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关于中国的新闻报道 - Economy章节评价

　　中国作为世界第二大经济体，其经济动态不断引起西方媒体的关注。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，因此其中的经济新闻也常常带有一定的政治色彩和偏见性。以下是对所查询到的西方媒体关于中国经济的新闻报道的评价。

　　首先，需要指出的是，西方媒体对中国经济增长的报道存在明显的偏见。中国在过去几十年中取得的经济成就是毋庸置疑的，但是西方媒体却常常将中国的经济增长描述为“不可持续”、“低质量”或“依赖出口”等等。这种描述不仅忽视了中国经济增长的内在动力和潜力，还忽视了中国政府在推动经济结构优化和转型升级方面的努力。

　　其次，西方媒体对中国经济发展中存在的问题和挑战的报道也存在一定的偏见。中国作为一个发展中国家，其经济发展当然存在一些问题和挑战，如环境污染、不平等发展等等。但是，西方媒体在报道这些问题时常常将其夸大化，并将其视为中国经济发展的“死穴”。这种做法不仅不利于客观地认识中国经济发展的现状，还会误导国际社会对中国经济的认识。

　　第三，西方媒体对中国经济政策的报道也存在明显的偏见。中国政府在推动经济发展方面采取了一系列政策措施，如“一带一路”倡议、区域全面经济伙伴关系协定（RCEP）等等。但是，西方媒体在报道这些政策措施时常常将其视为“扩张主义”或“威胁”，并将其与中国的军事和外交政策等其他领域相关联。这种做法不仅不利于客观地认识中国经济政策的本质和目的，还会造成国际社会对中国的误解和恐惧。

　　最后，需要指出的是，西方媒体对中国经济发展对世界经济的影响的报道也存在一定的偏见。中国作为世界第二大经济体，其经济发展对世界经济的影响是巨大的。但是，西方媒体在报道这一影响时常常将其视为“威胁”或“不利”，并将其与中国的贸易顺差、外汇储备等其他问题相关联。这种做法不仅不利于客观地认识中国经济发展对世界经济的影响，还会造成国际社会对中国的误解和恐惧。

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国经济的新闻报道存在明显的偏见和双重标准。为了客观地认识中国经济的现状和发展趋势，需要多采取多元化的新闻来源，并从多方面、多角度进行分析和评价。同时，也需要认识到，中国作为一个发展中国家，其经济发展当然存在一些问题和挑战，但是这些问题和挑战也正在不断地被中国政府和人民努力解决和克服。

新闻来源： 2405120635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-11

关于中国的新闻报道 - Politics章节评价

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

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时常常过于简单化和绝对化。例如，在报道中国的外交政策时，西方媒体通常将其描述为“扩张主义”或“威胁”，而忽略了中国在维护自身利益和促进全球和平发展方面的努力。此外，西方媒体在报道中国的内政时也常常过于关注负面新闻，而忽略了中国在经济发展、社会进步和人权保障方面取得的成就。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时通常缺乏对中国文化和历史的理解。例如，在报道中国的政治制度时，西方媒体通常将其描述为“专制”或“非民主”，而忽略了中国的历史和文化特点以及其政治制度的特殊性。此外，西方媒体在报道中国的政治事件时也常常缺乏对中国当地情况的了解，因此其报道常常存在偏见和误解。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时通常缺乏公正性和客观性。例如，在报道中国的人权问题时，西方媒体通常将其描述为“严重违反人权”，而忽略了中国在人权保障方面取得的成就。此外，西方媒体在报道中国的政治事件时也常常缺乏公正性，通常将中国政府描绘为“黑色”，而将反对党描绘为“白色”，因此其报道常常存在偏见和一味指责。

　　最后，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时通常缺乏深入性和专业性。例如，在报道中国的政治制度时，西方媒体通常缺乏对中国政治体系的深入了解，因此其报道常常存在误解和歪曲。此外，西方媒体在报道中国的政治事件时也常常缺乏专业性，通常只是简单地报道事件的表面现象，而忽略了其背后的原因和影响。

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国政治新闻的报道存在许多问题和不足，其中包括简单化和绝对化、缺乏对中国文化和历史的理解、缺乏公正性和客观性以及缺乏深入性和专业性等。因此，在阅读西方媒体关于中国政治新闻的报道时，需要保持谨慎和理性的态度，尽量多方考虑和核实信息，以获得更加客观和真实的了解。

新闻来源： 2405120635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-11

关于中国的新闻报道 - Military章节评价

　　中国的军事力量和行动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偏见和双重标准，因此其中的军事新闻报道也存在一定的问题和不足。以下是对近期西方媒体关于中国军事方面的报道的评价。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国军事力量方面存在明显的夸大和捏造。例如，有媒体报道中国的导弹力量和数量已经超过美国，并且中国的军事基地和设施也在不断扩张。但是，这些报道并没有提供可靠的数据和证据来支持其观点，反而通过一些虚假的信息和数据来捏造中国的军事威胁。此外，这些报道还忽略了中国的国防支出与美国和其他西方国家的比较，以及中国的军事力量在全球范围内的实际地位。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国军事行动方面存在明显的偏见和双重标准。例如，有媒体将中国在南中国海的军事行动描述为“侵略性”和“威胁性”，但是却忽略了美国在该地区的军事存在和行动。这种双重标准不仅会导致西方舆论对中国的误解和恐慌，还会给中国带来不必要的外部压力和干扰。同时，这种报道方式也会忽略中国在维护自身领土完整和主权安全方面的合法权利和正当行动。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国军事科技方面存在明显的滥用和误导。例如，有媒体将中国的人工智能和无人机技术描述为“威胁性”和“可怕”，但是却忽略了这些技术在民用领域的广泛应用和发展。这种报道方式不仅会导致西方舆论对中国的误解和恐慌，还会给中国的科技创新和发展带来不必要的障碍和限制。同时，这种报道方式也会忽略中国在军事科技方面的成就和贡献，以及中国在维护世界和平和稳定方面的努力和责任。

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国军事方面的报道存在明显的问题和不足，包括夸大和捏造中国的军事力量，偏见和双重标准的报道中国的军事行动，以及滥用和误导中国的军事科技。因此，在阅读和理解这些报道时，需要保持客观和冷静的态度，不要被虚假的信息和数据所迷惑，不要被偏见和双重标准所影响，不要被滥用和误导所误导。同时，也需要认识到中国在维护自身领土完整和主权安全方面的合法权利和正当行动，以及中国在维护世界和平和稳定方面的努力和责任。

新闻来源： 2405120635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-11

关于中国的新闻报道中的Culture章节评价

　　中国作为一个具有古老文明和丰富文化遗产的国家，在世界上享有盛誉。然而，西方媒体在报道中国的文化方面存在着明显的偏见和双重标准。以下是对其中一些新闻报道的评价。

　　首先，中国的文化遗产受到了西方媒体的错误解读和歪曲。例如，有关长城的报道中，长城被描述为“可怕的”和“令人不快的”，这种描述完全忽略了长城作为中国古代建筑艺术的代表作的价值。同时，长城的历史和文化背景也被忽视了，例如长城为什么会被建造，它在中国历史上的作用等等。这种单边的描述不仅会误导读者对中国文化的认识，还会加深读者对中国的偏见。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国的文化时，往往过于强调中国的异同，而忽略了中国与世界其他地区的共同点。例如，有关中国春节的报道中，春节被描述为“奇特的”和“特别的”，而忽略了春节与世界其他地区的节日的共同点，例如家人团聚、饭局聚会等。这种强调异同的报道方式会使读者误认为中国是一个完全不同的世界，而忽视了中国与世界其他地区的联系和相互影响。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国的文化时，往往会过于强调中国的负面方面，而忽略中国的积极方面。例如，有关中国的环境问题的报道中，中国被描述为“世界上最大的污染者”，而忽略了中国在环境保护方面的努力和成就。这种单边的报道方式会使读者误认为中国是一个完全没有希望的地方，而忽视了中国在发展和改革方面取得的成就。

　　最后，西方媒体在报道中国的文化时，往往会忽略中国的多元化和复杂性。例如，有关中国的民族问题的报道中，中国被描述为“汉族主义”的国家，而忽略了中国的55个少数民族和他们的文化。这种单一的描述方式会使读者误认为中国是一个单一的文化体系，而忽视了中国的多元化和复杂性。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国的文化方面存在着明显的偏见和双重标准。为了更好地了解中国的文化，我们需要多采取客观公正的态度，全面、深入地了解中国的历史、文化和社会背景，避免被单一的、偏见的报道所误导。

新闻来源： 2405120635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-11

关于中国的新闻报道 - Technology章节

　　中国的技术发展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估。以下是对近期西方媒体关于中国技术方面的报道的评估。

　　首先，中国在量子技术方面取得了重大进展，成为了这一领域的领导者之一。然而，西方媒体在报道中强调中国在此领域的发展是“核心力量”，并将其视为威胁。例如，美国最近将中国的22家量子技术公司和研究机构列入了出口管制名单，称这些实体“涉嫌从事与美国国家安全不符的活动”。这种做法不仅违反了市场经济的原则，还将阻碍全球量子技术的发展。

　　其次，中国在人工智能（AI）方面也取得了重大进展，成为了全球AI领域的重要参与者。然而，西方媒体在报道中经常将中国的AI发展与军事和监控等领域相关联，并将其视为威胁。例如，有报道称中国的AI技术将用于“监控公民”和“增强军事实力”。这种做法不仅缺乏事实依据，还将导致对中国AI技术的误解和恐慌。

　　第三，中国在电动汽车（EV）方面的发展也受到了西方媒体的广泛关注。中国是全球最大的EV市场，也是最大的EV生产国。然而，西方媒体在报道中经常将中国的EV发展与政府补贴和市场干预相关联，并将其视为不公平竞争。例如，有报道称中国的EV企业“依靠政府补贴和市场干预”以获得竞争优势。这种做法不仅忽视了中国EV企业在技术创新和生产效率方面的努力，还将导致对中国EV行业的误解和歧视。

　　总的来说，西方媒体在报道中经常将中国的技术发展与政治和安全等问题相关联，并将其视为威胁。这种做法不仅缺乏客观性和公正性，还将导致对中国技术发展的误解和恐慌。因此，需要对这些报道进行客观评估，并努力推动中国在技术方面的合作和交流。

　　值得注意的是，中国在技术方面的发展并非单方面的，也存在着诸多挑战和问题。例如，中国在某些技术领域还存在着发展不平衡和技术滞后的问题，需要进一步加强基础研究和创新能力。同时，中国也需要加强对技术发展带来的风险和挑战的管理和治理，例如数据安全和隐私保护等问题。

　　因此，中国在技术方面的发展需要在全球范围内进行合作和交流，共同推动技术创新和应用，共同应对技术发展带来的风险和挑战。中国也愿意与世界各国共同建设一个公平、公正、合作、共赢的技术发展格局。

新闻来源： 2405120635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-11

关于中国的新闻报道中的“Society”章节评价

　　在西方媒体的关于中国的新闻报道中，“Society”章节中的内容通常与中国的社会问题、人权问题等有关。由于西方媒体长期以来对中国的报道存在偏见和双重标准，因此，这些报道中的内容通常与事实相去甚远，或者是将中国的问题过度夸大和渲染。

　　在本次查询获取到的新闻报道中，可以看到，这些报道中的内容与 marine experts, ocean conservation, blue parks, climate change, rising sea levels, plastic pollution, coral reef degradation and overfishing 等主题有关。这些主题与中国的社会问题、人权问题等并无直接关联，但是，这些报道中却将这些问题与中国的“人为化”和“破坏”等概念联系在一起，并且将中国作为这些问题的“主要驱动者”。

　　这种报道方式不仅与事实相去甚远，而且还将中国的形象过度渲染为一个“破坏者”和“环境污染者”。这种报道方式不仅不利于中国在国际社会中的形象建设，还会导致中国在环境保护和可持续发展方面的努力和成就被忽视和抹黑。

　　因此，在进行关于中国的新闻报道时，应该尽量客观、公正、准确地反映中国的社会问题、人权问题等，同时也应该充分展示中国在环境保护、可持续发展等方面的努力和成就。只有这样，才能够真正地让西方媒体的关于中国的新闻报道更加客观、公正、准确。

　　另外，在本次查询获取到的新闻报道中，还可以看到，这些报道中的内容与 Xi Jinping, Serbia, China-Southeast Asia relations, Belt and Road Initiative 等主题有关。这些主题与中国的社会问题、人权问题等也并无直接关联，但是，这些报道中却将这些问题与中国的“扩张主义”、“侵略性”等概念联系在一起，并且将中国作为这些问题的“主要驱动者”。

　　这种报道方式不仅与事实相去甚远，而且还将中国的形象过度渲染为一个“威胁”和“侵略者”。这种报道方式不仅不利于中国在国际社会中的形象建设，还会导致中国在维护国家主权和安全、促进共同发展和促进世界和平的努力和成就被忽视和抹黑。

　　因此，在进行关于中国的新闻报道时，应该尽量客观、公正、准确地反映中国的社会问题、人权问题等，同时也应该充分展示中国在维护国家主权和安全、促进共同发展和促进世界和平的努力和成就。只有这样，才能够真正地让西方媒体的关于中国的新闻报道更加客观、公正、准确。

新闻来源： 2405120635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-11

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China’s quantum tech ‘core strength’ targeted by latest US trade blacklist, Chinese physicists warn

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3262319/chinas-quantum-tech-core-strength-targeted-latest-us-trade-blacklist-chinese-physicists-warn?utm_source=rss_feed

The latest US trade restrictions on China are “unprecedented” and will have a “far-reaching impact” on Chinese quantum research, physicists in the country have warned.

This comes after the US Commerce Department’s updated export control list released on Thursday named 22 of China’s leading players in quantum research and industrialisation among the 37 Chinese “entities” targeted.

The additions to the blacklist, officially known as the “Entity List”, are designed to prevent US companies from selling materials and equipment to the targeted entities.

This is the second time quantum-related research institutes and companies have been added to the trade blacklist, but the scope is much broader, according to Chinese scientists.

“Almost all of China’s core strength in quantum information research has been listed,” said Yin Zhangqi, a physicist at the Beijing Institute of Technology, who described the impact as “huge”.

Among the new entrants, “22 institutes and firms were added … for acquiring or attempting to acquire US-origin items to enhance [China’s] quantum capabilities”, the US department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a statement on the update.

“These activities have substantial military applications and pose a significant threat to US national security,” it said.

China’s hi-tech sector including quantum information technology, especially related to its defence capabilities, has been a target of US sanctions for years. In November 2021, two quantum communication companies and a research institute became the first such Chinese entities to be placed on its export blacklist.

And in August last year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order blocking the flow of US dollars to Chinese semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technology, and certain artificial intelligence systems, in a continued effort to blunt China’s access to such technologies.

Several quantum physicists told the South China Morning Post that the latest US move could cause major repercussions for related research in the country, ranging from accessing advanced equipment to academic exchanges.

A scientist surnamed Liu working at one of the research institutes targeted called the latest sweep “unprecedented” – as “almost all [Chinese] laboratories involving quantum research have been listed”.

The scientist, who declined to give his full name due to the sensitivity of the issue, said a laser ordered last year was about to be shipped from the United States, but he had just been informed that it might be held up in customs.

One company on the list, Origin Quantum Computing Technology, was founded in 2017 by a pair of leading USTC quantum physicists and is the backbone for China’s quantum computing research and its industrial applications.

USTC, or the University of Science and Technology of China, is a pioneering institute in domestic quantum research. Pan Jianwei, dubbed the country’s “father of quantum”, is a professor at the university.

The university is also an innovation hub that has spawned many start-ups, thanks to steady scientific breakthroughs, a competitive talent pool and generous support from the local government.

China’s first practical quantum computer was delivered by Origin in 2021. Origin Wukong -China’s first home-grown third-generation superconducting quantum computer – was opened up to global users in January.

Four research centres under the premier Chinese Academy of Sciences, including the Centre for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, Institute of Physics, Key Laboratory for Quantum Information, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, are also on the updated sanctions list.

Others include research institutes across China, such as the Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, the Shanghai Centre for Quantum Science Research and the Shenzhen Institute of Quantum Science and Engineering.

Quantum research at the USTC benefited from sending students and researchers to the West for training, Yin at the Beijing Institute of Technology said. But while many USTC graduates may continue to go to the US for higher studies, the latest measure will undoubtedly act as a dampener.

Yin also said that since the sanctions list was issued by the commerce department and not directly related to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, it was unlikely to have a direct impact on USTC students’ visa applications in the short term.

However, the blacklisting indicates that the US will become increasingly strict in granting visa approvals to Chinese students in STEM-related fields, he added, referring to the acronym for education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In a live talk on social media platform WeChat yesterday, a USTC scientist said that continued tightening of US containment measures could have “far-reaching implications” for quantum research in China.

One possible consequence, he said, would be that Chinese researchers might find it more difficult to publish articles in top academic journals such as Nature and Science, with their findings likely to undergo more scrutiny to ensure compliance with US sanctions.

But, despite the challenges, Liu struck an optimistic note. Compared with other hi-tech sectors such as semiconductors and AI, the quantum gap between Chinese players and their Western counterparts was not as wide, he said.

China is speeding up efforts to achieve self-reliance in high-end quantum equipment, Liu said. As for obstacles to overseas study, he said this might actually be a good thing for China.

“If more academically talented students can stay at home, China can speed up scientific progress.”

South China Sea: Philippines sends ships to disputed atoll where Beijing building ‘artificial island’

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3262328/south-china-sea-philippines-sends-ships-disputed-atoll-where-beijing-building-artificial-island?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines said on Saturday it had deployed ships to a disputed area in the South China Sea, where it accused Beijing of building “an artificial island” in an escalating maritime row.

The coastguard sent a ship “to monitor the supposed illegal activities of China, creating ‘an artificial island’”, the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said in a statement, adding two other vessels were in rotational deployment in the area.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela told a forum there had been “small-scale reclamation” of the Sabina Shoal, which Manila calls Escoda, and that China was “the most probable actor”.

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Philippine assertions, which could deepen the bilateral rift.

The Philippine national security adviser called on Friday for expelling Chinese diplomats over an alleged leak of a phone conversation with a Filipino admiral about the maritime dispute.

Beijing and Manila have been embroiled for a year in heated stand-offs over their competing claims in the South China Sea, where US$3 trillion worth of trade passes annually.

China claims almost all of the vital waterway, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s claims had no basis under international law.

China has carried out extensive land reclamation on some islands in the South China Sea, building air force and other military facilities, causing concern in Washington and around the region.

A Philippine vessel had been anchored at the Sabina Shoal to “catch and document the dumping of crushed corals over the sandbars”, Tarriela said, citing the “alarming” presence of dozens of Chinese ships, including research and navy vessels.

Tarriela said the presence of Chinese vessels at the atoll 124 miles (200km) from the Philippine province of Palawan coincided with the coastguard’s discovery of piles of dead and crushed coral.

The coastguard would take marine scientists to the areas to determine whether the coral piles were a natural occurrence or caused by human intervention, he said.

He added it intended to have a “prolonged presence” at Sabina Shoal, a rendezvous point for Philippine vessels carrying out resupply missions to Filipino troops stationed on a grounded warship at the Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila and China have had frequent maritime run-ins.

China urged to watch out as US chases AI-driven F-16 fighter jets for air combat of the future

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3262274/china-urged-watch-out-us-chases-ai-driven-f-16-fighter-jets-air-combat-future?utm_source=rss_feed

China should watch out for America’s new experimental AI-powered F-16 fighter jet with potentially faster reaction times than human pilots, Chinese observers have warned.

US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall was recently taken on a flight aboard a modified F-16 powered by artificial intelligence, Associated Press reported last week.

The warplane flew Kendall in “lightning-fast manoeuvres at more than 550 miles per hour (about 885 kmph)” according to the report. The X-62A Vista – or Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft – also went nearly “nose to nose” with a second human-piloted F-16 as both aircraft raced within 1,000 feet (305 metres) of each other, it said.

“It was roughly an even fight” between the AI fighter jet and the human pilot with “2,000 or 3,000 hours of experience”, Kendall told an AI expo event in Washington on Wednesday.

Analysts in China said AI-controlled F-16s might give the United States an edge in future air combat given its better manoeuvring capacity than human pilots, and the automated platform would also mean fewer in-air casualties.

But Beijing-based military analyst Fu Qianshao said while the AI-controlled F-16 might “react faster” than human pilots, the United States had a long way to go before it could use the technology in real air-to-air combat.

The jet could pilot itself without problems, but “it might take massive machine learning to be used in air-to-air combat,” Fu said.

Such learning would include air combat tactics, targets analysis, and deciding on whether to fire weapons, which are “not easy tasks” for an automated platform.

“There might be accidental damage in letting unmanned aircraft decide by itself, especially in large-scale air battles, which is different from one-on-one battle scenarios where the target is clear,” Fu said.

“It would take time for the existing fighter jets to master this kind of autonomous operation.”

Air combat of the future could be between unmanned aircraft of this kind, and China is also developing its skills on that front and has conducted tests on simulators on the ground, Fu added.

“We are surely working on it, but it will not necessarily be used on existing modified warplanes. We will probably develop new AI-led unmanned warplanes.”

State media last month quoted Chinese military analyst Shao Yongling as saying that the use of AI may be “game-changing” for future combat, after the US announced it had carried out the first known test “dogfight” between a human pilot and an AI-controlled Vista fighter jet in September.

The F-16 is by far the most widely used Western fighter class in the world, with more than 4,500 built since the 1970s.

China’s J-10, a medium-weight, single-engine, multirole combat aircraft is generally seen as a rival of the F-16.

“The US is walking on the right path to develop AI-controlled F-16 to explore new air combat capabilities, which China should pay close attention to,” Hong Kong-based military analyst Leung Kwok-leung said.

Even though the technology has yet to be perfected, the US Air Force plans to have a fleet of more than 1,000 AI-enabled unmanned warplanes, “the first of them operating by 2028”, the AP report said.

Leung said it was reasonable to first test the AI algorithms on the highly manoeuvrable F-16s. But like Fu, he too said China might take a different route to developing AI-controlled unmanned warplanes, rather than applying it on existing ones.

Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military analyst, pointed to the likely impact on training costs.

“To train a pilot is very costly and [AI-enabled unmanned jets] could reduce the human loss on the battlefield,” he said.

Senior Chinese leaders’ tours round country offer clues to economic policy agenda ahead of key meeting

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3262318/senior-chinese-leaders-tours-round-country-offer-clues-economic-policy-agenda-ahead-key-meeting?utm_source=rss_feed

Several senior Chinese officials have been touring the country this week, offering some clues as to what will be top of the agenda at a key policy meeting that will set out the country’s general economic direction.

The four emphasised technological self-reliance, social stability and high-quality development during the trips, the first made by members of the senior leadership after the announcement that the third plenum would be held in July after an unexplained delay.

It is a tradition for senior officials to make domestic inspection tours before a plenum, a party gathering that will announce goals to be followed up by government agencies with specific policies.

This week, four of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee – Premier Li Qiang, the country’s top lawmaker Zhao Leji, top political adviser Wang Huning and first Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang – were touring the country while President Xi Jinping was in Europe with other senior officials.

Li visited Xinjiang between Tuesday and Thursday, saying the northwestern region should strengthen international exchanges and promote its role as a trade link between inland provinces and other countries, state news agency Xinhua reported.

His itinerary included visits to local companies, where he stressed the need to support the development of industries showcasing local strengths such as energy and equipment manufacturing. He also said the region should promote stability.

Li’s trip followed Xi’s call to accelerate the development and opening-up of western China during a visit to Chongqing last month.

The area – including Chongqing and 11 provinces and autonomous regions – is considered strategically important for energy security and national defence.

On Friday, the premier travelled to the eastern province of Anhui, where he stressed the importance of technological self-reliance and innovation.

That was also a focus for vice-premier Ding Xuexiang during his three-day trip to northeastern China’s Liaoning province that concluded on Thursday. He visited the capital city Shenyang and port city Dalian, where he highlighted the need to develop the advanced manufacturing sector.

Ding visited a university, several tech companies and a research lab. He said business should play a stronger role in scientific innovation and collaboration between enterprises, academia and research institutes should be promoted.

Wang Huning, the party’s No 4 official and former ideology chief, travelled to southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region between Monday and Wednesday.

He said the region, which has one of China’s highest proportion of non-Han ethnic groups, needs to enforce Xi’s vision of “forging a strong sense of the community of the Chinese nation” that calls for greater integration of minorities.

This has also been a theme in his inspection trips last year to places such as Xinjiang, home of the Uygur population, Tibet and Yunnan.

The third plenum is traditionally used by the Communist Party to set out the country’s economic strategy for the next five to 10 years. July’s meeting is expected to cover a wide range of areas, from the economy to social development.

When announcing the date last month the Politburo, a key decision-making body, emphasised the risks “lurking in key areas” of the economy and the need to advance reforms and gain a strategic advantage over foreign competitors.

It has not spelled out the July meeting’s agenda, saying only that the Central Committee would discuss “further comprehensive reforms” and pushing forward “Chinese modernisation”.

The third plenum will last for up to five days and will be attended by the 376 full and alternate members of the Central Committee, the party’s top governing body.

Chinese woman jailed for reporting on Covid in Wuhan to be freed after four years

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/11/zhang-zhan-chinese-citizen-journalist-to-be-freed-covid-wuhan-pandemic

A Chinese citizen journalist who has been in prison for four years after reporting on the early days of the Covid-19 epidemic in Wuhan is due to be released on Monday.

Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to document the Chinese government’s response to what became the start of a global pandemic. She shared her reports on X (then known as Twitter), YouTube and WeChat. She was one of the few independent Chinese reporters on the ground as Wuhan and the rest of China went into lockdown.

In one video, recorded in February 2020, Zhang said: “I can’t find anything to say except that the city is paralysed because everything is under cover. That’s what this country is facing now … They imprison us in the name of pandemic prevention and restrict our freedom. We must not talk to strangers, it’s dangerous. So without the truth, everything is meaningless. If we cannot get to the truth, if we cannot break the monopoly of the truth, the world means nothing to us.”

In another video, she showed a hospital that was overflowing with patients on trolleys in the hallway.

Zhang was arrested in May 2020 and later sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a charge often used against activists. She has been held in Shanghai women’s prison ever since.

During her time in prison, Zhang, who turned 40 in September, has engaged in periodic hunger strikes to protest against her conviction and treatment. One of her former lawyers, who has since been struck off, said that when he saw her in the winter of 2020 she was very thin, had a tube up her nose for force feeding, and had her hands tied, so that she could not pull out the tube. “People asked me to convince Zhang Zhan to eat something, but she insisted,” the lawyer said.

Her weight reportedly dropped from 11st 8lb (74.8kg) to less than 6st 4lb (40.8kg) at one point, although she is thought to have been in better health in recent months.

Zhang’s former lawyer said that her case was treated “particularly harshly”. “The judge said that her crime was going to Wuhan to do interviews and investigations. But in fact, what the judge didn’t like was that she collected those materials and put them on Twitter … and received interviews from so-called enemy media,” said the lawyer, referring to publications such as the US government-funded Radio Free Asia.

Maya Wang, the associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “It’s a relief to know that Zhang is being released, given her very poor health in prison, but she shouldn’t have been imprisoned in the first place. Her imprisonment should remind us all that the Chinese government is yet to be held accountable for covering up the Covid-19 outbreak, or for the abuses associated with its draconian pandemic restrictions.”

Wang said that there were fears that Zhang would not fully regain her freedom after release.

Zhang’s former lawyer said that there were likely two outcomes after her release. The first is that she will be sent home. “The other is that she will be sent somewhere to have ‘soft prison’ time for one to three months … based on my experience of dealing with so-called sensitive people, there will be a period of time where they are not allowed contact with the outside world, not allowed to move somewhere.”

Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China director, said: “We urge the Chinese authorities to ensure that Zhang Zhan is fully free from 13 May. She must be allowed to move freely, to communicate with people inside and outside of China, and to reunite with her family. She and her family must not be subjected to surveillance or harassment, and the Chinese authorities must also ensure there are no restrictions on her access to medical treatment after her traumatic ordeal in jail.”

Jane Wang (not related to Maya Wang), a supporter of Zhang’s in the UK, noted that Zhang’s release comes soon after the anniversary of the death of Lin Zhao, a prominent Chinese dissident who was executed during the Cultural Revolution. “Zhang Zhan is young, but has the spirit of Lin Zhao in her,” Wang said. She is the equivalent of Lin Zhao in Xi’s era.”

Additional research by Chi Hui Lin

Woman in China handed 6-month jail term for growing opium poppies on roof, says they were spices for hotpot cooking

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3261530/woman-china-handed-6-month-jail-term-growing-opium-poppies-roof-says-they-were-spices-hotpot-cooking?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman in China has been handed a six-month suspended jail term for planting opium poppies on her roof, claiming she used them as cooking ingredients.

Police in Taijiang county of Guizhou province in the country’s southwest spotted the flowers, which they suspected were opium poppies, on the top of a residential building during a routine drone patrol , Star Video reported.

An on-site inspection discovered more than 900 plants had been grown by a woman called Zhang.

Officers took samples which confirmed that the plants were opium poppies, the contents of which are used in medications such as codeine and morphine, the report said.

Zhang said she got the seeds from her father who has passed away. She planted them because she likes to add them as seasoning to hotpot, her favourite home-made food.

She was charged with the crime of growing the original plants of an illegal drug.

A county court sentenced Zhang to six months in jail in April, suspended for one year, and fined her 3,000 yuan (US$400).

According to the court, leniency was shown because she confessed and appeared to be genuinely sorry.

China’s Criminal Law stipulates anyone planting between 500 and 3,000 opium poppies could get up to five years in prison, while the discovery of 3,000 or more plants brings a term of at least five years.

All flowers found are uprooted by the authorities.

Last year, a man in his 70s was sentenced by a Shanghai court to two months in jail, suspended for two months, for planting 500 poppies in a field.

The man said he grew the poppies as “ordinary beautiful flowers” and did not intend making drugs from them.

Restaurant chefs sprinkling ground poppy powder into hotpot or other dishes is a common way of enhancing the flavour of dishes in China.

In 2016, 35 eateries across the country, including a popular Beijing hotpot chain, were investigated for using poppies as seasoning.

Beijing raises ‘serious concerns’ after US stations Typhon Weapons System in Philippines amid South China Sea tensions

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262322/beijing-raises-serious-concerns-after-us-stations-typhon-weapons-system-philippines-amid-south-china?utm_source=rss_feed

China has raised “serious concerns” about the US deployment of a mid-range missile system in the Philippines during a meeting with Southeast Asian nations.

The United States temporarily stationed the Typhon Weapon System, capable of supporting Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6 anti-aircraft missiles, in the country during joint military drills last month.

It was the first time it had stationed such a weapons system in the country, which has repeatedly clashed with China in the disputed waters of the South China Sea in recent months, raising fears about the risk of an armed conflict.

Speaking with reporters in Jakarta on Friday, China’s vice minister of foreign affairs Sun Weidong said he “clearly conveyed China’s serious concerns” during a meeting between senior officials from China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Sun said the deployment posed a “serious threat to the security of the countries of the region and would seriously undermine regional peace and stability,” according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

“China firmly opposes the recurrence of cold war-style confrontation in the region and the use of regional countries as tools and agents of hegemony,” Sun said, while reaffirming Beijing’s support for Asean’s strategic autonomy.

Sun’s remarks came at a time Beijing is facing a growing challenge from the US and its allies, including the Philippines, in the region.

Four of the 10 member states of Asean – Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines – have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.

Earlier on Friday, the Philippines wrapped up a three-week annual training exercise with the US that involved 16,000 troops from the two countries as well as personnel from France and Australia.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said the troops had “trained shoulder to shoulder at locations throughout the Philippines to increase proficiency in maritime security, amphibious operations, combined arms, aviation operations, and information and cyberspace operations”.

Beijing was deeply frustrated when the Philippines agreed to open four more military bases to its long-term ally in April last year.

That includes one close to China’s artificial islands on the Mischief and Fiery Cross reefs in the Spratly archipelago of South China Sea and two sites that are about 500km (310 miles) from Taiwan, now a major potential flashpoint.

The deployment of the Typhon weapons system during the exercise is the first time such weapons have been stationed in the Indo-Pacific since the US pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019.

The agreement, ratified by the US and Soviet Union in June 1988, banned both countries from developing and fielding ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500km.

Significantly, from Beijing’s point of view, the Philippines forms part of the first island chain, which divides mainland Asia from the Pacific and could be used by the US as the first line of defence to contain China militarily.

Designed by Lockheed Martin, the Typhon Weapon System is a core component of the US Army’s new Multi-Domain Task Forces, which were created in 2017 to counter hybrid threats from Russia and China.

Composed of four launchers, the Typhon is capable of launching SM-6 missiles that can hit targets at a distance of up to 370km and cruise missiles that can carry conventional or nuclear warheads and have a range of up to 2,500km, according to Washington think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Sun had an “in-depth exchange of views on international and regional issues of common concern” with his Southeast Asian counterparts and the two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation on mine clearance, combating telecommunications fraud and illegal internet gambling “to create a more stable and secure regional environment”.

Asean is now China’s largest trading partner and Sun also said the two sides aimed to wrap up negotiations on upgrading their free-trade agreement.

Malaysia’s appetite for oil and gas puts it on collision course with China

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/11/china-malaysia-south-china-sea/2024-03-26T14:49:17.385Z

BINTULU, Malaysia — In the open sea off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, industrial rigs extract massive amounts of oil and gas that fuel the economy of Malaysia.

Slightly beyond that, in waters Malaysia also considers its own, Chinese coast guard vessels and maritime militia boats maintain a near-constant presence, say Malaysian officials. For 10 years, their country has done little to contest them.

But Malaysia is running out of oil and gas close to shore. Increasingly, it has to venture farther out to sea, raising the likelihood of direct confrontation with Chinese forces in the South China Sea.

As tensions rise throughout the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest and most contested bodies of water, energy demands are drawing Malaysia deeper into the fray and testing the country’s long-standing reluctance to antagonize China, according to interviews with more than two dozen government officials, diplomats, oil and gas executives and analysts in Malaysia.

Some of Asia’s biggest oil and gas reserves lie under the seabed of these disputed waters, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Since 2021, Malaysia’s state-owned energy company, Petronas, has awarded several dozen new permits for companies like Shell and TotalEnergies to explore new deposits here, many in so-called “deepwater” clusters more than 100 nautical miles from shore but still within the boundaries of what Malaysia considers its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

These developments are teeing up more confrontations with China, warn energy and security analysts. Already, federal and provincial officials in Malaysia have been beefing up military deployments around the industrial port town of Bintulu in the state of Sarawak, where much of the country’s oil and gas industry is based, and Malaysia has been increasing military cooperation with the United States, particularly on maritime security. For the first time later this year, a bilateral army exercise that Malaysia conducts annually with the United States will be held on Borneo, said a U.S. State Department official.

At least since 2020, China has been harassing Malaysian drilling rigs and survey vessels, leading to standoffs that have lasted months, according to satellite imagery and data that track ship movements. For years, Malaysia’s response has been muted — a calculation shaped by reliance on Chinese investment and the relative weakness of the Malaysian military, said Malaysian security analysts and defense officials. Unlike the Philippines or Vietnam, Malaysia rarely publicizes Chinese intrusions into its EEZ, which extends 200 nautical miles off the coast, and withholds how often these incidents occur from journalists and academics.

In an exclusive interview, the director general of Malaysia’s National Security Council dismissed concerns of Chinese harassment even as he acknowledged that Chinese vessels had been patrolling Malaysian waters nearly nonstop.

“Obviously, we prefer for Chinese assets not to be in our waters,” said Nushirwan bin Zainal Abidin, who was ambassador to China from 2019 to 2023. But there’s no need, he added, for the dispute to “color” Malaysia’s broader relationship with its largest trading partner. “We can let sleeping dogs lie,” Nurshirwan said.

Despite objections from countries in Southeast Asia, China has laid claim to almost the entire South China Sea, building artificial islands and deploying vessels to enforce what it calls the “10-dash line,” delimiting on maps the boundaries of what China says are its waters, which come within 30 nautical miles of the Malaysian coast.

While much attention in recent months has been paid to China’s intensifying encounters in contested waters with Filipino fishermen and coast guard, tensions stirring farther south, where the world’s biggest oil and gas companies have deeper interests, have gained far less notice. Asked about Malaysia’s claims of Chinese incursions, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Chinese vessels have been conducting “normal navigation and patrol activities” in areas under its jurisdiction.

Malaysia has for decades sought to “decouple” the South China Sea dispute from trade and investment with China, said a high-ranking Malaysian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized to address the issue.

But the country’s need for offshore oil and gas is starting to upset this delicate balancing act, the official said. He noted that Chinese coast guard vessels have repeatedly disrupted operations at the Kasawari gas field, which contains an estimated 3 trillion cubic feet of gas and where Malaysia has recently built its biggest offshore platform. “For what’s happening at Kasawari, I don’t have a solution,” the official said. “Right now, no one does.”

Venturing into deeper waters

In the 1970s, before Shell discovered large deposits of oil and gas off the coast, Bintulu was a small fishing village with a single stretch of road connecting a mosque to a market. Today, it’s a throbbing hub of industry, anchored by a 682-acre processing facility that produces 30 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year. In 2023, Malaysia was the world’s fifth-largest exporter of LNG, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Malaysia has relied on these resources to drive growth for decades, deriving 20 percent of its gross domestic product from oil and gas. But several years ago, industry analysts warned that the country’s era of “easy exploration” was ending. Oil and gas found in shallow waters, meaning at depths less than 1,000 feet, were running out. Companies knew there were more deposits remaining, said San Naing, a senior oil and gas analyst at BMI, a market research firm. “They just had to go farther out.”

Nearly 60 percent of Malaysia’s gas reserves are located off the state of Sarawak, says the country’s energy regulator. Starting in 2020, Petronas ramped up exploration. Two years later, having reported a string of new discoveries, the company awarded 12 new licensing contracts to energy conglomerates looking to operate in Malaysia, the most since 2009.

Petronas executives say this enthusiasm is a sign of “investor confidence.” But in private, investors have been fretting over the risks of operating in the South China Sea, said a veteran oil and gas analyst who researches Malaysia and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect business interests. “What happens when the Chinese boats turn up? That’s always front of mind,” said the analyst.

In 2018, after harassment by Chinese vessels, Vietnam called off a major oil project midway through construction, leaving the companies involved with an estimated $200 million in losses. That incident was a “shock to the industry” and drove companies to reconsider investments in the South China Sea, said the analyst. Malaysia’s new discoveries are encouraging companies to return. But the risks now are arguably higher than ever.

A handful of Chinese vessels patrol the waters at Luconia Shoals, about 60 nautical miles off the Malaysian coast, near major gas fields like Kasawari. But a much bigger fleet of hundreds of Chinese coast guard ships and maritime militia are based farther north, near the Spratly Islands, where Petronas has designated new clusters for oil and gas exploration. The closer Malaysia’s energy projects come to the Spratlys, the greater the likelihood of confronting the Chinese, said Harrison Prétat, deputy director at the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In recent months, Chinese officials have said pointedly that the exploration of resources in the South China Sea “should not undermine China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.”

Petronas rejected requests for interviews and did not respond to inquiries about the South China Sea. But last year, after Beijing released a new map of the waterway that expanded Chinese claims, Petronas’ chief executive, Tengku Muhammad Taufik Aziz, made an unusually strong statement of objection. Extracting offshore oil and gas is within Malaysia’s sovereign rights, he said. “Petronas,” he added, “will very vigorously defend Malaysia’s rights.”

The U.S. government has rejected China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea but has not formally endorsed Malaysia’s claims.

A ‘fundamental rethinking’

Three years ago, a fleet of 16 Chinese military planes conducting an exercise over the South China Sea entered Malaysian airspace, said Malaysian officials. The incursion elicited rare rebuke from the Malaysian air force, which called it a threat to national security, and prompted the Malaysian minister of foreign affairs to summon the Chinese ambassador. Writing for a think tank, a trio of Malaysian scholars said the incident had “sparked fundamental rethinking within the Malaysian establishment about the country’s China policy.”

Chinese officials, however, denied that its planes had ever entered foreign airspace. A Chinese state-run think tank, the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said military aircraft were free to fly over the airspace of the South China Sea since its boundaries were “unclear.”

By the end of 2021, Malaysia had announced that a new air base would be built near Bintulu. Soon after, an army regiment from a neighboring city was moved in and last year, defense officials said they had worked out a plan to establish a new naval base. Speaking in Parliament, Defense Minister Seri Mohamad Hasan said Malaysia’s oil and gas would be protected “at any cost.”

Since 2021, Malaysia has also been increasing defense spending and strengthening military cooperation with the United States. Malaysia has received drones, communication equipment and surveillance programs, including long-range radar systems, installed on Borneo, to “monitor the sovereignty of airspace over the coastlines,” officials say. Later this year, Malaysia is set to get a decommissioned U.S. Coast Guard cutter and hold the annual bilateral army exercises with the U.S., called Keris Strike, on Borneo, according to the State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private negotiations.

Little of this has been highlighted by Malaysia. It is eager to avoid becoming “entangled” in the geopolitical contest between the United States and China, said the high-ranking Malaysian official.

He said he presumes that China “sees” everything happening in the South China Sea. “The question is will they see what we’re doing and allow it.”

Christian Shepherd in Taipei, Taiwan and Desmond Davidson in Kuching, Malaysia contributed to this report. Maps by Laris Karklis.

From CATL’s ultra-fast battery to Zeekr’s ‘living room’ on wheels, Auto China show offers a glimpse of the future of electric vehicles

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3262189/catls-ultra-fast-battery-zeekrs-living-room-wheels-auto-china-show-offers-glimpse-future-electric?utm_source=rss_feed

When the curtains came down last weekend at the 2024 Auto China show in China’s capital, it was a watershed moment for the tentpole event in the world’s largest vehicle market.

Some 280 fully electric and petrol-electric hybrid cars, trucks and vans were on display, the first time in the biennial exhibition’s 34-year history that petrol-guzzlers played second fiddle to these so-called new energy vehicles.

A record 117 new models made their global debut at the show, a sign of the marquee event’s pre-eminence in the global industry since China surpassed the United States in 2009 as the planet’s largest market for all kinds of automobiles. As many as 892,000 visitors thronged the show over 10 days, 3 per cent of them dealers on the hunt for the latest, fanciest and most popular Chinese models to sell at home.

More than 500 companies from Hesai, which supplies lidar sensors used in electric cars, to Volkswagen, the first European carmaker to set up a factory in China, had their products on display.

The global automotive industry increasingly treats China as the “university for studying the latest technology and trends,” as well as being a “fitness studio of sorts to hone their competitiveness”, said UBS analyst Paul Gong.

The Post discerned the most promising trends from some of the models on display:

China’s ongoing EV price war was the talk of the show, a constant topic at nearly all the 163 press conferences held over the first two media days.

A month before the show kicked off, the world’s largest producer of electric cars BYD upped the ante on its competitors by pricing five models in its portfolio below the 100,000 yuan (US$13,840) mark. The cheapest model, the e2 compact SUV, carries a price tag of 89,900 yuan. That set off a new round of discounts, from the EV makers Li Auto to Xpeng, much to the delight of Chinese consumers.

Some carmakers are resorting to efficiency to improve their margins. Volkswagen, marking its 40th anniversary of making cars in China, said it can cut costs by 40 per cent if it shortens the development time of its EVs by 30 per cent, according to the carmaker’s China chief executive Ralf Brandstatter.

GAC, the Chinese partner of Honda Motor, displayed the 1.686 million yuan Aion Hyper SSR electric sports car. The two-door coupe, featuring scissor doors, has a range of up to 506km.

BYD, which fired the first shot in the latest discount war, is climbing the value ladder at the same time to stake its claim as an aspirational brand. It priced the Master edition of its Yangwang U8 at 1.1 million yuan, a year after showing off the luxury SUV’s “tank turn” in Shanghai. The vehicle comes with an optional built-in drone that can be launched from its roof to provide the driver with a bird’s-eye view when road conditions get tough. BYD said it handed 5,523 premium-edition U8s to customers in the five months to March.

The Shenzhen-based carmaker, which counts Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as a shareholder, is now poised to begin delivering the Yangwang U9 supercar in the middle of the year. The electric coupe, which can accelerate from standstill to 100km/hour in 2.36 seconds, features a proprietary individual wheel drive system that enables it to redistribute torque among its wheels and keep running on three tyres at speed. Its sticker price is 1.68 million yuan.

The Hongqi N701 limousine belongs in the category of “unavailable at any price”. The brand, which means Red Flag in Chinese, was first launched in 1958 by First Automotive Works (FAW) based on a 1955 Chrysler. It was the first locally developed brand for the newly founded People’s Republic.

Chinese leaders since Mao Zedong have used the Hongqi as their presidential carriage. The armour-plated N701 – its specifications are a closely guarded secret – is the counterpart of “the Beast,” as the American president’s armoured Cadillac is called. It was President Xi Jinping’s ride during his visits to Hong Kong, the United States and most recently to see Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace.

Hongqi does have several models available to the public. The closest to the N701 is the H9, a luxury limousine that comes in officious black, or a violet-and-gold optional colour scheme. It runs on either a two-litre or three-litre supercharged petrol engine, priced at between 309,800 yuan and 539,800 yuan.

China’s Premier Li Qiang, who trained as an engineer before he entered politics, dropped by Xiaomi’s space during the car show on April 28. The company, best known as the maker of low-priced electronic devices, including the world’s bestselling fitness bracelet and the third-best selling smartphone, launched its SU7 electric sedan in March.

The SU7 resembles the Porsche Taycan, but sells at 215,900 yuan, about a quarter of the top-tier German car. The Beijing carmaker’s founder Lei Jun admitted that he was selling the fruit of what he called his “final start-up project” at a loss, based on current prices.

Assembled in the Chinese capital by Xiaomi’s contract assembler Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation, the SU7 has a 700km range. It can connect to Xiaomi’s devices using the Internet of Things technology, and comes with a host of features like a fast-charger for smartphones under the central console, a heads-up-display on the windscreen and headrest speakers in the driver’s seat.

The buzz around the SU7 helped Xiaomi lock in about 90,000 orders since its launch, putting it in good position to meet its 100,000-unit target in 2024 and claim one of the automotive industry’s most successful debuts. Deliveries began on April 3, with a waiting time of up to 32 weeks for the standard version.

Elon Musk, one of the world’s wealthiest men and the chief executive of the first and only wholly foreign-owned car factory in China, stole the show by dropping in on the Chinese capital just as Auto China opened its doors to the viewing public.

He made headlines when a video clip of his meeting with Li Qiang – after the premier visited Xiaomi’s space – was carried by state media. Not bad for a company that was not even present at the Beijing show, the second year running that Tesla Motor skipped the biggest exhibition in one of its most important markets.

Electric vehicles offer more cockpit and storage space because they eschew the bulky internal combustion engine. Chinese EV makers have begun to experiment and offer creative uses of space unseen in petrol-guzzling models, offering glimpses of what the internet-connected, spacious vehicle of the future could look like.

The Zeekr MIX electric van concept by China’s largest privately owned carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is a case in point. The most striking feature of the multipurpose vehicle (MPV) is its hidden B-pillar, enabling its front and rear doors to slide open outwards to expose three rows of seats in 6.3 square metres of interior space, 80 per cent of which is usable. The front seats can rotate to face the rear seats, creating what Zeekr calls an intelligent living room. Despite being almost 5 metres long, the vehicle boasts a turning radius of less than 5 metres.

“The typical MPV in China tends to be expensive for most families,” said Zeekr’s head of emerging markets operations Mars Chen, declining to divulge the price of the MIX concept. Zeekr’s shares rose 35 per cent in New York trading yesterday during an initial public offering that raised US$441 million, in the biggest stock sale by a Chinese company in the US since 2021.

Not to be outdone, GAC also abandoned its B-pillar in its Era crossover concept to transform its internal space into a living room to “cater for the socialising needs of up to six people”, according to the carmaker. The Era’s front and rear doors swing outwards, instead of sliding. The front seats rotate to face the rear, while the rear armrests unfold into a tea table. A screen can unfold at the rear of the vehicle for watching films.

Changan Auto, the Chinese partner of Ford Motor, went a step further. Its Avatar premium brand has a concept called the Qiyuan E07, which combines the storage space of a pickup truck with the functions of an SUV in the body of a four-door coupe. Its tail gate and sliding rear windscreen open to reveal a flat bed storage space.

Six of the world’s 10 largest makers of EV batteries are in China. Producers of automotive power sources have come a long way since Tesla’s Roadster shook up the automotive world in 2008 with a range of 320km.

The most basic EV models these days boast that range. Even the Binguo compact EV by SAIC-GM-Wuling, which claims to be the world’s cheapest EV at 59,800 yuan, can travel 203km on a charge.

A driving range of 500km to 600km is the minimum to help drivers overcome their range anxiety, while several models claim to be able to drive 1,000km (621 miles) with one charge, the driving distance from Beijing to Nanjing.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), the world’s largest EV battery producer, unveiled its 1,000km range Shenxing Plus lithium-iron phosphate battery, which uses a granular gradation technology to deliver 600km range in just 10 minutes of ultra-fast charging.

The next frontier in EV technology is sodium-ion batteries, which use abundant mineral salts, instead of lithium and cobalt, to generate electricity. Sixteen of the 20 sodium-ion battery plants under construction around the world are in China, according to Benchmark Minerals.

In April 2023, CATL, based in Ningde in Fujian province, announced a plan to install the first sodium-ion batteries in Chery’s EVs.

BYD also has a sodium-ion battery under construction in the Jiangsu provincial city of Xuzhou, with 30 gigawatt hours of capacity.

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7 curious and intriguing facts about the Great Wall of China that may not be well known to public

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/environment/article/3262250/7-curious-and-intriguing-facts-about-great-wall-china-may-not-be-well-known-public?utm_source=rss_feed

As a member of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall of China is one of the most iconic structures in the world, and with that comes misconceptions (it is not one wall) and outright falsehoods (it cannot be seen from space).

But it is also full of interesting facts that may be new information for many people. Below are seven intriguing, curious, and quirky facts about the most famous wall in the world.

While the Great Wall of China is certainly not alive, it would be a mistake to say it is inanimate.

The wall is protected by a layer of biocrusts created by cyanobacteria, mosses, lichens and microbiomes. It could be called a “living skin”, and a study published in December last year clearly outlined how the crust played a crucial role in ensuring the long-term endurance of the wall.

Traditionally, scientists have viewed plant life as potentially destructive to ancient artefacts, with roots systems potentially tearing apart the structure of the wall. But that long-held belief is being challenged, and the recently published study analysed huge portions of the wall, discovering that bare parts of the structure were far less stable than those covered in biocrust.

Rather than causing erosion, the biological layer may be doing the exact opposite by protecting the wall from the elements.

One of China’s most famous inventions is gunpowder, so it makes sense that its armies would use the explosives to defend its most precious structure.

In October last year, archaeologists unearthed nearly 60 rudimentary grenades in a weapons storehouse along the wall, adding to the over 400 such weapons discovered over the years.

The grenades date back to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and were rudimentary in design. They featured a round rock with a hole drilled into the top that would be filled with gunpowder.

The grenades were often stored inside hollow bits of stone so they could be easily retrieved in the case of an attack.

The weapons were popularised by Ming dynasty military general Qi Jiguang, who was fond of grenades while also being in a position of holding immense sway over Chinese military strategy at the time.

Basic math suggests it would take 18 months to walk across the Great Wall of China, and one family has made it part of their legacy to run the entire length.

Following their father’s footsteps, Jimmy and Tommy Lindesay covered the 3,262-kilometre (2,027-mile) journey in 131 days, a remarkable feat, especially considering the wall is famous for its steep inclines and declines.

The brothers also completed the journey at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, making the feat more complicated. But, they said their father’s journey was more challenging when he became the first foreigner to run the wall in 1987.

The Lindesays grew up in China but said the greatest challenge was handling the people who were untrustworthy of foreigners during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Great Wall of China is the world’s longest wall, but it is not the only one in the country with a Guinness World Record.

In Guanghzou in southern China, the company 21st Century Business Herald unveiled on February 22 a 39.904-metre replica of the wall made entirely of balloons.

Their depiction built outside of the Canton Tower is now the official Guinness Book of World Records holder of the title “Largest balloon sculpture of a landmark.”

The wall took 100,000 balloons to build and features three watchtowers, two corridors, and the gold-coloured balloons harken back to medieval times.

The balloon wall was built by 20 people as part of a larger campaign to raise awareness about shingles.

Despite popular imagination, the Great Wall of China is not a single structure, and it features overlapping walls build across thousands of years as well as significant gaps between the structures.

One notable segment of the wall is called the “Mongolian Arc”, and what remains can hardly be called a wall, with the trench used to build the wall being a more formidable defense structure than the wall itself.

The wall stretches across a large chunk of Inner Mongolia autonomous region in northern China and crosses into Mongolia itself.

One possibility is that the Mongolian Arc was built in haste after the Jin Empire got word of the impending invasion by Ghengis Khan in 1211, although recent research points to the hypothesis that it was an observation structure designed to manage the movement of nomadic tribes in the region.

Most depictions of the battles fought at the Great Wall of China harken back to pre-modern times, but the wall also played a crucial role in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

After the Japanese invaded Manchuria on September 18, 1931, they set their sights on further conquest of China, and the garrisons near Shanhaiguan (the “Shanhai Pass”) in north China became important targets.

Shanhaiguan is where the Great Wall meets the Pacific Ocean, and the wall represented a symbolic border between the northernmost region of Manchuria and the core of mainland China further south.

When Japan launched its attack on Shanhaiguan in January 1933, the Chinese side was defiant but outgunned. Imagine, instead of Ming-era rock grenades, the Kwantung army launching tanks, bombers and warships towards the wall.

After a day of brutal fighting, the Shanhaiguan fell into Japanese control, marking the first of a handful of WWII battles fought on the wall itself.

One of China’s four great folktales is the story of Lady Meng Jiang and Wan Xiliang, a man fleeing the Emperor’s conscription to build his Great Wall.

When Wan was discovered in Meng’s garden, he was weak from fatigue and hunger, and the couple fell in love while he was being nursed back to health.

Unfortunately for the lovebirds, a jealous villager informed authorities about Wan’s presence, and he was apprehended and sent north to work on building the wall shortly after their marriage.

When Meng did not hear back from her husband, she visited the wall to track him down, only to learn that he had died and had been buried inside the wall.

Overcome with grief, Meng wept for three days at the foot of the wall. Suddenly, a massive section of the wall stretching over 1,200 km collapsed, revealing the remains of her dearly departed and many others who died while building the wall.

In 2006, this tale was included in China’s first edition of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list published by the State Council.

US military bases and aircraft in Pacific ‘most vulnerable’ to Chinese missile strikes, lawmakers warn

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3262301/us-military-bases-and-aircraft-pacific-most-vulnerable-chinese-missile-strikes-lawmakers-warn?utm_source=rss_feed

US bases and aircraft in the Pacific are facing intense threat from Chinese missiles, and the Pentagon isn’t doing enough to counter that challenge, according to American lawmakers.

In a Wednesday letter to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, 13 members of Congress pointed out glaring vulnerabilities in the Pacific region and demanded “immediate changes.”

“We are concerned about the alarming lack of urgency by the Department of Defence in adopting such defensive measures,” these lawmakers, including the Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Representative John Moolenaar, wrote, referring to the need for more passive defences, such as hardened aircraft shelters and the dispersal of forces.

The letter paints a dire picture: China has a formidable, threatening missile force with surging numbers of ballistic missiles and launchers, significant reach, and an ability to potentially overwhelm US defences in the Pacific.

“With its current strike capabilities,” the lawmakers wrote, “China can attack all US bases in the region, targeting US service members from Okinawa to those on US territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”

And the consequences of that are severe in a potential conflict, immobilising air assets and impeding the ability of American forces and its allies to respond to a major war in the Pacific.

In the letter, lawmakers note that many of the US bases in the Pacific remain unhardened, leaving aircraft and assets vulnerable to missile strikes.

Military aircraft are exposed on airfields and in easily detectable and identifiable hangers, and while active defences such as air- and missile-defence systems are deployable, the sheer amount of Chinese missiles capable of being fired means that bases also need to have passive defences and sufficient capabilities to get the US back into the fight in the aftermath of a strike. These could be solutions ranging from hardened shelters and underground bunkers to rapid runway repair capabilities.

The lawmakers also wrote that “it is apparent that the Pentagon is not urgently pursuing needed passive defences,” referencing ongoing research by Tom Shugart, a former US navy officer who is now an adjunct senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security think tank, and Timothy A. Walton, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

The letter shared preliminary information from Shugart and Walton showed a “staggering” difference between the number of Chinese and US hardened aircraft shelters in the Pacific, noting China had built more than 400 compared to just 22 by the US. Notably, none of the US shelters were in Guam – home to Andersen Air Force Base which routinely hosts American bombers.

While none of these efforts would provide complete protection from China’s missiles, they would be an upgrade, increasing survivability and thus forcing China to scale up its barrages.

China would have to invest more into a strike to achieve a similar outcome, perhaps demanding more from the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force than it is prepared to give.

Lawmakers noted that no base hardening projects in the Pacific were part of the financial year 2024 budget and also highlighted the unfunded projects in the region that “reflect a profound lack of seriousness in strengthening the US bases closest to China and thus most vulnerable to Chinese strikes.”

The grave assessment comes as the US looks towards China as its “pacing challenge” and more defence officials and experts acknowledge a clear lack of readiness for potential conflict with Chinese forces.

Last fall, the Pentagon’s report on China’s military documented a significant build-up across its branches, particularly in its Rocket Force. All of China’s missiles able to target US forces across the Pacific region increased in number from 2021 to 2022, with some stockpiles even doubling.

While the US is adapting to the threat as it prepares for potential great-power conflict with China, former and current military leaders as well as experts and analysts have told Business Insider there’s more work to be done, especially when it comes to defending against China’s missiles.

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‘Superior capabilities’: Chinese AI can make flooding forecast for every river on Earth

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3261994/superior-capabilities-chinese-ai-can-make-flooding-forecast-every-river-earth?utm_source=rss_feed

A new artificial intelligence model that can forecast flood risk and cross-region streamflow around the world, even in basins lacking hydrological records, has been developed by scientists in China.

Called ED-DLSTM, the model does not rely on historical streamflow data like other forecasting models, instead using attributes such as elevation and precipitation.

In a paper published in peer-reviewed journal, The Innovation, on May 6, the team led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) detailed how their model outperformed others.

“We pre-trained the model on several continental scales using basins with historical monitoring data,” said Ouyang Chaojun, corresponding author and professor at the CAS Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment. He explained this can make flow predictions within basins lacking streamflow records.

In the paper, the researchers wrote: “Our proposed model achieved state-of-the-art performance in cross-region streamflow forecasting tasks relative to other machine learning models and classic hydrological models.

“Streamflow and flood forecasting remains one of the long-standing challenges in hydrology.”

This is due to limitations in calibrating physical forecasting models, particularly in ungauged catchments – areas where rain collects that lack run-off records – as well as the need to use historical streamflow information for data-based models, the researchers wrote.

Over 95 per cent of small and medium-sized basins around the world lack or have limited hydrological records, making it difficult to rely on models that need this information to forecast rainfall run-off and flooding, CAS said in a statement.

Many forecasting models require quality historical data, “highlighting the enormous challenge of developing reliable streamflow predictions for thousands of catchments without access to physical parameters or historical data,” the researchers wrote.

Recent work has also focused on forecasts for a given region, using local data that offers “no universal evaluation for streamflow prediction on a global scale,” the team said.

“Developing national or regional flood forecasting strategies … must rely on prediction of streamflow from thousands of catchments that have neither physical parameterisation nor historical record.”

To achieve this, the researchers proposed a model using only meteorological forcing inputs, such as rainfall and temperature, as well as static land attributes.

The static attributes such as soil characteristics “can be obtained from satellite data that is available worldwide,” the team said.

The researchers used historical monitoring data from 2010 to 2012 – covering more than 2,000 catchments in the United States, Canada, Central Europe and Britain – to test the accuracy of their model compared with several others.

These continent-level regions have different airflow, temperature, soil moisture and precipitation patterns that the team considered were varied enough to verify their model.

“For the first time, multiple hydrological AI models were trained and provided comparative analyses at a global-scale,” the team wrote.

Within their model, spatial attributes and climate characteristics over a time series are processed separately, which differs from other models which use an aggregation index “resulting in greater simulation and prediction bias,” Ouyang said.

“Compared with other models, ED-DLSTM demonstrates superior predictive capabilities.”

The prediction worked best in basins with heavier rainfall or more run-off, with nearly 82 per cent of these basins achieving an “excellent” average Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient above 0.6 (where 1 is the highest). Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) is a score commonly used in hydrology to assess the performance of rainfall run-off models.

The team also tested whether the model would transfer over to unstudied regions, applying it to 160 ungauged catchments in central Chile using models pre-trained on the earlier continent-level study regions.

The model pre-trained on the US was the most efficient, with nearly 77 per cent of the catchments achieving an NSE greater than 0.

Their testing verified that “the model can learn universal hydrological behaviours on different training sets,” the researchers said.

“The study demonstrates the potential of deep learning methods to overcome the ubiquitous lack of hydrologic information and deficiencies in physical model structure and parameterisation.”

Belt and Road Initiative 11 years on: are Southeast Asia-China economic ties still going strong?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3262269/belt-and-road-initiative-11-years-are-southeast-asia-china-economic-ties-still-going-strong?utm_source=rss_feed

Relations between great powers and their neighbouring regions are often fraught. The cases of the United States and Latin America, or the European Union and North Africa, come to mind.

For instance, tensions related to immigration from Latin America and North Africa, has led to the rise of right-wing populism in the US and Europe, respectively. This has fuelled the rise of populist politicians such as Donald Trump in the US and Marine Le Pen in France.

In China’s case, economic engagement has helped stabilise and strengthen its relationship with Southeast Asian countries, despite ongoing disputes in the South China Sea. One important facet of this engagement is the Belt and Road Initiative, which China launched 11 years ago.

Most of the Southeast Asian countries do not have the means to fund major infrastructure projects, resulting in an infrastructure deficit in the region. Chinese investments, including those of the Belt and Road Initiative, have thus become an important economic force in Southeast Asia. The reality is that very few economies have matched Chinese business groups’ appetite in pushing infrastructure projects, especially capital – and technology-intensive ones, which take a long time to produce returns. While other players have attempted to promote infrastructure building and other forms of cooperation in Southeast Asia, such as the EU’s Global Gateway, there is considerable room for improvement.

By contrast, Chinese firms have managed to deliver some of the most challenging projects in the region. Two recent examples come to mind: the Boten-Vientiane railway in Laos and the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in Indonesia. The generally positive reception to these projects since their opening has likely increased the appeal of similar initiatives to the public.

Indonesia’s experience in opting for China (over Japan) for its landmark railway project is worth discussing. The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway was one of the most heavily criticised Chinese projects before and during its construction. Despite some delays and dissenting voices along the way, the project began commercial operations in late 2023. Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan are evidently satisfied enough with the project’s outcome to want to continue cooperating with the state-owned China Railway Group Limited to extend the railway service to Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-biggest city.

The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has allowed Indonesian policymakers to address long-standing issues, such as the challenging task of setting up development links between Jakarta and smaller urban hubs. And, importantly, working on this project has enhanced the organisational capabilities of the Indonesian central and local governments, which will help them manage other complex undertakings in the future.

In Vietnam, ties with China have generally been cordial. Notwithstanding reservations in some quarters over the economic domination of China, the reality is a lot more nuanced. For one, Vietnam has harnessed the investment dollars of transnational corporations de-risking from China, transforming itself into a “connector economy” interlinking the US and Chinese markets.

There is another subtext here – the influx of investment and businesses triggered by the US-China competition adds positive momentum to Vietnam’s attempts to continue and even deepen the pro-market reforms it first initiated in 1986. Vietnam and China are currently in the midst of exploring strengthening rail and road infrastructure and connectivity between the Yunnan province in China and Vietnam (including Hanoi and the port city of Haiphong), through the Belt and Road Initiative.

It is true that some of China’s “Going Out” efforts have fallen short of their initial aims. Reasons for this range from political resistance in certain host economies to over-optimistic financial projections. This has led to adjustments, resulting in a shift towards “smaller, greener, and more beautiful” undertakings and projects centred on knowledge and technology, rather than resource- and labour-intensive endeavours.

In addition, ad hoc deals are transitioning towards more institutionalised arrangements, especially after the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) was established in 2018. The CIDCA represents an institutional innovation to harmonise efforts across multiple state organs, with the overarching goal of implementing and overseeing development aid projects more effectively. These transitions, while not usually mentioned in the popular media, underline an important reality of economic cooperation: real and consequential changes often happen slowly and subtly, hidden far in the background.

It is reasonable to expect some occasional pit-stops as the Belt and Road Initiative heads into its second decade in Southeast Asia. The key lies in exploring common platforms to further Southeast Asia-China cooperation. At the same time, it is important to avoid sweeping, oversimplified caricatures of Chinese capital exports. A more balanced perspective, which takes account of context-specific issues in the host economies and the region’s wider economic architecture, would be more fruitful.

Great powers and their neighbours share a common interest in fostering regional peace, prosperity, and political and economic stability. China has been instrumental in meeting the pressing need in Southeast Asia for infrastructure development through the Belt and Road Initiative, and it has in turn reaped political and economic dividends. Economic interdependence has also raised the costs of potential regional conflict. The role of the Belt and Road Initiative in managing the China-Southeast Asia relationship could serve as a valuable model for study for other great power-neighbourhood relations, such as those between the US and Latin America and between the EU and North Africa.

Guanie Lim is an Assistant Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan. The opinions in this essay are those of the writer and do not represent his organisation’s views. This article was first published by the (APP), an initiative to promote peace in Asia, housed in the NUS Asia Research Institute.

China inflation: raising costs of public services a ‘necessary step’ to offset property, debt pressures

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3262297/china-inflation-raising-costs-public-services-necessary-step-offset-property-debt-pressures?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s public sector is under pressure to raise prices for some services, including train tickets and utilities, amid tight local finances and a prolonged period of deflationary risks, analysts said.

The cost of some services has been on the rise in recent months, highlighted by a 0.8 per cent year-on-year increase and a month-on-month of 0.3 per cent in April.

Overall, China’s consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of inflation, grew by 0.3 per cent year on year in April, compared with an increase of 0.1 per cent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, China’s producer price index – which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate – declined for the 19th straight month in April after falling by 2.5 per cent year on year, compared with a fall of 2.8 per cent in March.

Unlike many Western countries that are troubled by lingering high inflation, China’s CPI has been hovering around zero since April last year, fuelling deflation fears.

The reading in April remained far below the government control target of 3 per cent, providing room for the authorities to increase prices.

In April, the price of utilities rose by 0.6 per cent from a year earlier, compared with a 0.5 per cent rise a month earlier.

The price for vehicle fuels, meanwhile, increased by 6.9 per cent year on year last month, up from a rise of 2.2 per cent in March.

Healthcare charges also rose by 1.9 per cent last month, compared with a rise of 1.7 per cent a month earlier.

The persistent property slump and rising debt piles have provided debt-ridden local governments the opportunity to increase the cost of public services, analysts said.

China Railway, the state-owned operator of the country’s massive high-speed network, announced last week a price increase of around 20 per cent on four of its major high-speed lines.

The fare increase, which will take effect from June 15, covers some busy major routes, including between Shanghai and Hangzhou, as well as between Wuhan and Guangzhou.

Last year, China Railway reported a net profit of 3.3 billion yuan (US$457 million) after a prolonged period of heavy losses due to the coronavirus.

Its operating revenue rose by 10.6 per cent to 1.25 trillion yuan in 2023, while total liabilities rose to 6.13 trillion yuan from 6.11 trillion yuan, according to its annual report released at the end of April.

On Thursday, Guangzhou, the capital city of southern China’s Guangdong province, held a public hearing on increasing tap water prices, citing the need to “compensate the cost of urban water supply enterprises” as prices have remained unchanged since 2012.

The municipal government announced two plans to upgrade its tiered pricing mechanism, both of which would suggest a rise of 24 per cent or 30 per cent from the current 1.98 yuan (27 US cents) per cubic metre charge for most households.

The price increase is expected to lift revenues from water sales by about 1.175 billion yuan per year, according to the municipal government.

“This is a necessary step as the government’s main sources of public spending – land sales and tax revenues – are facing prolonged negative growth, while the cost of public services is rising,” said Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform.

“The extended downturn in the housing market has led to stagnant consumer prices, so the government is trying to counter the risk of deflation by proactively raising the prices of public services.”

The plans to increase prices in multiple cities follow tiered pricing structures based on residents’ usage.

Given that low-income groups consume less water, gas and electricity, the price increases impose less pressure on low-income groups, Peng added.

“Price rises are alleviating local government debt pressures. With market confidence gradually warming up and deflation easing, increasing CPI means the price of public services are expected to continue rising in the future,” Peng said.

Average gas prices in 36 Chinese cities rose by 6 per cent last year, Tianfeng Securities said last week.

Should the average price of water, electricity and gas in China rise by between 4 and 8 per cent this year, it could push up China’s CPI by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent, the report added.

Misinformation row hits tiny China ‘cabinet flat’ where man sleeps with legs bent, uses bottle as toilet

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3261695/misinformation-row-hits-tiny-china-cabinet-flat-where-man-sleeps-legs-bent-uses-bottle-toilet?utm_source=rss_feed

A tiny living space occupied by a migrant worker in China has caused consternation on mainland social media amid an ongoing official clampdown on online misinformation.

The 1.5-metre-long plumbing cabinet in Shanghai appears to be the rented home of a 25-year-old man who stands 1.7 metres tall, meaning he has to sleep every night with his knees bent.

In a viral video on Douyin, China’s TikTok, a vlogger sought to cast doubt on the worker’s story.

“Is this a drawer?” the vlogger asks as he follows the man through the residential building towards a tiny unlocked cabinet filled with daily necessities.

“Are you really living here and not just putting on a show? This is not for streaming but just to survive?” the vlogger adds.

A report in the state-owned local newspaper Jiefang Daily suggested that the man’s story was not true and referred to an ongoing government crackdown on internet misinformation.

However, the self-proclaimed cabinet-dweller has provided background information to back up his claims.

The worker found the property through an online broker and rented the cabinet within it.

He was told it was only for storing luggage but moved in any way, the Jiefang Daily report said.

The man is alleged to have received 600 yuan (US$80) in viewer donations during live-streaming sessions documenting his cabinet life. Of this, the social media platform, Douyin, took half.

China’s Cyberspace Administration has long been committed to combating misinformation on the internet.

The worker’s videos happened to coincide with a special official campaign targeting misinformation on social media platforms which began on April 21.

“Driven by the logic of traffic, basic principles of integrity have long been disregarded. There must be stricter rules to regulate such accounts,” the newspaper said.

The report did not reveal who had “exposed” the cabinet dweller, nor whether he had faced any penalty.

“I use a ‘navy seal sleep technique’ and I can adapt to it well,” the worker joked.

The space has bare concrete walls with exposed water pipes, revealing that it is used for plumbing. The worker said he uses the pipes as shelving.

He uses a public toilet 300 metres away and turns to a plastic water bottle during the night. Water from a larger bottle is used for bathing.

On the day the video was shot, the worker had been in Shanghai for eight days and was paying 50 yuan (US$7) a month for the accommodation.

The average rent for a one-bedroom flat in Shanghai is more than 5,134 yuan (US$710) per month.

He gets free meals by working at a temple as a cleaner and buys instant noodles for one yuan (14 US cents) per pack, using hot water from his workplace to soak them.

“I take vitamin pills to maintain bodily functions,” he added.

The story has caused much debate on mainland social media.

“The landlord is heartless for renting out such a place.” said one online observer.

“The more you watch, the more unsettling it feels. The world shouldn’t be like this,” added another.

However, others continued to suggest the migrant worker’s story was made up.

“I am fed up with the misinformation,” said another observer.

“It’s obviously fake,” added a second.

However, others expressed sympathy for the worker.

“When I first saw it, I thought it was staged. But now that the rumors have been dispelled, it turns out he did rent this storage space and moved in for real,” one person said.

Taiwan finds concerns grow and options shrink as mainland China increases patrols around Taipei-controlled Quemoy

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3262227/taiwan-finds-concerns-grow-and-options-shrink-mainland-china-increases-patrols-around-taipei?utm_source=rss_feed

The increased presence of mainland Chinese coastguard ships patrolling the waters around Taiwan-controlled Quemoy has left Taipei with a dilemma regarding the most appropriate steps to assert its claim.

Under Taiwan’s rules of engagement and “first strike” policy, relevant authorities are authorised to target and, in serious cases, open fire on vessels persistently violating warnings by remaining within the waters of Quemoy, a Taiwanese defence outpost also known as Kinmen.

However, analysts caution that the island’s authorities have limited options in enforcing these rules, as tougher actions could escalate into unintended cross-strait conflict, a scenario even the United States seeks to avoid.

Since late February, the mainland coastguard has deployed several dozen ships in at least nine missions to patrol the waters surrounding Quemoy and Matsu, another of Taiwan’s defence outposts.

These patrols, which were previously rare, were prompted by an incident on February 14 in which two mainland Chinese fishermen died during a pursuit by the Taiwanese coastguard after their boat entered the prohibited waters of the Quemoy archipelago. Beijing and Taipei exchanged accusations over who was responsible for the fishermen’s deaths.

In the past week alone, the Fujian branch of the mainland coastguard has conducted five missions in waters near Quemoy as part of its “regular law enforcement patrols”. This includes five coastguard ships, which on Thursday took part in an exercise alongside seven official mainland vessels, and three fishing boats within the restricted waters of Quemoy, according to Taiwan’s coastguard.

A further four Fujian coastguard boats were observed patrolling the area at the same time as the exercise on Thursday, as reported by the Taiwanese coastguard, which later sent ships to shadow and warn them off.

The increased frequency of patrols has raised concern among lawmakers in Taiwan, particularly following reports of Fujian coastguard ships entering the restricted and prohibited waters of Quemoy where they stayed for more than an hour before being warned off by Taiwan’s coastguard.

“The actions of the Chinese coastguard are not only provocative but also disregard international norms and undermine the cross-strait status quo,” remarked Wang Ting-yu, a lawmaker from the ruling, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.

Hsu Chiao-hsin, a lawmaker from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), cautioned that Beijing may make changes to the boundaries of Taiwan’s restricted and prohibited waters in future because of the frequent “routine patrols” by the mainland coastguard near Quemoy.

In a written inquiry to the island’s cabinet on Wednesday, KMT lawmaker Lo Chih-chiang asked the DPP government to “effectively address these missions, as they risk becoming the ‘new normal’, which could undermine our sovereignty and dignity”.

“We demand a clear explanation from the government regarding the mechanisms that our coastguard and defence ministry can implement to safeguard our sovereignty and protect our people from shocks and disturbances,” he said.

In response, the defence ministry said Taiwan controlled those waters, stating that any mainland vessels sailing into those waters were considered in breach of Taiwan’s authority.

“The current enforcement tasks in those waters are managed by [Taiwan’s] Coast Guard Administration, with the military providing support for it,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that the two departments “monitor military and non-military activities of mainland vessels around Taiwan … share information, assess potential subsequent actions and coordinate responses”.

In the past, Beijing tacitly respected the restricted and prohibited waters unilaterally drawn by the island as the unofficial boundaries between Quemoy and the mainland coastal city of Xiamen, which are just 6km (3.7 miles) apart, and between Matsu and the mainland coastal city of Fuzhou, which are 9km apart at their nearest points.

Following the cross-strait dispute over the fishermen’s deaths, Beijing declared there was “no such thing as prohibited and restricted waters” as the entire waterways in the Taiwan Strait belonged to the mainland.

Analysts said the issue created a dilemma for the DPP government, which has vowed to resort to its first strike engagement measure to target mainland vessels and aircraft that defy warnings by entering Taiwanese space.

“It could lead to a cross-strait conflict if the Taiwanese side opens fire on the encroaching mainland coastguard or military vessels,” cautioned Max Lo, executive director of the Taiwan International Strategic Study Society think tank in Taipei.

“Considering that these patrols were conducted by the mainland coastguard rather than the PLA, despite their provocative nature the governing authorities can only exercise caution, apart from issuing warnings, even if it means compromising Taiwan’s dignity,” he said.

James Yifan Chen, a professor of diplomacy and international relations at Tamkang University in New Taipei said the island’s defence ministry would “simply observe rather than take action”.

“Also, sending Taiwan’s naval ships to respond to Chinese coastguard ships may further escalate the tension; either the outgoing Tsai [Ing-wen] administration or the incoming Lai administration will be very cautious without getting Washington’s [nod],” he said.

President-elect William Lai Ching-te will succeed his DPP colleague Tsai on May 20. Shortly after the fishing boat incident, the US called for Beijing and Taipei to be restrained and settle their dispute peacefully to “reduce the risk of miscalculation”.

Beijing sees Taiwan as its territory and has not renounced the use of force to take it back. The United States – Taipei’s biggest arms supplier – in common with most countries, does not recognise Taiwan as independent but it is opposed to any attempt to take the island by force.

Chen said the People’s Liberation Army had seized the opportunity to turn its war games into real exercises around Taiwan since then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi defied Beijing’s repeated warnings by visiting Taipei in August 2022. The PLA staged mega live-fire war games surrounding the island a day after her visit, a trip Beijing called a breach of its sovereignty and the US one-China policy.

“People in Taiwan do not really see the Tsai administration’s tough stance against the real threat,” he said. He pointed out that with more PLA sorties approaching Taiwan’s north – some as close as 30 nautical miles off the island – Taiwan’s response was viewed as “too weak”, limited to “simply monitoring and [issuing] daily tracking press releases”.

“Sometimes, you have to do something to show your determination to protect Taiwan. The DPP cannot just defend Taiwan with their lip service,” he said.

Chen urged Lai to “try hard to restore basic routine communication channels” by extending goodwill to Beijing in his inaugural speech. Even though the mainland might not have expectations of the incoming leader, Lai could “surprise Beijing and make a good start which Washington will be glad to see,” he said.

Beijing has labelled Lai a “separatist” who could bring war to Taiwan. Late last month, Lai called for party-to-party talks with Beijing as long as there was “parity and dignity”. Cross-strait exchanges were suspended by the mainland in 2016 after Tsai took office and refused to accept the one-China principle.

Meanwhile, Chieh Chung, a security analyst at the National Policy Foundation, a think tank affiliated with the KMT, said Beijing aimed to “overturn the previous tacit understanding that its official vessels would not enter the restricted waters of Quemoy”.

“After fully establishing a new-reality enforcement authority and jurisdiction in those waters, the mainland will not cease its law enforcement patrols there,” Chieh said, adding that Beijing, however, would “exercise relative restraint as it is aware that any serious provocation could escalate into cross-strait conflict”.

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Never mind China, restoring US shipbuilding glory is a pipe dream

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3262080/never-mind-china-restoring-us-shipbuilding-glory-pipe-dream?utm_source=rss_feed

In March last year, The Wall Street Journal captured the state of US paranoia with the headline, “Pentagon sees giant cargo cranes as possible Chinese spying tools”. It seems once the paranoia virus is embedded, there can be only one direction of travel. If you believe China is intent on undermining and overthrowing the US and the family of Western democracies, it seems no evidence can expunge that belief.

The paranoid’s conviction is that the Chinese are using all means possible to subvert the US and its citizens. The latest flurry is emerging around a suite of “threats” to global supply chains – in particular shipbuilding, containers, port cranes and logistics management software.

Two new moves are a February executive order by US President Joe Biden to strengthen cybersecurity at US ports and a March petition by the United Steelworkers union calling for a trade investigation into Chinese commercial shipbuilding aimed at stopping China-made ships from using US ports.

The first involves a related US$20 billion of investment to improve port infrastructure. The second involves efforts to resurrect the moribund US shipbuilding industry. The initiatives smack of tilting at windmills. But they are also driven by alarm over China’s overwhelming dominance in shipping and logistics.

The numbers are stark. The latest UN data shows China as the leading shipbuilder with 47 per cent of the global gross tonnage of new commercial vessels in 2022. Together with South Korea and Japan, the three countries accounted for 93 per cent of the total. Put another way, China built 1,000 ocean-going vessels last year while the US produced 10.

At a time of post-pandemic “de-risking” and perfectly reasonable efforts to ensure resiliency in the world’s supply chains, such a scale of US shipbuilding dependency is a matter of concern. But are its latest responses practical or achievable?

Given that China has for several years accounted for almost half of the world’s newly-built ships, how could the US possibly maintain its global trade if it banned China-made ships? And how many decades would it take for the US to build up enough shipbuilding facilities to provide any semblance of self-reliance?

China’s dominance does not simply rest on its leadership in shipbuilding – born out of a need to carry its imports and exports, including between its many inland ports – but also on its strengths in areas from shipping containers and port cranes to port logistics software.

China, for instance, makes an estimated over 95 per cent of the world’s shipping containers. Is the US thinking about banning China-made containers too?

China also accounts for most of the giant new gantry cranes that lift containers onto and off ships across the world’s ports. Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, also known as ZPMC, controls around 70 per cent of the global market and supplies most of the roughly 200 cranes in use at US ports.

Another paranoia-fed nightmare concerns America’s reliance on China’s Logink, a logistics supply chain platform that has become the pre-eminent container and port management platform in most ports worldwide. China provides it, often for free, in many of the 96 ports worldwide in which it has investments.

Given that China accounts for much of the world’s shipping container traffic and has over half of the world’s 10 biggest container ports, its development of the Logink platform seems perfectly natural, and it can deliver speedier and more efficient handling of containers between ports around the world.

But for the US, Logink constitutes a profound threat. “Logink’s installation and utilisation in critical port infrastructure very likely provides the [People’s Republic of China] access to and/or collection of sensitive logistics data,” warns the Department of Transportation Maritime Administration.

The link to a national security threat is simple: the US has an estimated 170,000 troops spread around 750 bases across the world, and most of the military equipment, supplies and fuel are transported by sea in contracted cargo vessels. In theory, much of this movement could be tracked using Logink.

This perhaps explains why the White House statement accompanying Biden’s executive order said: “The security of our critical infrastructure remains a national imperative in an increasingly complex threat environment.”

The likelihood that this suite of Chinese threats to national security will go away is small. China’s shipbuilders have orders in hand of around 140 million deadweight tonnes, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology – about three years of work.

With the world shipping industry promising to “decarbonise” the global fleet by 2050, and over 98 per cent of this fleet running on fossil fuel, demand for new clean vessels is set to soar.

Even though Biden says he aims to rebuild the US shipbuilding sector, most experts see this as a pipe dream. Not only would it take decades to construct shipbuilding capacity, but after decades of neglect, the US lacks marine engineers and architects.

If China’s dominance is to be diluted, the main beneficiaries are likely to be shipbuilding powerhouses such as South Korea and Japan, or even the dark horse Vietnam, which has significant container-building capacity.

Concern over China’s dominance in a large number of areas is a legitimate concern, as is “de-risking” and ensuring economic resilience. But the US’ Sinophobia is more hindrance than help – and since paranoia feeds powerfully on itself, any change may be a long time coming.

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TikTok automatically tags external AI-generated content as Chinese version Douyin works on similar standard

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3262253/tiktok-automatically-tags-external-ai-generated-content-chinese-version-douyin-works-similar?utm_source=rss_feed

TikTok’s Chinese sibling Douyin is working on technologies similar to what has been adopted by its global counterpart to automatically label artificial-intelligence-generated content (AIGC) reposted from external platforms.

TikTok announced on Thursday that it began automatically labelling AIGC from other services by detecting metadata tagged to the images or videos. The feature will soon be extended to audio, the company said.

Douyin and TikTok, both owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, have for the past year required creators to label AIGC uploaded to their respective platforms. TikTok has already been automatically labelling content created with the app’s own AI effects.

TikTok’s initiative is separate from that of Douyin, which may choose not to use the same tagging tool because the two apps target different markets, according to a person familiar with the matter.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The tagging technology, developed by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), attaches tamper-resistant metadata to all types of content, making it simpler to recognise the source of information.

Google, Meta Platforms, Adobe and ChatGPT creator OpenAI have all announced plans to implement C2PA’s “content credentials” technique. TikTok said on Thursday it will also adopt the technique over the next months, so that other platforms can verify content reposted from the app.

But metadata tagging is not perfect, because it is not yet possible to identify all AIGC and there are ways to get around it, such as by taking a screenshot of an AIGC image, although the “content credentials” technique will indicate files that do not have historical data, according to C2PA.

Douyin, which has more than 600 million daily active users, has been working on a similar initiative in China. In May last year, it published a standard for adding labels and metadata to AIGC, but it has yet to reach industry-wide adoption.

It comes amid rising public scrutiny in China and abroad over the harmful impact of AI.

Douyin, for example, received complaints earlier this year from a Ukrainian YouTuber, who said her face and voice had been cloned to create videos of a fake Russian woman selling products in China. She was angry not only because her identity was stolen, but also because her homeland is at war with Russia.

Last year, a Chinese clothing brand came under fire for using AI to change the face of a salesperson to resemble actress and singer Yang Mi during a live-streaming session.

Beijing adds 8 mainland Chinese cities to Hong Kong solo traveller scheme, with residents in parts of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet to benefit

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3262295/beijing-adds-8-mainland-chinese-cities-hong-kong-solo-traveller-scheme-residents-parts-inner?utm_source=rss_feed

Tourists from eight mainland Chinese cities in remote areas such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet will be able to visit Hong Kong without joining group tours after Beijing announced it would further expand a solo traveller scheme to boost the sector.

The National Immigration Administration said on Saturday residents in the cities would be able to apply to visit from May 27.

It said the eight places were: Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province; Hohhot in China’s northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region; Harbin in the country’s northeast province of Heilongjiang; Lhasa in Tibet; Lanzhou in Gansu; Xining in Qinghai; Ningxia’s regional capital, Yinchuan; and Urumqi in Xinjiang.

Under the Individual Visit Scheme, tourists can apply for a visa which allows them to stay in Hong Kong or Macau for no more than seven days.

Authorities announced the move just two days after Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, told tourism chief Kevin Yeung Yun-hung that the local administration must revitalise its offerings amid “profound changes” in the market and treat every corner of the city as a ­potential spot to lure visitors.

More to follow ...

US and China set to meet this year in Azerbaijan to discuss methane emission reductions

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3262291/us-and-china-set-meet-year-azerbaijan-discuss-methane-emission-reductions?utm_source=rss_feed

The US and China plan to meet later this year in Azerbaijan in a bid to reduce methane emissions, according to an American read-out released on Friday in Washington after two days of climate talks between the two giant emitters.

The second US-China summit on methane and non-CO2 greenhouse gases is slated to take place in November during the United Nations’ top climate conference, the read-out stated. It follows last year’s meeting on the topic in the United Arab Emirates.

The talks on Wednesday and Thursday marked the first face-to-face meeting between the two countries’ new climate envoys: John Podesta and Liu Zhenmin. Podesta succeeded former White House adviser John Kerry, and Liu, Xie Zhenhua.

Washington’s dialogue built on preliminary discussions their predecessors initiated last November in Sunnylands, California, during a summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The two sides committed to promote bilateral cooperation and conduct capacity building,” the read-out said.

“They exchanged experiences and challenges with respect to their respective climate policies and actions, with a view to responding meaningfully to the climate crisis and beyond.”

The US aimed to curtail other greenhouse gases as well, the read-out added, including tropospheric ozone precursors and industrial nitrous oxide, commonly known as nitro.

The former results from chemical reactions during the combustion of fossil fuels like petrol and diesel, while the latter is used extensively in the automotive industry to enhance the performance of internal-combustion engines.

Both sides also agreed to bolster political and technical exchanges to mitigate deforestation and expedite urban transformation towards sustainable, low-carbon cities.

Washington and Beijing further committed to “accelerate” efforts to decrease China’s coal consumption and reach the US objective of 100 per cent clean-energy production.

They agreed to meet again in Berkeley, California, on May 29 and 30 for a high-level bilateral event covering subnational climate action.

Amid the statements projecting unity, the Podesta-Liu dialogue failed to yield an agreement on the most contentious issues on the climate agenda, including a US plan to increase tariffs on China’s solar-power and electric-vehicle industries.

During testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo voiced concern about the data Chinese vehicles could gather on Americans.

In addition, the Biden administration is reportedly preparing next week to announce new tariffs on Chinese electric cars, raising rates from the current 25 per cent to as much as 100 per cent.

Last month, American authorities asked South Korean firm Hanwha Q Cells to revoke an exemption under which leading solar-panel technologies from China and other nations could be imported without tariffs, according to Reuters.

This action was designed to close loopholes exploited by the Chinese solar-power sector to dodge tariffs levied by Washington on direct imports from China.

That followed a vow by the US Commerce Department last August to impose import duties on Chinese solar-panel producers who complete their products in Southeast Asia, purportedly to mask their origin and evade American import duties.

Wanted in the South China Sea: more marine peace parks

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3261835/wanted-south-china-sea-more-marine-peace-parks?utm_source=rss_feed

From bleached coral reefs and dwindling fish stocks to plastic garbage patches, it is evident that our oceans are in crisis. In response, there has been a notable increase in the number of marine protected areas during the past decade.

Among those, the Marine Conservation Institute has recently identified three remarkable ones for the annual Blue Park award: Tristan da Cunha which is part of a British overseas territory, Gitdisdzu Lugyeks in Canada and Siete Pecados Marine Park in the Philippines. These parks have joined a growing network of 30 distinguished “blue parks” worldwide, all striving to knit together a protective web for marine life to safeguard critical habitats, foster resilience and preserve the unparalleled beauty of the oceans.

Marine protected areas are an effective management tool for promoting biodiversity conservation and fostering sustainable ocean activities, which yield important environmental and socioeconomic benefits.

However, the pursuit of blue parks faces significant challenges as it aims to harmonise ecological, climate and biodiversity goals within existing policies spanning national boundaries. Successful transboundary conservation demands cooperation and coordination among the concerned states.

Scientist and author Callum Roberts wrote in his book The Ocean of Life that our oceans are undergoing rapid changes unlike any others seen in Earth’s history, and he emphasises that humans are the primary drivers of this transformation.

This sentiment is common among marine experts, underscoring the global scope of human influence and the urgent need for collective action to mitigate the impacts of our activities. Roberts writes that “the geologic record gives us more than enough reasons to terrify us into action”.

The global tally of marine protected areas now stands at more than 18,000, with roughly 8 per cent of the world’s oceans covered by these areas. Marine protected areas cover 18.3 per cent of national waters – those within a country’s exclusive economic zone – and just 1.4 per cent of the high seas, which are beyond any one country’s jurisdiction.

These blue parks around the world are making great contributions to the conservation of biodiversity, maintenance of genetic resources and restoration of endangered fauna and flora in the ocean. For instance, the Cu Lao Cham Marine Protected Area in Vietnam, a group of islands off the nation’s central coast, hosts many valuable terrestrial and marine plants and animals which are rare or endangered species. In 2005, Vietnam designated seven of these islands as a marine protected area.

Since then, Cu Lao Cham has become a model for marine conservation and was designated by Unesco as a global biosphere reserve in 2009. It earned this recognition not only for the restoration of marine ecosystems but also its contribution to the development of green tourism, which has created more sustainable livelihoods for local people.

In addition to protecting the ocean, transboundary marine protected areas, also known as marine peace parks, can also help prevent conflict while preserving and developing cooperation, friendship and peace among neighbouring countries. Some examples include the Red Sea Marine Peace Park, established in 1994 by Israel and Jordan in the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area, set up by the Philippines and Malaysia in 1996 in the South China Sea.

The South China Sea was also on the agenda at last month’s Westpac International Marine Science Conference, which was held in Bangkok in concert with the second UN Ocean Decade Regional Conference. A forum on local environment management, ecosystem coordination and sustainable use in the South China Sea said “improvement of [marine protected area] effectiveness is needed to reverse the degradation of habitats and living resources at the local level,” according to the programme’s lead convenor Vo Si Tuan.

Elsewhere, despite ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, coastal countries across the Mediterranean have been able to cooperate effectively to protect the region’s marine ecosystem and living resources under the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Mediterranean Action Plan.

In particular, they have established specially protected areas to safeguard coastal and marine ecosystems in the region, ensuring their long-term viability and maintaining biological diversity. It is noteworthy that almost two dozen Mediterranean governments and the European Union recognised the required collective effort to address marine pollution, resulting in coordinated policies and jointly monitored research efforts.

The newly formed Transnational Red Sea Centre, designed to protect the ecosystems in the region, offers a promising example of regional science collaboration. Developed in cooperation and with support from the Foreign Ministry of Switzerland, the centre’s objective affirms that no region is so prone to conflict as to place science cooperation beyond reach.

The ocean continues to play a central role in geopolitics from the Red Sea to the South China Sea. Despite numerous obstacles, the ocean science community and people around the world – particularly those who live on vulnerable coastlines – are actively engaged in addressing pressing issues such as climate change, rising sea levels, plastic pollution, coral reef degradation and overfishing.

In recognising that effective policy shifts necessitate a consensus of knowledge and concerted political action, coastal nations are striving to chart a course towards a more sustainable future.

Xi Jinping’s Serbia visit elevates China as ‘natural partner’ for hi-tech, advanced arms sales, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3262221/xi-jinpings-serbia-visit-elevates-china-natural-partner-hi-tech-advanced-arms-sales-analysts-say?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Serbia is likely to increase hi-tech weapons ties between the two countries, and intensify a “competition for influence” in the Balkans between the United States and China for advanced arms sales, analysts said.

During Xi’s meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, the two sides agreed to jointly develop “new quality productive forces” and build hi-tech industrial cooperation projects, while also pledging to “deepen cooperation in space science and technology”, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Xi also wrote an opinion piece that was published in Serbia’s Politika newspaper on Tuesday and said: “We should expand cooperation in technological innovation, advanced manufacturing, green energy, digital economy, artificial intelligence and other emerging areas.”

Xi framed the visit as “opening a new chapter” in bilateral relations during his meeting with Vucic, as 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”.

Although it did not specify military cooperation, the joint statement issued afterward said both sides promised to cooperate in fighting terrorism.

The deal to boost hi-tech industry and anti-terrorism cooperation comes as Serbia has been increasing military ties with China, notably in procuring advanced weapons systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and missile defence systems.

Serbia – the only European country operating Chinese weapons – runs a military that is based on Soviet technology. Russia is one of its main suppliers as a result of centuries-old cultural and political ties.

In 2020, Beijing delivered six Chinese-made CH-92A combat drones along with 18 FT-8C laser-guided missiles to Belgrade.

In 2023, Serbia acquired Chinese CH-95 UAVs, and in February, Vucic announced that Belgrade would buy even more of the drones.

Belgrade bought China’s FK-3 surface-to-air defence system – an export variant of the HQ-22 missile system – in 2019, taking delivery in 2022.

The Chinese missile defence system is comparable to Russia’s S-300 and the US Patriot system.

“Chinese surface-to-air missiles provide Serbia deterrence against potential Nato interventions in the future should those tensions escalate into conflict,” Timothy Heath, a senior international defence researcher at the Rand Corporation think tank, said.

“The drones are useful for combat operations against potential adversaries such as Kosovo and other Balkan nations.”

Vucic previously described the FK-3 and other weapons as a “powerful deterrent” against potential attackers, a reference to Nato’s 78-day bombardment of Serbia during its conflict with the mainly ethnic Albanian territory of Kosovo in 1999. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, which Serbia and its close partners, including China, have rejected.

Vuk Vuksanovic, a senior researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, said Serbia’s weapons purchase from China was a “multifaceted process” to replace outdated weapons systems dating back to the days of the former Yugoslavia.

He said that a re-emergence of war in the Balkans was unlikely, but weapons procurement could be used as a tool to be “politically provocative towards the neighbours”.

“We will see more weapons proliferation … in the domain of armed drones because Serbia is the largest drone operator in the Balkans, and other countries will want to match that capability,” Vuksanovic said.

“In this process, China will be an occasional arms supplier with Serbia, but Serbia will still be mindful of the American factor in these dealings with China.”

Martin Sebena, a lecturer at the University Hong Kong who specialises in China-Europe relations, said Serbia would purchase a sizeable number of weapons from other countries, with China emerging as a “natural partner” in its efforts to diversify from its Russia-centric weapons supply chain.

“What helped also has been the good relationship between the two countries, irrespective of who currently governs in Belgrade,” Sebena said.

“The scope of the purchases from China increased after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which would be primarily a result of Russia being currently unable to deliver the quality and quantity required, but also partly [due] to China’s increasing quality in certain military technologies, such as drones.”

Twenty-five years after the end of Kosovo war, open tensions and hostility between the Serbian government and authorities in Kosovo remain.

“There is a risk that if a crisis erupts in the Balkans, the situation could quickly internationalise, with the US and Nato on one side and China and Russia on the other,” Heath said.

“I do not think this would result in a direct clash between Nato and Chinese or Russian forces, but Moscow and Beijing could intervene indirectly through arms sales, intelligence support, and other forms of indirect assistance.”

China’s arms sales and security cooperation with Serbia were “destined to increase”, and their defence ties could possibly expand to include more military training and intelligence cooperation, Heath added.