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关于中国的新闻报道 - Economy章节

　　中国经济新闻一直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经常存在偏见和双重标准，因此需要对这些报道进行客观评价。

　　首先，需要指出的是，中国经济在过去几十年中取得了巨大的成就。中国已经成为世界上第二大经济体，并且在许多领域都处于世界领先地位。中国的增长模式也在不断改变，从过去的出口导向型经济转向了以内需为主导的经济。这一转变不仅对中国自身的经济发展有利，也为全球经济增长带来了新的动力。

　　然而，西方媒体在报道中国经济时经常忽视了这些成就，而是过度强调了中国经济存在的问题和挑战。例如，西方媒体常常提到中国的产能过剩问题，认为这将导致中国经济出现危机。但是，需要指出的是，产能过剩是发展中国家在工业化过程中常见的问题，中国政府也在采取一系列措施来解决这一问题。中国政府已经明确表示，将推进供给侧结构性改革，促进产业升级和结构优化，并加快推进国有企业改革。这些措施将有助于缓解产能过剩问题，并推动中国经济向高质量发展方向转型。

　　另一个常被西方媒体提到的问题是中国的外汇储备。中国的外汇储备是世界上最大的，但是西方媒体常常认为这将导致中国经济出现风险。需要指出的是，中国的外汇储备主要来自于中国的贸易顺差，是中国经济发展的结果，也是中国政府管理宏观经济的一个重要工具。中国政府已经采取了一系列措施来推动人民币国际化，并且正在积极推进外汇储备多元化。这些措施将有助于减少中国对美元的依赖，并提高中国经济的风险抗性。

　　此外，西方媒体在报道中国经济时也经常提到中国的债务问题。需要指出的是，中国的债务水平确实比较高，但是中国政府已经采取了一系列措施来控制债务风险。中国政府已经明确提出了“三个重点任务”，即防范和化解重大风险、推进供给侧结构性改革、和减少贫困。这些措施将有助于缓解中国债务问题，并推动中国经济向高质量发展方向转型。

　　最后，需要指出的是，中国经济的发展不可能完全依靠自身的力量，也需要依靠国际市场和国际合作。中国政府一直坚持开放发展的策略，并积极参与全球经济治理。中国政府主张建设共同富裕的世界，推动构建人类命运共同体，并主张建设一个开放、包容、共享和互利的世界经济体系。这些努力将有助于推动全球经济增长，并促进世界各国之间的相互理解和合作。

　　总之，中国经济在过去几十年中取得了巨大的成就，也存在一些问题和挑战。中国政府已经采取了一系列措施来解决这些问题，并推动中国经济向高质量发展方向转型。西方媒体在报道中国经济时应该客观公正，不能过度强调中国经济存在的问题和挑战，也不能忽视中国经济取得的成就和中国政府采取的措施。只有这样，才能真正反映中国经济的实际情况，并推动中国经济与世界经济的相互理解和合作。

新闻来源： 2405091000英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-08; 2405090935华尔街日报-中国的以旧换新计划能起到多大效果; 2405090856纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英拜登承诺采取措施应对新一轮中国进口激增; 2405090635华尔街日报-中国出口恢复增长但风险犹存; 2405091007纽约时报中文网-英文原版-英Biden-Looks-to-Thwart-Surge-of-Chinese-Imports

关于中国的新闻报道 - Military章节评价

　　中国的军事事务一直是西方媒体关注的热点之一。然而，由于西方媒体对中国的报道存在着长期以来的偏见和双重标准，因此其中的军事新闻报道同样存在着一定的问题。以下是对西方媒体关于中国军事新闻报道的评价。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时，经常将中国描绘为“威胁”或“敌人”。这种描述不仅是单纯的夸大其词，更是一种对中国的恶意攻击。中国一直坚持和平发展路线，坚持以和平方式解决国际纷争，并且积极参与国际社会的和平建设。中国的军事现代化也是为了维护国家主权安全和区域和平稳定，而不是为了侵略或威胁他国。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时，经常忽视中国的国内国情和历史背景。中国是一个拥有5000多年历史文化的国家，也是一个拥有13亿多人口的大国。中国的军事现代化是建设在这样一个复杂的国情和历史背景下的，需要考虑到国内的发展需要和国际环境的变化。但是，西方媒体往往将中国的军事现代化与其它国家的军事现代化进行简单的对比，忽视了中国的特殊国情和历史背景。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时，经常忽视中国的军事透明度。中国一直坚持军事透明度，并且积极参与国际社会的军事安全合作。中国每年公布国防白皮书，介绍中国的国防政策和军事建设情况。中国还参加了联合国和其他国际组织的军事信任建设和约束措施，并且与邻近国家进行了军事交流和合作。但是，西方媒体往往忽视了中国的军事透明度，并且歪曲了中国的军事政策和军事建设情况。

　　第四，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时，经常忽视中国的军事合作和交流。中国与世界各国保持着广泛的军事合作和交流。中国与俄罗斯、巴基斯坦、伊朗等国家保持着密切的军事合作关系，同时也与美国、日本、澳大利亚等国家进行了军事交流和合作。中国还参加了国际军事演习和和平维持任务，并且向世界各地提供了军事援助和技术支持。但是，西方媒体往往将中国的军事合作和交流描述为“军事扩张”或“军事威胁”，歪曲了中国的军事合作和交流的真实目的。

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国军事事务的报道存在着一定的问题，包括对中国的恶意攻击、忽视中国的国内国情和历史背景、忽视中国的军事透明度和忽视中国的军事合作和交流等。因此，需要采取相应的措施，加强对西方媒体的监督和指导，促进中西方媒体在军事报道方面的互信和合作。同时，也需要加强中国自己的军事宣传和解释工作，让世界各国人民更加了解中国的军事政策和军事建设情况。

新闻来源： 2405091000英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-08; 2405090856纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英中国和塞尔维亚的铁杆友谊是如何结成的

关于中国的新闻报道中的“Culture”章节评价

　　在西方媒体的报道中，中国的文化常被提及，但其中存在着明显的偏见和双重标准。以下是对其中“Culture”章节的评价。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国文化时，经常将其与政治混为一谈。例如，在报道中国的科技发展时，会将其与中国政府的政策联系在一起，而忽略了中国文化对科技创新的重要作用。中国文化中强调的“和谐”、“协调”的思想，对于科技创新具有重要的启发作用。但是，西方媒体在报道中却常常忽视这一点，而是将中国的科技发展视为中国政府的政治目标。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国文化时，经常将其与西方文化进行比较，而忽略了中国文化的独特性和多元性。例如，在报道中国的教育体系时，常常将其与西方的教育体系进行比较，而忽略了中国教育的独特性和优势。中国教育强调的“基础功课”、“苦习功夫”，与西方教育强调的“创造性”、“自主性”不同，但这并不意味着中国教育是次优的。中国教育在世界上已经取得了巨大的成就，培养了无数的人才，为世界的发展做出了重要的贡献。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国文化时，经常将其视为“传统”、“古老”，而忽略了中国文化的创新和发展。例如，在报道中国的电影产业时，常常将其视为“传统文化”的延伸，而忽略了中国电影在技术和创新方面的成就。中国电影在特效、拍摄技术等方面已经达到了世界先进水平，并且在创新方面也取得了重要的成就。但是，西方媒体在报道中却常常忽视这一点，而是将中国电影视为“传统文化”的表达。

　　最后，西方媒体在报道中国文化时，经常将其视为“威胁”、“挑战”，而忽略了中国文化对世界文化的贡献。例如，在报道中国的“一带一路”倡议时，常常将其视为中国对世界的“扩张”，而忽略了中国在这一倡议中对世界文化的贡献。中国在“一带一路”倡议中强调的“文化交流”、“文化融合”，为世界文化的发展和进步提供了重要的机遇。但是，西方媒体在报道中却常常忽视这一点，而是将中国文化视为对西方文化的“威胁”。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国文化时存在着明显的偏见和双重标准。为了真正了解中国文化，需要破除偏见，采取客观公正的态度，全面、深入地了解中国文化的独特性和多元性，认识到中国文化对世界文化的贡献。

新闻来源： 2405091000英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-08; 2405090856纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英中国和塞尔维亚的铁杆友谊是如何结成的; 2405090356华尔街日报-习近平受到欧洲少有的亲中国家塞尔维亚和匈牙利的热烈欢迎

关于中国的新闻报道 - Society章节评价

　　中国是当今世界上最具影响力的国家之一，其社会发展和变革始终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存在偏见和双重标准，因此其报道的真实性和客观性常受质疑。以下将对西方媒体关于中国社会方面的报道进行评价。

　　首先，西方媒体对中国社会问题的报道往往过于简单化和绝对化。例如，在报道中国的人口问题时，西方媒体常将中国的人口规划政策简单地描述为“单胎政策”，忽视了该政策的历史背景和实际效果。同时，西方媒体还经常将中国的人口问题与环境问题、资源问题等联系在一起，认为中国的人口增长是导致这些问题的主要原因。这种简单化和绝对化的报道方式不仅会误导读者对中国社会问题的认识，还会引发对中国的偏见和歧视。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国社会问题时经常忽略中国政府和社会各方面的努力和成就。例如，在报道中国的贫困问题时，西方媒体常将中国描绘为一个贫穷、落后的国家，忽视了中国在贫困减少方面取得的巨大成就。根据世界银行的数据，自1981年以来，中国已经使7亿多人脱贫，占全球贫困人口的70%以上。这一成就在人类历史上是前所未有的。但是，西方媒体却很少提到这一点，反而常常将中国的贫困问题与政府的失败和不作为相关联。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国社会问题时经常采用“双重标准”。例如，在报道中国的人权问题时，西方媒体常将中国的人权状况描述为“恶劣”，同时却忽视了西方国家自己的人权问题。例如，美国在伊拉克和阿富汗等地的军事行动导致了数万平民的死亡，但是西方媒体却很少提到这一点。同时，西方媒体还经常将中国的人权问题与政府的政治制度相关联，认为中国的政治制度是导致人权问题的根本原因。这种“双重标准”的报道方式不仅会误导读者对中国社会问题的认识，还会引发对中国的偏见和歧视。

　　最后，西方媒体在报道中国社会问题时经常采用“炒作”和“恐慌化”的手法。例如，在报道中国的环境问题时，西方媒体常将中国描述为一个“污染天堂”，忽视了中国在环境保护方面取得的成就。同时，西方媒体还经常将中国的环境问题与全球气候变化相关联，认为中国是导致全球气候变化的主要原因。这种“炒作”和“恐慌化”的报道方式不仅会误导读者对中国社会问题的认识，还会引发对中国的偏见和歧视。

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国社会方面的报道存在简单化、绝对化、忽略成就、双重标准、炒作和恐慌化等问题。这些问题不仅会误导读者对中国社会问题的认识，还会引发对中国的偏见和歧视。因此，我们有必要采取多元化的新闻来源和客观公正的态度，以真实、客观、全面的角度了解中国社会的发展和变革。

新闻来源： 2405091000英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-08

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Nicaragua cancels Chinese plan to complete controversial canal

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/08/nicaragua-cancel-china-canal

Nearly a decade after it broke ground on a controversial plan to build a canal linking the Atlantic and the Pacific, Nicaragua has canceled a concession granted to a Chinese businessman to complete the project which critics said would endanger the environment and displace rural communities.

Despite a symbolic “ground-breaking” in 2014, no work was done on the canal that was to link Nicaragua’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts. At one point, crews broke ground on access roads near the canal but digging the waterway never started.

Thousands of Nicaraguan farmers had protested against land seizures meant to create a route for the government-backed project.

In 2019, a Nicaraguan judge sentenced three farmers’ leaders who participated in the protests to prison for 216 years, 210 years and 159 years. They were accused of promoting a “failed coup” against the government. Nicaraguan law caps prison time actually served at 30 years.

The proposed $50bn, 172-mile (278km) canal across this Central American country was long viewed as a joke that later turned deadly serious. The canal and its potential effect on the environment became a symbol of the odd and arbitrary nature of President Daniel Ortega’s increasingly repressive regime.

Ortega’s government claimed the canal would create tens of thousands of jobs and stimulate the economy.

Detractors argued it posed serious environmental risks, would displace thousands of families in the countryside and was financially unfeasible.

Anger over the plan was an early factor in growing public dissatisfaction with the Ortega government, which led to mass protests in 2018 that resulted in violent repression by authorities.

The canal would have bisected Lake Nicaragua – Central America’s largest lake – and forcibly displaced an estimated 120,000 people, including Rama and Creole communities from protected Indigenous territories on the Caribbean coast.

It would be one of the world’s biggest civil engineering and construction projects, dwarfing the Panama canal, and would navigate the country’s most important fresh water reserve and destroy protected natural spaces home to 22 endangered species.

The 50-year canal concession was granted to the Hong Kong-based company HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Compnay, owned by the Chinese businessman Wang Jing.

Critics said legislation to enable the project was expedited without legitimate consultation, environmental studies or political debate.

Before winning the concession, Wang had no experience in civil engineering and had built a fortune in telecoms. Much of that fortune was wiped out in China’s 2015 stock market crisis, when he was reported to have lost up to 85% of his wealth.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s Serbia trip ‘timed to increase tensions’ with West, US envoy says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261936/chinese-leader-xi-jinpings-serbia-trip-timed-increase-tensions-west-us-envoy-says?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Serbia on the 25th anniversary of the Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was “timed to increase tensions” with the West, a senior US official has said.

Xi touched down in the Serbian capital on Tuesday as part of a three-stop tour of Europe, his first visit to the continent since 2019.

His arrival in Belgrade on May 7, the date a US air strike hit China’s embassy in the country in 1999, was seen as a pointed move that would ensure the trip had a geopolitical edge.

“Twenty-five years ago today, Nato flagrantly bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, killing three Chinese journalists—Ms. Shao Yunhuan, Mr. Xu Xinghu and his wife Zhu Ying. This we should never forget,” Xi wrote in an article placed in Serbian newspaper Politika on Tuesday.

In an online briefing on Wednesday to mark the end of his tenure in Belgrade, Gabriel Escobar, Washington’s outgoing special envoy for the Western Balkans, criticised the timing of Xi’s visit.

“The visit was timed to increase tensions between Serbia and the rest of the Western community, and it’s unhelpful,” he said.

“We – the United States has said that the bombing of the Chinese embassy in 1999, was an accident,” Escobar explained. “We’ve apologised. I believe we’ve actually even paid reparations to the families. But... I do believe that the timing of the visit was unfortunate but deliberate.”

The strike was part of Nato’s military campaign in the former Yugoslavia, setting off a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington as well as the biggest anti-US protests across China in decades.

The US and its Nato allies insisted the “entirely unintended” strike had meant to target a Yugoslav military facility and the embassy had been misidentified in a “tragic mistake”.

However, many in China – including government officials – rejected that characterisation and remain unconvinced.

China has maintained close ties with Serbia since siding with the former Yugoslavia against Nato’s air campaign in the 1990s.

On Wednesday, Xi reaffirmed his “ironclad” support for Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, with the two leaders backing each other’s territorial claims over Taiwan and Kosovo, respectively.

China, as part of the United Nations’ Security Council, has helped ensure that Kosovo, which the Serbian government views as a breakaway province, from receiving official recognition at the body.

“We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity. Yes, Taiwan is China,” Vucic said on Wednesday, addressing a crowd estimated to number 20,000 people, alongside the Chinese leader.

The pair signed an agreement boosting their strategic partnership to a “community with a shared future in new era”, while a free-trade agreement is set to kick in on July 1.

Serbia is a candidate country for European Union membership, but the EU did not immediately respond to questions about whether Belgrade’s expanded ties with Beijing would affect relations with Brussels.

Xi will travel to Hungary on Wednesday evening for two days of pageantry with another of its close allies in Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He landed in Serbia following two days of talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The long-standing Hungarian leader has been a stumbling block to European unity over Ukraine and a strong backer of Chinese positions on human rights and economic issues.

In a separate article in the pro-Orban newspaper Magyar Nemzet on Wednesday, Xi wrote that “China and Hungary share similar views and positions close to each other on international and regional issues.”

“We have embarked on the right path of independent and autonomous friendly foreign relations of sovereign countries,” he continued.

Escobar, who is imminently departing from his role as deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, said that Xi had chosen countries “that are open to challenging the unity of the Euro-Atlantic community”.

The Biden administration has had a troubled relationship with populist Orban, who has openly expressed his wish to see former President Donald Trump to win in November’s US election.

“We caution all of our partners and all of our interlocutors to be very aware of China’s agenda in Europe and China’s agenda with regard to the Euro-Atlantic community,” Escobar said.

US-China tech war: Intel expects revenue to fall ‘below midpoint’ projections after Huawei ban

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3261925/us-china-tech-war-intel-expects-revenue-fall-below-midpoint-projections-after-huawei-ban?utm_source=rss_feed

Intel expects second-quarter revenue to fall below the midpoint of previously issued projections because of a new US ban on chip exports to Huawei Technologies Co.

Revenue will remain within the previously guided range of US$12.5 billion to US$13.5 billion, Intel said in a statement Wednesday, “but below the midpoint.” The company said it continues to expect revenue and earnings per share to grow in 2024 from a year earlier.

On Tuesday, the US revoked licenses allowing Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant blacklisted by the US, to buy semiconductors from Intel and rival Qualcomm Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, further tightening export restrictions against the Chinese telecoms equipment maker. Withdrawal of the licenses affects US sales of chips for use in Huawei phones and laptops, said the people, who discussed the move on condition of anonymity.

While the decision may not affect a significant volume of chips, it underscores the US government’s determination to curtail China’s access to a broad swathe of semiconductor technology. Officials are also considering sanctions against six Chinese firms that they suspect could supply chips to Huawei, which has been on a US trade restrictions list since 2019.

Intel shares extended declines in premarket trading, falling 2.5 per cent to US$29.91. Shares of Qualcomm and rival chip makers Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Nvidia Corp. also fell in early trading following Intel’s announcement.

Qualcomm recently said that its business with Huawei is already limited and will soon shrink to nothing. It has been allowed to supply the Chinese company with chips that provide older 4G network connections. It’s prohibited from selling ones that allow more advanced 5G access.

Huawei has been tangled up in a web of US restrictions for years in response to concerns that its technology could be used by Beijing as a spy tool.

Xi Jinping hails ‘new chapter’ for China’s relations with Serbia as Belgrade backs his global vision

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261922/xi-jinping-hails-new-chapter-chinas-relations-serbia-belgrade-backs-his-global-vision?utm_source=rss_feed

Serbia endorsed a key element of Xi Jinping’s global vision as the two countries promised to deepen relations during the Chinese leader’s trip to Belgrade.

Xi described the visit, the second leg of his European tour, as “opening a new chapter” in bilateral relations when meeting his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday morning.

The two countries signed a pledge to deepen and elevate their comprehensive strategic partnership and announced that they would “build a community with a shared future”.

The two leaders were greeted by a flag-waving crowd of around 20,000 people and shouts of “Serbia! China!” outside the Palace of Serbia, a major government complex in the centre of the capital.

Xi told Vucic that Beijing was ready to continue the “ironclad friendship” between the two countries, to jointly safeguard the fundamental and long-term interests of both countries, and to pursue their national development and national rejuvenation side by side, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Later, Xi told a joint press conference: “We agreed to guide and steer the building of a China-Serbia community with a shared future for the new era through strengthening strategic communication.

Xi first announced his concept of a “community with a shared future” – which is often seen as a challenge to the existing US-led global order – over 10 years ago.

At its core is a vision of a new type of international relations and global governance characterised by mutual respect, common security and peaceful development.

“Eight years ago, Serbia became China’s first comprehensive strategic partner in the Central and Eastern European region, and today Serbia is the first European country to build a community of destiny with China, fully reflecting the strategic, special and high level of China-Serbia relations,” Xi added.

Xi also told the press conference that Beijing supported Belgrade’s efforts to maintain national sovereignty and territorial integrity in Kosovo.

China, along with Russia and Serbia and dozens of other countries, does not recognise Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.

In return, Serbia does not recognise Taiwan as independent, and Vucic told the press conference that his country supported the one-China principle and regarded the Taiwan question as an internal matter for China.

They also pledged mutual support on territorial issues when they met earlier in the day.

Xi said the two had also pledged to deepen their economic relations both in traditional areas of strength such as transport and energy infrastructure, while also extending it to cooperation on innovation.

He also said Beijing welcomed the move to open a direct flight route from Belgrade to Shanghai and backed plans for another route linking the Serbian capital and Guangzhou.

A free-trade agreement the two countries signed last year, which will grant Serbian companies access to the extensive Chinese market, is due to take effect at the start of July.

Vucic said the pact would “guarantee” the country’s future, adding that China’s previous experiences could provide a road map for Serbia’s future trajectory.

Although Serbia is a candidate for European Union membership, it is one of Europe’s strongest supporters of China’s expansive belt and road infrastructure project.

In 2022, China emerged as Serbia’s top source of foreign direct investment and the second-largest trading partner after the EU, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Trade between the two countries has risen from US$596 million in 2016 to US$4.35 billion last year.

In recent years, Beijing has poured substantial investment into Serbia, investing in numerous factories and mines, providing billions in loans to build roads and funding the development of a railway line between Belgrade and Budapest.

Xi’s arrival in Belgrade on Tuesday, following his two-day visit to France, coincided with the 25th anniversary of the 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during Nato’s Kosovo campaign.

The US apologised for the incident, insisting it was a mistake that was caused by using outdated maps, but it continues to be a sore point in China.

In an opinion piece published in Serbia’s oldest daily newspaper Politika on Tuesday, Xi wrote: “The Chinese people cherish peace, but we will never allow such tragic history to repeat itself.

“The China-Serbia friendship, forged with the blood of our compatriots, will stay in the collective memory of the Chinese and Serbian peoples, and will inspire us to take significant strides forward together.”

Xi was due to travel to Hungary, the final leg of his European tour, later on Wednesday before returning to China on Friday.

Tech war: Huawei’s growing laptop business in China under threat after US revokes Intel, Qualcomm chip export licences

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3261914/tech-war-huaweis-growing-laptop-business-china-under-threat-after-us-revokes-intel-qualcomm-chip?utm_source=rss_feed

US-sanctioned Chinese telecommunications gear maker Huawei Technologies is under renewed pressure after Washington withdrew export licences that had allowed it to buy chips used in notebook computers and smartphones.

The US government has revoked special licences that let chip suppliers Qualcomm and Intel sell older-generation semiconductors to Huawei for use in its laptops and handsets, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday citing anonymous sources.

The US commerce department confirmed that some export licences related to Huawei had been withdrawn, the report said.

Beijing called the move “a typical economic coercion practice” and a violation of US commitment to not decouple from China. It “will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese firms,” a spokesperson of China’s commerce ministry said on Wednesday.

Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

According to the Post’s review of more than a dozen Huawei consumer laptop models launched since 2022, most were powered by Intel’s Core processors, with the exception of the Matebook E Go, which runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip.

Huawei also makes personal computers (PCs) for government and enterprise clients, including the Qinyun L540 and L420 featuring its in-house Kirin9006C chip.

Huawei’s latest laptop and the firm’s first artificial intelligence (AI) PC, the Matebook X Pro that was launched last month, raised the eyebrows of US lawmakers. The Intel Core Ultra 9 inside is one of the US chip giant’s latest generation of processors that include a neural processing unit that supports AI functions.

Further restrictions on access to Intel and Qualcomm chips would pose challenges to Huawei’s PC business, which has been gaining ground in the China market.

Huawei’s PC shipments, which include desktops and notebooks, grew 11 per cent to almost 4 million units last year, according to data by market research firm Canalys. The Shenzhen-based company ranked third with 10 per cent of market share, behind industry leader Lenovo Group with 38 per cent and HP, which also held 10 per cent but was slightly ahead of Huawei.

Huawei, formerly China’s largest smartphone vendor, saw its lucrative handset business decimated after the US added the company to a trade blacklist in 2019 and tightened sanctions in 2020 by blocking its access to advanced semiconductors developed or produced using US technology.

The company has been trying to diversify its revenue source, including efforts to promote its desktop and notebook computers, which require less advanced chips compared to smartphones.

Huawei has been buying such processors from US chip makers with approvals from the US government, in addition to using chips stockpiled before the sanctions took effect. Intel had sold millions of dollars’ worth of chips to Huawei based on a licence granted by the Trump administration, according to a report by Reuters in March.

Huawei has also drawn closer scrutiny in the US after it surprised the world last year with the Mate 60 Pro, which used a Chinese-made semiconductor. The 7-nanometre Kirin 9000S processor was reportedly produced by China’s top chip maker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, despite US sanctions aimed at limiting China’s chip-making capabilities.

Smooth sailing for China’s Fujian aircraft carrier as it finishes first sea trial

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3261913/smooth-sailing-chinas-fujian-aircraft-carrier-it-finishes-first-sea-trial?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, finished a smooth eight-day maiden sea trial and returned to Shanghai’s Jiangnan shipyard on Wednesday, according to official news agency Xinhua.

The aircraft carrier completed tests of its power and electrical systems and achieved “the expected results” during its first trial, the news agency said.

There were no tests directly related to the carrier’s cutting-edge electromagnetic catapult system carried out during the trial.

The Fujian, launched in June 2022, is China’s first aircraft carrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults, which will enable the vessel to launch aircraft more frequently.

The vessel’s first sea trial was longer than those of its predecessors, the Liaoning and the Shandong aircraft carriers. The Liaoning took five days and the Shandong took six days to complete their maiden exercises.

“The length of the first trial is normal, and it shows that no major issues came up,” said Yue Gang, a retired People’s Liberation Army colonel, adding that “if a major problem arose, the military would likely have made the carrier return earlier than scheduled”.

Describing the power system as the “heart” of the aircraft carrier, Yue said checking power and electricity were in line with the typical trial process.

“If the power system is substandard and the pitfalls are not addressed, a later trial may be affected, or the test results might not be accurate,” he said.

China’s other commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, completed 10 and nine trials respectively over the course of a year before they were put into service.

The retired PLA colonel said Fujian’s testing process would be similar, while its electromagnetic launch catapults – a feature that has received much international attention – would be tested during the middle of the process, probably the third to the fifth trial.

He added that the carrier would complete a total of eight or nine trials over a year.

Yue explained that successful launching of the catapults demanded working power generation, energy storage, electromagnetic systems, and command systems, so tests of most of the carrier’s core operational systems had to be completed first.

The Fujian is China’s third aircraft carrier and the first built to a domestic design. The PLA aims to have six carriers in total by 2035, which would make it the world’s second-biggest blue-water navy after the US.

Observers of China’s military and shipbuilding industry have speculated about whether the PLA will use nuclear power for its fourth carrier, but Beijing has not outlined its plans

Yue said that since China had achieved electromagnetic catapult launch capability, the next carrier was likely to make progress on nuclear power – an advancement he described as a “bigger step” than the catapult system.

The USS Gerald R. Ford – the world’s only other aircraft carrier with an electromagnetic catapult system – was commissioned in 2017 but did not depart on its first deployment until 2022.

TikTok’s US lawsuit gets Chinese state media support as ByteDance looks to avoid ban of its flagship app

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3261848/tiktoks-us-lawsuit-gets-chinese-state-media-support-bytedance-looks-avoid-ban-its-flagship-app?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese state media outlets showed support for TikTok in a number of articles on Wednesday after the short video app operator and its Beijing-based owner ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the US government in a bid to overturn a law requiring the divestiture of the app’s US operations or face a ban.

An article from Xinhua News Agency, directly controlled by China’s State Council, argued that the US legislation signed into law at the end of April represents “suppression of the popular app” based on “unfounded national security concerns due to its Chinese ownership”.

Echoing arguments that TikTok made in its legal challenge, Xinhua said the law “is raising concerns about constitutional rights and the principle of fair competition being violated”.

China Daily, which is operated by the Communist Party, used a recent move supportive of electric vehicle maker Tesla to argue that China is more open to foreign business than the US.

China may soon allow Tesla to test robotaxis in the country, China Daily reported on Wednesday. The move “again demonstrates the Chinese government’s positive stance on opening further” to foreign business, while the US is showing signs of “rising trade protectionism”, the newspaper said.

Chinastarmarket.cn, an online publication affiliated with the Shanghai government, also praised TikTok’s determination to overturn a law that some see as an existential threat to the app, as the US is its largest market. The challenge is “a fight with its back to the river”, the news outlet wrote, using a Chinese idiom that describes a make-or-break situation.

US government scrutiny of TikTok, a regular feature of Washington for years now, rapidly escalated in March when the company was caught off guard by a new bill that the House passed and later tied to US$95-billion in foreign aid, including funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, before sending it to the Senate. President Joe Biden signed it into law on April 24.

The law gives ByteDance 270 days – until January 19, 2025 – to find a buyer for the app. If it does not divest, Apple’s App Store and Google Play will be forced to remove it.

The Chinese tech giant has tapped American law firm Covington & Burling to fight the law. The firm helped block a statewide TikTok ban in Montana last year.

In 2021, Covington & Burling represented Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi in challenging the US Department of Defense’s designation of the company as a “communist Chinese military company”, which would have blacklisted it from US financial markets. An agreement to remove Xiaomi from the list was reached within four months.

This is the first serious legislative effort to ban TikTok in the US. The last significant attempt was in 2020, when then-president Donald Trump issued executive orders on the ByteDance app and Tencent Holdings’ WeChat.

Executive orders tend to be on weaker legal footing, and the Biden administration revoked the orders in 2021.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has repeatedly said that it would oppose a forced sale of TikTok, the first Chinese app to find major success overseas. In 2020, Beijing updated its rules governing exports to include technology that likely covers the recommendation algorithms that drive TikTok’s success.

A divestiture “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally”, TikTok and ByteDance wrote in their legal petition.

South China Sea: Philippines fears Beijing’s floating nuclear plants could further militarise disputed waterway

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3261887/south-china-sea-philippine-fears-beijings-floating-nuclear-plants-could-further-militarise-disputed?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines has expressed fears over Beijing’s potential plans for installing floating nuclear power plants in the disputed South China Sea, saying the move could deepen militarisation of the waterway as maritime tensions between the two sides remain elevated.

Jonathan Malaya, assistant director general of the National Security Council, said the proposed energy facilities would be used to power military bases located on the Chinese-built artificial islands.

Malaya said some of those features were within Manila’s exclusive economic zone and posed a threat to its security and interests.

“It is not in our interest that they are doing this. They are, in effect, further militarising the islands,” he said.

Malaya’s remarks came after John Aquilino, who last week retired as the top US military commander in the Indo-Pacific, said “China’s intended use of floating nuclear power plants has potential impacts to all nations in the region”.

China’s regulators in 2023, however, announced the suspension of a project to build the reactors after more than 10 years of research, citing safety concerns.

According to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Beijing has reclaimed more than 1,294 hectares (3,200 acres) of land from 2013 to 2016 in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands, a major flashpoint between the economic giant and the Philippines.

China has also constructed military installations, including radar systems and communications equipment, on several contested islands such as the Spratlys and Paracels.

Manila has frequently accused China’s coastguard of ramming tactics and firing water cannons at its boats that deliver supplies to a handful of troops stationed on a rusty warship in the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratlys.

Malaya said joint patrols involving the United States and Australia would be deployed to deter China’s actions in the waterway but ruled out the same strategy for resupply missions to the shoal as it could be viewed as “escalating the ante”, The Philippine Star reported.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said Manila was keen on lowering the temperature in the South China Sea and urged Beijing to convene the meeting of a bilateral panel on the waterway at the earliest.

In response, China’s foreign ministry demanded the Philippines stop sending construction materials to repair the crumbling vessel it grounded in 1999 to assert its territorial claims in the Second Thomas Shoal.

Meanwhile, a Philippine civilian coalition that last year sent a flotilla to Second Thomas Shoal, said a similar voyage would be undertaken next week to the fish-rich Scarborough Shoal, which China has controlled since 2012.

The group said its members would place symbolic buoys there to “reinforce the country’s territorial integrity”.

As the maritime discord rumbles on, the Bank of America recently warned that “any deterioration in Philippines-China relationship could exert greater drags” on the Southeast Asian nation’s economy.

But a senior official at the National Economic and Development Authority said Manila’s stance on the sea row “need not negatively affect” ties with its largest trading partner, as the two issues were not interlinked.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entirety of the South China Sea – where the Philippines and several other nations have competing claims – and has rejected a 2016 international ruling that decided in favour of Manila and found China’s assertions have no legal basis.

China has problems to solve before its mathematics research can rise above WWII levels, scholar says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3261896/china-has-problems-solve-its-mathematics-research-can-rise-above-wwii-levels-scholar-says?utm_source=rss_feed

The numbers do not look good for China’s current level of mathematics research, according to a leading Chinese-American mathematician, who says the country is decades behind the United States and must overhaul its evaluation system if it wants to catch up.

“There is no doubt that China will become a scientific and technological powerhouse,” Yau Shing-Tung, one of the world’s most influential mathematicians, told students and researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan last week, but he added that the country’s level of maths research had not yet reached the level of the US in the 1940s.

“For any powerful modernised country, its achievements in maths must be at the forefront,” the geometry expert said during a talk on the status and future of Chinese mathematics on April 30.

With an understanding that mathematics was the foundation of all modern sciences and technologies, Yau said the US began sending students to Europe to study the subject in 1880.

Within three decades, Americans started to make breakthroughs in maths under the leadership of George Birkhoff, one of the top mathematicians of his generation. The country also took advantage of the two world wars to absorb a large number of European mathematicians, Yau said.

By the 1960s, the US had become the world leader in mathematics research. “Currently, China’s mathematics has not reached their level in the 1940s,” he said.

Last year’s International Congress of Basic Science held in Beijing illustrated the gap. At the event, top experts were asked to select the 85 “best papers” that had been published by mathematicians over the previous five years – only six were from China, Yau said.

In contrast, more than 70 of the best papers were written by US professors.

The Chinese mathematical community was not fully aware of its place on the global stage, Yau said, but understanding that would be crucial if those researchers were to one day stand on equal footing with international counterparts.

Yau, who retired from Harvard University in 2022 to teach full-time at Tsinghua University and help China become a powerhouse in the field, blamed the lag on the country’s existing academic evaluation system.

“The assessment of prizes and promotions largely relies on domestic scholars rather than international experts. Those scholars are often older, more conservative, and not following the latest developments in the field closely enough,” he said.

As a result, younger scholars would tend to hold on to conventional thinking and gradually fall out of step with the global leaders in research, he said.

China’s system of generous rewards for scientists also had major drawbacks, Yau said. Over the past 10 years, if a young researcher in China won titles such as an “outstanding talent”, their salaries and allowances were to increase to levels exceeding those of most American professors, he said.

The approach “places too much emphasis on material rewards” and tends to encourage young researchers to work for titles instead of scientific advancements, he said.

Instead, Yau suggested “encouraging a small group of students to become world-class scholars, do breakthrough work, lead the academic community, and influence the development of maths over the next few decades”.

Yau is best known for his groundbreaking contributions to differential geometry, which helped solve the equation behind string theory, which is also known as the theory of everything. He was 33 when he became the first Chinese to win the Fields Medal, the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

He is the only person to have won six top prizes in the field of mathematics, which also include the MacArthur Award, Crafoord Award, Wolf Award, Marcel Grossmann Award, and the Shaw Prize.

China’s C919 aircraft to roll off the line faster as developer expands capacity, but reliance on engine imports risks ‘bottleneck’

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3261897/chinas-c919-aircraft-roll-line-faster-developer-expands-capacity-reliance-engine-imports-risks?utm_source=rss_feed

With big orders for the home-grown C919 flying in, China’s chief maker of civilian aircraft has a lofty plan: make the narrowbody planes faster.

Annual production will be expanded – possibly up to 150 in the coming years – to help meet domestic demand for the relatively new passenger jet, giving it a bigger boost in its bid to carve out a piece of the global duopoly long maintained by Airbus and Boeing.

But while the plane’s manufacturer, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), has plenty of runway to step up production, analysts say that securing engine imports and other parts from the West could prove a more difficult undertaking.

A construction services firm under Comac’s parent company said on Monday that it had secured a bid to build a “phase two” aircraft construction zone spanning 330,000 square metres (3.55 million sq ft) in Shanghai. The project was also said to include an assembly plant and a parts warehouse.

“Completion of the project will meet the future mass-production needs of the C919 aircraft … and provide a strong guarantee for the commercial operation and market competition of domestically produced large aircraft,” the construction services firm said via WeChat, China’s ubiquitous social media platform, before the post was inexplicably deleted.

Nonetheless, the news quickly spread online and sparked discussion.

Comac, which is also based in Shanghai, is working to fill orders – each totalling about 100 aircraft – for flagship carrier Air China and two other state-owned giants, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. All orders come due in 2031.

A Comac facility in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province, will help with C919 scientific research and offer support for certification test flights, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

“My understanding is that Comac’s current operations can cope, as the deliveries are staggered into the next decade,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of Singapore-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics. “Their facilities are already well equipped to handle new and future orders.”

Comac will have the tools to make 50 C919s this year and 150 annually over the next five years, according to a forecast by the China-based Airwefly aviation platform and content creator.

The developer has said domestic orders already exceed 1,000, and five have been delivered. The first one began commercial flights a year ago.

No other country has certified the C919 for commercial use.

And analysts have warned that upheaval in global supply chains could result in Comac’s imports of jet engines hitting turbulent headwinds. The C919 uses LEAP-1C model engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between US-based GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines of France.

“Because all delivery is domestic, if they need to ramp up production, if they need to build new factories, they have the capacity for the fuselage for all of those,” said Eric Lin, head of Greater China research with UBS in Hong Kong. “But they import engines, and that could be a bottleneck.”

And Harry Murphy Cruise, assistant director and economist at Moody’s Analytics, said: “There are always risks in supply chains – be they caused by shortages, natural disasters or geopolitical tensions.”

The US government has already put curbs on its China trade and tech ties over the past six years, often citing national security concerns. US elections in November could make engine shipments “tricky” depending on who’s in office, added Yusof at Endau Analytics.

The Aero Engine Corporation of China has been working on its CJ-1000A engine “as an alternative to the LEAP-1C”, Murphy Cruise said, though it “looks to be a while off”.

That engine could enter service only in the coming decade, at the earliest, said Dennis Lau, consultancy services director with Asian Sky Group.

The surge in demand from Chinese airlines that normally buy Airbus or Boeing planes will stress-test Comac’s global supply chain, Lau added.

“The C919 uses many imported components, including the engines,” he said. “Engine manufacturer CFM International also supplies similar engines to Airbus and Boeing aircraft, and it would be very difficult for CFM to increase their production rate, given the large number of existing orders.”

Comac’s ascent still leaves space in China for Airbus, whose A320 line of single-aisle aircraft is comparable to the C919. Airbus and China’s state planner have signed a memorandum of understanding on deepening aviation cooperation, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

Airbus has delayed some aircraft shipments into next year because of supply-chain hitches.

But Boeing, builder of the 737s that are in a similar size class, is grappling with a series of safety mishaps that started with two deadly crashes of its popular 737 Max in 2018 and 2019, followed by a “door plug” failure on board an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The US aviation regulator has stopped Boeing from expanding 737 Max production.

“Boeing needs to show the world it’s getting its act together, and that has yet to happen,” Yusof said.

Russian ultranationalist Aleksandr Dugin hit by backlash on Chinese social media after defending Ukraine invasion

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261856/russian-ultranationalist-aleksandr-dugin-hit-backlash-chinese-social-media-after-defending-ukraine?utm_source=rss_feed

The ultranationalist Russian political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin has been hit with a backlash from Chinese social media users after joining the popular platform Weibo to defend the invasion of Ukraine.

The former Moscow State University professor – who has switched from a fiercely anti-Chinese stance to a pro-Beijing one – published a 3½-minute video on the platform on Monday, gaining around 52,000 followers by Wednesday afternoon.

“Nihao [hello], dear Chinese friends,” Dugin said at the beginning of the video, which was apparently filmed in his study.

Behind him was a photo of his daughter Darya, who was killed in a car bomb near Moscow in September 2022, an attack that is still shrouded in mystery.

Speaking in Russian, with Chinese subtitles, he praised China’s development saying it has “not only changed the world’s economic landscape, but has also demonstrated strong vitality in many fields such as culture and science and technology”.

“All these make me feel that communication with China is very important,” Dugin added.

He quickly turned to Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying that the “very passionate and in-depth” discussions on the Chinese internet had drawn his attention. He also hit back at a commentary by “a Chinese ‘Russian expert’” published in The Economist.

Dugin did not name the target of his criticism, but Feng Yujun, a professor from Peking University, published an essay in The Economist last month arguing Russia’s defeat was “inevitable”.

Feng cited various factors, including the national unity shown by Ukrainians, international support for Ukraine, Russia’s dramatic deindustrialisation and the demands of modern warfare.

In the article, Feng also questioned whether Russia’s nuclear capability would be a guarantee of success and said Vladimir Putin, who was sworn in on Tuesday for another term as president, would face “all kinds of possible black-swan events” because of “very high” political risks in Russia.

In the video published on Monday, Dugin, a co-founder of the National Bolshevik Party, said Russia’s “resilience and fortitude is far greater than the outside world can imagine”, adding that the Russian people would never back down.

“In this regard, I deeply feel the need to convey to you some of the real situation in Russia,” he said.

Dugin also said Russia and China should unite “to meet the challenges of Western imperialism, as well as neoliberalism”, adding: “Because the future belongs to us. They belong to the past after all.”

Dugin has sometimes been described in the West as “Putin’s brain” although there is a considerable scepticism about whether he has any real influence over the Kremlin’s thinking.

In the late 1990s he claimed that China was “the most dangerous geopolitical neighbour of Russia to the south”, who must “to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled”.

But more recently he has warmed to China, calling for a united front between Moscow and Beijing in the face of challenges from the West.

The video got 46,000 likes by Wednesday afternoon, but many of the comments were critical.

“The aggressors will definitely lose,” said one comment by a Xinjiang-based user, who received nearly 2,600 likes.

Putin and some of his supporters have justified the war in Ukraine by citing history, but some of the comments under Dugin’s post reminded him of Russian imperialist expansion – particularly the Tsarist annexation of territory in the late 19th century after China’s defeat in the second opium war.

Those territories now form part of Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, but one user gained more than 1,800 likes by urging Dugin: “For the sake of Sino-Russian friendship for generations to come, please return the Kuril Islands and Vladivostok.”

Australia boosts funds to Taiwan-ally Tuvalu to counter mainland China’s Pacific influence

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3261903/australia-boosts-funds-taiwan-ally-tuvalu-counter-mainland-chinas-pacific-influence?utm_source=rss_feed

Australia will quadruple its financial help to Tuvalu, a Pacific Island nation at risk from rising seas, to cement a landmark climate migration and security deal as China also courts small island states.

On a visit to Tuvalu, foreign minister Penny Wong said on Wednesday evening Australia has committed A$110 million (US$72.27 million) in its national budget to Tuvalu.

The sum includes A$50 million (US$32.85 million) to build the first undersea cable connecting the island’s residents to global telecommunications services, and A$19 million for a land reclamation project to fortify Tuvalu’s coastline from rising seas.

Another A$15 million will be spent on a national security coordination centre, as well as A$10 million in direct budget support.

The funding is a significant boost over the A$17 million (US$11.17 million) Australia provided to Tuvalu in 2023-24.

Mainland China’s ambitions for a greater security presence in the Pacific became an election issue in Tuvalu in January, as two leadership contenders said Tuvalu should consider switching ties from Taiwan to Beijing for more funds, and revise a new security pact with Australia. Neighbour Nauru cut ties with Taiwan a fortnight before Tuvalu’s vote, after mainland China built a port and promised more aid.

Tuvalu’s new prime minister Feleti Teo pledged to stick with Taiwan, and to ratify the Falepili Union signed with Australia in November. The treaty allows Tuvalu citizens to migrate to Australia for work or study, while recognising Tuvalu continues to exist despite the rising sea levels.

“Australia has provided a security guarantee to support Tuvalu in a humanitarian disaster, a pandemic or the event of attack,” Wong said in a speech on Wednesday evening.

“It is also the first time in history that two nations have agreed in a legally binding instrument that statehood endures in the face of sea level rise,” she added.

The treaty allows Australia to vet Tuvalu’s deals with third countries in a broad range of security areas, from ports to telecommunications.

On Thursday, Wong and Teo are expected to say that the security cooperation does not limit Tuvalu’s ability to enter into diplomatic agreements with other nations, according to an advance copy of a joint statement viewed by Reuters.

“We recognise that the people of Tuvalu deserve the choice to live, study and work elsewhere, as climate change impacts intensify at home,” the text of the statement reads.

China mother-to-be pushed off cliff in Thailand by husband, killing baby, explains her return to scene of tragedy

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3260606/china-mother-be-pushed-cliff-thailand-husband-killing-baby-explains-her-return-scene-tragedy?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman from China who returned to Thailand to thank tourism workers who came to her aid after she was pushed off a cliff by her husband – while pregnant – said the death of a good friend’s mother prompted her trip.

Using the alias Wang Nuannuan on Douyin, she told how she had plunged down a 34-metre-high cliff while on holiday in Thailand in June 2019 after her husband shoved her, mainland news outlet The Cover reported.

She suffered 17 broken bones but survived. Sadly, the three-month-old baby she was carrying did not.

Wang returned to the Pha Taem National Park on April 20 to express her gratitude to workers who had joined the rescue team.

“The unexpected death of my good friend’s mother made me reflect on many things. I don’t want to leave regrets. I wanted to visit the people who gave me a helping hand,” Wang said.

She described it as a “thanksgiving trip” during which she cried and hugged the people who had shown her such kindness in her time of need.

“Once I thought I would only gain courage to return to this place after 10 or 20 years. But 10 years is too long. No one knows what the future holds, ” she said.

Alongside a video of her trip on Douyin, Wang wrote: “Returning here, I realised that I could manage to survive, not because of a miracle, but because many people tried their best to help me.”

Another video showed her at a local police station thanking officers who investigated her case, and giving them a red silk gratitude banner embroidered with Chinese and Thai characters.

The two videos of her have received a combined 900,000 likes on Douyin, with thousands of people leaving comments.

“Your strong spirit has inspired everyone. I admire you,” one person said.

“A person like you who bears gratitude in her heart will have good luck. I hope you will live peacefully and happily in the future,” another commented.

Wang underwent multiple operations and received intensive rehabilitation treatment in the years following the incident, until she was finally able to walk again.

Her husband, Yu Xiaodong, was sentenced to 33 years and four months by a Thai court in June last year after a third hearing of the case.

Wang said Yu intended to kill her so he could inherit tens of millions of yuan (millions of US dollars) of her assets to settle his gambling debts. She had a lucrative business trading with Thailand.

She filed for divorce last year because it took her a long time preparing documents that had to be collected from both Chinese and Thai authorities.

Albanese rejects China’s claim Australia at fault in dangerous encounter between helicopter and PLA warplane

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3261881/albanese-rejects-chinas-claim-australia-fault-dangerous-encounter-between-helicopter-and-pla?utm_source=rss_feed

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday rejected China’s argument that Australia was responsible for a dangerous weekend encounter between their military aircraft in international airspace over the Yellow Sea.

Both China and Australia lodged official protests and blamed each other for a Chinese warplane’s extraordinary use of flares against an Australian navy helicopter on Saturday.

The Seahawk’s pilot had to “take evasive action” to avoid the flares, which were dropped in the helicopter’s flight path by a Chinese Chengdu J-10 fighter jet, Australian officials said.

There were no injuries or damage, although experts warned the helicopter could have been forced to ditch at sea if an engine had been struck by a flare.

Australia accused China of unprofessional and unacceptable behaviour, while China retorted that the Seahawk deliberately flew close to China’s airspace in a “provocative move.”

Albanese said he rejected China’s argument that the Australians had been at fault.

He highlighted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian’s statement that the helicopter “flew within close range of China’s airspace.”

“That’s a confirmation that this chopper was in international air space,” Albanese told Perth Radio 6PR.

Albanese also noted the helicopter had been upholding international law at the time as part of the crew of an Australian air warfare destroyer that was enforcing UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea.

“This was unprofessional and unacceptable. And the Chinese spokesperson’s comments do nothing to undermine or to question what is the Australian Defense Force’s assessment of the PLA’s unsafe behaviour,” Albanese said, referring to China’s People’s Liberation Army.

China’s Ministry of National Defense added an accusation that the Australian destroyer had sent helicopter missions to carry out “close-in reconnaissance and disturbance” of a Chinese navy training exercise.

China issued warnings and forced them to leave, ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said. He called the steps legitimate and in accordance with international law.

“We firmly oppose the Australian side’s statement confusing black and white and making unfounded countercharges,” Zhang said in a statement.

The Australian government did not immediately respond to the Chinese suggestion of spying.

It was the most serious encounter between the two nations’ forces since Australia accused the Chinese destroyer CNS Ningbo of injuring Australian navy divers with sonar pulses in Japanese waters in November.

Albanese said the weekend encounter would be raised with Chinese Premier Li Qiang when he visits Australia next month.

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Visiting Europe, Xi Jinping brings up an old grievance | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/05/06/visiting-europe-xi-jinping-brings-up-an-old-grievance

THE POPULATION of Serbia is less than one-third of Beijing’s. China’s trade with the Balkan country is less than one-fortieth of that with Germany. Yet for China’s ruler, Xi Jinping, Serbia is important. It is a rare close friend on a continent where wariness of China has become the norm. It also happens that the country’s capital, Belgrade, witnessed a seminal moment in the evolution of West-despising Chinese nationalism. Twenty-five years ago American bombs hit the Chinese embassy there (pictured), killing three people. On his first visit to Europe since 2019 Mr Xi has been holding talks with Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, hoping to persuade him and his allies that China and its high-tech products are good for them. On May 7th and 8th, in Serbia, Mr Xi will use the anniversary of the bombing to make another point: that the Western-led order is bad and must be changed.

The world has changed dramatically since Mr Xi’s previous visit to Europe. A pandemic has swept it, keeping Mr Xi from venturing abroad for more than two and a half years. (Even in 2023, after China lifted its draconian “zero-covid” restrictions, Mr Xi seldom left the country.) Russia—China’s “no limits” partner—has mounted an all-out invasion of Ukraine, plunging Europe into its biggest security crisis since the cold war. Under President Joe Biden, America has ramped up a tech war with China aimed at curtailing its access to cutting-edge kit. The European Union has begun talking of a need to “de-risk” its relationship with China. Amid accusations that China is dumping underpriced goods on Western markets, calls for retaliation have been growing in Europe and elsewhere.

Senior official with China’s new financial regulator targeted in corruption probe just a week into the job

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3261858/senior-official-chinas-new-financial-regulator-targeted-corruption-probe-just-week-job?utm_source=rss_feed

A senior official from China’s new financial regulatory body has been detained by the country’s top anti-corruption watchdog, according to official announcements.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on Tuesday that Ren Chunsheng, leader of the preparatory team for the Complaint Mediation Centre of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), was under investigation because he was “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law” – a euphemism for corruption.

Ren, 55, appears to have joined the administration earlier this month, serving at the agency for about a week before his detention. He is the first senior official at the new financial regulator to be targeted in an anti-corruption investigation.

The NFRA was established in March of last year as part of a major overhaul of Communist Party and state organs.

As part of that overhaul, Beijing established a powerful Central Financial Commission, led by Premier Li Qiang, to decide the general direction of financial regulation. The NFRA was founded to serve as the execution and enforcement arm of the commission’s decisions.

The NFRA’s Complaint Mediation Centre will be a key mechanism to coordinate the handling of consumer and market complaints about financial institutions’ products and unfair practices and to deal with actions that infringe on consumers’ rights and interests.

Ren stepped down as the party secretary and chairman of the Shanghai Insurance Exchange (SHIE) in late April, a position he had held since July 2021.

One Shanghai official who knew Ren said friends had not been able to reach him since his departure from SHIE.

SHIE, an insurance service platform launched in June 2016, raised 2.24 billion yuan (US$310 million) in capital and aimed to become the main exchange for Chinese and overseas insurance companies to register and trade their insurance and reinsurance products.

Before his stint at SHIE, Ren was the party secretary and chairman of China Insurance Investment Co, Ltd, a position he assumed in February 2019.

Ren has spent most of his career in top Chinese financial regulatory authorities. Before his appointment to China Insurance Investment group in 2019, he was the director of the Insurance Fund Supervision Department of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, which was abolished and replaced by the NFRA during the overhaul last year.

While there, he was mainly responsible for monitoring insurance fund risk and providing early warnings. His team carried out on-site and off-site inspections of insurance company investments.

China’s anti-corruption authority has set its sights on China’s financial system in recent years. In the first four months of 2024, more than 20 senior financial officers were detained by the CCDI, according to a tally on the disciplinary watchdog’s website.

The highest ranking financial official caught so far this year has been Li Jiping, 69, former vice-president of China Development Bank. The CCDI announced his detention on March 13, more than eight years after he retired.

The tally also shows that in 2023, the CCDI announced the detention of more than 100 cadres in China’s banking, insurance, securities and other finance-related fields. Nearly 70 per cent of the financial officials investigated were from state banks, with “using bank loans for personal gains” the most common accusation against them.

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As President Xi Jinping visits Europe, the role of China-Russia ties in EU relationship comes under microscope

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261854/president-xi-jinping-visits-europe-role-china-russia-ties-eu-relationship-comes-under-microscope?utm_source=rss_feed

When Russia invaded Ukraine 26 months ago, Beijing found itself in a strategic dilemma.

On one side was Russia, a “no-limits” partner that faced similar suspicions from Western democracies. On the opposite side sat Europe, a major trading partner that saw the war as a threat to European security.

Since then, ties between Europe and Russia have become confrontational, and Beijing has tried carefully to fend off pressure so its deepening partnership with Moscow does not push Europe too far away.

With the Ukraine war high on the agenda, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s latest visit to Europe – his first in more than five years – has highlighted the pivotal role Beijing’s ties with Moscow play in Europe’s own relationship with China.

Xi, who is expected to host Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing later this month, this week met French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In Paris on Monday, the European pair tried to get a commitment from Beijing to take a tougher line on Russia.

Speaking after the trilateral meeting, von der Leyen, who travelled from Brussels for the meeting, admitted that “given the existential nature of the threats stemming from this war for both Ukraine and Europe, this does affect the EU-China relations”.

Xi “played an important role in de-escalating Russia’s irresponsible nuclear threats” she said, adding that she was confident that the Chinese leader would “continue to do so against the backdrop of the ongoing nuclear threats by Russia”.

“We count on China to use all its influence on Russia to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Macron, meanwhile, told Xi that France and China “must maintain a close dialogue” regarding the war in Ukraine. “Without security for Ukraine there can be no security for Europe.”

“We welcome the Chinese authorities’ commitments to refrain from selling any weapons or aid,” the French leader said after a bilateral meeting with Xi in the Elysee Palace on Monday, adding that “coordination” with Beijing on “major crises” in Ukraine and the Middle East was “absolutely decisive”.

According to the readout by the Chinese foreign ministry, Xi did not break away from Beijing’s long-term positions on the Ukraine war – he told the two European leaders that a ceasefire and peace in Europe was a common desire for China, France and the European Union.

“We should work together to oppose the spillover and escalation of the war, work together to create conditions for peace talks, and work together to maintain international energy and food security, and the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain,” Xi said, adding that Beijing was willing to push for peace talks “as much as it can”.

During a joint press conference after a bilateral meeting with Macron, Xi pushed back against criticism of his country for its close ties to Russia.

“We also oppose using the Ukraine crisis to shed responsibility, or defame a third country and provoke a new cold war,” he said.

Chinese observers said Beijing’s position on the Ukraine war had not changed, but for European leaders such as Macron, who had been calling for “European security and strategic autonomy”, it was a crucial moment to decide if they wanted to pull China closer to their orbit or push it away.

Geopolitical hills to climb for Xi and Macron at the meet on Pyrenees slopes

Wang Yiwei, director of the Centre for European Union Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said Europe was deeply frustrated two years ago when Beijing did not join the international chorus to condemn the Russian invasion.

“When they realised economic sanctions could not defeat Russia, they turned to blame China,” Wang said. “It is the West that has pushed Russia closer to China.”

But Wang said policymakers in Europe would have to rethink their strategies with China given domestic economic challenges, a growing populist tide and the potential return to the White House of former president Donald Trump, who has said he will not defend European countries against Russian aggression, if re-elected in November.

After the meeting with Xi and Macron, von Der Leyen wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “China and the EU have a shared interest in peace and security”.

Ding Chun, director of the Centre for European Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said China and Europe shared some common ground regarding the Ukraine war.

“There’s a common understanding between China and Europe, especially France and Germany, about seeking a political solution to the Ukraine war,” he said. “The more the shared interests are, the more likely the two sides can work together.”

However, Helena Legarda, lead analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin, said it remained to be seen how far the mutual desire for peace could go towards ending the war, despite their shared interests.

While the US and its European allies pressed on with economic sanctions against Russia in the hope of forcing Putin to stop the war, China continued to do robust business with Russia, hitting a record US$240 billion last year.

The flourishing trade between the two countries provided a lifeline for Russia’s economy, and Beijing showed “little willingness” to press Moscow to withdraw or to negotiate. Instead, Chinese officials repeatedly talked about China’s continued support for Russia, Legarda said.

“Europe is concerned about the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the China-Russia relationship is creating additional challenges,” she said. “And when it comes to how to end the war or what a sustainable kind of peace agreement should look like, I see a lot less common ground.”

However, Wang said Europe needed Beijing’s help to end the war.

European leaders have been calling for Beijing to take part in a peace conference in Switzerland next month. Russia has refused to join and Chinese officials have said any peace talks must involve both Russia and Ukraine.

Since the invasion in Ukraine, Putin has been boycotted by the West. At a brief speech for his fifth inauguration on Tuesday, the Russian leader said Russia “does not refuse dialogue with Western states”.

“The choice is theirs: do they intend to continue trying to contain Russia, continue the policy of aggression, continuous pressure on our country for years, or look for a path to cooperation and peace,” Putin said.

Wang said like it or not, European leaders would need to recognise Beijing’s impact on dominant global concerns such as current conflicts.

“Over issues like the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, China wields considerable influence,” Wang said.

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South China Sea: recording of Philippine deal on Second Thomas Shoal simply ‘propaganda’, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3261845/south-china-sea-recording-philippine-official-agreeing-new-model-second-thomas-shoal-simply?utm_source=rss_feed

The latest threat by China to release an audio recording of a top Filipino navy official agreeing to a “new model” to address a maritime territorial row between both sides is simply “propaganda” by Beijing to win global opinion, according to observers.

Analysts in the Philippines say the official targeted, Vice-Admiral Alberto Carlos, has no mandate to strike a deal with China, which they perceive to have been backed into a corner and attempting to shift blame to Manila.

The Chinese embassy in the Philippines on Tuesday reportedly released a transcript of a phone call in January in which Carlos had allegedly agreed to a Chinese diplomat protocols pertaining to a resupply mission for troops stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre in the Second Thomas Shoal.

The Philippines and China have been locked in a months-long war of words and coastguard skirmishes over territory in the South China Sea, with the Second Thomas Shoal, where an old warship was grounded by Filipino troops to establish their position, becoming a major flashpoint.

According to the phone transcript, shown to selected press members in Manila, Carlos confirmed when asked whether his superiors had approved the so-called new model.

The key points of the deal include a “1+1” model for both sides, meaning Manila would only deploy one Philippine Coast Guard vessel and a resupply boat to the shoal, while China would only launch one coastguard ship and a fishing boat.

The Philippines would also notify Beijing two days in advance on resupply missions – comprising only food and water – to troops stationed at the Sierra Madre wreck, amid close communications with both sides.

Manila reportedly followed the agreement in February, but the deal was ignored in the following month when four Filipinos sailors were hurt by water cannons fired by the Chinese coastguard.

The latest development comes days after Philippine government officials denied the existence of a new model.

Since Monday, Rear Admiral Alfonso Torres, the Naval Education, Training and Doctrine Command chief, has been designated as Western Command chief effective with Carlos on leave.

Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad, navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, said on Tuesday that Beijing’s claims about the new model were “all fabricated … to divert attention from their violations of international law and to cause divisiveness among us Filipinos”.

“I call them zombie stories – long dead but revived from the grave; the best approach is to put these stories where they rightfully belong – in the grave, never to be heard again,” he said.

The West Philippine Sea is Manila’s term for the section of the South China Sea that defines its maritime territory and includes its exclusive economic zone.

Ramon Beleno III, head of the political science and history department at Ateneo De Davao University in southern Davao City, told This Week in Asia that what the Chinese released to the public was only propaganda.

“They are looking for a way out. They are in the hot seat because of what they are doing, and they are trying to defend themselves to global public opinion. They are trying to portray that the Philippines is also at fault,” he said.

Asked about the difference with the “gentleman’s agreement” reportedly struck between former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beleno said China’s current narrative on the new model was established between two individuals.

“That’s personal to Carlos. I don’t think he has the power or mandate to enter into such an agreement. What Duterte entered into has a mandate because it’s between two heads of states. There’s an effect because he was trying to pacify the circumstances to negotiate,” he noted.

The unwritten agreement was first mentioned by former Duterte spokesman Harry Roque, who said that, while he was in office, Duterte had made a private deal with Xi in which Beijing would not build any new military outposts in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

In return, Manila would not send construction materials to repair the BRP Sierra Madre.

“But the one released by China now, I don’t know what they are trying to point out. The public needs to know what they talked about. How did the conversation start? Was it a regular process of just a conversation of two individuals?” Beleno said.

“I think there’s no treason to what Carlos did because what he said to a Chinese diplomat – if it exists – has no mandate. I don’t think it’s on behalf of the Philippines or Armed Forces of the Philippines. It’s just a conversation between the two of them.”

Edmund Tayao, a political analyst and professor at the San Beda Graduate School of Law in Manila, told This Week in Asia he shared the view that the latest development was only propaganda by the Chinese side.

“All the more we are playing into the trap. They really want us to be divided,” he said when asked if the issue had to be probed by the Senate or the Philippine military.

Tayao likewise warned that any agreement could only be struck between heads of states, a point “everyone who understands formal official diplomatic relations with China” should be familiar with.

“In this particular case, at most, if at all, the supposed phone call happens, it is still in the realm of negotiation. It cannot be considered an agreement,” he argued. “I know Vice-Admiral Carlos is not going to act … on his own in this very sensitive issue.”

In a statement on Tuesday, the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said only President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr could approve or authorise agreements on matters pertaining to the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea.

“In this respect, the DFA can confirm that no cabinet-level official of the Marcos Administration has agreed to any Chinese proposal pertaining to the Ayungin Shoal,” it added, referring to the local name for the disputed area.

“China should desist from disseminating such disinformation or insinuations against Philippine officials, which create confusion among the Filipino public and distract from the real issues created by China’s unfounded claims and illegal and aggressive actions in our waters,” the DFA said.

Military spokeswoman Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla said Carlos’ leave of absence had nothing to do with his alleged involvement in the latest controversy.

Former Chinese defence minister Wei Fenghe emerges after months of speculation

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3261826/former-chinese-defence-minister-wei-fenghe-emerges-after-months-speculation?utm_source=rss_feed

A floral tribute at the funeral of a senior official on Monday suggests China’s former defence chief and rocket army veteran Wei Fenghe may be politically safe, after his absence from state events sparked months of speculation about his fate.

Wei’s name was spotted on a wreath at the funeral of Oyunqemag, 81, who served as vice-chairwoman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee from 2008-2013.

In a prime time news bulletin on state broadcaster CCTV, Wei’s tribute was visible among those from other former state councillors at the side of the funeral hall, with wreaths from President Xi Jinping and other incumbent officials in the middle.

Wei, who headed the Rocket Force from its formation in 2015 as part of Xi’s military overhaul, disappeared from the public eye after his successor Li Shangfu was abruptly sacked from the defence minister role in October last year, without explanation.

Li, who like Wei spent most of his career in the PLA’s rocket army, was also stripped of his rank as a state councillor and removed from top decision-making body the Central Military Commission (CMC).

Wei’s indirect reappearance indicates he may have escaped the purge of the PLA’s top brass, including commanders of the Rocket Force – which manages China’s nuclear arsenal – that followed Li’s disgrace.

Direct and indirect appearances in official settings are important indicators of political fate in China’s opaque system, where little information is given away.

Wei’s absence from an official National Day reception last year was the first sign that he may be in trouble. He was also not included in a list of around 130 retired senior officials who received Lunar New Year greetings from the party leadership in February.

The annual formality is usually reserved for retired senior officials who have achieved state councillor rank or above.

His predecessors – former defence ministers Chang Wanquan, Liang Guanglie, Cao Gangchuan and Chi Haotian – all featured in the list released by state news agency Xinhua.

The PLA purge included Zhou Yaning and Li Yuchao, the Rocket Force commanders who succeeded Wei after his promotion to defence minister in 2018, a position he held until his retirement in 2023.

China removes 9 PLA generals from top legislature in sign of wider purge

Both men were removed from positions in China’s top legislative body the National People’s Congress in November, along with seven senior PLA officers, including two of their deputies and a head of the Rocket Force’s equipment development programme.

The NPC Standing Committee confirmed that all nine were involved in corruption investigations in its first communique of 2024, released in February.

The PLA is yet to fully iron out the aftermath of the purges. Current defence minister Dong Jun – who took over from Li in December and is the first navy chief in the role – has yet to be named as a state councillor, or given a place on the CMC.

All previous defence ministers have received the political status of membership on the CMC, which is chaired by Xi.

The military has been one of the main targets of Xi’s far-reaching anti-corruption campaign. Two of the most prominent to fall were Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, both former CMC vice-chairmen. Guo was jailed for life for bribery in 2016. Xu died of cancer in 2015 while facing court martial.

TikTok tycoon Zhang Yiming now calls Singapore home – as do many Chinese tech titans these days

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3261842/tiktok-tycoon-zhang-yiming-now-calls-singapore-home-do-many-chinese-tech-titans-these-days?utm_source=rss_feed

Among the facts TikTok’s lawsuit against the US government surfaced: billionaire ByteDance Ltd. founder Zhang Yiming is living in Singapore while keeping Chinese citizenship.

Zhang joins a raft of corporate chieftains who’ve relocated to the island state after years of regulatory tightening and Covid restrictions hammered China’s once freewheeling tech sector. Fellow entrepreneurs with close ties to the Asian financial hub include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. CEO Eddie Wu – who is a naturalised Singaporean citizen – and cryptocurrency pioneer Wu Jihan. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Zhang is a Chinese national living in Singapore who now owns roughly 21 per cent of TikTok’s parent, ByteDance said in its lawsuit challenging the TikTok divest-or-ban law. Global investors and ByteDance employees own the rest.

The billionaire spent much of 2022 overseas, using Singapore as a primary base, The Information reported at the time, fuelling speculation he had applied for foreign citizenship. TikTok included Zhang’s status in a section outlining influential figures at the company.

Like many of China’s corporate elite, several of ByteDance’s honchos have shown a predilection for the prosperous city state in past years.

Zhang years ago handed leadership at ByteDance to fellow co-founder and college roommate Liang Rubo, who is now also based in Singapore. TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi himself is Singaporean. Other senior executives for ByteDance’s Chinese operations, including commercialisation chief Zhang Lidong, remain in their home country.

Zhang’s 21 per cent slice of ByteDance is worth more than US$40 billion, based on the company’s US$268 billion valuation during a recent share buy-back programme. The filing also shows Zhang has held onto his shares over the past year, since TikTok’s CEO revealed his boss’s stake of around 20 per cent during a Congressional hearing.

Zhang’s current status emerged after TikTok filed a lawsuit against legislation requiring ByteDance to hive off its most successful global invention. The bill sailed through Congress and US President Joe Biden signed it into law in April, beginning a 270-day countdown for a sale or a US prohibition of the popular video-sharing platform.

The lawsuit affirms expectations that ByteDance doesn’t intend to find a buyer for TikTok as the deadline approaches. Instead, the Chinese firm wants the law declared unconstitutional, saying it violates the First Amendment.

Saudi Arabia AI fund Alat would divest from China if US asked, CEO Says

https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3261818/saudi-arabia-ai-fund-alat-would-divest-china-if-us-asked-ceo-says?utm_source=rss_feed

The head of Saudi Arabia’s new investment fund for semiconductor and artificial intelligence technology said the country would divest from China if it were asked to do so by the US.

“So far the requests have been to keep manufacturing and supply chains completely separate, but if the partnerships with China would become a problem for the US, we will divest,” said Amit Midha, the chief executive officer of Alat, an investment firm backed by US$100 billion in capital from the Public Investment Fund.

US officials have told their Saudi Arabian counterparts that they need to choose between Chinese and American technology as they aim to build out the Saudi Arabian semiconductor industry, Bloomberg has reported, as part of ongoing talks on a range of national security issues.

“We are seeking trusted, secure partnerships in the US,” Midha said in an interview with Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference in California. “The US is the number one partner for us and the number one market for AI, chips and semiconductor industry.”

Saudi Arabia is vying for regional leadership in advanced technology, with the hopes of creating data centres, AI companies and semiconductor manufacturing. Its ambitions come as the US increasingly scrutinises the Middle East’s ties to China, over worries that countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could serve as conduits for Beijing to access technology that Chinese firms are blocked from buying from the US.

The US has already asked Abu Dhabi-based AI firm G42 to divest from Chinese technology, in exchange for continued access to US systems that power AI applications. That agreement paved the way for a US$1.5 billion Microsoft investment in G42.

Alat, meanwhile, will announce partnerships with two US tech companies by the end of June, and will co-invest alongside a US investment firm, Midha said. He declined to comment on which firms are involved in those talks or whether they are focused on AI, chips or a combination of the two.

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Chinese network behind one of world’s ‘largest online scams’

https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/may/08/chinese-network-behind-one-of-worlds-largest-online-scams

More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China.

An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created.

A trove of data examined by reporters and IT experts indicates the operation is highly organised, technically savvy – and ongoing.

Operating on an industrial scale, programmers have created tens of thousands of fake web shops offering discounted goods from Dior, Nike, Lacoste, Hugo Boss, Versace and Prada, as well as many other premium brands.

Published in multiple languages from English to German, French, Spanish, Swedish and Italian, the websites appear to have been set up to lure shoppers into parting with money and sensitive personal data.

However, the sites have no connection to the brands they claim to sell and in most cases consumers who spoke about their experience said they received no items.

The first fake shops in the network appear to have been created in 2015. More than 1m “orders” have been processed in the past three years alone, according to analysis of the data. Not all payments were successfully processed, but analysis suggests the group may have attempted to take as much as €50m (£43m) over the period. Many shops have been abandoned, but a third of them – more than 22,500 – are still live.

So far, an estimated 800,000 people, almost all of them in Europe and the US, have shared email addresses, with 476,000 of them having shared debit and credit card details, including their three-digit security number. All of them also handed over their names, phone numbers, email and postal addresses to the network.

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Katherine Hart, a lead officer at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, described the operation as “one of the largest online fake shops scams that I have seen”. She added: “Often these people are part of serious and organised crime groups so they are harvesting data and may use it against people later, making consumers more susceptible to phishing attempts.”

“Data is the new currency,” said Jake Moore, a global cybersecurity adviser at the software company ESET. He warned such personal data troves could also be valuable to foreign intelligence agencies for surveillance purposes. “The bigger picture is that one must assume the Chinese government may have potential access to the data,” he added.

The existence of the fake shops network was revealed by Security Research Labs (SR Labs), a German cybersecurity consultancy, which obtained several gigabytes of data and shared it with Die Zeit.

A core group of developers appears to have built a system to semi-automatically create and launch websites, allowing rapid deployment. This core appears to have operated some shops themselves, but to have allowed other groups to use the system. The logs suggest at least 210 users have accessed the system since 2015.

SR Labs consultant Matthias Marx described the model as “franchise-like”. He said: “The core team is responsible for developing software, deploying backends, and supporting the operation of the network. The franchisees manage the day-to-day operations of fraudulent shops.”

‘It reeled me in …’

It was a few weeks before Christmas. Melanie Brown, 54, from Shropshire in England, was looking for a new handbag. She put the image of a leather item from one of her favourite German designers, Rundholz, into Google. Immediately a website appeared offering the bag at 50% off the usual £200 retail price. She added it to her cart.

“It reeled me in,” she said. After selecting the bag she spotted other designer clothes from a high-end brand she loves called Magnolia Pearl. She found dresses, tops and jeans, racking up a £1,200 bill on 15 items. “I was getting a lot for the money, so I thought it was worth it,” she said.

But Brown was being ripped off. Over nearly a decade, a network operating from Fujian province in China used what appears to be a single software platform to create tens of thousands of fake online shops.

There are the big global brands such as Paul Smith, haute couture houses such as Christian Dior, but also more niche, much sought-after names such as Rixo and Stella McCartney, and high street retailers like Clarks shoes. Not just clothes – there are fake stores selling quality toys, such as Playmobil, and at least one selling lighting.

About 49 people who say they were scammed have been interviewed for this investigation. The Guardian spoke to 19 from the UK and the US. Their evidence suggests these websites were not set up to trade in counterfeit goods. Most people received nothing in the mail. A few did, but the items were not the ones ordered. A German shopper paid for a blazer and received cheap sunglasses. A British customer received a bogus Cartier ring instead of a shirt and another was sent a non-branded blue jumper instead of the Paul Smith one they had paid for.

Strangely, many who tried to shop never lost money. Either their bank blocked the payment, or the fake shop itself did not process it.

However, all of those interviewed have one thing in common: they handed over their private data.

Simon Miller, the director of policy and communications for Stop Scams UK, said: “Data can be more valuable than sales. If you are hoovering up someone’s card details that data is invaluable then for a bank account takeover.”

SR Labs, which works with corporations to protect their systems from cyber-attacks, believes the scam is operating on two levels. First, credit card harvesting, in which fake payment gateways collect credit card data but do not take any money. Second, fake selling, where the criminals do take money. There is evidence the network took payments processed via PayPal, Stripe and other payment services, and in some cases directly from debit or credit cards.

The network used expired domains to host its fake shops, which experts say can help to avoid detection by websites or brand owners. It appears to have a database of 2.7m of these orphaned domains and runs tests to check which ones are best to use.

In Germany, the owner of a glass bead factory said she had received angry calls almost every day from shoppers asking where their Lacoste clothes were. She found out that an old website of hers, perlenzwoelfe.de, had been used for the scam. She was findable as content she had previously placed on at that address was visible in web archives. She reported the fraud to the police. “The officials just said there was nothing they could do about it.”

It was the same story for Michael Rouah who runs Artoyz, an online store and shop in central Paris selling handmade toys. His full catalogue of products was copied. “They changed the name and used another domain … They stole the images from our website and changed the prices, putting them – of course – much lower.”

He was alerted to the fraud by customers. “We generally can’t do much about it … We explored taking action with a lawyer, but it takes time and it costs money,” he said.

The network appears to have originated in Fujian province. Many of the IP (internet protocol) addresses can be traced back to China, some to the Fujian cities of Putian and Fuzhou.

Payroll documents found in the data suggest individuals were hired as developers and data harvesters and paid salaries through Chinese banks.

There were also three templates for employment contracts, where the employer is listed as Fuzhou Zhongqing Network Technology Co Ltd.

Officially registered in China, and issued with an official unique identifier number, the company gives its address as Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian. It is not clear what connection it has to the network.

The contracts set out strict working conditions. The employee is given a performance score and can increase their salary with a higher ranking. They are judged on whether they refrain from playing video games, watching movies, or sleeping while at work. If staff are sick or take a holiday, their salary is reduced for days missed unless they work overtime.

The data includes a spreadsheet describing the payment between January and October 2022 of 2,410,000 yuan (almost £266,000) in dividends to at least four shareholders of an unnamed company.

The Fuzhou Zhongqing company is now advertising for developers and data collectors via Chinese recruitment websites. The salary for a data collection specialist is 4,500-7,000 Chinese yuan (about £500 to £700) a monthand the business is described as a “foreign trade company that mainly produces sports shoes, fashion clothing, brand bags, and other series”.

The Fuzhou Zhongqing company did not respond to a request for comment.

Action Fraud, the UK’s reporting centre for cybercrime, said it would seek to have the fake web shops taken down.

Online scams are a growing problem. There were 77,000 cases of purchase fraud – where goods are paid for but never materialise – in the UK in the first six months of 2023, a 43% increase compared with the same period in 2022. In the US consumers lost nearly $8.8bn to fraud in 2022, an increase of more than 30% over the previous year. The second most commonly reported scam is related to online shopping fraud.

According to the TSB fraud spokesperson Matt Hepburn, purchase fraud is “the biggest driver” of online financial crime in the UK. He said technology companies should do more to protect consumers. “Search engines and tech platforms must prevent their users from being exposed to fake sites, and swiftly remove the scam content that is reported to them.”

Hester Abrams, the international engagement manager at the industry collaboration Stop Scams UK, said: “Consumers will only be better protected from criminal outfits exploiting digital systems if businesses and governments make scam prevention a genuine priority. Investigations like this show just how much impact we could have against scammers with a better coordinated international effort.”

Additional reporting from Helen Davidson and Chi-hui Lin

US, Australian and Philippine forces sink a ship during war drills in the disputed South China Sea

https://apnews.com/article/philippines-china-us-military-drills-sea-ship-0157be2b96b90abad85b9c30b29e40a0U.S. marines carry equipment at the Paredes Air Station at Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte province during a joint military exercise in northern Philippines on Monday, May 6, 2024. American and Filipino marines held annual combat-readiness exercises called Balikatan, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder, in a show of allied military readiness in the Philippines' northernmost town facing southern Taiwan. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

2024-05-08T03:07:47Z

LAOAG, Philippines (AP) — Military force from the United States, Australian and the Philippines launched a barrage of high-precision rockets, artillery fire and airstrikes to sink a ship Wednesday as part of largescale war drills in waters facing the disputed South China Sea that have antagonized Beijing.

Military officials and diplomats from several countries, along with journalists, watched the display of firepower from a hilltop along a sandy coast in Laoag City on Wednesday in Ilocos Norte, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s northern home province.

More than 16,000 military personnel from the United States and the Philippines, backed by a few hundred Australian troops and military observers from 14 countries were participating in annual combat-readiness drills called Balikatan, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder, which started on April 22 and will end on Friday.

It’s the latest indication of how the United States and the Philippines have bolstered a defense treaty alliance that started in the 1950s.

Marcos has ordered his military to shift its focus to external defense from decades-long domestic anti-insurgency operations as China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea become a top concern. That strategic shift dovetails with the efforts of President Joe Biden and his administration to reinforce an arc of alliances in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China.

China has angered the Philippines by repeatedly harassing its navy and coast guard ships with the use of powerful water cannons, a military-grade laser, blocking movements and other dangerous maneuvers in the high seas near two disputed South China Sea shoals that have led to minor collisions. Those have caused several injuries to Filipino navy personnel and damaged supply boats.

“We’re under the gun,” Philippine ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

“We don’t have the wherewithal to be able to fight all of this bullying coming from China so where else will we go?” Romualdez asked. “We went to the right party which is the United States and those that believe in what the U.S. is doing.”

China has accused the Philippines of setting off the hostilities in the disputed waters by encroaching into what it says are its offshore territories, demarcated by 10 dashes on a map. This has often prompted the Chinese coast guard and navy to take steps to expel Philippine coast guard and other vessels from that area. The Philippines, backed by the U.S. and its allies and security partners, has repeatedly cited a 2016 international arbitration ruling based on the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea that invalidated China’s claim over virtually the entire South China Sea on historical grounds.

China did not participate in the arbitration complaint filed by the Philippines in 2013, rejected the ruling, and continues to defy it.

After an hour of the combat-readiness drills, black smoke started to billow from the stern of the mock enemy ship that was struck by missile fire and it started to sink ,as shown on a monitor watched by foreign military guests and journalists. U.S. and Philippine warplanes later dropped bombs on the BRP Lake Caliraya, the target ship, which was made in China but decommissioned by the Philippine navy in 2020 due to mechanical and electrical issues, according to Philippine military officials.

Philippine military officials said the maneuvers would bolster the country’s coastal defense and disaster-response capabilities and claimed they were not aimed at any country. China has opposed military drills involving U.S. forces in the region as well as increasing U.S. military deployments, which it warned would ratchet up tensions and hamper regional stability and peace.

Washington and Beijing have been on a collision course over China’s increasingly assertive actions to defend its vast territorial claims in the South China Sea, and Beijing’s stated goal of annexing Taiwan, by force if necessary.

In February last year, Marcos approved a wider U.S. military presence in the Philippines by allowing rotating groups of American military forces to stay in four more Philippine military camps. That was a sharp turnaround from his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who feared that a larger American military footprint could antagonize Beijing.

China strongly opposed the move, which would allow U.S. forces to establish staging grounds and surveillance posts in the northern Philippines across the sea from Taiwan, and in western Philippine provinces facing the South China Sea.

China has warned that a deepening security alliance between Washington and Manila and their ongoing military drills should not harm its security and territorial interests or interfere in the territorial disputes. The Philippines countered that it has the right to defend its sovereignty and territorial interests.

“An alliance is very important to show China that you may have all the ships that you have, but we have a lot of firepower to sink all of them,” Romualdez said

JIM GOMEZ Gomez is The AP Chief Correspondent in the Philippines. twitter mailto

Alibaba seeks growth in Mongolia with new e-commerce platform selling Chinese goods from wholesale marketplace 1688.com

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3261789/alibaba-seeks-growth-mongolia-new-e-commerce-platform-selling-chinese-goods-wholesale-marketplace?utm_source=rss_feed

Alibaba Group Holding is expanding its business foothold in Mongolia, as the Chinese e-commerce giant’s wholesale marketplace 1688.com joins forces with local technology group Intelmind to launch a new platform.

The new online marketplace, ShoppyHub.mn, aims to offer “millions of products” sourced from 1688.com’s merchant network, providing Mongolian consumers and business clients with products from Chinese manufacturers, Intelmind said in a statement on Wednesday announcing the strategic partnership.

The site will allow online shoppers in Mongolia to consolidate purchases from other regions into a single order and delivery, with most packages reaching customers in seven to 10 days, according to Intelmind.

The collaboration comes as Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, banks on 1688.com as a new growth engine. CEO Eddie Wu Yongming, who took the reins last September, has planned for the platform to undergo “strategic-level innovation” to “face the larger market with [its] own strategies”.

Alibaba has recently started selling some 1688.com products on Taobao, its flagship consumer-facing online shopping platform, to tap a wider pool of users and test products in a larger market.

Meanwhile, the Hangzhou-based giant is also expanding its overseas e-commerce operations to seek new customers amid weak consumer sentiment at home.

The company plans to invest US$1.1 billion in South Korea over the new three years to grow its e-commerce presence by building new infrastructure and supporting local merchants, according to a report by Seoul-based news agency Yonhap in March.

AliExpress, the international online retail platform of Alibaba, has also been in talks to invest US$72.4 million for a 5 per cent stake in Ably, operator of South Korea’s top women’s shopping app, according to a report in April by The Korea Economic Daily.

Mongolia, known for its vast mineral resources such as coal, copper and gold, is seeking to diversify its economy in recent years. Part of the initiative involves enhancing digital infrastructure and connectivity, with e-commerce emerging as a key driver.

The country of 3.4 million people relies on China for investments, while China sees Mongolia as a connector for trade with Central Asia.

Intelmind’s new platform, which strives to facilitate cross-border trade opportunities, “underscores our dedication to driving innovation and fostering economic prosperity in Mongolia”, said company co-founder and CEO Mendbayar Tseveen.

Ulaanbaatar-headquartered Intelmind, which owns or invests in a portfolio of 18 tech companies, in 2017 launched its own online marketplace Shoppy.mn. It has since become one of the major e-commerce platforms in the country.

China’s overcapacity dilemma solvable with ‘painful’ industrial revamp, scholars say

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3261757/chinas-overcapacity-dilemma-solvable-painful-industrial-revamp-scholars-say?utm_source=rss_feed

China should accept the “painful restructuring” of some industries to ease overcapacity concerns, as inaction may hamper the country’s economic recovery and motivate the US and Europe to ramp up scrutiny of those sectors, advisers to Beijing have said.

Lu Feng, a professor at the National School of Development at Peking University, admitted supply overflows exist – naming petrol cars, petrochemicals, low-end computer chips, batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) as examples – but the rearrangement of the industries involved would ultimately be beneficial.

“Serious excess production will trigger painful restructuring and adjustment, eventually leading to a more mature and stable sector,” Lu said in an interview with the state-backed Economic Observer on Sunday.

Chinese authorities have expressed their own concerns about industrial overcapacity and sought to curb it, but they have also refuted claims from the US and Europe that the country is flooding global markets with cheap goods to crowd out competitors, especially in new energy.

The subject remains a controversial one. While leaders in China’s steel and petrochemical sectors have openly acknowledged imbalances in supply and demand, those in emerging technologies have argued the issue is not relevant to their still-developing industries.

“Recently, the sales growth rate and sales price of new energy vehicles have dropped significantly, which also reminds us that it is not appropriate to completely rule out the concern of oversupply of new energy vehicles in the future,” Lu said.

China’s passenger vehicle exports rose 34 per cent year on year in the first quarter this year, according to a research note from Fitch Ratings on May 3.

However, Europe’s imports of China-made battery-powered cars fell 19 per cent in the same period, reflecting both softened EV demand and potential retrospective tariffs for Chinese electric cars starting March 7, the US rating agency said.

Excess savings and economies of scale in China unleashed an “unprecedented” amount of investment and production expansion, leading to rapid growth in a number of sectors which exceeded demand to various degrees, Lu said.

Even though EVs carry strong potential, demand in the long term is less than certain, especially when trade constraints from overseas markets are factored in – an essential element to any calculus Chinese exporters make, Lu said.

“It is the natural right of Chinese enterprises in an open environment to obtain a corresponding share of the international market through fair competition,” Lu said.

“Chinese companies selling high-quality and low-priced goods in the international market are beneficial to both China’s industrial development and foreign consumers.”

Huang Yiping, a member of the monetary policy committee of the People’s Bank of China and dean of the National School of Development where Lu teaches, said exporting had helped China relieve overcapacity issues in the past.

But a “reversal of globalisation” and rising geopolitical tensions have made the rest of the world less open to Chinese exports, said Huang in an Economic Observer interview on Thursday.

“China has repeatedly experienced overcapacity problems, and the most fundamental reason is economic imbalance at the macro level,” he said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that there were more than 2,500 industrial policy interventions worldwide in 2023, classifying more than two-thirds as trade-distorting as they likely discriminated against foreign commercial interests.

“The recent surge has been driven by large economies, with China, the European Union and the United States accounting for almost half of all new measures in 2023,” the United Nations financial agency said on April 12. “Advanced economies appear to have been more active than emerging markets and developing economies.”

Li Daokui, director of the Academic Centre for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking at Tsinghua University, said investors were fully aware of China’s overcapacity problems but competitors like the US have not been able to present a compelling alternative – a shortcoming Li attributed to an inability to distribute the spoils from globalisation to the manufacturing sector.

“Take the US as an example. If it presses on with globalisation, its auto manufacturing industry will suffer,” Li told the state-owned China News Service on April 28.

“So who benefits [instead]? Silicon Valley and Wall Street. The question is how they can distribute these gains through taxes and other policies so that their own auto sector could share.”

China-West divide threatens ‘reversal’ for global economy, IMF official warns

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3261767/china-west-divide-threatens-reversal-global-economy-imf-official-warns?utm_source=rss_feed

A top official with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lamented the economic fallout from years of strained relations between China and the West, and warned the situation for the world economy would only grow more dire if the acrimony continues unabated.

With the world now divided among three broad blocs of countries – China-leaning, US-leaning, and nonaligned – both a “significant reversal of the gains from economic integration” and “a broad retreat from global rules of engagement” are on the horizon, said Gita Gopinath, the first deputy managing director of the financial agency.

Gopinath, who has often led annual audits of China’s financial system, made the remarks in a speech at Stanford University on Tuesday.

Her remarks come at a time of increased geopolitical uncertainty over a number of challenges, most notably an escalating rivalry between the US and China and the war in Ukraine.

Although economic fragmentation is not yet as severe as it was during the Cold War, Gopinath said, it carries a much greater potential cost thanks to higher global reliance on trade.

China’s share of US imports fell by 8 percentage points between 2017 and 2023 as trade and overall relations between the two countries fragmented, while the US’ share of China’s exports fell by about 4 percentage points during the same period.

Trade between blocs of countries aligned with either China or the US was also negatively affected, Gopinath said.

Between the middle of 2022 and 2023, the average weighted quarter-on-quarter trade growth between US-leaning countries and China-leaning countries fell by nearly five percentage points compared with the five-year period between 2017 and early 2022.

Similar patterns could also be observed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with trade and investment between blocs falling more than trade within blocs.

Meanwhile, the currency composition of trade finance had also changed more for China-leaning countries than US-leaning ones, according to Gopinath. The proportion of US dollar-denominated trade finance payments among China-leaning countries fell since early 2022, while the yuan-denominated share doubled from around 4 to 8 per cent. US-leaning countries experienced little change.

This would persist even if Russia was excluded from the China-leaning bloc, she said, indicating a more globally pervasive trend.

Gopinath’s speech coincided with President Xi Jinping’s first diplomatic visit to Europe in five years – with stops scheduled in France, Serbia and Hungary – to mitigate alarm over China’s economic ambitions and its close ties to Russia.

High-level dialogues between Beijing and the West have increased in recent months, as top officials try to repair relations tested by years of wrangling over national security concerns, allegations of anticompetitive behaviour and China’s support for Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine and the numerous Western sanctions that followed.

Foreign direct investment into China has suffered, with flows over January to March this year totalling only 301 billion yuan – a 26 per cent year-on-year drop, according to official data released last month.

Despite Beijing’s attempts to woo back foreign investors, many international companies remain wary, citing China’s economic slowdown and ongoing geopolitical tussles.

A survey from the American Chamber of Commerce in China released in February found that nearly half of the respondents did not plan to expand investment in China. A separate survey from the European Chamber of Commerce in China in June found that 11 per cent of respondents had already shifted investments out of China, with a further 8 per cent moving investments planned for China to other destinations.

So far, the erosion of direct US-China economic ties has been allayed through third-party “connector countries” like Mexico and Vietnam, which have become conduits for redirecting trade, Gopinath said.

But the cost of worsening divisions could vary greatly, she added, with losses ranging from as little as 0.2 per cent of world GDP in a mild scenario to 7 per cent in an extreme one.

The consequences of such a downturn would not be suffered uniformly, with the IMF predicting low-income countries would be hit harder by trade fragmentation due to a greater reliance on agricultural imports and investment from more developed countries.

Going forward, “pragmatic steps” would need to be taken to rebuild trust, Gopinath said, starting with countries keeping open lines of communication.

“Dialogue between the US and China – which we are now seeing – can help prevent the worst outcomes from occurring. Non-aligned countries can also play a bigger role, using their economic and diplomatic heft to keep the world integrated,” she said.

Others have been less hopeful in their projections. A separate report, released on Tuesday by the Economist Intelligence Unit, predicted that economic and diplomatic ties between China and the US will worsen through the rest of the decade, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential elections in November.

Xi Jinping banking on Hungary and Serbia in face of growing China-Europe tensions

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3261700/xi-jinping-banking-hungary-and-serbia-face-growing-china-europe-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed

When China rolled out the red carpet for foreign heads at its Belt and Road Forum last October, the Serbian and Hungarian leaders were the only two European names on the guest list.

Six months on, both are on the itinerary for President Xi Jinping’s visit to Europe, which also included a visit to France.

The visit comes amid growing friction with the European Union as a result of growing trade tensions and widespread suspicions over Beijing’s relations with Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

The choice of two friendly countries that have their own tensions with Brussels – from inside the bloc in Hungary’s case and from outside in Serbia’s case – is seen as a “safe” choice by diplomatic analysts.

Some of these observers believe the tour will offer China an opportunity to gauge how it is seen in Europe as well as cementing established bonds and pitching its vision of a multipolar world by highlighting a lingering scar in its relations with the West.

Notably, Xi’s trip to Serbia coincides with the 25th anniversary of Nato’s deadly bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the military alliance’s intervention in Kosovo.

“The visits will certainly be a milestone in contemporary relations between China and Europe,” said Stefan Vladisavljev, programme coordinator of the Serbia-based foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society.

Marking the embassy bombing will send a message to audiences both at home in China and Serbia, Vladisavljev said.

“This moment of joint victimhood has played a significant role in the creation of symbolism which has been very prominent in both countries – the need to present the West as antagonist,” said Vladisavljev.

He said that in the long term this is “creating the distance between China and Serbia on one side, and the countries gathered around Nato on another” but for now the main focus is on the domestic scene.

Wang Yiwei, a European studies specialist at Renmin University, said the commemoration was likely to focus on the negative impact of Nato’s enlargement, but he did not expect the United States to be the main target in light of the easing of tensions with Washington.

“The establishment of a multipolar world and the democratisation of international relations, I think these are messages China wants to convey,” he said.

“Europeans themselves must take up more responsibility for Europe’s security and order, otherwise they will become victims.

When Xi last visited Serbia in 2016 – the first trip to the country by a Chinese president in 32 years – his first public event was to pay his respects to the victims of the “barbaric” strike by “US-led Nato forces” at the site of the bombing.

The embassy was hit during Nato’s 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which began after Serbian-dominated forces under Slobodan Milošević’s leadership were accused of widespread atrocities against the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo.

American missiles killed three Chinese journalists in the building and wounded 20 diplomats.

The US insisted the bombing was an accident, blaming faulty maps, and apologised to China.

Beijing rejected this as unacceptable and the incident sparked widespread anti-US and anti-Nato protests across the country, including a siege of the American embassy in China.

The trauma continues to reverberate today. In an signed article published on Tuesday in the Serbian newspaper Politika, Xi said Nato had “flagrantly” bombed the embassy, killing three journalists – Shao Yunhuan, Xu Xinghu and his wife Zhu Ying.

“This we should never forget. The Chinese people cherish peace, but we will never allow such tragic history to repeat itself. The China-Serbia friendship, forged with the blood of our compatriots, will stay in the shared memory of the Chinese and Serbian peoples, and will inspire us to march forward with big strides,” Xi wrote.

Beijing has been increasingly at odds with Nato in recent years, repeatedly accusing it of practising a “cold-war” mentality and creating confrontation in the Asia-Pacific.

The possible expansion of the Aukus security treaty between the US, Britain and Australia has also drawn the ire of China, which warned that the act would create a Nato-like bloc in the region against it.

The country has also blamed the transatlantic group’s eastward expansion for fuelling the Ukraine war, invoking the Belgrade embassy bombing as a precedent.

Xi is also expected to celebrate the opening of the Chinese Cultural Centre, which is one of the biggest in Europe and built on the site of the former embassy, and the trip will highlight the close relationship between Beijing and Belgrade.

The Chinese foreign ministry has said Xi will discuss upgrading the relationship between the two sides when he meets his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić.

Beijing has deemed Serbia an “ironclad friend”, a title it has only offered to a handful of its most trusted nations such as Pakistan and Cambodia.

China was also the second biggest supplier of arms to Serbia between 2020 and 2023, behind Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

It is now the only European country to operate the FK-3 surface-to-air defence system and CH-92A combat drones, and it has also been supplied with medium range missiles and transport aircraft.

Vladisavljev said that promoting close ties with Russia has become less popular in Serbia following the invasion of Ukraine, leaving a gap China could fill.

“Serbia is a safe pick [for the trip],” he said. “It is supposed to be a visit to a friendly country, where the Chinese president will be warmly welcomed.”

He said that the two sides are expected to “celebrate the milestones achieved” but are also expected to announce a new joint project.

He also expects that Vučić will use Xi’s visit – which he described as one of the one of the most high-profile visits in years to try to secure a much-need political “win” on the domestic stage.

He said this is “due to the development of several scenarios that have been seen as a loss – most notably the one coming out of the relationship with Kosovo”.

Tensions have been running high with clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo in recent months. In October Nato deployed more troops following reports – which Belgrade dismissed as “lies” – that Serbia was building up its forces on the border.

Meanwhile, Serbia is struggling to counter broad support across Europe for Kosovo joining international institutions such as the Council of Europe, fearing this amounts to recognition of its independence.

Last year, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Belgrade in protest at what they said were rigged parliamentary and local elections after observers reported widespread irregularities.

The two nations can also look to each other for support in territorial issues, with neither country recognising Kosovo or Taiwan as independent.

Economic ties are also strong, with China becoming Serbia’s second-largest trading partner, behind only Germany, according to Serbia’s official figures.

The two signed a free-trade agreement last year after just months of negotiations and China is now the country’s main source of foreign investment.

Belgrade was one of the first European countries to join the Belt and Road Initiative and has become an important hub and gateway to Europe for the global infrastructure development strategy.

Some of the most high-profile investments that have resulted include a previously loss-making steel mill in Smederevo, which started turning a profit six months after being bought by Hebei-based HBIS Group, and the flagship rail link between Belgrade and the Hungarian capital Budapest.

Wang from Renmin University, said the railway would be a priority for Xi’s European tour.

“The Hungary-Serbia railway is a big boost to Europe’s infrastructure,” he said. “In the future, it is also necessary to strengthen cooperation between China and Europe in investment, manufacturing and localisation.”

Hungary will be Xi’s final stop on his European tour, visiting between Wednesday and Friday. It is his first visit as head of state.

As the EU and Nato have both adopted a harder line on Beijing, Hungary’s support as a member of both groups has become increasingly important for China.

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi last week urged Hungary to promote a “rational and friendly view” of China after it takes on the bloc’s rotating presidency in July.

The EU’s perception of China had changed, said Shi Zhiqin, professor of international relations at Tsinghua University.

“If everything emphasises security, that is to say it becomes overly securitised and politicised, then many opportunities for cooperation will be lost, and that is not in line with the trend of globalisation today,” he said.

While the EU as a whole is pushing to “de-risk” its relations with China and reduce economic supply chain dependencies, Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has doubled down on wooing more investments, especially in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing sectors.

Following a recent visit to Beijing, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced more funding for railway projects under the Belt and Road Initiative and a US$22 million investment by state-owned Chinese firm Fiberhome Telecom Tech – to build a base in the country for optical cable production.

Shi said he expected the tour to “deepen” existing relations with Serbia and Hungary and to result in “even better” cooperation in future.

Earlier this week, Xi was in France as he marks the 60th and 75th anniversary of China establishing diplomatic ties with Paris and Budapest respectively.

But beyond this symbolism Vladisavljev said the whole visit “will be a litmus test for the current state of perception of China” in Europe.

Chinese unicorn Zhipu AI to launch Sora rival as early as 2024 amid local race to catch up with OpenAI: report

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3261770/chinese-unicorn-zhipu-ai-launch-sora-rival-early-2024-amid-local-race-catch-openai-report?utm_source=rss_feed

Zhipu AI, one of China’s top emerging generative artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups, plans to release its answer to OpenAI’s text-to-video service Sora as early as this year, according to a Chinese media report.

Known formally as Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology, the unicorn started to develop its own text-to-video large language model (LLM) before OpenAI revealed video clips made by Sora in February, according to a report from TMTPost on Monday.

Zhipu AI is expecting an explosion of LLMs capable of turning text prompts into videos this year because of growing demands from a diverse array of customers with needs ranging from film to video game production, the report said, citing the company.

The Beijing-based start-up aims to release “high-quality text-to-video tools” this year at the earliest, according to the report.

Zhipu AI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Chinese companies have been racing to catch up with world-leading generative AI players ever since Microsoft-backed US start-up OpenAI introduced the ChatGPT conversational bot in late 2022, followed by Sora in February this year.

Beijing-based start-up Shengshu Technology and Tsinghua University last week jointly released their text-to video tool Vidu, seen as China’s best hope so far in matching Sora.

The AI model can produce videos with 1080p resolution that are no longer than 16 seconds, based on simple text prompts, according to Shengshu. By comparison, OpenAI said Sora can generate videos up to 60 seconds long.

However, OpenAI’s services are not officially available in China, where around 200 LLMs – the technology underpinning generative AI services – have sprung up, according to recent government figures.

Zhipu AI, founded in 2019 by a group of computer science graduates from Tsinghua University, was among the first Chinese companies to explore the development of LLMs. It is locally known as one of the “four new AI tigers” of China, along with start-ups Moonshot AI, Baichuan and MiniMax.

Zhipu AI counts venture capital firms and domestic tech giants as backers, including Tencent Holdings, Meituan, Xiaomi and Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the Post. Last year, it raised 2.5 billion yuan (US$346 million) from investors.

A recent assessment by Tsinghua, which examined 14 representative LLMs from China and overseas, ranked Zhipu AI’s GLM-4 as one of the top two among domestic models. The start-up’s technology has gradually narrowed its gap with the world’s best models in overall performances, the report concluded.

Commerce Department revokes more export licenses to China’s Huawei

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/05/07/huawei-export-sanctions-chips/2024-05-07T20:55:22.008Z

The Commerce Department has further restricted the sale of U.S. technology to China’s leading high-tech firm, Huawei Technologies, revoking certain allowances of U.S. chip sales amid renewed scrutiny of the company in Washington.

“We are not commenting on any specific licenses, but we can confirm that we have revoked certain license for exports to Huawei,” the Commerce Department said in a statement Tuesday.

The move will curb U.S. companies Intel and Qualcomm from selling chips — the brains of computing devices — to Huawei for its smartphones and laptops, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The new export restrictions, first reported on Tuesday by the Financial Times, come as Huawei is facing renewed pressure at other federal agencies like the Federal Communications Commission and an expansive push by the Biden administration to build up new American companies that can compete against Huawei.

Meghan Harris, senior vice president of Beacon Global Strategies, said that recent announcements about new Huawei products using U.S. technology were likely the “straw that broke the camel’s back” to prompt the new curbs.

Huawei has loomed large in the U.S.-China rivalry as China’s most technologically proficient company and a supplier of internet and phone networks in virtually every country, including in rural parts of the United States. These networks are geopolitically sensitive due to the interest that intelligence agencies have in the data they carry.

U.S. officials fear Huawei’s gear may be more susceptible to infiltration by Chinese intelligence agencies than Western vendors’ products. Huawei has adamantly denied that it helps the Chinese government spy.

Despite years of U.S. efforts to stymie its advance, Huawei was still the world’s No. 1 company in 2023 in number of patent applications filed. It is also still the world’s top seller of the pipes that make up the world’s internet and phone networks, and remains a major player in consumer gadgets like smartphones.

Separately on Tuesday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced $420 million in grants for companies from the United States and ally nations to build phone network gear that can compete against Huawei’s. The NTIA included a requirement for grant recipients to pair up with a network operator to help ensure their products can secure a major buyer when they go to market. And the FCC plans to vote this month on a proposal to bar Huawei from certifying wireless equipment for the U.S. market.

Washington’s export controls against Huawei began under the Trump administration, which imposed broad sanctions that forced Huawei to divest parts of its business to survive and turn to domestically produced chips for advanced functions. However, U.S. companies were allowed to continue selling to Huawei some products deemed less sensitive.

These allowances have drawn criticism from China hawks in Washington, who have called them loopholes in the sanctions. Last week, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urging the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to stop Intel and Qualcomm from selling chips for Huawei’s smartphone and personal-computer businesses.

In a statement, Rubio praised Tuesday’s new restrictions as “the right decision,” but added that “the license never should have been granted in the first place.”

Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Huawei came into Washington’s crosshairs in the early 2000s due to its construction of phone networks made of fiber-optic cables that it sold to countries like Iraq and North Korea — which hampered U.S. surveillance via radio communications.

Huawei became a top policy priority in Washington under the Trump administration, as it became apparent that Huawei was no longer just a low-cost contender and had reached the cutting edge of R&D in its industry.

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US revokes some export licences for China’s Huawei

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3261806/us-revokes-some-export-licences-chinas-huawei?utm_source=rss_feed

The US on Tuesday said it revoked some licences that allow companies to ship goods, such as chips, to sanctioned Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies.

The move comes after the release last month of Huawei’s first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 processor.

The laptop launch drew fire from Republican lawmakers, who suggested the US Commerce Department had given the green light to Intel to sell the chip to Huawei.

The revocations come after a years-long review of the US policy on what US goods and technology could be shipped to Huawei, a flagship Chinese company viewed as a national security threat.

They could hamper Huawei’s recently resurgent revenue and also hurt US suppliers that have been allowed to do business with the company.

“We continuously assess how our controls can best protect our national security and foreign policy interests, taking into consideration a constantly changing threat environment and technological landscape,” the Commerce Department said in a statement.

“We are not commenting on any specific licences, but we can confirm that we have revoked certain licences for exports to Huawei.”

A spokesperson for Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm, whose chips are in Huawei’s phones, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Some companies were notified on Tuesday that their licences were revoked effective immediately, according to one person familiar with the matter.

Huawei did not immediately comment on the decision by the US Commerce Department.

The company was placed on a US trade restriction list in 2019 amid fears it could spy on Americans, part of a broader effort to handicap China’s ability to bolster its military. Being added to the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain licence before shipping.

Even so, suppliers to Huawei have received licences worth billions of dollars to sell Huawei goods and technology, including one particularly controversial authorisation, issued by the Trump administration, which has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in its laptops since 2020.

At the same time, sources have said few new licence applications for Huawei have been granted in more than a year.

Huawei shocked the industry last August with a new phone powered by a sophisticated chip manufactured by Chinese chip maker SMIC, despite US export restrictions on both companies.

The phone helped Huawei smartphone sales spike 64 per cent year on year in the first six weeks of 2024, according to research firm Counterpoint.

The recovery of Huawei, which last year recorded its fastest revenue growth in four years, has also been accelerated by new businesses such as smart car components.