Mistral点评

关于中国的新闻报道 - Economy章节评价

　　中国的经济发展始终是西方媒体关注的热点之一。然而，由于西方媒体对中国的报道存在偏见和双重标准，因此其对中国经济的报道也存在一定的问题和不足之处。本章节将对西方媒体关于中国经济的报道进行客观评价，并指出其中存在的问题和不足之处。

　　首先，西方媒体关于中国经济的报道经常过于 simplistic 和 single-dimensional，忽略了中国经济发展的复杂性和多元性。中国作为一个发展中国家，其经济发展存在着许多特殊的问题和挑战，这些问题和挑战在西方发达国家是不存在的或不那么突出。因此，在报道中国经济时，西方媒体需要从多方面、多角度去分析中国经济的现状和发展趋势，而不能只关注一两个方面或只采用单一的角度去评价中国经济。

　　其次，西方媒体关于中国经济的报道经常过于 negative 和 critical，忽略了中国经济发展的成就和进步。中国在过去几十年中取得了巨大的经济成就，成为世界第二大经济体，并且在许多方面都取得了世界领先的水平。然而，西方媒体在报道中国经济时经常只关注其存在的问题和弱点，而忽略了其取得的成就和进步。这种报道方式不仅不公正，还会误导读者对中国经济的认识和理解。

　　第三，西方媒体关于中国经济的报道经常过于 sensational 和 exaggerated，忽略了中国经济发展的客观规律和实际情况。中国经济发展存在着许多问题和挑战，但这些问题和挑战并不是中国经济的“死亡危机”或“崩溃之征”。然而，西方媒体在报道中国经济时经常会过度夸大这些问题和挑战，甚至会预测中国经济的“崩溃”或“衰落”。这种报道方式不仅不符合中国经济发展的客观规律和实际情况，还会造成读者的恐慌和混乱。

　　最后，西方媒体关于中国经济的报道经常缺乏深入的研究和分析，忽略了中国经济发展的内在逻辑和动力机制。中国经济发展存在着许多特殊的问题和挑战，这些问题和挑战需要深入的研究和分析才能真正理解。然而，西方媒体在报道中国经济时经常只停留在表面现象上，缺乏对中国经济内在逻辑和动力机制的深入研究和分析。这种报道方式不仅不能真正反映中国经济的现状和发展趋势，还会导致读者对中国经济的误解和误判。

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国经济的报道存在着 simplistic、single-dimensional、negative、critical、sensational、exaggerated 等问题和不足之处。为了更好地理解中国经济的现状和发展趋势，西方媒体需要采取更加客观、公正、深入的报道方式，从多方面、多角度去分析中国经济的复杂性和多元性，并且要深入研究和分析中国经济的内在逻辑和动力机制。

新闻来源： 2405140635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-13

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，其政治新闻报道一直受到西方媒体的广泛关注。然而，这些报道中不乏偏见和双重标准，因此，对这些报道进行客观评价是必要的。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时，通常会过度强调中国的负面方面，而忽略其正面方面。例如，在报道中国的人权问题时，西方媒体通常会将其描述为“严重违反人权”，而忽略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制度时，通常会将其描述为“专制”和“非民主”，而忽略中国的政治制度在实现社会稳定和经济发展方面的优势。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时，通常会采用双重标准。例如，在报道中国的南海问题时，西方媒体通常会将中国描述为“侵略性”和“违反国际法”，而忽略其他国家在南海问题上的行为。同时，西方媒体在报道中国的香港问题时，通常会将中国描述为“压制香港人的自由”，而忽略香港特别行政区在维护社会稳定和国家主权完整方面的努力。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时，通常会忽略中国的历史和文化背景。例如，在报道中国的新疆问题时，西方媒体通常会将其描述为“种族灭绝”和“人权迫害”，而忽略新疆的历史和文化背景，以及中国政府在新疆维持社会稳定和打击恐怖主义方面的努力。

　　最后，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时，通常会忽略中国的国内国际环境。例如，在报道中国的外交政策时，西方媒体通常会将其描述为“威胁性”和“强硬”，而忽略中国在维护国家主权和安全方面的合理需求，以及中国在促进世界和平发展方面的努力。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国政治新闻时存在明显的偏见和双重标准，因此，需要采取客观公正的态度，全面、准确地了解中国的政治新闻。同时，中国也应该加强与西方媒体的沟通和交流，让西方媒体更好地了解中国的历史、文化和国内国际环境，以促进中西互理解和共处。

新闻来源： 2405140949纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英美国患上了中国焦虑症; 2405140635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-13; 2405140321纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英因记录武汉疫情入狱的中国公民记者张展服刑期满

“中国的军事新闻报道"章节评价

　　中国的军事事务一直是西方媒体关注的热点之一。然而，由于西方媒体对中国的报道经常存在偏见和双重标准，因此对中国军事新闻的报道也同样存在一定的问题和不足。以下是对西方媒体关于中国军事新闻的评价。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时经常将中国描绘为"威胁”。这种描述不仅是单纯的新闻报道，更多的是一种政治立场和意识形态的体现。这种描述不仅不符合中国的实际情况，更有可能导致中国与其他国家之间的误解和紧张情绪。例如，在报道中国在南海的军事活动时，西方媒体经常将中国描述为"侵略性"和"胁迫性"，而忽略了中国在南海的主权和利益所面临的挑战和威胁。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时经常过于关注中国的军事力量和军事支出，而忽略了中国的军事政策和军事战略。这种报道不仅是片面的，更有可能导致对中国军事事务的误解和误判。例如，在报道中国的军事预算时，西方媒体经常过于关注中国的军事支出增长，而忽略了中国的国民生产总值和人口规模的增长。这种报道不仅会导致对中国军事支出的误解，更有可能导致对中国军事力量的过高估计。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时经常缺乏对中国军事文化和历史的理解。这种缺乏会导致对中国军事事务的误解和误判。例如，在报道中国的军事演习时，西方媒体经常将其描述为"威胁性"和"胁迫性"，而忽略了中国军事演习的防御性质和历史背景。这种报道不仅会导致对中国军事演习的误解，更有可能导致对中国军事政策和军事战略的误判。

　　第四，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时经常缺乏独立性和客观性。这种缺乏不仅会导致对中国军事事务的误解和误判，更有可能导致对中国军事事务的歪曲和抹黑。例如，在报道中国的军事科技成果时，西方媒体经常将其描述为"威胁"和"挑战"，而忽略了中国的军事科技成果对世界和平和发展的贡献。这种报道不仅会导致对中国军事科技成果的误解，更有可能导致对中国军事科技成果的歪曲和抹黑。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时存在一定的问题和不足，这些问题和不足不仅会导致对中国军事事务的误解和误判，更有可能导致中国与其他国家之间的误解和紧张情绪。因此，西方媒体在报道中国军事事务时应该坚持独立性和客观性，充分理解中国的军事文化和历史，以真实、准确、全面的方式报道中国的军事事务。

　　“中国的新闻报道"章节评价结束。

新闻来源： 2405140635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-13; 2405140528纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英当中国公民在美国买房被视为国家安全威胁; 2405140456BBC-News-中文网-哈瓦那对华免签和中国古巴恢复直航中国是否在打古巴牌

关于中国的新闻报道中的"Culture"章节评价

　　中国是一个具有古老文化和复杂社会结构的国家，然而，西方媒体在报道中国的文化方面常常存在偏见和双重标准。以下是对西方媒体关于中国文化的报道进行评价的几个方面。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国文化时经常将中国人与中国政府混为一谈，这是公然的种族主义行为。例如，在报道中国人在美国的生活时，媒体会将中国人描绘为“太过保护子女”、“与当地社区隔离”等负面象征，而忽略了他们作为移民在新环境下的困难和挑战。此外，媒体还会将中国政府的行为与中国人的行为相提并论，从而引发对中国人的歧视和仇恨。这种做法是不公正的，也是不专业的。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国文化时常常缺乏深入的了解和真实的反映。例如，在报道中国的老年移民时，媒体会将他们描述为“语言障碍、文化冲击、寂寞”等负面现象，而忽略了他们为了实现更好生活而选择移民的原因和困难。此外，媒体还会将中国的老年移民与中国的社会问题相关联，例如“父母离开子女”、“缺乏父母爱”等，这些描述并不能真实反映中国老年移民的生活状况和心理感受。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国文化时常常过于简单化和刻板化。例如，在报道中国的城市化过程时，媒体会将中国的城市描述为“巨大、现代化”，而忽略了城市化过程中存在的问题和挑战，例如城乡差距、环境污染等。此外，媒体还会将中国的城市与中国的政治体系相关联，例如“中国的城市化是中国政府推动的”、“中国的城市化是中国的发展模式”等，这种描述过于简单化和刻板化，无法真实反映中国城市化过程的复杂性和多元性。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国文化方面存在许多问题和不足，例如将中国人与中国政府混为一谈、缺乏深入的了解和真实的反映、过于简单化和刻板化等。为了更好地了解中国的文化和社会，西方媒体应该采取更加客观、公正和专业的态度，尽量避免偏见和双重标准，真实地反映中国的文化和社会多元化和复杂性。

新闻来源： 2405140635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-13; 2405140949纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英美国患上了中国焦虑症; 2405140528纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英当中国公民在美国买房被视为国家安全威胁

关于中国的新闻报道中的"Technology"章节

　　中国在技术领域取得了长足的发展，尤其是在人工智能、电动汽车、太空探索等方面。然而，西方媒体在报道中国的技术发展时，经常存在偏见和双重标准。

　　人工智能是当今最具潜力的技术之一，中国在此领域取得了巨大的进展。中国的人工智能公司，如百度、阿里巴巴和华为，在国内和国际都有着重要的影响力。但是，西方媒体在报道中国的人工智能发展时，经常将其视为"威胁”，而忽略了其在医疗、教育、环境保护等方面的积极作用。

　　电动汽车是未来交通的趋势，中国在此领域也处于世界领先地位。中国的电动汽车公司，如比亚迪、宁德时代和特斯拉，在国内和国际都有着广泛的市场。但是，西方媒体在报道中国的电动汽车发展时，经常将其视为"垄断"，而忽略了其在减少碳排放、促进可持续发展方面的作用。

　　太空探索是人类最具挑战性的事业之一，中国在此领域也取得了历史性的成就。中国的太空探索项目，如月球探测、火箭发射和太空站建设，在国内和国际都受到广泛的关注。但是，西方媒体在报道中国的太空探索发展时，经常将其视为"军事化"，而忽略了其在推进人类进入太空、探索宇宙神秘方面的作用。

　　需要指出的是，中国在技术发展中并非没有问题和挑战。例如，在人工智能领域，中国需要加强对算法的透明性和可解释性，以避免歧视和侵犯隐私。在电动汽车领域，中国需要加强对电池废料的回收和利用，以避免对环境的污染。在太空探索领域，中国需要加强国际合作和交流，以避免对太空安全和可持续性的威胁。

　　总之，中国在技术领域的发展是值得赞赏的，也是值得关注的。西方媒体在报道中国的技术发展时，应该尽量客观、公正、全面，避免偏见和双重标准，为促进中国和西方在技术领域的合作和交流作出贡献。

　　注：本文为作者个人观点，不代表任何机构或组织的立场。

新闻来源： 2405140635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-13; 2405141356Engadget-RSS-Feed-Biden-administration-quadruples-import-tariff-for-Chinese-EVs

关于中国的新闻报道 - Society章节评价

　　中国是一个具有多元化文化和复杂社会结构的国家，但在西方媒体的报道中，中国社会常被单一化和偏见化的描述。以下是对西方媒体关于中国社会的报道进行的评价。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国社会时往往过于关注负面新闻，而忽视了中国社会正在发生的各种积极变革。例如，中国在扶贫攻坚方面取得的成就，以及中国在人口老龄化、城镇化等方面的努力和成果，在西方媒体的报道中却很少提到。这种单一化的报道方式不仅会导致西方读者对中国社会的误解和偏见，还会忽视中国社会正在取得的进步和成就。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国社会时往往过于简化和标签化，忽视了中国社会的多元化和复杂性。例如，西方媒体常将中国社会描述为“权威主义”、“没有自由”等标签，但这种描述并不能充分反映中国社会的真实情况。中国社会存在着各种各样的社会团体和利益群体，他们之间的关系和互动也非常复杂。因此，简单地将中国社会描述为“权威主义”或“没有自由”是不公正的，也会导致西方读者对中国社会的误解和偏见。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国社会时往往缺乏对中国文化和历史的理解和尊重。例如，中国的户籍制度（Hukou）在西方媒体的报道中常被描述为“限制人口流动”的工具，但这种描述并不能充分反映户籍制度的历史和社会背景。户籍制度是中国古老的社会管理制度，它在中国社会中具有复杂的历史和文化背景。因此，在报道中应该充分考虑到中国文化和历史的特点，以更加客观和公正的角度来描述中国社会。

　　最后，西方媒体在报道中国社会时应该尽量避免使用双重标准。例如，在报道中国的人权问题时，西方媒体常将中国的人权问题与中国政府和中国社会等概念混为一谈，但在报道西方国家的人权问题时，则会更加客观和公正。这种双重标准的报道方式不仅会导致西方读者对中国社会的误解和偏见，还会损害西方媒体的公信力和专业性。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国社会时应该采取更加客观、公正和全面的报道方式，充分考虑到中国社会的多元化和复杂性，尊重中国文化和历史的特点，避免使用双重标准。只有这样，西方媒体的报道才能真正反映中国社会的真实情况，促进中西文化交流和互理解。

新闻来源： 2405140635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-13; 2405140321纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英因记录武汉疫情入狱的中国公民记者张展服刑期满; 2405140528纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英当中国公民在美国买房被视为国家安全威胁; 2405140949纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英美国患上了中国焦虑症

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• Chinese scientists find a way to mass-produce optical chips that the US cannot sanction
• Chinese companies win more bids to explore for Iraq oil and gas
• Hong Kong phone scam cases drop in first quarter but losses quadruple to HK$789 million, with more mainland Chinese students among victims
• How Europe is targeting Asia while tiptoeing around China tensions
• China is paying some workers in digital yuan – but few are choosing to use it
• US aims to stay ahead of China in using AI to fly fighter jets, navigate without GPS and more
• German carmakers want to compete with China but it must be a ‘fair fight’: envoy
• US Plans to Limit American-made AI Models in China

US forces divestment by China-linked firm of property near Wyoming airbase

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3262559/us-forces-divestment-china-linked-firm-property-near-wyoming-airbase?utm_source=rss_feed

The White House on Monday announced it was forcing a Chinese-linked company and its partners to sell property they had bought near a US Air Force base in Wyoming, citing national security risks posed by the deal.

MineOne Partners Limited, which is owned by Chinese nationals, partnered with other companies to buy property for cryptocurrency mining, the White House said.

The property is located within 1 mile (1.6km) of Wyoming-based Francis E Warren Air Force Base, a strategic missile base that is home to part of the US arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“The proximity of the foreign-owned Real Estate to a strategic missile base and key element of America’s nuclear triad, and the presence of specialised and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities, presents a national security risk to the United States,” the White House said in a statement.

The White House gave the companies 120 days to divest their shares in the property.

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‘Significant’ Chinese response to US tariffs possible: Janet Yellen

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3262552/significant-chinese-response-us-tariffs-possible-janet-yellen?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing could possibly issue a “significant” response to US tariffs on Chinese goods, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday when asked about the prospect of fresh levies.

The United States is reportedly planning to raise tariffs on Chinese clean energy goods such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar products, with an announcement expected this week.

“President [Joe] Biden believes that anything we do should be targeted to our concerns and not broad-based, and hopefully we will not see a significant Chinese response. But that’s always a possibility,” Yellen told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Monday.

A US decision on tariffs would come at the end of a long-awaited review of levies imposed during a trade war between Washington and Beijing.

The administration of then-president Donald Trump had introduced levies on some US$300 billion in goods from China.

Officials have since initiated a review, with the US Trade Representative required to look into the impact of the action – first introduced in 2018 – after four years.

In the latest move, set to be announced on Tuesday, levies on EVs are expected to roughly quadruple, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Yellen said on Monday that she did not want to get ahead of any potential announcement on the review.

But she stressed that “the president believes that it’s critically important for the United States to have a role and a presence in strategic industries like semiconductors and like clean energy”.

Those sectors will form the foundation of job creation and national security in the decades ahead, she added.

“He believes it’s unacceptable as I do to be completely dependent on China in these areas,” she said.

During a recent visit to China, Yellen warned about overcapacity in the world’s second biggest economy – risking a flood of below-cost goods in the global market.

The Biden administration fears that overproduction could deal a blow to burgeoning US industries, especially in green tech.

Noting that China has “enormous subsidies in critical areas of advanced manufacturing”, she said Biden wants to ensure that US stimulus provided through the Inflation Reduction Act to support industries are protected.

Yellen on Monday is visiting Stafford County, Virginia, where she toured a broadband infrastructure project funded by the Biden administration.

China begins work on new C939 widebody jet, going bigger and bolder after C919’s success

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3262476/china-begins-work-new-c939-widebody-jet-going-bigger-and-bolder-after-c919s-success?utm_source=rss_feed

Having established its bona fides as a producer of commercial aircraft with the launch of the narrowbody C919, China has already begun work on the C939, a new widebody plane and the third in its series of home-grown airliners.

The move sets down another marker for the country as it strives to carve out a piece of the lucrative and highly technological industry, currently dominated by Western conglomerates Boeing and Airbus.

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) – the state-owned manufacturer of the C919, which has already entered service on several domestic routes – has sketched out preliminary designs for the new craft, though it would be many years before these early concepts materialise into a testable prototype, a source familiar with the matter said.

Meanwhile, the C929 – Comac’s other in-development widebody plane designed to travel international routes of up to 12,000km (7,500 miles – is speculated to be on par with some aspects of mainstream competitors like Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a second source said, adding progress is “in full swing”.

The C929 was originally announced as part of a joint venture with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), but the latter company’s involvement has been in doubt since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions levied against Moscow by the West.

The second source confirmed that Russia had already pulled out of the programme, but dismissed concerns this would delay the aircraft’s debut.

“Russia’s departure does have some impact, but we can manage that … It’s not entirely a bad thing,” the second source said.

“Work [on the C929] is under way and progressing smoothly, utilising the same experience, support and system coordination we already have for the design and development of the C919 … The time needed can be similar.”

Last month, Comac held a week-long research meeting for the C929, dividing attendees – top talent from 21 universities and seven civil aviation companies, among others – into six groups covering aerodynamics, airframe structures, composite structures, avionics and electrical systems, mechanics and propulsion.

China is poised to overtake the US as the world’s largest market for aviation services in the coming decades, overtaking the US in the 2030s or 2040s according to varying estimates by Airbus, Boeing and the International Air Transport Association.

Even with the skies mostly populated by planes from the US-based Boeing and Europe’s Airbus, Beijing has doggedly continued to cultivate home-grown rivals to the Western giants. Its drive to obtain a share of the market from the two major producers – both at home and abroad – is beginning to bear fruit, starting with the C919.

Comac’s inaugural model can host 192 passengers for distances up to 5,555km, and is most similar in size to Boeing’s 737 and the Airbus 320.

It has flown commercial routes with China Eastern Airlines since May 2023 – when a highly publicised maiden flight carried passengers from Shanghai to Beijing – and made its international debut at February’s Singapore Airshow.

The Shanghai-based manufacturer has already delivered five C919s to China Eastern, and after securing separate 100-unit orders from that airline and the country’s two other major state-owned carriers – Air China and China Southern Airlines – it is now seeking to expand its production capacity with a second assembly line.

An intensifying trade conflict with the West, already affecting industries like electric vehicles and solar panels, has prompted fears similar measures could be enacted to limit the procurement of components for civil aviation.

To head off those worries, Beijing is also exploring ways to close gaps in essential technologies and making plans to self-source most parts on the C919, from landing gear to full engines.

Six arrested in cryptocurrency money-laundering scheme in northeast China amid focus on crypto-related capital flows

https://www.scmp.com/tech/blockchain/article/3262521/six-arrested-cryptocurrency-money-laundering-scheme-northeast-china-amid-focus-crypto-related?utm_source=rss_feed

Police in China’s northeastern Jilin province have arrested six people in connection with a money-laundering case involving the movement of 2.14 billion yuan (US$296 million) in cryptocurrency to South Korea.

Jin and Shen, the surnames of two suspects, allegedly carried out an illegal currency exchange business, according to a statement issued by police in the city of Panshi, the state-run China News Service reported on Friday.

Some people were defrauded out of their money, according to police, who did not identify which cryptocurrencies were used in the scheme.

Law enforcement became aware of the scheme when bank accounts under the suspects’ names showed “large [daily] transactions” involving a “large number of customers”. The activity had the characteristics of an illegal underground bank, according to police.

Police said the criminal group used mainland China bank accounts to receive funds, which were then used to buy cryptocurrency at over-the-counter exchanges. The crypto could then be used to facilitate foreign money exchange for cross-border business, such as e-commerce firms and other import and export businesses.

Mainland China maintains a strict ban on commercial cryptocurrency activity, as Beijing has long regarded it as a threat to financial stability. The central government also has strict foreign exchange controls over capital flight concerns.

In 2021, the People’s Bank of China warned that crypto firms facilitating trading activity in China were breaking the law. The government also initiated a sweeping campaign that year to push bitcoin mining out of the country.

Many companies in the industry have since moved much of their remaining operations out of mainland China. Exchanges also ostensibly stopped serving mainland users, although some like Binance have maintained easy workarounds that are widely shared online.

With the crypto trade among private individuals remaining a legal grey area, mainland China saw US$86.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions from July 2022 to June 2023 – most of which took place through over-the-counter channels or grey market, peer-to-peer services, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

In recent years, Beijing has increased its efforts in combating cryptocurrency-related money laundering. Last December, China’s prosecutors and forex regulators released a statement pledging to crack down on the use of cryptocurrencies for illegal foreign exchange trading, with a particular focus on cases involving Tether.

The government is also seeking to revise its Anti-Money-Laundering Law to address risks associated with virtual assets.

The revised draft was under review in late April by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body when the full congress is not in session.

In 2022, police in the northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region arrested 63 individuals in connection with the laundering of 12 billion yuan through the use of cryptocurrency.

However, the overall volume of money in crypto-related money laundering cases has recently decreased. Illicit addresses sent US$22.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency in 2023, a 29 per cent decline from the US$31.5 billion sent in 2022, according to Chainalysis. “Both legitimate and illicit” trading activity saw an “overall decrease” in that period, the firm said.

Chinese companies pull out of solar projects after EU launches subsidy probe

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262542/chinese-companies-pull-out-solar-projects-after-eu-launches-subsidy-probe?utm_source=rss_feed

Two Chinese companies have withdrawn from solar projects in Europe after being investigated by Brussels authorities over their alleged receipt of foreign subsidies.

Subsidiaries of Longi Solar and Shanghai Electric were bidding for procurement contracts as part of a photovoltaic park’s construction in Romania.

The European Commission, however, opened two investigations last month under its foreign subsidies regulation following suspicions that the firms had used state subsidies to undercut rival bids.

On Monday, the commission announced that it had closed the investigations after the companies withdrew their bids.

“We are massively investing in the installation of solar panels to decrease our carbon emissions and energy bills – but this should not come at the expense of our energy security, our industrial competitiveness and European jobs,” said the European Union’s industry chief Thierry Breton.

The first solar entity that came under official scrutiny was a consortium involving a German subsidiary of Longi Green Energy Technology Co. Hong Kong-listed Longi is the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels and is headquartered in the city of Xian in northwest China.

The second investigation concerned two subsidiaries of Shanghai Electric Group Co, a Chinese state-owned company.

The foreign subsidies regulation became part of Brussels’ economic defence arsenal last year. Its first four deployments – all in 2024 – have targeted Chinese firms.

The first inquiry targeted CRRC Qingdao Sifang Locomotive Co, a division of state-owned rolling stock manufacturer CRRC Corporation, which had hoped to provide 20 electric push-pull trains and their maintenance to the government in Bulgaria.

However the firm pulled its bid from the procurement process weeks after EU regulators launched the investigation.

Separately, preliminary investigations are targeting unnamed Chinese companies in the wind turbine sector amid suspicion that components used in finished turbines received market-distorting state subsidies.

The regulation’s most dramatic moment came last month when commission officials and local authorities raided the Polish and Dutch premises of Nuctech, a maker of airport and cargo scanning machines, which authorities in Europe had flagged as a security risk.

The raids, which Chinese business groups said went on for four consecutive days, were carefully calibrated to send political messages to Beijing.

Going after a company with deep links to China’s Communist Party – Nuctech is an offshoot of Tsinghua University in Beijing and was previously run by Hu Haifeng, son of China’s former president Hu Jintao – was seen as showing the EU’s concern over the growing conflation of party and corporate interests.

The inquiries were discussed last week during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to France, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The foreign subsidies regulation has added a layer of drama to the EU’s push to level the business playing field with Chinese competitors.

Whereas trade disputes often take months or even years to complete, probes under this tool must be completed in 110 days.

The regulation does not focus on whether state subsidies distort exports or imports, but rather their impact on companies that operate within the EU market. Local subsidiaries of Chinese firms can be investigated for subsidies received by their parent companies in China if they are found to have given them an upper hand in competing in Europe.

The law also demands levels of openness that many Chinese businesses are not ready for. EU authorities can command Chinese firms operating within the bloc to hand over their books for forensic scrutiny, with little time to get them in order.

Chinese business executives in Europe have complained that complying with regulators’ demands to hand over company information could put them on a collision course with laws in China.

Speaking to the Post last month, Fang Dongkui, secretary general of the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU, said that “in specific instances, the commission had requested confidential bidding information, including pricing details, contracts or documents containing business secrets that allegedly could be related to subsidies”.

These actions are “posing a risk [to Chinese companies] of breaching relevant tender regulations or Chinese laws”, he said.

Fang also complained about a “significant lack of transparency” during the commission’s probes into the Chinese-backed solar consortiums.

“Despite our awareness that several other companies, neither EU nor Chinese, participated in the bidding process, the commission has not offered any explanation or evidence for its decision not to investigate these other tenders,” Fang said.

“This lack of transparency suggests broader issues in the [foreign subsidies regulation’s] implementation, raising concerns that the commission may be engaging in discriminatory practices against Chinese companies.”

Trump claims Chinese migrants in US to build an ‘army.’ They say they’re in America, ‘to make money’, not fight for China

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3262532/trump-claims-chinese-migrants-us-build-army-they-say-theyre-america-make-money-not-fight-china?utm_source=rss_feed

It was 7am on a recent Friday when Wang Gang, a 36-year-old Chinese immigrant, jostled for a day job in New York City’s Flushing neighbourhood.

When a potential employer pulled up near the street corner, Wang and dozens of other men swarmed around the car. They were hoping to be picked for work on a construction site, at a farm, as a mover – anything that would pay.

Wang had no luck, even as he waited for two more hours. It would be another day without a job since he crossed the southern US border illegally in February.

The daily struggle of Chinese immigrants in Flushing is a far cry from the picture former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have sought to paint them as a coordinated group of “military-age” men who have come to the United States to build an “army” and attack America.

Since the start of the year, as the Chinese newcomers adjust to life in the US, Trump has alluded to “fighting age” or “military age” Chinese men at least six times and suggested at least twice that they were forming a migrant “army.” The talking point also appears in conservative media and on social platforms.

“They’re coming in from China – 31, 32,000 over the last few months – and they’re all military age, and they mostly are men,” Trump said during a campaign rally last month. “And it sounds like, to me, are they trying to build a little army in our country?”

Asian advocacy organisations say they worry the rhetoric could encourage further harassment and violence toward the Asian community, which saw more hate incidents during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wang, who travelled several weeks from Wuhan, China, to Ecuador, to the southern US border, said the idea that Chinese migrants were building a military “does not exist” among immigrants he has met.

“We came here to make money,” he said.

Immigrants in Flushing said they came to escape poverty and financial losses from China’s strict lockdown during the pandemic, or to escape the threat of imprisonment in a repressive society where they couldn’t speak or exercise their religion freely.

Since late 2022 – when China’s three-year Covid-19 lockdown began to lift – the US has seen a sharp rise in the number of Chinese migrants. In 2023, US authorities arrested more than 37,000 Chinese nationals at the US-Mexico border, more than 10 times the previous year’s number. In December alone, border officials arrested 5,951 Chinese nationals on the southern border, a record monthly high, before the number trended down during the first three months of this year.

Most who have come are single adults, according to federal data. There are more men than women on the perilous route, which typically involves flying to South America and then making the long, arduous trek north to the US border.

One reason men may come alone in higher numbers is the danger, said a 35-year-old Chinese man who only gave his family name of Yin because he was concerned about the safety of his wife and children, who remain in China for now.

“This trip is deadly. People die. The trip isn’t suitable for women – it’s not suitable for anyone,” said Yin.

Immigrants in Flushing said they came to America to escape China, not to fight on its behalf.

Thirty-six-year-old Chen Wang, from southeastern China, said he decided to come to the US in late 2021 after he posted comments critical of the ruling party on Twitter. He was admonished by local police and feared that he could be imprisoned.

More than two years later, he is still unemployed and lives in a tent in the woods that he has made into a home. Chen described his fellow Chinese on the journey as simply people “chasing a better life.”

To be sure, US intelligence leaders have grave concerns about the threat China’s authoritarian government poses to the country. There also have been crimes committed by Chinese immigrants, including the arrest in March of a Chinese national breaching a military base in California, but there has been no evidence that migrants from China are coming to the US to fight Americans.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell last month called the Chinese nationals “economic migrants.”

China has said it strongly opposes illegal immigration. Its foreign ministry said Trump’s claims of a Chinese migrant army were “an egregious mismatch of the facts.” The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, said letting so many Chinese migrants into the US sets a “dangerous precedent” that nefarious actors could exploit.

“These individuals have not been vetted or screened, and we have no idea who they are affiliated with or what their intention is,” he said in an emailed statement.

Sapna Cheryan, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, said the claims about Chinese migrants – made without evidence – build on pervasive stereotypes that Asian people do not belong in the country.

These ideas have fuelled violence against Asian Americans and could embolden people again, she said.

Li Kai, also known as Khaled, a 44-year-old Muslim from a city close to Beijing, said he was worried about Trump’s statements regarding illegal immigration and Muslims, but said he has no choice other than to stay.

He was one of the few who made the trip with his family. He shares a bunk bed and sofa with his wife and two sons in a temporary home in Flushing, where he has placed an American flag on the wall.

When his sons are at school, he studies for a commercial driving licence. He hopes to find a job and start paying taxes.

“Now that I have brought my family here, I want to have a stable life here,” he said. “I would like to pay back.”

China, Hong Kong enhance Swap Connect scheme in time for its 1st birthday, easing access to mainland interbank derivatives

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3262534/china-hong-kong-enhance-swap-connect-scheme-time-its-1st-birthday-easing-access-mainland-interbank?utm_source=rss_feed

Financial regulators in mainland China and Hong Kong rolled out enhancements to the Swap Connect scheme on Monday to further open up China’s financial markets and strengthen Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre.

The scheme, launched in Hong Kong a year ago, has been instrumental in allowing global investors to access mainland China’s interbank financial derivatives market to hedge interest-rate risks.

The People’s Bank of China, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced three enhancements. First, Swap Connect will accept interest rate swap contracts with payment cycles based on the International Monetary Market (IMM) dates to “align with mainstream products traded globally and meet the diverse risk management needs of mainland and overseas investors”, according to a joint press release.

Second, ancillary services like compression and clearing of backdated swap contracts will be introduced to help participating institutions manage the notional amount outstanding, reduce capital costs and foster active trading.

Finally, the Swap Connect’s clearing houses in China and Hong Kong – namely the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, Shanghai Clearing House, and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) subsidiary OTC Clearing Hong Kong – will launch other system enhancements and incentive programmes to reduce investors’ participation costs.

“As the world’s first derivatives mutual market access programme, Swap Connect has proved very popular with Hong Kong and international investors, providing them access to mainland China’s interbank swaps market,” said Bonnie Chan Yiting, CEO of HKEX, the city’s bourse operator.

As of last month, 20 mainland dealers and 58 overseas investors had conducted more than 3,600 interest-rate swap transactions under the Swap Connect.

That marked an aggregate notional amount of around 1.77 trillion yuan (US$245 billion) and an average daily turnover of 7.6 billion yuan. The average daily turnover calculated on a monthly basis increased to 12 billion yuan last month compared with 3 billion the month after the mechanism launched on May 15, 2023.

“We look forward to further enhancing and expanding our broader connect programmes with our mainland partners, supporting the long-term sustainable development of markets in both Hong Kong and mainland China,” Chan added.

Swap Connect complements a range of connect programmes launched in stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and wealth-management products over the past decade. The various trans-border investment channels continue to facilitate more capital flow between mainland China and Hong Kong.

Interest-rate swaps under Swap Connect are over-the-counter, bilateral contracts that allow bondholders to manage their risks by swapping one stream of future interest payments for another based on a specified principal amount.

Such derivative products have become popular as more overseas investors are participating in the onshore cash bond market, and their demands for risk-management tools for yuan interest rates are also increasing.

Zhaoting Xu, head of China investment banking at Deutsche Bank, said international investors welcome the enhancements.

The launch of interest rate swap contracts with payment cycles based on IMM dates “will help investors avoid the risk of fluctuation in fixed interest rates”, he said. “At the same time, international investors are also happy to see the launch of the compression service and clearing of backdated swap contracts as supporting arrangements, which will help them to reduce curve risks and costs in an efficient manner.”

EU will lose more than it gains by raising tariffs on Chinese EVs

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3262436/eu-will-lose-more-it-gains-raising-tariffs-chinese-evs?utm_source=rss_feed

By all indications, the European Union appears determined to slap additional tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs) imported from China. Despite Chinese President Xi Jinping’s personal intervention during his visit to France this month, the bloc’s anti-subsidy investigation is in full swing.

Officially launched in October to address what the EU has framed as a market distortion resulting from China’s state subsidies, the investigation is widely expected to impose more duties on Chinese EVs.

These tariffs are seen in Brussels as necessary to protect Europe’s automobile industry. However, tariffs are likely to have unintended consequences that outweigh the benefits expected by those who are pushing for them.

Apart from potentially slowing the EU’s switch from gas-reliant vehicles to low-emission alternatives, the tariffs are an invitation for Beijing to retaliate. The bloc is not as innocent as it would like the world to believe when it comes to providing financial support to its industries.

As one of the largest agricultural subsidy programmes in the world, for example, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy is known for its generosity towards the bloc’ farmers. Between 2014 to 2020, the policy had a budget of €408 billion (US$439.5 billion). For the 2021-27 period, €387 billion has been allocated to the programme.

The generous subsidy has enabled the EU’s agriculture sector to become an export machine. Last year, the bloc exported €14.6 billion worth of agri-food to China, against Chinese imports worth €8.3 billion.

The EU’s civil aviation industry is also likely to fall victim to the bloc’s trade measures against China. In a case some years ago, the World Trade Organization found that Airbus had received billions in subsidies from EU member states.

Raising the tariffs on Airbus’ products would be attractive to Beijing as it would give the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) a huge boost in its quest to carve out a piece of the global duopoly long maintained by Boeing and Airbus. Comac would look to land more orders for its C919 jumbo jet as China’s airlines would find Airbus jets more expensive.

The list of EU products susceptible to China’s retaliation in kind would not be a short one. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. “There is always some sort of retaliation”, as Volkswagen brand chief Thomas Schäfer pointed out.

Beijing has opposed the EU’s EV sector probe. But when Chinese carmakers are subjected to punitive duties, trade policymakers may feel they have no choice but to retaliate.

With Brussels apparently poised to punish Chinese carmakers, some already see the writing on the wall. EU agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski has said that his “intention is to do everything which is possible to avoid the situation that agriculture is a victim of the problems in other sectors”.

Moreover, imposing tariffs on Chinese EVs would tarnish the EU’s image as an advocate of free trade, not to mention undermine the multilateral trading system.

EU investigations of Chinese companies fall under its foreign subsidies regulation (FSR), which differs from WTO anti-subsidy mechanisms in important ways.

The FSR was designed to make up for supposed deficiencies in the WTO’s rule book and defines subsidies more broadly than the WTO does. Consequently, it is questionable whether some FSR provisions are in line with the WTO’s rules.

In addition, China’s position is that the anti-subsidy probe has failed to follow both WTO procedures and the EU’s own. China was not properly consulted before the investigation began. The exporters included in the EU probe are far from representative, with Tesla, the biggest exporter of EVs from China to the EU, having been excluded.

Moreover, according to the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU, demands were made that proved difficult or impossible for the companies under investigation to meet. Tight deadlines were set for data submission, with requests made for some documents that were beyond companies’ ability to acquire or that would have involved the disclosure of what they might consider sensitive commercial information such as those on suppliers.

As a result, it came as little surprise to many that the EU concluded that there was “sufficient evidence tending to show that imports of the product concerned from [the People’s Republic of China] are being subsidised”, and that there was a risk of EU carmakers suffering injury that is “difficult to repair”.

For its part, China is expected to take the case to the WTO. It is highly likely that the world’s top trade body will rule that the EU’s probe contravenes WTO rules. In that eventuality, the EU’s image on the world stage would be dented.

The EU’s conduct also undermines the integrity and credibility of the WTO. The EU’s growth largely depends on external demand. As a provider of predictability for global trade, the WTO is critical to the EU’s prosperity. Undercutting the multilateral trading system, therefore, threatens to shake the bedrock of the bloc’s future prosperity.

The EU’s concerns for the future of its automobile industry are legitimate and understandable. But Brussels could have addressed them just by sitting down with Beijing to find solutions that are acceptable to both parties.

The good news is that Beijing is prepared to work together with Brussels to settle the trade dispute. The world is now watching to see how the EU will steer its fortunes as well as its economic and commercial ties with China.

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China, Russia could bypass barriers to buoy business as Western sanctions bite, researchers say

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3262503/china-russia-could-bypass-barriers-buoy-business-western-sanctions-bite-researchers-say?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Russia should explore using their own platforms – and could tap obscure banks – to settle payments while strengthening ties in the Russian far east, if the neighbours want to get around Western economic sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, a Chinese research organisation says.

Smaller Chinese banks could be “promoted” for trade with Russia, while setting up new financial institutions could help “circumvent Western sanctions”, according to a May 11 report by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Beijing-based Renmin University.

Sanctions from the West had suspended 80 per cent of payment settlements between Russia and China as of March this year, “severely impacting normal trade and commercial relations”, the institute said.

“To solve the current investment dilemma between China and Russia, the top priority is to build new payment-and-settlement channels as soon as possible, and resolve the threat of secondary sanctions on financial institutions,” it advised.

Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked financial restrictions on Russia by the West. American and European Union leaders have also decried China’s sustained Russian trade that has been accused of possibly helping Moscow get around their sanctions.

Russia has increasingly looked to China for economic support amid the sanctions. And China, for its part, needs Russian crude oil and coal for manufacturing and energy security.

Keen on not getting stung by sanctions, Chinese banks have halted several deals related to Russia after Moscow’s expulsion from the Swift network of 11,000 financial institutions that exchange money transfer instructions.

China-Russia trade rose 26.3 per cent in 2023 to US$240.1 billion, but Chinese direct investment in Russia makes up just 0.36 per cent of China’s global total. Settlements for trade are often delayed as Chinese banks tread carefully.

In the short term, the research report says, China should look to make settlements through smaller regional banks that are already operating but which lack business with the West.

It further suggests that the two countries use the Russian central bank’s System for Transfer of Financial Messages and China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System. Both are alternatives to Swift.

China and Russia should eventually develop their own payment processes “with a medium- to long-term perspective”, according to the report.

Reached for a comment about the proposition, Zhao Xijun, a Renmin finance professor who is not part of the research organisation, said it was possible that smaller banks could lose money by settling payments with Russia if they did not have other business with Russia to raise the transaction’s value.

And utilising the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System would work, Zhao said, but doing so would still require banks to make transactions and accept risks of backlash from the West.

“The thing they need to do is set up a new framework for making transactions,” he said, explaining that such a framework would probably rely on the Chinese yuan.

Outside the finance system, the report suggests, China and Russia could increase their economic cooperation by cutting fees and taxes for their small or medium-sized enterprises. The two should also create railway and port “networks” in the Russian far east, it added.

In that vein, the research report says, China should negotiate with Russia for rights to use and develop the Tumen River estuary, which forms the Russia-North Korea border and empties into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea. China’s involvement would “promote the common development of both parties”, the report said.

Beijing rejects ‘groundless’ Philippine claims it is trying to build artificial island in South China Sea

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262526/beijing-rejects-groundless-philippine-claims-it-trying-build-artificial-island-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed

China has denied claims by the Philippine coastguard that it is trying to build an artificial island at the disputed Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea.

On Monday, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, dismissed the claims as “groundless and pure fabrication”.

Wang told a daily press conference: “In recent times, the Philippines has repeatedly spread rumours and deliberately discredited China in a futile attempt to mislead the international community.

“We urge the Philippine side to stop making irresponsible remarks, face up to the facts, and return as soon as possible to the right track of appropriately dealing with disputes at sea through negotiations and consultations.”

On Saturday, Jay Tarriela, a spokesman for the Philippine coastguard, said patrols in recent weeks had “effectively” prevented China’s efforts to reclaim land on the coral atoll – known as Xianbin Jiao in China and Escoda Shoal in the Philippines – in the Spratly Islands chain.

He said the Philippine coastguard had discovered crushed corals dumped by Chinese ships as part of these reclamation attempts and that patrols would continue to monitor the situation.

“Which among the [claimant] countries in the South China Sea is involved in the wanton destruction of the marine environment? It’s only China. Who else can we blame? Only China,” Tarriela said.

The shoal, which is about 75 nautical miles (120km) from the Philippine island of Palawan, is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

Chinese and Philippine ships have been involved in a series of clashes in recent months – sometimes involving collisions between ships or the use of water cannons – in other parts of the South China Sea, raising fears the situation could escalate into armed conflict.

Earlier on Monday, Chinese state broadcaster CGTN said the country’s coastguard had “normalised training” in the waters near Scarborough Shoal, after a group of Philippine politicians and activists said they would sail into the area to assert the country’s rights.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government has said it is studying the possibility of filing a legal case against China over the destruction of coral reefs within its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. China has rejected the accusations and said Manila is trying to “create political drama”.

In 2016, the Philippines won a case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which rejected China’s territorial claims marked out under the so-called nine-dash line.

Beijing rejected the ruling, but it is worried that a second lawsuit could encourage other rival claimants in the South China Sea to follow suit and that this would deeply damage China’s international image.

U.S.-China talks on AI risks set to begin in Geneva

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/05/13/us-china-ai-talks/2024-05-12T15:09:28.796Z

The United States and China will hold their first high-level talks over the risks of artificial intelligence on Tuesday in Geneva, as the two governments seek to prevent disastrous accidents and unintended war amid an arms race for the emerging technology.

“We’re focused on how both sides define risk and safety here,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters last week, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss expectations for the talks.

Seth Center, the State Department deputy envoy for critical and emerging technology, and Tarun Chhabra, senior director for technology and national security at the National Security Council, will lead the U.S. delegation, the administration official said. China will be represented by officials from the Foreign Ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s central economic planning agency.

“AI” — a catchall term for a range of advanced computing capabilities — has loomed large in the U.S.-China rivalry, with both governments elevating it to a priority. Sophisticated computing algorithms can give a nation an edge in areas as diverse as warfare, economic output and the creation of soft-power cultural products. Researchers say AI can also be leveraged for disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks.

AI holds particular allure for militaries and intelligence agencies for its potential to help them sift through more raw data within seconds than a human could in a lifetime. Officials say the wars of the future will increasingly be fought with AI helping to make complex decisions in the heat of the moment.

The Biden administration imposed sanctions on China in October aimed at slowing its AI development by restricting its access to advanced chips, the brains of computing systems. U.S.-China tensions further flared last month after President Biden signed into law a U.S. ban on the popular short-video platform TikTok unless it sells itself to a non-Chinese buyer.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement that the dialogue between the United States and China on AI would have effects for the future of not only the two countries, but other nations as well.

“The two sides have the responsibility to engage in candid dialogue,” he said.

Biden administration officials tempered expectations for concrete outcomes of this week’s talks, saying they are not seeking to release a joint statement or cooperate with China on AI research. An official dismissed the idea that the U.S. chips sanctions might be revisited, saying that Washington will not negotiate “national security measures.”

China’s AI development continues to lag behind the United States, but its high-tech companies like Huawei Technologies, Alibaba and Baidu have made significant strides. China may have an edge in certain aspects, such as the manual data-labeling process that is used to train AI models, due to the country’s lower labor costs.

In a commentary for the Brookings Institution think tank, scholars Graham Webster and Ryan Hass suggested these talks could produce a better shared understanding of what constitutes permissible military use of AI, and agreements on what kinds of data can be shared across borders for training AI models.

Administration officials did not say if the talks will touch on TikTok or Huawei, the China-based telecommunications giant that has faced U.S. sanctions. Both companies have made forays into AI algorithms in recent years.

Simply keeping an open line of communication may be enough of a result from the talks for now. With intensified distrust and hostility, officials on both sides say preventing the de facto cold war from accidentally turning hot — whether from an AI mishap or human bungling — should be a policy priority.

The term “artificial intelligence” dates to the 1950s, with research on intelligent computers going back further. These algorithms reached a new level of sophistication by 2015, when Google’s DeepMind division unveiled an AI program that could beat the world’s top players of Go, a classic Chinese board game considered one of the most complex games to strategize.

Under the Obama administration, the National Science and Technology Council produced a report in 2016 identifying AI as a strategic focus, recommending that federal agencies intensify their investment in the technology and keep tabs on rival nations. China set out its own national blueprint in 2017, aiming to be a world leader in AI by 2030.

The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 brought this AI development race into the public view, with the chatbot making it clear to lay consumers just how advanced and broadly useful this technology had become. Biden issued an AI executive order in October, launching a whole-of-government push to ensure the United States remains the world leader in the technology.

Even as AI holds enormous innovative promise, one risk that government officials find troubling is the potential for the vast data troves hooked up to the back ends of the AI algorithms to be hacked by adversaries. Another risk is of military accidents due to malfunction of automated systems.

There also are all sorts of thorny ethical questions as governments decide exactly what they program AI systems to do, and what margins of error they will allow. The Israeli army’s use of AI algorithms to identify individuals as bombing targets in Gaza, as reported by +972 magazine, has generated controversy in recent weeks.

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Who are China’s ‘elderly drifters’? Seniors on the move domestically and overseas face language barriers, culture shocks

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3261725/who-are-chinas-elderly-drifters-seniors-move-domestically-and-overseas-face-language-barriers?utm_source=rss_feed

It used to be that the twilight years were a time to settle down in one place and enjoy a peaceful retirement. But things have changed in China.

Today, it is common for the country’s elderly to become either domestic or overseas migrants.

In China, life expectancy for men is 78 and for women, 79. However, people over the age of 60 account for 7.2 per cent of the mainland’s domestic migrating population, according to the latest Development of the Migrant Population Report.

That is about 18 million people, around twice the population of New York.

Just under 70 per cent of such people relocate voluntarily to reunite with their families, the report said.

They are referred to as elderly drifters, or Lao Piao in Mandarin. Of China’s 297 million-strong ageing population, six per cent fall into this category.

About 10 million Chinese migrants live overseas, where they face the added challenges of language, culture and loneliness.

The Post delves deeper into the lives of China’s migrating elderly.

Drifting away

The term was adapted from “Beijing drifters”, or Bei Piao, which refers to highly ambitious people who leave their hometowns to seek job opportunities in China’s capital city.

The phenomenon is closely related to urbanisation in China. The phrase describes a way of being which lacks belonging to a specific place.

This is because the country’s existing residential system, known as Hukou, makes it difficult for drifters to obtain a permanent local residency.

Despite the declining overall size of China’s migrant population, the number of elderly drifters has been increasing, according to the report.

Top destinations for elderly drifters include Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, similar choices to that of younger migrants.

Most move to be with their children and possibly to care for grandchildren.

Elderly drifters are more commonly seen in “dual-income families”, where both spouses work and lack the time to care for the next generation.

Outsiders indoors

“Just as young migrants struggle to get by in cities, seniors who move to the metropolises will encounter even more trouble,” Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, told China Daily.

Most elderly drifters have to deal with loneliness.

They usually speak regional dialects, prefer food from their hometowns and maintain habits that are different from their new neighbours.

More than 80 per cent of the elderly migrant population have never taken part in community activities, according to a 2017 report.

During the day, they are often left home alone caring for their grandchildren, often without recognition.

“I’m like an unpaid servant,” an elderly drifter told the Shanghai media outlet, Sixth Tone.

Lonely struggle

There are currently 10 million international migrants from China.

Large numbers of them live in Canada, Italy, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the United States and Singapore, according to a 2022 UN report.

Most of them hardly speak a word of the local language, and are completely isolated from the local community.

Within the family, they often have to learn different parenting philosophies – possibly cultural – and tend to be considered too protective of children.

While the children are growing up as second-generation immigrants, receiving an education in the adopted location of their parents, the cultural gap between them and the elderly widens.

Communication also becomes a challenge because of their limited knowledge of Chinese.

US and China set for first high-level talks on AI, White House officials say

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262423/us-and-china-set-first-high-level-talks-artificial-intelligence-us-officials-say?utm_source=rss_feed

The United States and China will hold their first high-level talks on artificial intelligence in Geneva on Tuesday, according to senior US officials.

The discussions will focus on the emerging risks associated with AI systems, and how the two countries define “risk” and “safety”.

Both sides will explain their domestic approaches to addressing the risks and to setting norms and principles on AI safety, as well as exchanging views on international governance, according to one official.

“[The talks will] not focus on any particular deliverables, but rather an exchange of views on the technical risks of AI,” he said, adding that no joint statement was expected afterwards.

The official also said the meeting would not focus on “promoting any form of technical collaboration or cooperating on frontier research in any matter”.

The talks follow an agreement in November between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping about the need to address the risks of advanced AI systems and to improve AI safety through talks. The two sides have since had several conversations on setting an agenda for the upcoming talks.

Beijing and Washington have differing priorities in the bilateral dialogue about AI, according to observers.

“For Washington, the primary focus is the management of the development of frontier AI models, high-risk ones particularly,” the Institute for China-America Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said in a note last month.

Meanwhile, Beijing would “prefer the bilateral conversation be focused on the cooperative development of AI”.

But even if the US does not want to cooperate on developing AI, China believes it can gain insight and influence through international discussions, and this is a key motive for its involvement in them, according to Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Another motive “is to demonstrate China’s image as a responsible power who is willing to play a leadership role in key areas of international governance”, he said.

Tuesday’s meeting will be attended by representatives from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission.

Tarun Chhabra senior director for technology and national security at the National Security Council, and Seth Center, acting special envoy for critical and emerging technology at the State Department, will lead the US delegation.

During the talks, the US side plans to express concern over the security risks from China’s use of AI.

“[Beijing] is rapidly deploying capabilities across civilian as well as military, national security sectors, and in many cases in ways that we believe undermines both US and allied national security,” the official said.

Washington has in recent years tried to choke off China’s access to artificial intelligence technology. In October 2022, the White House introduced export controls restricting leading US designers, such as Nvidia and AMD, from selling their high-end chips for AI and supercomputing to China.

But while technology protection policies are “not up for negotiation”, Washington was open to starting a channel to discuss these issues, the US official said.

A second official said: “Our credibility with reaching much of the world with what we believe is the right approach to safe, secure and trustworthy AI will be enhanced if we’re seen as engaging seriously with the PRC [People’s Republic of China] on safety and risk issues.”

Both the US and China have been working towards creating national standards for AI regulation. In July, China issued the world’s most detailed regulations on generative AI models, while the White House issued its first executive order on the development and use of AI in October.

There have also been growing signs that the two are willing to cooperate on regulating AI. Last November, both countries were among the two dozen or so participants that signed an agreement affirming the need to address risks that could arise from AI at a summit in Britain.

In March, China co-sponsored, along with more than 120 countries, a US-led, non-binding United Nations General Assembly resolution on artificial intelligence – the first of its kind.

But China did not join a US-led resolution on the responsible military use of artificial intelligence in November.

While observers say Washington and Beijing would both be in favour of requiring human input in decision systems for autonomous weapons and nuclear warheads, the two sides have not yet come to a public agreement on the matter.

“China’s policy community supports keeping humans in the loop and limiting the use of AI in nuclear weapon systems,” Zhao said, but the topic is “politically unappealing” to China’s leadership.

He also said he did not expect the talks to delve substantively into military uses of AI.

The talks on Tuesday will be “fundamentally different” from more “comprehensive and intensive multilateral efforts and bilateral efforts with like-minded partners” about AI, according to the second official.

The US also plans to send a “unified message” to Beijing reflecting the views and concerns of its allies and partners, he added.

But while the US and its allies have expressed concern that China is trying to steal US frontier technologies, and spreading disinformation through AI tech such as deepfakes, those topics will not be key areas of discussion on Tuesday.

With Chinese loans looming, Maldives gets IMF warning over ‘debt distress’

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3262518/chinese-loans-looming-maldives-gets-imf-warning-over-debt-distress?utm_source=rss_feed

The International Monetary Fund warned the Maldives against looming “debt distress” on Monday, as the small but strategically placed luxury tourist destination looks set to borrow more from main creditor China.

Since winning office last year, President Mohamed Muizzu has reoriented the atoll nation – known for its upmarket beach resorts and celebrity holidaymakers – away from traditional benefactor India and towards Beijing.

Last month his party won parliamentary elections in a landslide after promising to build thousands of flats, reclaim more land for urban development and upgrade airports, all with Chinese funding.

Without naming the archipelago’s main lender, the IMF said the Maldives remained “at high risk of external and overall debt distress” without “significant policy changes”.

“Uncertainty surrounding the outlook is high and risks are tilted to the downside, including from delayed fiscal consolidation and weaker growth in key sources [of] markets for tourism,” the IMF said in a statement.

It urged the Maldives to urgently raise revenue, cut spending and reduce external borrowing to avoid a major economic crisis.

The Maldives is a small nation of 1,192 tiny coral islets scattered 800 kilometres (500 miles) across the equator, but it strategically straddles key east-west international shipping routes.

Tourism is a crucial source of foreign exchange for the country, home to white sandy beaches and secluded resorts offering Robinson Crusoe-style holidays.

China has pledged more funding since last year’s victory by Muizzu, who thanked the country for its “selfless assistance” for development funds on a state visit to Beijing shortly after he took power.

Official data showed the Maldives’ foreign debt exceeding US$4 billion last year, about 118 per cent of gross domestic product and up nearly US$250 million from 2022.

As of June 2023, the Export-Import Bank of China owned 25.2 per cent of the Maldives’ external debt and was the country’s biggest single lender, Maldives finance ministry figures showed.

Debt-burdened neighbour Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt in 2022 after a foreign exchange crisis that brought months of food and fuel shortages.

More than 50 per cent of Sri Lanka’s bilateral debt is owed to China, and the island nation is still struggling to restructure its borrowings with IMF assistance.

Unable to service a huge Chinese loan to build a port in the south, Sri Lanka allowed a Chinese state company to take over the facility on a 99-year lease in 2017.

The deal raised fears about Beijing’s use of “debt traps” in exerting its influence abroad, including in the Indian Ocean.

South China Sea: is Beijing embarking on ‘grand strategy’ to stop Philippine ships in oil-rich area near Sabina Shoal?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3262483/south-china-sea-beijing-embarking-grand-strategy-stop-philippine-ships-oil-rich-area-near-sabina?utm_source=rss_feed

China could be embarking on a “grand strategy” to seal off an oil-rich area in the disputed South China Sea before reclamation and use it as a base to thwart the movements of Philippine vessels after crushed corals were discovered near the Sabina Shoal.

The Philippine coastguard said it deployed a patrol ship to deter China’s activities and inflatable boats to monitor Chinese research vessels in the area near what it called the Escoda Shoal.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, a spokesman of the Philippine coastguard, said on Saturday the activities involving the corals happened about 75 nautical miles (120 kilometres) off the coast of the country’s Palawan island.

He said the situation at the Escoda Shoal was similar to what happened recently in the Sandy Cay of Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea, where coral reefs were severely damaged with debris strewn in the area. West Philippine Sea is Manila’s term for the section of the South China Sea that defines its maritime territory and includes its exclusive economic zone.

“Which among the [claimant] countries in the South China Sea is involved in the wanton destruction of the marine environment? It’s only China. Who else can we blame? Only China,” Tarriela told reporters.

“No matter the reclamation, when it comes to the West Philippine Sea, it’s really alarming. But this is more alarming compared to Sandy Cay because it’s closer to the province of Palawan. As to the strategic relevance of Escoda Shoal, I don’t want to speculate to alarm the public but what I’m saying is, this is very close to Palawan,” he added.

The Philippines, China, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam have competing claims in the South China Sea.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague dismissed China’s claims to the South China Sea as delineated in Chinese maps. China rejected the ruling, insisting it had jurisdiction over its so-called nine-dash line.

Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said in an interview by ABS-CBN TV channel on Monday that China’s activities in the Escoda Shoal were to prevent the Philippines from extracting gas at the Reed Bank in the West Philippine Sea. According to a 2023 report by the United States Energy Information Administration, the Reed Bank could hold up to 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The Escoda Shoal was a good location to build an outpost given its location near the Reed Bank, Carpio said.

“Considering the [Philippine] coastguard found a pile of dead corals apparently put there together, this could be the precursor of island-building again by China to put up again an outpost near the Reed Bank,” Carpio said.

If Beijing were successful in building an outpost in the area, Manila would face difficulties in carrying gas exploration activities in the Reed Bank, he added.

“We should send our coastguard [vessels] there constantly. I think they should stay there permanently to prevent Chinese maritime militia from going there because it seems like the maritime militia vessels are the ones piling these dead corals.”

Manila should file a case against China to prevent Beijing’s illegal island-building activities, Carpio said. It should also step up joint patrols with its allies in the Rozul Reef and Escoda Shoal as Beijing could be trying to create another artificial island, he added.

Jose Antonio Custodio, a defence analyst and a fellow at the Consortium of Indo Pacific Researchers, told This Week in Asia that China could build an artificial feature on Sabina Shoal to interdict and harass the movement of Philippine vessels.

If successful, Beijing could prevent Manila from conducting rotation and resupply missions from the Escoda Shoal to Second Thomas Shoal, referred to as the Ayungin Shoal by Manila - the latter was the site of several clashes between Philippine and Chinese vessels in recent months. As such, the Philippine Navy and coastguard must prepare for such contingencies involving Chinese military activities, according to Custodio.

“For China, the value of constructing new artificial bases assists in its long-term goal to project into and beyond the Philippines and into the Central Pacific. The [oil and gas] resource potential in the West Philippine Sea draws China to it,” he said.

Chester Cabalza, president of Manila-based think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, said China’s purported reclamation activities threatened the security of the Philippines.

The strategic location of Escoda Shoal was important for Beijing for its “encirclement” of the BRP Sierra Madre, Cabalza said, referring to an old ship grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal to serve as an outpost for Manila.

“If China succeeds in possessing the Escoda Shoal, it becomes a buffer zone in case a shooting war occurs in the Second Thomas Shoal. This is also a key post to deliberately bar the Philippine coastguard from its regular resupply missions to the grounded naval vessel,” Cabalza said.

Should China succeed in its militarisation of the chain of islands in the Mischief Reef, Second Thomas Shoal, and Sabina Shoal, it would embark on a “grand strategy” to seal off the oil-rich Reed Bank for itself, he added.

China carried out major construction activities from 2014 to 2015 at the Mischief Reef, located 129 nautical miles (239km) from Palawan.

Jennifer Parker, an Expert Associate at the National Security College at the Australian National University, said while it was unclear if the crushed corals were a sign of Beijing’s future land reclamation activities, Manila was understandably nervous about its discovery given the recent history of Mischief Reef.

“When China took control of Mischief Reef in 1995 it also placed buoys around Sabina Shoal. The proximity of Sabina Shoal to the Philippines’ mainland gave it cause for concern although more evidence would be needed before I would say China is undertaking land reclamation,” she said.

“If China is planning on attempting land reclamation at Sabina Shoal, it is likely that this is strategically important given its proximity to Mischief Reef. Should China gain control of Sabina Shoal and reclaim elements of it, it would extend the reach of its military capabilities at Mischief Reef and encircle Second Thomas Shoal, which is directly between Sabina Shoal and Mischief Reef,” she added.

When asked about the incident at Sabina Shoal, Tom Wu, director of the media section at the Chinese Embassy in Manila, told ABS-CBN that China’s “indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands and the adjacent waters” was based on history.

“Chinese activities in the South China Sea date back to over 2,000 years ago. China was the first country to discover, name, explore, and exploit the resources of the South China Sea Islands and the first to continuously exercise sovereign powers over them,” Wu said.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg

Indonesia won’t take sides in US-China Row, says incoming president Prabowo, will maintain open foreign policy approach

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3262493/indonesia-wont-take-sides-us-china-row-says-incoming-president-prabowo-will-maintain-open-foreign?utm_source=rss_feed

Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto said his incoming administration will maintain an open foreign policy approach and not be drawn into choosing sides between the US and China as they compete for influence.

“We invite the US, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Europeans. The fact that we are friends with you doesn’t mean we can’t be friends with China, India, Russia,” Prabowo said in an interview with Qatar-based TV news network Al Jazeera released on Sunday.

“Our guiding philosophy is to be friends with all countries,” he said.

Prabowo’s comments come amid a protracted US-China trade war that’s heightened further after American President Joe Biden is set to quadruple tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles among several measures.

China’s leader Xi Jinping, meanwhile, has been on a European tour that’s seen as an attempt to drive a wedge between the bloc and the US by offering economic opportunities.

Indonesia has long maintained an open foreign policy approach, even under incumbent leader, President Joko Widodo. Prabowo, who will take over the post in October, said he will continue the country’s long-standing stance of non-alignment. Despite meeting Xi in April in what was his first overseas state visit after being declared president-elect, Prabowo also went to Japan – a key US ally – suggesting that he will continue the middle-of-the-road strategy in navigating the US-China rivalry.

China is Indonesia’s biggest economic partner and is pouring more than US$7 billion into the nation’s commodity processing capacity.

Jokowi has maintained a non-confrontational approach over the disputed South China Sea – though Beijing’s claims cut into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone – and Xi would prefer Indonesia continue that approach. Prabowo said during his campaign that he wouldn’t pick sides in the dispute.

In the Al Jazeera interview, Prabowo also pledged to push through his free lunch programme to more than 80 million children, which he also expects to create employment for women and small businesses, despite criticisms the initiative could eat into the country’s budget.

Prabowo said that funding shouldn’t be a concern, and he has studied how to allocate resources, without elaborating in the interview. “I am very convinced,” he said.

South China Sea: Chinese coastguard says it led ‘normalised’ safety training at contested Scarborough Shoal

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262465/south-china-sea-chinese-coastguard-says-it-led-normalised-safety-training-contested-scarborough?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s coastguard said it recently conducted “normalised” lifeguard training to ensure the safety of Chinese fishing boats near Scarborough Shoal, ahead of a civilian-led mission to assert Philippine rights in the disputed South China Sea.

In a statement on Monday, China Coast Guard said it had carried out “successful” life-saving training at sea in the waters off Scarborough Shoal, which it had “normalised”.

“Many Chinese fishing boats are operating in the waters off Huangyan Island, and the Chinese Coast Guard regularly conducts life-saving training at sea to ensure the safety of people on board the ships,” the coastguard said, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal, which is controlled by China.

It is the first time Chinese Coast Guard has declared it had normalised a drill near the shoal, a disputed reef in the South China Sea between Beijing and Manila that is also known in the Philippines as Panatag Shoal.

According to former US Air Force official Ray Powell on Monday, China is sending a “huge force to blockade Scarborough Shoal,” ahead of Atin Ito, a civilian convoy setting sail from the Philippines on Tuesday.

“By this time tomorrow at least four coastguard and 26 large maritime militia ships [will be] on blockade,” Powell posted on X.

“This will be by far the largest blockade I’ll have ever tracked at Scarborough. China seems determined to aggressively enforce its claim over the shoal.”

Atin Ito is a civilian-led supply mission to the Philippine maritime claims in the South China Sea, especially Scarborough Shoal, which its co-convenor Rafaela David describes as a “legitimate exercise of Filipino citizens’ right to movement within our own territory”.

Both China and the Philippines lay claim to Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground in the middle of the South China Sea. The shoal is around 220km (120 nautical miles) west of the Philippine island of Luzon and about 1,000km (590 nautical miles) east of China’s Hainan Island.

China took control of the shoal in 2012 after a tense stand-off, prompting Manila to launch an international arbitration case over their maritime disputes. Beijing rejected the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that said its claims to most of the South China Sea had no legal basis.

China’s sweeping claims to the resource-rich waterway are also contested by Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

The drill comes amid increasing confrontations between China and the Philippines over the disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Last week, Manila’s national security adviser Eduardo Ano called for Chinese diplomats to be expelled over an alleged leak of a phone conversation with a Filipino admiral, who reportedly agreed to Beijing’s proposal of a “new model” for managing the South China Sea dispute.

Last month, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said Philippine vessels had been damaged by China Coast Guard ships near Scarborough Shoal, which he said was “evidence of the forceful water pressure used by the China Coast Guard in their harassment of the Philippine vessels”.

The Philippines held its first joint naval drills with the US, Japan and Australia in the South China Sea in April, prompting China to conduct air and naval patrols in the disputed waters in response.

On Saturday, the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command said China’s navy recently carried out anti-missile and anti-submarine drills with its destroyers in the South China Sea, following the end of the annual Balikatan military exercise between the US and the Philippines that ran for nearly a month, ending on Friday.

China credit engine goes into reverse, piles pressure on Beijing

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3262454/china-credit-engine-goes-reverse-piles-pressure-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s shock credit contraction is adding pressure on the government to spend more money – and on the central bank to help.

Last month’s decline in aggregate financing, the broadest measure of credit, was the first in almost two decades. With private borrowers and local authorities largely tapped out, the central government signalled on Monday it’s ready to step in with a spending boost. The Finance Ministry said it will start selling the first batch of 1 trillion yuan (US$138 billion) in ultra-long special bonds on Friday, raising funds that can be used for infrastructure investments.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has room to lower borrowing costs – and most analysts expect it will, even though that would add downward pressure on the yuan. But monetary easing has so far failed to stem a property slump now in its third year. With home prices falling and the job market weak, households are unwilling to take on more debt however cheap it is to do so.

If the central bank is struggling to steer loans towards consumers and companies, there are ways it can support fiscal spending instead. Analysts expect the PBOC to slash its reserve requirement ratio (RRR) in the coming weeks, allowing banks to buy the bonds that Beijing is about to issue.

The PBOC is also expected to make a small cut in its key lending rate by the end of June, according to a Bloomberg survey last month.

“Money supply growth has been slowing for quite a while, and the drivers are insufficient demand, weak market confidence and idling financial resources,” Everbright Securities analysts including Gao Ruidong wrote in a report on Monday. “The second quarter is still a potential window for cuts to the reserve requirement ratio and interest rates.”

The credit decline was just one in a slew of disappointing data releases since markets closed on Friday. It followed weak consumer inflation, another drop in factory-gate prices, and a 56 per cent plunge in foreign direct investment into China last quarter.

The Communist Party’s 24-man Politburo at a meeting last month called for “flexible use” of policy tools including interest rates and the RRR to lower funding costs, boosting expectations for more monetary support to meet the target of around 5 per cent economic growth this year.

One worry for China’s central bankers is that further monetary easing would widen the interest-rate gap between China and the US – where the Federal Reserve is increasingly expected to keep its policy tight – and thus weaken the yuan.

The PBOC may now be ready to act anyway, according to Becky Liu, head of Greater China macro strategy at Standard Chartered Bank.

“The odds are now rising for additional monetary policy easing to come in the near term regardless of the Fed,” she said, adding that a reserve-requirement cut may be announced to accompany the Finance Ministry’s bond sale.

Other analysts forecast various permutations of cuts to the RRR and the central bank’s main interest rate. In a report on Monday, Xing Zhaopeng at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group predicted that the former may come this month, while the latter may have to wait until “depreciation pressure” on China’s currency is alleviated. Goldman Sachs forecasts a 25-basis point RRR cut in the second quarter.

The problem confronting the PBOC is one other central banks have faced in recent decades, sometimes called “pushing on a string.” Essentially, it’s hard to spur more borrowing via lower rates when households or businesses have been hit by an asset-price slump and simply do not want to take on debt.

China’s weekend data showed that medium and long-term loans to households, a proxy for mortgages, contracted by the most on record – meaning that more mortgages were repaid than taken out. Medium- and long-term loans to companies, a measure of their readiness to invest, also weakened from a year earlier.

The numbers came hours after the PBOC, in its latest monetary policy report, said slower credit growth was sufficient to support the economy. Officials have stepped up efforts to rein in arbitrage – companies taking out loans and channelling them into deposits – which analysts said also contributed to the decline.

While the April credit data was disappointing, it did not reflect a “sharp deterioration in the underlying demand” in the economy, according to Larry Hu, an economist at Macquarie Group, who pointed to strong trade data and car sales. “Policymakers would continue to rely on exports as well as new energy-related investment to drive growth,” he said.

Some analysts also noted a change in statistical methods that may have reduced incentives for banks to push for stronger loan and deposit growth. The National Bureau of Statistics and the PBOC revised their estimates for the financial sector’s value added to include indicators such as banks’ net interest income starting from the first quarter of this year, according to local media reports.

Along with the credit figures, China also released price indices on Saturday that showed the economy remains vulnerable to deflationary pressures. Consumer prices inched up 0.3 per cent from a year earlier, while producer prices extended a slide that dates back to late 2022.

China’s spy ministry raises alert over foreign NGO theft of ‘environmental data’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3262460/chinas-spy-ministry-raises-alert-over-foreign-ngo-theft-environmental-data?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top spy agency sounded an alarm on Monday about foreign NGOs and foundations, saying two organisations had stolen “environmental data” from China under the guise of research and environmental protection.

The allegations were outlined in an article posted on the Ministry of State Security’s public WeChat account, and referred to two cases of theft of “geographical, meteorological, biological and other sensitive data from China’s important nature reserves, posing risks and hazards to national security”.

In the first case, a professor from an unnamed country “illegally collected” data from an unspecified national wetland reserve and forest area, it said.

The ministry said the professor confessed to collecting and stealing data “under the cover of academic cooperation”.

The ministry said the academic was punished, but did not say what the penalties were.

In another case, a “foreign university” cooperated with the scientific management arm of a national nature reserve in southwest China with the support of a foreign NGO.

The foreigners “instructed and coerced” the local staff to “illegally steal various kinds of sensitive data from the nature reserve” with various inducements, including sex, it said.

The NGO, which had a “complex background”, was helping “a certain Western country” to “steal core, sensitive data” under the cover of project cooperation, the ministry said.

The data was obtained through the “installation of meteorological stations, infrared camera equipment, GPS mapping and the theft of classified computer data”.

It said these acts “caused serious damage to our ecological security”.

The article also warned of the risk of environmental data leaks from Chinese companies and government agencies, saying some information management systems had back doors that “have become targets for hostile forces abroad to steal our sensitive classified data”.

The ministry urged the public to be alert to environmental espionage and to report possible instances to the authorities.

China has some of the strictest laws on non-government organisations and their activities. In 2017, legislation aimed directly at these groups came into effect, severely restricting the scope of their operations and bringing all of their activities under police supervision.

Beijing followed up in July last year with revisions to the anti-espionage law that expanded both the definition of espionage and the investigative powers of state security agencies.

Then on May 1, a revised law on safeguarding state secrets came into force with a dozen new articles expanding the depth and breadth of its coverage.

The ministry’s public warning is the last in a string of posts it has made in the past year.

As the otherwise mysterious agency has become increasingly active on social media, it has warned of the threat posed by foreign spies and urged the public to share information about suspicious activity.

The ministry is also covering a broader range of threats.

State Security Minister Chen Yixin said last month the ministry would protect “traditional” security areas such as political, economic and military security, as well as “non-traditional” areas, including biosecurity, data security and artificial intelligence.

Sleepy far-flung towns in the Philippines will host US forces returning to counter China threats

https://apnews.com/article/us-forces-philippines-south-china-sea-taiwan-f98247675dd8a808a515601a6f0c5240A resident brings down a sack from his boat at the coastal town of Santa Ana, Cagayan province, northern Philippines on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. The United States and the Philippines, which are longtime treaty allies, have identified the far-flung coastal town of Santa Ana in the northeastern tip of the Philippine mainland as one of nine mostly rural areas where rotating batches of American forces could encamp indefinitely and store their weapons and equipment within local military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

2024-05-13T04:21:15Z

SANTA ANA, Philippines (AP) — The far-flung coastal town of Santa Ana in the northeastern tip of the Philippine mainland has long been known by tourists for its beaches, waterfalls, fireflies and a few casinos.

But that’s changing after the laid-back town of about 35,000 people, which still has no traffic light, became strategically important to America.

The United States and the Philippines, which are longtime treaty allies, have identified Santa Ana in northern Cagayan province as one of nine mostly rural areas where rotating batches of American forces could encamp indefinitely and store their weapons and equipment on local military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

Thousands of U.S. forces withdrew from two huge Navy and Air Force bases in the Philippines in the early 1990s at the end of the Cold War, ending nearly a century of American military presence in the country. In recent years, Washington has been reinforcing an arc of military alliances in Asia to counter an increasingly assertive China, which it now regards as its greatest security challenge.

That dovetails with Philippine efforts to bolster its external defenses after an alarming spate of territorial hostilities with Beijing in the South China Sea that started last year. The high seas confrontations have injured several Filipino navy personnel, damaged their boats and strained diplomatic ties.

The remote town of Santa Ana is caught in the geo-political rivalry between Washington and Beijing because of its strategic location. It lies across a sea border from Taiwan, the self-governing island that China regards as a renegade province to be reclaimed by force if necessary. The U.S. has vowed to defend the territory.

Some villagers in Santa Ana have expressed apprehension over the prospect of living near U.S. forces. Their governor, Manuel Mamba, has vehemently opposed the looming U.S. military presence, saying it would turn Cagayan into a military target of China.

Other villagers say the Philippines needs the Americans as a crucial counterweight to China, which they say has been using its military might to threaten Manila’s territorial interests in the South China Sea.

“There’s no choice. If you compare the number of our forces with that of China, they have much, much more,” Romeo Asuncion, a planning and economic development officer in Santa Ana, told The Associated Press. “If the Americans are here, they would protect us whatever happens.”

There’s also the prospect of economic benefits and aid from the U.S. military presence.

“If they donate a school that will be good,” Asuncion said.

Rowena Castillo, a consultant to the town’s mayor, expressed hope the wider attention on Santa Ana would boost tourism. She recently handed out brochures promoting the town’s beach resorts, waterfalls, a historic lighthouse, a crocodile-shaped island and an area that teems with fireflies.

Some villagers acknowledged that even without the U.S. forces, the town would likely be affected in any major-power military showdown due to Santa Ana’s relative proximity to Taiwan.

Authorities and village leaders recently met at the initiative of the local military to discuss contingency plans, including the possibility of setting up emergency shelters for refugees, in case tensions between China and Taiwan flare into an armed conflict, Marion Miranda, Santa Ana’s disaster-mitigating officer, told The AP.

“One problem is where we could bring potential refugees and the budget for that,” Miranda said.

In another rural Cagayan town southwest of Santa Ana called Lal-lo, part of the airport was designated as a possible encampment site for American forces.

Unlike the two massive military bases that American forces used to occupy, including a Navy base at Subic Bay that was about the size of Singapore and had a vibrant red-light district, the U.S. military is building a new presence in a much smaller area within Philippine camps.

During largescale combat drills called Balikatan — Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder” — that ended Friday, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters carrying allied forces, their weapons and other supplies landed and took off at the Lal-lo airport and the navy camp in Santa Ana. A few journalists, including from The AP, were invited to witness the combat maneuvers.

“It’s an important location. It’s critical because it is an EDCA site so it’s a very big deal to both the United States and to the Philippines,” U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Matthew Schultz told journalists at Lal-lo airport.

“One of the challenges that we have in this airfield now is there is not a lot of parking space or taxiways or additional apron space in order to facilitate a lot of aircraft,” Schultz said.

The EDCA accord, which was signed in 2014, had an initial term of 10 years and has been automatically extended with both sides in agreement, Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez said by telephone from Washington.

The agreement allows rotating batches of U.S. forces to stay rent-free at the military sites and store their defense equipment — except nuclear weapons — there.

The U.S. has allocated more than $82 million for the construction of ammunition and fuel storage, an urban combat training facility, aircraft parking, runway repairs and warehouses for humanitarian response items in the first five EDCA sites.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed to add four more EDCA sites where U.S. forces could stay, including the Philippine navy camp in Santa Ana and the Lal-lo airport, last year.

Marcos and other Philippine officials say the renewed U.S. military presence would bolster Philippine external defense and help Filipinos respond more rapidly to natural disasters and is not directed at any country.

China, however, has expressed alarm over the increased U.S. troop deployments in the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia and said the EDCA sites in the northern Philippines could serve as surveillance outposts and staging grounds for U.S. forces to contain Beijing.

___

Associated Press journalist Joeal Calupitan in Manila contributed to this report.

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

Trump suggests Chinese migrants are in the US to build an ‘army.’ The migrants tell another story

https://apnews.com/article/trump-china-immigrant-migrants-border-army-05478af9702aa8cc0264bb52c8ba7bd9Wang Gang, 36, front, a Chinese immigrant, talks with the driver of a car with others as they try to get a daily paid job working construction or in another trade in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York on May 3, 2024. The daily struggle to find work for Chinese immigrants living illegally in Flushing is a far cry from the picture Donald Trump and other Republicans have sought to paint about them. Asian advocacy organizations say they're concerned the exaggerated rhetoric could fuel further harassment against Asians in the U.S. (AP Photo/Fu Ting)

2024-05-13T04:13:44Z

NEW YORK (AP) — It was 7 a.m. on a recent Friday when Wang Gang, a 36-year-old Chinese immigrant, jostled for a day job in New York City’s Flushing neighborhood.

When a potential employer pulled up near the street corner, home to a Chinese bakery and pharmacy, Wang and dozens of other men swarmed around the car. They were hoping to be picked for work on a construction site, at a farm, as a mover — anything that would pay.

Wang had no luck, even as he waited for two more hours. It would be another day without a job since he crossed the southern U.S. border illegally in February, seeking better financial prospects than he had in his hometown of Wuhan, China.

The daily struggle of Chinese immigrants in Flushing is a far cry from the picture former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have sought to paint of them as a coordinated group of “military-age” men who have come to the United States to build an “army” and attack America.

Since the start of the year, as the Chinese newcomers have been trying to find their footing in the U.S., Trump has alluded to “fighting-age” or “military-age” Chinese men at least six times and suggested at least twice that they were forming a migrant “army.” It’s a talking point that is being amplified in conservative media and on social platforms.

“They’re coming in from China — 31, 32,000 over the last few months — and they’re all military age and they mostly are men,” Trump said during a campaign rally last month in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania. “And it sounds like to me, are they trying to build a little army in our country? Is that what they’re trying to do?”

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As Trump and others exploit a surge in Chinese border crossings and real concerns about China’s geopolitical threat to further their political aims, Asian advocacy organizations worry the rhetoric could encourage further harassment and violence toward the Asian community. Asian people in the U.S. already experienced a spike in hate incidents fueled by xenophobic rhetoric during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Trump’s dehumanizing rhetoric and blatant attacks against immigrant communities will, without question, only fuel more hate against not only Chinese immigrants but all Asian Americans in the U.S.,” Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, said in a statement to The Associated Press. “In the midst of an already inflamed political climate and election year, we know all too well how harmful such rhetoric can be.”

Gregg Orton, national director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, said many Asian American communities remain “gripped by fear” and that some Asians still feel uncomfortable about taking public transportation.

“To know that we might be staring down another round of that, it’s pretty sobering,” he said.

‘THIS TRIP IS DEADLY’

Wang, who traveled several weeks from Ecuador to the southern U.S. border, then spent 48 hours in an immigration detention facility before heading to Flushing, said the idea that Chinese migrants were building a military “does not exist” among the immigrants he has met.

“It is impossible that they would walk on foot for over one month” for that purpose, he said. “We came here to make money.”

Immigrants who spoke to the AP in Flushing, a densely populated Chinese cultural enclave in Queens, said they came to the U.S. to escape poverty and financial losses from China’s strict lockdown during the pandemic, or to escape the threat of imprisonment in a repressive society where they couldn’t speak or exercise their religion freely.

Many said they continue to struggle to get by. Life in the U.S. is not what they had imagined.

Since late 2022 — when China’s three-year COVID-19 lockdown began to lift — the U.S. has seen a sharp rise in the number of Chinese migrants. In 2023, U.S. authorities arrested more than 37,000 Chinese nationals at the U.S.-Mexico border, more than 10 times the previous year’s number. In December alone, border officials arrested 5,951 Chinese nationals on the southern border, a record monthly high, before the number trended down during the first three months of this year.

The U.S. and China just recently began cooperating again to deport Chinese immigrants who were in the country illegally.

Yet with tens of thousands of Chinese newcomers who have crossed into the U.S. illegally, there has been no evidence that they have tried to mount a military force or training network.

It’s true that the bulk of those who have come are single adults, according to federal data. While the data doesn’t include gender, there are more men than women on the perilous route, which typically involves catching a flight to South America and then making the long, arduous trek north to the U.S. border.

Chinese immigrants in Flushing said one reason men may be coming alone in higher numbers is the expense — often more than $10,000 per person to cover airfare, lodging, payments to local guides and bribes to police in countries along their journey. Another could be China’s longtime family planning policy that skewered the gender ratio toward males.

There’s also the danger, said a 35-year-old Chinese man who only gave his family name of Yin because he was concerned about the safety of his wife and children, who remain in China.

He had arrived in Flushing in late April, five weeks after he left the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. He had traveled through Panama’s dangerous Darien Gap jungle and across Mexico. Signs of the journey were still fresh: His hair was messy, skin tanned with fine wrinkles, and his cardigan, once white, had not been washed for weeks.

“This trip is deadly. People die. The trip isn’t suitable for women — it’s not suitable for anyone,” said Yin.

He said that as the breadwinner, he came alone, with the hope his family could join him later.

‘CHASING A BETTER LIFE’

While some in China have chosen to leave through investment schemes or talent programs in developed nations, those without resources set off for Latin America after learning from social media posts about the journey north.

Upon arriving, most of them fan out to large cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York with well-established Chinese communities, where they hope to get work and start a new life.

Immigrants who arrived in Flushing said they came to America to escape China, not to fight on its behalf.

Thirty-six-year-old Chen Wang, from the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian, said he decided to come to the U.S. in late 2021 after he posted comments critical of the ruling party on Twitter. He was admonished by local police.

“I feared that I could be locked up, so I came to America,” Chen said.

More than two years later, he is still unemployed and lives in a tent in the woods that he has made into a home. He built a fence from dead branches and dug a ditch so he could hand-wash his laundry and wash himself.

He said life in the U.S. has fallen short of his expectations, but he hopes someday to get legal status so he can travel freely around the world and live a simple life in a self-built cabin.

Chen, who served briefly in the Chinese military two decades ago, said he mostly encountered people from the bottom of Chinese society during his trek through Central America. He met no one else who had served in the Chinese military and described his fellow Chinese on the journey as simply people “chasing a better life.”

LONG HISTORY OF ASIAN STEREOTYPES

To be sure, U.S. intelligence leaders have grave concerns about the threat China’s authoritarian government poses to the country through its espionage, military capabilities and more. There also have been crimes committed by Chinese immigrants, including the arrest in March of a Chinese national breaching a military base in California, but there has been no evidence to support the assertion that migrants from China are coming to the U.S. to fight Americans.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell called the Chinese nationals “economic migrants” during an April town hall meeting hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

China has said it strongly opposes illegal immigration, and police there have arrested some who have tried to leave. Social media posts that offer advice and guides to come to the U.S. illegally have been censored in China. Instead, there are posts warning about dangers along the way and racial discrimination in the U.S.

China’s foreign ministry told the AP that Trump’s claims of a Chinese migrant army were “an egregious mismatch of the facts.” The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, said in an emailed statement that every American should be concerned about military-age Chinese men crossing into the U.S.

“These individuals have not been vetted or screened, and we have no idea who they are affiliated with or what their intention is,” Cheung said. “This sets a dangerous precedent for bad actors and potentially nefarious individuals to exploit Joe Biden’s porous border to send countless military-aged men into the United States completely unfettered.”

The army-building narrative has been shared by many other conservatives.

“They are fighting-age males, primarily single, and you know, this isn’t a coincidence,” Republican Rep. Mike Garcia of California said during a Fox Business interview last month, nodding when host Maria Bartiromo suggested the immigrants could later be used as “saboteurs” if Chinese President Xi Jinping “directs that.”

Sapna Cheryan, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, said the claims about Chinese migrants — made without evidence — build on a long history of pervasive stereotypes that Asian people do not belong in the country, ideas that have fueled acts of violence against Asian Americans.

“If that rhetoric is happening again, one thing we might be able to predict is, well, people will probably take that and feel emboldened to engage in these heinous acts,” she said.

Li Kai, also known as Khaled, a 44-year-old Muslim from Tangshan in the northern Hebei province, a city close to Beijing, said he was worried about Trump’s statements regarding illegal immigration and Muslims, but said he has no choice other than to make his new life in the U.S. work.

He was one of the few who made the trip with his family. He shares a bunk bed and sofa with his wife and two sons in a temporary home in Flushing where he has placed an American flag on the wall.

Li said they fled China last year, after he participated in a gathering over the future of a local mosque that was broken up by riot police and he feared his own arrest. He chose the U.S. because it is a free society, where his children have learned to recite from the Quran.

He said the migrants he encountered on his journey all left China for the U.S. to try to improve their prospects in life, and he was grateful for that opportunity. When his sons are at school, he studies for a commercial driver’s license and then hopes to find a job and start paying taxes.

“Now that I have brought my family here, I want to have a stable life here,” he said. “I would like to pay back.”

___

Tang reported from Washington.

___

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FU TING Ting reports for AP’s global investigations team. She is based in Washington, D.C. twitter ALI SWENSON Swenson reports on election-related misinformation, disinformation and extremism for The Associated Press. twitter

Who is NBA Red Panda? China acrobat dazzles fans with beloved halftime act, juggles bowls expertly as she rides unicycle

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3261704/who-nba-red-panda-china-acrobat-dazzles-fans-beloved-halftime-act-juggles-bowls-expertly-she-rides?utm_source=rss_feed

A Chinese-American acrobat known as Red Panda has become a star at United States basketball games due to her remarkable acrobatic bowl-balancing performances during halftime shows.

Born in Shanxi province in central China, Niu Rong, 54, is a fourth-generation acrobat.

She started practising at the age of seven under her father’s guidance, joined the Shanghai Acrobatics Troupe for international tours at 14 before settling in San Francisco aged 19.

To make it easier for foreigners to remember her, Niu adopted the stage name Red Panda.

“Red is the colour of China, and pandas symbolise China. Putting these two words together represents China well,” she said.

In 1993, Niu performed at an NBA league game halftime show for the first time, showcasing her Chinese acrobatic skills for about five minutes.

Her signature act involves high-wheel bowl-balancing where she rides a 2.1-metre unicycle while tossing 16 ceramic bowls from her toes and stacking them perfectly on her head.

“Red Panda is the real Kung Fu Panda,” one observer on YouTube wrote.

That short performance catapulted Niu to fame, leading to a career in NBA halftime shows that has spanned three decades.

In her debut NBA season in 1994 to 1995, Niu performed in about 40 shows.

She earned up to US$5,000 per show, one of the highest salaries among halftime performers, according to the United States Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

She also appears in the NBA 2K24 video game, making her one of the most iconic figures in the sport’s events.

In early April several renowned figures in American basketball called for Red Panda to be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.

“I buy tickets just to see Red Panda, the basketball game is just a side event,” said a US fan on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

Red Panda also has admirers on mainland social media.

“Acrobatics requires tremendous hard work. I admire her so much that I’m ready to jet off to the US to see her in person,” someone said on Weibo.

However, Niu’s journey as an NBA halftime star has not been without challenges.

Her first major injury as an acrobat happened when she fell backwards off her unicycle and broke her wrist.

In 2013, Niu’s father, who was also her teacher, was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. She stopped performing to care for him, but continued to practise.

A year later, her father passed away, plunging Niu into depression, isolating herself from the outside world.

It wasn’t until October 2015 that she decided to return to the NBA halftime stage, hoping to continue her acrobatics as a tribute to her late father.

“Every time before I perform and after I finish, I think of my father. His teachings gradually grow into new insights,” said Niu, adding that she had no intention of retiring.

“If you’ve put your heart and soul into something, even if it’s something different from what most people do, do not give up easily,” she added.

Foreign awards meet growing cynicism in China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3262209/foreign-awards-meet-growing-cynicism-china?utm_source=rss_feed

On the afternoon of April 21, an institution called the European Academy of Natural Sciences (EANS) held a ceremony in Beijing to welcome its new members.

It was a grand occasion. The vice-president of the academy presented six Chinese scholars with membership certificates and gold badges, and Nobel laureate Thomas C. Südhof, a German-American biochemist, posed with them for a photo.

An article published the next day by a consulting firm called the China Development Research Institute showed a picture of Südhof with the institute’s president, Wang Tong, who was holding a certificate after he had been elected an “academician”. The article said Südhof congratulated Wang in a speech.

But in recent days, EANS’ legitimacy, authority as well as its awards have sparked a tsunami of controversy in China, with a growing number of mainland media outlets and members of the research community questioning whether it is an academic honour or a business deal.

Some investigations have revealed that it is possible to pay to join the academy. Domestic media outlet Hongxing Xinwen, for example, consulted an agency that provides application services and was told that applicants could definitely be selected by paying 180,000 yuan (US$24,900).

The criticism and suspicion surrounding this honour signals a growing cynicism and immunity to foreign awards in Chinese society: as the country gradually emerges as a global leader in science and technology, honours bestowed by Western countries are now subject to more scrutiny.

“It is now time to critically examine the phenomenon of [worshipping] ‘foreign academicians’,” a netizen commented on social media.

According to the Post’s investigation, dozens of Chinese people have become academicians of EANS in the past few months, including some respected figures in academia, ranging from professors at China’s top universities to researchers at government research institutes and clinicians at major hospitals.

For example, Ma Fanhua, an associate researcher with Tsinghua University’s school of vehicle and mobility, was elected an academician in December 2023.

Many statements describe the academy, which is based in Hanover, Germany, as “one of the most respected and influential scientific organisations” with more than 1,700 academicians, many of whom are also recipients of world-renowned prizes including the Nobel Prize, the Einstein Prize and the Copernicus Award.

The EANS website, which is mainly in Russian, said in an article on May 3 that it is “not state-owned” like the Chinese or Russian Academy of Sciences, and “we invite the scientists whose work is of academic value and whose achievements benefit people”.

In Europe, however, the most widely recognised research academy is the Academia Europaea founded in 1988, a London-based pan-European academy covering all fields of scholarly inquiry, which serves as an official adviser to the European Union.

In an email response to the Post, Thomas Südhof stressed that he had never heard of the European Academy of Natural Sciences and had no connection with it. He said he was not invited by EANS, but did not give the exact name of the organiser.

Südhof is a neuroscientist at the Stanford School of Medicine who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2013.

According to Südhof and his Chinese collaborator Ellie Wang, he was invited to speak at an event in China where he was unexpectedly asked to participate in an impromptu photo session with people associated with the event organiser.

He said he had congratulated the recipients on their awards as a matter of courtesy, although he had “no idea what these awards were”.

He also expressed the feeling of being “deceived and tricked” when the Post brought the issue to his attention, as the organiser of the event had implied his affiliation with the “academy” by using the photos.

In Chinese academia, honour and fame often come with other privileges, such as an advantage in applying for research funding.

A scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), who asked not to be named, said that it was unlikely that researchers were unaware of the real value of the honours they were applying for, but they were motivated by the potential benefits.

The scientist said he had also been approached in March by an agency inviting him to apply to join the academy.

On Wednesday, an article published by the China Association for Science and Technology wrote that domestic research institutions should clean up fake titles and paid honours, avoid supporting opportunists and giving resources to them.

Under the article, one commenter wrote that he had received similar application invitations many times, and one time in particular, when he asked if it was free or not, he was told he needed to pay 350,000 yuan.

The Post tried to contact the academy’s Chinese representative, Wu Jihua, but did not receive a response.

In his interview with Hongxin Xinwen on Tuesday, Wu denied that the academy’s qualifications were for sale or that it had ever charged an applicant a fee.

China’s Communist Party accuses US of ‘hyping up’ overcapacity claims as fresh EV tariffs loom

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3262389/chinas-communist-party-accuses-us-hyping-overcapacity-claims-fresh-ev-tariffs-loom?utm_source=rss_feed

The Communist Party’s official mouthpiece has accused the United States of “hyping up” claims of “overcapacity” in new energy industries, amid reports that Washington could dramatically raise tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) as soon as Tuesday.

“The intention to hype up China’s overcapacity is to contain China’s industries that have an edge,” an opinion piece in People’s Daily on Sunday said.

It said the United States was plotting to boost its own industries and use China as a “scapegoat” for the decline of various American sectors, adding that “some other countries” were following the US line.

American officials have been vocal about what they see as the impact of excess Chinese manufacturing capacity, especially in EVs, solar panels, batteries and steel.

They claim that much of that capacity has been achieved through ramped-up state subsidies and by limiting foreign access to Chinese markets – and have warned of retaliation if China does not change its approach.

Multiple US media reports published over the weekend suggested that the administration of US President Joe Biden could raise tariffs on clean-energy goods from China, including quadrupling duties on Chinese electric vehicles.

The White House could also be about to renew – tariffs on critical minerals, solar goods and batteries imposed under Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor and likely opponent for the presidency in November.

The US’ 27.5 per cent tariffs on China’s EV exports have prevented those producers from gaining a foothold in the American market.

In April, the US also initiated a Section 301 unfair practices inquiry into China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, the first on Biden’s watch.

The European Union is also investigating allegations that China is exporting its excess capacity, launching anti-subsidy investigations into Chinese EV and wind turbine manufacturers late last year.

Both the EU and the US have said China’s overcapacity is impairing their national security and harmful to their economies, saying it squeezes domestic players out of their own markets.

Chinese players dominate the world market in what Beijing calls the “new three” industries: EVs, lithium batteries and solar panels.

China sees these industries as examples of its manufacturing strength and as the foundations for an economic shift away from the mass output of traditional, low-value-added items such as apparel and home appliances, to advanced production and higher growth.

Beijing is well aware of the risks of overcapacity in these industries. At the annual legislative sessions in March, President Xi Jinping warned against a “headlong rush into new projects” in the drive for new “quality productive forces”.

Nevertheless, it has been a consistent complaint from US officials on their trips to China, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Just as consistently, Beijing has said the claims are groundless and an attempt to contain China’s growth in those industries.

Meeting EV and lithium battery manufacturers in Europe last month, Chinese commerce chief Wang Wentao said China’s rise in these industries was “driven by innovation and complete supply chain systems”.

And during a visit to France last week, Xi also denied there was a Chinese “overcapacity problem”, while adding that he would welcome more high-level talks on trade frictions.

Chinese scientists find a way to mass-produce optical chips that the US cannot sanction

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3262355/chinese-scientists-find-way-mass-produce-optical-chips-us-can-not-sanction?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese scientists have created a lost-cost method to mass-produce optical chips that are used in supercomputers and data centres, helping to reduce the impact of US sanctions.

The chips, or photonic integrated circuits (PIC), use photons – particles of light – to process and transmit information.

They typically contain hundreds of photonic components and are primarily used in fibre optic communications or photonic computing, an emerging technology, to improve transmission speeds and reduce energy consumption.

PICs can be made using various materials, including lithium niobate, which is known for its excellent properties in converting electronic data into photonic information, an essential part of the electro-optical conversion process.

“However, industrial use of this technology is hindered by the high cost per wafer and the limited wafer size,” according to Ou Xin, a professor at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, and Tobias Kippenberg from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.

The pair published their findings in a paper published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

Ou’s team at the National Key Laboratory of Materials for Integrated Circuits opted for an alternative semiconductor material, lithium tantalate (LiTaO3), which performs better than lithium niobate and allows for low-cost mass production due to a fabrication process more akin to commercialised silicon methods.

The lower costs are driven by demand from consumer electronics companies.

“Lithium tantalate has already been commercially adopted for 5G radiofrequency filters [used in smartphones] and offers scalable manufacturing at low costs. and it has equal, and in some cases superior, properties to lithium niobate,” the paper said.

As with electronic integrated circuits, the fabrication of PICs involves patterning the wafers using lithographic techniques followed by etching and material deposition. The team developed compatible processing technologies for lithium tantalate wafers.

Using a deep ultraviolet stepper-based manufacturing process, the team showed that lithium tantalate could be etched to create low-loss PICs, which the researchers believe could also be used in precision measurement and laser imaging detection and ranging.

The technique could help China to reduce the impact of curbs – which included export controls and sanctions targeting institutions – imposed by the United States and some of its key allies to restrict China’s access to advanced chips and manufacturing equipment.

Novel Si Integration Technology, a start-up created by the Shanghai institute, already has the capacity to mass-produce 8-inch wafers with the new material and has developed commercially viable micromanufacturing methods, providing a material basis for domestic optical and radiofrequency chips, according to a recent report by the state-owned China News Service.

“Our work paves the way for the scalable manufacture of low-cost and large-volume next-generation electro-optical PICs,” Ou said, underscoring the potential of lithium tantalate in wireless applications.

Chinese companies win more bids to explore for Iraq oil and gas

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3262412/chinese-companies-win-more-bids-explore-iraq-oil-and-gas?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese companies won five more bids to explore Iraqi oil and gas fields, Iraq’s oil minister said on Sunday, as the Middle Eastern country’s hydrocarbon exploration licensing round continued into its second day.

Chinese companies have been the only foreign players to win bids so far, taking licenses covering 10 oil and gas fields since Saturday, while Iraqi Kurdish company KAR Group took two.

The oil and gas licences for 29 projects in total are mainly aimed at ramping up output for domestic use, with more than 20 companies pre-qualifying, including European, Chinese, Arab and Iraqi groups.

Iraq wanted this licensing round – the country’s sixth – in particular to increase output of natural gas, that it wants to use to fire power plants that rely heavily on gas imported from Iran. However, no bids were made on at least six fields with gas potential, potentially undermining those efforts.

Also notably no US oil majors have been involved, even after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani met representatives of US companies on an official visit to the United States last month.

Among specific awards, China’s CNOOC Iraq won a bid to develop for oil exploration Iraq’s Block 7, that extends across the country’s central and southern provinces of Diwaniya, Babil, Najaf, Wasit and Muthanna, said oil minister Hayan Abdul Ghani.

Zhenhua, Anton Oilfield Services and Sinopec won bids to develop the Abu Khaymah oilfield in Muthanna, the Dhufriya field in Wasit and the Sumer field in Muthanna, respectively, the minister said.

China’s Geo-Jade won a bid to develop Iraq’s Jabal Sanam field for oil exploration in Basra province, Iraq’s oil minister added.

Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer behind Saudi Arabia, has been hampered in its oil sector development by contract terms viewed as unfavourable by many major oil companies, as well as recurring military conflicts and growing investor focus on environmental, social and governance criteria.

Hong Kong phone scam cases drop in first quarter but losses quadruple to HK$789 million, with more mainland Chinese students among victims

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3262400/hong-kong-phone-scam-cases-drop-first-quarter-losses-quadruple-hk789-million-more-mainland-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed

The number of phone scam cases in Hong Kong dropped in the first quarter compared with the same period last year although losses quadrupled to HK$789 million (US$101 million), with more mainland Chinese students in the city falling victim.

Police said the city logged 21 per cent fewer cases at 474 in the first three months year on year. But the amount of funds swindled out of victims had increased markedly from the HK$195 million lost in the first quarter of 2023.

Swindlers pretending to be government or company officials were responsible for 96 per cent, or HK$760 million, of the amount lost in the period this year.

“Although cases using such tactics only take up about 35 per cent of total phone scam cases, the losses tend to be much greater,” said Senior Inspector Lam Pui-hang of the force’s intelligence gathering and scam response team.

He said the number of mainland students in Hong Kong falling victim to such scams had also increased from 29 in the first quarter last year to 39 in the latest period.

One 18-year-old victim, who only identified herself as “Chen” was one of the most recent cases.

The university student said scammers had first approached her claiming to be officers from the immigration authorities. She said they claimed her phone number had been involved in “unscrupulous activities on the mainland” that “violated Hong Kong laws”, and that she had been “blacklisted”.

“I kept telling them I had done no such thing, but they kept saying they had evidence … I believed them, and was very emotionally traumatised and upset,” she said.

The scammers feigned sympathy, telling her to pay large sums of money to “expedite” her case, she said.

She was also told not to tell anyone they were doing her a “secret favour”, as many people, including bank staff, were aware of her case.

Scammers instructed her to download an app, which police said was in fact a trojan virus that allowed the perpetrators to hack into her phone, granting them access to her bank details.

“They managed to transfer large amounts of money away from my bank account, and I had absolutely no idea,” she said.

The swindlers moved HK$800,000 out of her account in four transactions between April 23 and 26.

The victim’s bank spotted the suspicious activity and notified police, managing to halt another HK$200,000 before it was stolen.

Senior Inspector Lam said police would continue to work with schools and student groups to raise awareness among mainlanders and their parents about such scams, and where they could seek help.

He said the quickest and most effective first step was to call the force’s 18222 “anti-scam helpline”.

Police also warned the public to be aware of a new type of phone scam in which swindlers would impersonate staff from shopping websites or video platforms, claiming their victims had become VIPs and that they needed to start paying related membership fees.

If the victims wanted to opt out, they would need to pay more money for “handling fees”, otherwise their accounts would remain frozen.

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How Europe is targeting Asia while tiptoeing around China tensions

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3262034/how-europe-targeting-asia-while-tiptoeing-around-china-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed

“History has repeatedly proven that any conflict can ultimately be resolved only through negotiation,” President Xi Jinping said during his visit to Europe, the first in five years. Carrying a message of peace and cooperation to Paris, he spoke of ongoing conflicts, notably Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which he described as a “tragedy” and “a test of human conscience”.

With the Summer Olympics swiftly approaching, Xi underscored China’s willingness to work with France “to take the Paris Olympics as an opportunity to advocate a global ceasefire and cessation of war during the Games”, a statement that resonates with French President Emmanuel Macron’s call to make the Paris Games “a diplomatic moment of peace”.

Although taking an increasingly critical stance on Israel’s war conduct, Europe has largely been focused on the long drawn-out conflict in Ukraine. Macron pressed Xi to ensure China refrains from selling weapons and “strictly” controls the transfer of dual-use technology to Russia. With Russian President Vladimir Putin set to visit Beijing later this month, Macron called on Xi to exercise constructive influence on Moscow.

Overall, exchanges between Macron and Xi were warm and cordial. Nevertheless, Europe’s relations with China have undergone a qualitative shift in recent years. There have been growing disagreements not only over the conflict in Ukraine but also on matters of trade and technology, which have long been the glue of bilateral relations.

At the same time, Europe is not interested in joining a new Cold War against China, and neither is it in a position to economically decouple from China. Instead, Europe seeks to carve out its own strategic space through a principled multi-alignment strategy which protects its core values as well as facilitates robust and constructive relations with old and new powers in the Indo-Pacific. Europe wants to be a sovereign power rather than a vassal.

It is hard to understate the transformation of Europe-China relations in the past decade. Just a decade ago, European powers such as pre-Brexit Britain actively courted Beijing and supported China-led initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Over the years, China has gained influence across Europe, with Italy joining the Belt and Road Initiative in 2019. In the Balkans and Eastern Europe, China has proved even more diplomatically successful by signing strategic cooperation agreements with many post-communist nations.

But Europe has been rankled by the combination of China’s emergence as a global technological power, its growing maritime assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and its warming ties with anti-Western powers such as Russia.

Last year, Italy informed China that it was withdrawing from the Belt and Road Initiative. European carmakers have been threatened by the deluge of Chinese electric vehicles, and there are growing concerns that Beijing is offering military and technological assistance to Russia in the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Europe is coming under growing pressure from the United States to “de-risk” from China, especially in cutting-edge technologies such as semiconductors. Sanctions and trade barriers are beginning to hamper once-thriving bilateral trade. For the European Union, China is a partner, but also an economic competitor and a systemic rival, underscoring structural frictions in bilateral relations. That is in addition to lingering tensions over human rights issues and allegations of Chinese influence operations in Europe.

It goes without saying that the 27 members of the EU, not to mention post-Brexit Britain, don’t share identical strategic views on China. Nevertheless, European powers, principally France and Germany, are seeking a distinct China strategy on three levels.

To begin with, key European nations are reluctant to join in any decoupling strategy against China. If anything, there is doubt over whether even a more modest “de-risking” approach is feasible or even desirable.

Despite facing stiff competition and the possibility of technological theft, major German automotive companies are deeply invested in the Chinese market. This is why German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was accompanied by a large business delegation during his recent visit to Beijing in spite of growing trade tensions.

For its part, France deeply relies on Chinese consumers for its luxury product exports. During Xi’s visit, Macron thanked his guest for “openness about the provisional measures toward French Cognac”.

Aside from their own economic dependence on China, key European powers have a direct interest in preventing a new cold war between Washington and Beijing. After all, Europe is still heavily dependent on US assistance to deal with Russia, most notably in Ukraine, so it can’t afford Washington being distracted by conflicts elsewhere.

Above all, Europe wants to preserve its own strategic autonomy and carve out its own path on the global stage. As Macron said last year, “Being an ally does not mean being a vassal … it doesn’t mean that we don’t have the right to think for ourselves.”

Accordingly, the European Union has adopted its own Indo-Pacific strategy, which aims to expand its strategic footprint in the world’s most dynamic region. Instead of siding with the US or China, major European powers are pursuing warmer ties with Asia’s other rising powers, namely India, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

European powers have also begun to flex their muscles, with France, Germany and Britain conducting naval patrols in Asian waters. France is offering submarines and advanced weapons systems to Southeast Asian nations such as the Philippines, with both sides now pursuing a visiting forces agreement-style pact.

France has also conducted joint naval drills with the Philippines and the US in the South China Sea, underscoring Europe’s proactive defence diplomacy in Asia. Overall, Europe seeks to become an autonomous, constructive and consequential arbiter of a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific, where the future of the global order will be decided.

China is paying some workers in digital yuan – but few are choosing to use it

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3262194/china-paying-some-workers-digital-yuan-few-are-choosing-use-it?utm_source=rss_feed

At the end of each month, Sammy Lin – an account manager at a state-owned bank in eastern China’s Suzhou – receives her monthly salary in a form that would be unfamiliar to most.

When payday arrives, she receives a sum not as a direct deposit, but as a balance of digital currency in her “e-CNY” app. From there, the money automatically transfers to her bank account, where she can turn it into regular cash and save or spend it as she chooses.

Lin is one of the first group of workers who are being fully paid in digital yuan, as China tries to popularise the currency via a pilot programme that began with employees of government bodies and state-owned companies.

A year ago, Changshu, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, took the lead by paying all public sector workers in digital yuan, and Lin’s employer followed suit months later.

But Lin, like most others in this pioneer cohort, is not actually using the virtual money directly. Their reasons range from functional limitations to worries over privacy.

“I prefer not to keep the money in the e-CNY app, because there’s no interest if I leave it there,” she said. “There are also not so many places, online or offline, where I can use the e-yuan.”

Privacy issues, which former People’s Bank of China governor Yi Gang called “the biggest challenge of the digital finance era”, are also making many reluctant to embrace the new currency.

Unlike paper notes, all transactions in e-CNY are theoretically traceable in a digital ledger. The currency incorporates some elements of blockchain technology – a similar protocol to those which back cryptocurrencies – leading many to call it a weapon to fight corruption.

“Though I myself don’t worry much about privacy – online payment is so common that I rarely use cash now – I understand there are people who are concerned about this,” Lin said.

Ye Dongyan, a researcher at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing, said the need to balance privacy and security has held back progress in promoting the digital yuan.

“Paper currency is used anonymously, but the digital yuan is different,” he said. “The boundaries between information tracking and information security protection need more deliberation.”

With the ubiquity of smartphone ownership and privately owned online payment tools such as Alipay and WeChat Pay dominating everyday life, China has become a functionally cashless society in the span of a decade. But those platforms are not under direct government control, and cash transactions remain a legally protected option.

Yi, the former PBOC governor, said at a March forum in Beijing that China’s digital currency “is able to fully protect privacy” via “controllable anonymity”, meaning no digital footprint for smaller transactions and traceability for larger ones.

Users only need a mobile phone number to obtain a wallet for small-value transactions, and the identity associated with the number is not allowed to be disclosed by telecoms operators to third parties under current laws and regulations, said Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute under the PBOC – a refrain he has repeated on several occasions over the past few years.

But large-value transactions can only be done within identified wallets so they can be traced, Mu said, adding this is to prevent criminal behaviour such as money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Albert Wang, who works at a municipal government body in Suzhou and has part of his salary paid in digital yuan, said he does not mind the arrangement since it is only a small portion – a few thousand yuan a month.

But his wife, also a civil servant in the city, has all her salary paid in digital yuan and deals with the money the same way as Lin.

“She withdraws it upon receipt, because she can’t deposit the money or buy financial products with the e-CNY wallet,” Wang said.

Wider adoption of the digital currency could help curb corruption to some extent, as it reduces cash bribery, he said, though corruption can occur in other forms.

“The disadvantages are obvious as it is not accepted in all shops, and serves merely as a payment tool,” he said, adding this makes it uncompetitive with Alipay and WeChat Pay, which are almost universally used and have a number of other functions.

A Beijing-based economist who declined to be named agreed, saying the well-established, sophisticated online payment apps are a major obstacle to dissemination of the digital yuan.

“The development of online payment tools has been so fast and fierce that they can’t possibly be replaced by a new thing, unless it’s a disruptive innovation,” he said.

China began testing use of the digital yuan in select cities in 2019, in preparation for a national roll-out amid heated global competition to inaugurate a state-backed digital currency.

It has not yet announced a timeline for a national launch, but has been proactively marketing the currency since the trials began.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the largest bank in the world in terms of total assets, said in its annual report that last year over 15 million e-CNY wallets were newly opened by individuals and over 1.3 million by business entities. More than 2.7 million shops were new additions to the list of those accepting the currency.

Besides personal spending, use of the currency has been extended to several public services, including tax and social security payments.

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US aims to stay ahead of China in using AI to fly fighter jets, navigate without GPS and more

https://apnews.com/article/ai-military-machine-learning-autonomy-china-gps-5f327918075cea0bfc32e5d36cba801dAn AI-enabled Air Force F-16 fighter jet, left, flies next to an adversary F-16, as both aircraft race within 1,000 feet of each other, trying to force their opponent into vulnerable positions, on Thursday, May 2, 2024, above Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The flight is serving as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

2024-05-12T10:58:03Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Air Force fighter jets recently squared off in a dogfight in California. One was flown by a pilot. The other wasn’t.

That second jet was piloted by artificial intelligence, with the Air Force’s highest-ranking civilian riding along in the front seat. It was the ultimate display of how far the Air Force has come in developing a technology with its roots in the 1950s. But it’s only a hint of the technology yet to come.

The United States is competing to stay ahead of China on AI and its use in weapon systems. The focus on AI has generated public concern that future wars will be fought by machines that select and strike targets without direct human intervention. Officials say this will never happen, at least not on the U.S. side. But there are questions about what a potential adversary would allow, and the military sees no alternative but to get U.S. capabilities fielded fast.

“Whether you want to call it a race or not, it certainly is,” said Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Both of us have recognized that this will be a very critical element of the future battlefield. China’s working on it as hard as we are.”

A look at the history of military development of AI, what technologies are on the horizon and how they will be kept under control:

FROM MACHINE LEARNING TO AUTONOMY

AI’s roots in the military are actually a hybrid of machine learning and autonomy. Machine learning occurs when a computer analyzes data and rule sets to reach conclusions. Autonomy occurs when those conclusions are applied to take action without further human input.

This took an early form in the 1960s and 1970s with the development of the Navy’s Aegis missile defense system. Aegis was trained through a series of human-programmed if/then rule sets to be able to detect and intercept incoming missiles autonomously, and more rapidly than a human could. But the Aegis system was not designed to learn from its decisions and its reactions were limited to the rule set it had.

“If a system uses ‘if/then’ it is probably not machine learning, which is a field of AI that involves creating systems that learn from data,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Berardi, who is assigned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to assist with the Air Force’s AI development.

AI took a major step forward in 2012 when the combination of big data and advanced computing power enabled computers to begin analyzing the information and writing the rule sets themselves. It is what AI experts have called AI’s “big bang.”

The new data created by a computer writing the rules is artificial intelligence. Systems can be programmed to act autonomously from the conclusions reached from machine-written rules, which is a form of AI-enabled autonomy.

TESTING AN AI ALTERNATIVE TO GPS NAVIGATION

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall got a taste of that advanced warfighting this month when he flew on Vista, the first F-16 fighter jet to be controlled by AI, in a dogfighting exercise over California’s Edwards Air Force Base.

While that jet is the most visible sign of the AI work underway, there are hundreds of ongoing AI projects across the Pentagon.

At MIT, service members worked to clear thousands of hours of recorded pilot conversations to create a data set from the flood of messages exchanged between crews and air operations centers during flights, so the AI could learn the difference between critical messages like a runway being closed and mundane cockpit chatter. The goal was to have the AI learn which messages are critical to elevate to ensure controllers see them faster.

In another significant project, the military is working on an AI alternative to GPS satellite-dependent navigation.

In a future war high-value GPS satellites would likely be hit or interfered with. The loss of GPS could blind U.S. communication, navigation and banking systems and make the U.S. military’s fleet of aircraft and warships less able to coordinate a response.

So last year the Air Force flew an AI program — loaded onto a laptop that was strapped to the floor of a C-17 military cargo plane — to work on an alternative solution using the Earth’s magnetic fields.

It has been known that aircraft could navigate by following the Earth’s magnetic fields, but so far that hasn’t been practical because each aircraft generates so much of its own electromagnetic noise that there has been no way good to filter for just the Earth’s emissions.

“Magnetometers are very sensitive,” said Col. Garry Floyd, director for the Department of Air Force-MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator program. “If you turn on the strobe lights on a C-17 we would see it.”

The AI learned through the flights and reams of data which signals to ignore and which to follow and the results “were very, very impressive,” Floyd said. “We’re talking tactical airdrop quality.”

“We think we may have added an arrow to the quiver in the things we can do, should we end up operating in a GPS-denied environment. Which we will,” Floyd said.

The AI so far has been tested only on the C-17. Other aircraft will also be tested, and if it works it could give the military another way to operate if GPS goes down.

SAFETY RAILS AND PILOT SPEAK

Vista, the AI-controlled F-16, has considerable safety rails as the Air Force trains it. There are mechanical limits that keep the still-learning AI from executing maneuvers that would put the plane in danger. There is a safety pilot, too, who can take over control from the AI with the push of a button.

The algorithm cannot learn during a flight, so each time up it has only the data and rule sets it has created from previous flights. When a new flight is over, the algorithm is transferred back onto a simulator where it is fed new data gathered in-flight to learn from, create new rule sets and improve its performance.

But the AI is learning fast. Because of the super computing speed AI uses to analyze data, and then flying those new rule sets in the simulator, its pace in finding the most efficient way to fly and maneuver has already led it to beat some human pilots in dogfighting exercises.

But safety is still a critical concern, and officials said the most important way to take safety into account is to control what data is reinserted into the simulator for the AI to learn from. In the jet’s case, it’s making sure the data reflects safe flying. Ultimately the Air Force hopes that a version of the AI being developed can serve as the brain for a fleet of 1,000 unmanned warplanes under development by General Atomics and Anduril.

In the experiment training AI on how pilots communicate, the service members assigned to MIT cleaned up the recordings to remove classified information and the pilots’ sometimes salty language.

Learning how pilots communicate is “a reflection of command and control, of how pilots think. The machines need to understand that too if they’re going to get really, really good,” said Grady, the Joint Chiefs vice chairman. “They don’t need to learn how to cuss.”

TARA COPP Copp covers the Pentagon and national security for the Associated Press. She has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia. twitter mailto

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German carmakers want to compete with China but it must be a ‘fair fight’: envoy

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262185/german-carmakers-want-compete-china-it-must-be-fair-fight-envoy?utm_source=rss_feed

Patricia Flor, German ambassador to China, talks to the Post in the wake of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s pivotal visit to China in April. The conversation delves into the spectrum of shared understandings and points of contention between the two countries, including overcapacity, Ukraine, climate change and the sensitive topic of espionage arrests.

We live in a very difficult geopolitical environment. It is essential that our leaders meet and discuss directly and regularly.

Although we do have differences on issues such as the Russian invasion into Ukraine or the situation in the Middle East, diplomatically, it is very much necessary to discuss and find some common messages nonetheless, which we did.

As the German government mentions in its China strategy: we want to continue cooperation with China while we also need to look at de-risking to reduce critical dependencies.

All of these go together with the chancellor’s visit, the upcoming intergovernmental consultations next year, and other intensive dialogue formats on the different fields where China and Germany interact.

It is completely normal in a democracy with free media as in Germany to have a free debate on whether the trip was successful or not.

Chongqing embodies China’s development over the past decades. It is a huge and modern city with a population of 35 million. In comparison, Berlin’s population is around four million.

The visit was an occasion to look at contemporary city management, such as how to govern a metropolis, organise transport and monitor the water quality.

The chancellor also visited a production site of the German manufacturer Bosch in Chongqing which produces hydrogen fuel cell system for trucks. It is symbolic of our intention to work with China in countering today’s global challenges, such as bringing down emissions in the transport sector.

The European Union and Germany have been asking for a level playing field for our companies, banks and other institutions in China for quite some time, because this is the underlying issue for overcapacity.

China offers subsidies to certain companies and industries, including financial support at low interest rates. To make things worse, this often leads to overcapacity – companies are not profitable but continue to stay in business instead of going bankrupt, which undermines normal competition.

Overcapacity is the consequence of a missing level playing field. And that must change. Our conversation should be about how we can have equal, fair and transparent conditions.

The chancellor mentioned that very clearly during his visit and suggested to address such issues in the context of the World Trade Organization because it will ultimately become a global issue.

If the EU gets tough on China, it is also because Germany and all member states of the European Union decide to empower the EU Commission to launch investigations and take measures to protect the European single market whenever they find evidence that something is wrong, such as dumping, subsidies or unfair support measures. The European Commission then decides on its own authority.

The European single market is an open market. It works under market conditions. It is totally transparent and everybody can look up all of the regulations, but this is not equally true all over the world. At a time where we observe additional restrictions and distortions for trade, it is also necessary for us Europeans to be able to protect our own market.

I don’t see any contradiction here with regard to cooperation on clean energy and automated and connected driving, because it is equally true that as we embark on a green transformation in a new technological era, we do need to look for global rules and standards.

During the chancellor’s visit, our ministries for Digital and Transport, and for Economic Affairs and Climate Action signed an MOU with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

When we talk about autonomous and connected driving, we have to think about the standards for the auto driving system, which involve safety standards, data transfer, data exchange on accidents and risk assessment.

That is a field where Germany wants to engage with China in order to find good and safe solutions for automated mobility in the future.

First of all, it is always a pleasure to go to the foreign ministry and talk to my Chinese colleagues because it offers me an opportunity to share our thinking and approach, and to have a dialogue with them. So I used this opportunity to make absolutely clear that Germany does not tolerate espionage, regardless of which country is involved.

Secondly, we protect our democracy and our state within the constitutional framework, which means through investigations of our independent judiciary. In this case, the federal prosecutor of Germany is the one initiating the arrests. The court then authorised the warrants. Now we will have a judicial procedure. In the end, it will be a court deciding about these individual cases.

Germany, as well as our partners, is deeply concerned about tensions in the South China Sea and East China Sea. It is very important that everybody respects the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) and that we don’t see any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force.

The issue matters to maritime shipping and our economic relations. About half of world trade goes through the South China Sea. A lot of it also goes through the Taiwan Strait, through the Malacca Strait.

That is our lifeline. It is clear that for an economy like Germany, it would be a big concern if we had any stability issues where maritime shipping could no longer freely pass.

It is the second time that the German Navy deploys to the Indo-Pacific, including to the South China Sea. It is an implementation of the German Indo-Pacific guidelines. The guidelines highlight the importance of this region in today’s world, the importance of the maritime routes and crossings to our national interest and economic interest.

We want to reach out to partners in the region, engage with them on issues of maritime domain awareness, coastguard activities and disaster assistance. That is the intention of this deployment.

We see this as symbol of our interest in making a contribution to stability in the region, but also underline the importance of freedom of navigation and free maritime shipping routes throughout this region.

My response is a very simple one. China, Germany and many other countries have ratified UNCLOS. And on that particular dispute, the arbitration tribunal gave its opinion in 2016.

What we demand is that everybody respects the law of the sea. And in this regard, I would say that China’s approach, its close encounters and dangerous interaction with Philippine ships, are highly problematic.

And if you say that the Chinese view that as a sovereign right – well, but the Philippine view is exactly the opposite.

What we are asking for is to find solutions which are in line with international law. So all parties should respect the UNCLOS decision of 2016 and find an arrangement through agreement, not through military or other aggressive means.

The question how we fulfil the Paris Agreement and how we combat climate change together has been identified and highlighted as a key area of cooperation between Germany and China.

That was also confirmed during the intergovernmental consultations last year in Berlin. We have created Climate and Transformation Dialogue. We will see the first, physical official meeting of this dialogue very soon here in Beijing when our minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action will be visiting.

We are trying to find ways to cooperate on issues including the Loss and Damage fund, the Green Climate Fund, the adaptation fund, and biodiversity in which China has played a very important and constructive role.

We now appeal to China to contribute more. China is now the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. In terms of total emission since the late 18th century it is the second largest and on its way to surpass the US.

The consequences of climate changes are being felt globally. It may take a big toll such as on small islands in the Pacific, which may disappear due to the rise of the sea level.

It is fair to say, given the amount of emissions, China should contribute to this international effort, support those who need to adapt urgently. And it fits very well with China’s objective of having South-South cooperation.

China has moved beyond the stage of a developing country. It is normal that we get new competitors.

When I talk to German companies in the car industry, they say that fair competition is healthy, leads to innovation and that they are ready to take on this challenge. They can compete and want to compete.

German companies will again prove that they can offer high quality products. It is up to the consumer to decide what to buy.

At the same time, which was very evident when Chancellor Scholz and Premier Li Qiang met the advisory China-German Business Council, German companies urged for a level playing field to ensure fair competition.

This has many elements: as we move into the green transition, trying to get to sustainable mobility and protecting the environment, it relates to which standards we are using.

Germany has, for example, very high environmental and social standards that our industry needs to comply with, while the standards are much lower in other countries. As a result, we have an imbalance that we need to look at.

In principle, Germany’s prosperity is built on a free and open world market. The demand for technology, especially in this green transformation, will be so big that there is room for many players from different countries to compete.

Our ambition should be to work out a set of standards, take it to an international or multinational body and aim at an agreement by all. It is necessary to build mutual confidence and agreement in order to set up standards which are acceptable to all sides globally.

It is key to find common ground between all of these different actors in order to move forward. I think the debate about space and space governance is a similar one. So we have many fields where it is no longer sufficient to regulate the local market, but we need to think about the common standards for all.

Germany has been very committed to finding the common ground for these questions. We just think that it is essential to talk to China and our other partners as well.

We are still waiting for China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, to condemn this war of aggression, which clearly violates the UN Charter.

During his press conference in Beijing, Chancellor Scholz called on President Xi Jinping to push Russia to end this war, withdraw its troops and restore territorial sovereignty and integrity for Ukraine.

As a large country with strategic partnership with Russia, and also as a member of the Security Council, clearly there is weight and leverage that China can bring into this discussion.

Economic interaction between China and Russia is also of great concern to us, as we do see critical components and dual use components from China go into Russian military production.

The effort and the intention of the chancellor was also to find some common ground beyond all the differences. There are some elements we agree on, namely, that territorial integrity and sovereignty are essential building blocks for a stable and peaceful order in Europe.

The two leaders also agreed that both countries should, constructively and positively, engage and coordinate on supporting the Swiss initiative for a peace conference in June as one track to promote progress in that direction.

It was also very important to reaffirm the opposition to the threat or use of nuclear weapons, and also oppose attacks against civilian nuclear facilities. We also want to jointly support global food security, protect and promote export of grain from Ukraine.

Everybody should respect humanitarian law and protect the civilian population as we see casualties in Ukraine every day, including women and children.

It is our goal to promote and find a way towards a peaceful Middle East where Israel and the Palestinians could coexist peacefully.

Germany has strongly condemned the Hamas attack of October 7 and atrocities that we’ve seen. To release the hostages is a key and concrete objective right now.

Both Germany and China think the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is absolutely critical and of great concern. We must ensure reliable and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance.

We support the role of the United Nations and both countries call for implementation of Security Council Resolution 2728 in the hope we can get to a ceasefire and release of hostages.

In the long term, we believe that the two-state solution is the only viable solution for the region. So we will work towards that.

Germany and China agree there is a shared responsibility of the global community to ensure that maritime shipping could continue unimpeded in the Red Sea.

China has some contact with the Houthis, which would give a starting point to call on the Houthis to stop attacks.

The European Union has launched the EU Naval Force Operation Aspides in the Gulf of Aden. We have also conducted an EU-led anti-piracy mission in the Red Sea. China has a naval base in Djibouti.

I think the situation calls for some coordination, such as exchanging information, assisting each other in terms of protecting the merchant ships.

We have never barred Chinese students from coming. So if they didn’t come, it was not because we had any restrictions. The number of Chinese students in Germany has now recovered to the pre-Covid levels. We are issuing lots of visas again. Germany is still very attractive for Chinese students.

However, it is still very difficult the other way around. So far, the number of German students in China is still quite low. Currently, there are around 1,800 German students enrolled at Chinese universities. Before Covid, there were around 8,000.

There are several reasons for this. China has been basically off-limits for three years, and people are still wondering whether it is possible now to go.

There are also some issues such as how to survive as a newcomer to China if one does not have WeChat, cannot use international credit cards, and so on – so there are very practical obstacles for foreigners to come and live in China.

And I should not hide there is a critical discussion in Germany about China with many questions. A major one is China’s position regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For Germans and Europeans, Russia’s aggression is an existential threat. This is a nuclear power next to us that just invaded its neighbour. It has really shaken up people. The world is no longer the same after the invasion.

But we see China standing side by side with Russia, not having condemned the invasion, while trade between China and Russia is growing.

The situation casts doubt on China’s relation with Germany and Europe. The German public wonders about what this actually means, and if this is conducive to a decision about going to China and studying here.

What’s currently on the agenda is several ministerial visits. We now see bilateral dialogues and delegations going in both directions and we have a much more normal situation this year. Next year we will have the intergovernmental consultations in China. So it means that Chancellor Scholz will come to China for these consultations.

It is very important to work jointly to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. Both countries’ climate envoys coordinated very closely at Cop28 and will do so for the upcoming Cop29.

Germany is the co-coordinator for the negotiations for the United Nations Summit for the Future in September. We need to engage with China to reach a consensus for the summit.

Germany has, together with some others, called for the reform of the UN Security Council and other institutions for quite a long time because the Security Council does not reflect today’s world. It was created in 1945 under very special conditions and it needs to be reformed.

We have also supported several initiatives to restrict the veto powers. There are big questions of how to do the reform. A UN where the key body is not representative of today’s world has limited sway and limited credibility.

We also insist that everything that was achieved so far should be preserved, such as the Human Rights Conventions, the international tribunals and other bodies of the United Nations that deal with different issues.

We want a reform which makes these institutions better, enhances possibilities for everyone on this planet to enjoy their rights, including social rights, development rights and political rights. We want a positive momentum as a trademark or quality sign for such a reform.

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US Plans to Limit American-made AI Models in China

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/us-plans-to-limit-american-made-ai-models-in-china/7604874.html

The Biden administration plans to put limits on American-made artificial intelligence (AI) models, the Reuters news agency reports.

The aim is to restrict the technology that powers popular chatbots from countries such as China and Russia.

But China in the past year has built its own generative AI industry and has been urging its companies to avoid foreign technology.

So, how dependent is China now on U.S. AI models and how might new American policy on AI development affect China?

OpenAI and China

OpenAI’s key AI services such as ChatGPT and the DALL-E image generator, or maker, have not been officially released in mainland China. An OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters last year that it was unable to do so in some countries due to local "conditions."

However, many companies and engineers have accessed OpenAI’s services using special tools like virtual private networks (VPNs) to hide their network addresses.

As a result, many Chinese companies have been able to build software and programs on top of OpenAI’s models. Chinese companies also often compare their own AI models against those of OpenAI.

OpenAI has shut down Chinese companies’ access to its service. Last December, OpenAI suspended the account of ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner. The move came after technology website The Verge reported that ByteDance used OpenAI’s technology to develop its own AI.

Access to OpenAI’s AI models is also restricted in Hong Kong. Although OpenAI’s services are unavailable there, Microsoft, an investor and a partner of OpenAI, has released Copilot to the public.

Copilot is a generative AI service built with OpenAI’s latest technology. By partnering with Microsoft, companies in Hong Kong can also use OpenAI’s AI models.

Open source

The United States government’s plans are aimed at the export of closed source AI models. Closed source models involve software and training data that are not publicly available, sources told Reuters. Open source models would be beyond the restrictions of export controls.

However, China has been using many open source models developed in Western nations, such as Meta Platforms’ “Llama” series.

The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence is a high-level research lab in China. In March, Chinese government media reported that the lab said the majority of Chinese AI models were built using Meta’s Llama models.

The lab told China’s Premier Li Qiang at the time that China “severely lacks autonomy” in the area.

01.AI is one of the most well-known AI companies in China. Last November, it faced strong criticism after the discovery that the company’s AI model Yi-34B was built on Meta’s Llama system.

That said, a large number of Chinese tech companies such as Baidu, Huawei, and iFlytek have been working to develop their own AI models.

Some of them claim that their models have become as capable as OpenAI’s latest GPT4 model in several areas.

Self-sufficiency

Chinese authorities have been discussing the need for the country to develop its own “controllable” AI technology.

State-backed newspaper China Daily suggested in a post last February on China’s Weibo site that ChatGPT could help the U.S. government spread disinformation.

China has also been quick to release rules on the use of generative AI. AI services must get government approval before being released to the public. As of January, China has approved over 40 AI models for public use but none of them were foreign AI models.

I’m John Russell.

 

Josh Ye reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

chatbot – n. a program that is designed to converse with humans

access – v. to be able to use something

address – n. a location where information is stored

autonomy – n. the state of existing separately from others