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• Saudi Arabia, Qatar to add more direct China flights to give post-pandemic tourism a lift
• China’s murky debt collections get new rules: don’t harass, no late-night operations, don’t enter homes uninvited
• China’s giant Xuntian space telescope faces further delay until late 2026
• For China, be it Donald Trump or Joe Biden at the US helm, the barrage of ‘political’ strikes may only intensify
• Singapore PM Lawrence Wong’s ancestral ties spark Chinese social media interest: ‘the pride of Hainan’
• China property: government buying of unsold homes lifts sentiment but is no cure-all for market doldrums, analysts say
• Baidu ekes out modest quarterly revenue growth amid escalating generative AI competition in China
• China film mogul, Zhang Jizhong, 72, escorts wife to prenatal exam, stirs debate about 30-year age gap
• Central Chinese province Hunan to play big role in helping boost African farming and industrial gains
• Philippines warns China of diplomatic consequences over alleged wiretapping of senior navy officer
• Indian steel mills ‘vulnerable’ to surge in cheaper Chinese imports after US tariffs
• Beijing clarifies coastguard’s detention powers as activists converge on Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea
• A Chinese ‘asset’? Philippines raises alarm over mystery mayor suspected of links to Pogos
• Xi welcomes ‘old friend’ Putin to Beijing, affirms strength of China-Russia bond
• Scientists in China find extremely elaborate 2,200-year-old tomb from Chu state could have belonged to a king
• China has ‘sophisticated influence apparatus’ but did not try to sway 2020 US election, American intelligence chief says
• [Sport] China's Nio unveils Tesla Model Y rival
• Putin arrives in Beijing for China state visit as Ukraine war intensifies – live
• South China Sea: Philippine civilian boat convoy drops plan to sail closer to Scarborough Shoal
• Putin arrives in China on mission to deepen partnership with Xi
• China teenager pleads with father to be better husband after dispute with mother, video ignites family harmony dialogues
• Why so many Chinese women feel invisible to their gynaecologist
• Visa-free China entry approved at all cruise ports, letting tourists stay up to 15 days
• Putin arrives in China amid global consternation over Ukraine war
• [World] Putin in China to meet Xi as Ukraine looms large
• Beijing’s intervention in Chinese markets, including tech, could strangle ‘economic dynamism’, author says
• Concerns grow for Chinese citizen journalist after supposed jail release
• Biden outdoes Trump with ultra-high China tariffs | Finance & economics
• The Xi-Putin partnership is not a marriage of convenience | China
• Why is the US uneasy about China’s troubled US$3.6 billion port project in Peru?
• Jockey Club and Institute of Philanthropy collaborate with the Palace Museum to promote Chinese culture and nurture arts tech talent in Hong Kong and the Mainland
• US House committee moves quickly to approve bill limiting business with Chinese biotech firms
• No limits? Why Vladimir Putin’s latest visit will test China-Russia ties

Saudi Arabia, Qatar to add more direct China flights to give post-pandemic tourism a lift

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262846/saudi-arabia-qatar-add-more-direct-china-flights-give-post-pandemic-tourism-lift?utm_source=rss_feed

Saudi Arabia and Qatar will add more direct flights with mainland China and Hong Kong as they take advantage of a rebound of Chinese tourists following the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism officials of the two Middle East countries said.

In an exclusive interview with the Post on Wednesday, Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb said there would “absolutely” be more direct flights with China soon.

“We created the airlines and direct flights [from China] to Saudi Arabia to make sure that we are connected,” Al-Khateeb said on the sidelines of the Qatar Economic Forum 2024 in Doha. “Commercial flights [increasing] depends on demands, but the statistics are very promising; we are very optimistic.”

Last month, three of China’s top airlines – Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines – began direct services from Beijing and Shanghai to the Saudi capital Riyadh.

This followed the launch of direct flights by Saudi Arabian Airlines from Jeddah and Riyadh to Beijing and Guangzhou last year.

Al-Khateeb also said there were plans in the pipeline for more direct flights between Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong, with details to be announced “very soon”.

“China is very important to us. Therefore we put China at the top of the best [place] to promote Saudi Arabia and advocate the Chinese to Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“For [Chinese] people [who are] in the commercial side and in the oil/gas trade, they know Saudi Arabia very well. But for people who want to travel, [they want to] come and explore other nations’ cultures and history and heritage, and I think we [need to] start promoting Saudi Arabia [to them], but it’s a long-term journey.”

Last year, of the 100 million tourists to Saudi Arabia, nearly 150,000 were Chinese. The kingdom is aiming to attract 5 million Chinese tourists by 2030.

However, Al-Khateeb sidestepped a question over whether Saudi Arabia would follow the examples of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in offering visa-free travel to mainland Chinese tourists, saying any prospective Chinese visitors could apply for visas online “in just a few minutes”.

Separately, Qatar Tourism chairman Saad Al Kharji, said Qatar and China were in advanced talks over increasing the number of direct flights as the Gulf nation steps up tourism promotion.

“We’re focused on China … to get more tourists from there,” he said on the sidelines of the forum on Wednesday, noting that tourism in Qatar was recovering “very fast”, especially among Chinese tourists, and was “very resilient” and “can grow back again”.

China Southern added a new route between Doha and Guangzhou in April, increasing its total to four direct flights a week. It also joins Cathay Pacific and Xiamen Airlines as the third Chinese code-share partner offering direct services to Doha.

According to a report by Doha News on Monday, tourism accounted for 10.3 per cent of Qatar’s overall economic output in 2023, hitting a record of QAR81.2 billion (US$22 billion).

Meanwhile, figures provided by the Arabian Travel Market held in Dubai last week showed a 54 per cent increase of Chinese tourists visiting the Middle East between the first quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, with the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia the top destinations.

China’s outbound tourism is expected to recover fully next year, led by travel to the Middle East, according to research by Oxford Economics.

The UAE, especially Dubai, is the regional leader in that sector, but Al-Khateeb, the Saudi tourism minister, said Riyadh was complementing – not competing with – Dubai or Doha.

“That’s why we initiated in Saudi Arabia, two years ago, to have a one unified visa to visit all the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries. We believe that we don’t compete but complement, and will become stronger when we work together.”

He said he had started talks with all the GCC members to host some joint programmes for Expo 2030 and the Asian Winter Games 2029, both of which will be hosted by Saudi Arabia.

China’s murky debt collections get new rules: don’t harass, no late-night operations, don’t enter homes uninvited

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3262942/chinas-murky-debt-collections-get-new-rules-dont-harass-no-late-night-operations-dont-enter-homes?utm_source=rss_feed

Aiming to address a surge in disputes over payments in a time of mounting household debt, China has issued new guidelines for responsible lending and collection.

The new rules, outlined by the National Internet Finance Association of China in a circular to members on Wednesday, lay out a set of standard practices for debt collection along with a call for lenders to deal fairly and transparently with borrowers.

The instructions state that financial institutions should “comprehensively and objectively evaluate” borrowers’ reasons for seeking loans and their repayment ability; ensure key terms and conditions are clearly stated in contracts; and remind borrowers to read loan documents carefully.

Lenders should also “guide borrowers to borrow rationally and plan repayment reasonably”, it said. The guidelines cover lenders from large commercial banks to small consumer finance companies, as well as third-party agencies that lenders often outsource collection to.

Household debt has surged in China since the 2008 financial crisis, as households flocked to invest in the country’s property boom and as rising incomes expanded access to credit. In the decade to 2018, China’s ratio of household debt to gross domestic product swelled from 18.4 per cent to around 52.1 per cent, according to the National Institute for Finance and Development (NIFD).

Leverage continued to rise during the pandemic as consumers suffered pay cuts, lost their jobs or struggled to service existing debt.

And by the end of March, household borrowing had reached 64 per cent of GDP, according to the Beijing-based think tank – teetering on the brink of a 65 per cent red line drawn by the International Monetary Fund as a warning point about financial risks.

Meanwhile, non-financial corporate debt had risen to 174.1 per cent of GDP through March, up from 161.5 per cent four years ago, the NIFD found. China’s overall debt also hit a record high, rising to 294.8 per cent of GDP from 260.9 per cent over the same period.

But with lenders moving to make good on loans, the unregulated sector of private-debt collection – notorious for employing murky tactics ranging from harassment to aggression – has drawn scrutiny from Beijing.

In mid-2023, the Hunan Yongxiong Asset Management Group, one of China’s largest debt-collection companies, announced it would suspend operations after its offices were raided by the police.

Last month, the group said on its WeChat account that it would no longer directly take part in collections and would be transitioning to a “technology service” supporting the industry at large.

In its new guidelines, the Internet Finance Association said lenders and collection agencies should establish systems to manage loan collections, including mechanisms to monitor the behaviour of collection agents, to deal with improper tactics, and to record the collection process.

Among other requirements, collection personnel should clearly identify themselves and cannot enter private premises such as homes or offices without consent. They also should not carry out collections from 10pm to 8am – unless the borrower agrees to a specific time beforehand – nor charge fees for collections or harass debtors by calling more than three times a day.

In March, the National Administration of Financial Regulation also tightened rules for nonbank consumer finance companies. Registered capital requirements for firms providing small consumer loans – with the exception of home or car loans – were raised to 1 billion yuan, along with higher shareholding requirements for investors in such firms.

China’s giant Xuntian space telescope faces further delay until late 2026

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3262886/chinas-giant-xuntian-space-telescope-faces-further-delay-until-late-2026?utm_source=rss_feed

China is likely to further postpone the launch of its ambitious Xuntian space telescope until late 2026.

The 2-metre (6½-feet) diameter telescope – also known as the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) – will be ready to fly by December 21, 2026, according to presentation slides leaked from the CSST Science Conference in Hangzhou this week.

The new timeline, if confirmed by the China Manned Space Agency, would mark a three-year delay from the original late-2023 launch date previously reported by state-owned media. It is a rare setback for the country that has kept most of its space missions on track so far.

It would be at least a second postponement, after project scientist Zhan Hu, of the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing, told the Scientific American magazine in November that Xuntian’s launch had slipped from late-2023 to mid-2025.

The leaked slides, which have since been removed from Chinese social media but were independently verified by the South China Morning Post with a CSST team member, show that the telescope’s major components are complete and are undergoing rigorous performance tests. The final flight model will be assembled by autumn next year.

The CSST team member who spoke on condition of anonymity said there were no insurmountable technical hurdles in Xuntian’s development. “Overall, the telescope’s specifications are very high by design, which made it extremely challenging to build,” he said.

Xuntian will be the largest and most complex scientific facility China has built in space and have a field of view more than 300 times larger than that offered by the Hubble Space Telescope. The country is domestically developing all five of its instruments, including a 2.6-gigapixel survey camera that will be the telescope’s main instrument.

Astrophysicist Quentin Parker, from the University of Hong Kong, said the new launch date, if confirmed, would be close to that of Nasa’s 2.4-metre Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is now expected to lift off in mid-2027.

Both the Xuntian and Roman telescopes will survey billions of distant galaxies and test theories of dark energy, the elusive but dominant force behind the universe’s ever accelerating expansion.

“There was going to be a bigger lead time for China to gain more scientific success ahead of the Americans. Now that advantage is not so strong,” Parker said.

However, he added, Xuntian and Roman were designed to work in different wavebands with some overlap and were, therefore, complementary.

Like Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, the Roman telescope will operate from the so-called Lagrange point 2, which is about 1½ million km (930,000 miles) from Earth.

“The James Webb has been very successful, but you can’t go out and fix it if something goes wrong. It’ll be the same for the Roman telescope,” he said.

But Xuntian, he said, would be co-orbiting with the Tiangong space station in low-Earth orbit and so astronauts could be easily fix the telescope, replace or upgrade parts, or even install new instruments.

The delays were probably out of good technical and practical reasons. “After all, you are not going to risk putting up something that might fail or not work so well,” he said.

Xuntian was proposed as part of China’s plans for a space station, and approved by the Chinese government in 2013. It is expected to serve the entire Chinese astronomy community for a wide range of research, from cosmology to exoplanets and black holes, after scientists had waited for decades to have their own version of the Hubble telescope.

It is not uncommon for the deployment of large space telescopes to be postponed. For instance, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021 after more than a decade’s delay and huge cost overrun, and is now changing our understanding of many aspects of the universe.

For China, be it Donald Trump or Joe Biden at the US helm, the barrage of ‘political’ strikes may only intensify

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3262926/china-be-it-donald-trump-or-joe-biden-us-helm-barrage-political-strikes-may-only-intensify?utm_source=rss_feed

Washington’s proposal this week to slap high tariffs on some signature Chinese exports has heightened concerns in the world’s second-largest economy as the front runners in November’s US presidential election – incumbent Joe Biden and challenger Donald Trump – are positioning to play tough on their side of the strategic trade rivalry.

And analysts are growing more fixated on China’s response to a potential return to the White House by Trump, the one who kicked off the 2018 trade war that still chills relations today.

They suspect Chinese officials may raise tariffs on American imports while seeking negotiations with Washington and strengthening trade ties in third countries if the former president returns to office and erects further curbs.

Trump could start by revoking China’s preferential trade status with the US and following through on his February pledge to raise tariffs on all imported Chinese goods by up to 60 per cent if re-elected, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a May 2 research note.

In taking a hard line against China, US politicians have long threatened to pull that preferential trade status, which has been in place since 2000 and is known as “permanent normal trade relations”. The legal designation helped pave the way for China to join the World Trade Organization in 2001 and serves to reduce the cost of imported goods while offering greater certainty for US businesses to invest in China.

Potential trade-related action by Trump would “disproportionately target China” and its automotive, information technology, and renewable-energy sectors, according to the EIU note. It added that Trump’s justification of such actions would probably involve China’s failure to meet targets for buying American goods under the first phase of the US-China trade deal in 2020.

Speculating on the likelihood that Trump’s threats could come to fruition, Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Centre think tank in Washington, said: “If past record serves as an indication, [Trump] will follow through. The cause could be unfair trade practices or anything else.”

While the US-China trade war remains in effect after six years, straining economic relations across two presidencies, the Biden administration has engaged in dialogues with China but maintained a tough trade stance amid pressure from Congress and segments of the American electorate.

On Tuesday, Biden’s executive office dug its heels in by proposing new tariffs on imports of China-made goods such as semiconductors, electric vehicles (EVs), steel and batteries. The administration accused China of “unfair technology-transfer-related policies and practices” including “cyber intrusions and cyber theft”.

Chinese officials called the proposed tariff hikes a “political” move that would hurt already strained ties between the world’s two largest economies.

“Biden’s projecting a tough position on China during the election year obviously is a strategic move,” said Tang Heiwai, an economics professor at the University of Hong Kong. “The significant increase in US tariffs on Chinese EVs is more symbolic than having any substantial impact on China’s EV industry.”

Lu Xiang, a China-US expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, also noted how domestic EV makers do not see the US as a major market, blunting any moves by the US government targeting them. EVs are relatively popular in China and Europe.

Trump pledged during his 2016 campaign to go after China for what he considered unfair trade practices. And Lu said that since the Biden administration never dropped the trade war, China has been “making psychological preparations for all types of situations”.

“There’s space for negotiations, though China can’t bet on negotiations,” Lu said, adding that, whatever China does, “I don’t think we would add to the drama”.

In response to Washington’s new tariff-hike proposal, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman in Beijing said on Tuesday that China would take “full necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests”.

China might consider limiting exports of “critical inputs to the US”, as well as raising tariffs on imports from the US, said Bert Hofman, an honorary senior fellow on the Chinese economy with the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Centre for China Analysis.

And China might retaliate to “express its position”, according to Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform.

“On the other hand, we will try to reduce the intensity of confrontation in practical affairs and try to cause as little trouble as possible for the economic recovery,” Peng said.

Chinese exporters, especially sellers of EVs and batteries, will keep funnelling goods to the US market through Mexico to avoid tariffs, said Liang Yan, chair professor of economics at Willamette University in the US state of Oregon. Since 2018, Chinese-invested factories in Mexico have increased their production of cars, among other products, for eventual sale in the United States.

Countries in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa will gain favour among Chinese exporters as offsets to any US business. China has tapped those “Global South” markets throughout the trade war, Liang said.

After kicking off in 2018, the trade war eventually led to tariffs on about US$550 billion worth of Chinese goods and US$185 billion worth of US goods. Trump’s administration had placed tariffs of up to 25 per cent on some Chinese imports.

The value of China-US trade last year amounted to roughly US$575 billion, and about US$427 billion of that came from Chinese shipments to the US, according to figures from the Congressional Research Service that cover only merchandise, not services.

Singapore PM Lawrence Wong’s ancestral ties spark Chinese social media interest: ‘the pride of Hainan’

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3262961/singapore-pm-lawrence-wongs-ancestral-ties-spark-chinese-social-media-interest-pride-hainan?utm_source=rss_feed

Soon after Lawrence Wong was sworn in as Singapore’s fourth prime minister since independence on Wednesday, a mix of online content from media members to observers found their way onto Chinese social media.

A video titled “Greetings from Hainan Island in China” shows a banner reportedly being put up by the Huang ancestral hall in Wenchang, Hainan – said to be Wong’s ancestral home – congratulating him on his appointment to Singapore’s top job.

Wong’s family name is Huang in Chinese.

Articles and videos mostly traced Wong’s ancestral ties to Beishan village in Huiwen town, noting his father first migrated from Hainan to Malaysia. Some clips highlight Wong’s growing-up years in Singapore, from his education milestones to career achievements.

Others, such as one by the Hainan Business Association in Shenzhen, detailed Wong’s personal interests and hobbies, such as guitar playing and riding motorbikes.

Describing Wong as a “grass-roots leader”, Tian Yuzheng from China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations said in an article posted by his institute’s WeChat account that as the first prime minister born after the island state’s independence, Wong would continue the republic’s achievements.

“He will also promote Sino-Singapore relations to keep pace with the times and move forward steadily,” Tian said.

One video quoted Wong as saying “never bet on the decline of China”, a comment made after the then deputy prime minister wrapped up a visit to the country last year. Wong was pointing to the tremendous scale of China’s economy and hailing its many different strengths in advanced manufacturing and in the green economy.

Chinanews.com, a Chinese news portal, wrote of how Wong had “shed tears in public”, referring to how the former national development minister became overwhelmed with emotion in 2020 when citing how Singapore’s healthcare workers and various sectors banded together to fight the Covid pandemic.

Comments from Chinese online users ranged from admiration – how “diligent and outstanding overseas Chinese can thrive anywhere in the world” – to hometown adoration on how “Wong is really the pride of Hainan”.

Others expressed interest in whether Wong could speak Hainanese, and how Singapore had thrived “because of these exceptional overseas ethnic Chinese leaders”.

The lineage of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, as well as his son and Wong’s predecessor Lee Hsien Loong, can be traced back to Dapu in Guangdong, while that of Goh Chok Tong – the nation’s second prime minister after the elder Lee – can be tracked to Yongchun in Fujian province.

Luwei Rose Lüqiu, associate professor at Baptist University’s Department of Journalism, said Chinese netizens had once again shown a keen interest in foreign leaders with Chinese heritage.

“This is not the first instance of such focus,” noted the former long-time television journalist, citing former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose ancestral home is in Meizhou in Guangdong province.

“[Thaksin] was also the subject of similar attention,” Lüqiu said, adding that the connection to Chinese heritage made these leaders “more relevant” to and “heightened interest” among Chinese online users.

There was also a sense of pride in seeing someone of Chinese descent lead a foreign country, Lüqiu said, noting such individuals were often regarded as “Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad”.

“This sentiment aligns with the sometimes vague official narratives that attempt to blur the boundaries and differences between Chinese citizens … and ethnic Chinese who are citizens of other countries.

“Understanding these dynamics can provide deeper insights into the cultural and nationalistic underpinnings of such public interest,” Lüqiu said.

China has often stated that there are about 60 million people of Chinese origin living abroad across nearly 200 countries and regions.

In 2022, speaking during the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front – the body responsible for dealing with non-party individuals and groups both inside and outside China – Chinese President Xi Jinping called the front “an important magic weapon for uniting all Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad to realise the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.

Koh Chin Yee, managing director of Singapore Eye, a leading Chinese-language social media platform in Singapore, said “it is not unexpected” that the Hainan Wenchang Huang clan commemorated Wong’s inauguration.

Koh noted that although “Mr Wong is a Singaporean Chinese”, the ongoing rise in Chinese online interest in Singapore’s leader reflected a celebration of “kinship and ethnic ties”.

“It would worry me if the community in Wenchang chooses to ignore this important chapter, which is equally relevant to both Singapore and Wenchang. [That] would be a show of intentionally keeping a distance, and that implies distrust,” he said.

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China property: government buying of unsold homes lifts sentiment but is no cure-all for market doldrums, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3262910/china-property-government-buying-unsold-homes-lifts-sentiment-no-cure-all-market-doldrums-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed

Sentiment in China’s property market rose on expectations that the government will step in to soak up unsold inventory, after plans for Hangzhou to do so came to light. However, analysts and economists remain cautious about the scope of such aid – and whether it is the best way to rescue the market.

Shares of CIFI Holdings jumped 29 per cent to HK$0.49 on Thursday, the biggest increase in almost six months, while peer China Vanke rose 16 per cent to HK$5.73, extending its gain to 24 per cent this month. The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index, a gauge tracking 10 home builders listed in Hong Kong, advanced 4.9 per cent.

Authorities in Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang province and home to Alibaba Group Holding and carmaker Geely, said on Tuesday they are planning to buy homes and rent them at affordable rates to reduce inventory and boost sales. The move will be implemented by the city’s Linan district, which plans to acquire a total of 10,000 square metres, with flat sizes not exceeding 70 square metres.

That is a drop in the ocean nationwide, however, as unsold homes stood at 330 million square metres in 2023, the most since 2016, official data showed. Unbuilt or delayed pre-sold homes numbered 20 million across the country in 2022, with 3.2 trillion yuan (US$443 billion) needed for their completion, according to Japanese investment bank Nomura.

Just two weeks ago, the Politburo, the top decision-making body of China’s ruling Community Party, said it was assessing comprehensive measures to reduce housing inventory and boost sales.

Hangzhou’s buying plan is viewed as a strong signal that Beijing is aware of excess inventory and will offer more stimulus policies. But some analysts and economists expressed concerns about funding for such schemes while noting that restoring the confidence of Chinese homebuyers will be difficult.

“We view the initiative as encouraging, and think it will partly help with the absorption of excess inventory, particularly in lower-tier cities with subdued home demand,” said Jeff Zhang, an equity analyst at Morningstar.

But he said he is cautious about whether the measure will be extended to more cities.

“We think local governments will need to ramp up borrowings from financial institutions or receive funds from the central government, which are subject to heightened uncertainty,” he said.

“It may not be the best remedy to rescue the property market,” said Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura, who added that such measures will not remedy a lack of buyer confidence amid worries about unfinished homes and falling prices.

“The best direction is providing funds for developers to ensure construction and delivery and secure unsold units as backup affordable housing.”

China’s home sales remain sluggish with prices falling despite several rounds of stimulus measures so far this year, including reductions to mortgage ratios and removal of home-purchase curbs in big cities.

Contracted sales of the top 100 Chinese developers extended a decline in April, dropping 44.9 per cent year on year and 12.9 per cent month on month to 312 billion yuan, data compiled by China Real Estate Information Corporation showed.

Prices of new homes in 70 medium and large cities fell for a 10th consecutive month in March, dropping 0.3 per cent from February, according to official data.

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Baidu ekes out modest quarterly revenue growth amid escalating generative AI competition in China

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3262924/baidu-ekes-out-modest-quarterly-revenue-growth-amid-escalating-generative-ai-competition-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Baidu, China's search engine and artificial intelligence (AI) giant, reported 1 per cent revenue growth in the first quarter of 2024, in line with consensus estimates, as the Beijing-based company contends with heightened domestic competition amid efforts to commercialise its generative AI initiatives.

The firm’s revenue reached 31.5 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion) during the quarter ended March 31, up from 31.1 billion yuan a year earlier, the company reported on Thursday. It roughly matches with the 31.4 billion yuan forecast of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Non-online marketing revenue rose 6 per cent year on year, driven mainly by Baidu’s AI Cloud business, the company said.

Net income came in at 5.4 billion yuan for the period, a 6 per cent fall from 5.8 billion yuan a year ago, beating analysts’ estimates of 3.97 billion yuan.

“As a new era of [generative AI] unfolds in China, foundation models like Ernie will serve as the underlying infrastructure, infusing various facets of people’s lives,” Robin Li Yanhong, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu, said in a statement, referring to the firm’s large language model (LLM).

Li added that Baidu is working to make its Ernie family of models affordable and efficient for the market. “This should provide Baidu with even greater opportunities ahead,” he said.

Baidu’s shares fell less than 1 per cent to close at HK$108.4 ahead of the earnings release on Thursday.

The company has pinned high hopes on generative AI as a major future growth engine. Ernie Bot, which debuted in March last year as the firm’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, drew over 200 million users just 13 months after its launch, with enterprise client numbers exceeding 85,000, Li said in April.

The fourth and latest version of the Ernie LLM, unveiled by Baidu last October, was described by Li as comparable to GPT-4, OpenAI’s most advanced model available to the public.

As part of moves to monetise its AI products, Baidu introduced three tools based on Ernie to help developers build applications, AI agents and models, in some cases without the need to know how to code.

That followed the company’s launch in November of a paid version of Ernie 4.0 for 59.9 yuan per month.

Baidu faces intense competition from other AI players in China. While ChatGPT and similar services from Google are officially unavailable in the country, Chinese firms and institutions have developed more than 200 LLMs, according to estimates by the government.

This week, TikTok owner ByteDance launched a batch of LLMs that costs less for users than those from rivals, a move that could spark a new price war, while video gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings added to text-to-image capability its open-source LLM.

China film mogul, Zhang Jizhong, 72, escorts wife to prenatal exam, stirs debate about 30-year age gap

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3261834/china-film-mogul-zhang-jizhong-72-escorts-wife-prenatal-exam-stirs-debate-about-30-year-age-gap?utm_source=rss_feed

A famous film producer in China has accompanied his wife – who is 30 years younger – to a prenatal exam for what will be his fifth child.

Zhang Jizhong, 72, is a Chinese martial arts film mogul, known for his adaptations of famous novels by the legendary writer Jin Yong, such as The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.

His wife, Du Xinglin, 42, was once his agent and studied in France, returning to China after completing her PhD.

Despite their huge age gap, the couple have been happily married since March 2017, and have a son and a daughter.

They also co-parent an eight-year-old Eurasian boy named Martin, who often appears in family photos.

Martin is Du’s child, and is believed to have been born in France during her previous relationship.

Zhang is also the father of Zhang Yuxin, the founder of Chinese media company, Mandala Media, and the daughter from his first marriage.

The baby on the way will be number five for the mogul, and he is very excited at the prospect.

On April 13, Zhang accompanied his wife to a prenatal check-up, and when he heard the baby’s heartbeat, he became emotional.

“This child is a gift from heaven, a blessing,” said Du.

“With our ageing society, we can all contribute more talented individuals to our country by having more children,” she said.

The couple share their experiences of marital life on Douyin, also engaging in discussions and reviews of Chinese traditional literature. They have 5.4 million followers on the social media platform.

In a recent video, Zhang reflected on their seven-year relationship.

“Because my wife is 30 years younger, there were many doubts from the world, thinking she was after money and I was after beauty. But actually we were attracted to each other and are deeply in love. We share a passion for Chinese traditional culture.”

Another video showed Zhang immediately stopping work when he realised Du was suffering from morning sickness. He massaged her, made warm brown sugar water and gave her fruit to ease the nausea.

The love story with the 30-year age gap has sparked a heated discussion on mainland social media.

“When this couple stand together, they look like a grandfather and his granddaughter. Is this kind of love really practical?” one online observer said.

“Zhang is just older, but that does not stop him from being a good partner,” another wrote.

In China, there are many celebrity couples with significant age gaps.

On April 10, Fan Zeng, an 86-year-old Chinese artist announced his coming marriage to a 36-year-old model.

One of Hong Kong’s pop icons, 58-year-old Aaron Kwok Fu-shing, is 22 years older than his wife, Fang Yuan, a mainland model.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong actress Christy Chung, 53, is 12 years older than her husband.

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Central Chinese province Hunan to play big role in helping boost African farming and industrial gains

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262744/central-chinese-province-hunan-play-big-role-helping-boost-african-farming-and-industrial-gains?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s central Hunan province is moving to invest millions of dollars to boost agricultural and industrial modernisation in Africa.

Chinese companies, mostly from Hunan, will build industrial estates, train more people in Africa and supply agricultural machinery and quality seeds to improve Africa’s food production, part of which will be exported to China, according to a plan revealed at the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE) in Africa (Kenya) 2024 in the capital Nairobi on Friday.

It is the first time the expo has been held outside its permanent base in Hunan.

Hunan vice-governor Cao Zhiqiang led a delegation of provincial government officials and representatives of hundreds of companies – including construction and agriculture equipment makers Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion, and Hunan-based rice growing and research company Yuan Longping Agricultural High-Tech.

Yuan Longping’s namesake was an agronomist who pioneered hybrid rice technology that has since been used in dozens of African countries, including Madagascar and Burundi, to improve rice yields.

Dozens of cooperation deals worth US$295 million were signed at the trade show, including projects relating to a Kenya-China economic and trade incubator park and a Kenyan agricultural products warehouse as well as a Tanzanian sunflower oil processing plant.

Li Hui, director of the external exchange and cooperation department Hunan’s agriculture and rural affairs department, said that because of its centuries of expertise, the province was well positioned to help Africa ramp up food production.

“Hunan will work hand in hand with African countries to further increase cooperation in the agricultural field, deepen practical cooperation in agriculture, and achieve win-win development,” Li said at a side event focused on cooperating in agricultural development.

Further, Hunan’s rice output, pigs, rapeseed, vegetables, tea, freshwater products, citrus and Chinese medicinal materials rank among the top in China, “providing a wealth of high-quality agricultural products for domestic and foreign markets”, according to Li.

She said Hunan was approved by China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, as a pilot zone for in-depth economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa, which would make Hunan important “for China-Africa cooperation in inland areas”.

According to observers, China chose Hunan to be a new frontier for China-Africa trade, partly because many of China’s competitive industries are based there – such as major agritech, manufacturing equipment and construction industry companies.

And many of these companies have a presence in, and long-running strategy for, African markets, which Lauren Johnston, associate professor at the University of Sydney’s China Studies Centre, called the “Hunan model”.

She said the Hunan model specifically focused on agriculture, heavy industry equipment and transport – such as electric cars and trains – areas in which the province was a leader within China and growth industries in many African countries.

“The Hunan model sought to support more efficient trade. New trade passageways by rail, river, air and ocean are being forged to better connect Hunan with African countries, especially trade hubs,” Johnston said last year.

Furthermore, the model is Beijing’s strategy to help landlocked provinces such as Hunan develop economically. Compared to coastal powerhouse regions such as Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Hunan has historically had few international trade links.

Li said Hunan had “strong agricultural scientific research strength and leads the industry” and added that Hunan was where the father of hybrid rice, Yuan Longping, and 10 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering were born.

Hunan had undertaken agricultural cooperation projects between China and Africa, held 177 China-Africa agricultural technology training sessions and trained nearly 10,000 technical workers from 50 African countries, Li said.

At the same time, she said Hunan promoted the successful trial planting of hybrid rice in 17 African countries, including Kenya, and had achieved commercial production, helping African countries improve their own ability to independently guarantee food security on the continent.

In the industrial chain, there are 33 agricultural products trading partners between Hunan and Africa, and the trade volume continues to grow.

Li and other leaders witnessed the signing of another set of deals with a contract value of US$43.24 million, mostly in agriculture, including a deal to buy avocados from Kenya. Zoomlion and Egerton University in Kenya signed a deal to create agricultural mechanisation courses to help increase the number of skilled workers in the continent.

Sun Changjun, Zoomlion vice-president and general counsel, said Africa had a lot of potential as a market for its agricultural machinery and construction equipment. He said about 10 per cent of Africa’s farms used tractors that were mostly imported from outside the continent.

Sun said Zoomlion had sold thousands of tractors in Africa since it established its operations there in 2011, with branches across the continent.

Chinese companies from Hunan also signed deals that would see the import of tea and flowers from Kenya and sesame seeds from Nigeria.

China has recently positioned agriculture as a key area of cooperation with Africa, which will help Beijing diversify its food sources and boost imports from the continent.

On the sidelines of the Brics summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August, Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled plans to build more manufacturing plants in Africa, ramp up food production and equip thousands of Africans with vocational skills as part of supporting the continent’s agricultural modernisation.

The China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo was unveiled in 2018 during the Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, where Xi announced the creation of the expo and its permanent home in Hunan.

The Nairobi event is part of the “Into Africa Series” for the first time and is “an important measure to promote the in-depth development of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation”, according to Li.

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Philippines warns China of diplomatic consequences over alleged wiretapping of senior navy officer

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3262899/philippines-warns-china-diplomatic-consequences-over-alleged-wiretapping-senior-navy-officer?utm_source=rss_feed

Lawmakers in the Philippines have threatened to expel Chinese embassy officials if they violated the country’s anti-wiretapping law following controversial claims about a recorded conversation between a diplomat and a senior Philippine navy officer regarding conduct in the South China Sea.

Observers said the Manila should be ready to handle the fallout of such actions, including potential retaliation against Philippine citizens working in China, as well as prepare a security plan to combat the risk of diplomats engaging in such illicit acts in the future.

On May 21, the Senate Committee on National Defence and Security, led by Senator Jinggoy Estrada, will formally start an investigation into whether personnel at the Chinese embassy in Manila personnel violated the country’s Anti-Wiretapping Act when they released an audio recording and transcript purportedly documenting a phone conversation between an unnamed embassy official and Vice-Admiral Alberto Carlos.

The embassy released the transcript and played audio of the purported call to select Philippine news outlets last week. Philippine officials have dismissed the embassy’s evidence, with some arguing it was likely fabricated.

Carlos is the head of the Philippines Navy’s Western Command, which oversees the country’s maritime interests in the West Philippine Sea – Manila’s term for the section of the South China Sea that defines its maritime territory and includes its exclusive economic zone.

On Wednesday, Senator Francis Tolentino filed the resolution to initiate an investigation into the alleged 12-minute phone call, in which Carlos supposedly agreed to Beijing’s protocols regarding resupply missions to the Philippines outpost on the Second Thomas Shoal, a reef among the contested Spratly Islands that lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

Manila’s has troops stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War 2 era navy ship that was deliberately grounded on the shoal to serve as an outpost in 1999.

According to the transcript, Carlos said his superiors had approved the so-called “new model” for handling resupply missions to the Sierra Madre.

The key point of the alleged deal is a “1+1” format for both sides, meaning Manila would only deploy one Philippine coastguard vessel and a resupply boat to the shoal, while China would only launch one coastguard ship and a fishing boat in response. At the same time, Manila would be required to notify Beijing two days in advance of any resupply missions – which could only deliver food and water – to the troops manning the outpost.

“It is regrettable that China is engaging in doubletalk, criticising the Philippines for alleged non-adherence to basic norms of international exchanges but has the audacity to wiretap while on Philippine soil,” Tolentino’s resolution reads.

Should the alleged wiretapping violation prove true, Tolentino said he would demand that China formally apologise to the Philippines and its officials waive their diplomatic immunity to face sanctions.

“We can declare them persona non grata … meaning we have to deport them. Or it can lead to the Department of Foreign affairs calling for the reduction in numbers in size of embassy personnel,” he said.

“What we want to find out is if there really was wiretapping involved. We’re not saying it would be an acknowledgement, an implied recognition, that there was indeed a new model, no. The mere fact that there was wiretapping, even if it were just ceremonial greetings–‘Good afternoon,’ ‘Ni hao’ – if you tapped it, that is a violation of the wiretapping law,” he explained.

He said an invitation had been sent to the Chinese embassy but there has been no confirmation if Ambassador Huang Xilian will show up at the inquiry.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has also instructed the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged illegal wiretapping activities of Chinese diplomats.

While embassy officials enjoy diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention, according to Remulla, diplomats are still subject to Philippine laws and they are still responsible for illegal actions performed outside their official duties.

“Diplomatic immunity should never be used as a licence to exploit our country’s peace and harmony for selfish motives,” Remulla said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Edmund Tayao, a political analyst and professor at the San Beda Graduate School of Law in Manila, told the Week in Asia that Manila has been compromised by the Chinese.

“It shows how vulnerable we are and how aggressive China could be. Nevertheless, we cannot just always react after the fact. We have to have a comprehensive preventive plan starting with a strong and closely coordinated action by security agencies, especially intelligence services including working with local government units as they are the ones on the ground,” said Tayao, who is also the president and CEO of Political Economic Elemental Researchers and Strategists.

Asked about the implications to the country’s relations with China, Tayao said anything is possible given this move by Philippine officials.

“We should prepare and have comprehensive plans that deal with and manage the implications of these actions by the Philippine government. We should be ready to secure Filipinos in China even to a point of getting them home and redeploying them and or giving them jobs locally,” Tayao said.

“Our telecommunications infrastructure should also be carefully assessed and as much as possible reconfigured,” he added.

Manila Representative Bienvenido Abante said the alleged wiretapping highlighted the risks of allowing large numbers of Chinese nationals to live and work in the country.

“The Philippines has always opened its arms to foreign guests. But if our guests violate our laws, then they should be kicked out immediately and barred from coming back,” Abante said in a statement released last week.

Indian steel mills ‘vulnerable’ to surge in cheaper Chinese imports after US tariffs

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3262908/indian-steel-mills-vulnerable-surge-cheaper-chinese-imports-after-us-tariffs?utm_source=rss_feed

India’s steel industry, already reeling from cheaper imports, is worried about a surge in shipments from China after the United States imposed tariffs on Chinese steel, industry executives and analysts said.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports, including steel and aluminium.

“India is already under grave threat of import because all major steel consuming economies are shutting their doors on these steel producing countries,” said Alok Sahay, secretary general at Indian Steel Association (ISA).

“We are highly vulnerable to surging and predatory import,” Sahay said.

ISA counts the country’s top steelmakers, such as JSW Steel Ltd and Tata Steel Ltd, among its members.

Spooked by cheaper Chinese steel coming into India over the past two years, Indian steel producers have often complained about unbridled imports from Beijing.

Weak steel demand at home has encouraged China, the world’s biggest producer of the alloy, to offload its surplus stocks by offering competitive rates to Indian buyers, hurting Indian producers.

Steelmakers have lobbied India’s government to intervene to curb supplies from Beijing.

The government has resisted calls for curbs on imports, citing strong local steel demand, stoked by a spurt in economic activity.

India’s steel consumption rose 13.4 per cent to 136 million metric tons during the financial year to March 2024.

India turned a net importer of finished steel during the 2023/24 financial year. In 2023/24, China was the top steel exporter to India and its shipments reached 2.7 million metric tons, nearly double from a year earlier, according to provisional government data.

“Safeguards are essential, but nothing can happen till the new government is in place,” said a senior executive at a major steel firm. He didn’t wish to be named in line with his company’s policy.

India began voting on April 19 in a seven-phase election, with ballots set to be counted on June 4.

“If domestic prices and margins drop sharply due to an import surge, we expect the government to introduce tariff-related measures,” said Akash Gupta, a director at Fitch Ratings.

Beijing clarifies coastguard’s detention powers as activists converge on Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3262911/beijing-clarifies-coastguards-detention-powers-activists-converge-scarborough-shoal-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing has fleshed out the Chinese coastguard’s powers to detain foreigners suspected of illegally crossing borders, rolling out regulations on Wednesday that stipulate suspects can be held for up to 60 days without trial, amid rising tensions in the South China Sea.

While existing laws and regulations give coastguards the power to detain suspects, this is the first time a specific regulation has clarified the coastguard force’s law enforcement procedure for administrative detentions.

Other laws and regulations have been issued for the coastguard to give the force more legal basis since it was transferred from maritime authorities to the paramilitary armed police in 2018.

The release of the latest regulatory document, effective from June 15, coincided with a civilian mission from the Philippines that kicked off on Wednesday to assert Manila’s claims near the contested Scarborough Shoal, also known as Panatag Shoal.

Beijing and Manila both claim the China-controlled shoal – once a common fishing ground for China, the Philippines and Vietnam – and there have been repeated confrontations, sometimes involving clashes between Chinese and Philippine ships.

The regulatory document details rules on the handling of administrative cases and includes a chapter on cases involving foreigners suspected of violating China’s border laws.

Detention can be applied to those suspected of violating exit-entry management regulations, including assisting others to cross borders illegally, having illegal residence and employment in the country, and offences deemed to endanger China’s national security and interests.

According to the regulations, the coastguard can impose up to 30 days of detention on foreigners who violate China’s exit-entry rules. For complicated cases, the time limit can be extended up to 60 days, upon approval from a higher level coastguard agency.

Provincial-level coastguard bureaus are authorised to make their own approvals to extend the detention period.

Chinese coastguard vessels have been present since the Philippine activists and fishermen’s Atin Ito Coalition arrived at the contested shoal on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the China coastguard monitored Philippine vessels which “illegally gathered in waters near Huangyan Island and carried out activities unrelated to normal fishing operations”, state broadcaster CGTN reported.

According to the report, the coastguard “lawfully regulated” the Philippine vessels.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday warned against Manila’s infringement on “China’s territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction”, noting that “China will safeguard its rights and take necessary countermeasures in accordance with the law”.

A Chinese ‘asset’? Philippines raises alarm over mystery mayor suspected of links to Pogos

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3262875/chinese-asset-philippines-raises-alarm-over-mystery-mayor-suspected-links-pogos?utm_source=rss_feed

Alarms have been raised over Alice Leal Guo, the mayor of a small town in the Philippines, due to suspicions about her citizenship and her alleged ties to a controversial offshore gaming operator, with one senator suggesting she might be an undercover agent of China.

“Is she, along with others like her who have mahiwaga [mysterious] backgrounds, an asset inserted by China into our government to have a heavy influence in Philippine politics?” Senator Risa Hontiveros asked during a press conference on May 8.

Hontiveros’ comments came the day after a senate hearing in which Guo failed to provide details about her early life and background, fuelling suspicions about her links to Zun Yuan Technology Corp, a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) in the Baofu compound in Bamban, a town northwest of Manila where Guo has been mayor since 2022.

Investigators have accused Pogos of being involved in human trafficking, cyber scams and possibly hacking and surveillance of government agencies.

During a senate hearing on May 7, Hontiveros warned that “separate sources in the intelligence community and various executive agencies are sounding the alarm of large tracts of land around EDCA sites being purchased by Chinese nationals with Filipino identity documents [involving] late registration of birth”.

EDCA sites are joint US-Philippine military facilities, created through the two countries’ Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement, that allow for the rotational presence of US troops. Bamban is located 30km north of Basa Air Base, one of the country’s nine EDCA sites.

Summoned to that hearing, Guo, 37, appeared unable or unwilling to explain gaps in her background. She testified that she had only applied for a birth certificate at 17, claimed she had no hospital birth records because she was born at home, and said she was homeschooled, leaving no formal school records. She said her father had both a Filipino name – Angelito Guo – and a Chinese one, Jian Zhong Guo.

Guo, who showed fluency in Tagalog, initially told the senate committee she only spoke a “little” Mandarin. She admitted having learned the language from her father and through “self-study” after Hontiveros said she had information the mayor was proficient in Mandarin.

Guo described her business as hog raising. The politician also owned a helicopter that she reportedly sold to a British company earlier this year. She initially denied the aircraft was hers when shown a photo of it by Hontiveros, but later admitted the purchase.

The mayor frequently answered questions with “Hindi ko po alam” (“I don’t know”), prompting Hontiveros to call Guo’s answers “opaque”, especially regarding her personal background. She described Guo as someone who “figuratively came out of nowhere and afterwards became mayor”.

The official website of Bamban also does not have any information about Guo’s background.

Recent photos on social media of Guo posing with President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and senator Imee Marcos also prompted Hontiveros to question whether Pogos had “protectors in higher places”.

After the hearing, the senator accused the mayor of lying, calling some of Guo’s replies “stark and shocking”, especially those denying her links to Hong Sheng, a Pogo operating out of the Baofu compound that had been raided in 2023.

Guo was introduced and endorsed as a candidate in 2021 by the town’s outgoing mayor, before running for office the following year. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday, however, revealed Guo’s certificate of candidacy showed she had only registered as a voter in 2021.

Inquirer.net reported that Comelec chief George Garcia said the mayor was under investigation and could be charged with perjury if it was proved she was not a Filipino citizen.

Hontiveros’ office told This Week in Asia she would not take any questions yet because “we are still coordinating with intelligence agencies and vetting a lot of information”.

Guo’s background came under scrutiny when the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission (PAOCC) raided the Baofu complex in March following a report by a young Vietnamese man who said he and others had been forced to work there as online scammers.

Authorities found an online network run by hundreds of Filipinos and Chinese as well as people from Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Rwanda, Taiwan and Kyrgyzstan.

Investigators described the Baofu compound, which spans nearly eight hectares (19.8 acres), as being akin to a mini city, consisting of 34 structures including an office building with a grocery, a warehouse, and plush villas built around a swimming pool. There was also a costly wine cellar.

In the office building and deep inside the warehouses, investigators discovered rows of computer workstations festooned with notes and scripts on how to conduct romance and crypto scams, and metal racks full of dozens of smartphones.

They also found the villas connected with tunnels and having secret panic rooms – days after the raid, four Chinese nationals emerged from these secret rooms into the arms of law enforcers detailed to watch the place.

PAOCC senior technical adviser Winston John R. Casio said the “big boss” of Zun Yuan was Chinese criminal Huang Zhiyang, who has passports from China, Cyprus and Saint Kitts. The Chinese government has put out a warrant for his arrest, but Huang has so far eluded capture.

When investigators cracked open 27 vaults in the villas, among the items they found were assorted passports, phones, flash drives, cash – and documents such as electricity, housekeeping and maintenance bills addressed to Alice Leal Guo. One of the 63 vehicles seized in the Baofu compound, a Ford Expedition, was registered to Alice Guo.

Officials also recovered records related to other Pogos which were supposed to have been shut down but apparently continued to operate in the compound.

“On April 5, because we saw documents connecting Bamban’s current chief executive (Guo) with the operations of Zun Yuan and Hong Sheng, we formed a task force to find out the accountability, if any, of Bamban’s chief executive,” Casio told the committee.

Guo denied knowledge of the Pogo operations even though the huge complex was located behind her office. She admitted she had owned 50 per cent of Baofu, the property owner, but had divested it prior to running for mayor.

When he became president in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte threw the country’s doors wide open to Pogos, claiming they would bring billions of pesos. But Pogos turned out to be largely run by crime syndicates that brought in hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers, operated illegal scams and were involved in prostitution, kidnapping, murder and corruption.

Authorities in the hearing said Pogos continued operating under various guises despite getting their licences revoked and being raided by law enforcement agencies.

Xi welcomes ‘old friend’ Putin to Beijing, affirms strength of China-Russia bond

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262881/xi-welcomes-old-friend-putin-beijing-affirms-strength-china-russia-bond?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed his “old friend” Vladimir Putin to Beijing on Thursday, at the start of the Russian leader’s state visit and reaffirmed China’s role as a trusted friend.

Xi warmly greeted Putin, who arrived at the Great Hall of the People in a retinue that included 21 security cars. The two leaders held a red carpet inspection of officials from both sides and an honour guard – the highest level of welcome to a state visit – before entering the hall for bilateral talks.

Earlier on Thursday morning, state councillor Shen Yiqin, and PLA honour guards were at the airport to greet the Russian leader on his arrival for the official start of his two-day visit.

“China stands ready to always be a trusted neighbour, friend, and partner to Russia … jointly [achieving] national development and rejuvenation, and together upholding fairness and justice,” Xi said in his opening remarks of their talks.

Hailing the Sino-Russia relationship’s withstanding of “storms and changes in international dynamic”, Xi said a stable development of bilateral ties was also conducive to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world.

“The Sino-Russian relationship has stood the test of changing international dynamics and set a model for major and neighbouring countries in mutual respect, sincerity, harmonious coexistence, and mutually beneficial cooperation.”

Putin is on his first foreign trip since being sworn in as president for a fifth term earlier this month. The recent cabinet reshuffle has also filled its ranks with officials well-versed in working with China.

This is Putin’s second visit to China since the two nations forged their “no-limits” partnership in 2022, shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The relationship was reinforced with another trip in October and is expected to deepen further in the latest in-person exchanges.

In a recent interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Putin lauded the strategic partnership between Russia and China, emphasising that it is built on national interests and profound mutual trust.

“It was the unprecedentedly high level of the strategic partnership between our countries that determined my choice of China as the first state that I would visit after officially taking office as president of the Russian Federation,” he said.

“We will try to establish closer cooperation in the field of industry and high technology, space and peaceful nuclear energy, artificial intelligence, renewable energy sources and other innovative sectors.”

Putin’s visit follows hard on the heels of Xi’s recent European tour where he met French President Emmanuel Macron and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in Paris and pledged that Beijing would not sell arms to Russia.

In his meetings with Macron and von der Leyen, Xi also said China would do more to control the flow of dual-use goods, amid growing Western pressure over Beijing’s alleged support for Russia and its defence industry against sanctions.

China-Russia trade hit a record US$240 billion in 2023, more than double the US$108 billion reached in 2020, largely driven by Chinese imports of Russian oil and exports of cars, electronics and industrial equipment.

Putin, who has met Xi more than 40 times since 2012, will attend a bilateral trade expo as well as the 4th Russia-China Forum on Interregional Cooperation in Harbin, capital of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province, which has strong cultural ties with Russia.

Scientists in China find extremely elaborate 2,200-year-old tomb from Chu state could have belonged to a king

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3262392/scientists-china-find-extremely-elaborate-2200-year-old-tomb-chu-state-could-have-belonged-king?utm_source=rss_feed

Thousands of years ago, regional dynasties dominated Chinese politics, and one of the most unique and powerful was the state of Chu (770 BC-223 BC).

In mid-April, archaeologists in China announced they had excavated the largest Chu tomb discovered to date, and it belonged to the highest-ranking official they had ever discovered, likely a king.

The tomb, excavated in Anhui province in eastern China, dates back 2,200 years and is the most complex structure of its kind.

Scientists began the excavation process in 2019, in part because looters constantly targeted the tomb.

The site contained horse and chariot pits, sacrificial burial grounds and a cemetery. One particularly notable artefact discovered was a bamboo mat.

“The weaving technique of bamboo mats is similar to that of today. After carbon dating, we concluded that the age range of the bamboo mats is from 400 BC to 232 BC,” said Zhang Zhiguo, the cultural relics protection manager of the Wuwangdun Tomb Archaeological Project, in interviews with mainland media.

Researchers also discovered other relics, such as bronze ritual vessels, utensils, lacquered wooden containers, musical instruments, and figurines.

Only one-third of the tomb has been excavated, so archaeologists expect further breakthroughs in the coming months and years.

While not confirmed, archaeologists hypothesised that the tomb may have belonged to King Kaolie (r. 262-238 BC). King Kaolie invaded and annexed the state of Lu (1042-249 BC), most famous as the birthplace of Confucius and Mozi (who built a career rejecting Confucianism).

When King Kaolie took over the Lu state, he forced the ruler, Duke Qing, to live his remaining years as a commoner.

One reason the scientists believe the tomb could have belonged to King Kaolie is because the king moved the Chu capital to Shouxian county in Anhui province, where they found the tomb.

However, three other kings ruled in Shouxian after King Kaolie: King You, King Ai and King Fuchu.

The evidence pointing to King Kaolie is strong. Academics believe they already know the location of King You’s burial ground, which was destroyed in the 1930s.

King Ai was murdered by King Fuchu when he took the throne, so it is unlikely that Ai would have been granted such an elaborate tomb.

And finally, King Fuchu was the leader when the Chu state fell to the Qin dynasty (221-207 BC), and he was taken as a prisoner of war, making it unlikely that this tomb was built in his honour.

Gong Xicheng, deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told reporters: “At present, the on-site work has entered the second stage within the coffin chamber, that is, the excavation and cleaning of the interior of the coffin chamber.

“Perhaps by then, the identity of the tomb owner will be revealed and the mystery can be solved.”

The Chu state emerged during the Zhou dynasty (1046 BC-256 BC) and was technically a vassal state. However, the state was particularly difficult for Zhou leaders to control and would grow to become one of the most formidable challengers to the dynasty’s leadership.

When the Chus began to expand northwards around 700 BC, the small states in China banded together to stop the expansion, starting a consolidation process that would eventually lead to the Warring States period, when six larger states spent 200 years battling for supreme control over China.

Eventually, the Qin state defeated the Chu state in 223 BC and united China two years later. During the conquest, the Qin destroyed the capital in Shouxian.

The Qin would only rule for 15 years, and when it fell its leaders installed Xiang Yu, a former member of the Chu ruling house, as the next ruler. However, Xiang would only survive for a few months before his general Liu Bang usurped the crown and started the Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).

The Chu culture was notable for having a particular affinity towards shamanism, and its people would worship animals that were considered to have high amounts of qi, which stands for the energy in everything, particularly gibbons.

While it suffered from the stereotype of being brutish, Liu Bang was from the Chu state, so its culture would persist through the Han dynasty.

China has ‘sophisticated influence apparatus’ but did not try to sway 2020 US election, American intelligence chief says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262854/china-has-sophisticated-influence-apparatus-did-not-try-sway-202o-us-election-says-american?utm_source=rss_feed

China did not try to influence the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election and the US has “no information to suggest” Beijing will play a “more active role” this year, a top US intelligence official told senators on Wednesday.

Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, US director of national intelligence Avril Haines said that while China had a “sophisticated influence apparatus” to exploit new technologies such as generative AI, Beijing remained concerned about potential consequences “in the event their efforts are disclosed”.

Haines highlighted that China had made important advances in its “influence operation tools,” taking advantage of recent discoveries in areas such as big data analytics and the use of deepfake technologies to generate content.

She also pointed out that although there was no evidence to date of the use of these tools in the United States, intelligence agents had identified “increasing confidence” in China’s influence capabilities. Haines emphasised that Chinese initiatives of this kind had already been detected in elections in Australia, Canada and Taiwan.

“Beijing seeks to promote support for China’s policy positions and perspectives, including in the context of specific elections, by portraying the US democratic model as chaotic, ineffective, unrepresentative and magnifying US societal divisions,” Haines said.

The director also stated that the intelligence agencies would continue to monitor Beijing’s activities and alert social media platforms if coordinated disinformation campaigns were detected. Additionally, they would collaborate with the FBI to attribute responsibility for such movements.

Despite Haines’ statement, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said Chinese “influence actors aggressively sought to shape the outcome of Taiwan’s election earlier this year, including promoting narratives the election had been rigged as election day approached”.

He also said the presence of the popular ByteDance social media app TikTok posed risks, “with ownership based in a country assessed to conduct election influence campaigns”.

“It is these kinds of attempts by foreign actors and adversaries to sow disinformation, undermine confidence in elections and seed discord that Americans expect their federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies to detect and defeat,” Warner said.

The risks of potential Chinese influence on this year’s US presidential election have been raised by various US officials for several months.

Last month, US President Joe Biden reportedly warned his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping against meddling in the November vote during a phone call between the two leaders. A senior administration official told reporters at a briefing before the call that the US had expressed its “continuous reinforcement of concern” about Chinese election interference.

Last year, Microsoft researchers also warned the US government that they believed “a network of fake, Chinese-controlled social media accounts” was trying to influence American voters using artificial intelligence. China’s embassy in Washington rejected the allegations, calling them “malicious speculation”.

Beijing has repeatedly said it does not interfere in US elections, based on its principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs.

[Sport] China's Nio unveils Tesla Model Y rival

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckr5rmg0d58o[Sport] China's Nio unveils Tesla Model Y rival

Putin arrives in Beijing for China state visit as Ukraine war intensifies – live

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/may/16/vladimir-putin-beijing-visit-china-live-updates-war-ukraine-latest-today-xi-jinping

South China Sea: Philippine civilian boat convoy drops plan to sail closer to Scarborough Shoal

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3262848/south-china-sea-philippine-civilian-boat-convoy-drops-plan-sail-closer-scarborough-shoal?utm_source=rss_feed

A convoy of boats carrying Philippine civilians bearing supplies for Filipino fishers has abandoned plans to sail closer to a China-held reef off the Southeast Asian country, organisers said on Thursday.

The convoy set sail on Wednesday to distribute fuel and food to fishers and assert Philippine rights in the disputed South China Sea. The trip comes two weeks after China coastguard vessels used water cannon against two Philippine government boats near Scarborough Shoal.

Atin Ito (“This Is Ours”) coalition spokesman Emman Hizon declared “Mission accomplished”, telling reporters on Thursday that an “advance team” had already distributed fuel and other assistance to Filipino fishermen a day earlier about 46-56km (29-35 miles) from the disputed shoal.

“Atin Ito will now proceed to conduct the final leg of supply distribution in the current area, as there are no more Filipino fishers in BdM,” he said, using the acronym for the shoal also known to Filipinos as Bajo de Masinloc.

Hizon said in a message to reporters that the group had received reports its advance team was later “sent away by various Chinese vessels”.

The Chinese foreign ministry had warned the convoy on Wednesday against any attempt to infringe on Beijing’s “indisputable sovereignty” over Scarborough Shoal.

An aerial reconnaissance flight saw 19 Chinese vessels including a warship and eight coastguard vessels patrolling around the shoal on Wednesday, the Philippine coastguard said.

The Filipino aid convoy, comprising four wooden-hulled fishing boats and a coastguard escort, was about 108km southeast of Scarborough Shoal at 6:00am (local time).

It was being tracked by a nearby China coastguard vessel, the Philippine coastguard said.

“Despite China’s massive blockade, we managed to breach their illegal blockade, reaching Bajo de Masinloc to support our fishers with essential supplies,” the head of the coalition, Rafaela David, said in a statement.

The Scarborough Shoal has been a potential flashpoint since Beijing seized it from Manila in 2012.

The fish-rich reef is about 240km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from Hainan, the nearest major Chinese land mass.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims by the Philippines and other countries, and ignoring an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

To press its claims, Beijing deploys coastguard and other boats to patrol the waterway and has turned several reefs into artificial islands that it has militarised.

Putin arrives in China on mission to deepen partnership with Xi

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/16/vladimir-putin-xi-jinping-china-visit

Russian president Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing for talks with Xi Jinping that the Kremlin hopes will deepen a strategic partnership between the two most powerful geopolitical rivals of the United States.

State news agency Xinhua confirmed his arrival on Thursday for what China’s state press has described as a state visit from an “old friend”. The two leaders will take part in a gala evening celebrating 75 years since the Soviet Union recognised the People’s Republic of China, which was declared by Mao Zedong in 1949.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the two leaders would hold informal talks on Thursday evening over tea and that they would touch on Ukraine, Asia, energy and trade.

Putin will also visit Harbin in north-eastern China, a city with strong ties to Russia. It was not immediately clear whether or not Putin would visit any other capitals in Asia after Beijing.

In February 2022, China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since the second world war.

By picking China for his first foreign trip since being sworn in for a term that will keep him in power until at least 2030, Putin is sending a message to the world about his priorities and the depth of his personal relationship with Xi.

In an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency, Putin praised Xi for helping to build a “strategic partnership” with Russia based on national interests and deep mutual trust.

“It was the unprecedentedly high level of the strategic partnership between our countries that determined my choice of China as the first state that I would visit after officially taking office as president of the Russian Federation,” Putin said.

“We will try to establish closer cooperation in the field of industry and high technology, space and peaceful nuclear energy, artificial intelligence, renewable energy sources and other innovative sectors,” Putin said.

He also hailed what he said was Beijing’s “genuine desire” to help end the Ukraine war.

“This is Putin’s first trip after his inauguration, and it is therefore intended to show that Sino-Russian relations are moving up another level,” independent Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP. “Not to mention the visibly sincere personal friendship between the two leaders.”

The US casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat while US president Joe Biden argues that this century will be defined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies.

Putin and Xi share a broad worldview, which sees the west as decadent and in decline just as China challenges US supremacy in everything from quantum computing and synthetic biology to espionage and hard military power.

China has strengthened its trade and military ties with Russia in recent years as the United States and its allies imposed sanctions against both countries, particularly against Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.

The west says China has played a crucial role in helping Russia withstand the sanctions and has supplied key technology which Russia has used on the battlefield in Ukraine. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but has backed Moscow’s contentions that Russia was provoked into attacking Ukraine by the West, despite Putin’s public avowals of his desire to restore Russia’s century-old borders as the reason for his assault.

China, once the junior partner of Moscow in the global Communist hierarchy, remains by far the most powerful of Russia’s friends in the world.

Putin’s arrival follows a mission to Beijing late last month by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, in part to warn China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, against deepening military support for Russia.

Putin’s newly appointed defence minister, Andrei Belousov, as well as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu and foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, will also attend, along with Russia’s most powerful CEOs.

It was not immediately clear if Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller would go to China as he was on a working visit to Iran on Wednesday.

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China teenager pleads with father to be better husband after dispute with mother, video ignites family harmony dialogues

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3262388/china-teenager-pleads-father-be-better-husband-after-dispute-mother-video-ignites-family-harmony?utm_source=rss_feed

A teenage boy gained widespread attention on social media in China after sharing a heartfelt video pleading with his father to treat his mother with more kindness, following a heated marital disagreement that led to his father leaving their home.

Wang Nanhao, 15, from Zhejiang province in eastern China, is a junior high student. On April 27, 20 days after his father left home, he posted the video on Douyin, China’s TikTok, pleading for his father to be a better husband.

In the video, Wang expressed that the frequent arguments between his parents over the years had caused him significant psychological trauma, and he had started to read psychology books to learn how to heal.

Wang said the books had taught him that the secret to a happy family was open communication, which he said his family lacked.

“Over the past decade, every time my parents argued, my dad would slam the door and leave home. But the next morning, my mum would always make breakfast for me with her eyes red from crying,” he said.

He often tried to cheer up his mother after their arguments, temporarily bringing peace to the home.

“But dad, showing love to your wife is your responsibility as a husband,” Wang told his father in the video.

Wang leaned on the traditional values of the nuclear family and said: “In a healthy family dynamic, the husband is seen as a provider and supporter for his wife, while the wife nurtures and cares for the children.

“This nurturing environment fosters a reciprocal flow of love, with the wife and children showing love and appreciation to the husband.

“My birth should have brought you more happiness, and the marital relationship should be more important than the parent-child relationship.”

The boy’s video received one million likes on Douyin and sparked a heated discussion on mainland social media.

“I’ve lived for over 30 years, and this is the first time I’ve seen a teenage boy who can truly empathise with women,” said one online observer on Weibo.

Another added: “Children from families with poor parental relationships often grow up not wanting to marry.”

Last year, the number of newly married couples in China increased to 7.68 million, ending a nine-year streak of declining marriage registrations, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Independent demographer He Yafu noted in a Weibo post that last year’s increase in marriage registrations was primarily due to young couples finally getting their marriage certificates after China’s Covid-19 restrictions caused significant bureaucratic backlogs.

The official data also showed that 2.59 million couples registered for divorce last year, up from 2.1 million the previous year.

In January 2021, China implemented a “cooling-off period” for divorces.

After applying for divorce registration, couples must undergo a 30-day cooling-off and reflection period, during which either spouse can withdraw the application if they choose not to proceed.

The cooling-off period has gradually shown effectiveness in preventing impulsive and rash divorce since its implementation in 2021, according to Chinese media outlet Jiemian News.

However, it also has created some high-profile incidents of domestic violence, such as the man who was given the death penalty in late April after he killed his wife during the cooling-off period.

Why so many Chinese women feel invisible to their gynaecologist

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3262734/why-so-many-chinese-women-feel-invisible-their-gynaecologist?utm_source=rss_feed

When I was pregnant last year, the required monthly visits to the gynaecologist’s were my worst fear. It was the one place where I didn’t feel human but rather like a vessel, or a piece of meat.

The first thing the doctor would say to me was, “Take off your underwear and lie on the table”. Then, she would squeeze some gel on my belly and start rolling an ultrasound probe up and down my skin with her right hand. She would type on a keyboard with her left hand when she spotted something on the screen.

The process usually lasted 15 minutes. The whole time, the doctor never spoke to me directly. She occasionally shouted incomprehensible measurements at her assistant, who recorded them on a diagram of the human uterus.

It was a strange and uncomfortable experience. They were examining me, but I felt entirely irrelevant.

I am not the only one who has felt this way. Earlier this month, a post went viral on Weibo, with a blogger calling the speculum – a tool used in pelvic exams – “a modern-day torture instrument for women”. The tool has two long blades that look like a duck’s bill. A doctor parts the woman’s labia and inserts the speculum and then slowly opens the blades to look inside and inspect the cervix.

The blogger shared her experience of being at the doctor’s and the discomfort she felt during her appointment, wondering why there haven’t been any improvements.

Many others commented on her post, leaving messages about the pain they had suffered. One said she asked the doctor to be careful when inserting the speculum, to which the doctor apparently replied, “ You’ve had sex before. Just relax”.

Another said that even though modern medicine is so advanced, it is still so painful for women to give birth, because women are rarely the focus of those advancements.

It’s quite difficult for the situation to improve when discussions about women’s health in this context are still scarce in China, if not a taboo subject. Furthermore, at the gynaecologist’s, a woman’s body is often seen as a vessel for carrying children.

During my pregnancy, I was often told by doctors that I should be careful with the kind of medicine I took for fear of affecting the fetus. Epidurals during birth are also not common in China, even though the government has been pushing for this.

The National Health Commission said that in 2020, even though 82 per cent of the public said they were willing to use epidurals, only 30 per cent had access, and 70 per cent of the women were still giving birth in pain.

In 2017, a pregnant woman fell from a hospital building in Shaanxi province, after she was unable to have a Cesarean delivery. Police said they believed it was suicide. The hospital and her husband reportedly placed the blame on each other, each saying that the other hadn’t agreed to the C-section. No matter who was telling the truth, the poor woman’s opinion doesn’t seem to have been considered.

According to a survey released in 2022, the low rate of epidural use stems from the public knowing little about the procedure and fearing it might affect the baby or the mother. Furthermore, many hospitals have a shortage of anaesthetists, making it difficult to carry out the procedure.

Moreover, from the hospitals’ perspective, pain relief may not be a high priority. Hospitals in China face intense pressure to make money. If tools such as the speculum prove to be effective and cheap, it’s difficult to push for new products entering the market.

Even though there are pain management guidelines for anaesthetists, such as which drugs to use, they are usually for surgery and severe illnesses like cancer, not so much for body exams and other types of discomfort the medical world might consider mild.

But even so, I believe there are small things hospitals and individual physicians can do to relieve patients of pain. Communication always helps. Chinese hospitals tend to focus just on curing the disease, and with little attention paid to comforting patients who are confused, scared or lack any medical knowledge.

If doctors tell patients beforehand what kind of procedure will be done, what kind of discomfort to expect and how long it will last, or even do small things such as applying lubricant on the speculum, or warming it up first, it would make a big difference.

Visa-free China entry approved at all cruise ports, letting tourists stay up to 15 days

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3262784/visa-free-china-entry-approved-all-cruise-ports-letting-tourists-stay-15-days?utm_source=rss_feed

Foreign visitors are now allowed to stay in China for up to 15 days without a visa if they reach via international cruises, Beijing announced on Wednesday in its latest attempt to buoy the cruise industry and boost inbound travel.

Coming into effect on the same day, the new regulations allow foreigners travelling in tour groups of at least two people to enter China visa-free through all 13 cruise ports in the country, from Liaoning province’s Dalian in the north to Hainan island’s Sanya in the south.

“The full implementation of the visa-free entry policy for foreign tourist groups taking cruises will provide policy support for the development of the cruise economy and cruise industry and create a new engine for high-quality development,” said Mao Xu, director general of the Department of Foreigners Management at the National Immigration Administration (NIA).

China’s first home-grown cruise liner, the Adora Magic City, made its maiden voyage on January 1. The vessel has been widely touted as a breakthrough in the nation’s shipbuilding and high-end manufacturing.

The new visa policy will also help attract more visitors to China, facilitating exchanges with other countries, Mao said.

The policy is an extension of a pilot scheme from 2016 that had restricted the entry point to only the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal. That scheme was suspended during the pandemic and resumed last year.

Travel agencies handling the trips must be registered in mainland China, according to the NIA notice. The whole tour group also must enter and exit China at the same time, and visitors may travel to Beijing or any coastline province during the 15 days.

In the past year, Beijing has launched a series of charm offensives to lure back foreign travellers amid a tourism slump and an economic downturn that had spilled over from the pandemic.

In December, China started allowing travellers from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia to enter the country without a visa for 15 days for business, tourism, family visits and transit. A mutual visa-exemption agreement between China and Singapore also came into effect in February.

China has also been expanding its visa-free transit policy, bringing the number of covered countries to 54 after including Norway in November. Citizens from those countries do not need a visa to enter China as long as they have booked an onward ticket to a third country or region.

On Wednesday, seven cruise ports were also added as eligible entry points under the visa-free transit policy, on top of the original 31. Most of those are airports, and the majority allow for visa-free stays of up to six days, including the newly added cruise ports. But three of the 38 entry points allow for only three days of visa-free stays.

Currently, 21 international cruises operate out of Chinese ports, according to official data.

Despite Beijing’s efforts, the number of inbound foreign travellers has remained below pre-pandemic levels.

In the first quarter of this year, 13 million foreigners crossed the border into or out of mainland China – four times the figure in the same period last year but around 40 per cent fewer compared with the first three months of 2019, according to NIA figures.

Putin arrives in China amid global consternation over Ukraine war

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/15/russia-vladimir-putin-china-xi-meeting/2024-05-15T03:55:43.245Z

Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a red-carpet welcome when he arrived in Beijing early Thursday to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with the pair expected to make a show of their close political and economic ties as they present themselves as the leaders of a world order that sits in contrast — and in opposition — to the one led by the United States.

China remains one of Russia’s only remaining trading partners and diplomatic allies following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and has become a critical economic lifeline as Russia copes with mounting Western sanctions. Putin arrived with a large delegation that includes Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, new Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, several deputy prime ministers and leaders of state-owned enterprises.

During his two-day visit, he and Xi are expected to emphasize their personal friendship and their shared objective of reshaping global power and ending the dominance of the United States in world affairs. Putin is also expected to meet Chinese premier Li Qiang, who is theoretically responsible for the country’s economy.

Xi will fete the Russian leader on Thursday night with a gala marking 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

On Friday, Putin is scheduled to attend the opening of the China-Russia trade fair in Harbin, a northern city close to the border with Russia, highlighting the countries’ increasingly close economic ties.

The trip underscores both leaders’ norm-busting tenures and autocratic tendencies: Xi visited Moscow in March last year, just after securing a third term as leader, while Putin’s arrival in Beijing marks his first overseas trip to since securing a fifth term as president earlier this month.

“It is the unprecedented high level of partnership between the two countries that made me decide to choose China as the first country I will visit after officially taking office as president of the Russian Federation,” Putin told Chinese state media outlet Xinhua on Wednesday.

The Kremlin’s media service said the two leaders “will have a substantive exchange of views on the most pressing global and regional affairs.” The negotiations will end with the signing of a joint statement and a number of bilateral documents, the media service said.

China’s ongoing diplomatic and material support for Russia and its war against Ukraine — even as Beijing portrays itself as a potential mediator — troubles democracies including the United States in western Europe. In France last week, Xi declined to use his influence to pressure Moscow to end its ongoing war against Ukraine.

Xi is particularly interested in Russia winning in Ukraine because of what it could mean for his oft-stated ambitions to take control of Taiwan, the island democracy that has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party but which Beijing considers a breakaway province. The CCP’s rival Kuomintang set up in Taiwan after losing the civil war in 1949.

Xi has been closely watching to see what price Putin has been paying for using military force in Ukraine — and the extent of western punishment for that force. Taiwan’s leaders — and other allies in the region, like Japan — have repeatedly warned that Ukraine today could be Taiwan tomorrow.

Analysts say Putin and Xi are likely to double down on their transactional relationship during this week’s meetings.

“Putin will push for more Chinese assistance in prosecuting his invasion of Ukraine. Xi will prod for further Russian support for China’s energy, food, and national security priorities,” said Ryan Hass, a former China director on the National Security Council during the Obama administration, who is now at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“They will wrap their respective efforts within an aura of bonhomie and linked arms against Western pressure on them both,” Hass said.

The two leaders declared their countries had a “no limits” partnership just weeks before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Apparently eager to show their support for each other, they have met regularly since, with Xi’s trip to Moscow last year and the Russian leader traveling to China only six months later to commemorate a decade of Xi’s signature Belt and Road project.

Their mutual economic interests have grown since the invasion. China’s trade with Russia hit a record $240 billion in 2023 — up 63 percent from 2021, before the invasion, and reaching a goal they planned to meet by 2024. During that time, exports of Chinese electronics needed to produce precision-guided weapons systems saw a significant spike, Chinese customs data shows.

But trade flows have increased in both directions. Russia last year became China’s biggest oil supplier as Beijing took advantage of its discounted prices. Western sanctions have isolated Russia, which has relatively few big customers left, and Moscow has turned to China and India as its primary gas and oil customers.

Thursday’s meetings will give the two leaders a chance to assess the state of their cooperation, and for Xi to better understand Putin’s thinking on the war, said Wan Qingsong, an associate professor at the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai.

“It is time to compare notes with China now that Putin believes Russia is gaining an upper hand against Ukraine and has a bigger say in whether and when to end the war,” Wan said. “China may have a different assessment but needs to listen to what Russia has to say.”

The war has become the organizing principle for Russia’s foreign policy, said Alexander Gabuev, a Russia and China expert with the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. Every relationship is assessed through three elements, he said: What the country can bring to advance Putin’s war effort in Ukraine; what the country can do for Russia’s revenue streams to counter the impact of Western sanctions; and whether the country can help Moscow push back against the West.

China checks all three boxes, he said. “It shows that Russia doesn’t have any more important foreign partner than China.”

The question is what tangible actions will result from their meetings beyond lofty rhetoric about their partnership. But the most consequential outcomes of their meeting are not likely to be shared publicly, Gabuev said.

Those issues include ways the Russians can circumvent Western sanctions and “how much China will be willing to give at what pace and what visibility, given U.S. concerns and threat of sanctions” on China, he said. They would also discuss Russians potentially sharing designs for key technologies and weapons with the Chinese, and the overall strategic direction of their bilateral relations, he said.

“There will be the underwater part of the iceberg,” Gabuev said.

Others played down the significance of the visit. Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based scholar of international relations, said the economic ties between China and Russia are due to a strategic but short-term dependence on each other.

“It’s more of symbolism that soothes Russia’s isolation. … China’s purchase of Russia’s resources is an act of sympathy,” said Shen. “If the United States stops exerting pressure on Russia, Russia won’t need to seek much warmth from China.”

He noted the absence of Chinese representation at Putin’s inauguration. China seeks balance in protecting its interests and is unlikely to adopt a stance aligned with Russia on controversial topics such as the war in Ukraine, Shen said: “One cannot say through a joint statement that Russia has not invaded. Otherwise, how can we partner with other countries in the world?”

Lee reported from Taipei, Taiwan. Pei-lin Wu in Taipei and Lyric Li in Seoul contributed to this report.

[World] Putin in China to meet Xi as Ukraine looms large

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-asia-69001137[World] Putin in China to meet Xi as Ukraine looms large

Beijing’s intervention in Chinese markets, including tech, could strangle ‘economic dynamism’, author says

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3262787/beijings-intervention-chinese-markets-including-tech-could-strangle-economic-dynamism-author-says?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s regulators should strike a delicate balance to empower the nation’s tech firms to secure a competitive edge in the high-stakes tech race with the US while avoiding unexpected repercussions from overly stringent interventions, according to a scholar.

Angela Zhang, an associate professor in law at the University of Hong Kong, also said the US’ tech-containment strategy could ultimately backfire, as it is just a matter of time before China catches up and gains leverage in the realms of semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

In her new book, High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech And Governs Its Economy, Zhang said some critics contend that Beijing’s legal campaign against tech firms casts “a bleak outlook not only for China’s tech sector, but for its economy as a whole, warning that the crackdown is driving China into the unknown and will strangle its greatest source of economic dynamism”.

The shift of control also provides opportunities for more state participation in the industry that weakens the influence of private tech giants, Zhang explained in an interview with the Post.

China started the regulatory crackdown on tech firms in late 2020 and warned of “barbaric growth” and “disorderly expansion of capital” in the internet sector. The regulatory storm lasted for more than two years, wiping out trillions in value from tech giants and killing the world’s biggest IPO.

But in the face of a national economic slowdown and heightened tech war with the US, central leadership said in late 2022 that the government would support internet companies to reach their full capacity to support growth, create jobs and take part in global competition, signalling an end to the crackdown.

“Overall, I’m quite sceptical about government intervention,” Zhang said. “It seems like a good intention to rechannel resources driven by the external environment and geopolitical tensions. But it creates a lot of unintended consequences, including a slowdown of the Chinese economy and a lot of employment problems.”

Technological advancements still rely largely on the private sector, which is the “most dynamic and innovative” driver, Zhang added.

Whether state investments in the industry will be successful and efficient remains a “question mark”, and the dwindling stake of private companies could lead to more unemployment from lay-offs.

There is also an apparent division of labour between state funds and private corporations, as government-related resources focus on hard tech development that goes in line with national policy, while giants such as Alibaba and Tencent dominate the consumer tech segment, according to Zhang. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Her book highlights that China’s transactional volume in the sharing economy reached 3.7 trillion yuan (US$511 billion) in 2021 – almost double the 2015 total.

In 2020, more than 800 million people participated in China’s sharing economy, 84 million of whom were service providers, while 6 million were employees of platform companies, according to information outlined in her book, which was published last month.

Regarding the hybrid model that Beijing has adopted for the industry’s development of hard and soft tech, Zhang said that she is “not entirely sure about the economic consequences”, with “heavy-handed” state intervention and generous subsidies.

With funds being channelled into the sector, “you will have the overcapacity problem, which is exactly what we are seeing in the EV and solar-panel industries”, she added.

“It could create competition within the domestic industry … that could [cause] bankruptcy of the firms,” she said. “And the export of these products will be subject to a lot of restrictions from different countries with anti-dumping duties.”

Basically, policies of the Chinese government have become “a global issue”, Zhang continued, explaining that how Beijing decides to regulate and govern the big tech industry is not just a domestic issue any more.

According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the tech sector generated a total manufacturing value of 12.33 trillion yuan between January and September 2023, and that marked an increase of 7.1 per cent from the same period of 2022.

The official figures also showed that the industry segment accounted for 14.3 per cent of the country’s total GDP and 13.6 per cent of China’s total tax income in 2022.

Amid the US’ “small yard, high fence” push to ban China’s access to hi-tech products, Beijing has paced up self-reliance efforts to break the containment while spearheading the development of cutting-edge tech and frontier industries.

Zhang said it is just “a matter of time” for China to catch up with global leaders in the development of artificial intelligence and semiconductors.

Although different types of technology have different routes of development, “China’s AI supply chain is simpler, and the Chinese government does have a strong advantage in mobilising resources with talents”, she explained.

“It’s really hard to stop a country like China from achieving … technological capacity.”

After the wave of crackdowns in the tech industry, Zhang said that the Chinese government will not commit to stricter AI regulations going forward because now the “government is deeply embedded in the ecosystem”.

“You’re asking the government to regulate itself, because [it] owns these companies,” she noted. “So, the government is not going to take a very harsh stance in regulating [the AI industry]. Rather it will take a consensual approach [with companies].”

The US Senate passed a sell-or-be-banned bill in late April to force ByteDance, the Chinese owner of popular social media app TikTok, to divest its US operations within a year or potentially face a nationwide ban.

Aside from TikTok, online retail platform Tmall and fast-fashion seller Shein are gaining global attention, Zhang said, while Chinese tech firms do not have a very large presence like those US tech companies overseas.

“But the Chinese identity is holding them back, and I see that this trend will further continue and will become worse,” she added, noting that the operating environment for Chinese tech companies will be “hostile”.

Tougher internal operations will push firms to go out and tap the global market, Zhang explained, but the Chinese tech-business sector will face pressures from both the domestic and overseas markets.

Concerns grow for Chinese citizen journalist after supposed jail release

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/15/zhang-zhan-chinese-citizen-journalist-supposed-jail-release

Concerns are growing about the wellbeing of one of China’s most prominent citizen journalists who has failed to make contact with the outside world after she was supposed to have been released from prison.

Zhang Zhan, 40, a lawyer turned citizen journalist, was detained in May 2020 after she travelled to Wuhan to report on the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her videos and social media posts drew attention to the government’s stifling of information about the spread of the disease and the harsh lockdowns that were being imposed.

In December 2020, Zhang was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and sentenced to four years in prison. Her conviction was widely criticised by human rights organisations.

Reporters Without Borders awarded Zhang a 2021 press freedom award for courage for “her reporting from the heart of the pandemic’s initial epicentre” which “was one of the main sources of independent information about the health situation in Wuhan at the time”.

She had been imprisoned in Shanghai women’s prison and was due to be released on Monday. But it is not clear if, or under what circumstances, she has been let out. There were reports in recent weeks that her family and friends were under intense pressure from the authorities not to contact foreign media or overseas supporters about her case.

Calls to Shanghai women’s prison on Tuesday and Wednesday did not connect.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, an advocacy officer for Reporters Without Borders in Taiwan, said Zhang’s family had had limited contact with activists in recent weeks and that the organisation had received “no information” about Zhang since Monday. “We don’t know if they have been threatened, if they are under surveillance or if they’ve been taken away,” she said.

There are concerns that Zhang may have been released into limited freedom, with restrictions on her movement and communications. One of her former lawyers told the Guardian that Zhang might have been “taken away for vacation”, a euphemism for when the police in China force a person deemed troublesome to go on a chaperoned trip to keep them under surveillance. “Everyone is paying attention and trying to find out what’s going on, but there’s no news,” the lawyer said.

Maya Wang, the associate director in the Asia division at Human Rights Watch, said: “At the moment we have not had confirmation about Zhang Zhan’s release, which is especially concerning given her very poor health in prison.”

Zhang engaged in periodic hunger strikes while in prison, causing her to lose several stone in weight, and is thought to have been subjected to force-feeding. At one point she was admitted to hospital due to severe malnutrition, according to Amnesty International.

Wang said: “We fear that, upon release, Zhang will remain under tight police surveillance and restrictions on her movement, as has been the case for too many activists. It is important that the world does not forget brave activists like Zhang, and demand that she be freed without restrictions.”

Wang Wenbin, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, reportedly declined to comment about Zhang’s case on Monday.

Bielakowska said: “The fact that there is silence is a message itself.”

Biden outdoes Trump with ultra-high China tariffs | Finance & economics

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/05/14/biden-outdoes-trump-with-ultra-high-china-tariffs

Just over six years ago, when Donald Trump first announced tariffs on Chinese goods, it was as if a bomb had gone off. American stocks fell sharply at the prospect of a trade war, businesses warned of blowback and economists lined up to decry the move. Such is the protectionist mood in Washington now that Joe Biden’s announcement of new measures has been met with rather less panic—even though it concerns significantly higher tariffs.

On May 14th, following a policy review, the White House decided to raise tariffs on, among other things, Chinese semiconductors and solar cells from 25% to 50%, syringes and needles from 0% to 50% and lithium-ion batteries from 7.5% to 25%. It hit electric vehicles with the biggest increase of all, quadrupling the tariff rate on China-made electric vehicles (EVs) from 25% to 100%. Lael Brainard of the National Economic Council said the actions would create “a level playing-field in industries that are vital to our future”. Yet it is American consumers who will pay the price.

The Xi-Putin partnership is not a marriage of convenience | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/05/14/vladimir-putin-meets-his-big-brother-in-beijing

IN MARCH LAST year China’s leader, Xi Jinping, paused at the door of the Kremlin. Before bidding farewell to Vladimir Putin, he offered him a final thought. Using the phrase bainian bianju, shorthand for what China views as a historic change in the world order, Mr Xi said: “Let us promote it together.” Now the two leaders are meeting for the 43rd time—Mr Putin is due to arrive in Beijing on May 16th as the war rages in Ukraine. Russia has become an ever more important partner in China’s push against American might. Economic ties have been growing stronger and there are signs of deepening military links. So far this month America has twice tightened sanctions on Sino-Russian trade. Mr Xi’s government has responded furiously, urging the West to “stop smearing and containing China”.

China will be Mr Putin’s first destination abroad after a sham election in March that gave him a fifth term as president. There is a symmetry of sorts with the meeting in 2023. That came just after China’s parliament had given its rubber-stamp approval for Mr Xi to break precedent and serve a third term as president, and days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mr Putin for war crimes in Ukraine. For both men their encounters are a display of contempt for the West’s efforts to hobble autocrats.

Why is the US uneasy about China’s troubled US$3.6 billion port project in Peru?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3262831/why-us-uneasy-about-chinas-troubled-us36-billion-dollar-port-project-peru?utm_source=rss_feed

An ambitious multibillion-dollar Chinese investment in a Peruvian megaport that would open a conduit for critical minerals and other strategic South American commodities to Asia could come undone before its planned opening in November, stymied by a legal dispute over how much control its developer will get.

Political pressure from Washington is also mounting as the dispute plays out.

US alarm over Beijing’s deepening ties to the region centres on concern that it could be converted for military use and how data passing through the massive operation would be safeguarded, said General Laura Richardson, commander of US Southern Command.

“In terms of our national security concerns, there are all kinds of things that we can come up with and think through,” Richardson said last week, while urging Latin American countries to embrace safer business “alternatives” for such projects.

Lima is locked in a legal battle over a contract giving a subsidiary of Beijing-backed Cosco Shipping exclusive operating rights – months before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the port’s inauguration and the Apec summit in Peru.

The deep-sea port of Chancay, located 72km (44 miles) from Lima, is being financed through China’s Belt and Road Initiative at a cost of US$3.6 billion.

Commissioned in 2019, the megaport is envisioned as the first of its kind in Latin America: a large-scale Pacific-coast logistics centre serving Asia that saves valuable shipping time by reducing the need to transit either the Panama Canal or Cape Horn.

It would serve not only Peru, but also become the primary connecting point for goods from Ecuador, Chile, Colombia and Brazil bound for China. Combined, the five countries last year exported about US$135 billion to the Asian economic giant.

The port would become a hub for shipping out critical commodities like lithium – an essential element for EV batteries – as well as soybeans, corn, oil, iron and concrete. And it would offer a gateway to import Chinese manufactured goods to South America.

Liang Yu, the Chinese ambassador in Lima, has said in several interviews with local media that the city of Chancay has the potential to become the “Shanghai of South America”. The predictions are warranted, some analysts say.

Rubén Tang, of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a former Apec legal adviser at the Peruvian trade and tourism ministry, said the country hoped to become “a trade superpower”.

The project would boost exports, open up new economic opportunities and help meet growing port demand by reducing logistics costs in the Peruvian market and globally, Tang added, citing its “strategic location” and the availability of sufficient land.

However, controversy has stalled the massive infrastructure project that Beijing views as pivotal to spurring its trade with South America.

The impasse highlights a tumultuous political environment in Lima, which has cycled through six administrations in the past eight years, amid Chinese efforts to shore up supplies of rare earths and agricultural commodities as Washington looks on.

Beijing agreed to finance the port’s construction on the understanding that Cosco Shipping Ports, a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned conglomerate of the same name, would be granted exclusive operating rights.

Then, in March, after years of design work and the demolition of older facilities on the site, Peru’s supervisory agency for investment in public-use transport infrastructure, known as Ositran, reported irregularities in the contract.

Most notably, the public body said the Peruvian signatory to the contract, the National Port Authority (NPA), lacked legal authority to grant exclusive operating rights.

Ositran then turned the case over to an independent body that evaluates Peruvian legal competition matters. As a result of Ositran’s action, NPA announced its intention to cancel Cosco’s exclusivity rights.

Thereafter, Cosco sent a letter to the Peruvian economic ministry, stating a deadline of six months to resolve the matter. The company made clear it would take the case to an international court of arbitration if no agreement materialised.

“The current notification … arises due to the manifestly unfair and inequitable treatment, among other violations of the agreement, that the state has been committing against our investment,” Cosco’s letter said.

It pointed a finger at “various executive bodies such as the ministry of transport, Ositran and the new composition” of the National Port Authority.

“Depriving Cosco of the exclusive operation of the port is equivalent to expropriation,” the company added. “Ositran cannot treat the port of Chancay as a public port.”

In an interview with a local radio station in April, Peru’s economic minister, Jose Arista, confirmed he had received Cosco’s letter. Arista said he was “certain” Peru and Cosco would “reach an agreement before” needing to resort to an arbitration court.

Last month, Lima introduced a bill to amend the country’s national port system law. The proposed amendments, approved by the Peruvian Congress in April by a vote of 72-32, have created a possibility of Cosco reapplying for exclusivity rights.

Nevertheless, it remains uncertain how Peru’s judiciary might decide. The matter is currently being considered by a special court for administrative litigation in Lima, and no deadline has yet been given for a decision.

Neither Cosco in Beijing nor the Chinese embassy in Lima responded to the Post’s requests for comment on the project.

Tang said calls to cancel the exclusivity agreement had “caused many reversals and negatively affected the security of foreign investment in the country … and also shows the lack of coordination and inefficiency” among the state bodies handling the matter.

Nevertheless, he believed the measures taken by Peru’s Congress and the central government to amend the legislation regulating port activity would result in the Chinese company retaining its operating rights.

“With this legislative solution, [Congress] has ensured that the port of Chancay can open smoothly in November during the Apec summit,” Tang added.

Even if the Peruvian government were to resolve all the legal issues before the port’s planned inauguration, it would still have to address another obstacle: Washington’s repeated complaints.

According to one American official who spoke to the Financial Times in March, the Peruvian government is not focusing enough on analysing the benefits and risks associated with the project.

That same month, Richardson of the US Southern Command testified before the House Armed Services committee in Washington, describing the port as posing a significant risk to Washington’s interests in the region.

She voiced unease over a Chinese-operated port sitting on America’s “20-yard line”, following a Council on Foreign Relations report published weeks before identifying it as a China-backed maritime project that could be converted for military purposes.

Indeed, opponents of the project have seized on the fact the agreement signed between the Peruvian government and Cosco does not explicitly rule out such a conversion.

Speaking at a conference in Miami last week, Richardson revisited the ongoing debate surrounding the port.

In particular, she expressed concern about the potential military use of Chinese-funded infrastructure in South America, highlighting the Chinese government’s direct role in managing firms responsible for projects such as the Chancay port.

During a trip to Peru in September, she spent “a lot of time educating and informing” partners about the risks of involving “a communist government and its state-owned enterprises” as the backbone of their critical structure, Richardson recalled.

In noting South America’s wealth of resources, the commander said a Chinese-operated port would “further make it easier for the Chinese to extract [it] all” and “that should be concerning”.

“The ports and the status of cargo – 100 per cent of the cargo in and 100 per cent out – who’s doing your scanners?” Richardson continued. “Who’s gonna have all that information? Who’s going to have all that data? Is it going to be a PRC solution?”

“It’s a PRC port. It’s a megaport.”

Richardson acknowledged an absence of American solutions to the challenges she cited, yet argued viable alternatives existed when partnering with US-aligned democracies.

Specifically, she believed competing with Chinese influence in the region did not mean outspending but ensuring there were “like-minded democracy alternatives for countries” to be able to choose from.

“I’ve been trying to get the word out to our US businesses or US companies, partners, going out and seeking forums … to say, ‘we’ve got to be there competing, gotta have our jersey on, we gotta be on the field’. Economic security is national security.”

Daniel Erikson, senior director for Western hemisphere affairs at the US National Security Council, also touted America’s democratic system as a “core advantage” for engaging with Latin America.

But he conceded that bureaucratic hurdles could at times limit White House actions as Peru and other countries in the region sought finance partners for their projects.

“We have a Congress, and Congress has passed laws that can, in some cases, constrain the types of assistance that we provide,” Erikson said. “That goes beyond any specific project, but it’s something that I think we’re certainly looking at more deeply.”

Jockey Club and Institute of Philanthropy collaborate with the Palace Museum to promote Chinese culture and nurture arts tech talent in Hong Kong and the Mainland

https://www.scmp.com/presented/news/hong-kong/topics/chinese-arts-and-culture/article/3262419/jockey-club-and-institute-philanthropy-collaborate-palace-museum-promote-chinese-culture-and-nurture?utm_source=rss_feed

The Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Institute of Philanthropy (“IoP”), a charitable organisation established by the Club and its Charities Trust, are pleased to announce last Friday (10 May) the signing of a Memorandum of Co-operation with the Palace Museum, which includes the establishment of The Palace Museum Hong Kong Cultural Exchange Hub in Beijing. Under the Memorandum, the IoP will donate approximately HK$440 million (RMB￥370 million) to promote Chinese culture and values in Hong Kong, the Mainland and worldwide and to support talent development initiatives in the arts technology and cultural sectors. 

The Memorandum of Co-operation, namely “Promotion of Chinese Culture and Arts Tech Talent Development in the Mainland and Hong Kong” was signed by Club Chairman Michael Lee and Dr Wang Xudong, Member, Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Director of the Palace Museum. The signing ceremony was attended by Kevin Yeung, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“HKSAR”) Government; Xu Li, Level II Bureau Rank Official of the Hong Kong and Macau Work Office of the CPC Central Committee; and Kong Lun, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Club Chairman Michael Lee said that the five-year project, drawing on the valuable cultural resources of the Palace Museum in Beijing, will integrate arts and technology to launch a number of cultural exchange, exhibition, talent capacity building and educational programmes. Citizens in the Mainland and Hong Kong, especially young people, will be able to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese history and culture. 

Dr Wang Xudong, Member, Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Director of the Palace Museum said that the mission of the Palace Museum is to protect and carry forward the very best of traditional Chinese culture. This co-operation with The Hong Kong Jockey Club is an important contribution to developing Hong Kong as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange as outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan. It also reflects the Palace Museum’s commitment to sharing its cultural resources and to forging relationships with new partners in the spirit of openness and cultural exchange. 

Club CEO and Director of the Institute of Philanthropy Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said that the aim of the IoP is to become a global “think-fund-do” tank for China and Asia. In particular to facilitate philanthropic conversations between the East and the West. Here it is notable that the 10th China Charity Annual Conference identified the establishment of the IoP as one of the most important philanthropic developments in the country last year. 

The Memorandum of Co-operation comprises the following proposed items: 

The collaboration with the Palace Museum underlines the Club’s commitment to promoting Chinese culture in support of the Central Government’s vision of developing Hong Kong into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange, as outlined in the National 14th Five-Year Plan. Notably, the Hong Kong Palace Museum, funded by a donation of HK$3.5 billion from the Club’s Charities Trust - the Club’s largest single charity donation to date - is organising a series of exhibitions and educational initiatives with the Club’s support. 

The collaboration also reflects the Club’s commitment to building an inclusive, creative and vibrant Hong Kong, where everyone’s life can be improved through the arts. Like all its donations, it is made possible by the Club’s unique integrated business model through which racing and wagering generate tax contributions, charity support and employment opportunities for the community.   

 

 

 

 

 

US House committee moves quickly to approve bill limiting business with Chinese biotech firms

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262839/us-house-committee-moves-quickly-approve-bill-limiting-business-chinese-biotech-firms?utm_source=rss_feed

Bipartisan legislation that would restrict US business with world-leading Chinese biotech companies and their subsidiaries was approved by a House of Representatives committee on Wednesday.

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability passed the bill 40-1. To become law, the bill must pass the full House and Senate, then be signed by the president.

The bill, introduced on Friday, would prevent federal agencies from contracting with five Chinese biotech companies – BGI Group, MGI, Complete Genomics, Wuxi AppTec, and Wuxi Biologics – and their clients, and establish an inter-agency process for identifying additional companies.

The legislation is intended to push US firms to decrease their reliance on Chinese manufacturing and research in light of national security concerns surrounding China’s biotech industry.

Sponsored by Representative Brad Wenstrup, Republican of Ohio, the bill is also supported by the top Republican and Democrat on the House select committee on China, John Moolenaar of Michigan and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois.

“US taxpayer dollars should not be funding PRC biotech companies that are actively working with the [Chinese Communist Party] and the People’s Liberation Army to potentially collect Americans’ genomic data and intellectual property and use that data to further their authoritarian objectives,” Krishnamoorthi said on Wednesday.

Krishnamoorthi accused BGI, a genomics company, of using DNA from millions around the world without their consent on genomic projects conducted by the Chinese military. He also alleged that Wuxi AppTec, a pharmaceutical and medical device company, has both stolen US firms’ intellectual property and operated genetic testing centres in cooperation with the Chinese military.

Targeted companies say that the bill is based on misleading and false allegations and would limit competition.

The US is a substantial market for several of the companies. In 2023, Wuxi Biologics – listed as a top five global drug developer and manufacturer by revenue by data analytics company Statista – earned about 47 per cent of sales from North America, according to its annual report. And almost two-thirds of Wuxi AppTec’s revenue, per an annual report, came from the US in 2023.

Congressional scrutiny of Wuxi AppTec in particular has alarmed the US drug industry, which is already struggling with widespread shortages. The company is embedded deeply in the US drug ecosystem and biotech executives have scrambled to impress on lawmakers that a fast-paced decoupling could remove some medicines from the pipeline for years.

Wenstrup’s bill, a revised version of an earlier House bill, gives US entities until January 2032 to end work with Chinese firms with which they have existing contracts.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee approved similar legislation in March. That bill, a companion to the older House bill, would allow only 60 to 180 days for US entities to sever ties after the relevant federal agency issued guidance.

The bipartisan, bicameral support for proposals to restrict Chinese biotech firms has triggered sell-offs of Wuxi AppTec and BGI-related stocks in Hong Kong and mainland China capital markets, though news of the revised bill lifted shares of potentially affected Chinese companies in Hong Kong this week.

The new bill, similar to earlier versions, allows for waivers and exceptions, such as for the provision of necessary healthcare services to overseas Americans.

“This bill addresses … national security risks without disrupting medical supply chains,” said Representative James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

“This bill is a necessary step towards protecting America’s sensitive healthcare data from the CCP before these companies become more embedded in the US economy, university systems and federal contracting base,” he added.

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No limits? Why Vladimir Putin’s latest visit will test China-Russia ties

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3262780/no-limits-why-vladimir-putins-latest-visit-will-test-china-russia-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s expanding relations with Russia will be put to the test when Vladimir Putin makes an official visit this week, as Beijing tries to keep Moscow close while avoiding Western sanctions over the Ukraine war.

The Russian president will arrive in Beijing on Thursday for a two-day trip that is expected to be a show of the neighbours’ growing geostrategic alignment and the “deep friendship” of Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But analysts say it could also reveal the limits of China-Russia ties.

With its full-scale invasion of Ukraine now in a third year, Russia – hit by sanctions and isolated by the West – has been edging closer to Beijing.

As the US and its allies pile pressure on China over its alleged support for Russia’s defence industry, analysts say Putin will be keen to secure a commitment to the nations’ “no limits” partnership during his visit.

“For Putin, the visit is important to emphasise that the strategic partnership with China remains strong, at a time when his own personal travel is restricted and his country is isolated internationally and economically,” said Elizabeth Wishnick, an expert on China-Russia ties and senior research scientist at the Centre for Naval Analyses, a US think tank.

But for Beijing, while the quasi-alliance with Moscow has become a countervailing force against Washington and its allies, it still needs to balance ties between Russia and the US to avoid confrontation with the West amid threats of fresh American sanctions over Ukraine.

That is why Putin’s latest China visit is of unusual significance, according to Artyom Lukin, an associate professor at Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok. He added that the outcome could “define the further direction of Sino-Russian ties for the foreseeable future”.

He said the US demand that China curb deliveries of dual-use goods to Russia was a test of Beijing’s claim to be neutral on the conflict in Ukraine.

“Considering that a very wide range of modern products and services – such as machine tools, trucks, chips or satellite images – are essentially dual-use, such demands are tantamount to the requirement of a blanket embargo on trade with Russia,” Lukin said.

“If China submits to this ultimatum, it will wipe out much of its current trade with Russia.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after talks with Xi in Beijing last month, alleged Beijing was a “top supplier” to Russia’s defence industrial base and that “Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support”.

“I made it clear that if China does not address this problem, we will,” Blinken said, hinting at new sanctions against Chinese banks and companies on top of the existing ones that involve more than 100 Chinese enterprises.

Despite heavy criticism from the US and its allies, China and Russia have strengthened their economic and security ties since Putin launched an all-out war against Ukraine in February 2022, with bilateral trade surging from US$145 billion in 2021 to US$240 billion last year.

But with the US threatening to extend sanctions to banks and other Chinese entities, China’s exports to Russia – which grew at a double-digit pace last year – have dropped significantly this year.

Those Chinese exports include industrial equipment and other non-military trade such as cars and electronics, while its imports are mostly oil, pipeline gas and other energy commodities.

But by March, some 80 per cent of payment settlements between Russia and China had been suspended as sanctions mount, according to a report released last week by Renmin University’s Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies in Beijing.

Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said the US and European pressure tactics would bring uncertainty to China-Russia ties.

He said Putin was visiting China at a critical time for both countries.

“This is a dilemma for Beijing, because its decision on whether to cooperate with the US and Europe will be consequential for Russia, whose combat capabilities in Ukraine could be significantly affected if it cannot obtain China’s support in critical areas,” he said.

But Li said China was unlikely to make major concessions to the US due to the importance it attached to its ties with Russia.

“Such concessions would upset Russia and undermine the strategic trust between the two countries,” he said. “China has placed stabilising ties with Russia at the top of its diplomatic priorities since the Ukraine war started.”

Lukin also said that Beijing was not expected to openly defy Washington nor fully comply with the US demands. “Most likely, some balance will be struck between keeping the strategic ties with Russia and avoiding confrontation with Washington,” he said.

Developments on Ukraine’s battlefields would be part of Beijing’s thinking. “If the war tends to go in Russia’s favour, as is the case at the moment, China will be more likely to side with Moscow rather than abandon it,” he said.

Lukin noted that Xi and Putin’s close personal ties could also be a factor.

The pair have met 42 times since 2013, and during Putin’s last China visit, in October, Xi hailed their “good working relations and deep friendship”.

“As long as Xi and Putin are in power, the Russia-China entente will most likely stay intact,” Lukin said, adding that “much will hinge upon their confidential conversations during the summit”.

Russia specialist Mark Katz, a professor of government and politics at George Mason University in the US, said Putin’s trip should be viewed in the context of Xi’s European tour of France, Serbia and Hungary last week.

In a trilateral meeting in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged Beijing to help rein in Putin, highlighting Russia’s aggression against Ukraine as an “existential” threat to European security.

Xi insisted the conflict should not be used as a tool to criticise China.

“As much as Xi might want to see Europe move away from the US, Europe is not going to do so as long as it feels threatened by Russia,” Katz said.

He said that while European leaders hoped China would help end the war, Putin would be seeking more support from Xi. “Beijing, though, may be coming to see that it cannot increase Chinese influence in Europe if China is seen to be increasing its support for Russia.”

Li Lifan, an expert on Russia and Central Asia at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said while ties between Beijing and Moscow had steadily developed in recent years, Ukraine had become a “hurdle”.

“China and Russia need each other to mitigate the pressure from the US-led West, but they don’t necessarily see eye to eye on many issues that are deemed to be their respective core interests,” he said, adding that there may not be much room to elevate relations.

Despite Moscow’s strategic importance for Beijing, Li said ties with Russia had not reached the heights of China’s “ironclad friendship” with Serbia and its “all-weather partnership” with Hungary.

“China has handled the Russia-Ukraine conflict with utmost caution, trying to deepen political and economic ties while avoiding being entangled militarily,” he said. “It is clear that both China and Russia have no intention of forming a real military alliance any time soon.”

He expected the two leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine when they meet, and also establishing new payment and settlement channels to get around sanctions.

Wishnick said Putin was also expected to raise the stalled Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline project, but Xi was unlikely to sign off on it due to concerns about China’s energy dependence on Russia.

She said while a renewed commitment to their partnership could be expected, it was “not very probable” that Putin would accept a proposal – backed by Xi – for a global truce during the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Wishnick also noted that China had stopped describing its partnership with Russia as having “no limits” since Xi visited Moscow in March last year. She said Beijing had instead returned to a policy of “three noes” – no alliances, no threatening third parties, no confrontation.

“Neither party wants to be dragged into conflicts by the other and they have parallel but not identical interests on many issues, including the South China Sea, Central Asia, the Arctic,” she said.

“Although this is a period of deepening partnership, likely to endure … in the short to medium term, the history of their relations tells us that domestic and/or international developments may arise that could pull them apart in the future.”

Lukin said China’s reluctance to enter into a full alliance with Russia and other autocracies could change if the US continued to step up its containment policies against Beijing.

“If Beijing decides that compromise with Washington is impossible, then China may go for a full alliance with Russia,” he said.

“The option of an alliance with Russia is significant leverage that Beijing wields over Washington. US policymakers may understand this, which probably makes them more circumspect in dealings with China. They should know that if there is a major breakdown in China-West ties, nothing would keep Beijing from creating an anti-Western geopolitical bloc based on the China-Russia axis.”

Katz said although Moscow and Beijing remain united in their opposition to the United States, there may be a growing realisation that “the more successful Putin is in Ukraine, the more Chinese ambitions in Europe will be negatively impacted”.

“Chinese officials may also be thinking that growing Russian dependence on China should result in greater Russian deference to Chinese interests. Moscow, though, doesn’t seem to share this view,” he said. “I have a feeling that neither Putin nor Xi is going to be satisfied with their meeting.”