• China-Africa trade gets a boost from critical minerals needed for EV battery production
• No political strings to China’s aid for Pacific island nations: Foreign Minister Wang Yi
• Antony Blinken to visit China next week and discuss ‘bilateral, regional and global issues’: official
• Chinese students in US tell of ‘chilling’ interrogations and deportations
• Chinese swimmers won Olympic golds after testing positive for banned drug
• US Pacific Fleet commander to attend as Chinese Navy hosts Western Pacific symposium: sources
• Chinese team makes quantum leap in chip design with new light source
• China teenage girl who called boyfriend 100 times a day diagnosed with ‘love brain’ attracts huge attention online
• China’s draft energy law finally sees the light after 18 years in the making
• [Sport] Verstappen on Chinese GP pole as Hamilton only 18th
• 2 major space institutes in Africa join China-led moon project
• Philippines wants US, Japan to build rail network after dropping Beijing as ties sour over South China Sea frictions
• ‘Gifted’ China cat killer rejected by top university despite getting top marks in nuclear science entrance exam
• Was the US-South Korea-Japan drill just about North Korea? China might beg to differ
• China’s technology sector faces new round of lay-offs as global firms Ericsson, Tesla, Amazon and Intel continue to shed jobs
• Former China central bank official warns against miscategorising ‘virtual economy’
• [Sport] Verstappen beats Hamilton to Chinese GP sprint win
• [Sport] Chinese Grand Prix sprint race - radio & text
• FBI ‘did not intend negative impact’ of prosecuting Chinese academics with ties to Beijing under Trump-era China Initiative
• Special delivery: caring Chinese mother hires crane to lift delicate post-caesarean daughter-in-law to 7th-floor home
• FBI chief says Chinese hackers have infiltrated critical US infrastructure
• Hong Kong exams body pledges to file police report after more test content leaked on mainland China social media
• South China Sea: will Beijing hold back during the US-Philippine Balikatan military drills?
• US appeal court hears arguments on Florida law restricting property ownership by Chinese
• China’s ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu leaves post amid tensions
• China seeks greater global diplomatic role but avoids the Middle East, analysts say
• China sees ‘opportune moment’ as it pushes for direct Russia-Ukraine talks

China-Africa trade gets a boost from critical minerals needed for EV battery production

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259601/china-africa-trade-gets-boost-critical-minerals-needed-ev-battery-production?utm_source=rss_feed

Trade between China and Africa defied economic headwinds in the first quarter of 2024, with two-way trade growing by 5.9 per cent year on year to US$70.86 billion, according to the latest customs data.

This was despite a property crisis in China which affected copper demand, with a downturn in copper prices towards the end of 2023.

Experts have attributed the rise in trade to higher commodity prices during the period, as well as incentives introduced by Beijing to grow trade with Africa, in particular, allowing more agricultural products into China tariff-free. China has also been buying more gold from Africa, adding to the increase, they noted.

The figures from China’s General Administration of Customs showed imports from Africa grew 8 per cent year on year to US$29.42 billion in the first quarter. This was boosted by a rise in imports of critical minerals, in particular metals used for electric vehicle (EV) battery production.

Meanwhile, China’s exports to Africa increased 4.4 per cent, rising to US$41.4 billion.

It is a trade surplus for Beijing that is borne from the fact that China buys mostly raw materials from the continent – such as oil, copper, iron ore and battery metals including cobalt and lithium – while it largely exports finished industrial products.

It follows, then, that it was chiefly resource-rich nations that made up China’s largest trading partners in Africa for the quarter, such as South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Egypt, Liberia, Algeria, Guinea and Morocco.

Angola, for example, ships most of its oil to China. The DRC, meanwhile, is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, essential in the manufacture of EV batteries and smartphones. It exports the vast majority of this mineral to China.

Chinese exports to South Africa did record a drop in the period, falling by 15.9 per cent to US$4.94 billion. At the same time, South Africa’s exports to China rose 7.9 per cent to US$9.35 billion.

The country, which is China’s most important African trading partner, mostly sells metals to China, including gold, diamonds, platinum, manganese ore, iron ore, chromium ore and zinc ore, while it buys broadcasting equipment, computers, electric batteries, motor vehicles and electrical transformers.

Another country that has emerged as a key source of battery metals for China is South Africa’s northern neighbour, Zimbabwe, where Chinese companies have pumped in billions of dollars to build lithium processing plants.

In the first two months of 2024, Zimbabwe’s trade with China jumped 77.6 per cent year on year, driven by an increase in exports of Zimbabwean products, including lithium and tobacco.

According to the customs data, Zimbabwe’s exports to China rose 255.5 per cent in the period to US$320.54 million. However, it is likely this figure is so high because in the same period in 2023, most of the new lithium processing plants had not started operations.

Charlie Robertson, head of macro strategy at FIM Partners, an asset management firm, said the soaring price of gold could go some way to explaining the rise in China-Africa trade. He said China had been buying gold since the West froze Russia’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Gold prices have soared and so this might be part of Africa helping China change its foreign exchange reserves mix. Oil and copper have risen recently too,” Robertson said.

“Commodities and particularly gold are probably responsible for rising African exports to China.”

Meanwhile, Robertson said, more realistic exchange rates in Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya might be helping to rebuild appetite for Chinese exports to Africa.

Lauren Johnston, associate professor at the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, said Africa enjoyed a trade surplus with China during the commodities boom. But now, as commodities prices and currency movements had become more volatile, so too had the trade numbers.

Johnston said while lower commodities prices might not be good news for resource-rich countries, they were useful for countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia that were net commodity importers.

“Cheaper imports would help fuel their growth and, in turn, drive more imports from China,” she said.

But recently, the price of two essential commodities – oil and copper – has been rising, mostly driven by increased demand and geopolitical risks, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war in the Middle East. Gold, too, has been gaining in value.

“China has been ramping up gold imports from Africa as the Chinese middle class moves to preserve their wealth amid real estate woes, global geopolitics and tensions around the role of the dollar, and the stock market slump,” Johnston said.

Ovigwe Eguegu, policy analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Development Reimagined, said it was government support measures rolled out in the second half of 2023 to boost business, consumer confidence and private sector investment that saw the Chinese economy get off to a relatively good start this year.

“We may now be seeing the effects of those measures,” Eguegu said.

However, he said commodities prices as well as global security and economic dynamics had played a role in the latest China-Africa trade figures.

For instance, Eguegu said in the first quarter of 2023, the average crude oil spot price was around US$76.47 per barrel. But in March this year, the ICE [Intercontinental Exchange] Brent Crude futures reached a six-month high of US$90 per barrel.

“Not only have oil prices increased significantly in 2024, they are projected to maintain the current price level or go even higher due to an extension of Opec+ [Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries plus other oil-producing nations] output cuts through June, not to forget escalating tensions in the Middle East and Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure,” Eguegu said.

He pointed out that those factors would not just keep prices favourable to suppliers, but could shift more Chinese oil importers towards African suppliers like Angola.

Eguegu also said copper prices faced fluctuations in 2023, starting strong due to easing Covid-19 restrictions in China but then being hit with challenges later in the year due to a prolonged property crisis and weak local demand.

But, he said copper prices were expected to increase again this year due to supply disruptions at large mines such as Central America’s Cobre Panama as well as increasing demand from sectors in the energy transition.

“While the Chinese construction and real estate sector is undergoing a correction, the manufacture of EV and other green energy products are good,” Eguegu said. “Thus, there is likely to be an increase in the value and volume of copper exports from Zambia, DRC and other major exporters to China.”

Similarly, he said that from the Chinese export side, the competitiveness of Chinese finished goods, like EVs, electronics and solar panels, remains strong, which means market dynamics also favour African demand for Chinese products for the foreseeable future.

“Overall, since much of Africa’s exports to China are commodities, and with the projections of the commodity markets, it is within reason to expect good China-Africa trade figures,” Eguegu said.

No political strings to China’s aid for Pacific island nations: Foreign Minister Wang Yi

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259765/no-political-strings-chinas-aid-pacific-island-nations-foreign-minister-wang-yi?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing’s help for Pacific island states has always come without political strings attached, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, amid criticism that China was using aid to expand its influence in the region and falling short on promises.

The remarks on Saturday came as Wang arrived in Papua New Guinea following a visit to Indonesia on a trip aimed at deepening engagements with developing countries.

Addressing a joint press conference with his PNG counterpart Justin Tkatchenko in the capital Port Moresby, Wang said: “China’s assistance to the [Pacific] island countries has always been free of political conditions and impositions, and it has never issued empty promises.”

According to a Chinese foreign ministry statement, he said it was “natural and above board” for China and the island states to help each other and deepen South-South cooperation as developing countries, adding that island states had the right to choose their cooperation partners.

What can Japan offer Pacific nations amid growing Chinese influence?

During a meeting with Tkatchenko earlier, Wang said: “China’s engagement and cooperation with the South Pacific island countries is dedicated to mutual support and assistance to achieve common development, without any geopolitical self-interest.”

The region should not become “an arena for great powers to play games”, and no country should treat it as its own “backyard” or engage in zero-sum games, he was quoted as saying by another Chinese foreign ministry statement, in what was a veiled swipe at the United States.

At the joint press conference, he also “called on the international community to pay more attention to the special situation and legitimate concerns of the Pacific island countries, to focus on issues of the greatest concern to them”.

Sitting just north of Australia, PNG views itself as a gateway between Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Both China and the US have been jostling for influence in the region. As the largest island state as well as China’s top trading partner in the South Pacific, PNG has been balancing trade relationships with China while also managing defence ties with the US and its allies.

It signed a US$132 million security deal with Australia in December to boost policing, after signing a defence cooperation agreement with the US last May.

Pacific nations relish as US, China jostle to win friends and influence

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives in the PNG on Monday to mark their historical defence ties and for joint World War II commemorations.

China has long been accused of imposing unfavourable terms in extending a helping hand to the Pacific and not delivering on promises, claims strongly opposed by Beijing.

A report in October from Australian think tank the Lowy Institute indicated that while China’s overall aid programmes in the region are diminishing, the political focus of its aid is intensifying. It said the fall reflected “a strategic shift to reduce risk, cement political ties, and enhance capital returns”, rather than a departure from the region.

According to the institute, Chinese grants and loans to Pacific island nations fell to US$241 million in 2021 – the latest available data – from a peak of US$384 million in 2016.

Antony Blinken to visit China next week and discuss ‘bilateral, regional and global issues’: official

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3259721/antony-blinken-visit-china-next-week-and-discuss-bilateral-regional-and-global-issues-official?utm_source=rss_feed

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China next week to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi on a “range of bilateral, regional and global issues” including unfair trade practices and industrial overcapacity, a senior US official said ahead of the visit.

The trip from April 24 to 26 comes as the administration of Joe Biden treads a delicate line staying engaged with China even as it adopts tougher rhetoric and trade policy stances in the run-up to the American presidential election in November.

“We are confident that our Chinese hosts will arrange a productive and constructive visit,” said a senior State Department official in a background call with reporters on Friday.

Blinken would spend “considerable time” with Wang during the visit to build on the “intensive diplomacy” conducted over the past year to manage competition and avoid a “miscalculation or conflict”, the official added.

Behind the camera-ready handshakes and smiles, Blinken would “clearly and directly” express US concerns over what it sees as China’s growing support for Russia’s defence industrial base as well as tensions in the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East, according to the official.

The American delegation will include State Department officials Elizabeth Allen, undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs; Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs; Todd Robinson, assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs; and Nathaniel Fick, ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy.

Blinken is the latest in a string of senior administration officials going to China this year seeking to keep communication lines open. His visit follows US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s recent visit to Beijing.

This week the nations’ defence chiefs spoke by video, marking their first direct dialogue in two years. Also this week, two senior officials – Kritenbrink and Sarah Beran, the National Security Council’s senior director for China and Taiwan affairs – visited Beijing.

The envoys have delivered some stern messages that Blinken will reinforce, including a warning not to export China’s economic problems by flooding foreign markets with cheap products overseas and to halt support for Russia in its war with Ukraine.

Will tough tariff talk taint Antony Blinken’s trip to China?

“They’re trying to keep the momentum going from the Yellen visit and keep up some level of positive optics,” said Paul Triolo, a former American government official now with the Albright Stonebridge Group. “But as you enter the political season in the US, you’re going to have some tough messages on assisting Russia and on overcapacity,”

“The biggest thing is going to be trying to avoid appearing too positive and giving fodder to the Republicans.”

The trip underscores that the Biden administration is navigating a bifurcated strategy: on the one hand prioritising stable relations with China following the summit last November with President Xi Jinping in California and phone call between the two leaders in early April, while hammering Beijing to connect with American voters.

Specifically, Biden is courting blue-collar voters and trying to avoid being outflanked by his presumptive Republican opponent this fall, former president Donald Trump, who has staked out strong anti-China positions.

The president’s hardening stance was on display on Wednesday at a labour union event in Pennsylvania where he called for a tripling of duties on Chinese steel and aluminium.

Biden further used the visit to the electoral swing state to announce investigations under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 targeting alleged subsidies involving Chinese shipbuilding, logistics and the maritime industry.

He also pointedly criticised China’s weak economy, ageing population, “xenophobia” and purported willingness to bend the rules. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating,” he told a crowd of cheering steelworkers.

Blinken, beyond raising overcapacity and Russia, would widen the lens in his role as coordinator for the US inter-agency process, analysts said.

Apart from discussing Taiwan, he and Wang are expected to focus on the South China Sea, the Ukraine war and the potential for Chinese interference in the US election, said Jeffrey Moon of China Moon Strategies and formerly at the National Security Council.

Xi might also agree to meet Blinken, analysts added.

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

For its part, Beijing is likely to voice its rising frustration over US export restrictions on advanced semiconductors and other items seen as advancing China’s military stature, in addition to offering its take on many issues on the American agenda.

“China is really worked up about the technology stuff, and Xi has become much more involved,” said Triolo. “That has the most potential to blow up. Those discussions are tough. That’s why Xi has put technology on nearly the same level as Taiwan. He’s been talking about it in the same context, as a red line.”

Beijing has lived through numerous US presidential election cycles and has seen generations of candidates bash China leading up to the polls, then tack back once elected – although the tack has been less forceful of late.

For instance, Biden reversed many of Trump’s economic and social policies once elected, but notably he has refrained from rolling back the stiff sanctions Trump imposed that sparked the ongoing US-China trade war.

“China knows the rhetoric increases around the election,” said Moon. “It doesn’t mean they will let it all pass. But they know the volume will go up.”

Chinese students in US tell of ‘chilling’ interrogations and deportations

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/chinese-students-in-us-tell-of-chilling-interrogations-and-deportations

Stopped at the border, interrogated on national security grounds, laptops and mobile phones checked, held for several hours, plans for future research shattered.

Many western scholars are nervous about travelling to China in the current political climate. But lately it is Chinese researchers working at US universities who are increasingly reporting interrogations – and in several cases deportations – at US airports, despite holding valid work or study visas for scientific research.

Earlier this month the Chinese embassy in Washington said more than 70 students “with legal and valid materials” had been deported from the US since July 2021, with more than 10 cases since November 2023. The embassy said it had complained to the US authorities about each case.

The exact number of incidents is difficult to verify, as the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency does not provide detailed statistics about refusals at airports. A spokesperson said that “all international travellers attempting to enter the United States, including all US citizens, are subject to examination”.

But testimonies have circulated on Chinese social media, and academics are becoming increasingly outspoken about what they say is the unfair treatment of their colleagues and students.

“The impact is huge,” says Qin Yan, a professor of pathology at Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut, who says that he is aware of more than a dozen Chinese students from Yale and other universities who have been rejected by the US in recent months, despite holding valid visas. Experiments have stalled, and there is a “chilling effect” for the next generation of Chinese scientists.

The number of people affected is a tiny fraction of the total number of Chinese students in the US. The State Department issued nearly 300,000 visas to Chinese students in the year to September 2023. But the personal accounts speak to a broader concern that people-to-people exchanges between the world’s two biggest economies and scientific leaders are straining.

The refusals appear to be linked to a 2020 US rule that barred Chinese postgraduate students with links to China’s “military-civil fusion strategy”, which aims to leverage civilian infrastructure to support military development. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute thinktank estimates that 95 civilian universities in China have links to the defence sector.

Nearly 2,000 visas applications were rejected on that basis in 2021. But now people who pass the security checks necessary to be granted a visa by the State Department are being turned away at the border by CBP, a different branch of government.

“It is very hard for a CBP officer to really evaluate the risk of espionage,” said Dan Berger, an immigration lawyer in Massachusetts, who represents a graduate student at Yale who, midway through her PhD, was sent back from Washington’s Dulles airport in December, and banned from re-entering the US for five years.

“It is sudden,” Berger said. “She has an apartment in the US. Thankfully, she doesn’t have a cat. But there are experiments that were in progress.”

Academics say that scrutiny has widened to different fields – particularly medical sciences – with the reasons for the refusals not made clear.

X Edward Guo, a professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University, said that part of the problem is that, unlike in the US, military research does sometimes take place on university campuses. “It’s not black and white … there are medical universities that also do military. But 99% of those professors are doing biomedical research and have nothing to do with the military.”

But “if you want to come to the US to study AI, forget it,” Guo said.

One scientist who studies the use of artificial intelligence to model the impact of vaccines said he was rejected at Boston Logan International airport. He was arriving to take up a place at Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral researcher. “I never thought I would be humiliated like this,” he wrote on the Xiaohongshu app,, where he recounted being quizzed about his masters’ studies in China and asked if he could guarantee that his teachers in China had not passed on any of his research to the military.

He did not respond to an interview request from the Observer. Harvard Medical School declined to confirm or comment on the specifics of individual cases, but said that “decisions regarding entry into the United States are under the purview of the federal government and outside of the school’s and the university’s jurisdiction”.

The increased scrutiny comes as Beijing and Washington are struggling to come to an agreement about the US-China Science and Technology Agreement, a landmark treaty signed in 1979 that governs scientific cooperation between the two countries. Normally renewed every five years, since August it has been sputtering through six-month extensions.

But following years of scrutiny from the Department of Justice investigation into funding links to China, and a rise in anti-Asian sentiment during the pandemic, ethnically Chinese scientists say the atmosphere is becoming increasingly hostile.

“Before 2016, I felt like I’m just an American,” said Guo, who became a naturalised US citizen in the late 1990s. “This is really the first time I’ve thought, OK, you’re an American but you’re not exactly an American.”

Additional research by Chi Hui Lin

Chinese swimmers won Olympic golds after testing positive for banned drug

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/20/chinese-swimmers-won-olympic-golds-after-testing-positive-for-banned-drug

Twenty-three Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned drug TMZ months before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, it has emerged. However, they were cleared to compete at the Games after the World Anti-Doping Agency accepted an explanation from the Chinese authorities that the kitchen at their hotel was contaminated.

The story, which has only come to light following a joint investigation by the German TV channel ARD and the New York Times, has led to widespread criticism of Wada from senior figures in anti-doping, with one calling the case “shocking” and another a “devastating stab in the back to clean athletes”.

Several of the Chinese swimmers went on to win medals in Tokyo – including three golds. Many of them, including the two-time gold medalist Zhang Yufei, are expected to challenge again at the Paris Olympics this summer.

Both ARD and the New York Times said they had seen a 61-page investigative report from the Chinese anti-doping agency, Chinada, to Wada in 2021, which said that it had found trace elements of TMZ in the extractor fan, on spice containers and in the drain of a hotel kitchen in Shijiazhuang, where the swimmers had been staying.

Chinada also pointed to low concentrations of TMZ, a heart drug which improves performance, in the urine samples of the swimmers as grounds to conclude intentional doping was “impossible”. However, according to the New York Times, it did not explain how a prescription drug available only in pill form had contaminated the kitchen.

In an email to the Observer, Wada confirmed that it had not appealed against the decision to clear the Chinese swimmers after reviewing the evidence. It said that it had not been possible for its scientists or investigators to conduct enquiries on the ground in China “given the extreme restrictions in place” due to a Covid-related lockdown.

“Wada ultimately concluded that it was not in a position to disprove the possibility that contamination was the source of TMZ and it was compatible with the analytical data in the file,” it said in a statement.

“Wada also concluded that, given the specific circumstances of the asserted contamination, the athletes would be held to have no fault or negligence. As such, and based on the advice of external counsel, Wada considered that an appeal was not warranted.”

World Aquatics, which is in charge of global swimming, also said it was confident the positive tests were handled “diligently and professionally”.

However, it has emerged that both the Independent Testing Agency and the US Anti-Doping Agency contacted Wada to express their concerns about the way the Chinese test results were reported.

ARD also said it had spoken to a whistleblower in China who told them: “The whole story about contamination is a fairy tale to me. None of the officials’ explanations are credible.” Meanwhile the New York Times said it had spoken to five independent anti-doping experts who found the findings of the Chinese investigation “implausible”.

The head of US Anti-Doping, Travis Tygart, who said he had provided Wada with multiple allegations of doping in Chinese swimming since 2020, was also critical of how the case had been handled. “This appears to be a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes and a deep betrayal of all the athletes who compete fairly and follow the rules,” he said.

Meanwhile David Howman, a former director general of Wada who now heads the Athletics Integrity Unit, said the case was “shocking”. He added: “What it would say to me immediately is that perhaps there was some form of programme in this sport to ‘prepare’ swimmers for the Tokyo Olympics.

“My concern is intense. You want the public to have confidence in your regulator. If you lose that confidence, then the reputation of the regulator starts going down the gurgler. And if that were to occur, that would be a tragedy for Wada.”

However Olivier Rubin, Wada’s senior science and medicine director, insisted that the case had been thoroughly reviewed in June and July of 2021. “Indeed, we even sought pharmacokinetic and metabolism information from the manufacturer of TMZ in assessing the plausibility of the contamination scenario that was presented to Wada,” he said. “Ultimately, we concluded that there was no concrete basis to challenge the asserted contamination.”

Chinada and the Chinese Swimming Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

US Pacific Fleet commander to attend as Chinese Navy hosts Western Pacific symposium: sources

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3259757/us-pacific-fleet-commander-attend-chinese-navy-hosts-western-pacific-symposium-sources?utm_source=rss_feed

Over 180 navy representatives from 29 countries will gather in China’s port city of Qingdao tomorrow for the launch of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS), the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has said.

Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Stephen Koehler, will be leading the American delegation to the four-day event hosted by the Chinese navy, according to diplomatic sources.

Koehler is expected to meet “his Chinese counterparts” during the symposium, themed “Seas of Shared Future”, a diplomat with knowledge of the matter told the Post.

“Both sides are looking for more communications,” said a second diplomatic source, who also confirmed that Koehler would attend.

This comes just four days after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun. Tuesday’s video conference was the first US-China exchange at the defence chief level in nearly 17 months and the first since Dong was appointed to the role in December.

Will US and China shift course in South China Sea after defence chiefs’ call?

Apart from the US, navy representatives attending this year will include those from Russia, Japan, Australia, Cambodia, Chile, France, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom, according to Senior Colonel Qu Tao from the office of the PLA Navy staff department.

The 19th edition of the biennial meeting comes as maritime safety risks and challenges intensify in the region.

At a press briefing in Qingdao on Saturday, Qu said the WPNS had grown into an important platform for navies of various countries to “engage in communication, enhance mutual trust and deepen cooperation”.

The Chinese navy was willing to work together with its counterparts to promote global and regional marine governance, tackle maritime safety risks and challenges, and advance the building of a marine community with a shared future, Qu said. China last hosted the WPNS in 2014.

The expected talks between the US and Chinese navy chiefs would be the latest in a series of high-level exchanges between the world’s top two military powers since a presidential summit in California in November following months of heightened tensions.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who recently met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Germany, is also expected to travel to China next week. Blinken’s trip, his second in less than a year, comes close on the heels of a visit by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

“With tensions running high in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea … this year’s symposium will also provide opportunities for countries to express their concerns and worries in the maritime field and deepen their understandings,” Zhu Feng, executive dean of Nanjing University’s School of International Studies, said.

Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor, said new developments at sea, including the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and surface vessels for surveillance and other functions, were fuelling the need to develop more consensus on how to control or prevent unintentional collisions.

“Unmanned systems pose new challenges to the establishment of maritime safety mechanisms, highlighting potential dangers to maritime security,” Song said. “Addressing these new crises and sources of danger is key for this year’s forum, to upgrade the mechanism for unplanned encounters at sea.”

Chinese state media reported in January that countries taking part in a WPNS-related workshop had approved a proposal to discuss the formation of a working group dedicated to exploring ways to prevent drone collisions.

Analysts said the presence of Koehler highlighted the need for US-China military officials at all levels to boost exchanges and cooperation and reduce misjudgment.

Zhu at Nanjing University said the likely talks between senior Chinese and US navy officials at the WPNS could “facilitate frank dialogue across multiple levels and fields and help stabilise bilateral ties.”

Meanwhile, Song expressed hope that Koehler’s participation would not just be a “gestural move”.

“US participation at the symposium should involve concrete efforts to help cool down tensions and contribute to peace and stability in the West Pacific, rather than continually escalating provocations against China,” he said.

A string of recent face-offs between rival claimants China and the Philippines in the South China Sea have increased the visibility of the maritime dispute and analysts expect the issue to feature at the forum, though it might not be “smooth sailing”, according to Song.

“After all, some countries may not focus on the bigger picture and might have their own ulterior motives,” Song said. “From Beijing’s perspective, it will push for the conclusion of the Code of Conduct in the area to resolve the political and military tensions.”

This year’s WPNS also coincides with the 75th anniversary of the founding of the PLA Navy, which will organise a series of commemorative events from Sunday to Wednesday, a spokesman told Saturday’s press conference.

The events will be held in major navy ports including Qingdao, Dalian, Yantai, Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, Haikou and Sanya, allowing the public to board six warships, the spokesman said.

But there will be no fleet review, unlike in 2019 during commemorations for the PLA Navy’s 70th anniversary.

Chinese team makes quantum leap in chip design with new light source

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3259756/chinese-team-makes-quantum-leap-chip-design-new-light-source?utm_source=rss_feed

Researchers in China have moved a step closer to building a quantum chip with the world-first use of a common semiconductor to create a quantum light source.

Quantum chips have the potential to solve complex problems exponentially faster than conventional, electron-based computation but scientists have struggled to build the components needed for an integrated circuit.

A team in China now says they created one of those components – a quantum light source – using the semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN), a material used for decades in blue light-emitting diodes.

The device has “remarkable potential” for building small, robust quantum chips, according to the team from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Tsinghua University, and the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology.

US guru says China’s supercomputer power may exceed all countries

The light source produced pairs of quantum-mechanically entangled light particles that can be used to carry information.

Compared with existing quantum light sources based on materials such as silicon nitride and indium phosphide, the new device had a much wider wavelength range and could be used to build other major components of a quantum circuit, they reported in the journal Physical Review Letters last month.

“We demonstrate that gallium nitride is a good quantum material platform for photonic quantum information, in which the generation of quantum light is crucial,” lead author Zhou Qiang from UESTC told Physics Magazine.

“The gallium nitride platform offers promising prospects for advancing photonic quantum chips in the near future.”

Quantum optics expert Thomas Walther from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany told Physics Magazine the work was “a major step forward” because it could cut the cost of manufacturing such systems and make them much more compact and rugged than they were today.

In quantum tech entanglement with China, US ‘may already be behind’: think tank

In their experiment, Zhou and his colleagues first grew a thin film of GaN on a sapphire layer. Then they etched a ring in the film that was 120 micrometres across, allowing light particles from laser beams to travel around the ring.

When the researchers fed infrared laser light into the GaN film, some light particles were trapped and became “resonant” in pairs.

Due to an effect known as spontaneous four-wave mixing, some resonant pairs gave rise to a new pair of light particles that were entangled with each other.

The degree of entanglement produced by the GaN ring was “comparable” to the level measured for other quantum light sources, Zhou told Physics Magazine.

The output wavelength range also extended from 25.6 nanometres with previous materials to 100 nanometres with the new device.

“By providing more wavelength resources, we will be able to meet the needs of more users hoping to access a quantum network via different wavelengths,” Zhou told Science and Technology Daily on Thursday.

Besides the quantum light source, GaN is also a promising material for making other components of a quantum circuit, including the pump laser and light particle detectors, according to the team.

“The GaN platform holds considerable promise for all-on-chip quantum photonic integrated circuits compared to existing platforms,” they said.

China teenage girl who called boyfriend 100 times a day diagnosed with ‘love brain’ attracts huge attention online

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3258346/china-teenage-girl-who-called-boyfriend-100-times-day-diagnosed-love-brain-attracts-huge-attention?utm_source=rss_feed

An 18-year-old girl in China who called her boyfriend more than 100 times a day has been diagnosed as suffering from “love brain”.

The girl, nicknamed Xiaoyu, from Sichuan province in southwestern China, became so obsessed that it severely impacted her mental health and made her boyfriend’s life a misery, Yueniu News reported.

Du Na, a doctor at The Fourth People’s Hospital of Chengdu, said Xiaoyu’s worrying behaviour began in her first year of university.

Xiaoyu and her boyfriend developed an intimate relationship, but he soon felt uncomfortable and stifled because she became heavily dependent on him and needed him around all the time.

Not only did she badger him to constantly tell her his whereabouts, she also wanted him to return her texts at all hours of the day and night.

“He was expected to reply to her messages immediately,” Du said.

In a viral video clip, Xiaoyu is seen repeatedly messaging her boyfriend to switch on his WeChat camera. He does not respond but she makes video calls to him anyway, which he ignores.

One day she called him more than 100 times but he did not answer. She became so upset and angry that she threw household objects and smashed them around the home.

The boyfriend called the police, who arrived just as she threatened to jump from a balcony. Xiaoyu went to hospital, where she was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, referred to colloquially as “love brain”.

Du said that the condition might coexist with other mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder.

Du did not disclose the cause of Xiaoyu’s illness, but said it often occurred in people who had not had a healthy relationship with their parents during childhood.

She said people with a mild form of the condition, whose lives were not adversely affected, could recover on their own by learning to manage their emotions.

However, sufferers with extreme symptoms would need medical help.

At the time of writing, the news story had attracted 84,000 comments on Douyin.

“Isn’t she just a control freak?” said one online observer.

“Love brain sounds horrible,” another said.

“I wonder if I have a love brain? I feel like I act like her,” a third person wrote.

China’s draft energy law finally sees the light after 18 years in the making

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3259742/chinas-draft-energy-law-finally-sees-light-after-18-years-making?utm_source=rss_feed

Nearly two decades in the making, China’s draft energy law has been handed to the national legislature for review to govern security, innovation and corporate behaviour in the industry.

Stalled by vested interests, the draft was submitted on Friday by the State Council to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee for consideration at its meeting in Beijing next week, 18 years after such legislation was first mooted.

The committee will also consider separate draft amendments to the atomic energy law and proposed legislative changes covering academic degrees, tariffs, national defence education, and accounting, among others.

The long-awaited legislation is wide-ranging, covering all aspects of the industry from planning to distribution, conservation, rural energy development and pricing.

Yang Heqing, from the committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission, said the draft energy law was designed to safeguard energy supplies, promote the shift to low-carbon power and support sustainable development.

“The main content includes improvement to the energy planning system and the energy development and utilisation system,” Yang said.

“[It is also meant to] strengthen the construction of the energy market system, improve the energy reserve system and emergency response system, and strengthen innovation in energy technology.”

China’s looks to stop ripple effect as southwest struggles with drought

In a nod to China’s offshore investment and its risks, the draft says the state “encourages innovation in foreign energy investment and cooperation methods”, but also protects “the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens, legal persons and other organisations engaged in energy development and utilisation activities abroad”.

“The state shall take measures to effectively respond to political risks [overseas] such as nationalisation, expropriation, expropriation, war, civil strife, government default, and foreign exchange restrictions that Chinese citizens, legal persons, and other organisations suffer from in overseas energy investment projects.”

The state also encourages and supports innovation in energy resource exploration and development technology and emission reduction technology, it says.

Closer to home, administrative agency staff shall be held criminally responsible if they are found to have abused their power. Unapproved mergers and acquisitions among essential energy companies may result in fines of up to 5 million yuan (US$690,000), according to the draft.

Beijing assembled a team of experts from the government and academics in January 2006 to draft the energy law and the 18-year journey is one of the longest for any piece of Chinese legislation.

A law professor from Tsinghua University in Beijing said the process was drawn out because it faced staunch resistance from the energy sector, which “lobbied extensively, trying to limit the scope of the law”.

“That is at least one key factor [causing the delays]. The vested interest groups from the energy sector have been trying to hold onto their territory,” said the professor, who was involved in drafting the legislation.

“I think the anti-corruption campaign in the past decade, which brought down many key officials in the energy authorities and state-owned companies is one major element that broke the staunch resistance.

“The energy law will be a critical step to rein in powerful interest groups in the sector, to better coordinate the development of China’s carbon reduction, renewable energy development, and overall sustainability strategy,” the Tsinghua law professor said.

Nuclear fuel engineer Li Guangchang latest in China’s anti-corruption net

Awash with billions in state investment and subsidies, the energy sector has been a fertile ground of corruption and a key target of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the nation’s top anti-corruption body, renewed its commitment to cracking down on the sector at its annual work planning meeting in January.

Last year, investigators detained at least 20 top officials in the energy sector, nearly half of the top-level corruption probes involving state-owned enterprises, according to a tally by the South China Morning Post.

One of those charged was Li Dong, former deputy general manager of China Energy Investment Group, who pleaded guilty in Jiangxi province on Friday to taking more than 100 million yuan (US$13.8 million) in bribes. A judgment will be handed down at a later date.

Also on Friday, authorities in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing sacked Che Dechen, general manager of the city’s gas supplier, after Chongqing Gas Group was found to have overcharged residents.

Customers had taken to social media to protest against a sudden rise in their gas bills after the supplier installed new meters.

Chongqing Gas Group has been told to fully refund to affected customers.

[Sport] Verstappen on Chinese GP pole as Hamilton only 18th

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68862957

2 major space institutes in Africa join China-led moon project

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3259734/two-major-space-institutes-africa-join-china-led-moon-project?utm_source=rss_feed

Two more African partners have joined the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) initiative, which aims to build a permanent base on the moon by the mid-2030s.

Ethiopia’s Space Science and Geospatial Institute (SSGI) and the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have this month signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) on ILRS-related cooperation with representatives from China.

Their participation follows more than a dozen agencies, institutes and organisations – including the national space agencies of South Africa and Egypt – to be part of the ambitious plan.

On April 5, Hu Chaobin, deputy director of China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, signed the MOU with SSGI director Abdissa Yilma in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, according to the lab’s official WeChat account.

During their meeting, Yilma said the institute would actively participate in and promote the construction of the ILRS. Meanwhile, Hu said he hoped the project would help boost the development of Ethiopia’s aerospace sector and space exploration technologies.

Then on April 8, Hu signed the cooperation memorandum with KAIST acting principal Jennifer W. Khamasi during his visit to the Konza Techno City south of Nairobi.

KAIST council chairman Emmanuel Mutisya, who was also at the meeting, said the institute would take advantage of the research and education opportunities brought about by the collaboration with the ILRS. He also told Hu that KAIST would help push the Kenyan government to join the project.

Hu invited both Yilma and Mutisya to attend the International Conference on Deep Space Exploration, known as the Tiandu Forum, to be held in China in September.

These latest partnerships were formed during the lab’s trip to the NewSpace Africa Conference which was held in Angola in the first week of April.

At the conference, Hu’s keynote address included the first public call for African nations and organisations to join the ILRS initiative.

So far, the ILRS has nine country members: China, Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, South Africa, Egypt and Thailand. Nato country Turkey has also reportedly applied to join. As well as these, it also has a number of members which are research institutes, universities or companies.

The US-led Artemis programme, which is often seen as a rival to the ILRS project, now has a total of 38 countries that have signed on to its Artemis Accords.

The SSGI is formerly the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute, which was established in 2016 as a major move to boost space science and technology activities in the country for sustainable development.

KAIST, currently under construction at the Konza Techno City, is modelled after the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology. It aims to lead pioneering research in science and technology, and nurture highly qualified scientists and engineers for Kenya’s industrialisation and modernisation, according to the institute’s website.

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Philippines wants US, Japan to build rail network after dropping Beijing as ties sour over South China Sea frictions

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3259731/philippines-wants-us-japan-build-rail-network-after-dropping-beijing-ties-sour-over-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed

A Philippine freight railway project may be built with the support of the US and Japan, an official in charge of it said, as Manila seeks alternative financing deals after dropping funding talks with China.

The 50-billion-peso (US$868 million) Subic-Clark railway, which will link the former US military bases turned commercial hubs, is being pitched to form part of the Luzon Economic Corridor, a planned showcase of economic cooperation between the US, Japan and the Philippines that was hatched during the first trilateral summit among its leaders last week at the White House.

“Hopefully they take it and invest here,” Delfin Lorenzana, who chairs the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, said in an interview on Friday, referring to the US and Japan. The agency oversees the development of former military bases.

‘I felt hurt’: Philippine first lady breaks silence on ties with vice-president

The Philippines said last year that it would no longer pursue Chinese loans to fund three projects, including the 71-kilometre (44-mile) Subic-Clark railway, amid lack of progress from the Chinese side. Manila’s move came amid souring ties between the Philippines and China over competing maritime claims in the South China Sea.

US President Joe Biden, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr launched the Luzon Economic Corridor during their April 11 meeting and a trilateral event to promote investment in the project is being planned at the US-led Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Manila in May.

The Philippines said it hopes to generate around US$100 billion in investments in the next five to 10 years following the Washington summit.

The project aims to boost connectivity between Subic Bay and Clark, Manila, and Batangas province in the country’s main Luzon island and accelerate investments in infrastructure projects, including rail, ports, clean energy, semiconductor supply chains and agribusiness.

“We have not abandoned the Subic-Clark railway project,” Lorenzana said. A former defence secretary, Lorenzana said he is “more comfortable” if the US and Japan would take over the project.

“If not them, maybe South Korea, or other countries that are friendly to us,” he said. The government is also considering seeking funding from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, he added.

Lorenzana said BCDA projects that may be included in the Luzon Economic Corridor include the construction of Clark International Airport’s second runway, seen to cost around US$174 million and a 64-hectare (158-acre) Clark National Food Terminal hub, which seeks to make the Southeast Asian nation a leading agricultural resource hub in the region. The food terminal is estimated to cost US$152 million.

Sinking of China-made ship for Philippines’ Balikatan drills ‘not intentional’

Subic and Clark are “very strategic” locations that can host industries from logistics to manufacturing, he said.

“Subic is one of the few deepwater ports that can accommodate any size of vessel and it’s safe from typhoon while Clark has a huge space,” Lorenzana said. “And we have the ready manpower that can be trained to do the job.”

‘Gifted’ China cat killer rejected by top university despite getting top marks in nuclear science entrance exam

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3258336/gifted-china-cat-killer-rejected-top-university-despite-getting-top-marks-nuclear-science-entrance?utm_source=rss_feed

A educationally gifted man has been rejected by a prestigious mainland university because of his history of extreme cruelty to cats.

The man, surnamed Xu, achieved the highest scores in the entrance test to become a nuclear physics major at the School of Physics at Nanjing University in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Admission test results released by the school at the end of March revealed that he had not passed the second test, according to a report in the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.

The School of Physics did not explain why Xu failed, but an official said they had received many complaints about him abusing cats.

According to the university’s admissions guidelines, applicants’ “moral and political qualifications” are taken into consideration and it may not grant admission to those who fail to fulfil that criteria.

“The school paid high attention to the cat abusing incidents. His behaviour might have affected the admission result,” the official said.

At the beginning of March, Xu, a fourth-grade student at Southeast University in Nanjing, was exposed on social media for uploading a series of videos online of him abusing and killing felines in his dormitory.

In one clip, the student was seen putting a cat into a bucket and repeatedly trampling on its head.

After his cruelty went viral online , Nanjing police investigated. Officers educated Xu and his parents, without imposing any punishment.

“Xu said he acknowledged his mistake. He wrote a letter of apology, promising he would not do it again,” a police statement said.

After being rejected by Nanjing University, Xu applied for another top school, Lanzhou University in northwestern China, and was offered a face-to-face interview.

He refused an interview request from the mainland news outlet Red Star News.

“If I talk a lot with you, it will possibly cause another wave of uproar on the internet. It’s not appropriate for me to respond to those things right now,” Xu said.

“I don’t understand public opinion and I am not sure the results from my response to the media will be good or bad for me,” he added.

Xu’s story has sparked a wave of condemnation on mainland social media.

“Every life is equal. If a person abusing cats can be forgiven, a person killing people could also be forgiven,” one online observer said on baidu.com.

“He must pay a heavy price for his actions. He is a dangerous person,” said another.

But one person held a different view: “It’s not easy to cultivate a science researcher. A cat is not as important as talent.”

Was the US-South Korea-Japan drill just about North Korea? China might beg to differ

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259311/was-us-south-korea-japan-drill-just-about-north-korea-china-might-beg-differ?utm_source=rss_feed

Washington’s military cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo may be targeted mainly at North Korea but is also likely to unnerve China, adding impetus to the “transactional” relations between Beijing and Pyongyang, according to analysts.

Last week, South Korea’s navy said it had conducted joint naval drills with the United States and Japan in international waters south of Jeju Island to “improve joint operability against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats”.

The exercise involved six warships – the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, three Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, and two Aegis destroyers from South Korea and Japan.

“This training was conducted to implement a multi-year trilateral training plan jointly established by the defence authorities of [South] Korea, the United States and Japan in accordance with the Camp David Agreement last year,” the South Korean defence ministry said.

How growing Russia-North Korea ties could challenge stability in northeast Asia

The South Korean navy said the forces focused on anti-submarine warfare training and on the ability to respond to North Korean underwater threats, such as submarines and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

The three nations also carried out maritime interception training to block smuggling of weapons of mass destruction, as well as search and rescue training.

Washington has been strengthening military ties with Seoul and Tokyo since the Camp David summit in August, where leaders pledged to “regularise defensive exercises that contribute to strengthening trilateral responses” against North Korean threats.

Last week’s drill followed naval exercises in January among the three countries, with a US aircraft carrier situated at a similar location south of Jeju in the East China Sea.

“The trilateral naval exercises are geared to respond to North Korea threats, but Beijing is certainly watching as the three allies strengthen military cooperation,” said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow and SK-Korea Foundation chair of Korea studies at Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution.

Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the waters – south of Jeju and north of Taiwan – had strategic significance for Beijing.

“As a result, China may be concerned that these Korea-US-Japan security maritime exercises could affect China, especially on the Taiwan Strait issue. It is also an area where there may be concerns about the expansion of security countermeasures against Taiwan,” Cho said.

“From the US perspective, the southern part of Jeju serves as a check on North Korea, but also, due to its geopolitical characteristics, is an area that can also serve as a certain check on China.”

Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said that while the exercises showed systemic cooperation between South Korea and the US in responding to North Korean threats, they would also be “inconvenient” for China.

“Basically, the response against China had been carried out through cooperation between the US and Japan,” Yang said.

“But now, South Korea’s participation in the US-Japan joint training is ultimately leading China to view the trilateral ties as targeting itself.”

Yang said the East China Sea area south of Jeju Island was a “strategic point” for China, because its navy must pass near the island and the Japanese archipelago to go towards the Pacific Ocean.

Kang Jun-young, a professor of Chinese studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, said there could be a “difference in perception” between Seoul and Beijing about the drills, resulting in more friction between the two countries.

Why North Korea is upping the ante through missile tests ahead of US election

“From China’s perspective, the North Korean nuclear issue is nothing new, and the fact that the three countries are training together means that they are trying to keep China in check,” Kang said.

The drill took place as China’s No 3 official Zhao Leji was on a three-day visit to Pyongyang to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday to mark 75 years of bilateral ties.

Zhao, the head of the national legislature, is the highest ranking Chinese official to visit North Korea since Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang in 2019 and North Korea closed its border in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the same time, North Korea has been strengthening ties with Russia, with Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting in September. There are also suspicions that Pyongyang exchanged weapons with Moscow to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“[Zhao’s visit] has the double effect of further strengthening relations with North Korea, thereby keeping North Korea-Russia relations in check, and on the other hand, China is now showing a kind of warning about South Korea-US joint exercises or South Korea-US-Japan trilateral training,” Kang said.

Beijing “does not want to lose any influence over North Korea” to Russia, Kang added, while “China is leading relations with North Korea and Russia, and also leading the competition with the US”, which drives it to continue to provide support to North Korea.

However, Beijing’s strengthened ties with Pyongyang would continue to be “transactional”, according to Yeo.

“Beijing has an incentive to support Pyongyang on the international stage as the US strengthens ties with its allies,” Yeo said. “But China-North Korea relations will have greater constraints and look more transactional given North Korea’s pariah status and lack of transparency.”

Yang said Beijing’s attitude towards Pyongyang had been a “very clever approach”, focusing on political and diplomatic cooperation to contain Washington’s trilateral cooperation without risking any military consequences.

“Right now, China has nothing to gain by overtly engaging with North Korea militarily, and in particular, it could appear to be supporting North Korea’s nuclear development,” Yang said.

“But politically, of course, the relationship between the two sides has been long, and especially now, it can have some meaning in responding to trilateral cooperation between Korea, the US and Japan.”

China’s technology sector faces new round of lay-offs as global firms Ericsson, Tesla, Amazon and Intel continue to shed jobs

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3259702/chinas-technology-sector-faces-new-round-lay-offs-global-firms-ericsson-tesla-amazon-and-intel?utm_source=rss_feed

Sweeping job cuts announced at major global technology companies – including Ericsson, Tesla, Amazon.com and Intel – are sending a chill through the industry in China, where mainland Big Tech firms are also conducting lay-offs.

Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson’s plans in China will involve cutting about 240 positions at its core network research and development (R&D) facility on the mainland, a company representative said in an email.

Ericsson, which last month announced it was axing about 1,200 jobs in its home market, is now “diversifying [its] R&D footprint in alignment to sales”, according to the representative, who added that the company “remains committed to our customers in mainland China” and that it is not exiting the market.

The firm had earlier indicated a contraction in 5G network equipment spending in large markets like the United States.

While China’s Big Tech companies already saw their payrolls shrink in 2022 and 2023 to rein in costs, a number of these firms have joined their multinational counterparts in shedding more jobs on the mainland.

TikTok owner ByteDance, for example, has started lay-offs at enterprise collaboration unit Feishu, affecting about 1,000 employees, according to a South China Morning Post report last month that cited a person familiar with the matter.

Other major Chinese tech companies that have initiated job cuts include Tencent Holdings, Xiaomi, JD.com, Kuaishou Technology, Didi Chuxing, Bilibili and Weibo.

Tesla’s China job cuts, announced internally on Monday, involved mainly sales staff and would not affect production at its Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai.

Only a few dozen employees at the Shanghai plant were told to leave, representing a tiny portion of the 20,000-strong workforce involved in the assembly of Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, but some showrooms across China are likely to face closure, the Post reported on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the lay-offs announced earlier this month by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing services unit of Amazon, has affected an undisclosed number of people, according to a report by Chinese media Leiphone. The report said that the severance pay for certain employees was triple the amount of their average local salary.

An AWS representative, however, said the report was “factually wrong” in terms of the compensation. On the job cuts, AWS “has identified a few targeted areas of the organisation [that it] needs to streamline” and that the firm is “committed to supporting the employees throughout their transition to new roles in and outside Amazon”, the representative said.

An AWS employee, who asked not to be identified, said that “the rising wind forebodes a coming storm”, citing an old Chinese poem about negative signs. Another Amazon employee at a non-AWS unit said that some colleagues were just waiting to be sacked and get their severance pay.

US chip maker Intel, which initiated a new round of lay-offs earlier this month at its sales and marketing unit, could see its mainland China operations affected as early as this week, according to a report by Taiwan newspaper Economic Daily News, citing industrial rumours.

Intel did not immediately respond to an inquiry on Friday.

In spite of the retrenchment across the tech sector, China’s overall unemployment has remained flat. The overall urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2 per cent in March, compared with 5.3 per cent in the first two months of the year.

Former China central bank official warns against miscategorising ‘virtual economy’

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3259683/former-china-central-bank-official-warns-against-miscategorising-virtual-economy?utm_source=rss_feed

With Beijing keen on developing China’s advanced manufacturing sector while shifting away from Washington’s service-centric growth model, a former official has warned against miscategorising what the “virtual economy” really entails.

And echoing a chorus of calls from Chinese leadership and prominent advisers, he also wants to see more drastic measures taken to enhance R&D and high-end producer services.

The comments by Sheng Songcheng, former chief of the central bank’s statistics department, came as the world’s second-largest economy is looking to learn from countries such as Germany that have embraced advancements in manufacturing.

“My view is, we cannot simply categorise the service sector as the ‘virtual economy’,” Sheng said at a forum in Shanghai earlier this week while comparing China’s service sector with that of the United States.

‘Seismic shifts’ in China economy like nothing Beijing predicted, economist says

China’s service sector, which is now the country’s largest source of jobs, accounted for 54.6 per cent of the national gross domestic product last year, lower than 81.2 per cent in the US, he said.

China has long been viewed as the world’s workshop, with its lower-priced but high-quality supplies shipped across the globe. However, its service sector has been growing fast in recent years, and the much-ballyhooed China International Fair for Trade in Services has been held annually in Beijing since 2019.

And as of late, there has been unprecedented emphasis on shoring up support for the real economy in China. Major financial regulators and state-controlled banks have already injected 1 trillion yuan (US$138 billion) worth of liquidity into the market this year by cutting the reserve requirement ratio, and officials have hinted that more such moves could be in the pipeline.

But Sheng warned against splitting the economy along the lines of real and virtual parts, arguing that high-end elements of manufacturing – including research and development, design, patents, branding and sales – also fall into the realm of producer services.

“Without a hi-tech, high-quality service sector – particularly producer services – there would be no advanced manufacturing,” he said.

China’s producer services – which fall under the services sector – account for 31.4 per cent of the national GDP, compared with 47.7 per cent for the US, according to data provided by the former central bank official.

To spur the development and deployment of advanced manufacturing and “new productive forces”, Sheng said, China must increase the share of high-end producer services in the broader economy.

“These high-end elements of manufacturing also belong to the service sector and are tallied as economic output,” he said.

IMF: China bonds, stimulus will buoy world’s No 2 economy amid property crisis

Citing the example of Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei, he said: “Its core competitiveness is far more than just manufacturing. It’s also in R&D, design and patents – all high-end services.”

He also noted that Huawei diverted more than 23 per cent of its 2023 revenue of 704 billion yuan into R&D, the highest total among all Chinese companies.

Sheng said Beijing should step up efforts to nurture the nation’s high-end producer services, while also encouraging consumption in the digital, green and health sectors while fusing digital technologies with the real economy to better integrate service sectors with manufacturing.

Beijing has been on the lookout for new growth sources for China’s economy amid a persistent property crisis, growing trade barriers and the West’s intensifying tech and geopolitical containment efforts.

Leadership is going all-in on promoting “new productive forces” – a catchphrase coined by President Xi Jinping that encapsulates home-grown innovation, a tech-heavy strategy for the nation’s economic transformation, and progression up the value chain.

But a tendency in some localities to prioritise the real economy and manufacturing while marginalising or overlooking the service sector has some economists and officials worried.

“The underdevelopment in producer services is a weak link in our economy, despite our strengths in agriculture and complete manufacturing sectors,” former Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan, an influential voice in China’s economic circles, said last year.

Huang said that only a third of China’s service sector is geared toward producers.

[Sport] Verstappen beats Hamilton to Chinese GP sprint win

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68861885

[Sport] Chinese Grand Prix sprint race - radio & text

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/formula1/67917666[Sport] Chinese Grand Prix sprint race - radio & text

FBI ‘did not intend negative impact’ of prosecuting Chinese academics with ties to Beijing under Trump-era China Initiative

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259722/fbi-did-not-intend-negative-impact-prosecuting-chinese-scientists-and-researchers-ties-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed

The FBI did not intend the “negative impact” that the China Initiative had on the Asian-American community and is willing to learn, said an official from the agency on Friday, addressing members of the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American civic group.

The controversial initiative, enacted during the administration of former president Donald Trump, was launched in November 2018 to prosecute scientific researchers and academics with ties to China.

Ostensibly aimed at stemming industrial espionage by Beijing, it was harshly criticised by Asian-American groups as racist and too willing to punish people for minor paperwork violations.

The China Initiative was officially disbanded in 2022 by the administration of President Joe Biden, although some believe – given the long lead time on investigations and Washington’s deep distrust of China – that it continues in fact, if not in name.

“We value your ideas and your criticisms,” said Jill Murphy, deputy assistant director of counter-intelligence with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “It makes us better.”

Murphy added that she is a supporter of scientific collaboration with China, and that the FBI values its relationship with the Asian-American community, but said it must also ensure that American secrets are protected.

“Hold us accountable,” she added. “My hope is that we can continue our work together.”

Shan-Lu Liu, a virology professor with Ohio State University, said too many academics had been caught up in the law enforcement campaign, undermining US competitiveness, particularly in areas that have nothing to do with national security, such as the search for a cure for cancer.

The scientific community has legitimate concerns, said David Zweig, professor emeritus with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Beijing has impeded efforts to increase academic exchanges, US officials say

There are currently 100,000 Chinese-born scientists in the United States making an enormous contribution to US science and competitiveness.

“China would love to trigger what we call a reverse brain drain, bringing these people back,” said Zweig. “But they haven’t been able to succeed in that very much.”

There’s nothing wrong with trying to entice talent to return and blunt the brain drain, he added. Several economies have talent programmes, including Germany, Canada and Taiwan. “I am one of those drains,” said the Canadian, who now lives in the US.

The problem comes when professors and scientists decide to “return part time”, aiming to be paid by both sides by handing US taxpayer-funded research over to China, often in clandestine fashion, he added.

On the flip side, China’s talent programmes – there are some dozen national programmes in addition to several major provincial ones dating back at least a decade – have been overly aggressive, said Zweig.

“It’s not surprising to me that the United States has responded very strongly,” he said.

US House advances Ukraine and Israel aid, TikTok ban with help from Democrats

“The other side of that is the American response, which I believe was way over the top in terms of the China Initiative … [and it comes] right from the top leaders in Washington.”

One lesson Asian-Americans need to draw from this experience, said participants in the conference, is the need to stand up more forcefully politically and ensure the right balance is maintained between security and successful collaboration.

Added Murphy as she touted the need for greater communication, dialogue and prevention: “Quite frankly, if we have to charge someone, we’ve already lost.”

Special delivery: caring Chinese mother hires crane to lift delicate post-caesarean daughter-in-law to 7th-floor home

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3258248/special-delivery-caring-chinese-mother-hires-crane-lift-delicate-post-caesarean-daughter-law-7th?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman in China who hired a crane to lift her daughter-in-law, who was recovering from birth surgery, to the family’s seventh-floor home has delighted people on mainland social media.

The younger woman was discharged from hospital at the end of March after giving birth by caesarean section, and returned home to Shenyang, Liaoning province, northeastern China, reported Jimu News.

With no lift in the building, the mother-in-law, surnamed Wang, was concerned the new mother would struggle to climb the stairs so soon after surgery.

She asked her son to contact a crane company so they could use the vehicle’s platform.

In a viral video uploaded by Wang on Douyin, a crane worker was seen accompanying a young woman onto the platform while the vehicle elevated them to the balcony of her home.

“I am delighted to have a grandson. My daughter-in-law is discharged from hospital and going home in a crane,” Wang said in a Douyin post.

“I’d like to make my daughter-in-law happy and help her stay healthy. I plan to spoil her as much as I can.

“She has married my son and she is one of our family. If we do not take care of her, who will?” Wang said, adding that her daughter-in-law’s parents live in another city.

The owner of the crane said that it was the first call-out of its kind he had experienced in 15 years in the business.

“Our cranes’ arms can reach 30 metres high and can bear a weight of hundreds of kilograms. There was no safety issue,” the owner said.

Families going the extra mile to care for women after childbirth often trend on social media in China.

In 2023, a husband in the northeast of the country offered his wife 100 yuan for every step she took during her painful recovery from a caesarean section.

In 2022, several male members of a family in southeastern China carried a new mother in a big basket up to her flat, fearing she would experience post-surgery pain if she walked.

FBI chief says Chinese hackers have infiltrated critical US infrastructure

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/19/fbi-china-hack-infrastructure

Chinese government-linked hackers have burrowed into US critical infrastructure and are waiting “for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow”, the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, has warned.

An ongoing Chinese hacking campaign known as Volt Typhoon has successfully gained access to numerous American companies in telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors, with 23 pipeline operators targeted, Wray said in a speech at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday.

China is developing the “ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing”, Wray said at the 2024 Vanderbilt summit on modern conflict and emerging threats.

He added: “Its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic.”

Wray said it was difficult to determine the intent of this cyber pre-positioning, which was aligned with China’s broader intent to deter the US from defending Taiwan.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

Earlier this week, a Chinese ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) spokesperson said Volt Typhoon was in fact unrelated to China’s government, but was part of a criminal ransomware group.

In a statement, China’s embassy in Washington referred back to the MFA spokesperson’s comment, saying: “Some in the US have been using origin-tracing of cyber-attacks as a tool to hit and frame China, claiming the US to be the victim while it’s the other way round, and politicizing cybersecurity issues.”

Wray said China’s hackers operated a series of botnets – constellations of compromised personal computers and servers around the globe – to conceal their malicious cyber activities.

Private sector American technology and cybersecurity companies previously attributed Volt Typhoon to China, including reports by security researchers with Microsoft and Google.

Hong Kong exams body pledges to file police report after more test content leaked on mainland China social media

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3259708/hong-kong-exams-body-pledges-file-police-report-after-more-test-content-leaked-mainland-china-social?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong’s examination authority has pledged to file a police report after more test content from the ongoing university entrance exams emerged on mainland China social media.

The Post on Friday found that a Sichuan-based user on popular Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu had posted the exam booklets of this year’s mathematics as well as citizenship and social development tests.

“[The authority] will continue to stringently follow up on cases in which examination papers of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination were posted on social media platforms,” the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) said in a reply to the Post.

“We will report cases suspected of having contravened the law to the police and fully cooperate with ... the investigation.”

A source said the HKEAA had already reported such cases to police and customs.

According to the HKEAA Ordinance, all appointees of the authority, including DSE examination personnel, should ensure secrecy while performing their duties.

Offenders can face a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and a fine of HK$25,000 (US$3,192).

Police on Thursday arrested a 23-year-old woman, surnamed Lau, on suspicion of violating the HKEAA Ordinance.

Lau is suspected of uploading onto Xiaohongshu the question and answer book for this year’s English-language listening test taken on April 13, prompting the HKEAA complaint to police on Tuesday.

An insider told the Post that she was one of the invigilators for the exams and also worked as a teaching assistant in a secondary school.

The exams authority also said the incident had no impact on the test’s integrity as the leak occurred after it was conducted.

A Post check found another Xiaohongshu account had uploaded the exam papers for this year’s mathematics test on Thursday, as well as the citizenship and social development test on Friday.

Both papers were shared after the exams were held earlier this week.

In its profile bio, the account described itself as an international school in Chengdu that provides the latest on DSE curriculum.

DSE test leak: why sharing Hong Kong exam content online is illegal

Barrister Albert Luk Wai-hung said if the user is based outside Hong Kong, the city’s police would not be able to make arrests, although mainland law enforcement could take action.

He said if the person who posted the papers was an exam officer, he or she would breach the secrecy requirements under the HKEAA ordinance.

If the user did not take part in the exams, they may face civil legal consequences by infringing the copyright laws in Hong Kong, as they did not seek approval to upload the papers from HKEAA, he added.

Luk said the government should ramp up public awareness to let mainlanders know that uploading the papers could lead to imprisonment and criminal records.

He warned that such behaviours could also lead to offences including “misconduct in public office” and “conspiracy”, if more than one public officer is involved. Exam invigilators are considered public officers.

Invigilator arrested over leak of Hong Kong exam content on social media

Technology lawyer Joshua Chu Kiu-wah, said if the case involves criminal matters committed in Hong Kong, the Secretary for Justice could request the transfer of the suspect to the city under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance, but it would depend on mainland authorities.

Mainland social media platforms could also employ artificial intelligence to identify and prevent the uploading of exam papers, he added.

Hans Yeung Wing-yu, a former history subject assessment development manager who worked at HKEAA for 15 years, said such leaks had “spun out of control” as he had also found many other Xiaohongshu users posting or reposting this year’s exam contents.

Someone was even selling exam papers on Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao, China’s largest online marketplace, he added. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

He said this year was the first time the HKEAA established assessment centres on the mainland for about 110 pupils from two schools to sit the exams across the border.

“It has created a market. Many courses are teaching the DSE curriculum on the mainland, not only in Shenzhen and Guangzhou,” he said.

“If these two exam centres are deemed successful, there may be more centres set up in other mainland cities ... this could lead to more leaks on other mainland platforms, not only Xiaohongshu.”

The practice of sharing exam papers after the tests was acceptable on the mainland, he added.

Yeung suggested authorities relax restrictions on sharing test content and publish the exam questions for free so that there would not be a need to leak them.

South China Sea: will Beijing hold back during the US-Philippine Balikatan military drills?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259653/south-china-sea-will-china-hold-back-during-us-philippine-balikatan-military-drills?utm_source=rss_feed

Next week’s massive Philippine-US naval drills to be held in the midst of flaring tensions in the South China Sea will put both Beijing’s self-proclaimed restraint and the fragile US-China detente to the test, observers said.

In a show of force aimed at China, the three-week Balikatan “shoulder to shoulder” exercise gets under way on Monday and will be the biggest held between the two countries since its launch in 1991.

The exercise is meant to underscore Washington’s commitment to its regional allies and its deepening involvement in the maritime dispute.

But the drills and Manila’s continued pivot towards Washington could also reinforce Beijing’s view that Manila is increasingly relying on external interference to internationalise the maritime dispute and counter China, according to pundits.

Philippine coastguard to join US drills for first time as China tensions swirl

This year the annual exercise will for the first time be conducted beyond the 12 nautical mile territorial waters of the Philippines, including in areas facing Taiwan and the disputed waters in the South China Sea, both potential flashpoints between Beijing and Washington.

In another first, Philippine Coast Guard staff will also be among the 17,000 or so troops taking part. Most of the personnel will be from the Philippines and the US, with contributions from Australia and France.

The Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the drills were designed to “flex muscles and stoke confrontation”, with spokesman Lin Jian warning of rising tensions and instability.

“To hand over one’s security to forces outside the region will only lead to greater insecurity and turn oneself into someone else’s chess piece,” he said, adding that China would take “necessary measures” without elaboration.

China’s top diplomat and foreign minister, Wang Yi, also weighed in on Thursday during a charm offensive tour of Southeast Asia, calling on countries in the region to work with Beijing to oppose external meddling.

“We must be on high alert about the cobbling together of various ‘small circles’ in the region, oppose any attempts to create bloc rivalry and confrontation, and cherish and safeguard the hard-won peace and stability in the region,” he said after meeting his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Jakarta.

Gregory Poling, a senior fellow and director of the Southeast Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said this year’s drills, which involved many “firsts”, was “a continuation of trends, not a radical departure”.

“[It] continued the evolution toward larger, more multilateral, and more sophisticated drills which we’ve seen for several years … which could have been interpreted as training for contingencies involving China,” he said.

Lucio Blanco Pitlo III, a research fellow at the Manila-based Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation think tank, said the location of the drills reflected the importance the Philippines attached to its sovereignty claims and how allies and partners played a part in the evolving approach.

“Manila is leveraging its alliance and security partnerships to upgrade its maritime capacity and deter further Chinese incursions in its waters. It shows a willingness to bear some risk to demonstrate its resolve in defending its maritime interests,” he said.

The Philippine Coast Guard’s debut was recognition of the challenge posed by Beijing’s “grey-zone” activities, following several minor collisions and incidents involving China’s use of water cannons, according to Pitlo.

While the drills could improve coordination between the Philippine military and its allies, Manila’s hardening approach towards China could “fit into Beijing’s view that Manila is militarising the issue and thereby pounce on it to escalate its reply”.

He expressed concerns about the risk of mishaps and conflict if Beijing chose to respond militarily.

“Knowing Beijing’s scorn for internationalising the dispute and the intervention of non-parties in the spat, Manila risks further drawing its big neighbour’s ire. China will respond to these allied drills, and the proliferation of vessels and aircraft in that contested maritime and airspace increases the risk of mishaps,” he said.

Beijing has dialled up its criticism of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and his pro-US stance and stepped up military preparations for a possible conflict, including staging live-fire drills near the disputed waters ahead of the Balikatan exercise.

Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia programme and director of the China programme at the Washington-based Stimson Centre, said the Balikatan drills were obviously “a deterrence message” to Beijing.

“More and more countries are supporting the Philippines’ position, regardless of China’s opposition. The optics of the giant Chinese Coast Guard ships using water cannon on the small [Philippine] ship are simply horrendous. The sympathy is on Manila’s side,” she said.

But Shi Yinhong, a professor of international affairs at Beijing’s Renmin University, said China was unlikely to escalate its response to the joint US-Philippine drills, given the need to stabilise ties with the US.

He said a dramatic escalation of tensions “seems unlikely in the short term”, given China’s rather moderate response following the first summit between the US, Japan and the Philippines in Washington last week.

At the gathering, US President Joe Bien vowed to defend the Philippines from any attacks in the South China Sea, which he said would invoke their long-standing mutual defence treaty.

“China does not appear to be interested in engaging in symmetrical countermeasures, as it tends to focus on ‘strengthening itself and planning for the long term’,” Shi said.

Despite the risk of mishaps leading to conflict, Tan See Seng, a research adviser at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, also said a war with the US in the South China Sea would not make sense for either Beijing or Washington.

He described the drills as “an expression of Washington’s commitment to an ally” and a response to “China’s persistent show of force and aggressive conduct in that area”.

“But whether that commitment implies the US is ready to go to war against China in the South China Sea – or in the Taiwan Strait for that matter – is, however, unclear,” he said.

According to Tan, China would likely respond by stepping up military patrols in the disputed waters and staging military drills, all the while dialling up its rhetoric towards Manila and Washington.

“But whether this behaviour signals China’s readiness to take things beyond its usual level of grey-zone activities – designed largely to aggravate but not necessarily to start a war – is uncertain,” he said.

“Both Washington and Beijing are no doubt aware of this and are likely taking the necessary precautions to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

He said that while Biden needed to show to voters that he was an international leader whom the world could trust, China’s President Xi Jinping was also in a tough spot to “substantiate all his tough talk over Taiwan and the South China Sea”.

“By the same token, both Biden and Xi also value detente as a way to cool rising US-China tensions. It’s the balancing of these opposites and keeping the regional peace that will test the mettle of both these leaders,” he said.

US appeal court hears arguments on Florida law restricting property ownership by Chinese

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3259718/us-appeal-court-hears-arguments-florida-law-restricting-property-ownership-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed

A US appeal court on Friday heard counsel for four Chinese immigrants argue that a Florida law restricting their ability to buy property violates their constitutional rights to equal protection and fair housing, while the state’s counsel said the limitation was in the best interests of national security.

The plaintiffs – Yifan Shen, Zhiming Xu, Xinxi Wang, Yongxin Liu and Florida-based real estate firm Multi-Choice Realty – are asking the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals to block enforcement of the law while a challenge against it makes its way through district court.

“Florida’s law discriminates based on national origin in violation of the Fair Housing Act and the equal protection clause. By restricting housing based on Chinese domicile, Florida is unlawfully restricting housing for Chinese people,” Ashley Gorski of the American Civil Liberties Union argued for the plaintiffs.

A decision is not expected for a few weeks or months.

Requiring individuals to provide an affidavit establishing their place of domicile and to register the property if they are from certain countries puts a distinct burden on Chinese individuals, Gorski contended.

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

She also told the three-judge panel in Miami that Florida’s law conflicts with the US president’s “ability to speak for the nation with one voice on matters of foreign policy” – an argument that the same court has previously found compelling.

In February, the appeal court approved temporary relief from the law for two of the plaintiffs after a Florida District Court ruled against their motion to block it preliminarily last August.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the measure, known as SB 264, in May 2023, and it first went into effect last July.

SB 264 restricts Florida property purchases by anyone “domiciled” in a “country of concern” unless they are a US citizen or permanent resident. The designated countries of concern are China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela.

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

But the law imposes harsher limits on those domiciled in China. In Florida, one’s domicile is typically defined as where he has a good-faith intent to establish his home permanently or indefinitely, regardless of current physical location.

While those domiciled in the other targeted countries are restricted from owning property within 10 miles (16km) of any military installation or critical infrastructure facility, the Florida law restricts those domiciled in China from owning any property, regardless of proximity.

The law does make allowances: A person domiciled in China who either has a valid non-tourist US visa or has been granted asylum in the US is permitted to buy residential property, but only if the property is less than two acres and located farther than five miles from a military installation.

Critics of the law have said that the exception is too narrow, arguing that Florida’s many military bases leave relatively little land accessible to Chinese buyers.

During Friday’s hearing, Judge Charles R. Wilson asked the state’s representative, Nathan Forrester of the Florida attorney general’s office, how many square miles are not within a five-mile radius of a military installation or critical infrastructure facility in Florida. Forrester did not have an answer.

Wilson also pressed him about the criminal liability required for realtors who may not be able to ensure that the affidavits signed by potential buyers is accurate.

SB 264 provides especially harsh penalties for cases dealing with Chinese buyers – up to five years in prison for people trying to buy a home and up to one year in prison for sellers.

The issue of legal standing was a focus of debate on Friday, as Judge Robert Luck questioned whether some plaintiffs were indeed domiciled in China, given that some had made statements suggesting they intended to stay in the United States.

In signing SB 264, DeSantis, who then had aspirations to run for president, said the law was part of the state’s standing up to the Chinese Communist Party, which he called the “greatest geopolitical threat” to the US.

Forrester clung to that justification on Friday: “The concern is that Chinese domiciliaries are uniquely prone to influence by the Chinese government,” he told the court.

Ron DeSantis lashes out at China and corporate power in campaign speech

Responding to arguments that Florida is pre-empting federal law by taking foreign policy into its own hands, Forrester argued that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – an inter-agency federal body tasked with scrutinising cross-border deals – has limited jurisdiction and resources to deal with “areas that quite plausibly going to raise national security concerns”.

He added that Florida’s action “in many respects lines up exactly with things that the federal government has said are of concern”, noting that the FBI highlights the distinct threats posed by China on its website.

Members of Florida’s Asian-American community held a rally outside the courthouse on Friday, protesting the law.

“Florida’s SB 264 is a relic from a long history of similarly racist land laws in this country that were wrong then and are wrong now,” said Bethany Li, legal director of the Asian American Legal Defence and Education Fund.

“This law targets Chinese people in clear violation of the Constitution, and its chilling effect reaches even further, hurting all Asian-Americans who call this country home,” she added.

Legislation restricting Chinese property and land purchases have been introduced or enacted in more than two-thirds of US states, most of them Republican-controlled.

The spate of laws began with concerns over a rise in Chinese entities buying agricultural land, some located near American military installations. Apprehension has extended to individual Chinese buying property, despite little evidence of a credible threat from the entities or individuals.

Anti-Chinese laws take toll in Florida as Ron DeSantis’ presidential run falters

Foreign ownership accounts for about 3 per cent of privately held agricultural land in the US, and Chinese entities own less than 1 per cent of that amount.

Still, some states have approved bills targeting Chinese land purchases in recent months. In March, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed a bill restricting Chinese nationals and “evil foreign governments” including China from owning land in the state.

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China’s ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu leaves post amid tensions

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3259719/chinas-ambassador-canada-cong-peiwu-leaves-post-amid-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s ambassador to Canada has left his post after nearly five years, a period marked by heightened tensions between the two countries.

Cong Peiwu has returned to China, according to a representative for Global Affairs Canada who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. The news was first reported by the Globe and Mail. China’s embassy in Ottawa declined to comment.

Relations between Canada and China have been strained in the past few years, most recently over concerns about possible meddling by China into Canadian elections. Canada is in the midst of a public inquiry into alleged foreign election interference, primarily by China.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified last week that he did not believe China was successful in swaying the outcome of Canada’s 2019 or 2021 elections.

Still, Trudeau noted that the past two elections occurred during a time of significant strife between the countries.

China detained two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, for nearly three years in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei Technologies’ former Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a US extradition request.

The two men were released in September 2021 after Meng struck a deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities and returned to China.

Cong’s exit comes as one of Canada’s most senior diplomats, Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison, is visiting China. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly has not travelled to the country since her appointment in late 2021, but has signalled her pursuit of “pragmatic diplomacy,” engaging with non-like-minded countries.

Beijing’s foreign ministry arm in Hong Kong hits out at US, Canada travel warnings

Last year, Canada expelled a Chinese diplomat accused of targeting a Canadian Conservative lawmaker and his family in Hong Kong, prompting China to turf a Canadian envoy in response.

Cong said in an interview at the time that China would like to see the relationship “back on track”.

“But it’s up to the Canadian side to make sure that they will correct mistakes and not to be engaged in any further provocation or confrontation,” Cong said.

He also recently said that his country will continue to do business in Canada’s domestic critical minerals sector despite Trudeau’s crackdown on foreign investment.

China seeks greater global diplomatic role but avoids the Middle East, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259720/china-seeks-greater-global-diplomatic-role-avoids-middle-east-analysts-say?utm_source=rss_feed

While China seeks greater diplomatic reach, the better to undermine US global leadership, it is unable and unwilling to engage in the necessary security guarantees the Middle East requires, analysts testified in hearings by a leading China policy panel in Washington on Friday.

Jon Alterman, senior vice-president of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission that Beijing regards the Middle East as “a place with far more dangers than promises”, a region with “intractable security challenges”.

He argued that Chinese diplomats saw little benefit in helping to solve the region’s problems and that Beijing would not pursue overt involvement in mediating controversial issues such as the conflict between Israel and Hamas or the Iranian threat to regional stability.

“There is no desire to play a role. There’s just a desire to sit at the grown-ups’ table,” Alterman said.

“China’s goal is partly to quietly enjoy the fact that the US is getting bruised here, but also to try to use the conflict in Gaza as a way to rally the Global South against the United States,” he added.

In recent years, Beijing has intensified its diplomatic and economic outreach in the Middle East, particularly towards nations in the Persian Gulf.

In December 2022, President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia on a state trip, welcomed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. During his visit, Xi pledged to increase the purchase of Saudi oil and gas using the Chinese yuan.

In response, the prince stated that the two nations were entering a “new historic phase in relations,” and highlighted China’s policy of “non-interference” in domestic issues. At the time, Riyadh faced global isolation following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

In 2023, China and Saudi Arabia signed a monumental national currency swap deal, valued at around 50 billion yuan for 26 billion Saudi riyals, or roughly US$7 billion.

Additionally, Beijing successfully mediated the reconciliation of Saudi Arabia and Iran, who had severed diplomatic ties in 2016. This detente was promoted by Chinese officials as a key achievement of Xi’s Global Security Initiative, launched at the 2022 Boao Forum.

However, the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza since October has tested Beijing’s resolve in the region. Chinese officials have repeatedly called for moderation and the reduction of hostilities. In November, Xi advocated for a ceasefire and the establishment of humanitarian channels into Gaza, though Chinese diplomats have abstained from directly mediating peace talks.

Experts said diplomatic rapprochement with China serves the interests of regional players by setting an example: a rising global power that has refused to embrace liberal values or push for reforms in its domestic policies that suit US interests.

But the delicate balance of forces in the Middle East has proved more difficult than Beijing could have expected. Jonathan Fulton, a fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programme, said that Hamas’ attacks on Israel in October and the start of the war in Gaza showed the limits of what China can do in the region.

Fulton also said that there was an “exaggeration” in the way Chinese participation in the rapprochement between Saudis and Iranians was reported.

He recalled that several actors in the region, especially Iraq, were responsible for “most of the heavy lifting in the deal that was announced” and that they turned to Beijing because “they needed a great-power sponsor and China, with its comprehensive strategic partnerships, was able to play a role that no other great power could”.

“I don’t think that necessarily means that China had a whole lot to do with the construction of it,” Fulton argued.

“China is primarily an economic actor in the region. It has tremendous interest. That doesn’t necessarily mean it has tremendous influence.”

Iran tells Chinese foreign minister it will not escalate violence against Israel

China also opted not to participate in a coalition aimed at ceasing attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on international shipping in the region.

The Houthis, a Shiite militia backed by Iran and in power since 2014, have threatened all foreign vessels in the Red Sea, ostensibly in support of the Palestinians, whom they claim are “victims of crimes committed by Israel”, according to their statements.

In a significant diplomatic engagement about the Middle East, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bangkok in January.

The US urged China to leverage its influence over Iran to halt support for the militias, but no firm commitments were secured.

A senior US official later said in a call with journalists that “Beijing says they are raising this with the Iranians … but we’re certainly going to wait before we comment further on how effectively we think they’re actually raising it”.

Separately, last month, Bloomberg reported that at a meeting in Oman, Mohammed Abdel Salam, a principal Houthi political representative, assured Russian and Chinese diplomats that their naval vessels would not be targeted in the Red Sea.

In exchange, Bloomberg said, both nations promised the Houthis diplomatic backing in forums including the UN Security Council. China has not officially responded to these reports.

Fulton contended that Chinese inaction was not due to a lack of will, but to Beijing’s feeling that its diplomats had no answer to the crisis and could not influence either the Houthi militias or Iran.

China voices ‘deep concern’ over escalation following Iranian attack on Israel

“The Saudis were expecting to see something. They were like ‘Look, we’ve rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping … we are [one of your] biggest suppliers of energy and now we need you’,” Fulton said.

“But China didn’t have to do these things because their ships weren’t being attacked.”

Agreeing with Fulton, Dawn Murphy, a professor at the National Defense University, said that Beijing was, as a result, also unlikely to bear the political cost of regional negotiations to end the Gaza conflict, for example.

Murphy maintained that the Chinese were counting on American efforts to align with Israel and keep a military presence – then capitalise on the erosion of global trust in US diplomacy.

“This is a way to differentiate themselves and, through inaction, show that [it is different] from their perspective, that they’re on the side of peace,” she said.

China sees ‘opportune moment’ as it pushes for direct Russia-Ukraine talks

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259671/china-saw-opportune-moment-it-pushes-direct-talks-between-russia-and-ukraine?utm_source=rss_feed

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeared to have secured Chinese support for the Ukraine peace summit when he was in Beijing this week, though it is still not clear if Xi Jinping will attend.

China is among more than 100 nations invited to Switzerland for the conference in June to discuss how to end the war, which has dragged on for more than two years.

While China has yet to confirm its attendance, it has been pushing for Russia to take part, with special envoy Li Hui lobbying in European capitals last month.

Observers say Li’s trip achieved little, but that China – aiming to be a peace broker – has seen an opportunity to push for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, with the Swiss summit the first step.

Björn Alexander Düben, an international relations lecturer at Jilin University in northeast China, said Li was sent to Europe because Beijing saw an “opportune moment” to sway Kyiv and Brussels to make concessions amid “shaky” Western support and Ukraine’s recent setbacks on the battlefields.

Russia is expanding gains in eastern Ukraine after it took control of Avdiivka, in Donetsk Oblast, in February, and is now trying to seize the strategic city of Chasiv Yar. Ukraine, meanwhile, is running out of soldiers and ammunition amid stalled support from the US.

Düben said China’s efforts in Europe could also be seen as “signalling” to the Global South that it is a responsible power.

“The most cynical interpretation might be, China just wants to be seen as a peacemaker … when the US is perceived by more people around the world as not so much of a responsible actor in the context of what’s happening in Gaza,” he said.

China has sought to expand its influence in the Global South amid an intensifying rivalry with the United States.

It also wants to be a global peacemaker, brokering a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran last year and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The US is meanwhile under pressure over the military funding and support it provides to Israel.

In Europe, special envoy Li would have stressed the urgency of negotiations on the Ukraine war given the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House, according to Victor Gao, vice-president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a think tank in Beijing.

Ukraine’s Zelensky says Nato must choose ‘whether we indeed are allies’

Trump has reportedly said he will cut off US aid to Ukraine if he is re-elected in November and has threatened to end the war “in 24 hours” – unsettling many European Union countries including France and Germany, which have made more long-term security commitments to Ukraine.

“Now the West or Nato, led by the United States, does not have a unified and consistent position” on support for Ukraine, said Gao, also a chair professor at Soochow University in eastern China.

He said Li would have tried to leverage this during his talks in Europe.

Li was also on a mission to prevent further “spillover” of the conflict – especially after French President Emmanuel Macron floated the possibility of involving Nato troops, according to Wang Yiwei, a European affairs specialist at Renmin University in Beijing.

Germany and Nato rejected Macron’s idea, and US President Joe Biden said he would not involve American troops.

Back in Beijing, Li said the “large gap” between the involved parties had made mediation difficult, but they had agreed that the conflict would ultimately be resolved through peace talks.

Moscow has said it is open to talks with Kyiv, but Ukraine insists it will not start negotiations until Russian troops are withdrawn from its territory – a condition Moscow does not accept.

Li’s trip was met with scepticism in Europe, with some officials in Brussels saying he was just repeating “Moscow’s talking points”.

Li had told EU officials no discussion on Ukraine’s territorial integrity would take place until the violence stops, the Post reported earlier, citing people familiar with the talks. He said that could only happen when the EU stopped sending weapons to Ukraine.

Beijing claims to be neutral in the conflict, but has drawn criticism for providing economic support to Moscow amid international sanctions. It has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nor called on Moscow to withdraw its troops.

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Grzegorz Stec, who heads the Brussels office of German think tank the Mercator Institute of China Studies, said Li’s trip achieved “scarce” results as the EU remains sceptical about Beijing’s intentions.

“Expectations in European capitals were low from the onset, as shown by the lower rank and number of officials that met with Li this time compared to his visit last year,” he said.

Li’s first peace mission last May included a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that came soon after Zelensky’s phone call with Chinese leader Xi – their first and only talks since the conflict began in February 2022.

“The trip appears to have been … probing the EU’s resolve on supporting Kyiv and gauging space for a peace formula that would accommodate Russia’s demands,” Stec said.

Li’s trip was also about trying to improve relations and to push Brussels to lift restrictions on Chinese companies it accuses of helping Russia to circumvent EU sanctions, according to Düben from Jilin University.

He said while Beijing appeared to be renewing its mediation efforts by sending Li on a second peace mission after not doing “an awful lot” since his first, many in Europe were unconvinced since top leaders like Xi are not directly involved.

China’s push for immediate peace talks without calling for Russian troops to withdraw is also “highly unpopular” in Ukraine, according to Iliya Kusa, an international relations expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future in Kyiv.

“I would say that there are no high expectations from China’s role and that people tend to think that China will not do anything real to pressure Russia to help Ukraine,” he said.

Chinese analysts say the West has overestimated Beijing’s influence on Moscow, which will not withdraw its troops when it appears to have gained the upper hand in the war.

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Russia now occupies nearly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and parts of the four provinces in the east.

Gao from the Beijing think tank said China’s peace proposal was “realistic”.

He also defended China’s neutrality in the conflict, saying it has never recognised Crimea and the four eastern Ukrainian states as parts of Russia, and has stressed that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries are protected by the UN Charter.

China called for the charter to be upheld in a 12-point position paper on Ukraine released last February, which also says legitimate security concerns should be properly handled.

“China’s logic is very pragmatic,” Gao said. “First to have a truce, then draw a line of actual control and cease hostility along that, to gain time to solve these [territorial] problems.”

Russia has justified its invasion of Ukraine as a response to the eastward expansion of Nato, which Kyiv wants to join, and President Vladimir Putin has said that “Russia will fight for its interests to the end”.

Wu Fei, an expert in Russian studies at Jinan University in southern China, said the prolonged conflict underscored Moscow’s aim to “reaffirm its status as a major geopolitical power”.

Putin has long had a vision to revive his country as a major power after the Soviet Union’s collapse. He reaffirmed this goal for Russia to be a “global power” through “reclaiming, consolidating and augmenting its sovereignty” in a speech in November.

Russia also sees China as a “viable peacemaker”, according to Vasily Kashin, a China expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

Kashin said that was because of its “huge influence on the countries of the Global South, many of which have already expressed support to the Chinese position in one form or another”.

He said Beijing could be a “key mediator” since, unlike Moscow, its communication channels with the West remain open despite strained ties.

But Li’s proposal to invite Russia to the peace summit in Switzerland received the cold shoulder in Europe, with EU officials describing the plan as a “non-starter”.

Bern agreed to host the summit at Zelensky’s request, as he seeks support for his 10-point peace plan. Previous talks have been held in Saudi Arabia and Malta without Russia’s participation. China attended the Riyadh talks and has said it would prefer both Russia and Ukraine to be involved.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a research fellow at the Paris-based Asia Centre think tank, said he doubted China would succeed with the proposal. “There is still a lot of work to do to convince both Ukraine and Russia to sit down and talk,” he said.

Moscow appears to be lukewarm on the Switzerland talks, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accusing Bern of not being neutral on the conflict because it imposed sanctions on Russia.

Kashin said Russia would “clearly prefer that any possible talks happen in a non-Western country”. “Russia will not participate in any discussions of the ‘Zelensky peace formula’ simply because Russia is currently slowly winning the war,” he said.

It is also unlikely that Ukraine would allow Russia to join the summit, according to Kusa. Zelensky has previously rejected the idea and said “representatives” at the summit would brief Moscow afterwards.

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But Xi’s meeting with Scholz this week suggests Beijing may continue its efforts, with the German leader saying they had agreed to “coordinate intensively” on the Swiss and “future international peace conferences”.

Wang from Renmin University said Xi could discuss the summit with Putin when he visits China next month, while Scholz and other EU and Nato leaders may try to convince Ukraine to allow Moscow to take part. He said if that happened it could create the possibility of direct negotiations.

Bern has said the conference aims to create “a concrete road map for Russia’s participation in the peace process” and to build on Zelensky’s plan, which it said would not be “exclusively at the core”.

Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Centre in Washington, said Beijing did not see a peace deal “originating from Russia’s unilateral concessions, which means that Ukraine will have to revise its peace plan and proposal to be more realistic”.

Alina Hrytsenko, senior consultant at the National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv, said the logic of Ukraine’s peace formula was changing – to allow countries to support areas not exclusively seen as Ukrainian interests like nuclear safety and food security instead of endorsing the whole plan – so that it was more likely to gain support from China and other countries.

In Europe, Li reportedly told Brussels that Beijing would not take part in the conference if Moscow was not there, according to Politico.

But Hrytsenko expected China was likely to participate, though a lower-level official such as Li could attend.

Ukrainian envoy to China Pavlo Riabikin invited Beijing to join the summit in a meeting with Li on Thursday, a day after Scholz left China.

Tensions are again rising between Russia and Ukraine in the wake of last month’s Moscow concert hall attack, which killed at least 144 people.

The Islamic State Afghan branch ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack, but Putin has accused Kyiv of playing a role and promised revenge. Kyiv has denied any involvement.

Observers agree that direct peace talks are unlikely at this stage.

However “some Western governments” now hope that “with China’s backing”, negotiations involving Russia could start “before the end of this year”, The Wall Street Journal reported this week, citing Western officials.

But according to Wang, “the trajectory of the war does not depend on China … the West holds the key”.

“China is not a party to the war, and we cannot determine victory or defeat on the battlefield, or [factors] such as ammunition, personnel or Trump.”