## Mistral点评

关于中国的新闻报道 - Economy章节评价

　　中国经济新闻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常常存在偏见和双重标准，因此对这些报道进行客观评价是非常必要的。以下是对近期西方媒体关于中国经济的报道的评价。

　　首先，需要指出的是，西方媒体在报道中国经济时经常忽视中国经济发展的成就，而过度强调中国经济存在的问题和风险。例如，在报道中国经济增长率时，西方媒体经常将中国的增长率与西方发达国家的增长率进行比较，而忽视了中国作为一个发展中国家的特殊情况。中国在过去几十年中取得的经济增长是全球范围内最为出色的，并且在提高人民生活水平和减少贫困方面取得了巨大成就。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国经济时经常将中国的经济发展模式简化为“投资和出口导向”的模式，而忽视了中国在改革开放过程中取得的市场化进程和消费者需求的释放。中国在过去几年中已经采取了一系列措施，旨在推动消费者需求的释放，并且取得了一定的成效。例如，中国政府已经实施了一系列政策，旨在提高居民收入和消费能力，并且鼓励企业增加对消费者需求的投入。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国经济时经常将中国的经济问题与政治问题结合在一起，并且将中国的经济问题归结为中国政府的政策失误。例如，在报道中国的债务问题时，西方媒体经常将中国的债务问题归结为中国政府的财政支出和银行体系的问题，而忽视了中国经济发展过程中存在的结构性问题。中国政府已经采取了一系列措施，旨在改革财政体系和银行体系，并且取得了一定的成效。

　　最后，需要指出的是，西方媒体在报道中国经济时经常忽视中国政府采取的一系列措施，这些措施旨在推动中国经济的可持续发展。例如，中国政府已经实施了一系列环保政策，旨在减少污染和提高环境质量。中国政府还在推动新能源汽车和其他绿色技术的发展，并且取得了一定的成效。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国经济时存在许多偏见和双重标准。为了更好地了解中国经济的真实情况，需要对西方媒体的报道进行客观评价，并且从多方面考虑中国经济发展的成就和存在的问题。同时，也需要认识到中国政府在推动中国经济可持续发展方面所采取的一系列措施。

　　新闻来源： 2405060635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405061938英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405060235华尔街日报-中国冲击20的背后元凶人民币贬值和通缩; 2405051907英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-04; 2405050200The-Guardian-The-new-space-race-what-are-Chinas-ambitions-and-why-is-the-US-so-concerned; 2405050831外媒中国相关-Stop-megaphone-diplomacy–China-urges-New-Zealand-after-Winston-Peters-raises-Pacific-security-worries

关于中国的新闻报道 - Politics章节评价

　　中国作为一个崛起中的大国，其政治新闻一直受到西方媒体的广泛关注。然而，由于西方媒体对中国的报道一贯充满偏见和双重标准，因此其中的政治新闻报道也常常受到争议和质疑。以下是对最近一段时间西方媒体关于中国政治新闻的评价。

　　首先，中国的外交政策一直是西方媒体关注的热点之一。在过去的几年中，中国在全球范围内不断扩大其影响力，并与许多国家建立了更紧密的联系。例如，中国在非洲和亚洲的投资和援助不断增加，并与当地政府建立了更紧密的合作关系。然而，西方媒体常常将中国的外交政策描绘为“扩张主义”和“威胁”，并将其与西方国家的利益相对立。这种描述不仅是单方面的，而且还忽视了中国在全球范围内的贡献和合作。

　　其次，中国的内政也是西方媒体关注的重点。在过去的几年中，中国实施了一系列改革和政策，旨在促进经济发展和社会稳定。然而，西方媒体常常将中国的内政描绘为“压迫”和“人权侵犯”，并将其与西方国家的价值观相对立。这种描述不仅是单方面的，而且还忽视了中国在经济发展和扶贫减贫方面取得的成就。

　　第三，中国的军事力量也是西方媒体关注的热点之一。在过去的几年中，中国不断增加其军事预算，并开发了一系列先进的武器和装备。然而，西方媒体常常将中国的军事力量描绘为“威胁”和“挑衅”，并将其与西方国家的安全利益相对立。这种描述不仅是单方面的，而且还忽视了中国在维护地区和平稳定方面的努力。

　　总的来说，西方媒体关于中国政治新闻的报道存在明显的偏见和双重标准。这种报道不仅会误导西方社会对中国的认识，还会影响中国与西方国家之间的关系。因此，我们需要采取更加客观和平衡的态度，对中国的政治新闻进行报道和评论。

　　最后，需要指出的是，中国的政治新闻是一个复杂的问题，需要从多方面进行考察和分析。我们需要结合中国的历史、文化和社会背景，对中国的政治新闻进行全面和深入的研究和理解。同时，我们也需要尊重中国的主权和发展路径，采取更加包容和开放的态度，推动中西方间的交流和合作。

　　新闻来源： 2405061938英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405060756The-Guardian-Europe-live-Chinas-Xi-arrives-in-Paris-with-trade-and-Ukraine-on-agenda; 2405060635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405050831外媒中国相关-Stop-megaphone-diplomacy–China-urges-New-Zealand-after-Winston-Peters-raises-Pacific-security-worries; 2405051907英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-04; 2405050200The-Guardian-The-new-space-race-what-are-Chinas-ambitions-and-why-is-the-US-so-concerned

关于中国的新闻报道 - Culture章节评价

　　中国在过去几年中取得了巨大的发展，在经济、科技、军事等方面都取得了长足的进步。然而，中国的崛起也引起了西方媒体的关注和担忧，其中包括对中国文化的报道。本章节将对西方媒体关于中国文化的报道进行评价。

　　首先，西方媒体关于中国文化的报道存在偏见和双重标准。例如，中国传统文化被描述为“落后”、“封建”、“反动”，而西方文化则被描述为“先进”、“开放”、“自由”。中国政府的文化政策被指控为“限制自由”、“抑制创造性”，而西方国家的文化政策则被视为“保护多元化”、“鼓励创新”。

　　其次，西方媒体关于中国文化的报道缺乏深入分析和全面理解。例如，中国的互联网文化被描述为“网络水军”、“粉红”、“小粉红”等，而忽略了中国网民的多元化和自主性。中国的电影、电视剧、音乐等文化产品被指控为“娱乐化”、“商业化”、“低俗化”，而忽略了中国文化产业的成就和潜力。

　　第三，西方媒体关于中国文化的报道缺乏客观性和公正性。例如，中国的宗教信仰被描述为“异端”、“邪教”、“威胁”，而忽略了中国政府保护宗教自由的努力和成果。中国的民族政策被指控为“分裂主义”、“种族歧视”，而忽略了中国民族和谐共处的历史和现实。

　　最后，西方媒体关于中国文化的报道缺乏正面和积极的报道。例如，中国的文化遗产保护和传承被描述为“破坏”、“摧残”、“侵略”，而忽略了中国政府和人民对文化遗产的重视和保护。中国的文化交流和合作被描述为“文化输出”、“文化入侵”、“文化扩张”，而忽略了中国与世界其他国家和地区的文化交流和合作的成果和潜力。

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国文化的报道存在偏见、缺乏深入分析和全面理解、缺乏客观性和公正性、缺乏正面和积极的报道等问题。为了更好地了解中国文化，西方媒体应该采取更加客观、公正、全面和深入的态度和方法，尊重中国文化的多元化和独特性，认真听取中国政府和人民的声音，推动中西文化交流和合作。

　　新闻来源： 2405061938英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405060756The-Guardian-Europe-live-Chinas-Xi-arrives-in-Paris-with-trade-and-Ukraine-on-agenda; 2405060635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405051907英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-04; 2405050200The-Guardian-The-new-space-race-what-are-Chinas-ambitions-and-why-is-the-US-so-concerned; 2405050831外媒中国相关-Stop-megaphone-diplomacy–China-urges-New-Zealand-after-Winston-Peters-raises-Pacific-security-worries

关于中国的新闻报道 - Technology章节评价

　　中国在技术领域取得了巨大的进步，尤其是在人工智能、电子商务、移动支付等方面，这些成就被广泛认可和关注。然而，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，通常会带有偏见和双重标准，过于强调中国的负面方面，而忽视或淡化中国的成就和贡献。以下是对西方媒体关于中国技术新闻报道的评价。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，通常会过于强调中国的技术监控和审查。例如，有关中国政府利用人脸识别技术进行监控和管理的报道，往往会被西方媒体夸大和歪曲。中国政府利用人脸识别技术进行公共安全管理是事实，但这种做法在西方国家也是普遍存在的。例如，美国政府在机场和边境处也广泛使用人脸识别技术进行安检和管理。中国政府在使用人脸识别技术时，也会遵循相关法律法规，保护公民的隐私和权利。因此，西方媒体在报道中国的技术监控和审查时，应该保持客观公正，不要过于夸大和歪曲。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，通常会忽视或淡化中国的技术创新和成就。例如，中国在人工智能、电子商务、移动支付等方面取得了世界领先的成就，但这些成就在西方媒体的报道中却很少被提到。相反，西方媒体更喜欢关注中国的技术侵权和抄袭问题。虽然中国在技术创新方面还存在一些不足之处，但中国在某些领域的创新成果已经被广泛认可和应用，这一点也应该被西方媒体所关注和认可。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，通常会过于强调中国的技术威胁。例如，有关中国在人工智能和量子计算等领域取得的成就被西方媒体描述为“威胁”，这种描述是非常不公平的。中国在这些领域的成就是通过自主创新和合作共赢实现的，而不是通过“威胁”或“侵略”实现的。中国在技术领域的发展，更应该被看作是一个机遇和挑战，而不是一个威胁。

　　最后，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，通常会忽略中国的技术发展背后的社会和经济因素。例如，中国在电子商务和移动支付等领域的成就，是基于中国特色的社会和经济条件实现的。中国的电子商务和移动支付市场规模巨大，这是因为中国有一个庞大的消费者群体和一个高度发达的物流和支付基础设施。这些社会和经济因素在中国的技术发展中起着重要作用，但却很少被西方媒体所关注和分析。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，应该保持客观公正，不要过于强调中国的负面方面，忽视或淡化中国的成就和贡献。中国在技术领域的发展，是一个机遇和挑战，也是一个值得关注和学习的事件。我们应该采取更加客观和公正的态度，全面、准确、深入地了解中国的技术发展。

　　新闻来源： 2405061938英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405060635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405060349华尔街日报-美国战争机器离不开稀土磁铁中国却是市场霸主

关于中国的新闻报道 - Society章节评价

　　中国是一个多元化的社会，其社会问题和变革始终受到西方媒体的关注和报道。然而，由于西方媒体对中国的报道一贯存在偏见和双重标准，因此其对中国社会问题的报道常常具有选择性和偏颇性，而且通常会过度强调中国的不足和问题，忽视其成就和进步。以下是对西方媒体关于中国社会问题的报道的评价。

　　首先，西方媒体对中国社会问题的报道通常会过度强调中国的不足和问题。例如，在报道中国的就业问题时，西方媒体通常会强调中国的失业率和就业压力，而忽略中国在就业方面取得的成就，如中国在减少贫困和提高就业率方面所做的努力。此外，西方媒体在报道中国的教育问题时，也通常会过度强调中国的教育不平等和压力，而忽略中国在扩展教育机会和提高教育质量方面所取得的成就。

　　其次，西方媒体对中国社会问题的报道通常会选择性地关注某些问题，而忽略其他问题。例如，在报道中国的人口问题时，西方媒体通常会关注中国的人口老龄化和人口减少问题，而忽略中国在人口控制方面取得的成就。此外，西方媒体在报道中国的环境问题时，也通常会选择性地关注某些问题，如空气污染和垃圾处理问题，而忽略中国在可持续发展和绿色发展方面所取得的成就。

　　第三，西方媒体对中国社会问题的报道通常会采用双重标准。例如，在报道中国的人权问题时，西方媒体通常会强调中国的人权问题，而忽略其他国家的人权问题。此外，西方媒体在报道中国的经济问题时，也通常会采用双重标准，如在报道中国的贸易摩擦问题时，西方媒体通常会将中国描述为“不公平竞争者”，而忽略其他国家的贸易保护主义行为。

　　最后，西方媒体对中国社会问题的报道通常会忽略中国在解决这些问题方面所做的努力和取得的成就。例如，在报道中国的污染问题时，西方媒体通常会忽略中国在控制污染和提高环境质量方面所做的努力和取得的成就。此外，西方媒体在报道中国的社会不平等问题时，也通常会忽略中国在减少贫困和促进社会公正方面所做的努力和取得的成就。

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国社会问题的报道存在选择性、偏颇性和双重标准等问题，因此其报道常常不能客观、全面地反映中国社会的真实情况。为了更好地了解中国社会，我们需要多元化的信息来源，并采用批判性的思考方式来分析和评估这些信息。

　　新闻来源： 2405061938英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405060635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-05; 2405060756The-Guardian-Europe-live-Chinas-Xi-arrives-in-Paris-with-trade-and-Ukraine-on-agenda; 2405051907英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-04; 2405050200The-Guardian-The-new-space-race-what-are-Chinas-ambitions-and-why-is-the-US-so-concerned; 2405050831外媒中国相关-Stop-megaphone-diplomacy–China-urges-New-Zealand-after-Winston-Peters-raises-Pacific-security-worries

• China’s president arrives in Europe to reinvigorate ties at a time of global tensions
• Change in holiday habits sees budget travel to Hong Kong increase as mainland Chinese visitors opt for cross-border commutes for ‘golden week’
• Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Paris with EU trade, Ukraine among hot button issues on table
• China’s provinces trim thousands of government jobs to spend more on Beijing’s science and control priorities
• Why does China still have child brides despite 1950 ban? Decoding origins, how candidates are picked and raised
• Cuba opens visa-free doors to Chinese tourists as direct flights resume
• Stop megaphone diplomacy, China urges New Zealand after Winston Peters raises Pacific security worries
• What has driven China to bankroll controversial Ugandan crude oil pipeline?
• Zhang Weili, China’s first UFC champion, one of world’s top female MMA fighters, Mark Zuckerberg and wife are huge fans
• Are Chinese-made skincare brands downplaying their origins to appeal to Southeast Asians?
• China’s steel industry risks ‘falling off a cliff’ as overcapacity concerns point to end of an era
• Mainland Chinese visitor spending to exceed HK$2 billion in Hong Kong during Labour Day ‘golden week’ break, tourism chief says
• What China must learn from Japan’s decades-long debt-deflation slowdown
• The new ‘space race’: what are China’s ambitions and why is the US so concerned?
• China Big Tech: Why many overworked employees are quitting to become entrepreneurs amid internet slowdown
• Shock as about-to-marry China woman discovers she is a biological man after doctors find testicle in her stomach
• Mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong complain about hotel charges for toiletries packed in plastic after ban on throwaway items comes into force
• As Xi Jinping heads to France, China seeks chance to sway one of EU’s most powerful members
• No jobs, no hope: how India and China are grappling with youth crises
• South China Sea: Second Thomas Shoal war of words heats up as Beijing gives ‘details’ of resupply deal with Manila

China’s president arrives in Europe to reinvigorate ties at a time of global tensions

https://apnews.com/article/china-xi-jinping-europe-france-8561c3ae65caf2cdd8338b887a3a8df1China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan wave as they arrive Sunday, May 5, 2024 at Orly airport, south of Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron will seek to press China's Xi Jinping to use his influence on Moscow to move towards the end of the war in Ukraine, during a two-day state visit to France that will also see both leaders discuss trade issues. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

2024-05-05T14:08:57Z

PARIS (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off a three-country trip to Europe on Sunday with the continent divided over how to deal with Beijing’s growing power and the U.S.-China rivalry.

European carmakers are losing ground to subsidized Chinese electric vehicles. Diplomats fret about alleged Chinese spies in European capitals. And China’s continued defense trade with Russia worries anyone in Europe who supports war-ravaged Ukraine and fears that the Russian army won’t stop there.

But Europe and China have hefty economic ties — EU-China trade is estimated at 2.3 billion euros per day — and Xi appears determined to rebuild and deepen relations with European leaders after a prolonged absence prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Xi started Sunday in France, whose president wants Europe to have more economic and strategic independence from other world powers. Then the Chinese president heads to Serbia and Hungary, both seen as China-friendly and close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and recipients of substantial Chinese investment.

Xi’s trip will be closely watched in Washington for signs of diminishing European support for its key foreign policy goals. At the same time, there’s increasing uncertainty in Europe about future U.S. support for trans-Atlantic allies.

Xi was greeted at Paris’ Orly Airport by French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal — and by protests by groups demanding that France pressure China to respect Tibetan and Uyghur minority rights. Activists seeking a free Tibet attempted to unfurl a banner Saturday beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and protested in the French capital around the same time as Xi’s plane landed.

After arriving, Xi said he hoped the visit would bring ‘’strategic convergence’’ between China and France, and that further developing their relations would contribute to ‘’stability and positive energy in an turbulent world,’' according to a text provided to reporters at the airport.

On Monday French President Emmanuel Macron will treat the Chinese leader to formal honors of a full state visit. They will also meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is expected to join Macron in pushing for fairer trade policies and for China to use its leverage with Russia to push it toward ending the war in Ukraine.

The EU launched an investigation last fall into Chinese subsidies and could impose tariffs on electric vehicles exported from China.

China claims neutrality in the Ukraine conflict but has refused to call the full-blown Russian assault on its neighbor an invasion, and has been accused of bolstering Russia’s capacity to produce weapons.

---

Change in holiday habits sees budget travel to Hong Kong increase as mainland Chinese visitors opt for cross-border commutes for ‘golden week’

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3261498/change-holiday-habits-sees-budget-travel-hong-kong-increase-mainland-chinese-visitors-opt-cross?utm_source=rss_feed

Guangxi student Benny Yang Ke and his girlfriend were among hundreds of mainland Chinese tourists who flocked to Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to sightsee on Sunday, the last gasp of their three-day Labour Day “golden week” break in the city.

But the 21-year-old said the two had opted to stay across the border at a hotel in Futian, Shenzhen, to save on costs and commute to Hong Kong on day trips.

They were among the mainland tourists who travelled to see Hong Kong on a budget over the five-day holiday and seek out affordable meals and sightseeing.

“Budget travel is the trend nowadays,” Yang said. “If you can rent a double room in Shenzhen for only 400 yuan per night, there is no way I would spend nearly HK$2,000 (US$256) a night in Hong Kong hotels.”

He added they did not plan to shop, although they spent some time in shopping centres having coffee when there was downpour on Saturday.

“We are not into luxurious brands and there is nothing attractive enough for us to shop for, honestly,” Yang said. “Our money is mostly spent on street snacks and cheaper meals.”

Yang said he only spent HK$800 by just roaming around the city and taking photographs in line with recommendations on the Instagram-like Chinese social media site Xiaohongshu in Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and Kennedy Town.

About 670,000 mainland tourists visited Hong Kong in the first four days of the holiday, spanning last Wednesday to Sunday, despite grey skies and rainy weather.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said that the mainland tourist footfall for the five-day break would be in line with expectations of 800,000 people with a total spend of more than HK$2 billion.

Kelly Xu Jie, from Shenzhen, also said she did not plan to splash out on swanky hotels or a shopping spree.

She and a friend commuted between Futian and Hong Kong over her three-day visit to the city to save money.

“We arrived in Central’s Lan Kwai Fong on Friday and had a bowl of beef brisket noodles,” the 23-year-old online shop owner said.

“Over the next two days, we explored the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui and the Yau Ma Tei Police Station.

Mainland visitor spending to exceed HK$2 billion in Hong Kong over break: minister

“We just found some cafes to chill when it was raining. Honestly, we don’t need to shop in Hong Kong as you can pretty much buy everything online in Shenzhen with speedy delivery.”

Zhang Weixing, 26, a factory supervisor from Fujian province, stayed at a relative’s home in Kai Tak for his four-day trip with a cousin, who was on his first trip to Hong Kong, and spent about HK$600 at a pharmacy.

“I just took my cousin to do the basics such as roaming both sides of the Victoria Harbour, taking the Star Ferry and the tram.”

Zhang added they also visited the tower block “monster buildings” in Quarry Bay, which were featured in a smash hit Transformers film.

They said they also found prices in Hong Kong a bit on the high side.

“A cup of coffee in a shopping centre costs about HK$50, while a meal can easily cost about HK$200 a person,” Zhang said. “So we ended up staying at our relatives’ home playing video games during the rain.

“In the future, we might choose to travel to other cities in mainland China during long holidays. At least things will be cheaper and we will have more things to do.”

But Charlene Liang, 27, a textile product trader from Guangxi, bucked the budget trend and forked out about HK$8,000 during a stay with her parents in Hong Kong.

“Even though the expenses were higher, considering it was my parents’ first trip here, we decided to stay in a hotel and do some shopping,” she said. “My mum focused on buying skincare products and my dad purchased two watches.”

Expand mainland Chinese solo traveller scheme, Hong Kong tourism leaders say

The trio also spent HK$1,200 for three tickets for a Victoria Harbour boat tour on Sunday night because they could not do it sooner because of the heavy rain over the past few days.

Some mainland users of Xiaohongshu highlighted how a Labour Day golden week visit to Hong Kong was different from the experience four or five years ago.

“The MTR stations are not as crowded, there are only a few people in the pharmacies and there are fewer people dragging suitcases for shopping,” one wrote.

“Buying electronic products and luxury goods is not cheap. I just bought some medication for my family. I really don’t know what else to buy.”

Another user from Guangdong province said that it was his most disappointing trip to the city compared with several previous visits – particularly the standard of service at a restaurant he visited.

“I don’t expect them [the waiters] to smile and provide service all the time,” the man said.

“But I really can’t understand their gesture of extending their hand as if they are barring you from speaking. It is just unreasonable and makes you feel unwelcome.

“To be honest, with the unfavourable exchange rate and the unreasonably high prices for shopping, poor quality accommodation, basic food and such terrible service attitudes, I can’t think of a reason to come here any more.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Paris with EU trade, Ukraine among hot button issues on table

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261495/chinese-president-xi-jinping-arrives-paris-eu-trade-ukraine-among-hot-button-issues-table?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in France on Sunday to begin a closely watched three-nation tour that will see him try to improve relations with Europe amid intensifying US rivalry, with trade and Ukraine high on the agenda.

Accompanying Xi on his first European tour in five years is his wife Peng Liyuan, chief of staff Cai Qi, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to a statement from Beijing. The five-day trip will also take Xi to Serbia and Hungary.

The delegation is expected to spend two days in France, with Xi to meet President Emmanuel Macron and the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Paris on Monday, ahead of a state dinner.

EU cranks up the pressure as China’s Xi Jinping prepares for 3-nation visit

Macron and von der Leyen, who has been invited by the French president to join the meeting with Xi, are expected to bring up some of the thorniest issues in China-EU relations. This includes the bloc’s long-standing concerns over a nearly 300 billion euro (US$323 billion) trade deficit and alleged Chinese supplies of dual-use goods to Russia that benefit its military assaults on Ukraine.

The European Union has stepped up its “de-risking” approach to address economic overdependence on China, and what it calls Beijing’s increasing geopolitical “assertiveness” as relations with the West worsen.

The drive includes probes targeting China’s clean energy industry – where it has emerged as a global leader – involving products including electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines, with Beijing accused of “flooding” the European market with heavily subsidised cheaper products.

Macron, who is known for his pro-European approach, is a major supporter of the bloc’s tougher economic measures against China. He is also believed to be a proponent of the EU’s anti-subsidy probe into Chinese EVs, which has prompted Beijing to retaliate with a similar investigation into French brandy.

In an interview to the French newspaper La Tribune published on Saturday, Macron said he would press Xi on economic reciprocity.

“In Europe, we are not unanimous on the subject because certain players still see China as essentially a market of opportunities. I’m calling for an ‘aggiornamento’ because China is now in excess capacity in many areas and exports massively to Europe,” Macron said, using the Italian word for update.

Macron added that China’s role was crucial on international issues where Europe needed its engagement, whether it was climate change, or security issues concerning Ukraine, North Korea or Iran. Conflicts in the Middle East are also expected to be discussed in the meeting with Xi.

“I am not suggesting we move away from China,” Macron told La Tribune. However, I think that we must better protect our national security, our sovereignty, de-risk a part of our supply chains and be much more realistic in defending our interests.”

Macron, a defender of Europe’s “strategic autonomy” amid the US-China rivalry, is often seen as striking a delicate balance while launching a “charm offensive” on China, despite US pressure.

During his visit to China last year, Macron was accompanied by a large business delegation and brought home a number of significant deals in nuclear energy, aviation, and agriculture, even though he was unsuccessful in persuading Xi to jointly act on Russia.

Xi’s visit will see France seek to further boost agricultural exports to China, and also repeat the plea for Beijing to use its influence on Moscow, including on negotiating a potential truce during the Paris Olympic Games starting late July, according to Macron and his officials.

China has yet to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is criticised by the West for siding with Moscow due to their close ties. Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly due to visit China shortly after Xi returns from Europe.

China insists it has a neutral stance in the war and is using its own methods to bring peace to Ukraine, including efforts for direct talks between the two sides at next month’s global peace summit in Switzerland.

On Tuesday, Macron is expected to bring Xi to the Pyrenees mountains on the Spanish border, a place the French president holds dear as his grandmother’s birthplace and where he spent his childhood holidays.

According to French media, the personal gesture aims to echo Xi’s decision to host a tea ceremony for Macron at the former residence of his father in southern China.

In an opinion piece published on state-run CGTN on Sunday, Chinese envoy to France Lu Shaye said relations with France were “at the forefront of China’s relations with Western countries”. It is hoped France’s “independent” policy towards China would open up more cooperation while resolving mutual “differences” as the two countries mark 60 years of diplomatic ties, Lu wrote.

China has long called on the EU to remain strategically independent of US policy, as more members of the 27-nation bloc follow Washington in imposing economic and technological restrictions on China.

Many see Xi’s trip as an attempt by China to regain the trust of Europe, while driving a wedge between the US and its allies as cracks begin to show over US security commitment to Ukraine.

Xi’s next stops – the Russia-friendly Serbia and Hungary – both have strained relations with the United States.

Xi’s trip to Serbia coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

He also aims to strengthen partnerships with both central European countries under the Belt and Road Initiative, the funding and infrastructure strategy criticised by the West as China’s flagship project to reshape the global order.

---

China’s provinces trim thousands of government jobs to spend more on Beijing’s science and control priorities

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3261336/chinas-provinces-trim-thousands-government-jobs-spend-more-beijings-science-and-control-priorities?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s regional governments are painstakingly trimming tens of thousands of staff from their vast public institutions to spend more on new policy priorities, including scientific research and grass-roots positions aimed at maintaining social stability.

The ongoing reshuffle has gone largely unnoticed as local governments try to avoid public scrutiny of changes to the “iron rice bowl”, or guaranteed jobs.

It is also overshadowed by changes to major Communist Party and state institutions announced last year in the spring, which saw Beijing move to assert more direct party control over a wide range of key policy areas, including science and technology, the financial sector and social stability.

A year later, the nature and scale of the restructuring is starting to become apparent as new agencies covering these areas have been set up by central and local governments.

Central Henan province has drawn the attention of millions of Chinese civil servants since mid-April when its economic planner released the details of its downsizing of provincial public institutions, cutting the workforce by more than 5,600 in the past few years.

It is estimated that more than 3,330 positions will be added to science research and tech innovation institutions, including at the provincial academy of sciences, key laboratories and in other areas such as worker training. The plan outlined jobs growth in fields concerning people’s livelihood and grass-roots stability.

China broadly divides staff on the government payroll into two categories: administrative officials in government agencies, known as xingzheng bianzhi, and staff serving in other public institutions, such as schools, hospitals, broadcasting, city management and social welfare, known as shiye bianzhi.

The Henan government said its restructuring plan for public institutions, or shiye danwei, would not affect those working for schools and hospitals.

A Henan official involved in the downsizing exercise said key headcount reduction methods would not involve mass retrenchments.

“We have tightened the staffing quota of each unit. Depending on the severity of overstaffing, we will tell them they can only recruit one for every two or three retirements or resignations. So after a few years, they will hit the target number,” he said on condition of anonymity.

“No doubt, the workload on each head will increase and we have heard complaints. But it is still better than retrenchment.”

‘She-cession’ threat still real as China’s post-pandemic gender gap widens

Alfred Wu, an associate professor with the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said tightening up on new recruitment was probably “the only way to downsize China’s public sector”.

“Just like other countries, it is difficult to sack public servants unless they are found to have disciplinary problems. The job security made the public sector the most sought-after employer in China now and people tend to stay in the system until retirement, given the rising unemployment,” Wu said.

In one of Henan’s official newspapers, an editorial worker said that despite his unit pursuing the “one recruitment for every two retirements policy”, they had not replaced the two retirees in his office because of a lack of funds in the budget.

“Our office is getting older, we were told no fresh blood will join us in the near future,” he said, adding that they now employed contract workers or freelancers to help ease the workload, but they did not usually stay long because their pay and medical benefits were less than those offered to permanent workers.

The trimming of the workforce in Henan is a sign of Beijing’s determination to push for public institution reform in all provinces following a four-year trial in selected provinces and cities.

The Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform – China’s top decision-making body on institutional reforms led by President Xi Jinping – approved a pilot plan for public institution reform in February 2020.

It asked five provinces – Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi and Shandong – to make changes in provincewide public institutions, while four other provinces, including Jiangsu, were asked to choose cities to be pilot zones.

According to media reports, the pilot provinces focused on merging noncore public functions, including official media outlets, city administration or chengguang, and geological exploration units, to make staff cuts.

In October 2021, Heilongjiang reported streamlining 2,735 public institutions and cutting more than 83,000 “headcount” from public institutions, while in eastern China, Jiangsu province reported a cut of more than 40 per cent reduction in municipal institutions in four pilot cities, cutting more than 9,500 jobs in 2022.

Wu said the latest round of austerity efforts might not necessarily mean the number of Chinese civil servants would fall.

“There is no conclusive evidence on China’s civil service trend. But official statistics on the workforce under government payroll seems to be gradually rising since Xi came to power in 2012, because Xi needs to deploy more hands to ensure stability,” he said.

‘I’ve shed all idealistic work expectations’: China’s jobseekers face reality

Based on numbers from the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of urban employees in public administration, social security and other organisations rose from 15.4 million in 2012 to nearly 20 million in 2022. The percentage of public sector employees in total urban employment rose from 10 per cent to 12 per cent in the same period.

Wu noted that the tight government budget – resulting from weaker land sale revenue and an overall softening of economic activity – might be a compelling reason for the Chinese government to freeze its headcounts.

In 2023, all mainland provinces and municipalities except for Fujian province registered a budget deficit. Henan had 451 billion yuan (US$62 billion) income, but expenditure amounted to 1.106 trillion yuan (US$152 billion), leaving a staggering 655 billion yuan (US$90 billion) deficit, according to its provincial government work report.

Why does China still have child brides despite 1950 ban? Decoding origins, how candidates are picked and raised

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3260116/why-does-china-still-have-child-brides-despite-1950-ban-decoding-origins-how-candidates-are-picked?utm_source=rss_feed

An ancient tradition called tong yang xi persists in China by which a family can adopt a girl from infancy or childhood and raise her as a future wife for one of their sons.

But how do they find a “candidate” and raise her? Why does the custom still exist today after being officially banned on May 1, 1950. The Post explains.

What lies behind?

The tradition of tong yang xi, which was once widespread in China, originated from the financial hardships faced by families burdened with numerous children.

Often unable to support their daughters, families see the practice as a way out for both the daughter and the family.

It also benefits the groom’s family by reducing future marriage expenses because no bride price is required and wedding ceremonies are simpler.

This allows sons from modest backgrounds to marry minus a financial burden.

Also, adopting a young girl not only secures a future wife for a son but also adds an extra pair of hands, contributing to the adopting family’s labour needs.

Selecting and raising

Most tong yang xi were either adopted from impoverished families, found abandoned on roadsides or bought cheaply from desperate parents selling their children during famines.

Occasionally, families with similar backgrounds exchanged daughters to raise as tong yang xi.

Sometimes, families would buy daughters slightly older than their son, believing they could care for their future husbands.

The fate of these child brides varied, largely depending on the financial stability of the buying family.

Typically, they held low status, were burdened with household chores to learn how to be a homemaker and were often mistreated by the official wife, even reducing them to become child-bearing “tools”.

In rare cases, those sold to wealthy families received a proper education, and were taught virtues essential for marriage.

Marriage would typically take place at the age of 14 or 15.

However, if her betrothed died before the wedding or refused to marry her, she might be forced to marry someone else or even be sent back to her original family.

More compassionate families might adopt them as daughters. However, in harsher households, they could be sold into slavery or forced into prostitution.

Prevalence after ban

The practice of tong yang xi was officially banned with the enactment of China’s first Marriage Law on May 1, 1950, which also abolished arranged and forced marriages, bigamy, concubinage, while establishing monogamy as the standard.

Despite the ban, the tradition persists in some rural areas.

In February 2006, a tragic incident occurred in Pingyang village, Donghai town in the southeastern province of Fujian, where Zhu Shiwen, a local teacher, brutally killed his tong yang xi wife, Zhu Xiumei.

The incident revealed that in the small mountain village of just over 4,300 residents, there were nearly 1,000 tong yang xi.

Zhu Xiumei had been brought to her husband’s household just four days after her birth.

Her husband, who longed for the freedom to choose his own partner, said of the marriage: “I regret marrying her. We both became sacrifices to the ‘monster’ of tong yang xi.”

Local residents said the isolation of the village and its poor economic conditions meant nearly every family adopted a girl in such circumstances to solve the problem of young men being unable to find wives.

Cuba opens visa-free doors to Chinese tourists as direct flights resume

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3261481/cuba-opens-visa-free-doors-chinese-tourists-direct-flights-resume?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese passport holders will be able to enter Cuba without a visa this month as direct flights resume between the two countries.

Cuban Tourism Minister Juan Carlos Garcia announced the visa-free policy at the Cuban International Tourism Fair held in the seaside resort of Cayo Coco island on the weekend, saying China would also be the event’s “guest of honour” next year.

State news agency Xinhua quoted Garcia as saying the policy would come into effect this month and direct flights between China and Cuba would resume on May 17, after being suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Sunday, searches for hotels in Cuba and flights to the country on online travel agency Ctrip soared after the announcement, according to Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper.

Ctrip vice-president Qin Jing said the distance and cost of travelling to Cuba meant it had not been a popular destination for Chinese tourists but its unique cultural and natural landscape would have strong appeal.

“With this visa exemption and the recent opening or resumption of direct flights from China to Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and other Latin American destinations, the time and cost for tourists are expected to significantly decrease,” The Paper quoted Qin as saying.

China is Cuba’s largest trade partner, with bilateral trade amounting to US$862 million last year.

The announcement came at the end of China’s five-day “golden week” Labour Day break, which started on May 1.

CCTV reported that more people were heading overseas for the holiday, with the number of booking for international flights on May 1 20 per cent higher than the same time in 2019 before the pandemic.

Europe and the Middle East were among the favoured destinations, according to state broadcaster, but tickets were in particularly high demand for countries with visa-free schemes with China, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Georgia and Kazakhstan, it said.

Over the past six months, China has struck several mutual visa-free deals with other countries to encourage tourism and increase exchanges.

In a report last month ForwardKeys, a travel forecaster that analyses air ticketing, travel agency and other industry data, said: “Relaxed visa requirements play a significant role in attracting Chinese tourists.”

But ForwardKeys china market analyst Nancy Dai said other factors “like safety concerns and flight connectivity also play a crucial role” when booking a holiday destination.

Stop megaphone diplomacy, China urges New Zealand after Winston Peters raises Pacific security worries

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261472/stop-megaphone-diplomacy-china-urges-new-zealand-after-winston-peters-raises-pacific-security?utm_source=rss_feed

China has urged New Zealand to end “megaphone diplomacy” and to turn to “constructive dialogue” to manage disputes with Beijing.

“Regarding the differences between the two sides, China is willing to continue to handle them properly with the New Zealand side through constructive dialogue, rather than engaging in ‘megaphone diplomacy’,” the Chinese embassy in Wellington said in a statement on Saturday.

China and New Zealand had different views, it said, but “the two countries have neither historical grievances nor conflicts of interest in reality, the consensus and common interests between the two sides far outweigh the differences”.

“The essential complementary nature of the interests between the two countries and the willingness for good cooperation remain the mainstream of bilateral relations,” it said.

The embassy’s call came after New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Friday that he was “seriously concerned” by China’s security presence in the Pacific. It was among a range of issues, including human rights, tensions in South China Sea, and cyberattacks, that Peters raised in a speech to the New Zealand China Council.

“We do not want to see developments that destabilise the institutions and arrangements that have long underpinned our region’s security,” he said.

Since taking office late last year, New Zealand’s conservative coalition government, led by the National Party’s Christopher Luxon, has been seeking to deepen its ties with the US-led allies amid concerns on Beijing’s growing ambitions in the Pacific.

Wellington is now exploring joining Pillar 2 of the Aukus security pact between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, and has said it is also working on a new partnership with Nato.

China has been accused of increasingly assertive behaviour in the South China Sea and human rights abuses, particularly in Tibet and its treatment of the Uygur community in Xinjiang. Other countries have also accused China of mounting cyberattacks against them.

At the same time, Beijing has stepped up ties in the Pacific – Australia and New Zealand’s backyard – through more aid, development, and security cooperation. In 2022, China signed a secretive security agreement with Solomon Islands.

In its statement, the Chinese embassy said it had “no hidden agenda or military intentions in the South Pacific”.

The South China Sea was tranquil until “some with ulterior motives started to manufacture trouble”, and Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong remained China’s internal affairs.

It also said China was a major victim of cyberattacks.

Many of those issues were raised in March when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited New Zealand.

According to Wellington, the two sides discussed trade, business and security in the Pacific as well as human rights issues in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet.

During the trip, Wang described ties between the two countries as “a force for stability”.

China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade volume in goods reaching US$25.2 billion in 2022. The total value of goods exported to China in the year to September 2023 was US$19.3 billion, according to Statistics New Zealand.

What has driven China to bankroll controversial Ugandan crude oil pipeline?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3259641/what-has-driven-china-bankroll-controversial-ugandan-crude-oil-pipeline?utm_source=rss_feed

China has stepped in to bankroll the building of a controversial oil pipeline in Uganda as Western-backed lenders abandoned the project. But the move is driven “more by geopolitics than by geoeconomics”, according to observers.

The assessment follows Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s revelation earlier this month that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had promised his “unwavering support” for the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), set to run from Uganda’s Lake Albert oilfields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania.

“I received a letter from President Xi Jinping of China expressing his support for the EACOP project. I welcome His Excellency’s support and invitation to the energy minister to visit China for further discussions with his government,” Museveni said on April 4.

The letter was hand-delivered by Xue Bing, China’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa, and read by the Chinese ambassador to Uganda, Zhang Lizhong.

Uganda discovered oil in the Lake Albert basin on its border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo nearly two decades ago, but it was not until 2022 that a final investment decision was reached to tap into the resource.

At first, dozens of Western banks and insurers expressed interest in financing the pipeline. But amid growing opposition from environmental and human rights groups, they all backed out of the project.

Even the European Parliament became involved, expressing “grave concerns about the human rights violations in Uganda and Tanzania linked to investments in fossil-fuel projects”.

As a result, Uganda is now increasingly relying on China, which has a substantial role in the country’s oil industry – from bankrolling projects to operating an oilfield, drilling oil wells and building key infrastructure, including the pipeline.

In September last year, Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development told the Post that China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) was working with the Export-Import Bank of China (Eximbank) to provide more than half of the US$3 billion in debt needed to build the pipeline. Another US$2 billion will be raised for the project through equity contributions from shareholders.

The landlocked East African nation is looking to build the 1,443km (896-mile) buried pipeline so it can move crude oil from two oilfields: Kingfisher to the north of Lake Albert, operated by Chinese oil giant China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), and Tilenga at the southern end of the lake, being developed by French oil multinational TotalEnergies.

CNOOC is expected to invest an estimated US$2 billion to US$3 billion to develop the oilfield that is expected to produce 40,000 barrels per day at peak production. The Tilenga oilfield is estimated to cost between US$4 billion and US$6 billion and is expected to produce 190,000 barrels per day.

TotalEnergies controls a 62 per cent interest in the pipeline; the Uganda National Oil Company holds 15 per cent; Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation has 15 per cent; leaving 8 per cent for CNOOC. Uganda has an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of crude oil – the equivalent of 1.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

At his meeting with Museveni earlier this month, Zhang said Chinese financial institutions were open to discussions on the project. He extended an invitation to Uganda’s energy and mineral development minister, Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu, to visit China for further negotiations to unlock financing for the pipeline.

Tim Zajontz, a research fellow in the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, said China’s motivation for stepping in appeared less about oil and more about image.

“China’s move seems motivated more by geopolitics than by geoeconomics, as China is no longer as dependent on African oil as it was 20 years ago,” he said.

“Yet, the project gives Beijing a welcome opportunity to portray itself as the more reliable development partner, after Western investors have backed out over human rights and sustainability concerns.”

Zajontz said that in Kampala, the Western critique of the pipeline project had been called neocolonial and a hypocritical intrusion in the country’s development path, particularly in light of the West’s own environmental debt.

“China now clearly signals to Kampala and other oil- and gas-rich countries that it supports their developmental ambitions, even if they involve fossil fuels,” said Zajontz, who is also a lecturer in global political economy at the University of Freiburg.

But, he said the dual strategy China was pursuing was not free from contradictions.

On the one hand, he said, Beijing had stepped up efforts at “greening” the Belt and Road Initiative and had heavily invested in renewable energy across Africa, such as hydropower, wind farms and solar parks.

But on the other hand, Zajontz said: “Chinese banks and firms – just as [their] Western counterparts – continue to invest in fossil fuels all around the world.

“Quite clearly, the global economy remains hooked on fossil fuels despite the severe effects of climate change.”

Mark Bohlund, a senior credit research analyst at REDD Intelligence, said Xi’s promise could be seen as an expression of both parties’ desire to move towards a final investment decision on the project.

“With other financiers pulling out of the EACOP project, a higher degree of the financing will have to come from Chinese creditors, who are seeking to avoid lending impairments as experienced in Ethiopia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zambia,” Bohlund said.

Another concern for the Chinese is whether the Ugandans will seek to change the terms of the pipeline deal if it is at risk of debt distress. Bohlund said Uganda was deemed to be at moderate risk of debt default by the IMF and the World Bank, as the country grapples with a higher level of debt at commercial terms and an increase in interest rates.

“The Chinese are also likely to be concerned about the debt-servicing terms if the Ugandan government goes ahead with the standard-gauge railway project with Turkish financing,” Bohlund said.

He was referring to the US$2.3 billion railway deal with the China Harbour Engineering Company that Uganda cancelled, before awarding it to Turkish rail construction firm Yapi Merkezi after failing to secure funding from China.

But sub-Saharan geoeconomic analyst Aly-Khan Satchu said China was the biggest fossil fuel consumer, without exception, and it had “a geoeconomic imperative” to maintain “a diverse rota of suppliers”.

“The so-called green agenda in the West coupled with unhappiness about Uganda exercising its sovereign right to set its own laws has left the door wide open for Xi to set favourable financing terms and diversify China’s supply side equation,” Satchu said. “It’s a no-brainer from Xi’s national interest perspective.”

In preparation for the building of EACOP, Chinese steel pipe manufacturer Panyu Chu Kong Steel Pipe Co has delivered the first 100km of pipes to Tanzania.

According to the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), the pipes coming from China will be transferred to the thermal insulation facility in Tanzania for insulation. PAU said the facility was launched in March and commissioning activities were under way.

After insulation, the pipes will be transferred to the main camps and pipe yards, which are spread along the pipeline route. The authority said there were 17 of these yards under construction, in preparation for receiving the pipes and other construction equipment and personnel.

It said the other ongoing construction activities were the civil works at the six oil pumping stations, two pressure reduction stations and the marine storage terminal along the EACOP route.

Zhang Weili, China’s first UFC champion, one of world’s top female MMA fighters, Mark Zuckerberg and wife are huge fans

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3260022/zhang-weili-chinas-first-ufc-champion-one-worlds-top-female-mma-fighters-mark-zuckerberg-and-wife?utm_source=rss_feed

Zhang Weili, became China and Asia’s first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) winner , by defeating her compatriot Yan Xiaonan in their strawweight title fight at UFC 300 in Las Vegas on April 13.

Her journey from a small-town girl to a global Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) icon continues to inspire people worldwide, attracting attention from celebrities such as Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

After the fight, they congratulated Zhang on Facebook and had a friendly conversation with her.

What lies behind Zhang Weili’s global pulling power and wide appeal? The Post finds out.

Who is she ?

Zhang Weili is a pioneering figure in Chinese MMA and competes in the strawweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

She is the first UFC female world champion from China and Asia.

Born in Handan, Hebei province, northern China, Zhang started learning martial arts at the age of 6 and later practised Sanda and boxing. She then clinched the Hebei Provincial Youth Sanda Championship.

However, severe injuries forced her to reconsider her career, leading her to various jobs in Beijing – from kindergarten teacher to working as a hotel receptionist and a bodyguard.

Her passion for martial arts never waned and she later returned to the fight game.

In 2019, during UFC Fight Night 157 in Shenzhen, she defeated the reigning champion, Brazilian Jéssica Andrade, and claimed the UFC Strawweight World Championship, becoming the first fighter from China and Asia to win the title.

In March 2020, at UFC248 in Las Vegas, she successfully defended her title against Polish challenger, former strawweight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk, further establishing her dominance in the sport.

Chinese

The UFC 300, held on April 13 in Las Vegas, marked a first in the contest’s history with a title bout between two fighters from China.

Zhang faced Yan, a formidable opponent. Both aged 34, each has a record of eight victories in the UFC.

Zhang’s superior ground work ultimately led her to victory, enabling her to successfully defend her title once more.

“This is more than just a fight. For Chinese MMA, it is a step onto a new stage. I earned my championship step by step through hard work, and Xiaonan’s journey here wasn’t easy either,” said Zhang.

“Without resilience and persistence, neither of us would have reached this point. I believe this match will inspire more people to join this sport.”

Zuckerberg link

Zhang’s discipline and dedication to her sport have not only earned her respect from her peers, they also attracted celebrities to the UFC 300 fight, including Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.

However, in a live-streaming session on the evening of April 16, Zhang said she intentionally avoided greeting Zuckerberg before the match, to maintain her focus.

“Before the match, Zuckerberg came to greet everyone. A staff member said he wanted to greet me, but I said I could not. Not now. I need to focus on the match. I turned my head away when he passed by the outer room where I was lying down, to avoid distraction,” Zhang said.

Afterwards, they had a friendly conversation.

Her revelation drew playful comments from Chinese people online.

“Zuckerberg might think he could beat Elon Musk if he trained with Zhang Weili,” one person joked.

“Did Zhang Weili suggest Zuckerberg should go to the Shaolin Temple?” quipped another.

Are Chinese-made skincare brands downplaying their origins to appeal to Southeast Asians?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3261396/are-chinese-made-skincare-brands-downplaying-their-origins-appeal-southeast-asians?utm_source=rss_feed

Malaysian beauty consumer Farhana* was planning to buy some new skincare products when she finally settled on Skintific, a brand widely marketed in Malaysia and Indonesia.

“It is quite a big phenomenon here,” the Kuala Lumpur resident told This Week in Asia. “It is widely marketed here, using celebrity ambassadors, and is already sold in Malaysian drug stores.”

But Farhana ended up not buying the product after she found out that Skintific goods were made in China, prompting her to doubt if they were halal certified.

Skintific, which was launched in Indonesia in 2021, is one of several Chinese-made skincare brands that have been making rapid inroads in Muslim dominated markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia in recent years due to their low prices and perceived high quality.

Yet many of these brands appear to downplay the fact they are manufactured in China in favour of presenting themselves as local products made specifically for the Indonesian and Malaysian markets, an analyst says. Such positioning would allow them to sidestep concerns about safety and halal certification that other Chinese-made products might face.

While other Western and Korean skincare products have also flooded the Malaysian and Indonesian markets in recent years, these brands do not obscure their “foreign” origins, meaning consumers are able to make a more informed decision.

Visitors to the Skintific website are greeted by a smiling picture of its brand ambassador Nicholas Saputra, a famous Indonesian film star. But nowhere on the site, including on its “About Us” page, does it mention the brand’s origins or where its products are manufactured.

Fitr, a salesperson at a pharmacy in Medan who declined to give her last name, said the Skintific skincare range had been flying off the store’s shelves in recent months.

But the use of Indonesian brand ambassadors and unclear marketing has led to misunderstandings among shoppers, she said.

“People think that Skintific is an Indonesian brand, but actually it is made in China,” she said, turning over a box to show the words “Made in the PRC” printed on the back in tiny letters.

When contacted for comment, a Skintific customer service representative told This Week in Asia that “Skintific was specifically developed for Indonesian users” and that “the formula itself comes from global laboratories, such as South Korea and Canada”.

The representative explained that the products’ raw materials came from the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, and Japan, but were produced in China and South Korea. They said Skintific was also sold in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia.

But the customer service agent declined to reveal the founder and owner of the company, saying they could only speak about “product questions and facial consultations”.

Skintific is not the only skincare brand launched in recent years that was developed for the Indonesian market but produced in China. Among others are Glad2Glow, The Originote and Lavojoy.

These brands also state they are “Made in the PRC” on their packaging but are often sold in the “local brands” sections of pharmacies. Their websites also contain little to no information about their origins.

Brands such as Skintific might not be keen to discuss origins, in light of past scandals of other products regarding unsafe ingredients and which were from China, said Trissia Wijaya, a senior research fellow at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.

“There are a lot of counterfeit products in China and there have been other issues such as the fake baby milk scandals,” she said.

China has experienced a number of scandals related to baby milk, the worst of which took place in 2008 after some producers for a Chinese company were found to have added the chemical melamine to their formula, which can be toxic in high doses, leading to the deaths of six children.

“We need to take a cautious approach and this reminds us why many Chinese customers themselves often travel to Hong Kong just to buy medicine,” Wijaya said.

Skintific and the other imported Chinese-made brands must still meet the standards of local regulators such as the Indonesian Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) to be sold legally in their markets.

Indonesian officials have in the past warned about the potential dangers of illegally imported Chinese-made cosmetics, a stigma that brands would likely still want to avoid.

In 2007, BPOM said most illegally imported cosmetics from China contained mercury, which can damage the nerves, kidneys and skin. In December 2020, BPOM seized 10.8 billion Indonesian rupiah worth of illegal cosmetics – most of which came from China and South Korea.

“We know that the modus operandi is distributing illegally imported cosmetics online through e-commerce platforms, as well as distributing these products through online transportation and expedition services,” said Penny K. Lukito, head of BPOM at the time.

Wijaya said the Chinese government had been trying to crack down on quality control in recent years, but that issues lingered.

“Quality control measures have been increasing but, since Chinese companies are used to large markets, they are more often chasing quantity rather than quality.”

“At the same time, they have the opportunity to innovate, but price wars actually become an obstacle to the extent to which they can innovate using products with guaranteed quality,” she said.

Another issue Chinese-made products face in Muslim-majority markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia is that consumers might be concerned about whether they have received halal certification or be otherwise free from products that Muslims cannot consume, such as alcohol or pork.

Rochmaeda Kurnia Fauziah, a midwife based in Bekasi on the outskirts of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, said she used Skintific’s serums and masks when her skin was suffering from bad breakouts, and that they appeared to work well.

Fauziah said it was “not a problem” that the products were made in China, but was surprised to learn that they were not fully halal certified.

“It is obviously a factor for me when I’m choosing a skincare brand,” she said. “I will not use Skintific again until it really and truly has a halal certificate.”

When asked about halal certification, Skintific told This Week in Asia: “The halal logo is not yet available on product packaging because it is still going through the licensing process. However, our products are BPOM certified and most products are vegan and free from testing on animals and living creatures.”

Wijaya said products like Skintific appear to have been created to compete with Indonesian brands like Wardah, which have long dominated the local market.

Wardah, which is owned by Indonesian firm Paragon Technology and Innovation, was created in 1995 and helped to pioneer halal skincare and make-up for the Muslim market at low prices.

Other famous local skincare brands include ERHA, which was established in 1998, and newcomers like Somethinc that launched in 2019.

Like Wardah, both ERHA and Somethinc are halal certified.

When asked about halal certification in Malaysia, a Skintific customer service representative also told This Week in Asia that “all Skintific products in Malaysia have FDA [the US Food and Drug Administration] approval, which can be accessed via the QR code on the packaging”.

Malaysian consumer Farhana said she took this to mean that Skintific’s products were not yet halal certified, but added she remained open to buying them upon proper certification.

*Name changed on request of interviewee

China’s steel industry risks ‘falling off a cliff’ as overcapacity concerns point to end of an era

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3261344/chinas-steel-industry-risks-falling-cliff-overcapacity-concerns-point-end-era?utm_source=rss_feed

A pivotal transition within China’s steel industry, which is exacerbating overcapacity concerns, has led to uneasiness within the sector that a lack of discipline could risk it “falling off a cliff” and hurting the nation’s long-term foothold in global trade.

China’s steel production has increased rapidly over the past few decades, making it the world’s leading producer and exporter.

But the prolonged downturn in the property market and a slowdown in infrastructure spending by some local governments to curb debt risks means the industry is facing a reality check.

Prices have plunged steeply since 2021, and some steelmakers have called for output curbs, citing mounting losses and cash flow risks from overcapacity.

“In the past, [the steel industry] was mainly supported by investments such as real estate, infrastructure construction, and factory equipment renovation,” Tang Zujun, vice-president of the China Iron and Steel Association, said during a meeting with the country’s largest steelmakers at the end of April.

“In the future, it will be driven by consumption and innovation-based strategic emerging industries and future industries.

“The era of large-scale construction in our country is over.”

Tang called for better discipline and allocation of resources, as well as a “healthy” development of the sector, adding that overinvestment in some products would make overcapacity even worse.

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

“The biggest problem now is how to achieve a dynamic balance between supply and demand,” Tang added.

“If this problem is not handled well, it will have a huge impact on the ecosystem, sustainable development and international competitiveness of the entire industry.”

Tang compared the status of China’s steel industry to a field that has been planted with too many seeds, leading to poor growth of the crop.

“But now it’s difficult to decide which one to pull out,” Tang said, adding that everyone should be “mentally prepared” and avoid “falling off a cliff”.

Tang’s comments came amid growing trade tensions over Chinese steel exports, with US President Joe Biden calling for higher tariffs.

In mid-April, Biden said import tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminium should be tripled in the first major tariff proposal on Chinese products from his administration.

In March, two large steel producers in Vietnam also petitioned for an anti-dumping investigation over hot-rolled steel exports from China.

And last week, Chile said it would impose temporary anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese steel products used in its mining industry in a bid to support faltering local producers.

Mexico had already imposed tariffs on Chinese steel since December.

US tests China’s metal with steel tariff plan, opening new front in trade war

But overcapacity is likely to persist as nearly 55 per cent of China’s steel products are used in construction of property and infrastructure, and both sectors are unlikely to see a significant rise in demand in the coming months, according to Fitch Ratings.

“Although the manufacturing industry has recovered strongly, and there are many star subsectors, such as shipbuilding, electrical machinery, general equipment and automobiles, it is still unable to bridge the huge gap in demand for steel caused by the construction downturn,” the US rating agency said on Tuesday.

China’s combined export volumes of iron and steel rose by 13 per cent in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, and 80 per cent above pre-pandemic levels, suggesting evidence of oversupply-induced dumping behaviour, Oxford Economics said on Tuesday.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planner, said at the start of April that it would continue to regulate crude steel output for the fourth year in a row in a bid to promote “high-quality” development of the industry with a focus on energy conservation and carbon reduction.

But Fitch Ratings said that while Chinese authorities have stepped in to rein in steel output, the sector generally lacks discipline and smaller mills would restart as soon as they see opportunity to make profits.

China’s steel exports last year climbed by 36.2 per cent to 90.26 million metric tonnes, according to Fitch Ratings.

And in the first quarter of 2024, China’s steel exports grew by 30.7 per cent to 25.8 million metric tonnes, the US rating agency added, accounting for around 5 per cent of its total output.

“Currently, export products represented by steel are vulnerable to trade barriers on the grounds of low-price dumping, and intensifying trade protectionism will pose a challenge to China’s steel exports,” Fitch Ratings said.

Mainland Chinese visitor spending to exceed HK$2 billion in Hong Kong during Labour Day ‘golden week’ break, tourism chief says

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3261467/mainland-chinese-visitor-spending-exceed-hk2-billion-hong-kong-during-labour-day-golden-week-break?utm_source=rss_feed

Mainland Chinese visitor spending is expected to exceed HK$2 billion in Hong Kong during the Labour Day “golden week” break as arrival numbers fall in line with original estimates despite the recent stormy weather, the tourism chief has said.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said on Sunday about 670,000 mainlanders crossed into the city between Wednesday and Saturday last week, the first four days of the break which runs from May 1 to 5 on the mainland.

“It is close to our expectation of 800,000 mainland tourists. Considering the weather in Hong Kong, we have done a great job,” Yeung told a radio show, noting the impact from the heavy rainfall on both sides of the border might have delayed some travellers.

He said the final figure could exceed 700,000, as more tourists might come on Sunday amid improving weather on the final day of the break.

“I believe they will spend over HK$2 billion in Hong Kong ... It will bring some help to our economy,” he said.

Yeung added that the government had estimated spending of HK$2.3 billion for its original expectation of 800,000 mainland travellers.

Immigration figures showed mainlanders made 113,797 inbound trips to the city on Saturday, part of the group’s 669,117 arrivals between May 1 and 4.

One of the major initiatives to welcome the visitors, a fireworks display in Victoria Harbour on Wednesday, earlier drew criticism from some internet users.

The Tourism Board, which organised the HK$1 million (US$128,000) show, confirmed in the afternoon on that day that the fireworks display would go ahead after warnings from the government that poor weather might force it to be cancelled.

Some tourists still expressed dissatisfaction on mainland social media platform Xiaohongshu, saying they could only see thick clouds of smoke.

Tourism minister Yeung said on Sunday he also saw a lot of smoke and failed to see the letters “HK” emblazoned in the sky, one of the elements promoted ahead of the show.

He said the display faced a lot of difficulties as the weather was hard to predict and the government had to consider a number of factors, noting he understood that the public had hoped the arrangement could have been finalised as soon as possible.

The city will host monthly pyrotechnics and drone shows as part of initiatives to lure and entertain visitors.

Yeung said the government would learn lessons from the recent performance, including for the drone show taking place on the coming Saturday.

“We will explain clearly in our promotion and manage expectations better,” he said.

What China must learn from Japan’s decades-long debt-deflation slowdown

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3261358/what-china-must-learn-japans-decades-long-debt-deflation-slowdown?utm_source=rss_feed

At first glance, China’s first-quarter gross domestic product numbers seem to validate the state’s reliance on production to boost a slowing economy. Compared to the same period last year, GDP in the first quarter grew by 5.3 per cent, driven by a 6.1 per cent increase in industrial production and a 9.9 per cent increase in manufacturing investments.

But data from March points to the limits of relying on investment to sustain growth. The National Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday that industrial profits at large Chinese companies declined 3.5 per cent from a year earlier. This came after industrial profits in January-February had jumped 10 per cent, briefly raising hopes that the industrial downturn was over. Industrial revenue also fell sharply in March.

Order, price pressure disrupts recovery as China’s factory activity growth slows

Meanwhile, the consumer price index fell to near zero last month and the producer price index remained firmly in deflation territory at minus 2.8 per cent. Exports were also down 7.5 per cent compared to a year ago. All this points to subdued demand. Above all, China’s unusually large property sector shows no signs of recovery: property investments fell nearly 10 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

China’s emphasis on production over consumption – boosting supply instead of demand – raises questions about what or who all this supply is ultimately for. If domestic consumption remains weak, the only option will be to export the excess supply. This is likely to provoke, if it has not already, a protectionist backlash from developed countries, and upset developing countries that are also looking to export-led industrialisation to drive growth.

Since the second half of last year, Chinese authorities have responded to the slowing economy in three main ways. The first has been to lower borrowing costs – but the problem in China today is not credit supply, it is the lack of credit demand. The second has been for the central government to borrow and invest in infrastructure development – but a 1 trillion yuan (US$138 billion) bond issue approved in October does not seem to have given the economy a large boost.

The third, unveiled most recently, has been to increase investments in “new quality productive forces” – a shorthand for China’s industrial policy to increase capacity in advanced manufacturing and achieve self-sufficiency in key technologies of the future. This strategy is likely to lead to excess capacity, generating more deflationary pressures.

Chinese officials do not accept that the country has an excess supply problem, even as they acknowledge – in private – that domestic consumption is weak. But excess supply and insufficient demand are two sides of the same coin. Chinese policymakers also seem to think that supply creates its own demand, when it is usually the other way round.

At the core of it, central planners often view the market economy as a machine or a mechanical system that can be precisely engineered or predictably controlled. But the economy is a complex adaptive system rather than a mechanical one.

First, the market economy is complex because it comprises many interconnected parts that interact in ways that are not always visible or apparent to policymakers. This means that a small shock to one part of the system may produce unexpectedly large consequences in another part because of how interconnected everything is – this is sometimes known as the “butterfly effect”. Alternatively, large changes may sometimes not produce the desired results.

The global financial crisis 16 years ago provides a vivid example of this: subprime mortgages were never a significant part of the US mortgage market, but problems in this obscure part of the mortgage market brought the global financial system to a standstill because the risk of subprime mortgages going bad had been dispersed throughout the financial system through securitisation.

Conversely, Japan’s lost decades from the mid-1990s to the early 2020s showed how even very low – and at times negative – interest rates may not produce the desired boost to consumer spending, investment and inflation when deflationary expectations are entrenched.

The property sector in China is not just unusually large, accounting for about a quarter of annual output, it is also highly connected to other parts of the Chinese economy – not least through its financing of local governments. Household wealth in China is also highly concentrated in property. Just as systemically important financial institutions had to be rescued to prevent a financial meltdown 16 years ago, major property developers in China may also be too interconnected to fail. It’s unlikely that the decision by a Hong Kong court in January to liquidate Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property company, marks the end of China’s property debt crisis.

Second, the economy is adaptive in the sense that the firms and households that comprise it are constantly anticipating and adjusting to changing conditions. Their expectations and behaviours are adaptive rather than fully rational; they also respond as they see others responding. This mimicry means that rather than correct for errors in individual decisions, the herd mentality amplifies them. Depression-era economist John Maynard Keynes coined the term “animal spirits” to explain how human emotions rather than rational calculations drive investment decisions in volatile times.

Faced with depressed animal spirits in China today, policymakers can ill afford to dither or send mixed signals in their efforts to rejuvenate the economy. Statements that describe fiscal stimuli as causing a “trap of welfarism”, or the hesitation over lowering interest rates for fear of reflating the property bubble – while understandable under normal conditions – will only keep animal spirits suppressed. Similarly, the moral posturing over not rescuing troubled property developers because this would cause moral hazard is unhelpful. The immediate danger facing China today is that of systemic contagion.

Five reasons why China should still be considered a developing country

Third, the economy is a system because of the emergence of unpredictable patterns produced by billions of interactions between economic agents. One such pattern is debt-deflation. In an economy with very high debt levels – as was the case in China even before the pandemic – negative shocks, such as the zero-Covid policy and various regulatory crackdowns on technology companies, induce companies and households to deleverage, or pay off debts, even if interest rates are reduced.

Individually, rational decisions to deleverage produce the overall macroeconomic consequence of deflation. Deflation, in turn, increases the future value of debt – causing more deleveraging and deflation. This self-reinforcing dynamic goes against the self-correcting dynamic predicted in most rational-choice economic models.

Once the debt-deflation dynamic takes hold, it takes a great deal of effort to break it. Japan’s debt-deflation lasted more than two decades. If China does not heed the lessons from Japan’s experience, it is not unthinkable that the current slowdown might turn into a prolonged one, delaying China’s ambition to become a medium-developed economy by 2035.

Donald Low is Senior Lecturer and Professor of Practice, and Director of Leadership and Public Policy Executive Education, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The new ‘space race’: what are China’s ambitions and why is the US so concerned?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/05/the-new-space-race-what-are-chinas-ambitions-and-why-is-the-us-so-concerned

The worsening rivalry between the world’s two most powerful countries that has in recent years spread across the world, has now extended beyond the terrestrial, into the realms of the celestial.

As China has become deeply enmeshed in strategic competition with the US – while edging towards outright hostilities with other regional neighbours – Washington’s alarm at the pace of its advancement in space is growing ever-louder.

Beijing has made no secret over its ambitions and a spate of recent successful space missions has shown that the government’s rhetoric is backed by technological advances.

On Friday, China launched a robotic spacecraft on a round trip to the moon’s far side, in a technically demanding mission that will pave the way for an inaugural Chinese crewed landing and a base on the lunar south pole. The Chang’e-6 is aiming to bring back samples from the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth.

Earlier this week saw the launch of the Shenzhou-18, Beijing’s latest staffed spacecraft mission to the Tiangong space station, which was developed after China was excluded from the International Space Station.

Along with the three taikonauts, a live fish which has been dubbed “the fourth crew member”, was among the crew. The zebrafish is part of an experiment to test the viability of a large closed ecosystem, involving fish and algae, to help people live in space for long periods.

But the collection of moon samples and the viability of zebrafish are not the only focus for China’s space sector.

The pace of China’s ambitions has drawn concern from the government’s major rival, the US, over Beijing’s geopolitical intentions amid what the head of Nasa has called a new “space race”.

Last week the head of Nasa, Bill Nelson, said the US and China were “in effect, in a race” to return to the moon, and he feared that China wanted to stake territorial claims.

“We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program,” he told US legislators.

There are concerns over China’s development of counter-space weapons, including missiles that can target satellites, and spacecraft that can pull satellites out of orbit.

“On a geopolitical level, China’s space ambitions raise questions about how it might leverage its space capabilities to further its regional and domestic political and military interests,” says Dr Svetla Ben-Itzhak, deputy director of Johns Hopkins University’s West Space Scholars Program.

Gen Stephen Whiting of the US Space Command, told reporters last week that China’s advances were “cause for concern”, noting it had tripled the number of spy satellites in orbit over the last six years.

‘It’s the wild, wild west’

The US and China are indeed in a race, says Prof Kazuto Suzuki, of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, but it’s not to simply set feet on the moon like during the cold war. Rather, it’s to find and control resources, like water.

“It’s a race for who has better technical capabilities. China is quickly catching up. The pace of Chinese technological development is the threatening element [to the US],” he says.

Suzuki says international agreements don’t allow for national appropriation of resources on the moon, but in reality “it’s the wild, wild west”.

“Generally speaking China wants to be first so they have the right to dominate and monopolise the resources. If you have the resources in your hand then you have a huge advantage in the future of space exploration.”

The US and China are leading the development of separate space station programs for the moon. The US-led Artemis program includes plans for a “Lunar Gateway”, a station orbiting the moon as a communication and accommodation hub for astronauts, and a scientific laboratory.

The Americans however, “are not so interested in owning the moon because they’ve been there”, Suzuki says.

“They know it’s not really a habitable place, they are more interested in Mars. So for them the Lunar Gateway is sort of a gas station for the journey to Mars.” If the Artemis program can source water from the moon, it could be processed to create rocket fuel from the hydrogen and oxygen.

In contrast, China and Russia announced in 2021 joint plans to build a shared research station on the surface of the moon. The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) would be open to any interested international parties they said. However the US would unlikely be among them given its poor relations with both China and Russia.

Suzuki says the China-Russia station “is supposed to serve like the research station in Antarctica”, which is within the rules of international space treaties. “But if it turns out to be a station to base their territorial claims, then that is against the rules.”

The US is gathering allies to ensure China doesn’t win the space race. Earlier this month, not long after China announced its intentions to land a person on the moon, US leader Joe Biden and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida pledged to send a astronaut from Japan – China’s historical rival – to the moon on Nasa’s Artemis missions in 2028 and again in 2032.

But China is also gathering allies. It has partnerships or financial stakes in projects across the Middle East and Latin America, and around a dozen international members for its ILRS.

But Ben-Itzhak notes there are some overlapping memberships. Also “neither bloc has instituted exclusionary practices thus far, which is promising”.

Ben-Itzhak says the US and China are indeed engaged in a race, but the term doesn’t fully capture “the complex, nuanced dynamics currently unfolding in space, in terms of the diverse and increasing number of actors and initiatives, and no clear end goal in sight”.

“The real challenge in space is not just about reaching a specific milestone, like planting flags or collecting rocks; it is about establishing a sustainable, resilient presence in an incredibly challenging environment. This is a test against our own abilities.”

Additional research by Chi Hui Lin

---

China Big Tech: Why many overworked employees are quitting to become entrepreneurs amid internet slowdown

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3261117/china-big-tech-why-many-overworked-employees-are-quitting-become-entrepreneurs-amid-internet?utm_source=rss_feed

Zoe Du used to be a typical employee at a Big Tech firm in China, putting in long hours, six days a week. One time, she fainted in the office after weeks of being on the job until 11pm every day.

A veteran of more than 10 years in the internet industry, Du quit her job at ByteDance, the owner of short video hit TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, in 2020. That year also marked the start of China’s crackdown on the internet sector, when Beijing said it would regulate monopolistic practices of online platform operators and prevent the “disorderly” expansion of capital.

Du, who lives in Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, is one of the tens of thousands of Chinese workers who have left their jobs at the country’s Big Tech firms in recent years, as the industry lost its growth momentum. While tech jobs remain the best-paid positions in the Chinese job market, they are no longer viewed as short cuts to wealth amid lay-offs and the shrinking value of stock options.

ByteDance reveals dozens of internal misconduct cases, including bribery

China’s internet giants have slashed jobs in recent years, affecting tens of thousands of people. As of the end of 2023, China’s so-called BAT – Baidu, South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings – had 364,477 employees, a drop of nearly 25,000 from a year before, according to their financial disclosures. However, the drop in total staff numbers is not entirely the result of cost cutting, as the companies also underwent significant business shifts.

Du, who goes by the online nickname of Danna, said that China’s Big Tech companies are “less thriving than a few years ago”, adding that at least 70 per cent of her old colleagues have resigned to pursue their own ventures, just as she did.

In 2021 Du founded Ziranliu, which means “natural flow” in English, to help web influencers boost and monetise their online traffic. With only eight employees, the company achieved annual income of 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) last year and succeeded in making more than 150 clients well known on short video platforms.

Du said her working experience with companies, including her most recent employer ByteDance, has proved valuable, enabling her to understand data, web traffic and management.

Wang Sijing, former product manager of search giant Baidu and the now-defunct bike rental start-up Ofo, tells a similar story. Wang said five years of corporate working life provided her with “a more systematic” workstyle that puts data first. She has also developed a more critical eye, after being constantly challenged to do better during her time in the Big Tech working environment.

Wang quit Ofo in 2017, when both the start-up and the internet industry were growing rapidly. By April that year, Ofo’s user base had reached 40 million across more than 70 cities worldwide, according to co-founder Zhang Siding, but within months it experienced a capital crunch and still owes deposit money to millions of users.

Wang decided to quit because she felt her contribution within such a sprawling operation was limited. “As a product manager, I could only decide what a campaign page looks like on the app,” she said.

Her first solo venture was in product manager training. At the time, the internet sector was so attractive that product manager roles seemed easier than programming for many people. Wang’s business achieved 20 million yuan in revenue in the first year.

But the business climate changed after 2020, when the pandemic shut down all face-to-face classes. At the same time, the demand for product manager training declined.

“People who entered the internet sector [after 2020] didn’t benefit from the earlier boom,” she said. As such, attendance levels for her product manager classes dropped to one fifth of the previous level, prompting her to change direction.

In 2021, Wang launched a new persona as an online expert in product training, career tips and self-employment, using the pseudonym PMWang on platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

This approach of tech workers leveraging their Big Tech experience to help online influencers has become a trend today. A search using the term “Big Tech departure” on Douyin returns dozens of results, with accounts offering advice on job hunting, e-commerce, career change and management.

Compared with her ByteDance days, Du said life was now “much freer”. “When I’m tired, I’ll give myself a holiday for a day or two, go on a trip, get closer to nature, or just do some meditation,” she said.

China’s internet sector became notorious for its 996 schedule – 9am to 9pm every day, six days a week – although companies have eased up after widespread criticism and bad publicity from rare cases of employees dying on the job.

However, some current employees at ByteDance and Tencent say they still need to work late into the evenings and sometimes on weekends to meet project deadlines.

As a self-employed entrepreneur, Du occasionally works until 9pm but it no longer bothers her “because this is what I own and am passionate about”.

She said the hardest part of running your own business is before it gets started. After leaving ByteDance, she spent six months mulling the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. “I kept questioning myself and felt guilty that the pay cheque stopped,” she said, but added that “taking a rest was essential for someone who has been running non-stop for years”.

Shock as about-to-marry China woman discovers she is a biological man after doctors find testicle in her stomach

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3260016/shock-about-marry-china-woman-discovers-she-biological-man-after-doctors-find-testicle-her-stomach?utm_source=rss_feed

After 27 years living life as a female, the shock examination of a woman in China has revealed a testicle in her abdomen, meaning that, biologically, she is a male.

Li Yuan, from central China’s Hubei province, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, had been concerned about not menstruating and delayed breast development since puberty.

She went to a local hospital when she was 18 and was diagnosed with abnormal hormone levels and potential ovarian failure.

Doctors also recommended a follow-up chromosome test at the time, but Li and her family did not take the advice seriously.

It was not until recently, when Li was planning her wedding, that she decided to undergo a thorough examination.

This time, Duan Jie, a veteran gynaecologist, diagnosed a rare disorder, congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH).

After a month’s anxious wait for the results of tests, the doctor’s judgment was confirmed.

Li had male sex chromosomes, but looks female.

“Socially, Li is female. But chromosomally, she is male,” Duan explained.

Li was shocked by the news. Living as a woman for 27 years, she struggled to accept the truth.

Only about 1 in 50,000 newborns have this form of CAH.

Both of Li’s parents carry recessive disease-causing genes, so Li had up to a one-in-four chance of having the disorder passed on to her.

Due to a lack of early treatment, Li also suffers from osteoporosis and vitamin D deficiency, the test results revealed.

The doctor suggested an immediate surgical removal of the testicle hidden in Li’s abdomen because it posed a high risk of cancer.

In early April, Li successfully underwent the dangerous surgery and had the organ removed.

She now requires regular follow-up tests and long-term hormone therapy.

Public reactions to Li’s predicament were varied, with many people online expressing sympathy and admiration for her courage in facing such an identity crisis.

No details were available about what will happen to Li’s planned wedding.

Duan said early diagnosis and treatment for people with similar symptoms to Li’s was vital.

Mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong complain about hotel charges for toiletries packed in plastic after ban on throwaway items comes into force

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3261453/mainland-chinese-tourists-hong-kong-complain-about-hotel-charges-toiletries-packed-plastic-after-ban?utm_source=rss_feed

Mainland Chinese tourists have vented their anger on social media over differences in prices and provision of amenities in Hong Kong hotels after the single-use plastic ban came into effect, with some accusing operators of “profiteering”.

Other tourists found the lack of items such as plastic tubes of toothpaste and bottled water in some hotels not visitor-friendly and appealed to management to better inform guests of the changes in advance so they would not be caught off guard.

But sector representatives defended the new arrangements and insisted any price increases were because of the cost of alternatives. They added that hotels were obliged to comply with the new rules on throwaway plastics.

Prohibited items included plastic toothbrushes, small bottles of toiletries and water in plastic bottles.

Hotels and guest houses can offer non-plastic alternatives or charge guests for items in plastic containers. But the law did not set restrictions on prices.

A Post comparison more than 10 days after the ban started found some city hotels required guests to buy toothpaste, combs, shower caps, razors, among other items, at different price ranges.

Some others offered alternatives free of charge.

The five-star Grand Hyatt hotel in Wan Chai had glass bottles of water and wood toothbrushes for guests.

But it charged HK$15 (US$2) for a 50-gram (1.8 ounce) toothpaste tube. Shower caps cost HK$5 and razors HK$50 each.

The luxury Peninsula hotel still provided guests with plastic toothbrushes, toothpaste in plastic tubes, as well as shaving kits and shower caps free on request, as operators have a six-month grace period to complete the changeover.

Hong Kong Disneyland has different arrangements for its three hotels, its website said. The Disney Explorers Lodge and Disney’s Hollywood Hotel provide fixed shower gel, shampoo and water dispensers.

But guests that need toiletries have to buy a set that includes almost everything such as adult and children toothbrushes, comb, razor, shower cap, comb and cotton buds at HK$40.

At the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel, however, most of the items remained covered and guests are only required to buy razor and shower cap if they need.

Single-use plastics leads Hong Kong styrofoam giant to move to greener options

Some budget hotels favoured by mainland tourists charge an average of HK$5 to HK$8 for a bottle of water and HK$5 to HK$9 for a razor and HK$2 to HK$10 for a comb.

“After all, it’s just a business,” one tourist from the mainland wrote on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu.

“Hotels act as if they’re environmentally friendly, but they charge for things that were originally free.”

Another visitor asked: “Have these costs been deducted from the room price if they don’t even provide toothpaste?”

“If not, isn’t it just making profits in the name of environmental protection?”

A mainland tourist who stayed at the Nathan Hotel in Yau Ma Tei, said in a post that was widely shared that she was “shocked” to see toothpaste inside a paper container.

“I was totally surprised this time,” the visitor said. “The traces of plastic are really invisible.

“Even my toothbrush handle and toothpaste container are made of paper.”

The visitor also discussed a biodegradable shower cap provided free and said the quality was not bad.

Her post received more than 5,000 likes and 1,300 comments in less than four days.

Another mainlander, who uploaded the price list for Hyatt Regency in Tsim Sha Tsui on Xiaohongshu, said the hotel has stopped providing free toothpaste.

The tourist added that guests could buy a 20-gram tube at HK$8, the same as the price of one shower cap, a small toothbrush, a shaving kit, bath salts, ear plugs, eye mask, hair brush and other items.

Soggy eco-friendly spoon goes viral in Hong Kong ahead of single-use plastics ban

But she said the charges were acceptable, although she told others travelling to Hong Kong to bring their own toiletries.

“It is impossible for everyone to be satisfied with the implementation of new regulations,” she wrote. “All we can do is to understand the latest situation and be fully prepared.

“The only item missing and affecting me was the toothpaste. This hotel still provides shower caps, slippers, shampoo, shower gel, body lotion and cotton buds.”

An Environmental Protection Department spokeswoman said the charges for amenities were business decisions.

She added hotels could not provide free plastic items under the law and the department did not require businesses to charge for alternatives.

“As sustainable tourism has been implemented worldwide for some time, I believe travellers are no strangers to the hotel industry’s ‘plastic-free’ initiatives,” she said.

The spokeswoman added that promotion of the ban had been stepped up at border checkpoints.

She said the department had also encouraged hotels to remind visitors about the ban when they booked rooms.

Caspar Tsui Ying-wai, the executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, said hotels were only complying with the law.

“The government should do more promotion to prevent tourists from getting the impression that hotels are charging them extra,” he added. “This might in the end jeopardise the reputation of the tourism industry.”

Tsui said the government should also help the sector find alternatives to plastic items, as some in the industry had said it was tough to find alternative shower caps, razors and toothpastes.

Perry Yiu Pak-leung, a tourism lawmaker, said he believed the hotel sector was still in a transitional stage in the sourcing of better and cheaper alternatives, especially items like razors, where it was hard to find non-plastic ones.

“The industry hopes in the long term all hotels could provide these alternatives for free too, instead of charging tourists, as that involves more administrative work,” he added.

“The government in the meantime can do more promotional work so that tourists can learn about the new ban and get themselves prepared before coming.”

Timothy Chui Ting-pong, the executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, said it was up to the hotels to set prices for plastic-packaged items, but that he believed the ban had been implemented smoothly.

---

As Xi Jinping heads to France, China seeks chance to sway one of EU’s most powerful members

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261429/xi-jinping-heads-france-china-seeks-chance-sway-one-eus-most-powerful-members?utm_source=rss_feed

When Chinese President Xi Jinping touches down on European soil for the first time in half a decade on Sunday, he will find a continent that is much changed.

War has returned to Europe, with the more than two-year conflict in Ukraine showing no sign of stopping. The ravages of the pandemic have left scars that are apparent in the European Union’s quest for resilience and security. Both crises have helped put the bloc’s relationship with China into a spiral since Xi’s last visit in 2019.

Just before that 2019 visit, the EU revamped its China policy, adopting the mantra of “partner, competitor, rival” to describe its engagement with Beijing.

Now Beijing has pinned its hopes on France, the first port of call on Xi’s three-country European tour, to push the bloc to adopt a more “positive and pragmatic” China policy amid heightened scrutiny over Chinese products and market access in recent months.

Beijing’s repeated call for the EU to uphold its “strategic autonomy” draws on an idea championed by French President Emmanuel Macron for the bloc to become the “third pole” of the world amid an intensifying US-China rivalry.

“China looks forward to working with France through this visit to … further enhance political mutual trust, solidarity and cooperation, so that we can jointly elevate our comprehensive strategic partnership [and] inject impetus to a sound and stable China-EU relationship,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday.

It remains to be seen whether it will work. Over the last five years, few have embodied that enigmatic triptych of “partner, competitor, rival” more than France and Macron.

“He is neither pro-China nor anti-American. Macron wants to deepen our own interests, he is pro-European,” said Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a close ally of Macron’s in the European Parliament, where she is a member.

A senior Indian diplomat described Macron, glowingly, as the “ultimate hedger” on China.

“We Indians think we hedge well, but the French are the masters,” the diplomat said, adding that being a counterweight between the US and China was a sensible option for France and Europe.

Macron’s approach to China can often seem inconsistent. Critics pan him for being soft on Beijing, while at the same time Chinese officials rail against EU actions for which he has been a key proponent.

Macron was the main sponsor of a Brussels-launched probe into electric vehicle subsidies in the country last year, but he also desperately wants Chinese companies to build their EV plants in France.

“We would like to see Chinese investment in this field on French soil, so that we can create jobs and, to a certain extent, do what French companies themselves are doing in China. It’s a request we’re making,” said a senior French official involved in the planning for Xi’s trip.

Last week while he was preparing to roll out the carpet for Xi’s visit, Macron met Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile, in Paris.

‘Disaster, regrettable’: why some are criticising German leader’s China trip

Macron has also pushed back against mimicking US policy on China.

He is the main sponsor of the concept of European strategic autonomy and the chief cheerleader for the EU as a third pole in a multipolar world along with the United States and China.

During a widely watched speech at Sorbonne University last week, he doubled down on his vision of a strong Europe, both economically and on defence, and urged the continent not to be a strategic “vassal” to the United States.

On his trip to Beijing last year, meanwhile, Macron caused a stir by saying Europe should not follow Washington “blindly” on Taiwan.

Insiders say Macron’s distrust of the US was deepened by a dispute over submarines sparked by the trilateral UK-US-Australia pact known as Aukus, the wounds of which are still open.

Yet, he is also one of the strongest backers of a raft of trade and competition tools that have rattled Beijing in recent weeks, measures that Macron plans to explain to Xi next week, according to the French official.

Brussels sources confirmed that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, whom Macron has invited to meet Xi, was briefed on the bloc’s “dawn raids” of Chinese firms over foreign subsidies, with the expectation that they will be discussed.

China looks to France to foster ‘pragmatic’ EU policy on Beijing

Over two days of meetings that will take the pair from the French capital to the Pyrenees mountains on the Spanish border, Macron will try to convince his Chinese counterpart that the EU’s sharpened approach is not an anti-China crusade, but a natural consequence of the bloc strengthening its defences and Beijing not adjusting its economic model despite years of requests from Europeans.

Macron will take the Chinese leader to Pic du Midi, a peak in the Pyrenees mountain range, where he spent many childhood holidays with his grandmother. This is seen by the Élysée as a “mirror” of Macron’s trip to China last year, when Xi took him to the southern province of Guangdong where his father was governor during the Deng Xiaoping era.

In the mountains, the French leader might hope that developing a personal rapport with Xi will help convince him to stop Chinese companies from shipping dual-use goods to Russia, a practice French officials have noticed “growing in intensity” in recent months.

“The aim of this discussion is to share the French president’s analysis of developments in the conflict, and to convey Ukrainian positions,” the French official said, noting that after Macron’s visit to Beijing last year, Xi spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky by phone.

They are expected to discuss areas of cooperation such as biodiversity, climate change, and hundreds of cultural exchange activities designed to mark the 60th anniversary of bilateral relations.

“We’re working on a constructive, positive and effective agenda, with the aim of better protecting land and marine areas,” the French official said.

EU and US seek trade and tech alignments that might survive Trump’s return

The Middle East crisis and developing world debt reduction are other areas where progress could be expected.

“On the Palestinian-Israeli issue, China and France have always had highly similar positions,” said Lu Shaye, Beijing’s envoy in Paris, during an interview with Chinese media this week.

But they will also talk about thorny issues including trade and overcapacity. Macron wants French companies to succeed in the Chinese market, but he has also helped create a tougher environment for Chinese companies in Europe.

He will try to talk Xi out of retaliating over the EV probe – expected to result in import duties on cars made in China – with similar measures on French cognac. Macron will also push for more access to the Chinese market for French farm goods.

Some observers say that on these issues, the French leader is playing a double game. French diplomats like to joke that with the building up of the trade protection arsenal and talk of pooling debt to pay for a European military, Brussels is “becoming more French”.

They point to Thierry Breton, Macron’s commissioner at the EU, who is seen as his hand-picked hardliner on a range of issues that have sparked confrontation with Beijing.

Breton cheered on social media last month as a Chinese rail company abandoned its bid to provide trains for a project in Bulgaria following a subsidies investigation. He has also worked hard to restrict European market access for Chinese companies such as Huawei and TikTok.

“Breton is Macron’s gunslinger,” said Julien Hoez, a Brussels-based geopolitical consultant and long-standing member of Macron’s political party, Renaissance.

“Breton is there to say the hard things and then allow Macron to say the diplomatic stuff.”

From the Chinese perspective, the trip is a vital opportunity to sway one of the EU’s most powerful members.

Beijing has long believed the true power in Europe rests in Paris and Berlin. In 2018, during then EU ambassador to China Nicolas Chapuis’s first meeting with the Chinese foreign ministry, he was told he was “irrelevant”, and that if officials needed anything they would pick up the phone to France or Germany, according to multiple people familiar with the encounter.

Lu, the Chinese ambassador, said Xi would urge France to “adhere to strategic independence and open cooperation” to push Europe to form a “more independent, objective and friendly understanding of China, and resist anti-China relations”.

With narrowing windows of cooperation elsewhere in Europe, there are likely to be ample positive outcomes from France. During the interview, Lu outlined in detail the depth of cultural exchanges being held to commemorate the diplomatic anniversary, including exhibitions, concerts and sporting events.

Lu also said France and China should “accelerate cooperation” in a range of fields, from artificial intelligence to green manufacturing. He added that the countries would deepen joint work in science and technology.

China-EU relations: Beijing sees opportunity when presidency passes to Hungary

Sherpas have been working on preparing an agenda for Xi’s visit that builds on cooperation without shying away from the prickly stuff. But with the Chinese leader then heading on to outwardly friendlier Serbia and Hungary, two nights in France could prove to be the most challenging of the three stops to navigate.

According to numerous French insiders, the trip’s choreography is “classic Macron”, who has long believed in using a personal touch to win concessions from leaders, from Xi to Russia’s Vladimir Putin to ex-US president Donald Trump.

Macron is said to be unworried, for instance, about the potential return of Trump to the White House. When asked by aides whether the Élysée should start preparing for the eventuality, Macron replied that there was no need, because he already personally knows Trump well, according to people familiar with the discussion.

But it is uncertain whether the charm offensive will work with Xi.

At the 2022 G20 Summit in Bali, the leaders of Brazil, China and India had gathered for a picture at their Brics confab, minus Russia. Macron, spotting this, approached and asked if he could join. After an organiser consulted Xi, however, the request was rejected, according to a diplomat familiar with the incident.

“Macron believes that he is close to Xi on a personal level, but finds it impossible to connect on economics and geopolitics,” the diplomat said.

---

No jobs, no hope: how India and China are grappling with youth crises

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3261237/no-jobs-no-hope-how-india-and-china-are-grappling-youth-crises?utm_source=rss_feed

Imagine applying for a job with 67,000 openings. You’d assume that with a fairly decent resume, your chances would be quite high. But, as many young people in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh found out in February, all is not what it seems. Vying for those 67,000 openings in the state police department were nearly 4.8 million jobseekers.

It’s a reminder of India’s growing unemployment crisis: a ticking time bomb. And it’s a problem that disproportionately affects young people. The India Employment Report 2024 found that the labour force participation rate for young people aged 15-29 was just 42 per cent, against 62.4 per cent for those aged 30-59 in 2022.

This rate has been declining for youngsters, the report said, and fell sharply from 54 per cent in 2000 – with the drop biggest for the group aged 15–19. The same trend was reflected in the worker population ratio. The message is clear: India must generate more jobs to sustain its economic growth.

India’s manufacturing sector, which many believed would rival China’s, has been a disappointment. In fact, India’s reliance on China has only grown.

Chinese imports have grown 2.3 times faster than India’s total imports over the past 15 years, according to a new report by the Global Trade Research Initiative. Since 2019, India’s exports to China have flattened out at around US$16 billion a year while its Chinese imports grew from US$70 billion to surpass US$101 billion last year, feeding the trade deficit.

Both China and India struggle with youth unemployment. This year, India expects about 13 million young people to enter the job market while China expects nearly 12 million fresh graduates. Mass unemployment, however, is a bigger thorn in India’s side.

India’s booming economy is set to grow 8 per cent this year, possibly the fastest in the world, but this has done little to resolve its job crisis – the country just isn’t producing enough to keep up with its needs.

In 2023, according to World Bank data, India’s youth unemployment rate (for ages 15-24) stood at 18 per cent – significantly higher than its immediate neighbours’. Comparatively, Pakistan’s was 10 per cent and Bangladesh’s 12.3 per cent. China fared little better than India, at 15.9 per cent.

With China, the problem isn’t just the lack of jobs – growing automation is quickly replacing human labour, a situation made worse by its universities churning out millions of graduates every year.

Rife unemployment leaves young graduates vulnerable. Many are forced to accept jobs that are not just less than ideal but downright toxic, with compromises on paid leave or longer hours. They may have to take jobs in unskilled manual labour that have nothing to do with their degrees.

Last year, “job quitting” celebrations made the headlines in China as young people, fed up with long hours and low pay, threw parties to say goodbye to toxic work spaces. But not everyone can afford to quit, even when they badly want a different way of life.

The repercussions of these youth employment challenges in both China and India are now being felt across the world.

For India, the problems are explosive and immediate – and they’re spilling outside its borders. Indians made up the third-largest illegal immigrant population in the US in 2021, according to Pew Research Centre estimates last year. Desperate for jobs, Indian youths are also going to conflict and war zones in search of a better pay cheque.

Israel, for instance, is looking to hire tens of thousands more Indian workers amid a labour shortage exacerbated by the Gaza war; this January, it conducted recruitment drives in the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

In China, youth unemployment issues are proving a slow burn and promising to be chronic. Economists have warned that jobless youths could pose a political risk, resulting in events that could disrupt global supply chains. China’s labour market is also shrinking rapidly, by an estimated 41 million from 2019-2022, a trend economists say could hit prospects for a sustainable recovery.

This economic weakening could have a spillover effect, especially given China’s geopolitical influence in countries in Africa and Latin America, where Chinese investment, finance and trade are critical.

In both China and India, the pressures of traditional work culture on the young are adding to the challenge. New entrants to the job market are routinely expected to work long hours because hard work is glorified in both cultures. Holidays and time off are seen as frivolous and frowned upon. In spite of the health risks, bosses often subtly encourage 70-hour working weeks and youth burnout is increasingly a problem.

While there are no simple solutions to the unemployment crisis, for policymakers, offering greater incentives to attract foreign investment can be a critical move. India recently announced a goal to secure US$100 billion in foreign direct investment annually. For China too, this is top priority.

Indeed, if governments fail to resolve the unemployment crisis over the next decade, they may well end up facing a mental health crisis on top of it. For young people in China and India, getting that first job remains an uncertain prospect and the stress of it all can leave behind trauma and deep scars. This needs to change to pave the way for a more promising, empowering future.

South China Sea: Second Thomas Shoal war of words heats up as Beijing gives ‘details’ of resupply deal with Manila

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261446/south-china-sea-second-thomas-shoal-war-words-heats-beijing-gives-details-resupply-deal-manila?utm_source=rss_feed

The China-Philippines war of words over whether an unwritten agreement was made for Manila to resupply its grounded warship in the disputed South China Sea has intensified, after Beijing offered details of the purported deal for the first time.

In a statement published on Saturday, the Chinese embassy in Manila gave some details of what it called “a new model for management” of the Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef that is part of the Spratly Islands chain also claimed by China as the Nansha Islands.

Called Renai Jiao by China, the shoal controlled by Manila has been at the centre of a series of recent stand-offs, with the Chinese coastguard accused of ramming and using water cannons on Philippine supply vessels.

“To de-escalate tensions in the South China Sea, the Chinese side and the Philippine side … agreed on a ‘new model’ for the management of the situation at Renai Jiao early this year after multiple rounds of discussion,” the embassy said.

It said the new model had been “approved by all key officials in the Philippine chain of command”, including Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and national security adviser Eduardo Ano, and records of the negotiations were kept by China “in every detail”.

The deal was also discussed at a meeting between Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian and Teodoro last July, “when the two sides exchanged views on military ties and maritime issues”, the embassy statement added.

China has often said it would allow the Philippines to send supplies to the shoal “out of humanitarian considerations”, but with advance notice and acceptance of on-site supervision by the Chinese side.

However it would not allow the delivery of construction materials to reinforce the BRP Sierra Madre, a US-built World War II-era ship that was deliberately grounded by Manila in 1999 and serves as an outpost for a handful of troops.

Manila has denied that it had ever agreed with Beijing to remove the ship, while China insists that the shoal must be returned to its “unoccupied state”.

“Thanks to the ‘new model’, frontliners of both sides had guidance to follow on how to interact with each other, which made the resupply mission on last February 2 a smooth one,” the Chinese embassy said on Saturday, citing an X post by the Armed Forces of the Philippines hailing the mission as “flawless”.

“Positive efforts of the frontliners in this regard are commendable,” the embassy said.

Beijing claims almost the whole of the strategically important and resource-rich South China Sea under what it calls its historical “nine-dash line”. Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei are also among the rival claimants.

China has long accused the Philippines of “violating its commitments” and “acting illegally” in the South China Sea. Saturday’s statement came as it ramped up the pressure on Manila, which has hardened its stance against Beijing over the maritime dispute.

The latest flare-up in tensions came after Manila said one of its coastguard ships and a government boat were damaged by Chinese coastguard water cannons near the Scarborough Shoal, another disputed South China Sea feature controlled and claimed by Beijing as the Huangyan Island.

The Philippine foreign ministry on Thursday said it had summoned the deputy chief of the Chinese mission, Zhou Zhiyong, to protest the “dangerous manoeuvres, use of water cannons, and other aggressive actions” on April 30.

Hours later, the Chinese embassy published a series of articles on its website, claiming a “temporary special arrangement” was agreed during a visit to Beijing in 2016 by then Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. This, it said, allowed fishing in designated waters around disputed South China Sea islands but restricted access by military, coastguard and other official aircraft and ships to the 12 nautical mile (22km) limit of territorial waters.

Philippine leaders and officials, including Duterte and his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, have denied agreeing on any such deal with China.

Australia, Japan, Philippines join US ‘Squad’ to tackle China in Indo-Pacific

Addressing a media seminar on Monday, national security adviser Ano said that the so-called “new model” of conduct around the Second Thomas Shoal was “nothing more than a new invention”.

Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo has also rejected Beijing’s claims that the Philippines is being used as a “pawn” by the United States, a treaty ally.

The Philippines needs “to act to protect our interests and we need to act as cohesively as possible – by rejecting counternarratives that seek to distract us from our objectives,” Manalo was quoted as saying by the Manila Bulletin.

“[The Philippines] must expose the illegality of the nine-dash line that is being used as the basis for threatening the livelihoods of our fishermen through harassment and intimidation, and for reclamation activities that degrade the environment in these vital waters.”