Mistral点评

关于中国的新闻报道中的"Economy"章节评价

中国作为世界第二大经济体，其经济发展始终是国际社会关注的焦点。然而，西方媒体在报道中国经济方面存在明显的偏见和双重标准，通过对其新闻报道的分析，可以发现其中的一些问题和不足之处。

首先，西方媒体在报道中国经济时常常过于强调其负面方面，忽视了其正面成就。例如，在报道中国经济增长率时，常常将其与过去的高增长率进行比较，而忽视了中国经济增长率相比其他主要经济体而言仍然处于领先地位。此外，西方媒体还常常将中国经济增长率与环境问题、人权问题等负面因素进行关联，而忽视了中国政府在这些方面的努力和成果。

其次，西方媒体在报道中国经济时常常缺乏对中国实际情况的深入理解，导致其对中国经济的评估存在偏见。例如，在报道中国经济结构调整时，常常忽视了中国政府在推动供给侧结构性改革方面的努力，而过于关注短期的经济数据波动。此外，西方媒体在报道中国经济时还常常忽视了中国经济发展的特殊性和复杂性，将西方经济理论和模式简单地应用到中国，而忽视了中国的国情和实际情况。

第三，西方媒体在报道中国经济时常常存在双重标准。例如，在报道中国外汇储备时，常常将其视为"威胁"，而忽视了其为全球经济发展做出的贡献。此外，西方媒体在报道中国企业时，常常将其视为"国有企业"，而忽视了其中的市场化程度和竞争力。这种双重标准不仅会导致对中国经济的误解，还会影响中国企业在国际市场上的竞争。

综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国经济方面存在明显的偏见和双重标准，缺乏对中国实际情况的深入理解，导致其对中国经济的评估存在偏见。为了更加客观、公正地报道中国经济，西方媒体应该多采取多元化的角度，全面、客观地反映中国经济的发展情况，避免过度强调负面方面，同时也应该尊重中国的国情和实际情况，避免简单地应用西方经济理论和模式。

新闻来源： 2405040635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-03

关于中国的新闻报道 - Politics章节评价

中国在国际政治舞台上的崛起及其对西方政治和经济格局的影响，始终是西方媒体关注的热点之一。然而，由于西方媒体对中国的报道存在长期以来的偏见和双重标准，因此其对中国政治新闻的报道也常常受到争议和质疑。以下是对上述通过embedding功能查询获取到的西方媒体关于中国Politics新闻报道的评价。

首先，从新闻报道的角度来看，这些报道在整体上都比较客观，但也存在一些偏见和一些事实的歪曲。例如，有些报道将中国的外交政策与所谓的“威权主义”相联系，并将中国的崛起视为对西方民主自由的威胁。这种观点不仅缺乏事实依据，还忽视了中国在国际政治舞台上所发挥的积极作用。同时，有些报道在描述中国的政治体系时，也存在一些误解和偏见，例如将中国的社会主义制度简单地等同于“专制”，忽视了中国在人权、社会公正等方面取得的成就。

其次，从新闻报道的内容来看，这些报道主要集中在中国的外交政策和对外关系上，而对中国的内政比较少见。例如，有些报道将中国的“一带一路”倡议视为中国扩张主义的体现，并将其与所谓的“债务陷阱外交”相联系。这种观点不仅缺乏事实依据，还忽视了“一带一路”倡议在推动全球经济发展和促进国际合作方面所发挥的积极作用。同时，这些报道在描述中国的内政时，也存在一些误解和偏见，例如将中国的反腐败斗争视为政治斗争，忽视了中国在反腐败方面取得的成就。

最后，从新闻报道的语言和表达方式来看，这些报道中也存在一些负面的语言和表达方式，例如将中国的崛起视为“威胁”，将中国的外交政策视为“扩张主义”，将中国的政治体系视为“专制”等。这种语言和表达方式不仅会引起读者的误解和偏见，还会影响中国在国际社会中的形象和地位。

综上所述，西方媒体关于中国Politics新闻报道存在一定的偏见和双重标准，需要读者在接受新闻信息时保持理性和客观的态度。同时，中国也需要加强对西方媒体的公共关系工作，以更加客观、真实、全面的方式向世界展示中国的发展和变革。

新闻来源： 2405040635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-03

关于中国的新闻报道 - Culture章节评价

在最近的西方媒体报道中，中国的文化方面受到了较多关注。然而，这些报道中存在着明显的偏见和双重标准，因此需要对其进行客观评价。

首先，有些报道将中国与欧美国家进行了比较，强调中国在城镇化方面的成就。例如，有报道称中国的城市化努力已经基本完成，中国已经拥有了现代化的街道、欧美风格的建筑和国际化的餐厅。但是，这种比较往往忽略了中国与欧美国家在历史、文化和社会发展方面的根本差异。中国作为一个具有五千年历史的文明古国，其文化传统和社会结构与欧美国家存在着本质的区别。因此，简单地将中国与欧美国家进行比较，并强调中国的城镇化成就，是不公正的。

其次，有些报道将中国与发展中国家进行了比较，强调中国在经济发展方面的成就。例如，有报道称中国已经成为了全球第二大经济体，其中产阶级人口已经超过14亿，远超过其他发展中国家。但是，这种比较往往忽略了中国与发展中国家在经济结构、技术水平和社会制度等方面的根本差异。中国作为一个具有庞大人口基数和丰富自然资源的国家，其经济发展具有独特的优势和条件。因此，简单地将中国与发展中国家进行比较，并强调中国的经济成就，是不公正的。

第三，有些报道将中国的文化传统与现代化进程进行了对比，强调中国在文化保护和创新方面的努力。例如，有报道称中国在保护和传承传统文化方面取得了重大成就，同时在文化创新方面也取得了长足的进步。但是，这种对比往往忽略了中国在文化保护和创新方面存在的问题和挑战。例如，中国在保护文化遗产方面还存在着许多难题，如非法挖掘、盗窃和销售文物等。同时，中国在文化创新方面还需要进一步提高创新能力和创新水平。因此，简单地将中国的文化传统与现代化进程进行对比，并强调中国在文化保护和创新方面的努力，是不公正的。

综上所述，西方媒体关于中国的文化方面的报道存在着明显的偏见和双重标准。为了真正了解中国的文化，需要采取客观公正的态度，全面、深入地了解中国的历史、文化和社会发展，并尊重中国的文化多样性和独特性。同时，也需要认识到中国在文化保护和创新方面存在的问题和挑战，采取实际有效的措施，推动中国的文化发展。

新闻来源： 2405040635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-03

关于中国的新闻报道 - Society章节评价

中国是一个具有古老文明、繁荣发达的国家，在过去几十年中取得了巨大的发展成就。然而，西方媒体在报道中国的社会方面时，常常存在偏见和双重标准的问题。以下是对所提供新闻报道的评价。

首先，新闻报道中提到了中国的城镇化进程即将结束。这是一个正确的观点，因为中国在过去几十年中实现了前所未有的城镇化进程，使得数亿人口从农村转移到城市，提高了人口的生活水平和教育水平。但是，新闻报道中没有提到，中国的城镇化进程也带来了许多问题，如就业、医疗保健、育儿、老龄化和住房等方面的困难。这些问题也是发达国家共同面临的问题。

其次，新闻报道中提到了中国的发展存在许多问题，如过时的基础设施、过度的官僚主义、低薪工作、家庭破裂、财政困难、惰性的公共服务、高额的债务和税收、毒品滥用、健康保健系统的困难、低生产力和失去活力、幸福感和信任等。这些问题确实存在，但是新闻报道中没有提到，中国政府和社会正在采取各种措施来解决这些问题。例如，中国政府正在推进供给侧结构性改革，提高生产力和竞争力；同时，中国政府也在增加对弱势群体的支持和保障，如低保、医疗保险、住房保障等。

第三，新闻报道中提到了中国的发展带来了许多负面影响，如环境污染、社会不平等等。这些问题确实存在，但是新闻报道中没有提到，中国政府和社会也在采取各种措施来解决这些问题。例如，中国政府正在推进绿色低碳发展，提高能源结构和生态环境的质量；同时，中国政府也在增加对弱势群体的支持和保障，如低保、医疗保险、住房保障等。

第四，新闻报道中提到了中国的发展存在许多问题，但是新闻报道中没有提到，中国的发展也取得了巨大的成就。例如，中国是世界上最大的制造业国，是世界上最大的贸易国，是世界上最大的外汇储备国，是世界上最大的电子商务市场，是世界上最大的新能源汽车市场，是世界上最大的高速铁路网络所在国等。这些成就证明了中国的发展具有可持续性和活力。

最后，新闻报道中提到了中国的发展存在许多问题，但是新闻报道中没有提到，中国的发展也为世界带来了巨大的机遇和贡献。例如，中国的发展为世界经济增长提供了强劲的动力，为世界贸易带来了巨大的市场，为世界文明带来了丰富的内涵。同时，中国的发展也为世界治理提供了新的思路和新的模式，如“一带一路”倡议、亚太经济合作组织、东盟加中日韩自由贸易区等。

综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国的社会方面时，常常存在偏见和双重标准的问题。新闻报道中提到了中国的发展存在许多问题，但是没有提到中国政府和社会正在采取的各种措施来解决这些问题。同时，新闻报道中也没有提到中国的发展取得了巨大的成就，为世界带来了巨大的机遇和贡献。因此，我们应该采取客观公正的态度，全面、准确地了解中国的社会发展状况。

新闻来源： 2405040635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-03

• China wants sci-fi industry, led by megahit 3 Body Problem, to help tech make the jump to lightspeed
• Chinese students back in North Korea as post-Covid exchanges return to life
• ‘Smears and baseless’: China rejects Canadian election meddling claims
• What is ‘light living’? New China lifestyle choice with a twist on ‘tang ping’, how to practise it, reap benefits
• Expand mainland Chinese solo traveller scheme, Hong Kong tourism leaders say amid Labour Day ‘golden week’ visitor lull
• China’s ‘hero-to-zero’ mindset: why people are embracing losers as way to reflect on own struggles, redefine heroism
• Chinese scientists create ‘water battery’ that can hold much more energy than lithium cells: study
• Japan sells itself as Global South’s China counterweight with whistle-stop tour of Africa, South Asia
• Does China’s oil-for-infrastructure lending model in Africa need a rethink?
• As Australian wine returns to China, how will industry cope when ‘good old days’ are gone and adversity remains?
• Pet passion: dying China cat clings to owner with last breath, dog refuses to leave funeral, many moved to tears
• Potential TikTok ban threatens the US business of China’s cross-border sellers and the global ambitions of ByteDance
• China Launches Spacecraft to Far Side of the Moon

China wants sci-fi industry, led by megahit 3 Body Problem, to help tech make the jump to lightspeed

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3261367/china-wants-sci-fi-industry-led-megahit-3-body-problem-help-tech-make-jump-lightspeed?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s US$15 billion sci-fi industry, which has gained global attention after the success of the Netflix show 3 Body Problem, offers a potential boost to the economy while aligning with Beijing’s aspirations to become a tech powerhouse, analysts said, underscoring the need for stronger government backing to fortify the sector.

The industry achieved 113.29 billion yuan (US$15.6 billion) in total revenue last year, representing a 29 per cent year on year increase according to the 2024 China Science Fiction Industry Report, released last week during the eighth China Science Fiction Convention in Beijing.

Science fiction could also help companies conceptualise and produce new ideas, such as the establishment of a human settlement on Mars or brain-computer interfaces, according to Wu Yan, who co-authored the report.

“The most important benefit of the sci-fi industry is igniting the public’s imagination about future technological advancements, as technology evolves rapidly, encompassing increasingly uncertain disruptive technologies,” Wu said.

“Sci-fi products with rich content offer expansive imaginative realms for future technology.”

China’s sci-fi industry has enjoyed steady growth, with revenues climbing from 10 billion yuan to over 100 billion yuan in the last eight years, Wu said.

“This upwards trajectory is expected to persist in the years ahead,” added Wu, who is also a professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen.

“In my upcoming industry assessment, I plan to quantify the impact of sci-fi on technological research and development.”

Beijing has already explicitly named the sci-fi industry as a catalyst for advancing China’s scientific and technological progress.

From Kim Soo-hyun to Squid Game, how did South Korea get over its China breakup?

In 2021, the State Council released the “National Action Plan for Scientific Literacy 2021-35”, which highlighted the genre as a vital tool for fostering scientific innovation, literacy and cultural development.

The plan aimed to establish a high-level platform for the creation and exchange of science fiction, and integrate science and technology communication with the film and television industry.

Last year, China’s sci-fi film and television industry enjoyed a 38.8 per cent increase in revenues, paralleled by a 15.4 per cent increase in income for the sci-fi gaming sector, according to Wu’s report.

Sci-fi literature recorded year-on-year growth of 4.3 per cent, while revenue from science fiction-themed tourism, including scenic spots, amusement parks and stage plays surged to 31.06 billion yuan, up by 106.7 per cent year on year, report authors found.

“In the future, AI-generated content is poised to revolutionise the creation of science fiction literature, film, and beyond,” said the report, which was jointly published by the China Science Fiction Research Centre and the Research Centre for Science and Human Imagination at the Southern University of Science and Technology.

“Sci-fi will seamlessly blend with emerging industries, fostering avenues for new productivity.”

However, Wu said that although The Three-Body Problem enjoys widespread recognition, there remains a limited understanding from mass audiences of the broader industry.

In 2022, nearly 70 per cent of China’s science fiction sales were attributed to The Three-Body Problem, according to the “China Science Fiction 10-Year Industry Report”.

The show, which depicts human contact with a more technologically advanced alien civilisation, was first serialised in 2006 by Chinese engineer and science-fiction writer Liu Cixin in Science Fiction World, a renowned magazine with over 40 years of history. The novel is considered a landmark success in Chinese sci-fi.

“The government should increase the promotion of sci-fi literature and integrate them into education, including by introducing sci-fi to schools and offering educational programmes for juveniles,” Wu said.

“Thus it can ensure the long-term viability of the industry.”

Chen Ruiqi, a 36-year-old lawyer living in Shanghai, is an avid sci-fi fan, but he only spent a few hundred yuan last year on the hobby due to the limited availability of merchandise.

Censorship, bankruptcies and Covid scars cloud China’s film industry rebound

“Sci-fi literature has immense potential for adaptation in films, yet China’s efforts in integrating sci-fi literature into the films is not as vigorous as the US, and China is still in its nascent stages of market development,” said Chen, a sci-fi reader for over two decades.

In 2019, China released The Wandering Earth, a film adapted from Liu’s novel of the same name, and it was heralded by the state-run Xinhua News Agency as the initiation of the country’s foray into sci-fi cinema.

The sequel was released in 2023, generating box office revenues of 8.7 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion), placing both instalments among the top 10 highest-grossing films in Chinese history.

---

Chinese students back in North Korea as post-Covid exchanges return to life

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261439/chinese-students-back-north-korea-post-covid-exchanges-return-life?utm_source=rss_feed

A group of 41 Chinese students on government scholarships has arrived in North Korea, as post-pandemic exchanges between the neighbours gather pace amid growing tensions on the Korean peninsula.

China’s embassy in Pyongyang said the group represented the first government-sponsored foreign students to enter North Korea since the country closed its borders more than four years ago. The students were received at Pyongyang airport by embassy officials on Thursday.

Another 45 self-funded Chinese students had arrived in the North Korean capital “shortly before” this group, the embassy said in a post on its website on Friday.

While the number is slightly shy of pre-pandemic levels, their arrivals mark “the resumption of study abroad exchange programmes between China and North Korea”, according to the embassy.

North Korea was among the first countries in the world to seal its borders after a Covid-19 outbreak was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January 2020.

While cross-border trade resumed in 2022, Korea has been slow to reopen its borders. It was not until August last year that flag carrier Air Koryo resumed flights between Pyongyang and Beijing, as well as Vladivostok in the Russian far east.

Although North Korea briefly hosted some Russian tour groups in February and March, it remains largely closed to foreign visitors.

The arrival of the students comes weeks after China’s No 3 official and top lawmaker Zhao Leji led a large delegation on a three-day “goodwill visit” to North Korea, becoming the latest senior Chinese official to visit the country since Pyongyang resumed diplomatic activities about a year ago.

Zhao’s visit, which included a meeting with Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saw him attend the opening ceremony of the “China-North Korea Friendship Year”, marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

During his meeting with Kim on April 13, Zhao reaffirmed China’s “unswerving policy” to strengthen “the traditional friendly cooperative relations between China and North Korea”, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

Kim also pledged to strengthen cooperation so as “to write a new chapter” in his country’s relationship with China.

There has been speculation that Kim might visit Beijing for talks with President Xi Jinping later this year. Their last meeting was five years ago, when Xi travelled to Pyongyang in June 2019, following Kim’s visit to Beijing in January.

As North Korea’s nuclear programme heightens tensions with South Korea and its treaty ally the United States, Pyongyang has been seeking to boost cooperation with both China – its No 1 trading partner – and Russia.

The West has also accused Pyongyang of supplying arms to Moscow to support its invasion of Ukraine, a charge rejected by both Russia and North Korea.

Kim made a rare trip abroad last September to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Months later, he said Pyongyang was no longer aiming for reunification, long a shared goal for both Koreas. He has also called for constitutional changes to define South Korea as the North’s “principal enemy”.

Beijing, which renewed its mutual defence treaty with Pyongyang in 2021, has long seen regional stability as a priority and has carefully kept its distance as North Korea seeks closer military cooperation with Russia.

North Korea buying Chinese surveillance cameras in push to tighten control

Still, Beijing’s growing coordination with Moscow, which has become more apparent in recent years, has drawn scrutiny from the US.

Last month, during a visit to the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas – US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield urged Russia and China to stop rewarding North Korea’s bad behaviour.

This came after China abstained from voting for the annual renewal of a multinational panel to oversee UN sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. The March 28 Security Council resolution was vetoed by Moscow.

Beijing had supported the panel renewal for 14 years.

‘Smears and baseless’: China rejects Canadian election meddling claims

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261437/smears-and-baseless-china-rejects-canadian-election-meddling-claims?utm_source=rss_feed

China has hit back at a Canadian government report alleging Chinese interference in Canada’s past two federal elections, saying the suggestions are “baseless” and reflect an “ideological bias”.

“On May 3, the commissioner of Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission released its initial report, once again harping on the same old tune of attacking China for interfering in Canada’s internal affairs,” the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said in a statement on Friday.

“We express our strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this.”

It said the report “smears China” by saying the country was the biggest foreign intelligence threat to Canada.

“China has consistently upheld the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. We have never meddled in Canada’s internal affairs, nor do we have any intention to do so,” it said.

“We urge the Canadian side to respect the facts, abandon ideological bias, and stop groundlessly attacking China.”

The report is part of a public inquiry into possible foreign interference during the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections.

It was written by commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, who concluded that Russia, Pakistan, India, Iran and China were all “possible foreign interference actors in Canada”.

“Acts of foreign interference did occur during the last two federal general elections, but they did not undermine the integrity of our electoral system,” Hogue said in a statement.

The report said although more than one country engaged in interference, China “stands out as the most persistent and sophisticated foreign interference threat to Canada”.

“The People’s Republic of China uses a range of tools, including Canada-based proxies. These tools include the monitoring of diaspora communities and transnational repression; activities meant to impact the outcome of Canadian democratic processes (including providing financial support to preferred candidates); and clandestinely shaping narratives in support of PRC strategic interests,” it said.

“The PRC also uses its control and influence over Chinese-language media and social media applications, like WeChat, to assert influence over the Chinese diaspora.”

The report cited a number of cases in which electoral candidates may have been the target of interference because of their stand on China’s policies towards Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In response, the embassy said Canada was the one with a “record of grossly interfering in China’s domestic affairs on issues concerning China’s core interests”.

“The report is riddled with contradictions and ideological bias and lacks credibility,” it said, suggesting the document was a “deliberate attempt to mislead the public”.

The report’s findings are preliminary, and a second report is due by the end of the year.

“That said, I do not think it likely that the main conclusions in this report will change,” Hogue said.

What is ‘light living’? New China lifestyle choice with a twist on ‘tang ping’, how to practise it, reap benefits

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3258330/what-light-living-new-china-lifestyle-choice-twist-tang-ping-how-practise-it-reap-benefits?utm_source=rss_feed

A new social category has emerged in China which reflects a desire among the country’s young people to follow the path of least resistance in life.

The popularity of the phenomenon has become clear on the Xiaohongshu social media platform where the hashtag “light people” has attracted 175,000 views.

Young people are adopting a lifestyle characterised by an indifference to everything that happens to them, a stable mental state and a strong sense of personal boundaries.

Some have likened the trend to that of tang ping, or lying flat, a viral way of living that sees people do nothing more than what is absolutely essential to get by.

The origins of tang ping lie in the reaction of people to the slings and arrows of modern life.

However, the new light people living concept differs from tang ping in a number of ways.

Here, the Post explains.

What is light living?

Light people tend to adopt an emotion-free approach to life and treat everything that happens to them, especially negative experiences, as simply matters of fate which should be dealt with elegantly.

They have little desire for the trappings of material success and are not obsessed with relationships.

If they have a crush on someone, they simply let it pass in the expectation that if they embraced it, the relationship would eventually falter.

This approach can be encapsulated in the expression: “Forget it. Let it be.”

Some describe light people as “half dead” and say their lifestyle is bland.

Dense living

“Dense” people are the antithesis of those favouring a “light” lifestyle, as such they tend to be extroverts.

They have an outgoing personality, including in their fashion choices, and are the type of people who end every chat message with one, or several, exclamation marks.

People of the “dense” persuasion are also like to express their ideas and hope to inspire or move others.

Light life vs

The tang ping notion went viral a few years ago as increasing numbers of young people retreated to their comfort zone.

This reflected a tiredness with hard work and dissatisfaction with not being able to afford a place to live.

In China’s first-tier cities, to buy a flat costs 40 to 50 times the average annual salary.

However, it can be argued that the so-called light living is not the same as its exponents do not really lie flat.

They sometimes take the opportunity to “stand up” and enjoy life, but only to an extent because they do not want to use up too much energy.

Light idols

Light people adore celebrities with carefree personalities such as the mainland actress Yan Ni, who often forgets her lines in public speeches.

They also like American rapper Ice Spice, whose calm rapping style, described by the New York Times as “drawing you in before pushing you away”, is seen as a perfect expression of the light lifestyle.

Expand mainland Chinese solo traveller scheme, Hong Kong tourism leaders say amid Labour Day ‘golden week’ visitor lull

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3261425/expand-mainland-chinese-solo-traveller-scheme-hong-kong-tourism-leaders-say-amid-labour-day-golden?utm_source=rss_feed

Tourism and catering industry leaders have called for allowing more mainland Chinese solo travellers to Hong Kong amid the lull in visitors during the Labour Day “golden week” compared with previous years, despite price slashes at hotels and a pyrotechnics show.

Data from the Immigration Department showed that the number of mainland tourists coming to the city stood at a daily average of about 187,375 between May 1 and 3, the first three days of the five-day holiday period on the mainland.

“We haven’t achieved our target if we compare ourselves to pre-pandemic levels,” Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said on Saturday.

“The daily average of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong over the May ‘golden week’ period used to exceed the 200,000 mark,” he noted, adding that the spending power of solo travellers also went down by 20 per cent relative to pre-pandemic periods.

“I urge the secretary [to culture, sports and tourism] to discuss with the central government as soon as possible on allowing more cities on the solo travellers’ scheme. It’d be better for the F&B and retail sectors if more people are visiting,” Wong said.

Sales in food and beverage outlets were down by 20 per cent from last year because of fewer mainland visitors and their lower spending power, coupled with 180,000 Hongkongers headed across the border on May 1, according to Wong.

However, he said that the outlets on both sides of the Victoria Harbour benefited from the fireworks display on May 1 which saw a 15 per cent increase in business compared with normal days.

Wong said about 100 visitors from the two mainland cities of Xian and Qingdao came to Hong Kong over the holidays as a result of the first relaxation of the solo visitor scheme, the first update to the list since 2007.

Beijing in February added Xian and Qingdao to the Individual Visit Scheme, which already covered 49 mainland cities including many first-tier ones such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Chongqing.

The scheme allows residents of these cities to visit Hong Kong on their own rather than by joining tour groups. Tourists can make one or two visits to Hong Kong and Macau within three months or a year, with each trip limited to seven days.

Alan Chan Chung-yee, chief operations officer of the Miramar Group, said business was “not ideal” for the hotel sector this golden week holiday. He shared that his group’s two hotels recorded a 6 per cent and 7 per cent drop in occupancy compared with last year despite a 23 per cent price cut.

“Our suggestion of the most direct way [to boost the number of overnight guests] would be to increase the number of cities in the solo travellers’ scheme,” Chan said. “The vacancy rate of hotel rooms has even gone up since the launch of the solo travellers’ scheme in 2003 by 32 per cent.”

“We need to communicate with the mainland that we could add 26 cities [connected to Hong Kong by high speed rail and by flight] to the scheme with no impact on the capacity,” he added.

Wong from the food and beverage industry said the solo traveller scheme needed a review since many of the 86 million residents in the Greater Bay Area had already been to Hong Kong.

He posed the question: “How can we make Hong Kong more attractive to get repeat visitors?”

Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu earlier said he would urge Beijing to expand a solo traveller scheme to more mainland Chinese cities, ahead of the five-day holiday period in mainland China between May 1 and May 5.

Timothy Chui Ting-pong, the executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, said competition from travel destinations in the rest of China needed to be considered especially during holiday seasons such as “golden week”.

“There are many choices for mainlanders,” Chui said. “After the pandemic, tourism on the mainland is booming. There is direct competition between cities within the Greater Bay Area and between provinces.”

He added that the average number of visitors in the first three days of the five-day holiday period was “largely ideal” because on normal days the number of visitors stood at 80,000 to 10,000.

“At the same time, we realise that we have shortfalls. The service quality needs improving particularly when our competitors are doing very well. We can be better prepared,” Chui said.

China’s ‘hero-to-zero’ mindset: why people are embracing losers as way to reflect on own struggles, redefine heroism

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3260014/chinas-hero-zero-mindset-why-people-are-embracing-losers-way-reflect-own-struggles-redefine-heroism?utm_source=rss_feed

Fed up with ambitious and handsome characters in movies, growing numbers of people in China are now admiring “losers”.

The realisation that flawless superheroes only exist in fantasy has seen female film fans turn to anti-hero protagonists, who are affectionately referred to as wo nang fei in Chinese.

This means useless, spineless, good-for-nothing losers in Chinese.

To play a such a role requires less than good looks and a lack of dignity or self-worth.

What lies behind this phenomenon? Here, the Post explains.

Who are

Such characters usually choose to “lie flat”, or do as little as possible to get by in toxic working cultures or family relationships.

The phenomenon was was fuelled by the character Ma Jie, played by actor Bai Ke, in the hit box office comedy Johnny Keep Walking!

Ma plays a miserable human resources manager who always submissively works overtime, complies with pointless bureaucracy and obeys his nasty boss no matter what just to keep his job amid layoffs.

Female fans embraced his incompetence and spinelessness.

They also commended Ma’s gentleness, kind heart, lack of aggressive masculinity and dedication to his family.

“Being a wo nang fei is the new sexy,” said one online observer who received more than 7,000 likes.

Toxic masculinity

The trend is also seen as a rebellion against the toxic masculinity of traditional good-looking, strong-willed characters.

In the 2000s, the most popular male protagonists with audiences in China were god looking, successful business chief executive officers with a protective and possessive attitude towards their partners.

However, as public awareness of gender equality grows, female fans no longer want to be saved by superheroes, but begin to back away from machismo and expect to be treated with respect and care.

This new attitude was marked by the 2012 TV series My Economical Man, in which the heroine chose an ordinary man instead of a CEO as her lover.

Ma and other wo nang fei characters cater to what fans who admire a good family man, who works hard, is loyal to his family, is skilled in cooking and sometimes even appears to need protection from women.

Embracing the ordinary

As the anti-hero trend grows people online have begun to make fun of daily stresses, heavy workloads and life crises via wo nang fei literature with arrogant beginnings and obedient endings.

“Dare to mess with me? ” one of the wo nang fei literature posters joked, adding: “Then you’ve found the right person. I’m the most submissive person for miles around.”

“Fallen? Then I’ll lie flat where I am.” wrote another such poster.

The trend mirrors the earlier rise of the lying flat phenomenon in which people use their humour to make peace with the anxiety of being useless and find comfort in the anti-hero characters who reflect their struggles.

Chinese scientists create ‘water battery’ that can hold much more energy than lithium cells: study

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3261368/chinese-scientists-create-water-battery-can-hold-much-more-energy-lithium-cells-study?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese scientists have developed a water-based battery with nearly twice the energy density of a traditional lithium battery, which could open up aqueous batteries for use in electric vehicles, according to the team.

The iodine and bromine-based aqueous battery had an energy density of 1200 watt-hours per litre (Wh/L) compared to the 700Wh/L of traditional non-aqueous lithium batteries, according to a paper published in Nature Energy on April 23 by the team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Their aqueous battery was also safer than non-aqueous lithium batteries, which were “highly flammable”, they said.

The stable battery “shows promising potential for the development of next-generation high-energy-density and safe rechargeable aqueous batteries”, the researchers wrote.

Their findings “may expand aqueous battery applications in the power battery field”, said corresponding author Li Xianfeng, a professor at the CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, who was quoted in a statement from the academy.

Lithium batteries are the standard used across the world because of their high energy density. Traditional lithium batteries contained a non-aqueous electrolyte – a component that allowed the battery to charge and discharge – which was flammable, the paper said.

China can win EV battery race if industry, academia cooperate: leading scientist

Aqueous batteries are made up of a water-based electrolyte which does not present the same safety risks.

However, aqueous batteries typically had a much lower energy density – the amount of energy a battery holds compared to its weight or volume – than non-aqueous batteries at under 200Wh/L, the team wrote.

This lower energy density made aqueous batteries “compelling only for large-scale stationary energy storage”, the researchers said.

To address this issue, the team developed a bromine and iodine-based electrolyte that could overcome these energy density issues.

When assembled into a battery with a cadmium-based anode, they found the battery “ran continuously for more than 300 cycles” of charging and discharging at 78 per cent energy efficiency.

When the researchers tested their electrolyte with a vanadium anode, they found the batteries’ life cycle could be extended to 1,000 cycles, “demonstrating significant stability”.

The researchers noted that the energy density of their batteries even “exceeded that of some solid electrode materials” and could be comparable in cost to traditional lithium batteries.

“Our work demonstrates that safe aqueous batteries with high energy density are possible, offering a development option for grid-scale energy storage, and even electric vehicles,” the paper said.

Japan sells itself as Global South’s China counterweight with whistle-stop tour of Africa, South Asia

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3261373/japan-sells-itself-global-souths-china-counterweight-whistle-stop-tour-africa-south-asia?utm_source=rss_feed

Japan has dispatched its top diplomat on a whirlwind tour of Global South countries in recent days, as Tokyo seeks to showcase its commitment to the emerging economies of Asia and Africa – where it continues to jostle with China for influence.

Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa began her 10-day tour last Saturday in the Indian Ocean island nation of Madagascar, off Africa’s east coast, where she discussed economic cooperation and Japan’s “free and open Indo-Pacific” strategy – a vision it shares with Washington that emphasises open trade, maritime security and the rule of law.

‘Ball in Sri Lanka’s court’ as Japan seeks closer ties amid Indo-Pacific rivalry

She visited Ivory Coast next, on Monday, and Nigeria the day afterwards, ending the week in France before planning stops in Sri Lanka and Nepal over the weekend.

As well as stepping up engagement, Tokyo’s aim is to narrow the development gap among countries in the Global South – a term for a loose grouping of developing nations – according to Céline Pajon, head of Japan research at the French Institute of International Relations’ Centre for Asian and Indo-Pacific Studies in Paris.

Strategic considerations were front of mind during the visits, Pajon said, noting that Japan’s free and open Indo-Pacific plan was particularly relevant to Madagascar, given the island’s location in the western Indian Ocean, separated from the African continent by the Mozambique Channel.

The 1,700km (1,100-mile) strategic waterway is primarily used for trade and the transport of energy resources and minerals, but drug trafficking, illegal fishing and piracy have also become problems in recent years.

“Japan is thus seeking to strengthen maritime connectivity and security, through investments in the Toamasina Port and provision of patrol boats,” Pajon said, referring to Madagascar’s main port. She added that economic security was another key consideration as the island is rich in natural resources and minerals such as nickel.

In a meeting with Madagascar’s President Andry Nirina Rajoelina on Sunday, Kamikawa said Japan wanted to contribute to the African country’s economic resilience by improving mineral-resource production and fostering urban growth. In her meetings with senior Ivory Coast officials later in the week, she stressed the importance Tokyo attaches to the country as a gateway to the francophone region of West Africa.

Pajon said the minister’s visits were also aimed at laying the groundwork for the ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which is set to be held in the Japanese port city of Yokohama in August next year.

Japan launched the TICAD in 1993, becoming the first Asian country to forge closer ties with Africa through an institutional framework, according to Purnendra Jain, an emeritus professor at the University of Adelaide’s Department of Asian Studies who specialises in Japan studies.

Beijing and New Delhi’s efforts – the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and India-Africa Forum Summit – came later by comparison, starting in 2000 and 2008, respectively.

“China’s financial clout and political influence are enormous, and it is beyond Japan’s capacity to match China’s financial support to Africa, nor does it intend to do that,” said Jain, who is also a visiting senior fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies.

“However, Japan’s approach to Africa has been measured, nuanced and balanced, and Tokyo has involved many other stakeholders in the TICAD dialogue.”

China-Africa trade hit US$282 billion in 2023 but Africa’s trade deficit widens

China’s trade with Africa hit US$282 billion last year, nearly 12 times the US$24 billion in trade Japan does with the continent each year. Aid is more closely matched, however, with Japan pledging US$30 billion to Africa in 2022, a year after China had promised US$40 billion in loans and aid.

Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at African-led international development consultancy Development Reimagined, cited Nigeria and Ivory Coast as examples of Japan’s trade links with the continent.

The two countries are some of the biggest African importers of Japanese goods – mainly vehicles – but Eguegu said Chinese brands such as Sinotruk and Guangzhou Automobile Group had been aggressively competing for more than a decade to carve out their own market share.

“Beyond trade, Japan is aiming to deepen its political and diplomatic footprint in Africa at a time [when] African countries and the African Union are speaking with a louder voice in the international arena,” he said.

Shinichi Takeuchi, director of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies’ African Studies Centre, said Kamikawa’s visit to Africa was timely given the reduction in China’s financial largesse towards the continent in recent years.

“China is a huge player in Africa … However, its economic commitment has reduced since the end of 2010s. The Japanese government wants to show itself as a stable partner,” Takeuchi said.

Chinese loans to Africa dropped to US$2.22 billion in 2021-2022, according to data compiled by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Centre and reported in September, down from a peak of more than US$28 billion in 2016.

As China continues to expand its regional footprint, Japan is also looking to expand trade and other areas of cooperation with Sri Lanka and Nepal.

During her trip to Sri Lanka on Saturday and Sunday, Kamikawa was expected to pay courtesy calls to President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena.

The Indian Ocean island nation is a key part of Japan’s Indo-Pacific strategy and Pajon said Colombo was expected to continue seeking help from Tokyo to lighten its heavy debt burden.

“Japan has been playing a key role, along with France and India, in helping restructure Sri Lanka’s debt, while providing grants to support the country,” she said. “A debt recovery would allow Japan to resume its loans to Sri Lanka’s port infrastructure and more.”

Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in April 2022, defaulting on more than US$83 billion of debt – more than half of that owed to foreign creditors – and turned to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package.

In a move aimed at pushing forward negotiations on restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt, Japan joined India and France last April in launching an initiative that looked to kick off a series of meetings among the island nation’s creditors. An agreement on restructuring debt was reportedly reached in November.

Historically, Japan and Sri Lanka have had strong relations, but these were put to the test when former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa upset Tokyo by unilaterally scrapping several Japanese-funded projects, Jain said.

As such, Kamikawa’s trip to Colombo could become a platform for both countries to reset ties.

“Kamikawa’s mission is to build up the relationship,” he said, noting that Rajapaksa’s successor, Wickremesinghe, had apologised to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the previous president’s actions in Tokyo last year.

Her Nepal stop on Sunday, meanwhile, is expected to see Kamikawa unveil plans for Japan to play a bigger role in Nepal’s economic and social development.

“Japan’s balancing act in Nepal is important, so China’s presence does not become oversized,” Jain said.

China has built airports, highways and hydropower projects in Nepal under its Belt and Road Initiative to grow global trade. Railway lines, electricity transmission projects and a proposed development corridor linking the Himalayan nation with China’s sprawling metropolis of Chongqing via Tibet and Sichuan are also under discussion.

Nepal was once renowned for its high-end tourism. Now, it wants its crown back

Japan was not just seeking to act as a counterweight to China, but also offer South Asia an alternative to India, Jain said.

“Tokyo would ideally like to assist Sri Lanka and Nepal to strike a balance so they do not feel crushed under a big power rivalry between China and India, who have dominant influence in Nepal,” he said.

---

Does China’s oil-for-infrastructure lending model in Africa need a rethink?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261163/does-chinas-oil-infrastructure-lending-model-africa-need-rethink?utm_source=rss_feed

Resource-backed loans, pioneered as a way to access mostly Chinese funding for the building of roads, hydroelectric dams and railways have been termed “asymmetrical” and “non-transparent” by African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina.

“I think it’s time for us to have debt transparency accountability and make sure that this whole thing of these opaque natural resource-backed loans actually ends, because it complicates the debt issue and the debt resolution issue,” he said last month.

The remarks – to news website Semafor on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund/World Bank spring meetings in Washington from April 17-19 – were the second time in a month that Adesina had criticised the lending model.

“If you have minerals or oil under the ground, how do you come up with a price for a long-term contract? It’s a challenge,” he told AP during an interview in Lagos, Nigeria in March.

Observers backed Adesina’s view, noting that while these loans offer developing countries the funding they need, they can be expensive and subject to commodity price fluctuations, making repayment difficult.

Known as the “Angola model”, the funding concept provided billions of reconstruction dollars from Chinese lenders to Luanda two decades ago, when the West was unwilling to bankroll projects after 27 years of civil war in the oil-rich country.

Angola secured about US$24 billion from the Export-Import Bank of China and the China Development Bank (CDB) between 2004 and 2016 to fund infrastructure, ranging from schools and hospitals to roads and power transmission networks.

The model – which used Luanda’s oil revenues as collateral for the loans – worked well until 2014, when oil prices fell and Angola was forced to pump more of its reserves to service the debts.

Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia Programme and director of the China Programme at the Washington-based Stimson Centre, said the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact severely damaged African countries’ ability to service their debts.

“While the resources-backed loans have not generated the economic benefits to pay back the loans, the debts and interests kept being due. The loan depended on a highly risky model to be viable and when it is not viable, the debtors are in big trouble,” Sun said.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco acknowledged in 2019 that the concept behind the oil-backed loans was not working and said his country was discontinuing the practice as “advised by the IMF and the World Bank”.

How China and Angola are redefining ties for a post-oil, post-loans era

On a visit to China in March, Lourenco secured a debt relief agreement that will see Angola pay between US$150 million and US$200 million less per month to service its CDB loans.

A Natural Resources Governance Institute study in 2020 found several sub-Saharan African countries borrowed at least US$66 billion in resource-backed loans from overseas financiers since 2004, more than half from CDB and China Eximbank.

Gyude Moore, policy fellow at the Washington-based Centre for Global Development and a former ­public works minister in Liberia, said “there are questions about opacity and the difficulty of resolving such loans in times of debt distress”.

He said that while African sovereign states were free to enter loan contracts, the IMF drew on global public resources to respond when it was approached to intervene in times of debt distress.

“That makes sovereign debt accumulation a global development issue. The difficulty African economies faced getting relief from either [the Debt Service Suspension Initiative] or Common Framework makes opaque debt obligations unpalatable.”

IMF report says Chinese loans not main debt burden in sub-Saharan Africa

Moore, who noted that China recently extended a 12-month US$400 million oil-backed loan to Niger via China National Petroleum Corporation, said that even in the most generous definition of success “we would struggle to find an African case where such loans were successful”.

He said South Sudan struggled to pay a similar oil-backed loan, resorting to using salaries to service it, Zimbabwe had discussed turning over to assets to pay off a private creditor, while Chad’s debt burden to European commodity trader Glencore took years to resolve.

In another example, Moore said the Democratic Republic of the Congo – the world’s largest producer of cobalt – “has repeatedly accused China of not holding up its end of a resource-backed deal”.

DRC President Félix Tshisekedi pushed for an overhaul of multibillion-dollar deals that he said were “poorly negotiated” under his predecessor Joseph Kabila, raising the issue during his visit to China last year.

Relief as Chinese firm reaches royalty deal on Congo cobalt mine

In a renegotiated agreement over the Sicomines copper and cobalt joint venture, Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Group agreed to invest up to US$7 billion in infrastructure – an increase on the previously agreed US$3 billion in the minerals-for-infrastructure deal.

International project finance lawyer Kanyi Lui, partner and China head at multinational law firm Pinsent Masons, said resource-backed loans were once the remit of European commodities traders and lenders.

They became widely used when Chinese policy and commercial entered the market in the 2000s, but started to take on a darker undertone in Chad’s oil-for-money deal with Glencore in 2013 and 2014, according to Lui.

The Chad deal ran into difficulties almost immediately and had to be restructured in 2015 after a crash in global oil prices. Soaring interest payments meant the debt consumed nearly all of the country’s main source of revenue, leading to further negotiations.

IMF, World Bank must do more to defuse the bomb of poor nations’ debt

Lui said Asian lenders, including from China, tended to offer more predictable and stable terms for resource-backed loans (RBLs) compared with other players. “On the whole, Chinese RBLs are a positive force in Africa.”

According to Lui, research has shown that Chinese and other Asian lenders of resource-backed loans tend to charge interest in the range of 0.5 to 3 per cent per annum.

“Chinese RBLs are also almost always provided in connection with building infrastructure, which addresses one of the main risk areas of RBLs and helps the borrower country develop its economy and capacity to repay,” he said.

But fluctuations in commodity prices and US interest rates are prompting a move away from these loans, according to Lui.

West races to challenge China’s dominance in African minerals market

Resource-rich countries around the world are starting to embrace a value-added approach to the processing of their raw commodities. By requiring these services to be performed in-country, the model helped the local economy and helped boost the skills of its labour force, he said.

“A great example is how Indonesia and Chinese enterprises have very successfully teamed up in recent years to promote the establishment of integrated mine-refine-manufacture-export projects in EV battery and stainless steel,” Lui said.

Zhou Yuyuan, deputy director at the Centre for West Asian and African Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said resource-backed loans provided countries in urgent need of funds with the support they needed for development.

“In the cases of Angola and the DRC, oil and minerals for infrastructure development deals have played an important role in promoting infrastructure development and economic growth in both countries,” he said.

According to Zhou, the resource-backed loan model in Angola and the DRC has been successful overall, despite the economic pressure it can cause borrower countries when prices fall.

“The important role of this model in promoting infrastructure and national development in both countries cannot be denied because of the current debt problem,” he said.

“Just as other countries also have debt problems, infrastructure construction will inevitably lead to an increase in debt. But as patient capital, its important role in supporting future economic development should be viewed comprehensively.”

As Australian wine returns to China, how will industry cope when ‘good old days’ are gone and adversity remains?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3261354/australian-wine-returns-china-how-will-industry-cope-when-good-old-days-are-gone-and-adversity?utm_source=rss_feed

Australian wineries are bracing for a more challenging Chinese market after a more than three-year absence, even after Beijing lifted high punitive import tariffs for the product in March.

A broad slowdown in the Chinese economy and changes in the market landscape are among the factors leading wine sellers to rethink their strategies and rebuild influence in a market that has offerings from other destinations, including Chile, Italy and France.

“There’s a weak desire of consumers buying new stocks [of wine],” said Pierre Tam, president and co-founder of the Hong Kong Wine Industry Association, who got involved in shipping Australian wine via Hong Kong to mainland China before the pandemic.

“Some private collectors are even selling what they kept back to the market for cheaper prices,” he added. “People are still absorbing old products.”

Chinese premier set to visit Australia in June, lobster ban expected to be axed

A wine owner surnamed Zhang, who does not want to disclose his full name or that of his company due to the sensitive nature of the issue, also said that there is a need for Australian wine to return to China, but “the market situation now is just not good”.

With the rising market share of China’s “white spirit” over the past few years, Zhang went on to explain that winemakers now have to deal with the “adversity” by “laying a solid foundation”, which is different from the “favourable and pleasant environment” three years ago.

Figures from Statista showed that China’s alcohol market ranked No 1 in the world in 2023, with annual revenue of US$336 billion. The United States and Japan placed second and third, respectively.

Given that operations are growing more difficult, Tam said that “those good old days” have gone.

He continued by noting that Chinese investors buy vineyards directly in Australia nowadays, dominating processing and supply chains, then sell the wine back in their home market at relatively low prices.

According to official figures released by Wine Australia on Tuesday, sales to mainland China increased by 21 per cent to A$13 million (US$8.55 million) in the 12 months to March 2024, due to a low base of comparison from the year prior.

“As the announcement by China’s Ministry of Commerce on the removal of the import duties imposed on Australian wine was made in late March, it has had little impact on the annual data in this report,” the Australian government statutory corporation said in the statement.

Chinese interests in crosshairs as Australia tightens foreign investment rules

China was the largest market for Australian wine before 2020, with its total export value reaching A$1.1 billion in 2019.

Bilateral trade of this specific fine product was largely halted over the past few years as skyrocketed import tariffs pushed up costs.

China lifted tariffs of up to 218.4 per cent from March 29 amid warming ties between the countries, and Australia also discontinued its legal proceedings at the World Trade Organization regarding the trade sanction.

The tariffs were imposed after bilateral relations soured in 2020 following calls from the former administration of Scott Morrison for an international probe into the origin of the coronavirus, drawing Beijing’s ire.

Li Wei, chief executive of Australian wine exporter and producer Swan Wine Group, which owns the Auswan Creek vineyard in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, said that the Australian state’s government has rolled out a series of measures to support winemakers’ return to the Chinese market.

“This is exactly the time to quicken the process of returning to China,” he added. “We’ll immediately send our products out if customers submit requests, and we’re about to build an inventory house in a Chinese tax-free zone.”

The Department for Trade and Investment of the South Australia government invited the state’s food, wine and beverage exporters to participate in the 2024 Taste of South Australia China Trade Mission in Guangzhou and Chengdu in March, and this provided them with an opportunity to showcase their products to Chinese customers.

South Australia’s governor, Frances Adamson, also visited China in late April to advance bilateral cooperation, and the accompanying delegation met representatives of the wine industry to exchange views and become apprised of the new situation in the Chinese market.

And in the state of New South Wales, wine producers and exporters are also being encouraged to participate in the NSW Going Global Export Programme, which takes place through this month, and then in a June roadshow that aims to reintroduce the state’s wine industry to Chinese importers and distributors now that tariffs have been lifted.

Pet passion: dying China cat clings to owner with last breath, dog refuses to leave funeral, many moved to tears

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3259994/pet-passion-dying-china-cat-clings-owner-last-breath-dog-refuses-leave-funeral-many-moved-tears?utm_source=rss_feed

People on social media in China have been deeply touched by the story of a cat that clung onto, and bit, his owner’s jumper with his last breath.

A university student known as Kaka in eastern China’s Jiangxi province, posted a video of her pet’s last moments, which has amassed 1.5 million likes since April 9.

She had received a phone call from her mother the day before, saying her cat was seriously ill in her hometown in southern China’s Guangdong province.

Kaka immediately bought a high-speed train ticket and rushed home that night. The moment she walked in, the cat came into her arms and took his last breath, biting at her jumper.

“He will remember his mum’s smell and come to me again in the next life,” Kaka said.

She buried him wrapped in her jumper.

The animal’s sudden death was not explained, but British Shorthair cats are prone to genetic diseases that can lead to heart failure.

“What a wonderful animal, holding on to his last breath so that he could see his owner for the last time,” said one online observer on Weibo.

“He was in so much pain but felt better being in his mum’s arms and smelling her,” another said.

A disabled dog refused to leave a funeral parlour five days after his owner had been cremated moving many people on social media to tears.

A man surnamed Zhang discovered the pet sitting quietly in front of a funeral home in central China’s Hubei province, on April 10.

A member of staff told him the owner’s funeral had been held there five days before. The dog had been waiting at the same spot since, and staff were feeding him.

Deeply moved by the dog, Zhang contacted a local animal rescue organisation. They gave him a shower and let him stay to await adoption.

The person running the rescue organisation later said he would adopt the dog: “I will make sure he has a home. He will not be abandoned because his master died.”

“A dog’s love is so much deeper than a human’s,” one person wrote on Douyin.

China’s market for pets has skyrocketed in recent years.

According to a 2022 white paper from pet industry analytical company Pethadoop, there were more than 70 million cat and dog owners in the country’s urban areas in 2022.

The figure was 2.9 per cent more than the previous year. Figures also show that the majority, 36.8 per cent, of pet owners were born after 1995.

Potential TikTok ban threatens the US business of China’s cross-border sellers and the global ambitions of ByteDance

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3261277/potential-tiktok-ban-threatens-us-business-chinas-cross-border-sellers-and-global-ambitions?utm_source=rss_feed

Luo Ziyan, who goes by the online name Daxiang and runs several profitable stores on TikTok for the e-commerce company Uebezz, is the envy of his fellow merchants in Yiwu, an export hub south of Shanghai.

The cross-border sales manager was among the first to use the globally popular short-video app to promote household goods to consumers in the United States and Southeast Asia, and her advice has been highly sought after by others hoping to replicate her success.

But after US President Joe Biden last month signed into law a bill requiring TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the platform’s US operations in 270 days or face a ban on the app, Luo has received at least one query almost every day that revolves around one theme: is opening a TikTok shop still worth the trouble?

Luo said she was not quite sure how to answer. “If there hadn’t been this [bill], I would definitely recommend them to do so in the US,” she said, adding that her business in the US is “certainly more profitable” than those in other markets.

Other cross-border merchants interviewed by the South China Morning Post are more certain. “It’s not the time for newcomers to enter the US,” said Hong Ming, co-founder of the Shenzhen-based TikTok Seller Alliance.

The “divest-or-ban” bill has thrown a spanner in the works of not just Chinese sellers planning to expand their business to TikTok, but also to the platform itself, which has been stepping up efforts to profit from its popularity among young Americans through e-commerce.

Initial efforts have shown promise. More than 500,000 merchants were selling to US users via TikTok at the end of last year, more than double the number three months earlier, the company said in its TikTok Shop Safety Report this week. Globally, it had over 15 million sellers in December.

But the clock is ticking for TikTok: the platform now has until January 19 next year – one day before Biden’s term is set to expire – to fight to stay in the US, and ByteDance is not ready to give up on the first Chinese-owned app that has achieved worldwide popularity.

The Beijing-based firm said last month it had no divestment plans. TikTok has said it will challenge the bill in court and that it “believes the facts and the law are clearly on our side”. If legal action fails, ByteDance would rather shut down TikTok’s US operations than sell it, four sources told Reuters in a report last month.

TikTok has been banned in other places in the world before. India has blocked the app for the past four years, after a deadly clash on its Himalayan border with China. But leaving the US would be far more devastating for the app and China’s technology ambitions.

TikTok can afford to lose India but not the US, because many globally viral TikTok clips are created by American users, according to a person familiar with internal discussions at ByteDance.

A US exit for TikTok would also deal a blow to the ambitions of ByteDance’s billionaire founder Zhang Yiming, who launched the company in a residential flat in Beijing in 2012. Before he handed over the CEO and chairman positions to his co-founder and university roommate Liang Rubo in 2021, Zhang repeatedly spoke about his vision of a global operation based on TikTok.

That dream now appears increasingly remote amid growing rivalry between China and the US. While Beijing has been relatively restrained in its response towards the TikTok bill, the Chinese government has made it clear in the past that the powerful algorithms driving TikTok cannot be sold to American owners.

Even if ByteDance wanted to sell TikTok to US companies, outrage from Chinese state media and internet users would make it politically challenging to reach any deal.

An attempt in 2020 by ByteDance to sell a minority stake in TikTok to US investors was criticised at home as “kneeling down” to Washington, leading the company to issue a lengthy Chinese-language statement clarifying that TikTok Global would remain its wholly-owned subsidiary.

As uncertainty mounts, influencers have begun to take precautions.

“It will definitely be damaging to see [TikTok] go away,” said Noah Jay Wood, who has 7 million followers on the platform. He said TikTok has better algorithms. “Whenever something is trending, you will be informed [by TikTok], unlike the other platforms, which are always late to the game.”

While TikTok is the “foundation” on which he grows his content and following, Wood said he “recycles” all of his TikTok content for publishing on Instagram and YouTube, “which has led to me finding new audiences on them”.

It is “absolutely” critical for TikTok creators and merchants to diversify their presence regardless of a potential TikTok ban, said Alessandro Bogliari, co-founder and CEO of Miami-based agency, The Influencer Marketing Factory.

“It’s risky to rely solely on one platform due to the ever-changing algorithms that affect how creators reach their audience,” he said. What is more, if TikTok is banned, creators and merchants “could face financial difficulties while trying to establish new revenue streams”.

Despite its broad popularity, TikTok is under intense competitive pressure.

According to a report by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower in March, nearly 94 per cent of TikTok users in the US also browsed YouTube in the previous 90 days, while 80 per cent used Instagram and 68 per cent looked at Facebook.

“Google and Meta [Platforms] would be poised to seize advertiser demand for short-form video placements, given each has a viable short-form video alternative in Shorts and Reels, respectively,” said Abraham Yousef, senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower.

American shoppers already appear to be losing interest in TikTok.

Last month, the total value of goods sold on TikTok in the US amounted to just under US$419 million, which was lower than US$446 million in March, although still higher than February and the previous three months, according to EchoTik, an analytics and data provider focusing on TikTok.

ByteDance is diversifying its product range in the US and other Western markets. Its AI homework assistant Gauth, for example, is gaining momentum. It is also paying influencers to promote its photo-and-video-sharing app Lemon8, which was launched in 2020.

Two weeks ago, ByteDance did a soft launch of TikTok Notes, a photo-posting app that directly competes against Instagram, in Canada and Australia.

Despite the cloudy outlook, the US is still one of the most important markets for cross-border merchants, as it remains a cultural trendsetter, and consumers there are more well-off, according to Wang Haizhou, founder of EchoTik.

“Once a brand becomes popular in the US, other markets will follow,” he said.

If TikTok does eventually quit the US, Hong from the TikTok Seller Alliance said he would use other platforms, even though his existing store powered by Shopify “can’t compare to the TikTok one in sales”.

Uebezz’s Luo said her next move would depend on the exact terms of the ban. If it was just a forced removal of TikTok from US app stores, she would still be able to reach American users who already had the app installed on their phones, she said.

For now, Uebezz maintains normal operations in the US, where many of the company’s goods are stored at a local warehouse waiting to be sold, Luo said.

Hong advised sellers to keep calm and carry on. “Just do whatever you can, and see how things develop before the 270-day deadline,” he said.

China Launches Spacecraft to Far Side of the Moon

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/china-to-launch-spacecraft-to-far-side-of-the-moon/7592092.html

China launched a spacecraft to the moon’s far side on Friday in a mission that aims to bring lunar soil and rocks to Earth.

A Long March 5 rocket carried the unmanned spacecraft, called Chang'e 6, to space. The launch took place at China’s Wenchang space center in southern Hainan province. Chinese space officials declared the launch a success.

Chinese officials have said the spacecraft will attempt to land in an area of the South Pole called the Aitkin Basin. The area is known as the far side of the moon because it permanently faces away from Earth.

NASA says the Aitkin Basin is the largest impact basin on the lunar surface. The distance from the basin’s lower depths to its highest points is estimated to be over 15 kilometers. That is nearly twice the height of Earth’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest.

If it makes a successful landing, mission leaders on the ground will direct the spacecraft to collect soil and rock from the lunar surface. During its planned 53-day mission, Chang'e 6 is expected to use its robotic equipment, including a drill, to identify and collect up to two kilograms of lunar material.

China’s spacecraft will be carrying payloads from France, Italy, Sweden and Pakistan. U.S. law bans the American space agency NASA from cooperating – either directly or indirectly – with China on space operations.

Under NASA’s current plans for its Artemis program, U.S. astronauts are expected to land near the South Pole in 2026. This would represent the first human landing on the lunar surface since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

China has additional unmanned lunar missions planned as well. Chang'e-7, in 2026, will aim to further explore the south polar area, including searching for water ice. In 2028, Chang'e-8 will carry out a series of technology tests in preparation for building a long-term science base on the moon. China is seeking to put its astronauts on the moon by 2030.

It is not the first time a Chinese spacecraft has collected material from the lunar surface. The country’s Chang'e 5 spacecraft traveled to the moon in late 2020 and brought back about two kilograms of moon rocks and dust.

The mission was carried out in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum. It sits on the western edge of the near side of the moon, an area believed to have had intense volcanic activity in ancient times.

But the lack of volcanic activity on the moon’s far side means there will be more craters to study that were not affected by ancient lava flows. This could give scientists new chances to learn more about the moon and the solar system’s early development.

The Chang'e 5 mission made China only the third nation to collect lunar material and bring it to Earth, after the United States and the Soviet Union. The last such mission was in 1976, when an unmanned Soviet spacecraft collected 170 grams of moon material.

America’s moon exploration program included six flights from 1969 to 1972. Those missions resulted in astronauts collecting a total of about 400 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil.

Leonard David is the writer of the book Moon Rush: The New Space Race. He told Reuters news agency that if successful, the upcoming mission would be “a milestone-making event." David added that the material collected from the moon’s far side should help researchers "fill in the blanks” about unknown details of the moon’s formation.

I’m Bryan Lynn

 

Reuters and China Daily reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for Learning English.

__________________________________________

Words in This Story

mission – n. an important project or trip, especially involving space travel

basin – n. a wide area of land that is more or less round in shape and lower than its surroundings

impact – n. the force or action of one object hitting another

drill – v. to use a tool or machine to make holes in a hard substance

payload –n. an amount of a material, measured by weight, that is take from one place to another by a vehicle

crater – n. a hole left in the ground by an object that hits it with a huge force

lava – n. hot melted rock that comes out of a volcano

milestone – n. an important event in history of the development of a person or group

fill in the blank – idiom to provide missing information