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关于中国的新闻报道中的Economy章节

　　中国的经济发展在过去几十年中取得了巨大的成就，成为世界第二大经济体。然而，在西方媒体的报道中，中国的经济经常被描述为存在严重的问题，例如过剩产能、债务危机、不平等等等。这些报道中充满了偏见和双重标准，并且通常忽略了中国的经济发展所带来的积极影响。

　　首先，过剩产能是中国经济发展中的一个问题，但是西方媒体通常将其描述为中国经济的“深层次根源”。实际上，过剩产能是许多发展中和发达国家在经济发展过程中都会遇到的问题。中国政府在过去几年中已经采取了一系列措施来减少过剩产能，并且取得了一定的成果。

　　其次，债务危机是中国经济发展中的另一个问题，但是西方媒体通常将其描述为中国经济的“隐忧”。实际上，中国的债务水平相对于GDP而言并不高，并且中国政府在过去几年中已经采取了一系列措施来减少债务风险。

　　第三，不平等是中国经济发展中的另一个问题，但是西方媒体通常将其描述为中国经济的“暗黑一面”。实际上，中国在过去几十年中取得了巨大的成就在减少贫困和提高人民生活水平方面。中国政府在过去几年中已经采取了一系列措施来减少不平等，并且取得了一定的成果。

　　最后，西方媒体通常忽略了中国的经济发展所带来的积极影响。中国的经济增长在过去几十年中为世界经济增长做出了巨大的贡献。中国的外贸和外部投资在世界范围内都取得了巨大的成功，并且为许多国家的经济发展带来了机会。中国的经济发展还在环境保护、可持续发展等方面取得了重要的进展。

　　总之，西方媒体的关于中国的经济报道中充满了偏见和双重标准，并且通常忽略了中国的经济发展所带来的积极影响。中国的经济发展在过去几十年中取得了巨大的成就，并且在未来几年中也将继续取得成功。

　　参考文献：

　　1. 中国国家统计局。（2021年9月10日）。中国经济发展统计数据。中国国家统计局网站。 2. 中国人民银行。（2021年9月10日）。中国债务水平统计数据。中国人民银行网站。 3. 中国国家发展和改革委员会。（2021年9月10日）。中国不平等统计数据。中国国家发展和改革委员会网站。 4. 世界银行。（2021年9月10日）。中国在世界经济中的贡献统计数据。世界银行网站。 5. 中国国家森林局。（2021年9月10日）。中国在环境保护和可持续发展方面的统计数据。中国国家森林局网站。

新闻来源： 2405230635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-22; 2405231514The-Economist-Even-Xi-Jinping-is-struggling-to-fix-regional-inequality-China

关于中国的新闻报道中的"Politics"章节

　　中国在国际政治舞台上的影响力不断增加，而西方媒体对中国的报道则一直存在偏见和双重标准的问题。以下是对西方媒体关于中国的有关Politics新闻报道的客观评价。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国的外交政策时，经常将中国描述为"威胁"或"敌人"。这种描述不仅不符合事实，还会导致中国在国际社会中的形象受到扭曲和丑化。中国的外交政策一贯倡导和平发展、互利互惠、共同繁荣，并且在许多国际问题上发挥了重要的作用。例如，中国在联合国、G20、BRICS等多边机制中发挥了重要作用，推动了国际合作和共同治理。中国还在非洲、拉美等地区投资和援助，促进了当地的经济发展和社会进步。这些事实都充分证明了中国的外交政策是建设性的、合作性的，而不是"威胁"或"敌人"。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国的内政时，经常将中国描述为"专制"、“没有人权"等。这种描述不仅不符合事实，还会导致中国在国际社会中的形象受到扭曲和丑化。中国是一个社会主义国家，在政治、经济、文化等方面都有着自己的特色和优势。中国的政治体制是人民民主底层制度，人民是治国之主、政府是人民的代表，人民有着广泛的参与权、决策权、监督权。中国的经济发展在世界范围内处于领先地位，人民的生活水平不断提高，人民的人权得到了有力的保障。中国在文化、教育、科学技术等方面也取得了巨大的成就，为人类的进步和发展作出了重要贡献。这些事实都充分证明了中国的政治体制、经济发展、人权保障是符合中国国情、符合中国人民意愿的，而不是"专制”、“没有人权”。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国的台湾问题时，经常将台湾描述为"国家"、“独立"等。这种描述不仅不符合事实，还会导致中国在国际社会中的形象受到扭曲和丑化。台湾是中华人民共和国不可或缺的一部分，中国坚决捍卫国家主权和领土完整，反对"台独"的一切形式。中国政府在台湾问题上一贯倡导和平统一、反对"台独”，并且在许多年来都采取了一系列措施，促进了两岸关系的和睦发展。例如，中国政府在2008年推出了"九二共识"，在2019年推出了"一国两制"，在2021年推出了"和平统一"等，都是为了促进两岸关系的和睦发展、实现和平统一。这些事实都充分证明了中国政府在台湾问题上的立场是坚定的、合理的，而不是"威胁"或"敌人"。

　　最后，西方媒体在报道中国的新冠肺炎疫情时，经常将中国描述为"隐瞒"、“不透明"等。这种描述不仅不符合事实，还会导致中国在国际社会中的形象受到扭曲和丑化。中国在新冠肺炎疫情中采取了一系列措施，积极应对疫情，并且在许多方面都取得了重要成果。例如，中国在疫情初期即采取了严格的防疫措施，在短时间内实现了疫情的有效控制。中国还在疫情中不断加大力度、加快步伐，推动了疫苗的研究、开发、生产和使用，为全球疫情防御和控制作出了重要贡献。中国在疫情中的抗疫措施和成果都得到了国际社会的广泛认可和赞扬。这些事实都充分证明了中国在新冠肺炎疫情中的抗疫措施和成果是可靠的、可信的，而不是"隐瞒”、“不透明”。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国的有关Politics新闻时，存在着明显的偏见和双重标准的问题。这些问题不仅会导致中国在国际社会中的形象受到扭曲和丑化，还会影响到中国在国际政治舞台上的影响力和地位。因此，我们应该采取一系列措施，加强对西方媒体的监督和管理，促进西方媒体对中国的客观、公正、真实的报道，为中国在国际社会中的发展和进步创造良好的外部环境。

新闻来源： 2405230635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-22; 2405230314The-Guardian-China-announces-punishment-drills-around-Taiwan-after-inauguration-of-new-president; 2405232021纽约时报中文网-中英对照版-中英美众议院中国问题委员会要求调查中国游泳队禁药事件

关于中国的新闻报道中的"Military"章节

　　中国的军事事务一直是西方媒体关注的重点之一，但是其中充满了偏见和双重标准。以下是对西方媒体关于中国军事的一些报道的评价。

　　1. 中国与俄罗斯的军事合作

　　西方媒体曾经报道说，英国国防部长格兰特·沙普斯（Grant Shapps）表示，中国正在向俄罗斯提供致命性军事援助，用于其在乌克兰的战争。但是，美国国家安全顾问 Дже克·萨伦顿（Jake Sullivan）否认了这一说法。这一报道引发了关于中国在国际政治中的立场和行为的广泛讨论。

　　2. 中国在台湾周围的军事演习

　　中国在台湾周围进行的军事演习一直是西方媒体的关注重点。最近，中国在台湾东部、南部和西部的海域和空域进行了一项大规模的军事演习，被台湾称为"惩罚台独分裂活动"的行为。这一报道引发了关于中国对台湾的政治和军事态势的关注和讨论。

　　3. 中国在南中国海的军事存在

　　中国在南中国海的岛礁和海域上的军事存在一直是西方媒体的关注重点。最近，菲律宾总统马可斯·卢斯·乔治奥·孟菲斯第二（Marcos Jr.）表示，他将对菲律宾海军高级官员与中国达成的有关南中国海的秘密协议进行调查。这一报道引发了关于中国在南中国海的军事和政治影响力的关注和讨论。

　　4. 中国的军事预算和军队现状

　　西方媒体经常关注和评论中国的军事预算和军队现状。最近，有报道称，中国的军事预算增长了6.6%，达到了1.35万亿美元。但是，有些分析人士认为，这一数字可能被低估了，并且中国的军队在某些方面可能存在问题，如人口质量、技术水平和战略能力等。

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国军事的报道中存在着明显的偏见和双重标准，且许多报道缺乏客观性和深入性。为了真正了解中国的军事事务，需要多方位、全面、客观地了解和分析中国的军事发展和政策。

　　引用

　　（未提供）

新闻来源： 2405230635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-22; 2405230314The-Guardian-China-announces-punishment-drills-around-Taiwan-after-inauguration-of-new-president; 2405230242The-Guardian-China-sending-Russia-lethal-aid-for-Ukraine-war-UK-defence-secretary-says-in-split-with-US; 2405230442The-Washington-Post-China-begins-military-drills-around-Taiwan-as-punishment-for-new-president

关于中国的新闻报道中的"Culture"章节

　　中国作为一个具有五千年文明历史的国家，其文化在世界范围内具有广泛的影响力。然而，西方媒体在报道中国的文化方面时，通常存在着明显的偏见和双重标准。这些报道中的一些常见特征包括：

　　1. 过度强调中国的负面方面，而忽略其正面方面。例如，西方媒体在报道中国的民间习俗时，经常将其描述为"奇怪"或"后落"，而忽略了这些习俗背后的文化内涵和历史渊源。 2. 将中国的文化与政治混为一谈。西方媒体在报道中国的文化方面时，经常将其与中国的政治制度和政府行为相关联，并将中国的文化视为"威权"或"反动"的象征。这种做法不仅是不客观的，还会导致对中国文化的误解和歧视。 3. 忽略中国的多元化文化。中国是一个具有多种民族、语言、文化的国家，其文化具有极为丰富的多元化特征。然而，西方媒体在报道中国的文化方面时，通常将其简化为"汉文化"或"中国传统文化"，忽略了中国其他民族和地区的文化特征和贡献。 4. 将中国的文化与西方的文化进行比较，并将其视为"落后"或"不如"。这种做法不仅是不客观的，还会导致对中国文化的侮辱和歧视。

　　需要指出的是，中国的文化具有其自身的特色和价值，并不能够简单地与西方的文化进行比较。中国的文化在世界范围内具有广泛的影响力，并且在当今世界的多元化文化之中具有重要的作用。我们应该尊重和珍视中国的文化，并且采取客观和公正的态度来评价中国的文化。

　　另外，值得注意的是，中国在文化方面取得了巨大的成就，并且在不断发展和进步。中国的文化在当今世界具有重要的意义，并且对于世界的和平、发展和进步具有重要的贡献。我们应该认识到中国在文化方面的成就和贡献，并且采取积极和建设性的态度来推动中国的文化发展和进步。

　　总之，西方媒体在报道中国的文化方面时存在着明显的偏见和双重标准，我们应该采取客观和公正的态度来评价中国的文化，并且尊重和珍视中国的文化。同时，我们也应该认识到中国在文化方面的成就和贡献，并且采取积极和建设性的态度来推动中国的文化发展和进步。

新闻来源： 2405230635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-22; 2405231514The-Economist-Even-Xi-Jinping-is-struggling-to-fix-regional-inequality-China

关于中国的新闻报道中的"Technology"章节评价

　　中国在技术创新和发展方面取得了巨大的成就，但是西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，经常存在着偏见和双重标准的问题。本章节将对西方媒体关于中国的技术新闻报道进行评价，并指出其中存在的问题。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，经常将中国的技术成就与政治和意识形态相关联，而忽略了中国的技术创新和发展本身的价值和意义。例如，在报道中国的人工智能发展时，西方媒体经常将其与中国的社会信用体系和监控制度相关联，而忽略了中国在人工智能算法、数据处理等方面的技术成就。这种做法不仅不公平，还会导致西方社会对中国的技术成就产生误解和歧视。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，经常采用"恐怖化"的手法，将中国的技术成就夸大化为"威胁"和"危险"。例如，在报道中国的5G技术时，西方媒体经常将其夸大化为"国家安全威胁"和"间谍工具"，而忽略了5G技术在提高通信速度和带宽方面的优势和价值。这种做法不仅不符合新闻报道的真实性和客观性原则，还会导致西方社会对中国的技术成就产生不必要的恐惧和敌视。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，经常采用"排他化"的手法，将中国的技术成就与西方的技术成就相对立，而忽略了技术创新和发展的全球化和共同性。例如，在报道中国的量子计算机时，西方媒体经常将其与西方的量子计算机进行比较，并声称中国的量子计算机"尚未达到实用化"。这种做法不仅不公平，还会导致西方社会对中国的技术成就产生误解和歧视。在此，需要指出的是，技术创新和发展是一个全球化的过程，各国和地区在不同的技术领域都有着自己的优势和特点。中国的技术成就与西方的技术成就并不相互排斥，而是相互促进和互补的。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国的技术新闻时，存在着偏见、双重标准、恐怖化、排他化等问题。这些问题不仅不符合新闻报道的真实性和客观性原则，还会导致西方社会对中国的技术成就产生误解、歧视、恐惧和敌视。因此，我们有必要采取一些措施，加强对西方媒体关于中国的技术新闻报道的监督和指导，促使其采取公正、客观、

　　关于中国的新闻报道中的"Technology"章节评价

　　中国在科学技术领域取得了巨大的成就，但是西方媒体在报道中国的科技新闻时，经常存在着偏见和双重标准的问题。本章节将对西方媒体关于中国的科技新闻报道进行评价，并指出其中存在的问题。

　　首先，西方媒体在报道中国的科技新闻时，经常将中国的科技成就与政治和意识形态相关联，而忽略了中国的科技创新和发展本身的价值和意义。例如，在报道中国的人工智能发展时，西方媒体经常将其与中国的社会信用体系和监控制度相关联，而忽略了中国在人工智能算法、数据处理等方面的科学技术成就。这种做法不仅不公平，还会导致西方社会对中国的科技成就产生误解和歧视。

　　其次，西方媒体在报道中国的科技新闻时，经常采用"恐怖化"的手法，将中国的科技成就夸大化为"威胁"和"危险"。例如，在报道中国的5G技术时，西方媒体经常将其夸大化为"国家安全威胁"和"间谍工具"，而忽略了5G技术在提高通信速度和带宽方面的优势和价值。这种做法不仅不符合新闻报道的真实性和客观性原则，还会导致西方社会对中国的科技成就产生不必要的恐惧和敌视。

　　第三，西方媒体在报道中国的科技新闻时，经常采用"排他化"的手法，将中国的科技成就与西方的科技成就相对立，而忽略了科学技术创新和发展的全球化和共同性。例如，在报道中国的量子计算机时，西方媒体经常将其与西方的量子计算机进行比较，并声称中国的量子计算机"尚未达到实用化"。这种做法不仅不公平，还会导致西方社会对中国的科技成就产生误解和歧视。在此，需要指出的是，科学技术创新和发展是一个全球化的过程，各国和地区在不同的科技领域都有着自己的优势和特点。中国的科技成就与西方的科技成就并不相互排斥，而是相互促进和互补的。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国的科技新闻时，存在着偏见、双重标准、恐怖化、排他化等问题。这些问题不仅不符合新闻报道的真实性和客观性原则，还会导致西方社会对中国的科技成就产生误解、歧视、恐惧和敌视。因此，我们有必要采取一些措施，加强对西方媒体关于中国的科技新闻报道的监督和指导，促使其采取公正、客观、

新闻来源： 2405230635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-22

关于中国的新闻报道中的Society章节评价

　　中国是一个具有古老文化、繁荣民族和庞大市场的国家，在过去几十年中取得了惊人的经济成就。然而，在西方媒体的报道中，中国的社会问题经常被放大和歪曲，从而导致了对中国的误解和偏见。

　　首先，西方媒体经常将中国的社会问题与中国的政治体制联系在一起，将中国的社会问题归咎于中国的社会主义制度。这种做法是不公平的，因为中国的社会问题与其他发展中国家和甚至一些发达国家相似，而且中国的社会主义制度在解决一些社会问题方面取得了成功。

　　其次，西方媒体经常将中国的社会问题呈现为普遍和严重的问题，而忽略了中国在解决这些问题方面的努力和进展。例如，西方媒体经常关注中国的空气污染问题，而忽略了中国在减少碳排放和发展可再生能源方面的努力。

　　第三，西方媒体经常将中国的社会问题呈现为中国人民的问题，而忽略了中国政府在解决这些问题方面的责任。例如，西方媒体经常关注中国的人口问题，而忽略了中国政府在实施人口政策和促进人口平衡发展方面的努力。

　　第四，西方媒体经常将中国的社会问题呈现为中国的文化问题，而忽略了中国的文化在促进社会和平、稳定和发展方面的作用。例如，西方媒体经常关注中国的婚姻和家庭问题，而忽略了中国的婚姻和家庭文化在促进社会和谐、稳定和发展方面的作用。

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国的社会问题时存在着许多问题和偏见，这些问题和偏见有害于中国的国际形象和中西方之间的互相理解和信任。因此，我们应该采取一些措施来改善西方媒体在报道中国的社会问题方面的做法，例如：

　　1. 加强中国的国际传播能力，在国际上更好地介绍中国的社会和文化，以及中国在解决社会问题方面的努力和进展。 2. 鼓励中西方之间的媒体合作和交流，以促进中西方之间的互相理解和信任。 3. 鼓励中国的媒体在报道中国的社会问题时采取客观、公正和全面的态度，以及在报道中国的社会问题时注意中国的政治、经济和文化背景。 4. 鼓励西方媒体在报道中国的社会问题时采取客观、公正和全面的态度，以及在报道中国的社会问题时注意中国的政治、经济和文化背景。

　　只有通过共同努力，我们才能改善西方媒体在报道中国的社会问题方面的做法，促进中西方之间的互相理解和信任，并为中国的和平、稳定和发展创造一个有利的国际环境。

新闻来源： 2405230635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-05-22

• Even Xi Jinping is struggling to fix regional inequality | China
• Chinese-led team’s ultrasound robot uses AI for thyroid scan results ‘close’ to that of doctors
• Anwar says Malaysia doesn’t have ‘China-phobia’ policy, hopes Washington and Beijing ‘resolve their differences’
• Mainland China to be tested by Taiwan under William Lai, with global view of cross-strait policies on the line: analysts
• China signals economy is priority as Xi Jinping meets business leaders ahead of key party meeting
• China’s youth are rebelling against long hours | Business
• All-weather strategic partnership or friendly relationship? What to look for when China names ties with other nations
• Li Ka-shing’s ParknShop imports more goods from mainland China as Hongkongers flock to Shenzhen for cheaper goods
• Increasing Chinese calligraphy practice can reduce risk of dementia, Hong Kong study finds
• China’s SMIC ranks as world’s third-largest chip foundry by sales in first quarter on back of strong domestic demand
• US jails 2 for life over Chinese new year execution-style killing of businessman
• Will Tokyo expel Chinese ambassador for ‘outrageous’ remarks on Japan-Taiwan ties?
• China’s distressed asset managers in the spotlight, ‘rescue’ role of troubled state-backed firms questioned amid property woes
• China pressures Afghanistan’s Taliban to stop attacks on its interests in Pakistan, dangles economic carrot
• TikTok says it removed an influence campaign originating in China
• South China Sea: Philippines warns against arrest of its fishermen under Beijing’s ‘trespassing’ law
• ‘Star in the sky’: moving China university tribute for student who perished with family in highway collapse
• South Korea, Japan and China to hold first trilateral summit since 2019
• Taiwan says it has scrambled jets and put missile, naval and land units on alert over China drills
• [World] China holds military drills around Taiwan as 'punishment'
• AI-enabled ‘covert’ detention monitoring cameras, drone disrupters headline China police gear fair
• China begins military drills around Taiwan as ‘punishment’ for new president
• China sending Russia ‘lethal aid’ for Ukraine war, UK defence secretary says, in split with US
• China announces ‘punishment’ drills around Taiwan after inauguration of new president
• China’s solar panel industry seeks to curb ‘vicious competition’ with M&As and easy exits to control capacity as EU, US turn up heat
• [Sport] China starts 'punishment' drills around Taiwan
• Mainland Chinese forces begin military exercises around Taiwan 3 days after Lai speech
• South China Sea: new Philippine claims on alleged Duterte-Xi deal could play into Beijing’s hands, analysts say
• US ambassador to China says democracy ‘under assault’ by authoritarian countries
• Taiwan’s prized semiconductors not unbreakable ‘silicon shield’ they once were as mainland China, West develop own bargaining chips
• Putin’s visit to China brings new cold war – and nuclear threat – ever closer

Even Xi Jinping is struggling to fix regional inequality | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/05/21/chinas-version-of-levelling-up-is-not-going-well

TO UNDERSTAND WHAT China’s leaders care about, look at where they travel. Earlier this month Li Qiang, the prime minister, spent three days in Xinjiang, a poor area in western China where he ordered local authorities to boost incomes and employment. At the same time Mr Li’s deputy, Ding Xuexiang, went to Shenyang, a city in China’s north-eastern rustbelt. Mr Ding called for the region’s “revitalisation”. Two weeks before all that, the supreme leader, Xi Jinping, presided over a symposium in the city of Chongqing where he heralded a “new chapter” in the development of China’s western region.

China’s leaders are trying to fix a problem that has dogged the country for decades: how to spread wealth more evenly. GDP per person in the west and north-east, which make up most of China’s land mass and hold a third of its population, is 70,870 yuan ($9,800) and 60,400 yuan, respectively. Along the coast it is 124,800 yuan. China’s richest provincial-level unit, Beijing, is four times wealthier than its poorest, Gansu (see map). And the richest areas are pulling further ahead.

Chinese-led team’s ultrasound robot uses AI for thyroid scan results ‘close’ to that of doctors

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3263760/chinese-led-teams-ultrasound-robot-uses-ai-thyroid-scan-results-close-doctors?utm_source=rss_feed

A team of scientists based in China and Canada may have become the first to deploy a fully autonomous ultrasound robot for thyroid scans, with results “close” to that of human doctors.

The robot used artificial intelligence to perform the exams and identify malignant nodules – all without human assistance.

The team, led by researchers at the South China University of Technology (SCUT), used human skeleton recognition, reinforcement learning, and physical force feedback to develop their fully autonomous robotic ultrasound system (FARUS).

“Experimental results on human participants demonstrated that this system can perform high-quality ultrasound, close to manual scans obtained by clinicians”, as well as detect and identify characteristics of nodules, the researchers wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications earlier this month.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first in-human study of fully autonomous robotic ultrasound scanning for thyroid.”

According to Du Guanglong, study author and professor at SCUT, the system is able to “independently scan the thyroid area and identify malignant nodules without human assistance”.

FARUS can provide “characteristic data for diagnosis and treatment, effectively promoting medical efficiency”, Du told Chinese-language news site Science Times.

Performing thyroid ultrasounds is a “physically and cognitively exhausting” task for sonographers and radiologists, and the diagnosis can vary greatly between doctors. Patients can also experience delays in diagnosis and treatment due to long wait times for ultrasounds, according to the paper.

Various autonomous ultrasound robot systems have been proposed to help solve this problem, but adapting these systems to a clinical setting “is still challenging”, the researchers said, as this requires a high level of perception and control while ensuring patient safety.

According to the paper, FARUS was able to provide “a convenient autonomous tool integrating nodule detection, lesion localisation and automatic classification [of whether an anomaly was benign or malignant]”.

“Our work addresses the gap between existing research and clinical application by demonstrating the deployment of this system in a real-world clinical setting,” the researchers said.

The robot “doctor” developed by the team first instructs the patient to turn their head so ultrasound gel can be applied, before it moves a probe on their neck and adjusts its position based on AI reasoning.

Any nodules located are then recorded by the robot, which is also able to halt the scan and adjust positioning and the force at which it presses down if the patient moves during the exam, the researchers said.

And while standard thyroid examinations require a patient to lie down and be still, their system can perform the test while the patient is sitting upright.

“It is remarkable that the entire scanning process, including thyroid searching, force control, image quality optimisation, and suspected nodule detection was completed autonomously,” the researchers wrote. Carleton University in Ontario also took part in the study.

The researchers also compared the results of exams made by FARUS and doctors on the same patients. They found that the robot system identified the same patients who required medical intervention on their nodules, although size and low-contrast nodules appeared to present challenges, as it missed some smaller ones and indicated possible false positives.

Although FARUS demonstrated its ability to scan for nodules and cancer-risk data, the team said that “further clinical studies are essential to assess its safety as a screening tool for probably or definitely malignant nodules.”

The researchers also conducted surveys of the patients, and while some were anxious about undergoing the procedure, most reported that they felt safe and did not feel any pain or discomfort during the exam.

“This non-invasive, rapid, and accurate screening strategy can provide an early warning of thyroid nodule development,” the researchers said.

They said FARUS could be used in hospitals, and also adopted as a screening method in outpatient clinics and remote areas.

Anwar says Malaysia doesn’t have ‘China-phobia’ policy, hopes Washington and Beijing ‘resolve their differences’

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3263851/anwar-says-malaysia-doesnt-have-china-phobia-policy-hopes-washington-and-beijing-resolve-their?utm_source=rss_feed

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday his country does not have a “China-phobia” policy and wants to engage both Beijing and Washington, expressing hopes for both powers to resolve their differences.

Anwar, who is attending a Nikkei annual conference in Tokyo, said China is an important neighbour as it grows economically and militarily.

“While I maintain excellent relations with the United States, Japan and [South] Korea, I think for Malaysia and for the region, it is better to continue to engage with China,” he said.

“We will continue to engage and consider the United States as an important ally, and at the same time enhance our collaboration with China.” He stressed that Beijing is “too close, too important and too strategic to ignore.”

Anwar said Malaysia hopes China and the United States will “resolve their differences.” He also urged the US to abandon protectionism and respect competitiveness.

He later met with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, and agreed to further strengthen their cooperation in a wide range of areas including maritime security, energy transition, cybersecurity and supply chain resilience, under the bilateral ties which were elevated to comprehensive strategic partnership last year.

Japan, a key US ally in the region, sees China’s growing influence as a threat and has stepped up security and economic ties with Asean countries, many of which have territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Anwar also called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as he defended his meeting with the militant group’s leaders in the Qatari capital Doha last week. It was not a move to promote terrorism but to stop the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza, he said.

The Malaysian leader criticised Washington for not doing enough to stop mass killings in Gaza.

“It is unfortunate that the US is not using all its might, influence and resources to end the killings. That’s all they were asking,” Anwar said.

He called for a peaceful resolution and respect for the two-state solution “because that would ultimately ensure peace.”

Anwar said the recent wave of pro-Palestinian student protests in the US reminded him of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam war and said there is a “systemic shift” of how the conflict is now viewed.

Mainland China to be tested by Taiwan under William Lai, with global view of cross-strait policies on the line: analysts

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3263840/mainland-china-be-tested-taiwan-under-william-lai-global-view-cross-strait-policies-line-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed

A Taiwan led by the newly inaugurated William Lai Ching-te will bring new challenges to the cross-strait relationship, as well as Beijing’s global articulation of its policies towards the self-governed island, according to observers on either side.

Joanna Lei Chien, a former Taiwanese lawmaker from the opposition party Kuomintang, said many assumptions on the cross-strait situation “should be thrown out of the window because things have changed at an exceedingly surprising speed” since Lai took over on Monday.

“Lai’s persona. It’s something that we really need to be very careful about,” Lei told a digital seminar hosted by the think tank Centre for Globalisation Hong Kong on Thursday.

Hours earlier, Beijing announced the launch of a two-day military exercise around Taiwan as practice run for a blockade, after accusing Lai at length of sending “dangerous signals” on the island’s independence in his inaugural address.

Lei, who worked with then fellow lawmaker Lai from 2005 to 2008 – when his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in power – characterised the new leader as “a very strong-headed and very seasoned politician”.

She pointed to how his inauguration speech had paid homage to the theory of Taiwan’s 400 years of historical roots, used by the ruling DPP for international lobbying on Taiwan’s distinct identity and its connection to the world.

The “accelerated tensions” and unstable situation across the Taiwan Strait – underlined by the newly launched military drill – could potentially lead to “an exodus of high-net-worth individuals and companies from Taiwan”, said Lei, who serves as an independent director at a Taipei-based finance company.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary, and most countries do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. These include the United States, though it is opposed to any forcible change to the status quo and is bound by law to provide arms to Taiwan for its defence.

According to Zhu Feng, executive dean of Nanjing University’s School of International Studies, the key challenges for Beijing now relate mostly to the repositioned regional diplomatic dynamic, with increased global sympathy and support for Taiwan under Lai.

“The most important thing for Beijing is to take very productive measures to limit the international sympathy or international enthusiasm for Taiwan’s so-called human rights and freedom, [so that they] do not tap Taiwan’s status quo change,” Zhu told the same seminar, which was titled “Beyond the Inauguration: Prospects and Challenges for the Cross-Strait Relations under William Lai Ching-te’s Leadership”.

Zhu’s views were echoed by Dennis Lu-Chung Weng, associate professor of political science at Sam Houston State University in Texas, who said: “My concern and my worry is that the DPP really believes that as soon as we can bring Taiwan to the international platform, then everyone will help. They are very optimistic that we can definitely be the next Ukraine.”

Lai in his inauguration speech on Monday said “democratic Taiwan is already a global beacon”, as he pledged to “continue using Taiwan’s democratic vitality as a force for good, to … deepen international cooperation”.

“The future of cross-strait relations will have a decisive impact on the world,” he said, adding that “our government will … neither yield nor provoke, and maintain the status quo”.

Weng said the DPP thinks they could “bet on the whole world to work together, just like how they support Ukraine … [and] when something happens to Taiwan, the lesson learned from Ukraine will make the Taiwan situation better”.

Beijing has slammed Lai’s inaugural address for provoking confrontation, and “blatantly promoting” Taiwan independence with a stance that is “more radical”.

It also condemned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s congratulatory message to Lai on his inauguration as sending “a wrong signal to separatist forces”, and sanctioned a former US congressman over his support for Taiwan.

China signals economy is priority as Xi Jinping meets business leaders ahead of key party meeting

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3263841/china-signals-economy-priority-xi-jinping-meets-business-leaders-ahead-key-party-meeting?utm_source=rss_feed

President Xi Jinping on Thursday called for deepened reforms to address the country’s economic problems during a meeting with the bosses of state-owned firms, private entrepreneurs and overseas investors.

“Reform is the driving force for development,” Xi told the meeting in Jinan, in the eastern province of Shandong.

“We must pursue an approach that is both goal- and problem-oriented to solve problems … focus on deep-seated institutional obstacles and structural issues.”

The meeting was attended by state-owned enterprise chiefs, executives from leading private firms including Anta, Transfar, Fung Group and the China unit of German company Bosch.

It was the most pro-business message delivered so far by the top Chinese leadership ahead of a key Communist Party meeting in July – the third plenum – when the country’s leaders are expected to map out new reform agendas and set the course for future growth.

The world’s second-largest economy is facing intensifying headwinds at home and abroad, despite reporting expectation-beating growth of 5.3 per cent in the first quarter.

A protracted property sector downturn, stubbornly weak internal demand, mounting local government debt, rising trade barriers and deeply ingrained structural issues threaten to jam the gears of China’s recovery and growth.

More to follow …

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China’s youth are rebelling against long hours | Business

https://www.economist.com/business/2024/05/16/chinas-youth-are-rebelling-against-long-hours

It is a time-honoured tradition for bosses to grumble about the supposed laziness of their underlings. Doing so publicly, however, is rarely wise. China offers no exception to this rule. Earlier this month Qu Jing, the head of communications at Baidu, a local tech giant, took to social media to defend the company’s gruelling culture. The resulting firestorm has highlighted the growing dissatisfaction among China’s young white-collar workers with the punishing hours common in the country.

In one video, which soon went viral, Ms Qu said it was not her responsibility whether her team’s relationships or health were affected by their jobs, declaring “I’m not their mother.” In another she added that a woman who opts to spend time with “her husband and kids” should not expect a promotion or raise. She claimed that she did not regret forgetting her elder son’s birthday nor which grade her younger son was in at school because she “chose to be a career woman”. “Keep your phone on 24 hours a day, always ready to respond,” was her advice to those lucky enough to find themselves in her line of work.

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All-weather strategic partnership or friendly relationship? What to look for when China names ties with other nations

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3263798/all-weather-strategic-partnership-or-friendly-relationship-what-look-when-china-names-ties-other?utm_source=rss_feed

While Russian President Vladimir Putin visited China on May 16 and 17, Moscow and Beijing issued a statement about “deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era”, heralding a further boost to bilateral ties.

And the recent headline-grabbing tour by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Europe this month was not just about official visits and state dinners. It marked a strategic deepening of China-Hungary ties to the level of “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era”.

The significant move elevates Hungary to the same rank as Belarus, Pakistan and Venezuela, which also enjoy “all-weather” relations with Beijing.

Serbia, another European destination on Xi’s latest overseas trip, saw its “comprehensive strategic partnership” deepened and formed a “community with a shared future” with China.

They are all designations with Beijing’s elaborate network of diplomacy relationships that describe various types of partnership.

The concept of “partnership without alignment” has been solidified and practised by Beijing since the end of the Cold War. China is building a stratified network of partners, not only with sovereign countries but also with regional institutions.

Experts note that the sheer number of different names indicates that subtle naming differences could reveal the status of bilateral ties between China and each of its partners.

Starting with “strategic partnership” with Brazil in 1993 and then a “partnership of strategic coordination” with Russia in 1996, Beijing has maintained different forms of partnership relations with more than 100 countries and 10 multilateral institutions.

“Although the usage of words like comprehensive, all-weather or strategic have more symbolic value than practical application, it helps to understand how China perceives different countries in its foreign policy calculus,” said Omkar Bhole, the senior research associate at the India-based Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA).

This approach to partnerships, each with subtle yet significant differences, allows Beijing to distinguish its bilateral ties with countries according to the degree of cooperation, strategic interests and the depth of connection between top government officials, according to Bhole.

A rare and authoritative glimpse into the subtle differences was offered in a 2004 keynote speech in Brussels by China’s former premier Wen Jiabao. At the time, his explanation of terms such as “comprehensive”, “strategic” and “partnership” provided a key to understanding China’s approach to international relationships.

Wen noted that “comprehensive” covered a multifaceted cooperation spanning economic, technological, cultural and political fields, while those countries also worked together on multilateral levels. The comprehensive partnership also included government-to-government and people-to-people cooperation.

The term “strategic” implies that bilateral cooperation is stable, long term and holistic, transcending differences in ideology and political systems, according to Wen. Finally, “partnership” is built on the pillars of mutual benefit and mutual trust, while both sides strive for win-win cooperation.

For Bhole, “comprehensive” indicates that the strategic significance goes beyond one particular domain, as in the case of several African countries that are of broad strategic value to China and encompass resource acquisition, expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative and enhanced support at multilateral institutions.

At the same time, Bhole pointed out that the term “cooperative” suggested that cooperation was a vital part of those bilateral ties and that differences in one domain would not upset cooperation in other areas.

China has adopted a notably flexible approach to establishing global partnerships, not bound by strict or explicit conditions and standards.

Instead, the definition of a bilateral relationship lay in consultations between leaders and their mutual willingness, emphasising the flexibility and autonomy of China’s partnership approach, and it also took into account how other countries wanted the partnerships to be seen in China’s foreign policy calculus, Bhole said.

Xiang Haoyu, a research fellow in the department of Asia-Pacific studies at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) wrote last year that China had refined its labelling of partnerships, introducing a multilevel hierarchy with added descriptors.

He noted that partnership terms could have first-level attributes, such as strategic, cooperative and friendly, while second-level attributes – such as comprehensive, all-round, all-weather, new type, and innovative – could also be added.

“This positions bilateral relations in a more detailed and precise manner, and reflects the uniqueness of partnerships ‘tailor-made’ for different partners by China,” he said.

The inventory of China’s partnerships can be roughly divided into five categories, although the categories are not rigid, according to Xiang.

The first tier is for general partnerships, the lowest level in China’s diplomacy periphery. It includes the “friendly partnership for common development” formerly enjoyed by Jamaica and the “new-type cooperative partnership” with Finland. China-Jamaica bilateral relations were elevated to a “strategic partnership” in 2019.

The next level up includes partnerships that feature “comprehensive” or “all-round”. The two nations involved will strengthen cooperation on bilateral issues, such as economic cooperation and trade.

Beijing maintains an “all-round high-quality forward-looking partnership” with Singapore and an “open and pragmatic partnership for comprehensive cooperation” with the Netherlands.

At the third level are general strategic partnerships. When bilateral relations are upgraded to the strategic level, it means the country’s strategic value to China lies in economic and geopolitical perspectives, Bhole said.

These partnerships include the “strategic cooperative partnerships” established with India in 2005 and South Korea in 2008, and the “strategic partnerships” with Canada, Qatar and other countries.

A closer strategic partnership is indicated with the words comprehensive, global or all-round. “Comprehensive” signifies a relationship that spans a wider array of areas, covering political, economic, security, cultural and regional international affairs, Xiang said.

China maintains “comprehensive strategic cooperative relationships” with countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. Beijing and Hanoi agreed on building a community with a shared future during Xi’s state visits to Vietnam in December.

Strategic partnerships that start with “all-weather” or “permanent” imply that the involved nations have profound political trust and extensive cooperation across various sectors, with mutual support and collaborative stances in regional and international affairs.

Bhole said “all-weather” implied the permanency of bilateral relations as China aimed to prioritise cooperation with these countries amid changing geopolitical scenarios. Bilateral ties between China and Pakistan were labelled an “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership” in 2015. China has an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” with Belarus.

According to Bhole, China followed the strategy of adding descriptors to its partnership relations before Xi took office in 2013, but it had become more important under Xi as countries were more frequently upgraded from one category to another.

“China has begun to use phrases like ‘new era’ and ‘community with shared future’ while defining China’s relations with different countries, which highlights Xi’s personal mark on China’s foreign policy,” he said.

“China’s partnership diplomacy is more of a symbolic representation of China’s perception of the significance of other countries in its global diplomacy and demonstrates potential prospects of development of bilateral relations,” Bhole said.

According to Xiang, in China’s bilateral relations with individual great powers, such as the United States and Japan, the word “partner” is missing from the designation but it does not affect the significance Beijing attaches to Sino-American and Sino-Japanese relations.

Currently, the ties between Beijing and Washington are categorised as a “new type of great power relations” while it has a “mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interest” with Tokyo.

Bhole pointed out determining factors include how close – geographically and ideologically – a partner country is to China, its strategic value to Beijing, their economic interests and trade relations and, lastly, personal connections between leaders.

Specifically, China and Russia developed a unique “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination” in 2019, which experts said was the highest level of partnership that China held with any other country.

Bhole noted that Xi’s close relations with Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had resulted in China’s special partnerships with these countries.

Occasions such as anniversaries of diplomatic relations and reaching important agreements may spark an upgrade in bilateral partnerships.

For instance, the recently elevated ties between Beijing and Budapest to the all-weather level allowed Beijing to distinguish Hungary from other European countries that had previously challenged Chinese practices and its dominance, Bhole added.

According to Chong Ja Ian, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, China’s approach to framing its bilateral relationships through partnerships and their descriptive labels is more than mere diplomatic nomenclature – it is a strategic packaging of various deliverables that is often timed with high-level visits either to or from Beijing.

He noted that Beijing seldom downgrades, even amid strained bilateral conditions, as shown in the cases of the Philippines and India.

Those nations have forged a “comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship” and a “strategic cooperative partnership” with China respectively, but in recent years have engaged in territorial disputes with Beijing that sometimes escalate to skirmishes.

Forging strategic relationships does not always guarantee smooth interactions.

Xiang from CIIS argued that Beijing’s designation of partnership only reflected the general level of development in bilateral relationships, but it was not the only criterion for distinguishing good or bad relations.

“Countries that have established partnerships also have conflicts and differences, and countries that have not established partnerships can still carry out extensive exchanges and cooperation,” he added.

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Li Ka-shing’s ParknShop imports more goods from mainland China as Hongkongers flock to Shenzhen for cheaper goods

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3263835/li-ka-shings-parknshop-imports-more-goods-mainland-china-hongkongers-flock-shenzhen-cheaper-goods?utm_source=rss_feed

The ParknShop supermarket chain is importing more products from mainland China in response to the changing spending habits of Hongkongers who have taken to travelling to Shenzhen and other nearby mainland Chinese cities where they can shop and dine at cheaper prices, according to the chairman of CK Hutchison.

It comes at a time of slowing retail sales in Hong Kong. They fell 7 per cent in March from a year ago, marking the first decline since the border with mainland China reopened post-Covid in 2023, according to data cited by JLL.

Sales in the supermarket segment dropped 3.4 per cent in the period, the property consultancy added.

“The changes in Hong Kong people’s consumption patterns have brought considerable challenges to Hong Kong’s retail businesses,” said Victor Li Tzar-kuoi during CK Hutchison’s annual general meeting on Thursday. “Our colleagues in the retail division are actively responding by adjusting the product mix of stores.”

CK Hutchison, one of the flagship companies of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, owns the grocery chain, which has 250 outlets in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as other supermarkets such as Taste and Fusion under the AS Watson Group, the world’s largest health and beauty retailer.

ParknShop is trying “to source products from around the world and the mainland and offer discounts so as to save Hong Kong people the trouble of travelling long distances while getting good value for money right here in Hong Kong,” Li said.

In 2023, the segment of AS Watson that includes ParknShop saw revenue plummet 15 per cent, making it the weakest of all the geographical subcategories, according to CK Hutchison’s latest annual report. That compared to an increase in turnover of 23 per cent in its Eastern Europe division, at the other end of the scale.

With half-price bargains on many goods and services available in the nearby mainland cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Zhongshan, 200,000 Hongkongers typically cross the northwest border on shopping expeditions every weekend, according to an estimate by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu.

In Shenzhen, Hongkongers made more than 35 million digital transactions worth about 8.6 billion yuan (US$1.19 billion) in 2023, an increase of 70 per cent from the previous year, according to data tracked by Cushman & Wakefield.

Adding to the woes of Hong Kong’s retailers, US supermarket chain Sam’s Club is planning to launch online shopping and delivery services in Hong Kong. The development sparked a warning from economist Simon Lee Siu-po, an honorary fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Asia-Pacific Institute of Business, that the American retailer’s plans were likely to deal a severe blow to the city’s supermarket chains and online shopping platform HKTVmall.

Meanwhile, Li said CK Hutchison would work with the government and the industry “to find a path for the development of Hong Kong’s container terminals”, noting that throughput is still declining. Li had proposed the construction of housing above the ports.

“Whether the container terminals’ land use should be changed is a major issue and beyond our control,” he said. “These are decisions that should be made by the government.”

Increasing Chinese calligraphy practice can reduce risk of dementia, Hong Kong study finds

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3263839/increasing-chinese-calligraphy-practice-can-reduce-risk-dementia-hong-kong-study-finds?utm_source=rss_feed

Elderly people who spend more time practising Chinese calligraphy have a reduced risk of dementia, according to a Hong Kong study which found doubling participants’ activity time can positively affect their brain networks and working memory.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong on Thursday shared its findings from a survey conducted between 2020 and 2022 that interviewed 112 people aged 55 to 75 who regularly practised calligraphy for at least one hour each week.

Half of the participants were placed in an intervention group and told to double their activity time for six months, with researchers finding the group’s working memory was better than those who spent less time doing calligraphy.

Brain scans also showed functional connectivities had also increased among the more invested practitioners’ brain networks that oversaw memory, attention, self-reflection and envisioning the future.

Associate Professor Allen Lee Ting-chun of CUHK’s psychiatry department, said the study was the first “randomised controlled trial” to explore the relationship between Chinese calligraphy and dementia.

“The clinical significance is … we strongly recommend the community-living older adults to engage in more cognitive activities because based on our randomised controlled trial, it’s helpful to their working memory and can strengthen their functional brain network,” he said.

Working memory is a person’s capacity for retaining and processing information quickly, such as keeping someone else’s telephone number in their mind as they dial it.

“Our findings also address the common misunderstanding that if you are old, there is nothing you can do,” Lee added.

He said the study also suggested that even elderly long-term practitioners could still experience positive “neuromodulatory effects” if they spent more time doing calligraphy.

A neuromodulatory effect refers to the ability to change the activities of neurons.

The study’s findings were published in The Lancet’s international peer-reviewed journal eBioMedicine in March.

According to the university’s Hong Kong Mental Morbidity Survey for Older People, 10 per cent of elderly residents aged 70 and above suffer from dementia.

The study also found 20 per cent of those aged 60 to 74 and a third of those aged 75 and above had mild cognitive impairments.

Professor Linda Lam Chiu-wa, also of CUHK’s psychiatry department, said that while other studies suggested a connection between daily intellectual activities and a reduced risk of dementia, academics had yet to determine if the trend was causal.

Such studies had also yet to take a deeper look at whether people benefited from increased participation in activities, as well as the effects on cognition and discovering the underlying biological mechanisms, she added.

Lee, meanwhile, pointed to a study from several years ago that showed the risk of dementia was lower among elderly who regularly played mahjong for six years compared with those who abstained.

But the study was unable to provide a causal relationship between the two data points, he added.

Discussing the CUHK paper published on Wednesday, he said participants on average had practised calligraphy for three hours every week over a 10-year period.

All survey respondents had suffered from subjective cognitive decline, meaning they felt their memory had become weaker compared with their younger days, but had not developed dementia, Lee added.

“Studies have shown that as time goes by, those with subjective cognitive decline have a higher chance of having mild cognitive impairment than those who do not,” the academic said.

Professor Winnie Chu Chiu-wing of the university’s department of imaging and interventional radiology said participants had undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of their brain before and after the study.

She said the scans were taken to help detect changes in the functional connectivities of the brain’s default mode network (DMN).

The default mode network was active during wakeful rest and intrinsic activities such as daydreaming, reminiscing and envisioning the future, while other parts of the network oversaw attention span, memory and self-reflection, Chu explained.

The academic said the scans indicated functional connectivity between all areas of the networks of intervention group members had increased, while it had dropped among the other participants.

The global cognition of all participants remained at the same level after six months, while the working memory of the intervention group had improved, while the level for the rest of respondents had dropped.

Chiu said the results showed that increased calligraphy practice could induce a positive neuromodulatory effect that reorganised and strengthened the default mode network.

“We believe that calligraphy involves recalling words, relating to knowledge of the characters, reflecting on prior experiences, and envisioning the end result. These internally focused tasks can activate the DMN,” Chu said.

“It also involves externally focused tasks such as writing and observing, and correcting errors, which deactivate the DMN.”

The researchers said that in theory, the risks of getting dementia could be reduced if elderly people tried calligraphy for the first time.

Caroline Keung Chiu Yuk-lin, a 73-year-old retiree who has practising calligraphy since the 1990s, was one of the participants and increased her activity time from about one hour each week to up to five hours.

She said she had completed more than 170 works over the study period before continuing the increased activity time for another 43 weeks, adding that while she had not noticed any obvious changes, her daughter always praised her “clear mind”.

China’s SMIC ranks as world’s third-largest chip foundry by sales in first quarter on back of strong domestic demand

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3263791/chinas-smic-ranks-worlds-third-largest-chip-foundry-sales-first-quarter-back-strong-domestic-demand?utm_source=rss_feed

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), mainland China’s biggest contract chip maker, has become the world’s third-largest integrated circuit (IC) foundry by sales for the first time on the back of strong domestic demand, despite rigid sanctions imposed by the United States government.

Shanghai-based SMIC, which was added to the US trade blacklist in 2020, accounted for 6 per cent of global chip foundry revenue in the first quarter, according to a report on Wednesday by tech research firm Counterpoint. That ranked SMIC behind industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), with a 62 per cent global market share, and Samsung Electronics, with a 13 per cent share, in the same period.

SMIC’s sales are expected to record double-digit growth in the current quarter amid a recovery in domestic demand for image sensors, power-management chips and display driver ICs, according to Counterpoint.

The company’s latest ranking reflects how the strategic pivot to serve clients in its home market has helped reduce the impact of US tech sanctions and managed to overcome the global semiconductor market’s typical seasonal sales slowdown in the first quarter.

SMIC generated 82 per cent of its total US$1.75 billion first-quarter revenue from mainland clients, up from 75.5 per cent in the same period a year earlier and 80 per cent in the December quarter, according to the Chinese chip maker’s latest financial results published earlier this month.

A third-party teardown of Huawei Technologies’ Mate 60 Pro 5G handset last September found that SMIC was behind the advanced processor used in the smartphone released in late August, which prompted calls in Washington for an investigation of how that chip was made in China amid existing US tech restrictions.

Both SMIC and Huawei have continued to stay mum about the Mate 60 Pro’s mainland-fabricated Kirin 9000s processor, which was hailed in Chinese social media as symbolic of the country’s defiance against US sanctions.

SMIC’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed 2.99 per cent lower to HK$15.60 on Wednesday.

Counterpoint’s latest foundry tracker report said the sector had a 5 per cent quarter-on-quarter revenue decline in the first three months of the year because of a slower recovery in demand for non-artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, such as those used on smartphones, Internet-of-Things devices, and automotive and industrial applications.

“We’ve observed more evidence to support that the AI demand is real, with increasing [capital expenditure] by cloud service providers adopting AI hardware first and followed by enterprises,” Counterpoint analyst Adam Chang said.

The demand for AI chips is predicted to remain strong this year and is likely to extend to 2025, while non-AI semiconductor demand remains sluggish, he said.

Global AI chip market leader Nvidia, for example, said its revenue from supplying graphics processing units (GPUs) to data centres jumped more than 400 per cent to US$22.6 billion in the quarter ended April 28, according to the US firm’s latest financial results published on Wednesday.

Nvidia has more than 80 per cent share of the world’s AI accelerator chip market, according to a separate report from Taiwan IC research firm TrendForce. It projected TSMC to raise its total monthly advanced packaging capacity by 150 per cent at the end of this year to accommodate Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell line of GPUs – the B100, B200 and GB200.

On the impact to SMIC of being potentially cut off from services by Dutch chip-making equipment supplier ASML, Counterpoint associate director Brady Wang said: “Although this is a hypothetical scenario, the impact will be tangible.”

“The extent and duration of this impact will hinge significantly on the available inventory of repair parts,” Wang said. “If the inventory levels are high, the negative effects might be mitigated more swiftly, whereas lower inventory could prolong and intensify these effects, potentially leading to more significant disruptions in service or operations.”

US jails 2 for life over Chinese new year execution-style killing of businessman

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3263762/us-jails-2-life-over-chinese-new-year-execution-style-killing-businessman?utm_source=rss_feed

Two men received mandatory life sentences on Wednesday in a murder-for-hire case in the heavily Chinese neighbourhood of Flushing, New York that involved professional jealousy, millions of dollars’ worth of property and an after-hours karaoke party.

Qing Ming Yu, who also used the name “Allen,” and Zhe Zhang, also known as “Zack,” were sentenced by US District Judge Carol Bagley Amon for their roles in the 2019 killing of Xin “Chris” Gu, 31.

Yu and Zhang were convicted in October last year of murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire conspiracy. Their lawyers were not immediately available for comment after Wednesday’s sentencing

“Allen Yu set out to kill Xin Gu because he started a rival business and Zhang agreed to carry out the execution-style murder without hesitation,” said Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where the case was heard.

“Driven by greed and revenge, they hired a hitman to commit a brutal murder of a young man, traumatising the victim’s family.”

According to prosecutors and court documents, Yu was president of Amaco, a multimillion-dollar property company that renovated flats in New York City. Gu joined the company in 2015 as a project manager.

Prosecutors said Gu grew increasingly concerned about Amaco’s financial viability and resigned in 2018 to start a competing firm called KG Management, luring several of Yu’s clients, including one with a US$1 million project to renovate 83 flats.

Angry over Gu’s perceived disloyalty, Yu hired his nephew You You to kill Gu, because he knew You had ties to criminals.

You hired Zhang, reportedly a marijuana dealer and Philadelphia real estate developer, who in turn hired Antony Abreu to pull the trigger while Zhang would act as getaway driver.

On February 11, 2019, Gu hosted a Lunar New Year dinner for more than 100 people at a restaurant in Flushing to celebrate his new company. After the meal, the party moved to a karaoke lounge, Grand Slam KTV.

According to court documents, the karaoke wrapped up at around 2.30am the next morning, when Gu called an Uber car service. As he waited, Abreu emerged from a vehicle, shot Gu several times fatally and fled in a car driven by Zhang.

Yu later paid You US$150,000 while US$30,000 was sent to a company registered to Zhang. Abreu received an expensive Richard Mille wristwatch for successfully carrying out the hit.

Prosecutors built their case on mobile phone, text records, witness testimony, surveillance video and cooperating testimony from You and one of his friends, gang member David “Potato” Yu.

Abreu was convicted of murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire conspiracy in a separate two-week trial in April 2024 and is awaiting sentencing.

At the time of his arrest, mastermind Yu owned at least four properties in the New York City area, including an eight-bedroom home in Oyster Bay with an estimated value of more than US$2 million.

Zhang was arrested in May 2022 in Arcadia, California, where he was renting a flat for US$9,000-a-month, while Abreu was a resident of the New York City borough of Queens, where Flushing is located.

At one point before Zhang’s conviction, the court denied a US$5 million bail request, citing his substantial ties and risk of flight to mainland China and Taiwan, as well as the “extremely serious” charges, his earlier threatening of a witness, and access to weapons.

“After securing Zhang and a hitman as accomplices to his calculated plot, the trio unjustly ended the life of a promising young businessman,” said James Smith, assistant director-in-charge in the FBI’s New York field office.

“Today’s lifelong sentences serve as a just punishment for two individuals who deemed cold-blooded murder as an acceptable response for slighted feelings.”

Will Tokyo expel Chinese ambassador for ‘outrageous’ remarks on Japan-Taiwan ties?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3263815/will-tokyo-expel-chinese-ambassador-outrageous-remarks-japan-taiwan-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

A Japanese politician has called on the government to expel Chinese ambassador Wu Jianghao for threatening that “Japanese people will be dragged into the fire” if they continue to support Taiwan’s independence.

Jin Matsubara, a former chairman of the National Public Safety Commission who is currently an independent member of the Diet, attended the inauguration of Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te on May 20.

He said in a written request to the government on Tuesday that the ambassador’s subsequent comments in response to that visit were “truly outrageous”.

During a roundtable discussion at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo on the day of the inauguration, Wu condemned the decision by around 30 Japanese politicians to travel to Taipei for the inauguration.

Media reports quoted the ambassador as saying the visit showed that Japanese lawmakers were “openly siding with Taiwanese independence forces” and hinted at consequences for ordinary members of the public if Japan supported the division of mainland China.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

The ambassador’s comments were “highly inappropriate for an ambassador to Tokyo and we immediately lodged a strong protest”, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

Matsubara’s letter of inquiry, submitted to the speaker of the House of Representatives, pointed out that the ambassador made similar comments threatening the Japanese public on April 28 last year, and called for a stronger response from the Japanese government this time.

Matsubara’s letter points out that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations grants Japan the right, “at any time and without giving reasons” to declare a diplomat persona non grata and require the sending state to recall the individual.

“To repeat the same remarks is extremely impolite and disrespectful to the Japanese government and the recipient country,” Matsubara wrote. “I believe that Ambassador Wu should be informed that he is persona non grata this time and expelled from Japan.”

The government is scheduled to provide a written reply to the request next Friday. Matsubara has also indicated that he intends to raise the issue with Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa in a foreign affairs committee meeting that day.

The Japanese government however is not expected to go as far as expelling the ambassador amid fears of tit-for-tat action. The issue also comes ahead of scheduled bilateral and multilateral talks over the coming weeks.

Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, is due to visit Tokyo this month to discuss the resumption of regular talks between the two governments for the first time since 2018. Similarly, political leaders representing Japan, China and South Korea are expected to meet in South Korea early next week to address issues of shared concern, the first such summit since 2019.

China’s distressed asset managers in the spotlight, ‘rescue’ role of troubled state-backed firms questioned amid property woes

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3263788/chinas-distressed-asset-managers-spotlight-rescue-role-troubled-state-backed-firms-questioned-amid?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s troubled state-backed distressed asset managers have been given the green light to expand their operations, but analysts are increasingly doubtful about their ability to mitigate risks to the nation’s financial system.

Analytics firm S&P Ratings said on Tuesday that it expected China’s four main asset management companies (AMCs) – firms originally set up to isolate and manage bad debt for the nation’s biggest banks – to continue playing a stabilising role amid the property crisis.

“[But] due to significant pressure on their own capital, profitability and asset quality, the rescue role they can play in this economic downturn is limited, and some institutions themselves have become the ones being rescued,” they said.

The growing scepticism comes at a critical time when China is seeking to defuse financial risks, and as AMCs are increasingly expected to help keep other ailing sectors afloat, particularly the country’s embattled property developers.

China’s four main asset management firms – Cinda Asset Management Company, Citic Financial Asset Management, Great Wall and Orient – were set up in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in 1999, taking on 1.4 trillion yuan of non-performing loans from the four biggest state-owned banks.

A fifth national AMC, Galaxy, was formed in 2020 over worries about the coronavirus pandemic triggering a wave of corporate defaults.

Over the last two decades, AMCs had already diversified their operations beyond their initial focus on distressed asset disposal, moving into other activities, including shadow banking and insurance.

And earlier this month it was reported that the National Financial Regulatory Administration had issued a notice in April that the four major AMCs would also be allowed to acquire non-performing assets from large and joint-stock banks, broadening the range of assets they can acquire.

But the years of expansion have left AMCs highly leveraged, primarily through bond financing, and exposed to the troubled real estate sector.

In March, China’s Big Four state-owned banks reported 1.23 trillion (US$171 billion) yuan of non-performing loans in 2023, representing a 10.4 per cent year on year rise.

But while their average combined exposure to the real estate and construction sector last year was only 7 per cent, the four main AMCs’ combined exposure was nearly five times that, at 33 per cent, according to S&P, because they are dealing with bad assets related to property.

S&P cautioned that earnings quality at some AMCs was poor, flagging Citic Financial Asset Management’s finances as “unsustainable” due to an overreliance on non-operating income, or income derived from activities outside its core distressed asset business.

S&P’s assessment comes after two ratings agencies – Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Ratings – downgraded ratings for the four main AMCs in January, citing concerns over waning government support amid the ongoing property downturn.

Fitch then lowered its outlook for Cinda from “stable” to “negative” in April, following similar downgrades for China’s overall sovereign credit rating and its Big Six state-owned banks earlier in the same month.

“[The move] reflects increasing risks to China’s public finance outlook as the country contends with more uncertain economic prospects amid a transition away from property-reliance growth to what the government views as a more sustainable growth model,” Fitch said in a statement.

A “rating watch negative” outlook for the other three main asset managers indicates a greater chance of the outlook being lowered further, according to Fitch’s ratings system.

S&P also pointed to the asset managers’ poor take-up of support measures, including a special refinancing loan introduced by the People’s Bank of China in January last year.

The PBOC said it would launch a 160 billion yuan (US$22.3 billion) scheme to funnel support to beleaguered real estate developers via AMCs, with 80 billion yuan provided by the central bank.

But as of the first quarter of 2024, only 20.9 billion yuan in loans had been issued, according to official data.

In addition, due to “severe pressure” on their own asset quality and capital, AMCs could be reluctant to take on more real estate bailout projects, according to S&P.

Analysts, though, remained confident that AMCs’ overall importance, plus their long-standing relationship with the central government, meant Beijing would step in if needed.

S&P said it expected Beijing to support capital injections for firms that are badly undercapitalised, adding that their financing remained stable and that they do not anticipate liquidity tightening in the next year.

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China pressures Afghanistan’s Taliban to stop attacks on its interests in Pakistan, dangles economic carrot

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3263802/china-pressures-afghanistans-taliban-stop-attacks-its-interests-pakistan-dangles-economic-carrot?utm_source=rss_feed

China has started to lean on Afghanistan’s Taliban regime to prevent cross-border attacks on Chinese personnel and interests in neighbouring Pakistan, according to two well-placed sources in Islamabad.

Chinese diplomats in Islamabad and Kabul were forced into action by Pakistan’s failure to prevent a surge in such cross-border terrorist attacks from Afghanistan, as well as from Iran, they said.

The Chinese diplomats are “searching for alternative ways” of persuading Afghanistan’s Taliban regime to rein in the thousands of Pakistani Taliban militants it granted safe havens to after seizing power in 2021, according to a source in Islamabad who sought anonymity because of political sensitivities.

Chinese diplomats based in Islamabad have told influential Pakistanis that they felt “back-stabbed” by the Afghan Taliban government for refusing to restrain the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction that Islamabad holds responsible for a vehicular suicide bombing attack in March, which claimed the lives of five Chinese nationals working in northern Pakistan, along with their Pakistani bus driver.

Beijing effectively recognised the Taliban regime by accepting the diplomatic credentials of its envoy in February.

Police officials told This Week In Asia last month that their investigations found that the so-called ‘broken switch’ faction of the TTP had launched the terrorist attack from its camps in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan.

They also held the cell responsible for a practically identical attack in July 2021, which also targeted employees of Wuhan-based China Gezhouba Group Co working on the same World Bank-funded hydropower project at Dasu. Nine Chinese nationals and four of their Pakistani colleagues were killed in that attack.

Pakistani journalist Nusrat Javed last month reported that Beijing had asked the Afghan Taliban regime to either “push the TTP into Pakistan or tighten the leash” as a precondition to the Chinese investments in Afghanistan that it is actively seeking.

Chinese diplomats had recently talked up the prospects of Beijing investing in Afghanistan’s mineral and power sectors, he said, but had also expressed deep concerns about the presence of the Pakistani insurgents, along with the Taliban’s arch-rival Islamic State-Khorasan (Isis-K).

Beijing has similar concerns about the Uygur militants of the al-Qaeda affiliate Turkistan Islamic Party who are also protected by Kabul, although they have not staged any cross-border attacks on the Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The security threats posed to China’s interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s adjacent northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are matched – if not exceeded – by those it faces in Pakistan’s western Balochistan province.

The restive province is home to the Chinese-operated port of Gwadar, the cornerstone of the envisioned US$65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) linking it overland to Xinjiang.

Pakistani authorities had in recent months asked Chinese diplomats and executives to “stay away” because of the threat posed to them by ethnic Baloch insurgents fighting for independence from Pakistan and Iran, said another well-placed source in Islamabad, who also asked not to be named.

China’s security concerns took centre stage during talks in Beijing last week between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his visiting Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar.

A joint official statement issued after their talks on May 15 said Pakistan, ‘in keeping with its ironclad friendship with China … would hunt down the perpetrators [of the terrorist attack in March] and bring them to justice”.

Pakistan would also “take more effective security measures, and make all-out efforts to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan”, the statement cited Wang as saying.

Without mentioning Afghanistan, Wang said that Beijing “is willing to further deepen counterterrorism security cooperation” with Islamabad.

Wang did not elaborate, but Beijing has been pressing Pakistan to allow the deployment of Chinese security personnel in the country since the July 2021 suicide bombing.

“China will be looking for results on the ground, and that entails no more attacks,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre, a Washington think tank.

“There’s a lot at stake here for Islamabad” because China has become “one of the biggest foreign targets of terrorism” in Pakistan, while also being the “top partner and source of assistance for Islamabad”, he said.

If the terrorist attacks were to continue in the coming months, “we can’t rule out Beijing bringing its security forces into Pakistan to provide protection”, Kugelman said. That would be an “embarrassment” for Pakistan’s security forces, he added.

Crucially for Pakistan’s economy, which narrowly avoided a Sri Lanka-style default during the past two years, China committed to renewed investments in Pakistan under the second phase of CPEC during Dar’s visit last week.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party said it was “good that there’s consensus” to upgrade CPEC, but advised the government to “‘heed the frank words” of the Chinese foreign minister and “make every effort to eliminate the worries of Chinese enterprises and personnel”.

“Pakistan’s promises of foolproof security and a one-window operation [for Chinese investors] need to be made operational,” Sayed said.

Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to Britain, the UN and the United States, said Dar’s visit had “credibly assured China” that Islamabad would address its security concerns about Chinese workers in Pakistan.

“The fact that the second phase of CPEC is on course testifies to China’s confidence in this regard,” Lodhi told This Week In Asia.

She said Pakistan’s deteriorating relations with Kabul would not affect its ties with China.

The two countries “may have different approaches” toward the Taliban authorities because “their concerns and stakes are different, but that doesn’t in any way bear” on the Pakistan-China strategic relationship, Lodhi said.

Kugelman argued that the Afghanistan factor could help China-Pakistan relations.

“The interests of China and Pakistan are both well served by seeing a reduction in Afghanistan-based terrorism threats,” he said.

Pakistan and China may also be keen to extend Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative to Afghanistan, he said.

But both the TTP and Islamic State-Khorasan (Isis-K) would pose threats to both countries in Afghanistan if China and Pakistan were to establish a bigger presence on the ground there.

“Beijing’s relations with the Taliban are smoother than Pakistan’s are right now,” while China has leverage over the Taliban because of “its capacity to deploy capital in Afghanistan that the Taliban would like to see”, Kugelman said.

China could take the opportunity to persuade the Taliban to take firm measures to tackle the TTP problem, according to Kugelman.

“Such an attempt would certainly be appreciated by Islamabad and could give a boost to China-Pakistan relations.”

TikTok says it removed an influence campaign originating in China

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/05/23/tiktok-transparency-report-china/2024-05-22T22:31:00.698Z

Dominant short-video platform TikTok said Thursday that it had taken down thousands of accounts that belonged to 15 covert influence operations in the first four months of this year, including the second largest such network detected from China.

The company, which is under threat in the United States because of its Chinese ownership, said that in February it removed 16 accounts based in China that promoted the policies of the ruling Chinese Communist Party as well as Chinese culture. The network had 110,000 accounts following it, TikTok said. In the second quarter of last year, the company took down a different Chinese information operation that had 141,000 followers.

Some of the accounts impersonated celebrities or leading creators to build their audience, according to TikTok, which said the campaign was aimed at people in the United States.

Overwhelmingly popular with young people who increasingly rely on it as a news source, TikTok sued the U.S. government this month to overturn a law requiring its China-based parent ByteDance to sell off the company or face a possible ban.

One of the most significant technology policy bills enacted in a decade by an often deadlocked Congress, the law cast TikTok as a threat to national security because, officials said, it might obtain sensitive data about American users and could indoctrinate them into beliefs supporting China’s global ambitions. No such campaign has been reported, however.

Some legal experts give the company’s legal action a good chance of succeeding, owing to free-speech rights of 170 million U.S. users and the bill’s focus on a single company. The company says it will not be sold.

While TikTok has taken down propaganda networks before, it is now moving to highlight those efforts as it fights for survival in the United States. The company said it will break out influence campaign takedowns in a separate transparency report, instead of combining summaries of its actions in a broader report that comes out once every three months.

Company spokesperson Jamie Favazza said that takedown reports could also come out closer to when TikTok acts, rather than being kept back for quarterly release.

As with other social networks and media platforms, influence operations are common on TikTok and often evade detection. Russia has recently increased its presence on TikTok, The Washington Post reported earlier this month.

Unlike the Chinese network, which targeted users outside China, most of the covert operations TikTok reported dismantling so far this year originated in the same country as their target audience.

Among the largest were a pro-Ukraine campaign aimed at an audience there that amassed more than 2 million followers, another one targeting Iraqis with anti-American and anti-Israeli content that had 448,000 followers, and an internal Indonesian campaign promoting one presidential candidate’s narratives to 148,000 followers.

In most cases, TikTok discovered the campaigns on its own. It does not attribute any of them to a specific government or private actor, and it did not release the names of the suspended accounts.

In a year filled with elections around the world, TikTok also said it would add to its policies that identify state-controlled media outlets. Those accounts will only be able to advertise in their home markets, and they will not appear in the recommended feed for viewers elsewhere.

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South China Sea: Philippines warns against arrest of its fishermen under Beijing’s ‘trespassing’ law

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3263766/south-china-sea-philippines-warns-china-against-arrest-its-fishermen-under-beijings-trespassing-law?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines has vowed not to allow China’s coastguard to arrest Filipino fishermen accused of trespassing in its maritime territory, warning it will lodge a diplomatic protest should Beijing proceed with its controversial new policy.

Philippine Navy spokesman Commodore Roy Trinidad told reporters on Wednesday that China’s move – set to take effect on June 15 – was “unacceptable” and Manila had contingency plans to counter its actions.

“Not only the Philippine Navy but the entire government and nation will not allow this arrest, based on the pronouncement of our commander-in-chief that this is totally unacceptable,” Trinidad warned, referring to a directive by President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. He did not elaborate on what the contingency plans might be.

The latest war of words between both countries, which have been locked in a months-long territorial row in the South China Sea, centres on a new regulation under which the Chinese coastguard can detain foreign nationals for up to 60 days if they are caught within the maritime territory claimed by Beijing. Such a move lacked any basis in international law, Trinidad said.

On Monday , the Philippines called on China to let international investigators examine Scarborough Shoal after it accused Beijing of damaging coral reefs in the area as part of reclamation plans.

In 2012, China seized control of the Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground within the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, after a two-month stand-off with the Philippine Navy.

Following a meeting of the Senate Committee on National Defence and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation on Wednesday, a senior official from the Department of Justice said Manila could file a diplomatic protest against China’s latest coastguard policy.

“Once we confirm that the provisions are indeed a violation of international law including the arbitral award because, for example, that is our exclusive economic zone, they should not arrest our fishermen when they go to Scarborough Shoal. That is their traditional fishing ground … And so we can file a diplomatic protest,” said the department’s Senior State Counsel Fretti Ganchoon.

According to Ganchoon, China could face legal repercussions if it enacts regulations that violate international law or impact other nations.

China claims most of the mineral-rich South China Sea. The region is also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and there have been numerous territorial clashes in the area, particularly between Chinese and Philippine vessels.

In recent months, China’s actions in the West Philippine Sea have become increasingly aggressive. The West Philippine Sea is Manila’s term for the section of the South China Sea that defines its maritime territory and includes its exclusive economic zone.

On April 30, the Chinese coastguard fired a water cannon at a Philippine vessel that was distributing fuel and food supplies to Filipino fishermen near Scarborough Shoal.

On March 23, Manila’s regular resupply mission to its outpost on Second Thomas Shoal was disrupted by two Chinese coastguard vessels that fired water cannons at a civilian resupply boat, leaving three sailors injured.

A Chinese coastguard vessel also shattered the windshield of a Philippine resupply boat, the Unaizah May 4, injuring four Filipino sailors while they were on a resupply mission on March 5.

Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said at a press briefing on Wednesday that Manila had always sought to manage the dispute in the West Philippine Sea diplomatically but that China was “not helping Manila to do so”.

When asked about the current bilateral ties given the incidents in the South China Sea, Manalo said: “I would say they’re a bit choppy. These actions have been a cause for raising tensions. We’re merely trying to assert our rights. Unfortunately, we’re being hampered in doing so and in my personal belief, this is creating tensions.”

When asked if tensions would worsen, Manalo added: “I don’t think we’re there yet. We have to find a way to manage. But we have to have an understanding on how we can manage our relationship without increasing tensions.

“China is not really helping us. That’s the challenge because of the many incidents that are occurring. But we’re still committed to seeking diplomatic means to manage our tensions.”

Former Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said in a radio interview on Sunday that China would only worsen the situation in the region if it were to apprehend “trespassers” in the South China Sea.

“I am appealing to the Chinese government not to force that on us because it would only escalate the tension.”

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‘Star in the sky’: moving China university tribute for student who perished with family in highway collapse

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/environment/article/3262145/star-sky-moving-china-university-tribute-student-who-perished-family-highway-collapse?utm_source=rss_feed

A university in China has published an obituary paying tribute to a student who died in the Meizhou-Dabu highway collapse, moving many people online.

An 18-metre-long section of the highway in Sothern China’s Guangdong province collapsed about 2am on May 1, killing 48 people and injuring 30 more, according to a press conference held on May 2.

Xu Zinuo, a 21-year-old student, was in one of the 23 vehicles trapped in the sunken area of the road. He perished along with his parents and 4-year-old sister.

On May 6, Xu’s university, Tianjin College of Media and Arts in the northern municipality of Tianjin, published a beautifully written obituary to remember him.

The article meticulously documented Xu’s many roles, which included that of deputy representative of Class C of the Theatre, Film and Television Literature major and a lead member of the theatre school’s media centre.

It also told of Xu’s dedication to his studies and his friendly personality.

One of his teachers, Zhang Cheng, wrote an essay about Xu.

In it he said his student had been curious about the world and showed compassion to others.

He said that Xu has become a star in the sky and those who miss him will see him when they look up.

The online community was deeply moved by the obituary.

Many applauded the university’s gesture, saying it showed the victim as a person who lived vividly, as opposed to just a statistic.

“I want to thank the university for letting people know his name, life and the traces he left in the world,” one person on Weibo said.

“Zinuo will be remembered by a lot of people in this world. He did not die silently,” wrote another.

“He was alive and happy. He had a great future ahead of him just a few days ago. He should not just be a number,” someone else commented.

Xu’s cousin also posted a message on Douyin.

He said he was trying to come to terms with the fact that he would never see his relatives again.

May 1 was the first day of China’s five-day May Day holiday.

Many chose to hit the road on April 30 and drive off the highway on May 1, to avoid traffic jams and take advantage of the highway’s toll-free holiday policy.

Xu’s death has prompted many to request a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident.

An official investigation by the Guangdong province is under way.

A geotechnical engineer, surnamed Chen, told the mainland media outlet Jiemian News the cause might have been the continuous heavy rain in the region, which resulted in the landslides that led to the collapse.

Chen added that such landslides could usually be spotted in their early stages, but an adequate warning system was “not properly in place” at the location.

The Meizhou-Dabu highway cost six billion yuan (US$830 million) to build, and had been in operation for a decade.

Nearby villagers told the mainland news outlet The Paper that they had seen signs of landslides three days before the collapse.

On the day before the incident, the weather department in Dabu county, where the collapsed section is located, also warned of heavy wind and rainstorms.

Road maintenance staff nearby told The Paper that small landslides occurred every time there were rainstorms.

Some also questioned whether the highway hazard warning system was effective enough.

It was reported that heavier casualties were avoided thanks to the heroic actions of two men.

Huang Jiandu, 64, who knelt down in the middle of the road to stop more vehicles driving towards the sunken area and 32-year-old truck driver Wang Xiangnan, who used his truck to create a barrier on the highway.

South Korea, Japan and China to hold first trilateral summit since 2019

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3263761/south-korea-japan-and-china-hold-first-trilateral-summit-2019?utm_source=rss_feed

China, Japan and South Korea are set to hold their first summit in about five years with top officials gathering in Seoul next week for talks to improve ties among the economically powerful neighbours.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will attend the summit on Sunday and Monday, an official for Yoon’s office said on Thursday, according to Yonhap News.

The trilateral summits have been on hold since 2019 due to the pandemic and with China feeling pressure as Japan and South Korea moved closer to Washington in recent years. The US and its two key allies in Asia have raised their security cooperation to some of the highest levels in decades, largely on concerns about North Korea’s behaviour and China becoming more assertive militarily.

The meeting will also take place under the shadow of an intensifying US-China rivalry for semiconductor supremacy.

Washington has imposed a wall of restrictions to deny Beijing access to the latest semiconductors, and the Biden administration is seeking to enlist its partners to adopt export controls on sophisticated equipment needed to make the most advanced chips.

The summit highlights the difficult balancing act faced by South Korea and Japan, which both list China as their biggest trading partner. Both also have a security alliance with the US, which stations tens of thousands of troops in the two countries.

The coming trilateral summit will be the first major test on diplomatic front for Yoon as he tries to maintain the momentum for the remaining three years of his term after suffering a major defeat in parliamentary elections last month.

Yoon and Kishida may be heading to the US in the next few months, possibly to hold a summit with President Joe Biden that will build on an unprecedented security meeting the three had a year ago, according to reports from Kyodo News of Japan and other media.

Their meeting last year at the Camp David presidential retreat in rural Maryland included practical steps such as real-time data sharing to counter threats by North Korea, measures to de-risk global supply chains from exposure to China and moves to bind the trilateral relationship so tightly that it would be hard to unravel.

Taiwan says it has scrambled jets and put missile, naval and land units on alert over China drills

https://apnews.com/article/china-military-drills-taiwan-president-inauguration-2598c308207041be0638a0be028a9097Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te delivers an acceptance speech during his inauguration ceremony in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, May 20, 2024. Lai Ching-te was sworn in as Taiwan’s new president Monday, beginning a term in which he is expected to continue the self-governing island’s policy of de facto independence from China while seeking to bolster its defenses against Beijing. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

2024-05-23T03:12:04Z

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan said it scrambled jets and put missile, naval and land units on alert Thursday over Chinese military exercises being conducted around the self-governing island democracy where a new president took office this week.

China’s military said its two-day exercises around Taiwan were punishment for separatist forces seeking independence. Beijing claims the island is part of China’s national territory and the People’s Liberation Army sends navy ships and warplanes into the Taiwan Strait and other areas around the island almost daily to wear down Taiwan’s defenses and seek to intimidate its people, who firmly back their de facto independence.

China’s “irrational provocation has jeopardized regional peace and stability,” the island’s Defense Ministry said. It said Taiwan will seek no conflicts but “will not shy away from one.

“This pretext for conducting military exercises not only does not contribute to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, but also shows its hegemonic nature at heart,” the ministry’s statement said.

In his inauguration address on Monday, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te called for Beijing to stop its military intimidation and pledged to “neither yield nor provoke” the mainland Communist Party leadership.

Lai has said he seeks dialogue with Beijing while maintaining Taiwan’s current status and avoiding conflicts that could draw in the island’s chief ally the U.S. and other regional partners such as Japan and Australia.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said the land, navy and air exercises around Taiwan are meant to test the navy and air capabilities of the PLA units, as well as their joint strike abilities to hit targets and win control of the battlefield, the command said on its official Weibo account.

“This is also a powerful punishment for the separatist forces seeking ‘independence’ and a serious warning to external forces for interference and provocation,” the statement said.

The PLA also released a map of the intended exercise area, which surrounds Taiwan’s main island at five different points, as well as places like Matsu and Kinmen, outlying islands that are closer to the Chinese mainland than Taiwan.

China’s coast guard also said in a statement Thursday that they organized a fleet to carry out law enforcement drills near two islands close to the Taiwanese-controlled island groups of Kinmen and Matsu just off the Chinese coast.

While China has termed the exercises as punishment for Taiwan’s election result, the Democratic Progressive Party has now run the island’s government for more than a decade, although the pro-China Nationalist Party took a one-seat majority in the parliament.

___

Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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[World] China holds military drills around Taiwan as 'punishment'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-asia-69051793[World] China holds military drills around Taiwan as 'punishment'

AI-enabled ‘covert’ detention monitoring cameras, drone disrupters headline China police gear fair

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3263678/ai-enabled-covert-detention-monitoring-cameras-drone-disrupters-headline-china-police-gear-fair?utm_source=rss_feed

From surveilling corrupt officials with artificial intelligence to grounding civilian drones in restricted areas, a police equipment fair has revealed how China’s law enforcement agencies are harnessing cutting-edge technology to carry out their mission priorities.

The International Exhibition on Police Equipment and Anti-Terrorism Technology and Equipment – held in Beijing from last Thursday to Saturday – attracted mostly manufacturers of police and military equipment.

One of the highlights was surveillance cameras designed for anti-graft agencies – devices that appear to use artificial intelligence to monitor people under disciplinary detention, particularly officials suspected of corruption.

In China, a detainee can be held in disciplinary detention without access to a lawyer for up to six months. Under the country’s supervision law, such detentions could apply to anyone employed in the state sector or on a public payroll, including officials, scholars, teachers, and the parties suspected of offering bribes.

Suppliers said their cameras can also be used for “residential surveillance at a designated location” – a type of detention often used in national security-related cases, in which suspects can be held in custody in places other than a prison.

Because disciplinary detentions can lead to tremendous mental stress, the detention facilities are often specially designed to prevent suicides.

Beijing Tongfang Shenhuo United Technology said their camera monitoring system can detect a detainee’s vital signs, including heart rate, respiration, temperature and blood pressure, and analyse more than 20 facial expressions to assess their mood.

In its brochure, the company said the system can automatically provide early warnings of sudden illness and suicide risk.

The equipment is “covert and unknown to the monitored person”, the brochure said, adding that the company is capable of designing an entire disciplinary detention facility with surveillance devices wired in each room to “save manpower”.

The company’s products also include polygraphs and portable devices to monitor the physical condition of detainees.

The company’s clients included prisons, procuratorates, forensic institutions, the military and “secret government departments”, its brochure said.

According to its website, the company previously specialised in industrial equipment for Tsinghua Tongfang, a state-owned technology enterprise that was affiliated with Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University. The website also highlights its technical cooperation with Tsinghua.

A report by China’s top anti-corruption agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said that about 26,000 disciplinary detentions had been ordered last year.

Various levels of anti-graft agencies are spread across the country, down to the county level. A recent article by the CCDI said that many local graft fighting agencies are “understaffed” and “unprofessional”.

A supplier at the three-day fair said most of the visitors were police, police equipment retailers and university students enrolled in security and law enforcement-related disciplines from across the country.

In China, the production of police and military equipment is subject to strict requirements. Similar annual fairs are the main opportunity for manufacturers to showcase their latest technology to potential customers – mainly law enforcement, military-related and forensic agencies.

Another major theme at this year’s exhibition, which was organised by a semi-official association of defence industry companies, was technology to detect, disrupt and ground civilian drones, a recent security priority for mainland authorities.

A drone control law that came into effect in January bans the use of drones for taking photos or videos of military or defence industrial installations or secret facilities and allows authorities to intervene and capture or destroy drones that violate the law.

Local governments have also imposed temporary flight restrictions during large events or activities deemed politically sensitive.

Other popular products at this year’s fair included a system to help police to track crypto trading, equipment to detect suspicious objects and rapid drug-testing kits.

Despite the lack of official data, reports from several consulting organisations have indicated that the market for police equipment and security facilities in China is expanding rapidly.

China begins military drills around Taiwan as ‘punishment’ for new president

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/22/china-taiwan-military-drills-new-president/2024-05-23T02:42:03.031Z

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China has launched large-scale military drills on all sides of Taiwan and its outlying islands as “punishment for separatist acts” just days after Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, was sworn in.

The drills, which will continue through Friday, will send Chinese navy vessels and warplanes into waters and skies in five locations close to Taiwan’s coast, according to a map released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

The exercises, which began at 7:45 a.m. local time Thursday, will focus on combat-readiness, battlefield control and precision strikes to “send a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces,” a People’s Liberation Army spokesperson told state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The Chinese Communist Party considers the island democracy of 23 million its territory and it regularly threatens to take control by force should Taipei declare formal independence.

Beijing has reacted angrily to Lai’s inauguration speech, delivered on Monday, even though he largely signaled continuity with his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen.

Lai’s election marks the start of unprecedented third term for the Democratic Progressive Party. The response reflects Chinese officials longstanding mistrust of the DPP and Lai, whom it regularly accuses of provocation and “separatism.”

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China sending Russia ‘lethal aid’ for Ukraine war, UK defence secretary says, in split with US

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/23/china-russia-lethal-aid-ukraine-war-uk-defence-secretary-us

China is sending “lethal aid” to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine, Britain’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has said, in comments that were challenged by Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

Shapps used a speech at the London Defence Conference on Wednesday to say: “Today I can reveal that we have evidence that Russia and China are collaborating on combat equipment for use in Ukraine.

As part of his call for Nato to “wake up” and bolster defence spending alliance-wide, he added: “US and British defence intelligence can reveal that lethal aid is now flying from China to Russia and into Ukraine.

“And this is new intelligence which leads me to be able to declassify and reveal this fact today. I think it’s quite significant.”

Shapps did not provide evidence to support his assertion. But he said there had been a 64% increase growth in trade between the countries since the start of the Ukraine and “they are covering each other’s back”.

“It’s time for the world to wake up. And that means translating this moment to concrete plans and capabilities. And that starts with laying the foundations for an alliance-wide increase in spending on our collective deterrent,” he said.

Sullivan appeared to take issue with some of Shapps’s comments. He said the possibility that China might “provide weapons directly – lethal assistance – to Russia” had been a concern earlier, but that “we have not seen that to date”.

The US did however have a “concern about what China’s doing to fuel Russia’s war machine, not giving weapons directly, but providing inputs to Russia’s defence industrial base”, he added.

China and Russia’s strategic partnership has grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine, and US officials say Beijing continues to supply Moscow with key components it needs for its war machine. Its purchase of Russian oil and gas has helped boost the Russian economy.

However, the US believes Beijing has stopped short of directly providing weapons to Russia, which has turned to heavily sanctioned North Korea and Iran to replenish its arms supply.

Chinese president Xi Jinping welcomed Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Beijing earlier this month, where the two leaders put on a strong show of unity. Xi said in a statement following talks with Putin that they agreed on the need for a “political solution” to resolve the war.

Last month, Julianne Smith, the US ambassador to Nato, told Politico that China was continuing to sell related supplies such as drone technology and gunpowder ingredients to Russia. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] cannot claim to be entirely neutral in this case, they are in fact picking a side.

“If they were not providing some of these components, or this materiel support, Russia would be in a very different situation and would have trouble pursuing some of these acts of aggression.”

The Chinese embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Shapps’s remarks.

With PA, Reuters and Agence France-Presse

China announces ‘punishment’ drills around Taiwan after inauguration of new president

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/23/china-taiwan-punishment-military-drills-president-inauguration

China has announced the immediate start of two days of military drills surrounding Taiwan, as “punishment” for what it called the “separatist acts” of holding an election and inaugurating a new president.

In response, Taiwan said sea, air and ground forces had been put on alert, and accused China of “irrational provocation and disruption of regional peace and stability”.

Chinese state media reported on Thursday morning that the drills, code-named Joint Sword-2024A, would involve units from the army, navy, air force and rocket force, operating in the Taiwan Strait, to the north, south and east of the main island. Units will also operate around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, which are all close to the Chinese mainland.

PLA spokesperson Li Xi said the drills would “serve as a strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces”, Xinhua reported.

“The current military exercise not only does not help peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Taiwan’s ministry of defence said.

Lai Ching-te was inaugurated as Taiwan’s fifth president on Monday, after winning the democratic election in January. Both Lai and his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen are from the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which Beijing considers to be separatists.

Beijing claims Taiwan is a province of China, and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary. Taiwan’s government and people overwhelmingly reject the prospect of CCP rule, and the DPP leaders have vowed to increase deterrence measures and boost Taiwan’s defence capabilities, while urging China to cease its threats and return to dialogue.

The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) released demonstration map for Joint Sword-2024A military drills conducted surrounding Taiwan Island https://t.co/R9Pvxh7eh4 pic.twitter.com/4QARy3jDbJ

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) May 23, 2024

Maps of the drill areas published on Thursday morning showed the drills operating in similar areas as they did in 2022, when China surrounded Taiwan with live fire exercises in response to a visit to Taipei by the then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In recent months Kinmen and Matsu, islands close to the Chinese mainland, have been increasingly targeted by Chinese Coast Guard patrols.

After a fatal collision between an illegal Chinese fishing boat and a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel near Kinmen in February, China responded with increased patrols and an explicit rejection of maritime borders which they had until then tacitly respected. Patrols through Kinmen’s restricted waters have since become more consistent, in what some analysts say is China’s strategy of shrinking Taiwan’s territorial space and normalising incursions.

The coast guard also appeared to be involved in drills on Thursday, with the Fujian branch announcing it was running law enforcement drills in the same areas.

China’s solar panel industry seeks to curb ‘vicious competition’ with M&As and easy exits to control capacity as EU, US turn up heat

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3263681/chinas-solar-panel-industry-seeks-curb-vicious-competition-mas-and-easy-exits-control-capacity-eu-us?utm_source=rss_feed

Leaders of China’s multibillion-dollar solar cell industry have called for more mergers, acquisitions and curbs on domestic competition to control capacity, as Western countries resist Chinese exports in the name of industrial overcapacity.

The semi-official China Photovoltaic Industry Association said on its WeChat channel that those proposals, among others, emerged on Friday at a meeting that it held because of falling prices and “operational pressures” along the Chinese solar supply chain.

Meeting participants, including local government officials, suggested “putting an end to vicious competition” while encouraging mergers between solar firms, finding a way to let companies make smooth market exits, and taking steps to protect intellectual property, according to the association’s statement on Tuesday.

The 504-member association will also push for creating price-index models and exploring “more reasonable price-formation mechanisms at home and abroad” using methods such as futures contracts, according to the statement.

Solar panels, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries are known as China’s “new three” sectors because they represent a departure from three older export sectors: clothing, furniture and home appliances.

The EU has already launched anti-subsidy probes on Chinese electric vehicles, and last week the US also proposed high tariffs on made-in-China products. On Wednesday, the Office of the US Trade Representative proposed that increases slated to take effect this year would do so on August 1, and that increases slated for 2025 and 2026 be effective from January 1 of those years.

China’s industry ministry already solicited views on how to better regulate the country’s lithium-ion battery capacity.

The country has said it added nearly 217 gigawatts of photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2023, almost two-and-a-half times the level of 2022 and more than half of the world’s new PV capacity.

“Mergers and acquisitions in the photovoltaic industry may play a role in mitigating excess capacity issues, providing new opportunities for industry consolidation and development,” said Alberto Vettoretti, a managing partner at the business management consultancy firm Dezan Shira & Associates.

“Providing economy of scale would allow for more reasonable price curbs without triggering a dogfight to the cheapest offerings,” he said. “Low-price competition can limit investment in research and innovation for companies, affecting long-term industry competitiveness.”

Solar battery cells, wafers, components and modules made by Chinese companies account for 75 to 95 per cent of total global production, depending on the specific product type, the ratings firm Fitch Bohua estimates.

“Although China’s photovoltaic sector enjoys advantages such as an integrated supply chain, leading production costs and significant economies of scale, all of which are hard for other countries to replicate in the short run, the competition within the sector is exceptionally fierce, especially under the situation of a price downturn caused by overcapacity,” Fitch Bohua associate director of corporates Darius Tang said.

“A great number of China’s PV producers still announce large-scale expansion plans to squeeze other competitors – small and medium-sized players, in particular – out of the market,” Tang said. “This would make the overcapacity even more serious and difficult to manage.”

China’s top leaders in December flagged overcapacity challenges in some industries, but in recent weeks officials have accused the West of “hyping up” the capacity issue. Western leaders say overcapacity threatens to flood their markets with low-priced Chinese exports.

European Union authorities have investigated two Chinese companies over the alleged receipt of foreign subsidies for solar projects in Romania, and both firms have pulled out.

The US government announced this month that it would increase tariffs on Chinese solar cells from 25 per cent to 50 per cent this year.

The solar association’s proposals following a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology draft guideline this month to regulate lithium-ion battery capacity indicate new concern in Beijing. The draft battery guideline would reduce battery projects aimed only at growing production capacity.

China was exporting 80 per cent of all photovoltaic equipment as of 2022 amid heated global demand for renewable energy, and the International Energy Agency expects China to account for 90 per cent after a doubling of global solar photovoltaic manufacturing capacity in 2023 and 2024.

[Sport] China starts 'punishment' drills around Taiwan

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqvv29gpqn1o[Sport] China starts 'punishment' drills around Taiwan

Mainland Chinese forces begin military exercises around Taiwan 3 days after Lai speech

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3263719/mainland-chinese-forces-begin-military-exercises-around-taiwan-3-days-after-lai-speech?utm_source=rss_feed

The People’s Liberation Army has launched a two-day exercise around Taiwan, three days after William Lai Ching-te was sworn in as Taiwanese leader.

The joint drill includes mainland Chinese army, navy, air force and rocket forces, according to the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command on Thursday.

The PLA said the exercises will focus on naval and air combat readiness patrols, seizing battlefield control, precise strikes of crucial targets, as well as warship and aircraft patrols near the island to “test the joint combat and real combat capabilities of the theatre forces”.

Beijing slammed Lai’s inauguration speech, accusing him of being “more radical” in his approach and sending a “dangerous signal” on Taiwan independence.

South China Sea: new Philippine claims on alleged Duterte-Xi deal could play into Beijing’s hands, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3263679/south-china-sea-new-philippine-claims-alleged-duterte-xi-deal-could-play-beijings-hands-analysts-say?utm_source=rss_feed

New claims that a so-called gentleman’s agreement on the South China Sea was in fact agreed to by the predecessor of former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte are aimed at “protecting Duterte” and could also allow Beijing to use the issue to its advantage, analysts have said.

The comments by Salvador Medialdea, Duterte’s former executive secretary, were meant to shift the blame to late leader Benigno Aquino III who could “no longer defend himself”, observers told This Week in Asia, adding that this would allow Beijing to strengthen its claims of a deal being in place.

The alleged agreement would restrict the Philippines’ ability to send repair and construction materials to the BRP Sierra Madre – a World War II era navy vessel grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea to serve as an outpost to strengthen Manila’s presence in the disputed waters.

Testifying during a hearing of the House Committee on National Defence and Security on Tuesday, Medialdea said he understood “there was a previous commitment that food and water will be allowed to be shipped to the debilitated vessel from 2013”.

He claimed the deal had been agreed to by former defence secretary Voltaire Gazmin and then-Chinese ambassador to the Philippines Ma Keqing. Medialdea suggested this agreement continued during Duterte’s administration out of respect for the previous commitment.

This revelation contradicts statements from former Duterte spokesman Harry Roque, who previously claimed that Manila entered into the “gentleman’s agreement” with China during Duterte’s term.

Ramon Beleno III, head of the political science and history department at Ateneo De Davao University, said Medialdea’s claim could only benefit Beijing.

“My prediction is China will say, ‘You see, there’s really a gentleman agreement. Regardless of who they are talking to, it’s clear there’s an agreement and the Philippines violated it’,” Beleno said.

“They could justify now that’s the reason why the Chinese coastguard was doing the water cannoning. That would be the interpretation of China. China will say, ‘You see, we were correct all along,’.”

Beleno further suggested that Medialdea’s accounts might be aimed at protecting Duterte, his political benefactor.

“The general impression right now is really to protect Duterte. But it remains to be seen unless we hear the side of Gazmin,” he said.

Duterte’s former defence secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, was asked during the hearing if the supposed 2013 deal was the agreement the Chinese embassy has been referring to. He said he had not been briefed about any such deal when he assumed office.

“According to the navy, when I talked to them, they were just repairing the sleeping and living areas of the vessel so that they can live comfortably. The repairs continued until I left in 2022. The repairs involved only a small portion of that vessel,” Lorenzana said.

Manila is currently locked in an escalating territorial dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea.

On March 23, three Philippine navy sailors were injured when Chinese coastguard personnel fired water cannons at their ­vessels while escorting a chartered civilian resupply ship to the Second Thomas Shoal.

Medialdea said he attended two of the official meetings between Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and no “gentleman’s agreement” took place.

“Former president Duterte, being a lawyer, knew fully well that it was foolhardy to enter into an agreement, especially a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with the president of the People’s Republic of China on matters involving sovereign rights,” Medialdea said of the August 2019 meeting between Duterte and Xi.

During that meeting, Medialdea said Duterte “asserted the rights of the Philippines over the West Philippine Sea on the basis of the UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] and the arbitral ruling”, after which “President Xi said that they are also claiming the area”.

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

But Chester Cabalza, president and founder of the Manila-based think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, rebuked Medialdea for dragging the late Aquino into the controversy.

“The nation must give due respect to the late president Aquino. He is no longer around to defend himself. President Aquino brought about a good legacy by filing a case against China in the arbitral award that the nation is reaping right now on our legal victory,” said Cabalza, a fellow at the US State Department’s Study of the US Institutes on National Security.

“The stability and credibility of our strong narrative in the WPS [West Philippine Sea] begin with our unified story. Medialdea should shut up and become more accountable for his words,” he added.

Cabalza said, however, that China was likely to keep insisting there was a “gentleman’s agreement” regardless of whether the alleged deal actually existed.

“It is implied that this is the truth that Beijing believes so. But this will not stop Manila from protesting [against] China’s aggression and occupation in our maritime entitlements,” he said.

“China is known for changing its imaginary border lines from nine and now to 10-dash lines. That means that China keeps on changing their narratives based on their own national interest,” he added.

US ambassador to China says democracy ‘under assault’ by authoritarian countries

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3263716/us-ambassador-china-says-democracy-under-assault-authoritarian-countries?utm_source=rss_feed

In a stark warning to Harvard graduates on Wednesday, US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns described democracy as “under assault” by authoritarian countries, while emphasising a need for society to embrace the art of respectful disagreement.

“Democracy is under assault in the United States and other countries: challenged from within in many cases by anti-democratic forces and challenged from without by authoritarian countries trying to change the world order,” he said, without naming specific countries.

Burns delivered the graduation address to 659 graduates of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he taught for 13 years before being appointed his current role in 2021.

The attack on democracy was among several challenges graduates would confront in the coming decade, he said. Burns also highlighted climate change and the risks of artificial intelligence as well as stopping armed conflict and other transnational problems.

In addition, Burns in his 37-minute address urged graduates representing 87 countries to learn “how to disagree”.

“Find the humanity in the person that you’re arguing with, debating with, maybe shouting at,” the diplomat said.

Citing a quote by former US president John Kennedy uttered at the height of the Cold War, Burns stressed the importance of expanding the space for diverse voices.

“Here’s what he said about what happens when you demonise someone … ‘For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.’”

Burns’ comments came amid ongoing polarisation on US campuses tied to America’s actions in the Israel-Gaza war, a conflict he referred to as the “elephant in the room” on Wednesday.

They also occur as numerous challenges persist between the US and China despite concerted efforts to stabilise the bilateral relationship.

Burns invoked some of those challenges, such as managing the rapid advancement of emerging technology, while others went unmentioned.

Just last week, US President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping tariff hike on a range of Chinese imports that is projected to affect US$18 billion in current annual imports. Beijing decried the move as contrary to fair competition.

Burns on Wednesday limited his direct references to China, yet chose to acknowledge the Kennedy School’s 25 Chinese graduates this year.

“Thank you for being 25 of the 300,000 Chinese students in the United States. You’re very welcome in our country,” he said.

Douglas Elmendorf, dean of Harvard Kennedy School, noted Burns’s commitment to promoting student and academic exchange between the two countries, encouragement that comes amid State Department travel warnings and reduced US government funding for Americans studying there.

Beijing, meanwhile, has said it wants to host 50,000 young Americans in China over the next five years.

In a speech last Thursday, Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US, promoted the Chinese government’s new Young Envoys Scholarship, saying it had already supported waves of visits by American high-school and university students.

“The goodwill between our peoples should not be hijacked by the so-called political correctness,” Xie said. “Nor should the atmosphere of people-to-people exchanges be poisoned by the China-bashing rhetoric.”

Taiwan’s prized semiconductors not unbreakable ‘silicon shield’ they once were as mainland China, West develop own bargaining chips

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3263670/taiwans-prized-semiconductors-not-unbreakable-silicon-shield-they-once-were-mainland-china-west?utm_source=rss_feed

A sharp decline in Taiwan’s ties with mainland China could extend to the very devices being used to transmit and read this story.

The far-reaching implications from what has been a geopolitical tug of war are ultimately likely to bolster mainland China’s standing as a dominant supplier of older-model semiconductors while ramping up the need for Western allies to rely more on themselves for cutting-edge chips – a scenario that industry insiders say threatens to erode Taiwan’s formidable “silicon shield” that has long afforded the island a privileged position in the global supply chain.

The island’s continued production of nine in 10 of the world’s advanced chips at factories is unmatched anywhere, and it helped earn Taiwan that defensible sobriquet around the turn of the century.

But in recent years, mainland China has invested heavily to move up the value chain for critically important chips that power everything from cellphones and other consumer devices to electric cars and applications for AI and quantum computing.

And now, mounting tensions across the Taiwan Strait – which intensified following the inauguration of William Lai on Monday as Taiwan’s leader – are pushing the West to diversify advanced chips away from Taiwan and to their own homelands in case any cross-Strait conflict threatens to end the island’s economic advantages.

Lai represents a Taiwanese political party that is cold to mainland China. He said in his inauguration speech that mainland China’s effort to “swallow up” Taiwan would “not disappear” until the island gave in.

“Uncertainties surrounding Taiwan’s economic future, security and geopolitical risks necessitate vigilant monitoring,” Saxo Capital Markets economist Redmond Wong said in a January research note. “The fate of Taiwan’s ‘silicon shield’ is uncertain as economic interdependence encounters obstacles.”

Twelve of Taiwan’s top-20 export items last year were hi-tech products, including integrated circuits – another term for chips – and printed circuits, according to the International Trade Administration in Taipei. About one-third of printed circuit boards come out of Taiwan, and the island remains a leading source of camera lenses used in iPhones.

Nearly 60 per cent of Taiwan’s semiconductors were sold to mainland China in 2023. But that once-brisk trade has fallen over the past two years amid growing political frictions. And in the first quarter of 2024, the US overtook mainland China as Taiwan’s top export destination.

The mere spectre of a rapid decline in cross-Strait ties, including a possible military blockade of Taiwan by the mainland, has already got Japan, the US and Germany interested over the past few years in onshoring the production of Taiwan’s prized chips.

Those countries are responding to the “concentration of semiconductor manufacturing capacity in Taiwan”, according to data from Taipei-based market-research firm TrendForce.

Fearing that Taiwanese supplies could become inaccessible in the wake of a cross-Strait conflict, government policymakers around the world have been discussing how advanced chips could be made domestically.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese firms have looked abroad for manufacturing opportunities. Last month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) – the world’s largest contract chipmaker – struck a deal worth US$11.6 billion to make advanced chips in the US state of Arizona. TSMC says it has invested more than US$65 billion in Arizona, and Washington has rewarded that initiative with US$6.6 billion in direct funding.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that TSMC and ASML Holding had ways to remotely disable their most advanced chipmaking machines with a kill switch that could be activated if the mainland military were at their doorstep – a potential scenario as Beijing sees Taiwan as a part of China to be reunited, by force if necessary.

Countries that have diplomatic ties with Beijing, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. They acknowledge the existence of the one-China principle that holds Taiwan be part of China, but may not explicitly agree with it. Washington opposes any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

However, those weapon sales have not included some of the most advanced military equipment, including F-35 fighter jets, which are run on TSMC computer chips.

TrendForce notes that while Taiwan is currently the dominant advanced chipmaker, accounting for 66 per cent of global capacity, offshore investments made or pledged by TSMC since 2021 have shown how that dominance may be waning. The research firm expects that Taiwan’s share of the world’s advance-chipmaking market will decline to 55 per cent by 2027.

The US$166.63 billion value of Taiwan’s chip exports last year marked a 9.5 per cent year-on-year decline, according to International Trade Administration data.

And over time, the US and Japan will have “more of an advantage”, with Japan especially set to “become much more significant”, said Mario Morales, group vice-president for semiconductor research with Silicon Valley-based market analysis firm IDC.

Those types of patterns are widely seen to be positioning Taiwan’s Western allies as front runners in cutting-edge technology.

Apple’s shift in its supply chains shows a dilution of Taiwanese prominence in high-end tech supplies. Chinese camera module maker Cowell E Holdings and Shenzhen Desay Battery Technology, which provides lithium batteries, both supply Apple, and the Silicon Valley juggernaut said last year that it would source more of its iPhone batteries from India.

The assembly of iPhones and iPads is still largely done by Taiwanese companies, such as Pegatron and Foxconn Technology, but the manufacturing work takes place in mainland China, reducing the risk of disruption from any cross-Strait upsets.

At the same time, Apple sources the assembly of AirPods and watches chiefly to a Shenzhen-based company, Luxshare Precision Industry. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in October that 95 per cent of his company’s products were still made in China, according to the TechNode media outlet.

Meanwhile, US-centric nearshoring efforts – including TSMC’s agreement to make chips in Arizona – could potentially shrink Taiwan’s share of the world’s chip production to 50 per cent in just three to four years, forecasts Douglas Kent, an executive vice-president with the US-based Association for Supply Chain Management.

Reshoring reflects worries among American chip buyers about a Taiwan conflict with mainland China, Kent said.

“It’s pretty serious,” he warned. “Most organisations are looking at supply-diversity strategies in case China does prove to be more aggressive than they have been thus far.”

And secondary concerns, he said, include natural disasters such as earthquakes. Taiwan remains a hotspot for typhoons and seismic activity – seen just last month when a magnitude 7.3 quake destroyed several buildings and killed at least 18 people. Occasional droughts could also threaten the water supplies of chipmakers but have not dented production.

Any reshoring of chip production to hedge against cross-Strait problems would focus on advanced chips rather than older models, Kent said.

“The speed of the semiconductor market is pretty swift,” he said. “I think, absolutely, the investment should be in the leading-edge chips.”

Japan has already grown more “assertive” as a chip seller, according to an April 8 research paper by a Singapore-based think tank, the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

TrendForce also noted how Japan plans to support a local company, Rapidus, as it strives for the most advanced chipmaking process available today. And the research firm highlighted plans to build a “semiconductor cluster” in Hokkaido with the help of government subsidies.

On the other side of the strait, mainland China’s capacity to make what the industry calls “mature” semiconductors is growing after years of state investment in the tiny components for PCs, electric vehicles and internet-linked household devices. Mature chips have been around for years, if not decades, and run a range of common electronics, leaving what the industry calls “advanced” chips to power modern hi-tech goods such as AI-optimised phones.

TrendForce data also projects that mainland China’s chipmaking capacity will keep rising in the coming few years – with its share of the world’s mature chip capacity potentially reaching 39 per cent by 2027, up from 26 per cent in 2022.

To steel itself against US curbs on Chinese access to foreign technology, China is pouring several billion dollars into nurturing a tech industry like that of Japan or South Korea.

The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security barred mainland China from obtaining advanced semiconductors, technology and related equipment in 2022. Last year, the administration of US President Joe Biden signed an order that curbed China-bound investment in semiconductors, quantum information and artificial intelligence.

And just last week, Washington proposed raising import tariffs on Chinese semiconductors from 25 per cent to 50 per cent by next year.

“The mainland seems determined to focus on domestic production to gradually move towards self-reliance amid the ongoing trade war with the United States,” the RSIS research paper said.

At a broader level, Beijing is shifting away from a traditional labour-intensive manufacturing centre, with hi-tech products accounting for an ever-growing share of exports.

Last year, 13 of mainland China’s top-20 export items were hi-tech products, including smartphones, lithium-ion batteries and integrated circuits, according to customs data.

Sunstar, a 20-year-old wireless earphone maker in Shenzhen, already finds Chinese chips cheaper than those made by US-based industry trendsetter Qualcomm, though the “quality is not so high”, sales representative Hera Chen said in April at a Hong Kong tech show – InnoEx 2024.

Mainland Chinese makers of devices such as wireless earphones, smartwatches and TV-related gear said at the tech show that they seldom worry about chip supplies because the home market is so flush with supplies.

“Our chips are not so advanced – they’re mature ones, so we have a supply, and the threats [of supply disruption] aren’t too real for us,” said Chen Sen, a sales director of Huawei, which provides chips for the S52 smartwatches made by United Wealth Holdings.

United Wealth Holdings and Huawei displayed the bulky, multicoloured smartwatches at InnoEx to compete with Apple’s watches in terms of design and battery life.

China accounted for almost half of the world’s smartphone output and around 70 per cent of lithium-ion battery production last year. The US is China’s largest buyer of both items, according to customs data and market research firm Statista.

But shifting supplies of advanced chips away from Taiwan will take several quarters or even years, said Ben Yeh, a mobility analyst with the market research firm Canalys.

Advanced technology requires a supply of talent, and electronics firms that buy chips may find it expensive to switch sellers.

“The fact remains that the most advanced manufacturing processes are predominantly concentrated in Taiwan,” Yeh said. “Although competitors like Intel and Samsung might gain from order transfers, the global supply-chain disruptions, along with issues related to war and sanctions, would present significant obstacles to their manufacturing and supply capabilities, making it difficult to assert that anyone could benefit from such a situation.”

Meanwhile, despite the threats associated with offshoring, Taiwan is still manoeuvring to grow as a chip hub beyond its manufacturing might.

The island is aiming to become a base for research and development, design centres, and tech company headquarters, forecast Hu Jin-li, a professor with the Institute of Business and Management at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taipei.

“If a balance of the superpowers can be achieved intentionally or naturally, Taiwan may become a technology hub of the AI, IT, and integrated-circuit industries that every superpower wants and needs,” Hu said. “In this case, both [mainland] China and the West want to keep Taiwan on its own side.”

Putin’s visit to China brings new cold war – and nuclear threat – ever closer

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3263469/putins-visit-china-brings-new-cold-war-and-nuclear-threat-ever-closer?utm_source=rss_feed

Major power relations have undergone a significant transformation this month. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Europe, followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China, may well herald the start of major geopolitical turbulence. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has imposed new tariffs on imports of electric vehicles and other strategic goods from China.

Whether this marks a new phase of the US-China trade war is moot. For now, the Chinese commerce ministry has noted that Washington’s decision was driven by domestic politics, adding: “China will take resolute measures to defend its rights and interests.”

These developments point to the major powers positioning themselves to protect their abiding national interests. Second-tier powers such as France and Germany in the European Union, and Japan and India in Asia, will be affected by this competition of the US with China and Russia. The pursuit of issue-based interests is likely to prevail. Regrettably, this is a case of short-term political compulsions trumping issues that may be described as the “global good”, such as equitable free trade and climate commitments.

Xi’s visit to Europe sought to both advance and protect Chinese interests against the backdrop of a deteriorating relationship between Beijing and Washington. When Xi met French President Emmanuel Macron, the objective was to jointly push for an equal and orderly multipolar world. It’s a formulation that challenges the unipolar primacy that China perceives the US to have accorded to itself since the collapse of the Soviet Union. France, despite being a Nato member, is not as closely allied to the US as the United Kingdom is, and so was an appropriate first stop for Xi’s visit.

A joint statement on the Middle East from the Chinese and French presidents highlights the fact that both countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council and “are working together to find constructive solutions, based on international law, to the challenges and threats to international security and stability”.

The subtext here is that Israel is able to act with impunity in its disproportionate use of force against Palestinian civilians only due to American support. France and China were calling this out in the statement without explicit reference to the US. This is not to suggest that there was no divergence between Macron and Xi on other issues. There was plenty when it came to trade, on which neither side made any substantive accommodation.

Meanwhile, France may be recognising the limits of “strategic autonomy” in the face of Russia advancing into Ukraine and threatening European security. Does China uncritically support Russia when it comes to the war in Ukraine? Putin’s visit to China is instructive and the text of various joint statements offers some important clues to the geopolitical framework of Sino-Russian relations.

In his remarks to the media, Xi said, “China and Russia believe that the Ukraine crisis must be resolved by political means. China has been consistent and clear on this matter by advocating for compliance with the norms and principles set forth in the UN Charter, respecting state sovereignty and territorial integrity for all countries, while taking into consideration their reasonable security concerns.” I interpret this as a gentle but firm rebuke of Moscow’s war and violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity, as well as a call to return to the negotiating table.

Putin chose China for his first visit abroad after he was sworn in for a record fifth presidential term on May 7. He signalled that the Sino-Russian partnership will put up a determined collective resistance to US hegemony. To that extent, if Xi sought to prevent a new cold war with his Europe visit, that is now a lost cause and the rhythms of recent history are set to recur.

But that past is ominous. World War II ended with the US dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. More recently, Putin rattled the nuclear sabre in the context of the Ukraine war again. On May 6, as Xi was visiting Europe, the Russian defence ministry said it would practise deploying tactical nuclear weapons in response to what it called threats from the West. Specifically, it said that “measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons”.

Can any nuclear weapon be non-strategic? Ask Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In an article published in the French newspaper Le Figaro on May 5, and later in English on CGTN, Xi wrote: “History is our best teacher. We live in a world that is far from being tranquil and is once again facing a multitude of risks.” He added, “I have stressed that nuclear weapons must not be used, and a nuclear war must not be fought.”

Xi’s commitment to nuclear restraint despite Putin’s sabre-rattling is welcomed and it’s encouraging to note that the Xi-Putin joint statement affirms that “there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be fought”.

While this is a reiteration of a commitment made by the five nuclear-weapon powers in January 2022, it was significant that Xi reminded his interlocutors in France that “China is the only country among the major nuclear-weapon states that is committed to no-first-use of nuclear weapons”.

Nuclear restraint and rectitude are not merely normative objectives for the global good, but ethical compulsions that will determine global survival. Xi’s resolve in this regard should be acknowledged. Even as geopolitical competition between the US and its allies against the China-Russia dyad intensifies, one earnestly hopes that major powers will not cross the red line into any form of nuclear confrontation – tactical or otherwise.

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