chasing dreams” and emphasised the importance of continued integration into the Greater Bay Area.

The bay area is Beijing’s plan to make Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland Chinese cities into an economic powerhouse.

“We firmly believe that the wheels of the new era train called Hong Kong will surely roll forward unstoppably,” Xia said.

Zheng Yanxiong, the director of the central government’s liaison office in the city, who also spoke at the event, said the 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law and the domestic national security legislation created “dual laws, dual mechanisms” that involved Beijing’s authority and Hong Kong’s responsibility.

Zheng said the dual laws allowed Hong Kong to develop its economy and improve people’s livelihoods.

Hong Kong can now ‘go all out’ to boost economy: Beijing’s top man in city

He added the city also had to continue to counter attempts to discredit it by external forces.

“Lately there have been ridiculous claims that Hong Kong is over, that there was no hope of recovery, and it is in ruins and an isolated island,” Zheng said.

“These have been refuted by all major Hong Kong media outlets, which articulate the narrative of a bright Hong Kong economy. This is excellent.”

Lee said the city had to remain on the alert for threats in his speech at the event, which also marked the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s “holistic approach” to national security, which spanned more than 20 areas, from politics to biosecurity.

“The threat of hostile forces will continue [as they] wait for a chance to attack,” Lee warned. “Just like viruses, they will not stop attacking us just because we have been vaccinated.

“With the protection of national security laws, activities that endanger national security will continue to threaten us like viruses, so we cannot forget about the pain just because our wounds have healed.”

Lee added the city authorities would continue to explain the domestic national security law to the public, reinforce internal training, and boost education on the topic.

Beijing designated April 15 as National Security Education Day in 2015.

Hong Kong launched its first National Security Education Day on April 15, 2021, a year after Beijing imposed national security law on the city.

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China’s ‘critical’ property sector must ensure timely delivery of homes, says Vice-Premier He Lifeng

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3259058/chinas-critical-property-sector-must-ensure-timely-delivery-homes-says-vice-premier-he-lifeng?utm_source=rss_feed

Vice-Premier He Lifeng urged on-time delivery of properties and financing support for developers at a meeting in central China over the weekend, rallying efforts to revive a sector critical for this year’s economic growth target and financial stability.

China’s property sector once contributed about a quarter of the national economic output, but it has yet to bottom-out in terms of investment and sales, while market confidence remains weak.

“We must understand the property sector is critical,” the vice-premier told local officials, developers and bankers in Zhengzhou, Henan province, during the two-day inspection tour.

“There must be dedicated funding coordination mechanisms to expeditiously loan to all the projects that meet the ‘whitelist’ requirements for timely completion and delivery.”

China is aiming to keep growth at 5% in 2024. Are the odds in its favour?

China’s so-called whitelist was launched by the housing ministry at the start of the year, with provincial governments asked to recommend to banks local residential projects that are deemed financially sound and fit for further loan support.

He also vowed to uphold the rights of homebuyers to stabilise expectations and the development of the sector, ordering stricter scrutiny of loans and presale accounts that are supervised by the government to prevent misappropriation, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Zhengzhou is among the Chinese cities grappling with a large number of abandoned or stalled residential projects, with homebuyers seeking either a refund of their down payment or access to their new homes.

While urging for more developers to be added to the government’s whitelist, He also requested targeted solutions for projects that have not yet qualified.

“[Beijing has to] ensure that, when other key sectors like exports are already recovering this year, the overall economic development trend should not be held back by prolonged property sector distress,” said Li Xuenan, a finance professor at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

The world’s second-largest economy is looking for consumption and technology to drive economic growth this year, but such a transition would take time, Li added.

“More funding to ensure delivery of new homes also matters to social stability and helping people to spend more,” she said.

The top leadership is anxious to resuscitate the property sector after the pillar industry became one of the biggest drags on the economic recovery amid Beijing’s all-out effort to attain this year’s growth target of “around 5 per cent”.

He’s trip came ahead of the release of key first-quarter figures, including gross domestic product growth and investment, on Tuesday, with initial signs that the economy had picked at the start of the year.

Problems facing developers, though, remain, with investment having slumped by 9 per cent year on year in combined figures for January and February, contrasting with the 4.2 per cent increase in total fixed-asset investment.

Total home sales also plunged by 29.3 per cent year on year to a little over 1 trillion yuan (US$138 billion) in the same period.

In 2023, property investment fell by 9.6 per cent, while sales dropped by 6.5 per cent, despite cuts to mortgage and deposit rates.

The slowdown also sliced 0.7 percentage points off China’s growth last year, according to the Bank of China.

Since the downturn in 2020, there has been a spate of projects, undertaken with bank loans and down payments from buyers, that have failed when developers collapsed or defaulted.

Nomura estimated in November that there were 20 million units of unconstructed and delayed pre-sold homes in China in 2022, with 3.2 trillion yuan needed for their completion.

A report by the Shanghai-based E-House consultancy said 3.85 per cent of all projects across China had financial woes last year, totalling 231 million square metres (2.49 billion square feet).

South Korea’s China ambassador faces abuse probe as President Yoon gets no respite after election rout

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3259070/south-koreas-china-ambassador-faces-abuse-probe-president-yoon-gets-no-respite-after-election-rout?utm_source=rss_feed

An audit team dispatched by South Korea’s foreign ministry is conducting an on-site inspection into staff abuse allegations involving the country’s ambassador to China.

The team of investigators arrived in Beijing on Sunday to carry out a two-week probe into the allegations that envoy Chung Jae-ho, a close friend and confidante of President Yoon Suk-yeol, allegedly bullied and mistreated embassy staff, the independent newspaper Hankyoreh said.

One attaché reportedly filed formal complaints with Seoul’s foreign ministry, accompanied by audio recordings of the ambassador’s alleged abusive conduct.

“The necessary investigation concerning Ambassador Chung is under way per relevant procedures,” a ministry official told This Week in Asia. He declined to give further details including whether an audit team had been dispatched to Beijing and how long the inspection would last.

In a statement sent to correspondents in China earlier, Chung said media reports on the case were based on a “one-sided claim”. He gave no further details, citing the forthcoming probe.

Will South Korea’s Yoon ignore calls to say ‘xie xie’ and forget Taiwan?

Since the staff abuse allegations surfaced early last month, Chung has reportedly been maintaining his duties, including organising the screening of Korean cinema shows for foreign ambassadors in Beijing, but he has stopped seeing Korean correspondents in the city.

The inspection, initially expected to start earlier this month, had been put off until the end of the April 10 parliamentary elections in an apparent bid to avoid influencing vote results.

Chung’s case is closely watched as President Yoon is under growing pressure to reshuffle the government and dismiss his unpopular loyalists after his ruling conservative People Power Party suffered a rout at the elections.

The 64-year-old former international relations professor at Seoul National University was appointed in June 2022 as the first envoy to China under Yoon’s administration.

Can a new South Korea-Japan agreement take bilateral ties to the next level?

Former defence minister Lee Jong-sup, who had been appointed as ambassador to Australia last month, returned home and gave up the post in less than a month as his appointment sparked allegations that the government is seeking to help him escape justice.

Lee has been under investigation for the death of a marine in July last year in North Geyongsang province during a controversial search and rescue mission.

In 2018, Kim Do-hyun, then South Korean ambassador to Vietnam, was fired by the ministry for allegedly taking bribes and verbally abusing a staff member.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and the chief of Yoon’s presidential staff, Lee Gwan-sup, have offered resignations to hold themselves responsible for the crushing election defeat.

Chung is facing mounting calls for his resignation from the Democratic Party of Korea. The main opposition party secured a comfortable majority with 175 seats at the 300-seat National Assembly at the elections, which were seen as a midterm referendum on Yoon’s performance on the job.

Yoon’s ruling conservative People Power Party only managed to win 108 seats.

Two days after the elections, Yoon saw his approval ratings sink to an all-time low of 28 per cent in a poll conducted by the Realmeter polling agency.

He will give his first public remarks on Tuesday about his post-election plans, a presidential official said on Monday.

According to Yonhap news agency, Yoon will use his opening remarks at Tuesday’s government cabinet meeting to speak about how he plans to overhaul state affairs and cooperate with the new National Assembly.

The opposition parties threaten to launch special parliamentary probes into power abuse and corruption allegations involving Yoon’s cronies and his wife Kim Keon-hee.

In China, Germany’s Olaf Scholz calls for ‘open and fair’ competition as differences weigh on trade

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3259063/china-germanys-olaf-scholz-calls-open-and-fair-competition-differences-weigh-trade?utm_source=rss_feed

A call for “open and fair” competition between European and Chinese automakers, along with visits to clean-energy firms, during German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s China trip reflect how there is room for improvement in the two countries’ US$207 billion annual trade, even as threats mount from de-risking calls and political pressure.

In Chongqing on Sunday, the first leg of his three-day visit to China, the German leader visited a hydrogen-fuel-cell plant operated by German auto supplier Bosch. And after arriving in Shanghai on Monday, he visited an innovation centre of German company Covestro, a producer of polymers and high-performance plastics.

Also on Monday, he was quoted by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV as saying that the German market welcomes China-made cars. However, he added, Europe will not tolerate dumping, overcapacity or violations of intellectual property rights. That prompted his insistence on open and fair competition with China’s carmakers.

Scholz is leading a delegation that includes environment, agriculture and transport ministers, as well as business executives of manufacturing giants such as Siemens, BMW and Benz.

China laps Germany in some exports, turning trade tide and raising eyebrows

Siemens CEO Roland Busch told state media CGTN on Sunday that he was confident in the potential of the Chinese market, and he pointed to years of “very strong” relations between the two countries.

“Germany has a lot of technologies to offer,” he told the broadcaster. “This is how we grow the economies. And going forward, I think we have the next level ahead of us to keep on going. We believe in the Chinese market, and we’ll be doubling down on our investment.”

China has been Germany’s largest trading partner for many years, and an estimated 5,000 German companies currently operate in China, according to official German figures.

But bilateral relations have somewhat soured amid conflicts concerning human rights and security, as well as alleged unfair competition and the pace at which Beijing has been opening up market access to foreign companies.

Last week, international insurance firm Allianz Trade said China had been “making significant gains” in the European market across sectors such as computers; metals; electronics and optical products; and basic pharmaceuticals, with momentum being “especially strong” in electric equipment.

And Dong Jinyue, a senior economist at Spanish multinational financial services firm BBVA Research, explained that German investments in China largely target hydrogen, automobiles, chemicals, power-generation equipment, communications and steel. Both countries also cooperate in education, cultural and technology sectors.

Scholz’s trip comes at a time when the European Union is undertaking an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), and as criticism is growing from across the Atlantic on China’s overcapacity, especially in the new-energy sector.

Chinese EVs, along with solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, have seen robust growth and exports since last year, but exports of these products are at risk of punitive tariffs and trade restrictions from Brussels and Washington.

“It’s quite futile for Europe to use trade as leverage against China,” said Andy Xie, a Shanghai-based independent economist. “If you leave China, then your economy is going to suffer, because China makes more cars than anywhere else.

“For Germany to compete, its technology needs to rise again; China is setting the pace for automotive technology. Best you can do is stay in China and try to compete.”

‘The magic of China’: still lots for foreign firms, top business leader says

Germany relies heavily on China for new-energy products, as well as for pharmaceuticals and rare earths, said Mark Natkin, managing director with Hong Kong-based market research firm Marbridge Consulting. “So, [Germany] must walk a tightrope between de-risking and maintaining access to key supplies,” he said.

At the same time, Natkin noted that China represents a “critical market” for BMW and Volkswagen, underscoring why Scholz will work hard to maintain relations with Beijing.

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

Meanwhile, analysts have pointed out how the German government is facing challenges to balance its economic needs by working with China against the backdrop of internal and external political pressure.

Chinese leaders still value Germany for the technological quality of its products, especially cars, said James Chin, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania.

Scholz is also in a unique position to raise concerns held by the EU and the United States about the level of China’s support given to Russia, Chin said.

Additionally, he touched on how German businesses still grapple with Chinese “red tape” and perceived uncertainty in Chinese business laws.

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

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

Dong at BBVA said that the future of China-Germany relations will be influenced by Berlin’s policy priorities and will require a balancing act between ideology and economic interests.

“The confrontations between China and Germany will be less severe than China-US tensions, as the German economy is going into a downward trend and they really need economic cooperation with China,” she added while also noting that ideological confrontations are likely to persist.

Shen Dingli, an international relations scholar based in Shanghai, said that political differences also factor into the equation, with some German politicians favouring a de-risking approach to reduce the nation’s economic reliance on China.

“This differences among German politicians in terms of strategic planning is not something that can be resolved in the short term,” he noted, adding: “Geopolitical security concerns of Germany and other EU countries have been amplified by the Ukraine war, and this affects their policies towards China and Russia.”

Sydney attack victims include a mother who saved her baby, a Chinese grad student and an architect

https://apnews.com/article/sydney-shopping-mall-attack-victims-ae01101d2eadc8ae88df82be3f71f5e2In this undated photo provided by the family of Jade Young and distributed by the New South Wales Police Jade Young holds a dog at an unknown location. Young, 47, was killed in a deadly attack at a Sydney shopping center on Saturday, April 13, 2024. (Courtesy of Young Family/NSW Police via AP)

2024-04-15T07:55:28Z

SYDNEY (AP) — The people killed and wounded by an assailant at a Sydney shopping mall were mostly women.

A police officer shot and killed the man who had attacked people at the busy Westfield Bondi Junction mall, and his family said he had a long history of schizophrenia, lacked social skills and had a fascination with knives. Police said their investigation would include why he targeted women and avoided men during his attack.

Those killed were five women and one man. Twelve people were wounded, and police said they mostly were female.

Here’s some information on those killed.

ASHLEE GOOD

Friends and family of 38-year-old osteopath Ashlee Good remembered her as a “beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend” and an “all-round outstanding human.”

Good’s 9-month-old daughter was wounded and was in serious but stable condition in a hospital Monday.

Good reportedly passed her baby to two strangers nearby before she lost consciousness. “To the two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not — words cannot express our gratitude,” the family’s statement read.

Good’s father, Kerry Good, is a former Australian Rules football player and a current board member of the North Melbourne AFL club. In honor of Ashlee, the club wore black armbands in its match on Sunday.

DAWN SINGLETON

Dawn Singleton was the 25-year-old daughter of well-known businessman John Singleton.

She worked as an e-commerce assistant for a women’s fashion outlet in Sydney, which said in a social media post they had “not only lost an employee but someone special to us who felt like a family member.”

“Dawn was a sweet, kind hearted person who had her whole life ahead of her. She was really amazing,” White Fox Boutique said in an Instagram post.

“We send our love and deepest condolences to her partner, the Singleton family and her friends.”

Singleton’s LinkedIn profile says she was a communications graduate from the University of Technology, Sydney and had worked at the trendy fashion line since 2020.

She was soon to be married to her police officer partner.

FARAZ TAHIR

The only male killed was Faraz Tahir, a 30-year-old Pakistani refugee who worked at the mall as a security guard.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Australia said Faraz had been in Australia for less than a year and was a “cherished member of our community” and was a dedicated security guard who tragically lost his life while serving the public during this attack.

“He quickly became an integral part of our community, known for his unwavering dedication and kindness,” the organization said in a statement.

It also said Faraz contributed to charitable endeavors supporting Muslim youth in Sydney.

Faraz was credited with trying to stop the attack.

“We are devastated by Faraz’s passing and recognise our team member’s bravery and role as a first responder,” Elliott Rusanow, CEO of the mall owner Scentre Group, said in a statement to Nine News. “Another member of our security team was injured and remains in hospital.”

JADE YOUNG

Jade Young, 47, was a mother of two who had been an architect for more than two decades.

Young lived in Bellevue Hill, an eastern Sydney suburb near the shopping mall, and was a volunteer member of the Bronte Surf Life Saving Club.

“I sadly have to report that a Bronte SLSC member, Jade Young, lost her life during the tragic events in Bondi Junction yesterday,” the club said in a statement to Nine News.

“Some of you might have known Jade as she and her family have been active in youth education.”

PIKRIA DARCHIA

Pikria Darchia, 55, was named as the fifth victim late Sunday.

According to Darchia’s profile on professional networking site LinkedIn, she was an artist and had worked as a designer for 10 years in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Prior to that she had finished a masters degree in performance art at the Tbilisi State Academy of Art.

In Australia, she studied business administration. Darchia’s profile said she spoke English, Russian and Georgian.

Further details about her have not been released, and her family has requested privacy.

YIXUAN CHENG

Yixuan Cheng, a Chinese graduate student, was the final victim to be identified Monday.

Chinese news service Sydney Today reported the 27-year-old was studying for a master’s degree in economics at the University of Sydney.

The report said she had called her fiance in China, who has only been identified as Wang, just minutes before the attack.

“She happily talked to me on the phone at around 3 p.m. She even tried on clothes for me to see,” Wang said.

After the attack, Wang said he had tried to call Cheng “day and night, but there was no contact at all.”

The family spent the next 24 hours watching news of the attack in hope of an update, before receiving the heartbreaking news of her death.

Wang said the pair had planned to marry after Cheng graduated.

China continues to unlawfully persecute family of dissidents, finds report

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/15/china-continues-to-unlawfully-persecute-family-of-dissidents-finds-report

China continues to unlawfully target the families of activists and dissidents, despite a pledge to end the practice of collective punishment, a Chinese human rights group has said in a new report.

The persecution, which includes intimidation and harassment, forced evictions, travel bans, criminal proceedings against family members and preventing children from attending school, have affected people across China and the diaspora community for decades, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) group said in a report on Monday. Acts of collective punishment are prohibited in international human rights law.

As recently as 28 December, Chinese authorities vowed to abolish the practice of collective punishment of the family members of convicted criminals. Dissidents and activists are commonly convicted of criminal offences by Chinese courts. The pledge came after Chinese residents lobbied the country’s top lawmaking body, the National People’s Congress (NPC), over notices issued by local authorities imposing education, employment, and social security restrictions on family members of people in jail.

“Following a review, we deemed the notices not consistent with the Constitution, nor with laws on education, employment and social insurance, so we urge relevant departments to abolish the documents,” the NPC responded, according to China Daily Hong Kong.

“Criminals should be liable and punished for their own misconduct, meaning that others shouldn’t be implicated in the penalties. It is a basic principle of rule of law in modern society,” the spokesperson said.

But CHRD told the Guardian there was no evidence of legislative activity to end collective punishment, and no officials had been held accountable since the announcement. Renee Xia, director of CHRD, said it appeared to be a state-backed policy. “A new law would hardly help eradicate its selective law enforcement in targeting these defenders,” she said.

The report released on Monday focused on acts of alleged collective punishment committed in 2023 and early 2024, with “dozens” of new or ongoing cases which they said showed the practice was continuing.

Among the cases the CHRD noted was that of jailed activist He Fangmei, whose young children, her lawyers say, disappeared in April after being forcibly held in a psychiatric facility.

He Fangmei and her husband were detained in October 2020, following He’s activism over defective vaccines. He, who was five months pregnant, and her two children then aged five and seven, were put in the Henan Xinxiang Gongji psychiatric hospital. Two months after giving birth He was arrested and sent to a detention centre.

The three children were kept at the hospital, despite efforts by other family members to have them released into their care. Requests by He’s sister to visit them were refused, the report said. The son was later sent to foster care allegedly without family consent, and in January this year an activist group claimed authorities had tricked He’s mother into formally relinquishing a custody claim.

A lawyer for He said the two girls had since disappeared after the hospital decided to stop housing them, and dropped them off with local county officials.

The Guardian was unable to reach the Hui county government, and the psychiatric hospital said it was unable to provide any information on the case.

In a call with journalists last week, Wang Liqin, the wife of jailed lawyer Wang Zhang, said authorities had threatened earlier this year to detain her again or to take away her children if she posted about her husband online.

“In the eight years we lived in Beijing, we were subject 11 times to forced relocation,” said. She was also detained and jailed for two and a half years.

“During my absence, my four children, under the care of my mother-in-law, were constantly harassed and under surveillance.”

The CHRD report also included testimony that in March police had searched the new school of the son of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang who was released from jail in 2020. Wang’s son had been at the school just 10 days after police pressure had allegedly seen him dismissed from his previous ones.

In another case, the father of jailed IT worker Niu Tengyu was taken away by state security police in Shanxi in January. He was later released. Niu was detained in 2019 and sentenced to 14 years in jail over websites publishing information about Xi Jinping’s daughter and other high ranking officials in 2019. He has allegedly been tortured in jail, according to rights groups.

Separately, Rayhan Asat, a high-profile Uyghur activist, says family calls with her brother, who is detained in Xinjiang, were shortened from the allowed two-minute length if anyone on the call cried.

CHRD called for China to end the practice, introduce new legislation banning collective punishment, and to lift all exit bans on affected family members. It also called for the international community and UN to increase pressure on Beijing.

China reveals it executed scientist for spying in 2016 in documentary about ‘shocking’ cases

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3259038/china-reveals-it-executed-scientist-spying-2016-documentary-about-shocking-cases?utm_source=rss_feed

Authorities in Beijing have revealed that a Chinese scientist who was convicted in 2015 of selling state secrets to foreign spy agencies was executed in 2016, one of several “shocking” spy cases.

The death sentence and execution were disclosed in a new documentary produced by the Ministry of State Security, China’s top counter-espionage agency, which profiled 10 prominent spy cases from the past.

The documentary – Led by Innovation, National Security Sharpens the Sword – which was aired on Sunday by state broadcaster CCTV and has been posted to the ministry’s social media page, is part of a campaign to mark the annual National Security Education Day.

Beijing’s spy agency accuses Taiwan of pushing election interference rumours

The event, which is promoted by various local governments, including Hong Kong and Macau, is also intended to remind the public to remain vigilant about national security threats and report suspicious acts.

According to the documentary, Huang Yu, then a researcher at a top secret communication system development project, sent a note to “the website of a certain country’s spy agency” containing classified Chinese military codes.

Huang was bitter after being removed from a unit that was working on the project due to poor work performance and had indicated he wanted to defect, the report said.

After the authenticity of the codes had been confirmed, Huang was recruited by the unnamed foreign spy agency and given training in Hong Kong and Bangkok. The documentary said he not only sold “core secrets” through his work, but also duped his wife – an employee at the same institution – into copying confidential material so he could pass it on in return for additional payments.

Huang was said to have leaked “a shocking amount” of confidential information about the communication systems used by the Communist Party, government agencies, the military and industries such as finance and telecoms. These included design, technical specifications, secret algorithms, source codes and programmes, the documentary said.

China says it detained ‘foreign spy’ accused of passing secrets to MI6

Huang was handed the maximum penalty for spying that caused “serious harm” to China’s national security and was executed in May 2016.

The documentary also revealed new details about a former researcher from Taiwan who had been stealing secrets from mainland China while based in the Czech Republic.

Cheng Yu-chin, who was sentenced in 2022 to seven years in prison for espionage, “long had Taiwan independence ideas” and had been recruited by Taiwan’s intelligence agency while studying for his PhD in Prague, the programme said.

Cheng had been paid NT$2.76 million (US$85,467) by the Taiwanese government to steal intelligence-related research reports and identify potential infiltration targets during multiple visits to the mainland, according to the documentary.

Cheng had previously worked as an assistant to Cho Jung-tai, the former secretary general of the Taiwan cabinet, who has been selected to be the island’s next premier.

The documentary also profiled the case of Lee Henely Hu Xiang, a businessman from Belize who was sentenced in 2021 to 11 years in prison for helping to fund the Hong Kong protests, as well as the cases of the “two Michaels” – Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig – who were detained in China in 2018, in apparent retaliation for the arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou.

Meng, the former chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies had been detained in Canada on a US warrant, which the documentary said showed how China had fought the West’s long-arm jurisdiction and efforts to undermine the country’s political stability.

Quoting media reports that Spavor reached a C$7 million (US$5 million) settlement with the Canadian government in March this year, the documentary said Canada’s “slander” in labelling their cases as “arbitrary detentions” had been “self-defeating”.

The documentary concluded with what Chinese regulators have called a “rectification” of Shanghai-based consultancy firm Capvision Partners. The due-diligence company had been raided by authorities last year over national security risks in areas such as defence, technology, energy and resources, and medicine.

China said some of Capvision’s clients had close relationships with foreign governments and military intelligence agencies.

“After foreign countries mastered this important and sensitive information, they implemented precise sanctions on a series of Chinese companies, causing significant harm to our country’s industrial development and economic security,” the programme said.

Chen Yixin, the state security minister, reiterated the ministry’s priorities in an article published on Monday in the Communist Party’s top theoretical journal Qiushi.

Hong Kong leader vows to bolster intelligence gathering after Article 23 law

He said China’s national security agencies will focus on major and outstanding risks, including “anti-subversion, anti-hegemony, anti-separatism, anti-terrorism, and anti-espionage struggles”.

Also on Monday, a commentary in the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said China has made breakthroughs in safeguarding national security in the past decade, making it a leading country “with the best sense of security”.

“We have withstood and fought back against extreme external suppression and containment, and on a series of major issues involving Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, maritime affairs, and human rights, we have fought hard and won one tough battle after another,” it said.

China couple abandon baby with nanny after claiming they will receive US$56 million inheritance from woman’s ex

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3257533/china-couple-abandon-baby-nanny-after-claiming-they-will-receive-us56-million-inheritance-womans-ex?utm_source=rss_feed

A couple in China left their baby with a nanny saying they were about to inherit 400 million yuan (US$55 million) then disappeared owing her 110,000 yuan (US$15,000).

The incident has ignited a heated discussion online, with many people suspecting the couple are not the biological parents, but used the child to commit fraud.

The pair from Harbin, Heilongjiang province, northeastern China, left the five-month-old infant in the care of a nanny they had employed but had not paid.

They claimed they were about to come into a lot of cash from the wife’s former partner who had died. Instead, they vanished and have been gone for more than a month.

The nanny, surnamed Yu, said she was promised a monthly salary of 7,000 yuan (US$1,000). Yet, despite several months of service, she was not paid and even loaned the couple 50,000 yuan.

“I gave them all my savings, but since November 20 last year, I haven’t received my salary. They owe me and the money I borrowed from my brother. Without any income, I’m still caring for their child,” she told Heilongjiang Radio and Television.

She showed proof of financial transactions with the couple via WeChat.

“They said they were in Tianjin. It’s quite bizarre. They went to inherit the wealth left by the child’s mother’s boyfriend from 10 years ago,” Yu said.

To gain the nanny’s trust, her employers showed her screenshots that they claimed were of the inheritance, which featured gold, luxury watches and safety deposit boxes.

They also showed her a photo of a property ownership certificate, and said it was a hotel in the Daowai district of Harbin that they would soon own. Based on that “evidence’, she loaned them another 8,000 yuan.

When she called the hotel after finding the phone number online, the staff denied any knowledge of her employers’ names. A closer inspection of the photo of the property certificate showed some of the text had been altered.

Efforts to contact the employers via phone or WeChat have failed, leaving Yu with no way of recouping her loss.

The nanny’s situation has sparked an intense online discussion, with many advising the nanny to report the matter to the police, suspecting she may have been the target of an audacious scam.

“Are they even the real parents? Why not take the child with you if you’re going to claim a 400 million yuan inheritance?” asked one online observer.

“You should report this to the police. This story has too many holes. It’s highly unlikely her ex would leave her such an inheritance unless the child was his. This smells like a scam,” said another.

“Is it possible the child isn’t actually theirs? Maybe they kidnapped the child to sell but, finding no buyers, turned to scamming instead,” said a third person.

“This couple may have either kidnapped or abandoned the child. In either case, it’s a crime. I’m waiting to see if any action will be taken,” said another.

---

Global Impact: Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok is facing a ban in the US as China hits back at ‘never-ending cycle’

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3258993/global-impact-chinese-owned-social-media-platform-tiktok-facing-ban-us-china-hits-back-never-ending?utm_source=rss_feed

Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world. Sign up

We’re coming up on six years since former US president Donald Trump started a trade war with China and marked the beginning of a new, more contentious approach by Washington towards Beijing to address perceived threats to American economic interests and national security.

While the punitive tariffs seemed to do very little initially, countless investigations, congressional hearings, and dire warnings about China by policymakers in both of the major political parties appear to have moved the needle back after decades of growth in the bilateral economic relationship.

For the first time in 17 years, China was dethroned as the United States’ top source of imports last year, with Mexico outpacing in terms of the total value of goods shipped.

Still, total US imports from China last year reached US$427.2 billion, slightly ahead of the US$421.1 billion from Canada, showing how much of a challenge it would be for those advocating for a much more significant break in economic ties.

Many ordinary Americans might have a very low opinion about China – a recent poll showed that nearly three in five considered the country’s rise a critical threat to US interests, but the details surrounding trade and investment tend to fly under the radar of public opinion.

All that changed when the US government put the popular video-sharing app TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, in its cross hairs several years ago. That action turned the debate over restrictions against Chinese products into a national conversation.

When Trump issued his executive order on concerns that the app could send sensitive data about Americans to China’s government, eventually undone by successor Joe Biden shortly after he entered the White House, the US user base was around 100 million.

Several years and multiple congressional hearings later – after Trump tried unsuccessfully to force ByteDance to sell the property – it now has around 170 million American users.

As lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have raised increasingly urgent alarms about the extent to which TikTok could be a national security vulnerability, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would force ByteDance to divest the app.

US-China all-out trade war unlikely but soft-power gap will persist: Joseph Nye

A combination of diehard users, free-speech advocates and libertarian-leaning politicians have spoken out against the effort to ban the app or force a divestiture.

And in a bizarre twist, even Trump – the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election – backed away from his position, which stirred up speculation that a billionaire Republican megadonor with connections to ByteDance was behind that change of heart.

TikTok aside, the scope of restrictions threatening to further decouple the US and China seems to widen each week as the Biden administration insists on trying to “responsibly manage competition”.

In February, Biden and the US Coast Guard announced a series of actions to keep China’s presence in the country’s port infrastructure in check. Just days later, the US Department of Commerce opened an investigation into whether Chinese vehicle imports posed a national security risk and could impose restrictions due to concerns about “connected” car technology.

China’s top envoy slammed the moves as irrational anxiety that would lead to “a never-ending cycle” of action against the country.

Those remarks, which came before a recent series of high-level bilateral engagements, including a phone call between Xi Jinping and Biden and a visit to China by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, highlight the ever-changing nature of the relationship, which included a face-to-face summit between the two leaders in November that yielded pledges to get communication back on track.

However, the overall consensus says that little has changed in terms of the factors that have led to the restrictions, according to analysts including Dominic Chiu of Eurasia Group and Lu Xiang, a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“The real issues revolve around the small-yard, high-fence strategy of the US and its worries regarding overcapacity, and we don’t exclude the possibility that the Biden administration will implement other restrictive measures,” Lu said following Yellen’s meetings in China at the start of April.

And Biden faces increasing pressure from other policymakers in Washington, including former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, who has insisted that the White House shift to a more explicit Cold War stance.

Congress is also moving to bolster restrictions.

As Washington cracks down on Chinese businesses, lobbyists come under fire

Curbs that the Biden administration has put on exports of the most cutting-edge semiconductor chips to China, and on US investments into Chinese companies developing some of the most advanced technologies, are not enough for many lawmakers.

A House subcommittee hearing in January explored additional ideas for legislation to block US money from bolstering China’s technological and military sectors.

Last week, Republican Senator Mitt Romney and his colleague, Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, introduced a bill that would create a centre to coordinate efforts to stop the shipment of US semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum technology to countries including China.

Meanwhile, the billions of dollars of Chinese venture capital that had flowed into US start-ups – often through investors connected to the country’s government – has come to a near-total stop.

The possibility of a second Trump presidency is unlikely to ease the friction. While he has softened on TikTok, the presumptive Republican nominee has threatened tariffs of 60 per cent or more on Chinese products headed for the US market, if he wins in November.

60-Second Catch-up

US policy on China must pivot to cold-war stance from managing competition, two Republican policymakers say.

US House overwhelmingly passes bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok.

Video: Protests at US Congress after House passes bill that could potentially ban TikTok nationwide.

US House panel on China tackles human rights, TikTok and fentanyl in first hearing aimed at prime-time audience.

Opinion: TikTok is just a bogeyman for America’s sorry lack of digital governance.

Call between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden conveys stability, deep disconnect in US-China ties: analysts.

Video: Singaporeans fume over US lawmaker grilling of TikTok CEO.

Top Beijing envoy to US criticises Biden’s moves targeting Chinese products over national security.

US House vote on TikTok ban suggests broader prism than just pro- or anti-China.

Opinion: Will the US really ban TikTok? Watch what Donald Trump is saying.

Deep dives

US-China all-out trade war unlikely but soft-power gap will persist: Joseph Nye

For the series of interviews with global opinion leaders, Josephine Ma speaks with Joseph Nye, a former US assistant secretary of defence. Nye is university distinguished service professor, emeritus and former dean of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and has been ranked among the top 100 global thinkers. Read the previous instalment in the series, .

Read more.

In early February, a list made the rounds among Capitol Hill staffers. It named several Chinese companies and their Washington lobbyists, as well as the federal “entity lists” – which prohibit those entities from doing business in the US – that included those companies.

Titled “Buying Influence in Washington: The Top Firms Lobbying for China”, the list – it was unclear who had compiled it – highlights some big players in the Washington lobbying scene. These included the Vogel Group and Avoq, retained by Chinese drone maker DJI; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, retained by lidar maker Hesai Tech; and Steptoe & Johnson, retained by biotech firm BGI Group.

Read more.

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

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

Read more.

“We want competition with China, but not conflict,” declared an energetic 81-year-old Joe Biden on Thursday during his last State of the Union address as US president before the country goes to the polls in November.

“We’re in a stronger position to win the competition for the 21st century against China, or anyone else for that matter,” he said, presenting a passionate case for a second term in the White House.

Read more.

Former US president Donald Trump has markedly changed his tune on TikTok, the popular short-video app that he once sought to ban over concerns about its Chinese ownership.

Throughout his term in the White House and in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election, the presumptive Republican nominee with a reputation for mercurial moves has repeatedly touted his toughness on Beijing, citing trade tariffs he pushed the US to impose on China that remain in place.

Read more.

For the first time in 17 years, China was dethroned as the United States’ top source of imports, offering fresh evidence that Washington’s tariffs and supply-chain diversification efforts are bearing fruit.

Mexico outpaced China in 2023 in terms of total value of goods shipped to the US, according to data from the US Census Bureau released on Wednesday.

Read more.

Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world.

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China student becomes 6th victim of deadly Sydney knife rampage, devastated family on way to Australia

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3259030/china-student-becomes-6th-victim-deadly-sydney-knife-rampage-devastated-family-way-australia?utm_source=rss_feed

A university student from China has been identified as the latest victim of a deadly weekend knife rampage in Sydney, Australia.

Economics student, Cheng Yixuan, was enjoying a post-exams outing at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in the east of the city when tragedy struck on Saturday.

Five other people were pronounced dead at the scene of the attack, while Cheng was taken to hospital but succumbed her injuries. The death toll now stands at six, five women and a man.

The rampage left eight other people injured, including a nine-month-old child. Some of the wounded are in a critical condition.

Cheng, 27, whose death was confirmed on Sunday evening, is from Anhui Province in central China and was doing a master’s degree in economics at the University of Sydney.

She had just finished her exams and had gone shopping to treat herself.

Minutes before being stabbed, she was talking to her fiancé on the phone.

“At 3pm, she was happily chatting with me, even trying on clothes to show me. I never imagined that right after our call ended, the stabbing incident would occur,” her fiancé, surnamed Wang, told the Chinese news service Sydney Today.

Cheng even sent her fiancé a video of herself trying on clothes, and said: “The short sleeves look really ugly.” To which her fiancé replied: “It seems there are quite a few men’s styles too.”

After ending the conversation, Wang was alarmed to hear news that a multiple stabbing had taken place at the centre where Cheng was shopping.

Repeated attempts to contact her failed and her loved ones began to fear the worst.

“My heart skipped a beat. We tried to contact her day and night, but got no response. The whole family was frantic, not daring to think too much,” said Wang.

In the hours after the attack, the police and the Chinese Consulate in Sydney told Wang and Cheng’s family that a female victim had been found near Cheng’s handbag, which contained her identification details and phone.

An agonising 24 hours followed, until confirmation of her death was given just before 9pm on March 14.

Wang said the couple had planned to hold their wedding right after Cheng’s graduation this year. The families of both Wang and Cheng are now on their way to Sydney.

The rampage, by a lone knifeman, also took the lives of Ashlee Good, a 38-year-old osteopath, whose nine-month-old daughter was injured.

Another victim was Dawn Singleton, 25, the daughter of Australian multi-millionaire businessman, John Singleton.

Also killed were 47-year-old mother-of-two Jade Young, Pikria Darchia, 55 and a 30-year-old security guard, Faraz Tahir, who is the only male among the dead.

Police have identified the attacker as Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old man from Queensland who suffers from mental illness. He was shot dead by NSW police inspector Amy Scott.

The Chinese Embassy in Australia confirmed that another university student from China was severely injured in the attack.

An investigation is underway as to why almost all the victims were women.

Many Chinese people have visited the scene of the attack to lay cards and flowers, one of which read: “Young lady, may you rest in peace.”

The tragedy has also produced a wave of sympathy on mainland social media.

Shanghai is the sole commodities bourse to stay open to Russian aluminium, copper and nickel as sanctions drive Moscow towards China

https://www.scmp.com/business/commodities/article/3259017/shanghai-sole-commodities-bourse-stay-open-russian-aluminium-copper-and-nickel-sanctions-drive?utm_source=rss_feed

Sanctions by the United States and the United Kingdom on Russian metals will cement China as Moscow’s buyer of last resort for key commodities, and enhance Shanghai’s role as a venue to set prices for materials crucial to the global economy.

The London Metal Exchange’s ban on newly produced Russian aluminium, copper and nickel is likely to drive Chinese imports even higher. It also leaves the Shanghai Futures Exchange as the only major commodities bourse in the world to accept Russian shipments of the three metals.

“The liquidity of Russian metals in European and American markets may further decline, and global trade flows will also be reshaped,” said Wang Rong, a senior analyst at Shanghai-based broker Guotai Junan Futures.

Energy market sanctions imposed on Moscow in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine have already had a dramatic impact on China’s buying habits. Russia leapt above Saudi Arabia to become the biggest source of Chinese crude oil imports last year. It is also now No. 2 for coal and is likely to become Beijing’s biggest supplier of natural gas this year.

Can HKEX-owned LME rebuild its reputation a year after nickel chaos?

Even without formal sanctions, China’s imports of Russian aluminium have hit record levels. Russian aluminium giant United Rusal International generated 23 per cent of its revenue from China last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2022. Rusal has also taken a 30 per cent stake in a Chinese alumina plant to plug a gap in supplies of the key ingredient amid disruptions triggered by the war in Ukraine.

The new sanctions will push more exports of Russian metal to countries outside US and UK jurisdictions, especially China, according to Guotai Junan. The extra supply will also encourage the export of metals produced in China as more material pools within its borders, the broker said in a note. China is the world’s biggest producer of refined copper and aluminium and a major player in nickel via investments in Indonesia.

State-owned firms surge as China’s watchdog pledges market improvements

Chinese importers have taken advantage of Beijing’s strategic alliance with Moscow to win discounts on key raw materials, paying in yuan to bypass the dollar, the currency in which trades are usually settled. That helped the world’s biggest commodities buyer stave off the inflationary impact of the war in Ukraine, as well as advancing Beijing’s desire to unseat the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

But more Russian shipments becoming available at a time when China’s economy is so sluggish presents its own problems. Chinese metals traders struggled last year with weak demand and the green shoots of recovery in markets for items like copper are relatively recent.

The prospect of additional Russian supplies heading to China widened the spread between London and Shanghai metals in early trade on Monday. While LME aluminium spiked as much as 9.4 per cent, the reaction on SHFE was more muted, with the rise in price capped at 2.9 per cent compared with Friday’s close.

Ukraine crisis: Chinese oil, mining groups are early stock market winners

The discrepancy could partly be due to traders closing both LME short positions, or bets that prices would fall in London, and long positions on SHFE – bets they would rise in Shanghai – to stem losses from a so-called reverse arbitrage trade, said Harry Jiang, head of trading at Yonggang Resources.

Instead, the uneven increases in price are shutting the door on Chinese imports of aluminium priced in dollars. That could make Russian metal, if priced in yuan and offered at a discount, more attractive.

China has long sought greater pricing power over global commodities given its hefty reliance on imports. How that plays out for the Shanghai exchange is complicated by the new sanctions rules, which will allow old Russian metal to continue to be delivered to the LME, the world’s benchmark, as well as to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the premier exchange in the US.

The world’s second-largest economy started the year on solid footing, as China’s factories revved up. Analysts warn that growth will be tough to maintain without broader improvement.

An unprecedented squeeze in the market for copper ore has fired up bullish investors and helped drive prices to the highest in nearly two years.

Young Chinese student among 5 women killed in knife attack at Sydney shopping centre

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3259001/young-chinese-student-among-5-women-killed-knife-attack-sydney-shopping-centre?utm_source=rss_feed

Australian police said on Monday they are investigating why a 40-year-old man with mental illness appeared to target women as he roamed a Sydney shopping centre with a large knife, killing six people and injuring a dozen more.

Videos shared on social media showed unshaven itinerant Joel Cauchi pursuing mostly female victims as he rampaged through the vast, crowded Westfield shopping complex in Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon.

‘Killing spree’: 6 die in Sydney mall stabbing, attacker killed by policewoman

Five of the six victims killed were women, as well as most of those wounded. The last of Cauchi’s six victims was identified on Monday as Yixuan Cheng, a young Chinese woman who was a student.

“The videos speak for themselves don’t they, and that’s certainly a line of inquiry for us,” New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb said.

“That’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives, that that seems to be an area of interest – that the offender had focused on women and avoided men,” she told national broadcaster ABC.

Webb stressed that police could not know what was in the mind of the attacker. “That’s why it’s important now that detectives spend so much time interviewing those who know him.”

Cauchi’s Facebook profile said he came from Toowoomba, near Brisbane, and had attended a local high school and university.

A distinctive grey, red and yellow dragon tattoo on his right arm was used to help identify him.

The other women killed were a designer, a volunteer surf lifesaver, the daughter of an entrepreneur, and a new mother whose wounded nine-month-old baby is in hospital.

The mother, 38-year-old Ashlee Good, handed her injured baby girl to strangers in desperation before being rushed to hospital where she died of her wounds.

The baby, named Harriet, remains in a stable condition in a Sydney hospital, police said.

Good’s family described her as “a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all-round outstanding human and so much more”.

“To the two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not – words cannot express our gratitude”, they said in a statement to Australian media.

The only man killed was 30-year-old Pakistani man Faraz Tahir, who had been working as a security guard when he was stabbed.

Cauchi’s assault, which lasted about half an hour, was brought to an end when solo police inspector Amy Scott shot him dead.

Following the shooting, Scott – who has been hailed as a hero – was spending time with her family to deal with the “very traumatic matter”, the state police chief said.

In a statement, Cauchi’s parents offered thoughts for the victims and said their son’s actions were “truly horrific”.

“We are still trying to comprehend what has happened. He has battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager.”

‘Proud of her’: Sydney officer who shot dead mall attacker praised for courage

The parents also sent a message to the officer who shot their son dead.

“She was only doing her job to protect others and we hope she is coping all right,” they said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had spoken to the families of some of the victims.

“The gender break-down is of course concerning – each and every victim here is mourned,” he told ABC radio, promising a “comprehensive” police investigation.

Cauchi is believed to have travelled to Sydney about a month ago and hired a small storage unit in the city, according to police. It contained personal belongings, including a boogie board.

He had been living in a vehicle and hostels, and was only in sporadic contact with his family via text messages, his parents said.

‘No doubt’ pro-China interests meddling in Solomon Islands elections, opposition figure claims

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3258996/no-doubt-pro-china-interests-meddling-solomon-islands-elections-opposition-figure-claims?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s growing hold over Pacific nation Solomon Islands is “alarming”, a powerful opposition figurehead said on Monday ahead of elections that could further entrench Beijing’s foothold in the region.

“During these past five years, there have been so many things that China was involved in. It’s really alarming at the moment,” Daniel Suidani said in an exclusive interview.

Solomon Islands prepares for election in shadow of China’s influence

Suidani says he is troubled by what he believes is Beijing’s corrosive impact on democracy in the island nation.

Solomon Islands has warmly embraced China under mercurial Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, with the two nations inking a murky security pact in 2022.

A torrent of Chinese aid and investment has flowed into the country during Sogavare’s five years at the helm, and the 69-year-old has vowed to further deepen these ties if re-elected on Wednesday.

Fearful the money could one day come with strings attached, former Malaita premier Suidani was one of the rare provincial leaders who refused to cash China’s cheques.

Suidani accused Chinese interests of working behind the scenes to help keep pro-Beijing members in parliament.

“They are very, very involved in this government,” he said on a scratchy phone line from Auki, Malaita’s coastal provincial capital.

“They are involved in other things, so there is no doubt that they must be involved in elections. Because they have been doing it for some time.”

Sogavare has repeatedly denied China poses a threat to the country, and says foreign critics should not meddle in the Solomons’ sovereignty.

Suidani’s provincial government was so concerned about China’s sway, it blocked telco giant Huawei from building desperately needed mobile-phone masts on the island.

One of the most galvanising figures in Solomon Islands’ politics, Suidani commands an enthusiastic base of supporters on Malaita.

He was abruptly ousted as Malaita’s provincial leader in February 2023, defeated in a motion of no-confidence while he and his supporters were absent from parliament.

Suidani has accused Sogavare’s government of orchestrating what he said was an underhanded manoeuvre to silence one of its most vocal critics.

Observers of Pacific politics believe Sogavare has demonstrated increasingly autocratic tendencies in his quest to stay in power.

“For the international community, I would like to say that we need your support,” Suidani said. “We want to share the same freedom and liberty that everyone else shares.”

Solomon Islands is one of the least-developed nations in the world, and Sogavare firmly believes its path to prosperity lies with Beijing.

But his main rivals are deeply sceptical of his pact with China, and have signalled a willingness to re-establish ties with traditional security partners Australia and the United States.

“The 2024 election is going to be a very critical one for Solomon Islands,” said Suidani.

The capital Honiara was abuzz with fervent election campaigning on Monday morning, as parties carted hollering supporters into the city on an endless procession of packed low loaders.

The international scramble for influence was clear: giant “Radio Australia” billboards hung over the only route into town, while police cars slapped with “China Aid” stickers trundled past on potholed roads.

A boisterous rally for former prime minister Gordon Darcy Lilo was held on a muddy, waterlogged field on the city’s outskirts.

Solomon Islands’ pro-China leader pledges to continue Australia balancing act

Teacher Josep was among a crowd of hundreds noisily clamouring for a change of government.

“The economy is collapsing. I want the people of Honiara to rise up and reclaim our country,” he said, as supporters honked their agreement through conch shells and plastic horns.

The vote will be held on April 17, although it could take weeks for the opaque coalition-building process to resolve who will be prime minister.

Sixth Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing victim named as Chinese student Yixuan Cheng

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/15/sydney-stabbings-westfield-bondi-junction-victim-chinese-student-yixuan-cheng-joel-cauchi

Yixuan Cheng has been confirmed as the sixth person stabbed to death in Bondi Junction on Saturday in what police are now investigating as a murderous rampage possibly targeting women.

The Chinese national, a University of Sydney student who was in her 20s, was killed by a Queensland man, Joel Cauchi, at the shopping centre on Saturday afternoon alongside five others.

The university’s vice-chancellor, Prof Mark Scott, said the university was working with the Chinese consulate and the student’s family.

In an email to staff and students on Monday, Scott said he was “shocked and saddened” by the “senseless violence and loss of life that occurred” on Saturday afternoon.

“On behalf of the university, I extend my sincere condolences to the student’s family and friends,” he said, adding: “Please take time today to check in on each other, this is a deeply distressing time for our community and I encourage you to look after each other and access the support available.”

Wang Chunsheng, China’s acting consul general in Sydney, said he was “very sorry to hear about” Cheng’s death.

The consulate would be in contact with her relatives in China to make arrangements, Wang said. In similar cases in the past, Chinese relatives have been flown to Australia.

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“There’s no sense of anything other than randomness,” Anthony Albanese told KIIS FM.

“People going about their shopping and, in the case of Faraz Tahir, a gentleman who hadn’t been here that long, a refugee from Pakistan who was working as a security guard.”

On Sunday evening about a dozen people remained in hospital. Of those, eight were women. Four were released overnight and five remained on Monday morning.

The baby of Ashlee Good, who was killed in the attack, was in a critical but stable condition in hospital on Monday morning.

Videos circulating online have shown Cauchi avoiding men and targeting women and children.

The New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, told ABC News Breakfast that the videos “speak for themselves”.

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“That’s certainly a line for inquiry for us,” she said. “It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives that seems to be an area of interest – that the offender had focused on women and avoided the men.

“Five of the deceased are women and the majority of victims in hospital are also women. We don’t know what was operating in the mind of the offender and that’s why it’s important now that detectives spend so much time interviewing those who know him, were around him and close to him.”

Early in the investigation police ruled out terrorism as a motive for the shocking attack.

Cauchi was diagnosed with serious mental health issues in his late teens and spent much of his adult life moving between shelters, hostels and living in his car. According to police, he arrived in Sydney last month from Queensland.

Albanese has thanked members of the public who tried to stop Cauchi as he roamed the centre with the large knife, and praised the work of the police officer who stopped him.

“It is remarkable that people ran towards danger in order to help their fellow Australians, not the least of which of course was police inspector Amy Scott,” he said.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, told ABC radio it had been a “horrible and traumatic event” for Sydney and a memorial was being considered.

“We’re looking at a more permanent memorial at Bondi,” he said. “It’s such a horrible and traumatic event for the city, maybe the families can draw some strength from the fact that there’s millions of people that are standing with them and caring about them.”

The Westfield shopping centre has been handed back from police to its owners after processing the scene over the past two days, though it remains closed to the public.

“NSW police seized many, many exhibits from that crime scene,” Webb said.

“The job ahead of us now is to examine all those exhibits, as part of the evidence. Detectives will focus on interviewing family of the deceased, which will be a very slow, methodical process. Because they’re all in trauma, as you can well imagine.”

She said overnight 50 more witnesses had come forward.

• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Dog ‘driver’ in China pulls cart to pick up kindergarten girl, envious classmates say it is ‘Rolls-Royce’ for children

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3257529/dog-driver-china-pulls-cart-pick-kindergarten-girl-envious-classmates-say-it-rolls-royce-children?utm_source=rss_feed

A little girl in China sitting in a small rickshaw pulled by her pet dog, has prompted people on mainland social media to call it “a Rolls-Royce in the kids’ world”.

A trending video filmed by a teacher, shows a Labrador Retriever pulling the wooden rickshaw to pick up the girl from nursery school, Zhejiang TV reported.

The dog is seen waiting patiently outside the school in Xingtai in Hebei province, northern China, with the girl’s father who pats him as a signal to be ready for “duty”.

The clever canine positions himself inside the rickshaw’s frame and places his head and shoulders into a harness. Once the girl is seated, he pulls the rickshaw while the father walks alongside.

“I saw a parent bring a pet dog to collect his child. I took a video as I thought the scene was fun,” the teacher said. “The interaction between them is full of love and warmth.”

The dog, a two-year-old male, named Barton, was trained to pull the cart over the past few weeks, according to the girl’s father’s Douyin account.

His videos showed the girl smiling all the way home, looking relaxed and eating melon seeds as she goes.

Mainland social media observers have been delighted by the videos.

“The dog is so proud and joyful. Look, it is wagging its tail when other parents and kids are looking. It seems to be saying, ‘buddies, we will go first’,” one online observer said.

“This is definitely a Rolls-Royce in the kids’ world. This little princess is happier than those sitting in BMW or Benz,” said another.

“Do not show this video to my kid. He will ask me to buy a Labrador Retriever,” said a third.

Stories about interactions between pets and their owners are popular in China.

In 2023, online obeservers were amused by a five-year-old girl in eastern Jiangsu province who played doctor with her dog as the patient.

Pictures of a pet cat dressed up by its woman owner in southwestern China with wigs and outlandish outfits also went viral online in 2022.

Why Hong Kong telling world’s story to China is just as important

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3258762/why-hong-kong-telling-worlds-story-china-just-important?utm_source=rss_feed

It is often said that Hong Kong must help tell China’s story to the world. However, Hong Kong must also tell the world’s story to Beijing.

This means providing Beijing with a more accurate and complete picture of the international community’s reception of the country – both the good and the bad. It also means pushing back against staid nationalistic narratives and oversimplifications overstating China’s strengths and brushing over its weaknesses.

With an increasingly tense international environment, fraught relations with its neighbours and a growing trend towards decoupling and securitisation in global supply chains, Beijing is doubling down on national security across many fronts, including defence and digital technologies.

Yet the mainland and Hong Kong remain fundamentally different because of the “one country, two systems” principle, which President Xi Jinping pledged would continue past 2047 during his visit to Hong Kong in 2022. As Beijing reorients itself to deepen ties with and further open up to global businesses, Hong Kong must steer clear of parochialist tendencies and embrace genuine internationalism.

Only by preserving our freedom of information flows, openness to foreign capital and visitors and an appetite for vigorous, critical debate can we live up to our role as China’s pressure valve and a unique site for forward-thinking experimentation. This is how we can best serve China and the world.

What does it mean in terms of concrete policies? First, Hong Kong should aspire to become the hub of migration and human capital for southern China, massively scaling up its efforts to attract talented people to settle in the city and eventually become permanent residents.

The Hong Kong government should unveil an ambitious 10-year population target that is considerably higher than the current 7.5 million, something achievable through gradually increasing immigration. With the right infrastructure and housing put into place, this move could go a long way in signalling our receptiveness to newcomers and old friends alike, while offering much-needed support to our sluggish property market.

The government should also align its list of favoured professions for entry with its fledgling industrial policies. Existing initiatives such as the Top Talent Pass Scheme have attracted a large number of mainland applicants. However, what of measures aimed at attracting entrepreneurs, investors, scientists and students from the Middle East and Southeast Asia who could play an instrumental role in bridging China and these regions?

Meet 5 Hongkongers blazing a Middle East trail in areas from jewels to energy

Hong Kong could also pursue long-overdue measures, such as an unlimited-entry Greater Bay Area visa for high-net-worth individuals who settle in Hong Kong with significant investments and capital presence, or designated international schools for children of expatriate workers from these regions. These can serve as gestures of goodwill as well as practical remedies to barriers putting off prospective inbound capital.

Second, our higher education and academic sector must serve as knowledge exchange incubators enriching China’s understanding of and research ties with the rest of the world. Hong Kong universities should strategically court top academics and researchers from around the world.

Emerging markets such as Central and West Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have young, dynamic populations. Many of their brightest and most aspirational youth would benefit from enrolling at the top-notch education institutions in our city. With five out of the top 100 universities in the world Hong Kong can be immensely attractive to these young people as cradles for their educational and professional development.

We should scale up the number of scholarships aimed at applicants from the Global South which are linked to internship and employment opportunities across the Greater Bay Area. This would not only aid in winning the competition for talent against more proactive regional rivals but also bolster the goodwill towards Hong Kong among our neighbours in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan – each of them a large city with huge demand for foreign talent

Third, the public and private sectors must both strive to make use of Hong Kong as a leading site for track-II engagements and dialogue. Now that the dust has settled on various pieces of national security legislation the city must show that it can still serve as a conduit for important conversations between leading business figures, top financiers and intellectuals who can exert influence on decision-makers.

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

While topics such as the crackdown on fentanyl and climate change cooperation have emerged as key issues within Sino-American track-II dialogues, much remains underexplored. Issues meriting further attention include facilitating cultural and artistic exchanges between independent artists, alignment on AI safety and regulation, and improving local and provincial governance.

In granting Hong Kong institutions the academic freedom to discuss and explore certain issues that are deemed too sensitive or taboo on the mainland, Beijing could use Hong Kong as a relatively neutral platform for difficult yet necessary conversations on challenging areas such as the public-private sector relationship, sluggish consumption rebound and China’s image abroad.

In inviting and hosting in-depth discussions with experts who are constructively critical and not opposed to China’s success, Hong Kong can play an instrumental role in allowing Chinese bureaucrats and policymakers to seek truth from facts. By telling a truthful and comprehensive story of the world to China, the city can thus demonstrate to Beijing that the uniqueness of Hong Kong’s system is not a liability but an invaluable asset.

China is hungry for avocados, and South Africa is ready to deliver as export deal gets the green light

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258802/china-hungry-avocados-and-south-africa-ready-deliver-export-deal-gets-green-light?utm_source=rss_feed

South Africa, one of China’s most important trading partners in Africa, is preparing to ship its first batch of avocados to the Asian power as Beijing moves to meet growing demand for the superfood.

It will make South Africa the third African country, after Kenya and Tanzania, to be granted permission to export fresh avocados to China after meeting strict sanitary and phytosanitary requirements.

Increased imports of food products from Africa is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plan to support the continent’s agricultural modernisation – a promise made during last August’s Brics summit in Johannesburg.

But leading the way with avocados is also a win for China, where health-conscious consumers have a growing appetite for the fruit.

According to Derek Donkin, chief executive of the South African Subtropical Growers’ Association (Subtrop), the final registration of avocado orchards and packhouses is under way, with hopes that the first shipment will set off next month.

“A number of South Africa’s major exporters have already set up the necessary business contacts in China to be able to export as soon as the official requirements are met,” Donkin said.

It comes at a time when the South African avocado industry is expanding – in recent years it has grown by 4,750 hectares (11,737 acres) to a total of more than 18,000 hectares. Donkin said that as the industry grows, it sees China as a huge untapped market.

The deal to export avocados to China was first signed last year when South African Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Brics summit – an association of the five major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

“Gaining access to China is a vital step in driving an export-led growth for the South African avocados,” Didiza said at the time.

China looks to become one of the world’s major consumers of avocados, something which offers an immense opportunity for the South African industry, Didiza said.

“This will have a multiplication effect which will have growth in employment, skills and economic development, in particular [in] the rural areas of our country where the majority of avocados are produced,” she said.

South Africa is a significant producer of the fruit, growing just over 130,000 tonnes a year, according to Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz). He said roughly half of this is for export markets.

Currently, it exports its avocados to Europe, the Middle East and the African continent.

“China is a new and exciting market,” Sihlobo said. “The South African farmers will benefit from the access to [China’s] growing market.”

South Africa is China’s top trading partner on the continent, with minerals such as gold, diamonds, iron ore, manganese and chromium making up most of its exports. It is also a major exporter of citrus fruits, grapes, apples and pears to China.

Two-way trade last year stood at US$55.62 billion – about a fifth of the total China-Africa trade that year – with South African exports to the Chinese market accounting for US$31.97 billion.

Agriculture has become the new focus of China’s engagement with Africa, with its list of food imports now including avocados, pineapples, chillies, cashews, sesame seeds and spices.

Lauren Johnston, an associate professor at the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, said avocado demand in China is growing due to a new health-conscious middle class.

“There is presumably plenty of demand, avocados being a superfood,” she said, while noting that as the trees have intensive water requirements, it would be a relatively poor choice of crop for China to grow.

Fortunately, avocados are easy to export because they carry few risks of pests and are already being exported to Western markets, she said.

“So they are a low-hanging export fruit and a win for the push to increase agricultural productivity, raising rural incomes and elevating food security and choice in China,” Johnston said.

China has strict sanitary and phytosanitary standards for fresh produce, which is why it takes a long time to successfully negotiate agricultural export deals. It took more than two years for Kenya’s avocado farmers to comply with the Chinese requirements.

According to Johnston, it is likely China has some unmet demand for the fruit, and it also wants to further its agricultural growth goals and sustained trade balance issues, so adding South Africa into the mix makes sense.

South Africa joins a highly select group of countries able to export avocados to this burgeoning market.

Kenya was given access to export frozen avocados in 2019, but this caused issues as most farmers could not afford freezing equipment. The deal was renegotiated to include fresh fruit in 2022.

Meanwhile, Tanzania became the second African country to export fresh avocados to China in 2022 under a deal signed during President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s state visit to Beijing.

Outside Africa, the only countries that may export avocados to China are Peru (its top supplier), Chile, Mexico, the Philippines, Colombia, New Zealand, Vietnam and the US.

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From China to India, how deepfakes are reshaping Asian politics

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3258992/china-india-how-deepfakes-are-reshaping-asian-politics?utm_source=rss_feed

Experts say the rise of deepfake technology may pose a significant threat to democracy in 2024, with major elections happening in India and the US.

These manipulated videos, created using artificial intelligence, can deceive viewers by replacing faces or altering voices. Deepfakes are created for humorous or malicious purposes, and their potential impact on elections is a growing concern. With the spread of misinformation and the difficulty in distinguishing between real and fake content, voters may struggle to make informed decisions.

Some countries including China have put regulations in place to address the emerging technology, but others such as India and the US are grappling with legislation meant to protect the democratic processes

‘Parallel universes’: PR expert James Heimowitz finds hope for future US-China relations away from politics

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258838/parallel-universes-pr-expert-james-heimowitz-finds-hope-future-us-china-relations-away-politics?utm_source=rss_feed

The latest in our series of interviews with global thought leaders features James Heimowitz, a seasoned expert in intercultural affairs with China. In this interview with the SCMP’s Orange Wang, he shares his views on China’s global image, the dynamics of US-China people-to-people exchanges, and the future role of Hong Kong. Heimowitz is the founder of JBH Consulting and served as president of the New York-based non-profit organisation China Institute. He spearheaded international media for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is a senior adviser to the South China Morning Post.

When I first went to China, I felt like an astronaut landing from outer space onto a foreign planet.

The Cultural Revolution hadn’t ended that long ago. And China was a very different place. It was very isolated. It was very cut off. And it felt very different.

If you asked me this question in 2018 or 2019, I would say, the biggest thing that struck me is how modern, how cosmopolitan, how international, how global China had become. And it felt comfortable to be a global citizen in most of China.

But in the past five years, I feel things are changing. As China advances, in some ways, it seems to be doing so in parallel to the rest of the world – not in sync with it.

If you think about WeChat for example, it’s its own ecosystem, and it is purely domestic in China. Chinese digital payment systems are evolving, but they do not talk to the payment systems in the international arena. The pop culture trends and fads that are emerging have less and less connectivity to what’s popular in the rest of the region and world.

At the same time, I suppose it is emblematic of how many places on the planet are evolving to become more inward looking, and less engaged with the rest of the world.

I find this very worrisome, because the fewer shared experiences we have, the easier it becomes for misunderstandings and mistrust to develop.

In fact, I see this as a root cause of many of the problems that we have between China and America. It often feels like we are talking past each other, not with each other. Particularly since the pandemic, it feels like we are living in parallel universes devoid of meaningful engagement and interaction at so many levels.

You asked me what I liked. One thing I have always loved about China, especially during the times that I lived there in the ’80s, the 2000s, and the 2010s, was China’s dynamism, it was on the go, it was moving, it was growing, it was embracing modernity while acknowledging and respecting tradition – but it never felt trapped by tradition.

The short answer is yes, it is the same.

By and large, when the [Communist Party] communicates to the people of China, it does a brilliant job.

They have crafted an emotionally driven and successful narrative that is continuously evolving and resonates deeply and broadly across much of China.

But when they try to leave and go outside China, it becomes much more challenging. We see how Hong Kong and China have struggled – and continue to struggle – and Hong Kong is already a place that is much more familiar with mainland China than the rest of the world.

I think that, in some respects, China’s learning and trying. But it’s still struggling to understand how the other side wants to receive things.

I would argue, it is happening in reverse too. Until recently, Chinese people were more amenable to hearing what Western news sources and Western media were saying, but increasingly, Chinese people across all spectrums of society tell me that the American or Western media is just interested in attacking China. So it is actually both sides that are not listening.

And again, I would say this is emblematic of how China mirrors global trends.

Inside the United States, I would argue that the people that listen to conservative news media, live in an information chamber, and very, very few of them will be open to or willing to listen to, or trust other sources that are viewed as liberal. The reverse is true as well. So this is not a problem unique to China.

My prescription for improvement is based on improving trust.

As you build and foster trust, you begin to take more risks. And as you take more risks, hopefully, you get rewarded.

If we look back to the 2008 Olympic Games – which I think about as a ‘golden time’ for China communicating, in a much better way, with the West, my advice was, the more trust you demonstrate, and the more freedom you give to international media, the better the results will be.

Westerners, particularly journalists, chafe at being directed as closely as Beijing is used to doing.

I did not expect them to open up the floodgates, that is just not in their DNA, but they did take some baby steps, and I think they were pleasantly surprised with the outcomes.

This is, by the way, something that I think about beyond journalism. When people visit China and experience it for themselves, they usually come back with a much richer and positive narrative than what they expected to have.

You ask a really important question. I think we’re taking really, really important steps here.

When I experienced China first opening up in the 1980s and ’90s, government was not in the lead.

At that time, it was Western businesses who were seeking greater access to the markets of China. They forged the way, and then government regulations and policy began to follow based on the private sector first taking the lead.

I personally believe that at this time, we’re going to need to look to non-governmental interlocutors, like culture, arts, education, sports, and theatre to get people to feel a bit more comfortable with each other again, to rebuild the trust, which I think has evaporated over the past five years.

You asked if those measures are gonna work, well, we absolutely have to try. And I’ve already seen that it is beginning to work. Since Presidents Xi [Jinping] and [Joe] Biden met in San Francisco for Apec, we can already feel the difference as more flights start to come back and more students, tourists and businessmen begin to re-engage.

Senior US official explains how China risks crossing ‘red line’ with Russia

We also need English media to have a much deeper, balanced and fact-based approach to China coverage. Whether we like it or not, China and America are in a relationship. Like any relationship, it goes through ups and downs. Since the pandemic it feels something like a bad marriage.

But I still think both sides are very committed to this relationship. As tough as things have been, I feel a strong desire for both sides to somehow work out a way to figure out a future for this relationship.

The numbers are way too low. It’s a deeply worrisome trend to me.

This is the planet’s most important bilateral relationship. American kids need to acquire the skills, including language skills. That will enable them to engage with China in a meaningful way.

I think the good news is both sides have recognised this. I have spoken to US senators who are involved in international educational exchange, and was told they are actively reconsidering the resumption of programmes like Fulbright in China.

I was a Fulbright Fellow and I can tell you there’s no substitute for walking the streets, and hearing what people have to say or sitting down and having a meal with new friends.

At the same time, the number of Chinese students studying in the US is dwindling. Something is in there that is making it less attractive. The US side needs to seriously reassess why it has become so anxious about Chinese students studying in the US and the toll it is taking on how China perceives America.

I listen to President Xi talk about a commitment to welcome 50,000 American students to study over the next five years, but we’ve got a challenge and a problem.

Do you think there are 50,000 students jumping up and raising their hands wanting to come to China? At the moment, there are a lot of negative feelings toward China in the US.

A lot of that is, frankly, based on misinformation, but it is very much the reality of the situation.

I’m actually very optimistic. There are obstacles, [but] I’m far more optimistic today than I was six or eight months ago. At least now there is a framework in place to move forward. Whether we hit 50,000 or not, well that remains to be seen.

The nature of the relationship also is dependent on the structure and power dynamics of the relationship.

Twenty years ago, the US was in the dominant position. It was richer, more influential and more powerful.

Over the past two decades, China has truly emerged. China has become richer, more modern, more powerful and more influential creating structural tension between the world’s two most important powers.

No matter how you look at it, this is going to cause anxiety and stress on the relationship.

Now the question is, what do you do about that? And how do the two sides manage that stress? That is not going to be so easy, because some of those structural realities won’t change.

Many policymakers and people in America are deeply suspicious of the intentions of China as a nation. And as they lose their ability to have the dominant position in the relationship, they only become more anxious.

China is going to be out there looking after its own best interests. That is what a nation state is supposed to do for its citizens. But I would argue it is in the best interests of China to also maintain a healthier relationship with the other major power on the planet.

I think this is a huge area of risk. I think the only way things are going to get better is through increased interconnectivity. We’ve lost a lot of shared experiences and cross-cultural admiration. We’ve grown apart in the way we exist. This does not mean you need to give up your cultural uniqueness or cede national security concerns, but the key to achieving a more stable and hopeful future starts at the people-to-people level.

One of the best examples I can think of is the saga of Confucius Institutes in America. I think this is one of the saddest stories to be told about the US-China relationship.

I believe that Americans need to embrace training the next generation of Americans and give them the Chinese language skills they will need to properly engage with China.

Confucius Institutes tried to help Americans with these skills – enabling more direct access to China at a primary level. At its peak, a vast network of Institutes operated across America, including in remote locations that had little or no resources to offer Chinese language learning to local students.

I mean if you are studying at an Ivy League school, or a top private school in New York City or Los Angeles or Chicago, you have access, but if you look at the American heartland, or in less privileged communities where school boards are forced to choose between say art and music, it’s a very different story.

Certainly, I understand that language dominance can be seen as a type of soft power, and certainly I understand that Washington has legitimate concerns about some of the policies and actions taken in Beijing, but the anger hurled at Confucius Institutes was misplaced anger.

Many Americans felt that because they were funded by the Chinese government, they were by definition suspect, and had nefarious goals beyond their stated objective.

For many people, it was inconceivable that the Chinese government could do anything good. The institutes were somehow seen as a kind of “Trojan horse” infiltrating campuses in the US, and the result was that Confucius Institutes were weaponised and demonised.

In my view this was really a missed opportunity, because if communications were better and there was greater transparency on the Chinese side and greater comfort on the American side to approach and have open and honest, frank discussions and address the issues and concerns, Confucius Institutes could have been a success story rather than the failure that they turned into in the US.

After all, how different are Confucius Institutes from the Alliance Française or British Council or Goethe Institute? All of them receive substantial support from their respective governments. They are all vehicles to promote culture, language and image. And if we look at their activities and programmes in a very granular way, I think we will find they are fundamentally more similar than dissimilar.

Yes, the Chinese style is quite different from the Western European approach, but perhaps the biggest difference is less about what CI’s did and more about the deep-rooted, very palpable discomfort with the Chinese government as a source of support.

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

The tragedy of Confucius Institutes is emblematic of a dysfunctional relationship. We are not going to see underlying tensions and anxieties magically melt away, but hopefully, as we begin to have more exchanges and more contact points, there will be a little bit more room for people to have a comfort level that allows them to move forward in a more productive way.

I think we can.

I’m hopeful that this exercise in allowing cultural breathing space may move to be nourishing for the relationship. And I believe it can be.

Perhaps if government is a little bit less directive about these things, and we allow things to really happen at people-to-people levels instead of a government-directed people-to-people level.

I think that most people in America are still deeply anxious about the rise of China, and what that means for Western values.

I think America is suspicious and nervous that Chinese values are somehow different. So it’s going to be troubled, no matter what. The Biden administration sees itself in a troubled relationship with China but it still sees itself in a relationship. If there were another Trump administration, I worry that unforeseen events might lead a divorce.

The only way to reduce those anxiety levels is by increasing the touch points. The more touch points you have, the more empathy and appreciation there is for other value systems.

I thought that ‘one country, two systems’ was brilliant – even if some parts were ambiguous.

Hong Kong is a very special part of China, it is truly unique.

I would say, both Hong Kong and [mainland] China will be far better off in doing more to preserve the unique nature and characteristics of Hong Kong that make it so special.

It is very different. Its history and its heritage and its role in finance, in being an intermediary between China and the rest of the world is truly unique.

If Hong Kong just becomes like any other prosperous city in mainland China, then I think both Hong Kong and China will have lost something very special.

When the Hong Kong people went through all the times of unrest in 2019, they lost sight of being one country.

At the same time, I think that the Hong Kong government may not have done enough to impress upon Beijing the importance of two systems.

The way forward is to modulate pendulum swings and give the very novel concept of one country, two systems a chance to function and evolve.

Yes, but I think it’s suffered erosion in the perception of many Western countries. It is going to take time to rebuild trust.